Wind farms around the world
The sun rises over a windmill farm in Palm Springs in California, USA. Large-scale wind farms are connected to the electric power transmission network while smaller facilities are used to provide electricity to isolated locations. Steam billows from the cooling towers of Vattenfall's Jaenschwalde brown coal power station behind wind turbines near Cottbus, eastern Germany. So far, wind turbines are not Sputnik. But one day they could be. The global race to develop clean technology is not just about who can build the best solar parks or wind farms. It is also shaping up as a contest between Chinese-style capitalism and the more market-oriented approach fancied by the US and Europe. The full moon sets behind a wind farm in the Mojave Desert in California. "Carbon neutral" schemes typically invest in non-polluting wind, solar or hydropower projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America to offset emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil or gas. Or they pay to plant trees, which soak up carbon by growing, or invest in renewable energy or energy-efficiency projects. The aim is for governments, individuals or companies to prevent as much carbon emissions as they produce.
A 25-metre wind turbine is seen in central Brussels, Belgium. Humans have been using wind power for at least 5,500 years to propel sailboats and sailing ships. Windmills have been used for irrigation pumping and for milling grain since the 7th century AD in the present day Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Wind turbines are pictured near Magdeburg, Germany. The modern wind power industry began in 1979 with the serial production of wind turbines by Danish manufacturers Kuriant, Vestas, Nordtank, and Bonus. These early turbines were small by today's standards, with capacities of 20-30 kW each. Since then, they have increased greatly in size, with the Enercon E-126 capable of delivering up to 7 MW, while wind turbine production has expanded to many countries. A boy tries out eclipse viewing glasses at a camp site near the wind farm of Carland Cross in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The total amount of economically extractable power available from the wind is considerably more than present human power use from all sources. An estimated 72 terawatt of wind power on the Earth potentially can be commercially viable, compared to about 15 TW average global power consumption from all sources in 2005. Cranes lift up the rotor of a giant wind generator in Brunsbuettel about 60 km north-west of the northern German city of Hamburg. There are many thousands of wind turbines operating across the world, with a total capacity of 157,899 MW of which wind power in Europe accounts for 48% (2009). 81% of wind power installations are in the US and Europe. Power-generating windmill turbines on a wind farm in Fruges, near Saint Omer in northern France. The wind farm, which has 70 power-generating 2 megawatt windmill turbines, is capable of producing 140 megawatts of green energy. That is enough to power some 150,000 households. The US, Germany, Spain, China, and India have seen substantial capacity growth in the past two years. A ranch house sits below a wind farm generating electricity in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains near the town of Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada. The World Wind Energy Association forecast that, by 2010, over 200 GW of capacity would have been installed worldwide, up from 73.9 GW at the end of 2006. A wind turbine is pictured in a field of miscanthus, or "Elephant Grass", at Renewables Energy Systems' green technology and renewable energy site at Kings Langley in southeast England. India ranks 5th in the world with a total wind power capacity of 10,925 MW in 2009,[1] or 3% of all electricity produced in India. Wind turbines that produce electricity spin at a wind farm in Daban, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. China had originally set a generating target of 30,000 MW by 2020 from renewable energy sources, but reached 22,500 MW by end of 2009 and could easily surpass 30,000 MW by end of 2010. Wind turbines are seen at Thanet Offshore Wind Farm off the Kent coast in southern England. Thanet farm is the world's largest operational offshore wind farm. The Thanet project has a total capacity of 300 MW which, by yearly average, is sufficient to supply approximately 240,000 homes. An aerial view of a wind farm near Middlesbrough, northern England. In 2004, wind energy cost a fifth of what it did in the 1980s, and some expected that downward trend to continue as larger multi-megawatt turbines were mass-produced. |
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