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Archive for February, 2009

BBC News, February 25, 2009 A BMW saloon was converted with equipment to capture energy normally wasted when a driver brakes. The team from Midlothian-based Artemis Intelligent Power said the equipment was less expensive than the batteries used in existing hybrid vehicles. Carbon emissions from the prototype were also down by 30% in combined city [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, February 14, 2009 Acting Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Jon Wellinghoff recently published Facilitating Hydrokinetic Energy Development Through Regulatory Innovation.  Consider it required reading as a backgrounder on US wave energy policy development, FERC’s position on the MMS in renewables and FERC’s perceived role as a government agency in renewable energy, specifically marine energy, development. Missing [...]

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PETER BROWN, EnergyCurrent.com, February 16, 2009 On a Monday morning in May last year, the Atlantic tide set a turbine in motion on the seabed off Orkney, and the energy captured was connected to the national grid. It was, said Jim Mather, Scotland’s Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, a “massive step forward”. The amount [...]

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TYLER HAMILTON, CleanBreak.ca, February 17, 2009 Toronto-based WhalePower, maker of the tubercle-lined turbine blades inspired by humpback whale flippers, got the results back from its first independent study in the field.  The blade design was tested on a 25-kilowatt Wenvor Technologies turbine at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada. The institude found that annualized energy [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent from Platts Energy Podium, February 12, 2009 The recently approved Economic Stimulus Plan includes expanding the US electric transmission grid and this may be the just the start of what will be a costly effort to improve reliability and deliver renewable energy to consumers from remote locations, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Chairman [...]

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MaritimeJournal.com, February 12, 2009 Edinburgh-based Pelamis Wave Power has won an order from UK renewable energy generator E.On for the next generation Pelamis Wave Energy Converter, known as the P2. The P2 will be built at the Pelamis Leith Docks facility and trialed at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney. This is the first [...]

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Washington Post Editorial, February 12, 2009 Interior Secretary Salazar Keeps his Options Open on Offshore Drilling  Here’s the ultimate midnight regulation: On the very last day of the Bush administration, the Interior Department proposed a new five-year plan for oil and gas leasing on the outer continental shelf. All hearings and other meetings on the [...]

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JENNY HAWORTH, Scotman.com, February 12, 2009 MORE than three dozen energy companies from across the world are hoping to install wave energy devices in a stretch of sea off the north of Scotland. The renewable energy firms all have their sights on the Pentland Firth, which is considered one of the best locations in the [...]

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CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL, The Advertiser, February 11, 2009 Wave energy company Carnegie Corporation has been licensed by the Australian state government to explore the seabed off the southeast coast. It is the first license issued in South Australia for a company to search for suitable sites for wave-harnessing technology. Carnegie Corporation, which has demonstration wave energy projects [...]

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DANIEL B. WOOD, The Christian Science Monitor, February 11, 2009 Less than a month into his administration, President Obama is making good on campaign promises to move toward a comprehensive approach to US energy and to broaden environmental protections. The administration has moved over the past few weeks to undo many of Bush’s last-minute drilling [...]

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DAVID EWENCHIEF, The Evening Express, February 11, 2009 The Aberdeenshire Council has pointed to tides – rather than wind turbines – as the best green solution to the energy crisis. The council took part in a consultation on the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Bill, which is going through Parliament, suggesting tide and current generation would [...]

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MATTHEW MCDERMOTT, Treehuger.com, February 10, 2009 Based off the Aberdeen, Scotland-based company’s Ocean Treader, the Wave Treader is designed to mount onto the tower of an offshore wind turbine. The Wave Treader concept utilizes the arms and sponsons from Ocean Treader and instead of reacting against a floating spar buoy, will react through an interface [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, February 11, 2009 President Obama chose two Silicon Valley notables as members of his new Economic Recovery Advisory Board.  The 15-member board shall advise Obama on decisions about the US economy and announced to spur Congress into passing legislation for his economic stimulus plan. President Obama said he created a panel of outside advisers [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, February 10, 2009 E.On is moving forward to install and test a single wave device to be fully operational in 2010. Based around a single 750kW Pelamis P2 device that is currently being built in Edinburgh, it will be installed and tested at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.   The first year [...]

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ROB DAVIS, VoiceOfSanDiego.org, February 8, 2009 With California’s water supplies crimped and cuts on the way, the idea of a new water source in San Diego is making politicians salivate. The seawater desalination plant proposed by Poseidon Resources Corp. is advertised as being able to tap into the Pacific Ocean, a drought-proof supply. Now the [...]

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Publisher’s Note:  Feb 09, 2009 – Not only has Finavera surrendered their Makah Bay license noted below, they also announced surrendering the Humboldt County, California Preliminary Permit to explore wave energy: “Finavera Renewables has filed applications to surrender its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license for the Makah Bay Wave Energy Pilot Project in Washington and [...]

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KATE GALBRAITH, The New York Times, February 4, 2009 Wind and solar energy have been growing at a blistering pace in recent years, and that growth seemed likely to accelerate under the green-minded Obama administration. But because of the credit crisis and the broader economic downturn, the opposite is happening: installation of wind and solar power is [...]

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DAVID FOGARTY, Reuters Climate Change Correspondent, February 5, 2009 For millennia, Australia’s rugged southern coast has been carved by the relentless action of waves crashing ashore. The same wave energy could soon be harnessed to power towns and cities and trim Australia’s carbon emissions. “Waves are already concentrated solar energy,” says Michael Ottaviano, who leads [...]

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SUSAN CHAMBERS, The World, February 4, 2009 Coos Bay, Oregon — The jobs are coming, so Ocean Power Technologies insists. OPT spokesman Len Bergstein said Monday the company wants to get stimulus funds from the federal government. “We have a strong interest in presenting a project that would be jobs-ready right now,” Bergstein said. OPT [...]

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SUSAN CHAMBERS, The World, February 3, 2009 Coos Bay — The announcement came as a surprise to everyone. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Thursday order issuing a preliminary permit for a 200- to 400-buoy wave energy project off of Newport shocked Ocean Power Technologies leaders as well as the public. “It’s a project, a site [...]

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RICHARD RICHTMYER, AP via Forbes, February 2, 2009 New York state officials are using a small wind turbine atop Albany’s tallest building to test a big renewable energy idea. The turbine stands 17 feet above the roof of the 41-story Corning Tower. Its 7-foot diameter blades can produce up to 1.5 kilowatts of electricity when spinning [...]

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RenewableEnergyWorld.com, January 29, 2009 On January 28, 2009, the launch of a long-planned international agency to promote the interests of renewable energy took place in Bonn, Germany. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will advise industrialized and developing nations on ways of reducing their dependency on oil, coal and gas. The new agency aims to [...]

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Bloomberg via The Economic Times, February 2, 2009 LONDON: Three decades ago, engineer Peter Fraenkel created an underwater turbine to use river power to pump water in Sudan, where he worked for a charity. Civil war and a lack of funding stymied his plans. Now, his modified design generates electricity from tides off Northern Ireland. [...]

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