Germany's energy revolution in the hands of ordinary citizens

51% of the renewable energy on the German grid is put there by individuals (like us) and farmers. Individuals and private investors are contributing the equivalent generation capacity in renewables of20 nuclear power plants. None of it is state owned. More than one million Germans are involved as energy producers or investors in renewable energy production. According to Germany's environment ministry, "New ownership models such as citizens’ wind parks and energy cooperatives show that the Energiewende cannot only bring about environmental protection and economic growth, but also decentralized production structures in the hands of local initiatives."  

Stanford University energy research finds an answer blowing in the wind

New research from the Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford University delivers the first-ever quantitative analysis of  the offshore wind energy resource from Virginia to Maine. The Stanford researchers conclude that roughly one-third (34%)  of the United States carbon free electricity demand (from Florida to Maine) can be technically provided with interconnected offshore wind farms along the East Coast.  Moreover, the research concluded that hundreds of gigawatts of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) can be transmitted through the proposed Atlantic Wind Connection seabed transmission line from New York to Virginia.

The research team inserted 140,000 wind turbines (5 megawatts each) into their computer model along the Eastern Seaboard with many of the turbines installed so far offshore that they would not be seen from land.  In the long term, the research demonstrates that the deliberate shift to renewable energy including wind would offset pollution and wean our energy policy off dirty, dangerous and expensive power and move it into the carbon-free nuclear-free 21st Century.

Native Americans Endorse Feed-in Tariffs for Oregon

Writes Paul Gipe: "The Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians is encouraging Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber to include feed-in tariffs for renewable energy in his 10-year energy plan.

The move is significant in a region of North America where the indigenous people have long maintained they should have a say in how land is used and for what purpose. Tribes also directly control large amounts of land with resident populations that could use and profit from renewable energy development.

The Affiliated Tribes action is contained in a resolution passed at their mid-year convention 21-24 May 2012 in Newport, Oregon.

The resolution notes that feed-in tariffs are a highly effective policy mechanism that would lower barriers to the rapid development of renewable energy by tribal communities."

Would you rather store solar power overnight, or radioactive waste forevermore?!

"The people that are saying we need nuclear power and we have the technology to safely store nuclear waste for 250,000 years are the same ones who claim that we can't use solar because we have no way to store the electricity overnight! If we have the technology to do one, we ought to be able to figure out the other." ---Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Associates (pictured left)

Toledo Blade editorializes in support of consideration of renewables as alternative to Davis-Besse license extension

The Toledo Blade, which in the past has often taken pro-nuclear editorial positions, has nonetheless come out in support of an environmental coalition's contention that renewables, such as wind and solar power, should be considered as an alternative to a 20 year license extension at the problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor, with its cracked containment. Beyond Nuclear authored a wind power contention in Dec., 2010 that won admission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) for a hearing on the merits; the ASLB likewise admitted a solar photovoltaic (PV) contention authored by the environmental coalition's expert witness, Dr. Al Compaan, an emeritus professor and former chair of the University of Toledo physics dept., a PV inventer. However, the full five member NRC Commission recently sided with FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's appeal of the ASLB rulings, and overrode them, rejecting any consideration of renewable alternatives. The NRC Commission did the same thing at Seabrook, NH, where Beyond Nuclear authored a contention that offshore wind power in the Gulf of Maine could replace that atomic reactor's electrical output. Terry Lodge of Toledo is the attorney representing the environmental coalitions in both proceedings.