Co-Locating Solar and Wind Power Farms Can Two Renewable Energy Sources Be Better Than One

The intermittent, yet often complementary, nature of wind and solar energy has long been observed and increasingly remarked upon of late. Minnesota’s Ecos Energy is looking to take advantage of that by building the state’s largest solar photovoltaic (PV) array on a 13-acre site in southwestern Minnesota, home to more wind farms than any other region state-wide, the StarTribune reports.

At 2-megawatts (MW), the solar power array can’t be considered large by any stretch, but it’s expected to provide enough electricity for 340 homes, about as much as a single wind turbine. Yet more significantly, Ecos Energy’s Slayton project will provide some trailblazing data as to whether or not intermittent solar energy and wind turbine arrays can be used in tandem to provide a more consistent supply of power to the grid.

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Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan said that the government had devised a plan to generate 10,000 megawatts of electricity from Thar coal by 2020.

The federal government had been approached for laying a transmission line to take the electricity from Thar field to the national grid, he said while presiding over a meeting on Thar coal at the Governor’s House Thursday. He said installation of transmission network is the integral part of the plan which should be ready by the time power projects are ready to generate electricity from Thar coal.

The Governor pointed out that Thar coal would be utilised to make Pakistan self-sufficient in power generation to strengthen economy and make this area the hub of the petro-chemical industry.

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An energy company listed on the London Stock Exchange is planning to spend up to an estimated $6bn (£3.8bn) building eight coal-fired power stations that could add tens of millions of tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere.

Essar Energy has just brought online the first part of the 1,200MW Salaya 1 plant in Gujarat on the west coast of India and says this and other stations are needed to counter power shortages. The move comes after countries around the world met in Durban, South Africa, this month to try to hammer out a new climate change treaty to cut global CO2 emissions.

Britain is introducing cleaner fuels and phasing out its old coal-fired power stations while saying that new ones would need carbon capture and storage schemes attached. But a spokesman for Essar, which is listed on the FTSE 100 but operates largely in India, said its customers on the subcontinent could not afford the extra costs associated with subsidising cleaner technologies.

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Don’t feel bad if you can’t point to the city of Netanya on a map of Israel, since many locals have the same trouble. But just because Netanya lacks Tel Aviv’s saucy vibe and Bauhaus architecture doesn’t mean it ought to be abandoned – which is why Yaniv Pardo has given the municipal center a redesign that will put this Mediterranean city right back on the map. The new twisted mixed-use tower will be lean on materials, flooded with natural light, and it will generate much of its energy from geothermal resources. At the same time, it is designed to provide an inviting, inspiring space for residents to rediscover their home city.
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Icelandic facility uses geothermal energy to store data for UK colleges

Hertford Regional College (HRC) in the UK has joined forces with the Thor Data Center (THORDC) in Iceland to provide cost efficient, eco-friendly technology to schools, colleges and universities throughout the UK. The joint venture has been coined “HRC Cube” and is an innovative solution to dealing with increasing cuts in UK government funding to education. Drawing on Iceland’s combination of freezing temperatures and natural volcanic heat, THORDC has become one of the most energy-efficient data centers in the world. Powered by clean renewable hydroelectric and geothermal energy sources, the facility is claimed to offer cost savings to its customers whilst at the same time helping them lower their carbon emissions. The fact that it is situated in such a remote location also ensures a high level of security for the data.

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Harnessing geothermal energy from volcanoes

As we know it

Volcanoes contain super heated steam and materials in the form of magma. While we all regard volcanoes as one of the biggest destructive forces of Mother Nature, a few researchers believe otherwise and see the earth’s natural heat as an opportunity to harness abundant clean energy. The steam emanating the high temperature geothermal fluids could be used for driving turbines to produce electricity. The volcanic fluids also contain minerals like gold, silver, sulfur and mercury that can be obtained from such projects. However, it would require new and advanced technology to handle extreme temperatures of volcanic fluids. Many organizations and countries have already started projects for this purpose, as you will see below.

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