Home owners with streams or rivers running through their gardens are to be encouraged to build controversial hydropower turbines to generate their own electricity by the government which is to cut red tape that can block such developments.
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
8:15AM BST 19 Jun 2011
Ministers want to make it easier for communities and landowners to build water wheels and other types of small scale hydropower generators in rivers and streams around the country.
They believe it will be possible to power more than a million homes by harnessing the energy from rivers with small hydropower projects and will this week announce plans to remove some of the regulations that can lead to such schemes being rejected.
But the plans have angered national fishing organisations and countryside campaigners.
They claim that hydropower turbines can have devastating impacts on migrating fish such as trout and salmon, which must swim upstream to breed, while the schemes can become eyesores in some of the most beautiful parts of the country.
Greg Barker, the climate change minister, said he wanted to encourage local communities and even individual home owners to use hydropower as a form of microgeneration that could feed extra electricity into the national grid.
He said: "I have wanted to drive the decentralised energy agenda. There are a whole range of exciting technologies that can be deployed.
"Micro-hydropower is one of the oldest forms of energy available. If you go back 200 years Britain was packed full of water mills to harness the power of our rivers and streams as it was the primary energy source of our industrial revolution.
"Far from spoiling the landscape, some of the community projects I have seen involve restoring old water mills and water courses.
"My preference is for lots of community or even consumer based projects, as there are lots of people who have streams at the bottom of their gardens."
Currently there are around 350 hydropower schemes licensed in England and Wales with around 100 qualifying as microgeneration schemes, producing around 1.5 per cent of the country's renewable energy.
To build a microgeneration hydropower generator, the project must first be approved under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme and many are rejected for not meeting certain standards that allow them to benefit from green energy subsidies and tariffs for feeding power into the national grid.
Mr Barker said the Government intended to remove the requirement for hydropower schemes to obtain a microgeneration certificate in an attempt to make it easier for such projects to go ahead.
It comes as the Government prepares to publish its Microgeneration Strategy that is aimed at increasing the number of small wind turbines and solar panels being built by home owners.
Micro wind turbines have been heavily criticised because they produce little electricity in built up areas.
Mr Barker said he felt hydropower was different from other forms of energy and had the potential to make a significant contribution to the country's energy supplies.
The Environment Agency will still be required to regulate any proposed hydropower projects and grant them licenses, but it recently simplified its own application process.
The Agency last year released a report stating there was potential to build more than 26,000 hydropower turbines around the country and in 2010 saw a six fold increase in the number of licenses it granted for such schemes compared to two years earlier.
The plans to relax the regulations around hydropower, however, have met with strong opposition from fishing organisations.
Mark Lloyd, chief executive of the Angling Trust said: "The current level of regulation is inadequate to avoid damage to fish as it is, so if they want to make it easier to put these things in, then it is extremely unwelcome news.
"The feed in tariff for micro-hydropower should be abolished as it is a bad use of public funds as these schemes make a minimal contribution to tackling climate change and cause a lot of damage in the process."
An Environment Agency spokesman said: "We recently simplified our own application process for hydropower schemes. Renewable energy will help meet the country's carbon reduction targets and the Environment Agency will continue to support hydropower, while ensuring that wildlife is protected."
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Biofuel jet to make first non-stop trans-ocean flight
Plane will fly from US to Paris air show in first long-distance test of aviation biofuels
Mark Halper
guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 June 2011 16.26 BST
A corporate jet is scheduled to make the first ever non-stop trans-ocean flight powered by biofuels on Friday night when it leaves Morristown, New Jersey, bound for Paris.
Pilot Ron Weight will take off in a Gulfstream G450 at around 9pm from Morristown airport, ferrying two American executives from the fuel's suppliers, Honeywell. He will land at Paris-Le Bourget airport mid-morning on Saturday.
Importantly, Honeywell has not refitted the Gulfsteam's engines to accommodate the fuel.
"We've made no changes to the engine or the aircraft, and we are confident that the plane will perform exactly as it should," said Weight, a Honeywell employee.
Two days later, pilots Keith Otsuka, Rick Braun and Sten Rossby are scheduled to trump Weight in distance and aircraft size when they leave for Paris from Everett, Washington, in a biofuel-powered Boeing 747-8 cargo plane, also using fuel from Honeywell.
Both planes are heading to the Paris air show, where Honeywell and Boeing will promote biofuels as technically ready to replace conventional petroleum jet fuels – typically kerosene – and help the airline industry reduce its massive carbon footprint.
"This is a great opportunity to show people that this stuff is here today, that is it is not five or six years off," said Jim Rekoske, vice president and general manager of Honeywell's fuel subsidiary, Honeywell UOP. Rekoske will be on Friday's flight, as will Carl Esposito,vice president of Honeywell Aerospace.
The planes will use biofuel processed from camelina, an inedible plant that Honeywell has helped cultivate in Montana and process for the U.S. military. Friday's flight will use a 50/50 mix of biofuel and conventional fuel, while Sunday's trip from Washington will be 15% biofuel.
According to Rekoske, they are not using 100% biofuel because petroleum-based jet fuels contain aromatics that help tighten plastic seals in jet engines. Biofuels lack aromatics, but a 50/50 blend includes enough to fly safely.
A key American standards body, ASTM, seems to agree. Earlier this month it gave tentative approval to jet biofuels and said it could issue final approval by 1 July.
That would clear the way for commercial flights. Lufthansa is awaiting final approval from ASTM before it starts daily flights between Hamburg and Frankfurt using biofuel from Finland's Neste Oil.
In the US, Seattle-based alternative fuels producer AltAir Fuels has signed a memorandum of understanding with 14 airlines to supply biofuel.
Aviation biofuels still face hurdles, with criticism focusing on their environmental impact and their higher price than conventional fuel. Rekoske thinks price can decline to a competitive level by 2013.
Mark Halper
guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 June 2011 16.26 BST
A corporate jet is scheduled to make the first ever non-stop trans-ocean flight powered by biofuels on Friday night when it leaves Morristown, New Jersey, bound for Paris.
Pilot Ron Weight will take off in a Gulfstream G450 at around 9pm from Morristown airport, ferrying two American executives from the fuel's suppliers, Honeywell. He will land at Paris-Le Bourget airport mid-morning on Saturday.
Importantly, Honeywell has not refitted the Gulfsteam's engines to accommodate the fuel.
"We've made no changes to the engine or the aircraft, and we are confident that the plane will perform exactly as it should," said Weight, a Honeywell employee.
Two days later, pilots Keith Otsuka, Rick Braun and Sten Rossby are scheduled to trump Weight in distance and aircraft size when they leave for Paris from Everett, Washington, in a biofuel-powered Boeing 747-8 cargo plane, also using fuel from Honeywell.
Both planes are heading to the Paris air show, where Honeywell and Boeing will promote biofuels as technically ready to replace conventional petroleum jet fuels – typically kerosene – and help the airline industry reduce its massive carbon footprint.
"This is a great opportunity to show people that this stuff is here today, that is it is not five or six years off," said Jim Rekoske, vice president and general manager of Honeywell's fuel subsidiary, Honeywell UOP. Rekoske will be on Friday's flight, as will Carl Esposito,vice president of Honeywell Aerospace.
The planes will use biofuel processed from camelina, an inedible plant that Honeywell has helped cultivate in Montana and process for the U.S. military. Friday's flight will use a 50/50 mix of biofuel and conventional fuel, while Sunday's trip from Washington will be 15% biofuel.
According to Rekoske, they are not using 100% biofuel because petroleum-based jet fuels contain aromatics that help tighten plastic seals in jet engines. Biofuels lack aromatics, but a 50/50 blend includes enough to fly safely.
A key American standards body, ASTM, seems to agree. Earlier this month it gave tentative approval to jet biofuels and said it could issue final approval by 1 July.
That would clear the way for commercial flights. Lufthansa is awaiting final approval from ASTM before it starts daily flights between Hamburg and Frankfurt using biofuel from Finland's Neste Oil.
In the US, Seattle-based alternative fuels producer AltAir Fuels has signed a memorandum of understanding with 14 airlines to supply biofuel.
Aviation biofuels still face hurdles, with criticism focusing on their environmental impact and their higher price than conventional fuel. Rekoske thinks price can decline to a competitive level by 2013.
Bonn climate talks end with no agreement on key areas
Progress made on technical issues, but non government groups criticise slow and convoluted pace of negotiations
John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 June 2011 17.33 BST
Two weeks of tense global climate talks wrapped up on Friday, with countries insisting they had made progress on technical issues but accepting they were still nowhere near agreement in the three key areas of finance, greenhouse gas emission cuts and the future of the Kyoto protocol.
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN climate secretariat, defended the UN against charges by non-governmental groups that the talks were painfully slow and convoluted, saying the economic crisis in Europe and elsewhere was making it harder to make progress.
"Climate [change talks] are the most important negotiations the world has ever seen, but governments, business and civil society cannot solve it [climate] in one meeting. Countries are being very creative, exploring all options," she said at the close of the conference in Bonn.
Figueres warned that there could a gap between commitment periods for the Kyoto Protocol, the only global treaty legally binding rich countries to cut emissions - the first phase of which ends in 2012. "Governments can double their efforts and come forward with middle ground solutions and options which are acceptable to all sides," she said.
The EU, which was challenged to lead negotiations by committing itself to a second round of Kyoto, said developing countries had to prove they had met all agreements made in Copenhagen and Cancún last year.
"We are ready for an international deal ... but we need everyone aboard. A second commitment period on its own is not going to cut it. We need to see more progress [in other areas]," said Jozsef Feiler, EU spokesperson.
Non-governmental groups said they were deeply frustrated at the snail pace of negotiations and whole days lost while countries debated the agenda of the talks.
Bolivia, which was isolated at the end of the Cancún talks when it insisted on deeper emission cuts, said it was worried at the lack of ambition. "There have been some small advances in technical issues, but no advance at all in the key issue of pledges for emission reductions. If there are no new pledges [soon], we face a very difficult situation," said Pablo Solon, ambassador to the UN in New York.
"The developed countries are not moving. The problem we face is that we are on a path to [warming of] 4-5C. That is the reality. That worries us very much. The problem is the lack of ambition," he said
Quamrul Chowdhury, a negotiator with the G77 group of developing countries, said that the talks were like the end of a long cricket test match with both sides playing for a draw. "No-one wants to lose anything at this stage."
"Europe should use its power to secure a second commitment period of Kyoto, even if only as a stop-gap before the creation of an entirely new global deal," said Mohamed Adow, senior adviser on global advocacy for Christian Aid.
John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 June 2011 17.33 BST
Two weeks of tense global climate talks wrapped up on Friday, with countries insisting they had made progress on technical issues but accepting they were still nowhere near agreement in the three key areas of finance, greenhouse gas emission cuts and the future of the Kyoto protocol.
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN climate secretariat, defended the UN against charges by non-governmental groups that the talks were painfully slow and convoluted, saying the economic crisis in Europe and elsewhere was making it harder to make progress.
"Climate [change talks] are the most important negotiations the world has ever seen, but governments, business and civil society cannot solve it [climate] in one meeting. Countries are being very creative, exploring all options," she said at the close of the conference in Bonn.
Figueres warned that there could a gap between commitment periods for the Kyoto Protocol, the only global treaty legally binding rich countries to cut emissions - the first phase of which ends in 2012. "Governments can double their efforts and come forward with middle ground solutions and options which are acceptable to all sides," she said.
The EU, which was challenged to lead negotiations by committing itself to a second round of Kyoto, said developing countries had to prove they had met all agreements made in Copenhagen and Cancún last year.
"We are ready for an international deal ... but we need everyone aboard. A second commitment period on its own is not going to cut it. We need to see more progress [in other areas]," said Jozsef Feiler, EU spokesperson.
Non-governmental groups said they were deeply frustrated at the snail pace of negotiations and whole days lost while countries debated the agenda of the talks.
Bolivia, which was isolated at the end of the Cancún talks when it insisted on deeper emission cuts, said it was worried at the lack of ambition. "There have been some small advances in technical issues, but no advance at all in the key issue of pledges for emission reductions. If there are no new pledges [soon], we face a very difficult situation," said Pablo Solon, ambassador to the UN in New York.
"The developed countries are not moving. The problem we face is that we are on a path to [warming of] 4-5C. That is the reality. That worries us very much. The problem is the lack of ambition," he said
Quamrul Chowdhury, a negotiator with the G77 group of developing countries, said that the talks were like the end of a long cricket test match with both sides playing for a draw. "No-one wants to lose anything at this stage."
"Europe should use its power to secure a second commitment period of Kyoto, even if only as a stop-gap before the creation of an entirely new global deal," said Mohamed Adow, senior adviser on global advocacy for Christian Aid.
Wind-power bonds offer 7.5% return
ReBonds issue offers chance to invest in UK-based green energy venture
Miles Brignall and Rupert Jones
The Guardian, Saturday 18 June 2011
If you are looking for a green investment with attractive returns, and are prepared to take a risk with your money, a corporate retail bond offered by a renewable energy company is promising to pay 7.5% annually for the next four years.
Wind Prospect Group, which has been operating for more than 15 years, has launched the bonds with the aim of raising £10m, which it will use to build a wind farm in Staffordshire. The minimum investment is £500.
Wind Prospect says its ReBonds are likely to appeal to investors looking for an opportunity to invest in green energy projects while supporting a UK-based, employee-owned business.
The bonds pay a fixed-rate return of 7.5% over a four-year initial investment period, with a slightly higher rate for larger investments. The offer is open until 20 July or it is fully subscribed.
Much of the money raised will be used to fund the first commercial wind turbines to be built in the West Midlands, on land owned by South Staffordshire College.
Crucially, the company says there is already planning consent for the two-turbine project, with construction due to start this summer. However, this is an investment for people who are happy to accept some risk.
Corporate bonds are essentially a loan to the company, where the money invested by the bondholders is repaid at maturity. If the firm went bust you could lose some or all of your cash. However, the return is better than those offered by deposit accounts.
The invitation document states: "It will not be possible to sell or realise ReBonds … [they] are an unsecured debt of the company, and there is no certainty or guarantee that [it] will be able to repay them." For more information go to rebonds.equiniti.com.
Meanwhile, Gossypium, a Fairtrade and organic cotton retailer, has launched a share offer which aims to raise at least £250,000. The money will be used to increase its range of products and franchise shops.
The shares will be issued by parent company Vericott, which is 90% owned by Gossypium founders Abi and Thomas Petit, and 10% owned by an Indian farmers' co-operative. The company aims to pay an annual dividend "that at least matches banks' savings rates", and shareholders also get 25% off Gossypium products.
The minimum outlay for private investors is £500. Investors can register their interest on the company's website.
• British Gas has launched a green tariff open to any customer which is designed to raise money to help communities generate renewable energy and improve energy efficiency.
Customers signing up to the energyshare tariff will also get the electricity they use matched with electricity from 100% British renewable sources at the same price as the British Gas standard tariff, a spokesman says.
For every year a customer remains on the tariff the company will pay £10 into a fund which will raise money for local community energy projects. The tariff is a part of energyshare, a renewable energy "community" founded by the River Cottage food empire and British Gas.
Miles Brignall and Rupert Jones
The Guardian, Saturday 18 June 2011
If you are looking for a green investment with attractive returns, and are prepared to take a risk with your money, a corporate retail bond offered by a renewable energy company is promising to pay 7.5% annually for the next four years.
Wind Prospect Group, which has been operating for more than 15 years, has launched the bonds with the aim of raising £10m, which it will use to build a wind farm in Staffordshire. The minimum investment is £500.
Wind Prospect says its ReBonds are likely to appeal to investors looking for an opportunity to invest in green energy projects while supporting a UK-based, employee-owned business.
The bonds pay a fixed-rate return of 7.5% over a four-year initial investment period, with a slightly higher rate for larger investments. The offer is open until 20 July or it is fully subscribed.
Much of the money raised will be used to fund the first commercial wind turbines to be built in the West Midlands, on land owned by South Staffordshire College.
Crucially, the company says there is already planning consent for the two-turbine project, with construction due to start this summer. However, this is an investment for people who are happy to accept some risk.
Corporate bonds are essentially a loan to the company, where the money invested by the bondholders is repaid at maturity. If the firm went bust you could lose some or all of your cash. However, the return is better than those offered by deposit accounts.
The invitation document states: "It will not be possible to sell or realise ReBonds … [they] are an unsecured debt of the company, and there is no certainty or guarantee that [it] will be able to repay them." For more information go to rebonds.equiniti.com.
Meanwhile, Gossypium, a Fairtrade and organic cotton retailer, has launched a share offer which aims to raise at least £250,000. The money will be used to increase its range of products and franchise shops.
The shares will be issued by parent company Vericott, which is 90% owned by Gossypium founders Abi and Thomas Petit, and 10% owned by an Indian farmers' co-operative. The company aims to pay an annual dividend "that at least matches banks' savings rates", and shareholders also get 25% off Gossypium products.
The minimum outlay for private investors is £500. Investors can register their interest on the company's website.
• British Gas has launched a green tariff open to any customer which is designed to raise money to help communities generate renewable energy and improve energy efficiency.
Customers signing up to the energyshare tariff will also get the electricity they use matched with electricity from 100% British renewable sources at the same price as the British Gas standard tariff, a spokesman says.
For every year a customer remains on the tariff the company will pay £10 into a fund which will raise money for local community energy projects. The tariff is a part of energyshare, a renewable energy "community" founded by the River Cottage food empire and British Gas.
UK urges Ireland to build wind farms on west coast
Plans to link electricity grids offer the UK a chance to meet its clean energy targets – but threaten to blight Irish beauty spots
Robin McKie, science editor
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 18 June 2011 22.40 BST
Ireland's unspoiled, windswept west coast could become the focus of a new wave of wind farm construction in the wake of a high-level diplomatic meeting to be held tomorrow in London.
UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and other senior members of the British-Irish Council will gather to discuss a plan to expand electricity grid connections throughout the British Isles. In particular, they want to build new inter-connectors to link the electricity grids of Ireland and Britain in order to transmit power from new windfarms in Ireland to England.
The aim of the plan, created by the British government, is to open up remote regions that could provide Britain with more power generated by wind farms, as well as by tide and wave plants, and so reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.
"The west coast of Ireland has some of the fiercest winds in Europe," said Charles Hendry, the UK energy minister, who will be attending the meeting. "They whip in off the Atlantic which makes it is an ideal location for wind farms. However, the Irish market for electricity is less than a tenth of that of Britain. That means that companies cannot afford to build wind farms in Ireland because there is no market for their power. We want to put that right."
The construction of wind farms in Ireland that would supply power to neighbouring countries could help to put the UK back on track in its use of clean, renewable energy. Britain has recently been criticised for falling short of its targets for constructing wind power plants and for cutting its carbon emissions. Importing clean power could help to resolve the problem.
A link connecting the grids of Ireland and Britain is currently under construction and will stretch from Rush North Beach, Co Fingal, to Barkby Beach, north Wales. The Irish Sea Inter-Connector will cost £500m and have a capacity of 500 megawatts. However, under the scheme to be discussed tomorrow, other new links would also be built. This would open up a market for electricity for wind farms on the west coast of Ireland whose power could be transmitted under the Irish Sea.
Developments like these would be controversial, however. Construction of wind turbines generates strong opposition and plans to build clusters in mainland Britain have been greeted with fury. Opponents say wind turbines rarely work to capacity; spoil some of the country's most beautiful landscapes; and kill large numbers of wild birds.
Supporters argue that wind farms help to reduce dependence on carbon-emitting fossil-fuel plants and are non-polluting. Nevertheless, the prospect of giant turbines peppering the wild, craggy coasts of the Dingle Peninsula, Kerry and Galway will provoke a furious response.
Hendry rejected the idea that the turbines would be controversial in Ireland, however. "It will be up to the Irish government and the Irish people to decide if they want to build them. This is a voluntary programme and it could bring significant wealth to the country with very little downside."
The All Islands electricity plan is not confined to Ireland and Britain. The British-Irish Council meeting – which will also be attended by Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, and leaders of local governments in Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man – will consider a number of proposals to modernise the British Isles' electricity grid network. Some of these focus on existing sources, in particular onshore and offshore wind turbines, while others anticipate the construction of new forms of energy generation such as wave and tidal power. The islands of Islay and Orkney have already been targeted as promising sites for tidal plants. However, all sites suffer from the problem of remoteness, an issue targeted by the plan to be discussed tomorrow.
"Some of the best resources for generating tidal power lie in waters off the Channel Islands," said Hendry. "But as things stand at present, there is no way to get that power to mainland Britain. We need to look at building a new inter-connector with France, taking it from the new nuclear power station currently being built at Flamanville, via the Channel Islands, to the UK. When the tides are right at Jersey and Guernsey, we could take electricity from their wave generators, and when they are not providing power, take it from Flamanville."
Hendry added that earlier discussions with delegates indicated that the plan would be well received tomorrow. Once the various proposals had been discussed, detailed analysis would be carried out over the next 18 months with the aim of turning them into specific projections that could be launched in 2013.
Robin McKie, science editor
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 18 June 2011 22.40 BST
Ireland's unspoiled, windswept west coast could become the focus of a new wave of wind farm construction in the wake of a high-level diplomatic meeting to be held tomorrow in London.
UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and other senior members of the British-Irish Council will gather to discuss a plan to expand electricity grid connections throughout the British Isles. In particular, they want to build new inter-connectors to link the electricity grids of Ireland and Britain in order to transmit power from new windfarms in Ireland to England.
The aim of the plan, created by the British government, is to open up remote regions that could provide Britain with more power generated by wind farms, as well as by tide and wave plants, and so reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.
"The west coast of Ireland has some of the fiercest winds in Europe," said Charles Hendry, the UK energy minister, who will be attending the meeting. "They whip in off the Atlantic which makes it is an ideal location for wind farms. However, the Irish market for electricity is less than a tenth of that of Britain. That means that companies cannot afford to build wind farms in Ireland because there is no market for their power. We want to put that right."
The construction of wind farms in Ireland that would supply power to neighbouring countries could help to put the UK back on track in its use of clean, renewable energy. Britain has recently been criticised for falling short of its targets for constructing wind power plants and for cutting its carbon emissions. Importing clean power could help to resolve the problem.
A link connecting the grids of Ireland and Britain is currently under construction and will stretch from Rush North Beach, Co Fingal, to Barkby Beach, north Wales. The Irish Sea Inter-Connector will cost £500m and have a capacity of 500 megawatts. However, under the scheme to be discussed tomorrow, other new links would also be built. This would open up a market for electricity for wind farms on the west coast of Ireland whose power could be transmitted under the Irish Sea.
Developments like these would be controversial, however. Construction of wind turbines generates strong opposition and plans to build clusters in mainland Britain have been greeted with fury. Opponents say wind turbines rarely work to capacity; spoil some of the country's most beautiful landscapes; and kill large numbers of wild birds.
Supporters argue that wind farms help to reduce dependence on carbon-emitting fossil-fuel plants and are non-polluting. Nevertheless, the prospect of giant turbines peppering the wild, craggy coasts of the Dingle Peninsula, Kerry and Galway will provoke a furious response.
Hendry rejected the idea that the turbines would be controversial in Ireland, however. "It will be up to the Irish government and the Irish people to decide if they want to build them. This is a voluntary programme and it could bring significant wealth to the country with very little downside."
The All Islands electricity plan is not confined to Ireland and Britain. The British-Irish Council meeting – which will also be attended by Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, and leaders of local governments in Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man – will consider a number of proposals to modernise the British Isles' electricity grid network. Some of these focus on existing sources, in particular onshore and offshore wind turbines, while others anticipate the construction of new forms of energy generation such as wave and tidal power. The islands of Islay and Orkney have already been targeted as promising sites for tidal plants. However, all sites suffer from the problem of remoteness, an issue targeted by the plan to be discussed tomorrow.
"Some of the best resources for generating tidal power lie in waters off the Channel Islands," said Hendry. "But as things stand at present, there is no way to get that power to mainland Britain. We need to look at building a new inter-connector with France, taking it from the new nuclear power station currently being built at Flamanville, via the Channel Islands, to the UK. When the tides are right at Jersey and Guernsey, we could take electricity from their wave generators, and when they are not providing power, take it from Flamanville."
Hendry added that earlier discussions with delegates indicated that the plan would be well received tomorrow. Once the various proposals had been discussed, detailed analysis would be carried out over the next 18 months with the aim of turning them into specific projections that could be launched in 2013.
Which way will Barack Obama turn on solar power?
The Obama administration is backing a giant solar power plant in California, but the White House has just days to meet a pledge to put solar panels on its roof
It looks like Barack Obama may be reneging on his promise to put solar panels on the roof of the White House by the end of this spring.
On the other hand, the administration is pushing ahead with its plan to expand the deployment of large-scale solar power plants.
The interior secretary, Ken Salazar, and a clutch of other high-ranking officials flew to California on Friday for the official groundbreaking of a project that ranks among one of the largest solar facilities in the world.
So where does this put Obama in the big solar vs small solar debate?
Once completed, the 1GW Solar Trust of America project being launched on Friday just west of the town of Blythe California (see video here) will generate enough electricity to power 300,000 to 750,000 homes, a statement from the interior department said.
The Obama administration has awarded more than $8bn in loan guarantees to half a dozen such mega solar power projects, including the funds for the Blythe plant, according to department of energy statistics.
Solar Trust of America received $2.1bn for the first phase of the project.
But the public has had mixed feelings about huge solar farms. A number of projects are now stalled because of legal challenges.
It's getting increasingly difficult to get greens on side for situating massive industrial facilities in fragile desert landscapes where water is scarce.
However, the Blythe project claims to avoid that problem with a new air cooling technology.
Others would much rather see the Obama administration give more of a push to small-scale, decentralised deployment of rooftop solar panels – on homes, on big box stores – directly in the urban areas where the power will be used.
There seems to be growing public acceptance of that kind of deployment. A report released on Thursday (pdf) from the main solar industry lobby group found that Americans installed 252 MW worth of photovoltaic solar in the first quarter of 2011. That's a 66% rise over last year – although predictably nearly half of those panels were installed in California.
So which side is Obama on when it comes to home-based solar?
The campaign group 350.org this week renewed its campaign to get Obama to install solar panels on the roof of the White House.
The energy secretary, Steve Chu, announced last year that Obama would have the panels up by the end of this spring. With the official start of summer on 21 June, Obama has only a few days left to show Americans which way he is going to go.
It looks like Barack Obama may be reneging on his promise to put solar panels on the roof of the White House by the end of this spring.
On the other hand, the administration is pushing ahead with its plan to expand the deployment of large-scale solar power plants.
The interior secretary, Ken Salazar, and a clutch of other high-ranking officials flew to California on Friday for the official groundbreaking of a project that ranks among one of the largest solar facilities in the world.
So where does this put Obama in the big solar vs small solar debate?
Once completed, the 1GW Solar Trust of America project being launched on Friday just west of the town of Blythe California (see video here) will generate enough electricity to power 300,000 to 750,000 homes, a statement from the interior department said.
The Obama administration has awarded more than $8bn in loan guarantees to half a dozen such mega solar power projects, including the funds for the Blythe plant, according to department of energy statistics.
Solar Trust of America received $2.1bn for the first phase of the project.
But the public has had mixed feelings about huge solar farms. A number of projects are now stalled because of legal challenges.
It's getting increasingly difficult to get greens on side for situating massive industrial facilities in fragile desert landscapes where water is scarce.
However, the Blythe project claims to avoid that problem with a new air cooling technology.
Others would much rather see the Obama administration give more of a push to small-scale, decentralised deployment of rooftop solar panels – on homes, on big box stores – directly in the urban areas where the power will be used.
There seems to be growing public acceptance of that kind of deployment. A report released on Thursday (pdf) from the main solar industry lobby group found that Americans installed 252 MW worth of photovoltaic solar in the first quarter of 2011. That's a 66% rise over last year – although predictably nearly half of those panels were installed in California.
So which side is Obama on when it comes to home-based solar?
The campaign group 350.org this week renewed its campaign to get Obama to install solar panels on the roof of the White House.
The energy secretary, Steve Chu, announced last year that Obama would have the panels up by the end of this spring. With the official start of summer on 21 June, Obama has only a few days left to show Americans which way he is going to go.
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