Jan 15 2010

The Green Seen

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:

Internet giant Google is looking at high-altitude wind power and other renewable energy sources to beat the price of coal. In a lengthy interview with Green Inc., Google green energy czar Bill Weihl says it's exploring ways to capture stronger and steadier winds at 500 to 2,000 meters or potentially up in the jet stream. Google has invested in Makani Power, a company exploring high-altitude wind using an airborne platform. Weihl says Google also is looking at concentrated solar thermal and enhanced geothermal power.

Update from our item last Friday on the controversial wind farm project proposed for offshore Cape Cod: Federal Interior Secretary Ken Salazar met with virtually all the parties to the lengthy dispute and said he plans to decide whether to approve the Cape Wind project no later than April. The project is a test of the Obama administration's commitment to renewable energy projects on public lands and off the nation's shorelines, the New York Times says. It would be the country's first major offshore wind farm.

The symbolic Doomsday Clock showing how close we are to annihilation and the end of time was set back by one minute to six minutes before midnight from five. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which maintains the clock, attributed the change to efforts by world leaders to reduce nuclear arsenals and work together on climate change. The group said a "new era of cooperation" has been helped by the election of President Obama and increased U.S. participation in international affairs.

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