Germany NOT restarting nuclear reactors due to cold as widely reported — In fact, now “massively exporting electricity” to help nuclear-powered France this winter -Reuters
In the midst of Winter it’s time to think solar. It works, even in dark month, even in the high North.
On October 26th, a hole was blasted in the base of 125′ tall Condit Dam on the White Salmon River in Washington. In less than 2 hours, the reservoir behind the dam drained completely and the White Salmon flowed unimpeded by a dam for the first time in 100 years.
I was able to watch the explosion live the other day, well live on the internet that is. But the time-lapse at the end of the movie is amazing, showing how draining of the reservoir.
The term “energy revolution” sounds light and airy enough, but how do human beings manage to wrest electricity from the sea? Germany’s largest offshore wind farm, a power plant surrounded by a hostile environment, produces 12 times as much energy as the world’s first nuclear power plant.
Alexander Smoltczyk highlights offshore turbines more powerful than first nuclear plant.
The new diversion channel at the Elwha Dam is finished, and yesterday morning, crews opened the coffer dam above it.
So amazing. Keep your eyes on that dam removal project, just in our backyard on the Olympic Peninsula.
While much green technology today is financed through “push” funding, with governments and grant-making organizations deciding who should receive money, the Ecological Impact Fund would shift the model to market-based “pull” funding that rewards the most successful innovators.
The 15 mile-per-hour winds that buffeted northern Germany on July 24 caused the nation’s 21,600 windmills to generate so much power that utilities such as EON AG and RWE AG (RWE) had to pay consumers to take it off the grid.
“You’re looking at a future where on a sunny day in Germany, you’ll have negative prices…”
You’re looking at the future!
On of the interesting side effects of dismantling nuclear power plants in Germany is that you’ll get all that land back to use for other purposes.
Can high-density areas around the world, that for decades relied heavy on nuclear power as their solution to energy demands in highly populated areas, pull the plug for good and replace nuclear with renewable energy?
Allen Hall for the Daily Mail:
Germany is importing massive amounts of nuclear-generated electricity from France following its decision to abandon atomic power in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster.
Ariel Schwartz in Fast Company:
Japan is understandably skittish about nuclear energy, but that hasn’t stopped Prime Minister Yoshihoko Noda from claiming that the stuff is necessary to save the economy.