According to the Danish National Association of Local Councils (KL), Denmark is set to get a substantial increase in wind power over the coming years. KL has designated a large amount of land throughout the country where between 400 and 450 wind turbines will be erected over the next two years. Read the full story

A group of foreign energy investors met with the owners of Reykjavik Energy late last week about investment opportunities in the Icelandic energy market, according to MBL.is. Iceland is known for it abundant sources of cheap, renewable energy in the form of hydro and geothermal power.

Icelandic energy companies report that the Iceland banking crisis has not had a noticeable effect on foreign interest in Iceland’s energy industry. In fact, Read the full story

It has come to light that certain bacteria may be able to ‘eat’ the hydrogen sulphide from geothermal power station steam emissions and thereby reduce pollution. The initial research results look promising, but scientists working at the Hellisheidi power station research lab in Iceland must carry out further research before releasing final results, RUV.is reports.

For the last two years, a small research station has been conducting the experiment at the Nesjavellir power station. In their experiments, scientists passed the geothermal emissions through ten litre containers of different sorts of bacteria to see which was best at removing the hydrogen sulphide.

Jakob K. Kristjansson, doctor of biochemistry, say that the initial findings suggest that bacteria could be useful in cleaning the emissions from geothermal power stations. But it has yet to be confirmed if the Read the full story

President Yoweri Museveni has invited Icelandic business leaders to visit Uganda and invest in priority areas of the economy such as infrastructure development, harnessing energy for development and in the agro-processing sector for the export market, the President’s own website reports.

The President extended his offer during a three-day state visit to Iceland last week personally invited by President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson of Iceland.

President Museveni thanked the government and people of Iceland for the development and humanitarian assistance Iceland continues to extend to Uganda particularly in the areas of adult literacy, energy, fisheries and scientific research. He told his host, “The assistance has greatly contributed towards the vision for ‘Prosperity for All’, which is aimed at raising household incomes, especially for the rural poor”. Read the full story

Denmark’s parliament recently approved plans to build the nation’s largest offshore wind farm, which will be located in the North Sea’s Kattegat Strait between Jutland and Anholt Island. The wind farm is expected to be operational by 2012, and will be able to produce 400 megawatts of power. The Climate and Energy Ministry claims this amount of energy will provide the electricity needs for 400,000 homes a year.

Between 100 and 175 wind turbines will stand in the Kattegat Strait. Denmark currently has 5,267 wind turbines, 70 percent of which are situated in Jutland, according to statistics from the Wind Industry Association. In 2006, Denmark’s offshore wind farms provided 22 percent of the nation’s total wind energy production.

Jakob Lau Holst, the director of the Danish Wind Industry Association (DWIA), said the new offshore wind farm will further the country’s aim of reaching the European Commission’s goal to produce Read the full story

Solel Solar Systems’ new USD 9 million solar reflector production factory has opened in Akaa, a town 200km north of Helsinki. The latest alternative energy manufacturing centre in Finland will produce parabolic solar reflectors to be used in Solel’s own solar thermal projects around the globe.

Solel built the new factory to “give it almost complete control over the cost, quality and capacity of its solar power Read the full story

Norway plans to use some of its vast sovereign wealth fund to develop sustainable energy. Despite being flush with oil, an unspecified proportion of Norway’s USD 400 billion savings account called the Government Pension Fund is being earmarked for investment in environmental projects that not everyone in the government approves of.

As one of Europe’s main producers of gas and oil, Norway has decided it has an ethical obligation to help reduce carbon emissions. Carbon capture and storage is a particularly hot issue right now. Deputy Finance Minister Henriette Westhrin recently told a conference on green energy that “we believe we see a trend developing among large, institutional investors in the direction of setting up smaller funds earmarked for special purposes [such as] environmental issues.”

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Drillers drilling for hot water on the northern Icelandic island of Grimsey (the only part of Iceland to cross the Arctic Circle) have now reached a depth of 460 metres and are now finding water at 55 degrees centigrade.

Engineers on the project are happy with progress, but still hope to hit a high pressure area of much hotter subterranean water, visir.is reports.

The drilling began on Grimsey last autumn, and engineer Fridfinnur K. Danielsson believes that the work is going well to date; especially as hot water drilling has never previously been undertaken on Grimsey.

By: Azvar A. Khan (Mr.)

In these days of escalating oil prices, it’s becoming extremely difficult for a common citizen to pay off his/her monthly electricity bills. The bills keep soaring day by day and there seems to be no respite in the foreseeable future. Hence, there’s a need to reduce these bills by resorting to other methods of generating electricity, solar being one of them.

This article dwells on the use of solar energy for cutting your electricity bills and discusses ways and means how to achieve this end.

The use of solar energy for the generation of electricity is not something new. Most of the countries have been doing it successfully for decades. This is because a solar system has many benefits. It allows you to produce your own electricity with no noise as it involves no moving parts and produces zero air pollution. Moreover, this system would never run out of fuel (sun light), and its use would result in reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted by coal and natural gas-fired power plants.

But, to most of the people, it may still look like a mystery as to how sun’s light could be used to generate electricity that could be utilized to light our homes, run our fans, provide power to our fridges and microwave ovens, assist in warming swimming pools and houses, heat water, provide power to our garden lights and street lights, run TVs and computers, and extract water from the sub-soil as deep as 600 feet or even more for irrigation purposes.

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By: Azfar A. Khan (Mr.)

Due to astronomical rises in oil prices in the international market, the cost of production of electricity is also rising day by day. Hence, it’s imperative to adopt some other methods for the production of electricity. This article dwells on the generation of electricity through wind and focuses on manufacturing of wind turbines, the machines used for the generation of electricity.

Generation of electricity through wind is not something new. India, the fourth in line of countries in the world for the generation of electricity, is producing more than 8000 MW of electricity by utilising wind turbines. One would be surprised to know that in the region of Nevarra, Spain, 70 per cent of the region’s energy needs are being fulfilled by wind and solar energy. This region is both windy and sunny. With no deposits of coal, oil or gas of its own, this region deliberately opted for renewable energy in the late 1980s. With some 1,100 windmills installed all over Nevarra, this region can boast of generating more electricity from renewable sources than entire big EU countries like France or Poland. It’s a classic example of using renewable energy in any country.

The question that automatically comes to one’s mind is: “If it can be done in Spain, why can’t it be done in any other country?” The answer is a big “It can”!

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