A massive new renewable energy project is being planned in Morocco that will combine hydropower and wind power in one single location — a world’s first, at least at this scale. The 1 gigawatt project will double the existing hydropower capacity of Morocco.
With 42.3 GW of wind power installed, China has now become the new world leader in wind power, having overtaken the US, with 40.2 GW, which itself bypassed the longtime world leader Germany in 2008.
After four years of doubling its installed wind power capacity annually between 2006 and 2009, China added a record 16.5 GW in 2010. According to a detailed report(pdf) from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, nearly 20% of all net additional power generation capacity in China is now wind power, nearly on par with its hydro. China now leads the world in large-scale hydropower with 21% of global production.
We all know that wind turbines are one of the most used solutions for clean energy generation but like all things they have bad parts like noise from their blades, inadvertent bat and bird kills. New York design firm Atelier DNA claims it has found the key to solve these issues.
The company has come up with an interesting design for a wind energy generator called “Windstalk” that ditches the blades in favor of stalks. Resembling thin cat tails, the Windstalks produce clean energy when the wind sets them waving.
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