Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Green Energy Around the Globe

First up, a news source from Southern Spain.


Green energy: full speed ahead

The wind, the sun and residues are no longer just potential sources of energy, they are fast growing enterprises. The boost in these businesses has come from the Andalusian Energy Plan, which has set a target of 15 per cent of the region’s energy being provided by these sources by 2015.

“We don’t foresee an easing up in demand until 2012 at least”, says Javier Gorbeña, the commercial director of Isofotón, the top European manufacturer of solar panels, based in Malaga. “The solar panel business is almost as safe a bet as a pension plan”, jokes José Manuel Gómez, the manager of Novasolar, a franchise in Malaga which deals with setting up the installations, obtaining subsidies and financing “solar fields”.

Now we head to a news source in Ireland.

Power station rejection prompts green energy plea

Mr Ó Brolchain said it would be far more efficient for the ESB to develop local power generation, which would lead to less power being wasted in transmission.

“One of the things we’re plugging in the west of Ireland is a far more liberal approach to ways of electricity generation such as wind power, wave power and tidal power,” he said.

Now over to Iceland...
Iceland harnesses green energy for heat, power
Now, hydropower — using water — and geothermal plants provide all of the electricity, heat and hot water for the entire nation.

“A lot of western countries envy Iceland for their renewable energy we have — we can actually run the whole power system on hydro and geothermal — its emission free, and its renewable,” said Thorsteinn Hilmarsson of the Landsvirkjun Power Co.

“We've been utilizing our geothermal resources for decades now, and we know it works — its renewable, you can utilize it for decades or hundreds of years and it comes from the heat down below our feet,” added Arni Magnusson from the Glitnir Bank Energy Sector.

And now for the rest of the world:
Conservation council wants Govt to commit to green energy
The environmental movement in north Queensland is calling on the Federal Government to commit money to true green energy in tomorrow night's Budget.

The North Queensland Conservation Council says previous Budgets have focussed on clean coal technology, but it would prefer to see funds for solar and wind generation and geothermal energy.

Israeli 'green energy' company makes 100 most promising companies list
May. 08 - Genova Ltd., an Israeli company part of the Misgav Technology Center, has been included in Red Herring's list of 100 most promising companies in 2006. Genova, which is developing methods to produce energy and generate electricity from biomass, is one of thirteen Israeli companies on the list, and the only one which focuses on green energy. The list itself promotes small and medium-sized companies with a turnover of up to $10 million, and has included Skype, eBay and Google in the past. Founded in 2004, Genova is the first company to develop a way to generate energy from biomass that doesn't take up a great deal of space. Over the past two years Genova has conducted successful experiments using olive waste, and company CEO Yonat Granot believes that olive-growing companies in Europe will be a main market for their product.

Yemen to take part in Green Energy Conference
The conference, organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Energy, would discuss the problems and the obstacles that hinder MENA countries using renewable energy, sources in the Ministry of Electricity said.
The sources said that the conference would also discuss strengthening regional cooperation to encourage using solar, wind and biomass energy.

Planning commission endorses Mohawk River hydroelectric plan
The Green Island Power Authority's plan to develop a hydroelectric project at the Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk River has another backer.

The Capital District Regional Planning Commission has endorsed the authority's plan to build a new state-of-the-art hydroelectric plant which would replace the existing School Street station now operated by Brookfield Power Corp.


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