The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) Scientific Committee yesterday called for the suspension of EU’s target to increase the share of biofuels used in transport to 10% by 2020. The committee calls for a new, “comprehensive scientific study on the environmental risks and benefits of biofuels” before any targets should be set.

The committees concerns are summarised below:

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The World is facing a global food price crisis and looming mass starvation in the Developing World. The price of rice has doubled in 3 months and the price of wheat has doubled in one year. The huge increases in the price of staples such as wheat and rice is being driven by US, UK and EU diversion of food for biofuel; climate change and decreased agricultural productivity due to both inundation and drought; and globalization which means that 4 billion impoverished and under-fed people compete in the market place for those with the money to buy food to drive their cars or for grain-fed meat.

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The video below shows a windmill in Hornslet, near Århus in Denmark, being ripped apart by… wind. Oh the irony. But it does show the power of renewable energy, and in this case wind power.

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It’s a brand new year for Europe, and for the European Union member states is has started with “tough” greenhouse gas emission targets being set. The new targets require that a certain amount of renewable energy will be installed in every member state. It’s different amounts depending on the size and ability of each and every country.

So how well are the different European countries doing? Well, that’s too early to say right now, but here is a list on the ten countries who have built the most wind plants in Europe last year:

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A Greenpeace campaigner from Spain has reported that wind power have broken all previous records in Spain.

A total of 13908 MW in wind capacity have been built in Spain. And because of good wind conditions wind energy in Spain reached 9563 MW of generated power. “Wind power met 25% of demand at that hour, well above coal (15%) and nuclear (16%). A new record may be expected today.”

As more investments is being re-directed from the fossil market to the renewable market and new technologies and improvements sprung up we will surely see more records and improvements in the efficiency of for example wind energy.

Image credit: Cjohnson7. Image licensed under a
Creative-Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license.

Here is another clever advertisement. This one is a billboard/solar plant. Yes, you heard right. The billboard has been transformed to a solar plant and generates about 3.4 Kw of electricity during the day. According to Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the owners of the ad, says that is enough electricity for a family of four.

Jennifer Zelwer, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) spokesperson, said that “the energy that is collected by the solar panels actually exceeds the amount used by it on a day-to-day basis.” She proudly (I guess) stated that “this isn’t a billboard. It’s a power plant.”

Shell, the major oil company, has decided to adopt algae for its diesel production. The company has already begun the construction of a pilot plant in Hawaii.

Growing algae as biofuel will not be taking valuable land areas that are needed to grow food on. Thanks to algaes impressive photosynthesis it will produce 15 times as much oil for a given area compared to other biofuel crops. Algae can also be fed CO2 directly from smokestacks.

So, has Shell finally seen the green light? Far from it actually.

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If I say Mars, what do you think of then? No, the planet Mars is the wrong answer. The correct answer is Magenn’s Power Turbine MARS.

MARS is a new simple solution to produce wind energy, anywhere. According to Magenn their MARS has all advantages over current existing wind turbines.

But how does it work and why is it better than ordinary wind turbines?

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A new study by Kenneth Vogel from the University of Nebraska shows that farming switchgrass as biofuel will produce 540% more energy than is required to grow and manufacture it.

This can be compared to 25% for corn ethanol and 93% for soybean ethanol. But one of the more interesting and positive result from the study was that the emissions created by switchgrass would be around 94% lower than the emissions from petrol. That means switchgrass would be almost carbon neutral.

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Today the government in UK unveiled plans to build around 7000 wind turbines off the coast of Britain. According to John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Business, these wind turbines would generate enough electricity for every home in the UK by year 2020.

The new wind farms would not just create 33 gigawatts of clean electricity it would also create jobs and boost the economy by making the UK’s wind industry two times the size of any other countries.

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