wind-power

City Likes to Blow

- Adam Clare

Toronto is looking to green their buildings, and what better place to start than city hall?

Putting small wind turbines on the roof at city hall was one of several ideas presented yesterday to reduce the building’s $3 million annual energy bill.

“Personally, I think it’s a really neat way of increasing the renewable energy footprint for the city hall,” consultant Paul Leitch told about 50 experts meeting yesterday to ponder ways of greening the 42-year-old twin towers.

Leitch said it would cost about $125,000 to install six of the devices – three on each tower – to produce enough electricity to power about nine homes.

Thanks, Lindsay!

Highways Have Potential for Wind Energy Generation

- Adam Clare 3 Comments

highway Over at Inhabitat, there are two posts on using wind created by traffic on highways to generate electricity. A student proposes horizontally placed wind generators over highways, much like road signs are placed now (pictured).

A proposal coming from New Jersey has the generators built into the highway that powers a light rail system. Awesome!

The design, a runner-up in the 2006 Metropolis Mag Next Generation Design Competition proposed the integration of wind-turbines into the highway barriers that divide the traffic. These turbines would generate power from the wind created by the vehicles that drive past them in opposite directions. Originally conceived as a single row of vertical-axis rotary turbines, it has now been redesigned to include two rows, one stacked on top of each other, with the end power being used to power a light rail system.

Switch’n It Up!

- Vanessa King

ure-2.pngThe World Wildlife Fund started a great new campaign in 2006 called ‘Powerswitch’. The initiative has been working to eventually help the world’s power sector become completely CO2-free. The goals achieved thus far include more than 600,000 actions taken by individual PowerSwitch! supporters. They’ve even stopped the construction of new coal power plants and have pushed legislation that puts tough caps on CO2 emissions and boosts clean and efficient renewable energies.

How do I switch to clean energy from where I live?? It’s actually not as hard as you might think! In many countries, including Canada, you can choose to buy energy from green resources at a very comparable cost. There are many other ways you can work to decrease your global footprint as well.

In only one year the WWF’s campaign has effectively established networks and initiatives on different continents, which are longlasting and are continuing to grow even further. The more people learn about how they can help, the more alternatives to dirty, non-renewable energy sources will become popular and readily available. It all starts with us!

Large English Windfarm

- Adam Clare

from the BBC

The BBC is reporting that the UK government has agreed to allow two huge windfarms to be built off the eastern coast.

“The £1.5bn London Array scheme will have 341 turbines rising from the sea about 12 miles (20km) off the Kent and Essex coasts, as well as five offshore substations and four meteorological masts.

The government said both schemes would make “a significant contribution to the aim of a five-fold increase in the UK’s renewable energy resource by 2020”.

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