FW: Senate panel cuts Yucca ...German Wind...

["Bob Hearn" <rah@AMERICA.NET>]

-----Original Message-----

From: Bob Hearn [mailto:rah@america.net]

Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 12:30 PM

To: sandyfl@earthlink.net

Subject: RE: Senate panel cuts Yucca ...German Wind...







Note that the "hefty 55 million kilowatt hours" attributed below to the 32

wind turbines "behind" dikes on the coast translates to only about 6

megawatts capacity, or less than 1% of a single 1,000-megawatt nuclear

generating station.

A lot more of these would be required for any significant nuclear generating

resource replacement, along with some very fancy extension cords to pipe

that electricity from sea-based windmills efficiently without impeding

navigation.



Bob Hearn











-----Original Message-----

From: Sandy Perle [mailto:sandyfl@earthlink.net]

Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 10:15 AM

To: nuclear news list

Subject: Senate panel cuts Yucca mountain waste site funds





Index:



Senate panel cuts Yucca mountain waste site funds

German sea winds may be answer to energy woes



-----------------



German sea winds may be answer to energy woes



LUEBKE-KOOG, Germany, July 13 (Reuters) - How do you meet the energy

needs of Europe's largest economy without exceeding pollution limits

set out in the Kyoto treaty, just months after you abandoned nuclear

power?



The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, says German pig farmer

Hans-Detlef Feddersen.



Just off the North Sea coast of Germany in fact.



Feddersen and other farmers in his community have installed 32 wind

turbines behind the dikes on Germany's northern coast, producing a

   "  HEFTY     55 MILLION KILOWATT HOURS    "   of electricity a year,

enough to

supply power for around 16,000 households.



As the three blades of a turbine drone 60 metres (197 feet) overhead,

Feddersen points out to the grey waves near the popular German

holiday resort island of Sylt.



"That's where we want to go next. Offshore."



Germany leads the world in using clean or renewable energy. Half of

all the wind power in Europe is produced in Germany, which is around

a third of the world total.



Feddersen and those like him have transformed wind power from the

crackpot dreams of a few ex-hippies into a serious option for

supplying a large chunk of world energy needs.



Now the big power companies are starting to take notice and wind

power will be a major talking point at the Bonn climate conference

which starts on July 16, where countries will try to reach a deal on

cutting greenhouse gas emissions, many of which are produced in coal,

gas or oil-burning power stations.



About 2.5 percent of Germany's energy needs come from wind turbines

but that could increase dramatically once the latest stage of wind

power generation moves from drawing board to reality.



"We've got a lot of wind up here, but we never knew what to do with

it. All the cheap energy today is going to cause problems for the

next generation. But wind power doesn't leave a trace," says

Feddersen.



OFFSHORE DREAMS



Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, a member of the Greens who was

largely responsible for coordinating Germany's decision to abandon

nuclear power over the coming years, shares Feddersen's vision of

offshore wind farms.



"The boom in wind power is a sign that Germany is taking the issue of

renewable energy seriously, despite difficulties at an international

level," Trittin said as he launched a position paper setting out the

government's goals for wind energy.



Germany's roughly 9,400 existing land-based wind turbines produce

around 6,100 megawatts of power a year.



"But we can only reach our goal of doubling the share of renewable

energy use in Germany by 2010 if we begin wind energy generation at

sea," Trittin said.



European countries want to boost sea wind energy because the supply

of land-based sites is rapidly running out. The increasing efficiency

of turbines means that wind energy could be the answer to the

continent's electricity needs.



One of the main reasons for the success of wind energy in Germany is

that since April 2000 the country has had a new renewable energy law

with fixed guaranteed prices -- a model hailed widely in the industry

as a basis for growth.



Feddersen and other farmers in the area have set up a shareholding

fund to allow people to buy shares in their offshore wind project,

with hundreds of concrete windmills producing millions of kilowatt

hours of energy.



Other groups examining offshore wind farms include Energiekontor AG,

a Bremen-based renewable energy firm and one of a number of

alternative energy companies in Germany who have gone to the stock

exchange for funding for such projects.



"We've seen a dramatic rise in the use of wind power in recent years,

a real explosion since we set up in 1990. We are looking at four

sites, three off the German coast and one off Britain," says

Energiekontor spokeswoman Cerstin Lange.



Lange says one of Energiekontor's North Sea projects would have 450

turbines, producing 1.8 million kilowatts of power with an estimated

investment of five billion marks ($2.18 billion). They hope to have

the offshore farms operational by 2004.



And the big multinational energy firms are listening too,

particularly as growing numbers of activist shareholders demand more

investment in environmentally-friendly power.



"We're working on it," runs an advertisement by the north German

energy company Schleswag, showing a picture of a woman drying her

hair with a hair dryer plugged into a potted plant.



The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas giant Royal Dutch/Shell said last month

that it would renew its billion-dollar renewable energy investment

programme for the next five years.



While Shell Renewables concentrates mainly on solar power, it is

currently participating in two trial projects totalling eight

megawatts of wind generating capacity.



SHREDDING BIRDS?



Not everyone is happy about offshore wind farms.



There have been complaints about the environmental effects of wind

turbines, particularly noise, and concerns that they spoil areas of

natural beauty in seaside areas.



Ornithologists fear the blades could act as bird-shredders, or they

could throw songbirds off course. Others are worried that sea mammals

might become disoriented by wind turbines, while fishermen fear their

fishing grounds may be affected.



On top of this there are uncertainties about the authorisation

procedures and the lengthy consultation process involved in getting

permission for an offshore wind farm.



Feddersen says the first tranche of funding for his group's offshore

wind farm will be used to investigate the environmental impact but

says it's important to try this new approach.



"There's a lot of idealism in this. It could be that in 20 years time

my daughter turns around to me and laughs at our misguided efforts,"

he says.



"But then we'll just turn the windmills into ships' masts and that's

it. Unlike the other forms of energy production we have today, there

will be no harm done."





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