GreenUpAndGo.com

New UK Government plans could see a massive increase in the use of wind turbines in the country.

Ministers have announced that they want a six-fold rise in the amount of electricity being generated by onshore wind-farms by 2020 to help the country meet European targets on green energy. The target means that an extra 4,000 wind turbines must be built in the country – that’s the equivalent of building a new wind turbine every day for the next twelve years. The plans are the latest in a string of green announcements – last month, the UK Government announced plans for another 7,000 wind turbines to be build off the coast.

Atlantic City’s Convention Center has entered into a unique deal which will see 290,000 square feet of roof space taken up with solar photovoltaic cells (solar panels, to you and me!). The solar cells will cover around two-thirds of the roof and are expected to save around $4.4 million over the next 20 years and the Center has claimed that when installed, the panels will be the largest single-building solar energy project in the US.

The Convention Center have an interesting contract with Pepco, the local electricity firm. Pepco are paying to have the solar panels installed at the Center and the Convention Center will then buy back the electricity they generate from the utility firm.

New Zealanders are being urged to save power by doing things such as washing dishes by hand and turning off lights when they are not needed. After two years of dry weather, the lakes that drive New Zealand’s hydroelectric plants are at worryingly low levels and some are concerned that the country may face power cuts in the near future.

However energy minister, David Parker, has denied claims of rolling power cuts but has urged households to try and cut their electricity consumption, particularly during peak times.

Scientists have discovered that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is suffering from massive ice-quakes measuring around 7 on the Richter scale twice a day. The scientists traced the source of the quakes to the Whillans Ice Stream, a glacier which measures 100 km across and 1 km thick.

It may seem strange that the quakes have been occurring for quite some time and the people working on the ice sheet haven’t noticed but the reason is quite simple – the quakes are a very slow event. In standard earthquakes, the energy is released in a few seconds causing massive tremors; these ice quakes are releasing their in around 20 minutes therefore the movement of the earth is virtually unnoticeable.

Scientists have claimed that have invented a machine that can help stop global warming by sucking the carbon dioxide out of the air. The researchers are currently planning to build a prototype of the machine which they hope will suck a tonne of carbon dioxide out of the air every day.

The prototype is being built by Global Research Technologies in Tucson, Arizona, and will cost around $200,000 to build and take around two years to complete. The prototype isn’t small – each device is around the size of a shipping container and millions would have to be built to completely counter the amount of carbon emitted by human activities.

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens has put in the largest ever order for wind turbines coming in at $2 billion. Picken’s order consists of 667 wind turbines from GE, with each turbine costing $3 million. Pickens is planning to use his turbines to create the world’s largest wind farm in Texas. As if $2 billion wasn’t enough, Pickens has said that this is just the first order and is just one quarter of the total amount he plans to buy.

An expert has warned that wind farms pose a larger problem than just being an eyesore for some people – they have the potential to cause epileptic fits.

According to Professor Arnold Wilkins, the flickering of sunlight which occurs as the blades turn, can trigger seizures in more vulnerable members of the public. Professor Wilkins is calling for the risk to be considered when building wind farms.

Melting ice is causing problems in Southern Chile – last week, melted ice caused a glacial lake to fill and then empty suddenly, causing a small tsunami as it rolled down through a river. Luckily, no-one was injured during the freak occurrence.

Scientists have said that Colonia glacier’s melt is increasing thanks for rising world temperatures. The increased melt filled the Cachet Lake and put increasing amounts of pressure on the ice sheet. The water then bored a five mile tunnel through the glacier before landing in the Baker River. Remarkably, the flow was so strong that the water actually moved against the river’s normal currents.

Solar panels are a great way to produce renewable energy for the home, however solar panels are often costly and difficult to install. However, this might be about to change – a team from the Swansea Solar Paint project have been working on a way to paint solar calls onto steel.

The team initially were looking into ways to making steel last longer. One of the areas they researched was the degradation of paints on steel surfaces and they soon reaslised that using some form of solar panel would not only help steel’s life expectancy, but could also help the building’s energy requirements.