Dec 05 2008

The Green Seen

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

A roundup of items relating to clean energy that caught our attention this week:

• The windpower industry appears to be holding its own in spite of fears that the economic recession, tight credit and weak oil and gas prices would stall clean energy investments. Wind turbine majors such as Denmark's Vestas, Spain's Gamesa and General Electric are booking new orders for next year. Vestas recently landed 500 megawatts of new turbines to boost its order book to more than 4,000 MW. Analysts say Vestas' success is a sign that bigger power companies with stronger balance sheets may shove aside smaller windpower developers.
•  Hawaii plans to set up the nation's first statewide electric car battery recharging stations as part of a wider clean-energy program to reduce the islands' dependence on oil imports for almost all of their energy needs. The goal is to cut fossil fuel consumption by 70 percent by 2030. Hawaii is joining with Better Place, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company that will build the charging infrastructure to open in 2011. Better Place also plans a charging infrastructure in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nissan Motor Co.-Renault SA has agreed to make electric cars to be recharged at the stations in Hawaii. Hawaii's Blue Planet Foundation also is working on clean-energy programs including solar, wind, tides and waves to slash oil use.
• The first solar-powered car to travel around the world completed its 32,000-mile journey in Poznan, Poland, where a United Nations meeting was underway to explore a new treaty to combat global warming. Pulling a trailer of solar cells, the two-seater car departed Lucerne, Switzerland, 17 months ago and traveled through 38 countries. Louis Palmer, a Swiss schoolteacher and adventurer who made the trip, said: "It's ecological, it's economical, it is absolutely reliable. We can stop global warming." Palmer added: "This car runs like a Swiss clock." The vehicle was developed by scientists at Swiss universities.

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