The Amareleja photovoltaic power plant in Portugal has just gone live.
Amareleja photovoltaic power plant - Portugal
Developed by the Acciona Energy S.A. company, the solar power plant is expected to be operating at full capacity by the year 2010.
At that time, it will produce 64 MW using 2,520 solar trackers supporting 262 modules with 268,000 PV panels producing 93 gigawatts/hour per year, generating sufficient electricity to power 30,000 homes.
Posted in Energy.
On Monday, December 22nd, there was a major catastrophe at The Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Kingston coal burning power plaint near Harriman, Tennessee. Take a look at the video and pictures below.
Coal ash from the TVA spill engulfs homes
The TVA had a mountain of coal waste material stored behind a retaining wall. At 1:00 am, the eastern retaining wall failed and 500 million gallons of black coal ash flowed into tributaries of the Tennessee River.
The Tennessee River supplies Chattanooga, TN and millions of people living downstream in Albama, Tennessee and Kentucky.
In total, the spill covered 400 acres of land, rendered three homes completly uninhabitable - one home was swept completely off its foundation.
TVA coal ash spill
TVA coal ash spill
TVA coal ash spill - Kingston Power Plant
TVA coal ash spill
TVA coal ash spill
TVA coal ash spill
TVA coal ash spill
Cleanup crews work to contain the TVA coal ash spill
Posted in Energy.
One-megawatt solar farm at SAS HQ will provide sustainably sourced power to the Progress Energy grid
Sustainability has been a key focus in 2008 at SAS. As the year draws to a close, the company celebrates a green milestone: its on-campus solar farm is now live and providing power to the Progress Energy utility grid. The solar farm began generating power the week of Dec. 15.
“This is an important milestone for our state,” said Lloyd Yates, CEO and President of Progress Energy Carolinas, which will purchase the energy produced by the solar array. “Solar power will become a more important part of the diverse energy mix we use to meet our customers’ needs, and we look forward to bringing much more renewable generation online in the months and years to come.”
Posted in Energy.
Politicians, scientists and policymakers seek to put Maine at the forefront of an energy revolution powered by world-class wind power blowing against the state’s entire coast.
The Ocean Energy Task Force, convened by Gov. John Baldacci, held its first meeting last week to begin the work of determining how the Atlantic Ocean might power homes, businesses and transportation in Maine and beyond.
Stacked with experts in a variety of areas, the task force is the latest in a string of initiatives that aim to ease the energy burden on Maine families and position the state to cash in on a budding global industry. Read more at Village Soup…
Posted in Energy.
The Australian Government has released further details on its 20 percent Renewable Energy Target. The draft legislation to deliver the Renewable Energy Target in cludes a new rebate for households, small businesses and community groups that install solar systems.
The 20 per cent target was an election promise and Treasurer Wayne Swan says it builds on the carbon pollution reduction scheme.
“Legislation that we’re putting forward today will really turbo charge renewable energy use in this country, particularly solar energy,” he said.
“It will build upon the incentives in the carbon pollution reduction scheme to build a low pollution economy with green jobs for the future, whilst protecting our economy.” Read more at World News Australia…
Posted in Climate Change, Energy.
Data centers and servers consume vast amountsof energy in the U.S., and Laramie-based IDES Inc., the leading searchengine provider for the plastics industry, is changing how it operates to lower its impact on the environment.
The company recently opened its own state-of-the-art, naturally cooledcomputer server room at its offices in Laramie, and colocated back-upservers at Green House Data, a 100 percent renewable energy powered datacenter in Cheyenne. “For us, advancing the environment while lowering operating costs is goodbusiness,” said Mike Kmetz, president of IDES. “Our hope is that companiesboth in our community and our industry adopt new energy-saving technologiestoo.”
As a backup and disaster recovery measure, IDES also colocated servers atGreen House Data. The facility is powered by renewable wind energypurchased from the local power company’s wind farm. Because energy is a topcost driver for data centers, the high-availability and secure facility isdesigned to operate at approximately 60 percent lower energy utilizationper square foot than comparable data centers of the same size.
“We are pleased to see our customers as excited about greening their ownoperations as we are,” said Shawn Mills, president of Green House Data.”When five percent of all electricity in the U.S. is consumed by datacenters and servers, companies have a responsibility to drive their energyconsumption down for the environment as well as their bottom line.”
On the web: www.ides.com and www.greenhousedata.com
About IDES Inc.
IDES is a plastic materials information management company. The PlasticsWeb® from IDES is a website with a vertical search engine connecting tensof thousands of companies around the globe with plastics content andtechnical datasheets from 700 global resin manufacturers. The companyprovides custom information management services for nearly all resindistributors and a number of resin manufacturers. IDES is headquartered inLaramie, Wyoming, with offices in Europe. For more information, visitwww.ides.com.
About Green House Data
Green House Data is Wyoming’s first high-density data center and hostedcomputing facility. The company offers the region’s lowest cost,high-availability colocation and managed hosting facility. The company’sgreen operations deliver a zero carbon footprint facility that isapproximately ten percent less expensive than its competitors. For moreinformation visit: www.greenhousedata.com
For more information:Nathan PotterMarketing ManagerIDES Inc.Phone: 307-742-9227 ext. 246Email: Email ContactShawn MillsPresident and FounderGreen House DataPhone: 866-995-3282Email: Email Contact
Posted in Climate Change, Energy.
From VentureBeat:
Laurus Energy
A new company called Laurus Energy, which recently received $9 million in backing from a Silicon Valley venture firm, claims it has found the cheapest way to deliver clean power in North America.
The Houston-based company says its energy is even better than natural gas as a source, because the gas is generated with a superior method that no one else is using in North America: Underground coal gasification.
Laurus accesses coal that lies farther underground than the 100-meter-or-less depth that conventional coal mining technology can access. And by accessing such deep coal seams, Laurus can use a technique of drawing gas from the coal in a way that is cleaner than natural gas — basically, by adding to it the carbon-free hydrogen and methane.
“This is lowest cost, cleanest power source in North America,” says Erik Straser, partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, who led the investment into company.
The company owns exclusive rights to the technology for use in North America…read more at VentureBeat.
Posted in Energy.
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