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HELLO ELECTUS!  ITS SATURDAY ! MEET ME AT THE LINK BELOW! 

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HELLO ELECTUS!  ITS SATURDAY ! MEET ME AT THE LINK BELOW! 

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- OLOS

https://meet.google.com/ueo-hdfc-iay

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4th grade students build "Solar Suitcases" to give light to hospitals in Uganda & Haiti

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4th grade students build "Solar Suitcases" to give light to hospitals in Uganda & Haiti

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Newsela | Kids discover a box, some wire and a light bulb can help others in need

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Students in a unique after-school program have learned as much about solar energy as global issues. The "solar suitcases" they built will be put to good use in an orphanage in Africa.

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Solar panels can also help students learn. Teachers at schools that use solar power often teach lessons about it. "The kids talk about it in the classroom. Then they can go look at it in action," Miller says.

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Solar energy for kids: Learn how electricity works

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OLOS MESSAGE - VUBOT 99

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ALERT  MESSAGE FROM NIBISI - FOR ELECTUS!!

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ALERT  MESSAGE FROM NIBISI - FOR ELECTUS!!

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Leaked: Pentagon's UFO Investigation Spotlighted In New Photos And Video

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Energy | The Dr. Binocs Show | Educational Videos For Kids

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The Difference Between Kinetic and Potential Energy

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The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind | Featurette: A Behind the Scenes Extended Look  [HD] | Netflix

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Meet Sophia: The first robot declared a citizen by Saudi Arabia

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North Africa -
Chemtou and Testour,

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Ancient Water Clock of Megana - Fes, Morocco

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Can you survive nuclear fallout? -  Brooke Buddemeier and Jessica S. Wieder

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How do nuclear power plants work? - M. V. Ramana and Sajan Saini

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10 Facts About Nuclear Energy - Fun Facts for Kids | Educational Videos by Mocomi

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Nuclear Energy Explained: How does it work? 1/3

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Solar power

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Fossil Fuels  | Types and Formation | Video for Kids

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Fossil power

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Nuclear power

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Solar Car Race: 40 teams take part in dash across Australia

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The Engineering Design Process: A Taco Party

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Maker Workshop - Wind Power Generator on MAKE: television

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Taking a motor from an old exercise treadmill and some PVC pipe, John Park constructs a wind-powered generator.  The electrical power may not be enough to get your home off the grid, but the great thing about the project is how it explains in simple terms the technology involved in turning wind into free electricity.

Download the PDFs for these projects here http://cachefly.oreilly.com/make/television/wind.pdf

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By Nacho Corbella
The mid-20th century discovery of oil and gas fields in central Texas changed the trajectory of several small towns in decline. But the boom bypassed the town of Roscoe.

From his nearby cotton farm, Cliff Etheredge watched the other towns grow. “To me, the hungriest man is the one who has to sit and watch somebody else eat,” he said. “That’s what we did here.”

Then, in 2004, Etheredge saw a chance to cash in on the emerging west Texas wind boom. As chairman of Wind Works, a wind farm development company, he introduced wind energy to Roscoe. Landowners earn income for each turbine placed on their property and a percentage of the profits from the energy each turbine produces.

This content was created as part of PoweringANation.org, a News21 project through the School of Journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill.

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FISHERMEN'S ENERGY is a Semifinalist in the $200,000 GE FOCUS FORWARD Filmmaker Competition. View more Semifinalist films at https://vimeo.com/groups/focusforwardfilms/albums/6362.

Commercial fisherman Daniel Cohen, spurred by climate change and the need for renewable energy, organized fishermen on the Eastern seaboard to be agents of change rather than its victims. Fishermen’s Energy is now building possibly the first off-shore wind farm in this hemisphere.

Director/Producer- Maxi Cohen
Editor- Wiebke Reile & Martin Levenstein
Sound Editing- Pam Demetruis
Animation- Stephen Wilson
Voice Over- Siobhan Bledsoe

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Lighting mountain communities in Nepal through one simple solution

Access to clean and affordable modern energy is critical for social and economic development.  Worldwide, about 1.5 billion have no access to electricity, and 1 billion more have access only to unreliable electricity networks.  

In the Himalayan country, Nepal, the towering mountains are a formidable obstacle to the people who need modern energy. Only 20 percent of the mountain villages have access to electricity.

Since 1996, UNDP, its partners and the Government of Nepal have worked together with local communities to provide energy to remote areas through one clean, simple and plentiful means: water. Nearly 400 micro-hydro power plants have been built bringing energy to roughly half a million people.

Local communities themselves dig the channels to divert the water that powers the small plants. They also provide the labor to install the power lines and the light. 

 "Micro-hydro was introduced in Nepal before, but the difference UNDP made was to put community people at the center of the project so that they are the driver to introduce this technology then also maintain and then have full ownership," says Shoko Nodo, UNDP Country Director in Nepal.

Through these small hydro plants, big changes are happening. Clinics, schools, radio stations, businesses are all flourishing where once there was darkness and no electricity. 

This five-minute movie on the micro-hydro power plants of Nepal is a sneak preview of a longer documentary that will air on Discovery Channel in 2013.

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Would you like some more resources on solar energy? Visit this site with links to other places where solar cells and their use are discussed including the MAINE SUN, Quarterly newsletter of the Maine Solar Energy Association. Another place for resources includes: The American Solar Energy Society Website, which has the Solar Today magazine and many links and publications.

Find out more about Skyheat, its history and goal. For two essential books on the topic, check out the educator's texts: Practical Photovoltaics and THE SOLAR ELECTRIC HOME. Joel Davidson & Richard Komp. aatec Publications, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1983.

Want to test your knowledge about solar energy? Visit Energy.Gov and take the Test Your Solar IQ Quiz! What were your results? Are you a solar energy star? The SciShow also sheds some light on Solar Energy here! Listen and learn. Then, take a look at this TED Ed lesson: Why aren't we only using solar power?

The New York Times has a large amount of resources on solar energy. Visit the site and peruse the time-line of solar energy activity for the last year across the world. The Union of Concerned Scientists has some wonderful resources about how photovoltaics began. What is the history behind photovoltaics? Finally, NPR has a wide selection of recent stories involving solar power, solar panels and the future of solar energy.

Hoping to find some TED Talks on solar energy? Here's the list of current talks on the topic.

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How do solar panels work? - Richard Komp

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The Earth intercepts a lot of solar power: 173,000 terawatts. That's 10,000 times more power than the planet's population uses. So is it possible that one day the world could be completely reliant on solar energy? Richard Komp examines how solar panels convert solar energy to electrical energy.

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What if roads and parking lots were solar, fueling enough energy from the sun to power nearby communities as well as electric vehicles? Scott and Julie Brusaw, the inventors/creators have the answer.

Join the conversation and tweet #SOLARROADWAY to have your tweet featured on the GE FOCUS FORWARD website. Go to focusforwardfilms.com/films/30/solar-roadways to see the discussion. 

Watch more GE FOCUS FORWARD films at vimeo.com/focusforwardfilms/films.

Diamond Lane Films

DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY - Michèle Ohayon
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY - Theo van de Sande A.S.C.
EDITOR - Jamal El Amin
MUSIC - Davy & Yoann Bernagoult
SOUND - Fernanda Starling
RE-RECORDING MIXER - Michael Bard C.A.S.
ADDITIONAL EDITING - Edgar Burcksen, A.C.E.
ANIMATION - Dan Walden, Martin Ehleben
LINE PRODUCER, LA - Joel Sadilek
GRAPHICS - Patrick Bielski
LA PA - Jonathan VU
IDAHO PA - Dave Hussey

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A Soccer Ball That Can Provide Power To Underdeveloped Villages

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Solar power

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Wind power

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EARTH

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1000 INCREDITS

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This is Elon Musk’s key to Tesla’s future

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Hydro power

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How tesla electricity can create wireless power | The Economist

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Renewable energy demand and capacity are growing explosively. When looking at numbers for wind energy production, China stands above all other countries. Figures released by the Global Energy Council in late February showed that China has installed far more wind power capacity, both on land and at sea, than any other country. So, why is China such a force when it comes to wind power? Moreover, will it continue to lead the way in the coming years?

China's Lead In Wind and Other Renewables

China is approaching the end of its 13 th Energy Technology Innovation Five-Year Plan. The plan specifically mentions wind energy as a focus point, identifying wind turbines with a megawatt (MW) production capacity of between 8 and 10MW as a key technology. By the end of 2020, China aims to have 210 gigawatts (GW) of grid-connected wind energy capacity. Its capacity at the beginning of 2018 led the world with around 187 GW, compared to 89 GW for the US in second place and 56 GW for Germany in third.

Wind energy isn't the only renewable where China is the pacesetter. A recent report from the Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation, set up by the International Renewable Energy Agency, pointed to China as the country in the best position to 'become the world's renewable energy superpower.'

China is now the world leader in production, export, and installation of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and electric vehicles. It aims to produce 50 percent of its energy from non-fossil sources, including nuclear and renewable, by 2030.

Why Wind?

As a nation, China has many good reasons for focusing on renewables like wind.

For one, the country's growing middle class is fueling higher energy use. In 2010, China surpassed the US and became the world's biggest consumer of energy. Investments in renewable energy production are a way of lowering dependence on imports from other countries.

A lot of China's energy still comes from fossil sources, like coal (60.4 percent in 2017) and crude oil (18.8 percent the same year). Renewable energy helps battle air and water pollution. Seven of the world's ten most polluted cities are found in China, and the fallout from pollution makes for harrowing reading.

Air pollution led to an estimated 1.6 million deaths in China in 2012, accounting for roughly 17 percent of all deaths in the country. Calculations indicate that China will be able to lower CO2 emissions by 1.5 billion tons by pursuing a green energy strategy and will create 720,000 new jobs at the same time.

All signs point towards wind power continuing to play a central part in China's pursuit of a green future. Both its land and long coastline are excellently suited for wind power, and the country's potential wind power resources are estimated to be about 2,380 GW.

Finally, a leading position in green energy is conducive to exports of solutions and technology, which China is actively pursuing- for example in connection with its massive Road and Belt infrastructure project. Chinese companies are also very actively investing in renewable energy companies. In the future, green energy will likely be supplied by either Chinese hardware or by a Chinese-owned company.

Not All Success

Not all of China's efforts and initiatives are bearing fruit. While the last decade has seen strong investment across the entire renewable energy sector, estimates point to Chinese wind farms producing less electricity than they potentially could.

Grid connection, constraints in grid management, less than optimal turbine models, and siting of wind farms have all lowered actual use of energy generated by wind turbines.

As a result, the amount of electricity fed into the grid to displace conventional, polluting power sources, such as coal and oil, has been limited. One study shows that wind energy units (individual windmills) in China were producing much less electricity per unit of installed wind capacity than their American counterparts.

While China is investing heavily in a greener future, there is still much work to be done.

New Tech's Impact Is Imminent

One of the challenges facing renewables in China is the sheer size of the country; much of its energy production potential is located in the north and northwest, while most of the population is in the east and southeast.

This is one of the reasons why China is currently building what will become the largest transmission line in the world, a 1.1 million-volt giant line capable of delivering huge amounts of power over thousands of miles. The Changji-Guquan transmission line is a colossal feat that will be able to transmit 2,000 MW of electricity, enough for 26.5 million people, across China.

While this and similar lines will be used to transport renewable energy, most of the electricity transported through them will still come from traditional power sources.

Traditional power plants are more stable energy sources. However, the picture is changing rapidly thanks to another solution transforming the energy sector: battery storage.

At the beginning of 2018, China had a combined 389 megawatts (MW) of operational battery storage capacity. By August, it had almost doubled that by adding 340 MW of new capacity, laying a foundation for store-able electricity production based on renewable energy sources.

The Renewable Superpower of the Future

China has outpaced all other countries when it comes to the production of renewables, and the same goes for renewable energy patents. As of 2016, Chinese companies and organizations had 150,000 renewable energy patents, equal to 29 percent of the global total. For comparison, US companies and organizations came in second with just over 100,000 patents. In 2017, Chinese companies and organizations filed a total of 76 percent of all renewable energy patents.

Among them are some ambitious ideas about the future of energy production that are, quite literally, pretty out there. Perhaps none more so than the idea to build a solar power station in space, beaming back energy to Earth as microwaves. Through the official newspaper of China's Ministry of Science and Technology, scientists said they are already testing the technology and intend to have it constructed by 2050.

It is another example of the country pursuing a position as the world's renewable superpower and at a time when countries like the US appear to be pulling away from investing in renewable technology.
Image Credit: Sergei Mugashev / Shutterstock.com

Marc is British, Danish, Geekish, Bookish, Sportish, and loves anything in the world that goes 'booiingg'. He is a freelance journalist and researcher living in Tokyo and writes about all things science and tech. Follow Marc on Twitter (@wokattack1).

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China Is Taking the Worldwide Lead in Wind Power

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Renewable energy demand and capacity are growing explosively. When looking at numbers for wind energy production, China stands above all other countries. Figures released by the Global Energy Council in late February showed that China has installed far more wind power capacity, both on land and at sea, than any other country.

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Liberia signs US $34m deal for Gbedin waterfalls hydropower project

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The government of Liberia has signed a financial agreement worth US $34m with the African Development Bank (AfDB) for Gbedin waterfalls hydropower project. The funds will see construction of a mini dam on the Saint John River and the Gbedin Fall mini hydropower plant (HPP) in Nimba County in north-eastern Liberia.

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Nuclear power

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Discover & share this Sun GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.

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Wind power

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Hydro power

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Wind power

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Solar power

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ANCIENT AFRICA

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South Africa wind farms 2030:

Plans for constructing and activating wind farms across South Africa are presently ongoing. The aim is, by 2030, to have 14,4GW of the country's energy mix to be supplied by wind power, which is 18% of the total energy required by SA. To attain this goal, South Africa will need to add 1.6GW of wind energy to the grid annually, according to South African Wind Energy Association CEO, Ntombifuthi Ntuli.

Ntuli said, "On average, 640 steel towers and 1920 individual blades will need to be constructed and installed each year from 2022 until 2030 to meet the allocation of 1.6GW per year. This translates to a total of about 5,700 new turbines by 2030."

"However, the industry needs further procurement to ensure that the next round of wind farms can begin construction in order to deliver in line with the country's resource plan. Most recently, the President's SONA address gave a clear nod to the sector, but in order to deliver, a clear timeline that includes a Ministerial Determination is needed to kick-start next round of wind farms."

"South Africa offers exceptional wind resource potential throughout most of the country, but particularly along our extended 3,000 km coastline."

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South Africa set to build 12 new wind farms to take over from coal stations by 2030

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South Africa wind farms 2030: Plans for constructing and activating wind farms across South Africa are presently ongoing. The aim is, by 2030, to have 14,4GW of the country's energy mix to be supplied by wind power, which is 18% of the total energy required by SA.

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It's an ambitious project for the Scandinavian country, but one that's in keeping with its general attitude towards renewable energy and the climate. It built the world's first offshore windfarm in 1991, and is home to some of the world's biggest wind power companies. On Wednesday, the government unveiled a new climate package that aims to cut the country's emissions by 70 percent within a decade - this development will certainly help with that.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Denmark's climate minister Dan Jorgenson said that even as the world feels the impact of coronavirus, the country remains committed to tackling climate change. "Even though we are in the middle of an unprecedented health crisis, that doesn't mean that the climate change problem is smaller. We are also in a climate crisis," he said. "It shows us that we are all in the hands of nature, at the bottom line."

Mr Jorgenson also said that the project - which still needs parliamentary approval - will be financed through public-private partnerships, with private investors providing the majority of the backing. The ambitious development will come as welcome news to the renewables sector, which - while growing steadily - has been hit with global construction delays due to the coronavirus. According to the International Energy Agency, the number of renewable energy installations taking place this year will be a third lower than 2019, representing the biggest drop since 1996.

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Denmark's ambitious wind power plans include giant 'energy islands'

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It's an ambitious project for the Scandinavian country, but one that's in keeping with its general attitude towards renewable energy and the climate. It built the world's first offshore windfarm in 1991, and is home to some of the world's biggest wind power companies.

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Using wind energy is more affordable and widespread than in the past. Wind turbines generate electricity using offshore wind turbines on oceans and lakes, making it easier to access. At Kiwi Energy, we match your electricity with Renewable Energy Certificates - meaning you can support wind energy production, even if you don't live in an area where wind energy is directly available.

Wind energy as a renewable and widespread electricity source is growing. Recently, the U.S. passed a historic milestone of having more than 100 gigawatts of total wind energy capacity, according to CNBC, because of a large amount of recent installations.

The CEO of the American Wind Energy Association said, "Wind now supplies clean and efficient power to the equivalent of 32 million American homes, sustains 500 U.S. factories, and delivers more than one billion dollars a year in new revenue to rural communities and states."

Wind energy can help our economy and environment. If you're thinking of getting your electricity from wind power, the list of wind energy pros and cons below can help you decide.

Pros of Wind Power

"Renewable energy is a clear winner when it comes to boosting the economy and creating jobs."
-Tom Steyer

To start our wind energy pros and cons list, we'll explain how wind energy can help improve our economy and protect our environment. Wind technology is still improving. In a few years, a list of wind advantages and disadvantages will probably include even more advantages than these.

1. Renewable Energy Source

Let's start with the biggest one here. Wind energy is sustainable. As long as the earth is spinning and weather systems are moving, winds will be blowing. It is a resource waiting to be tapped. Any discussion of wind energy pros and cons needs to acknowledge that.
While we understand and discuss later in this article that wind varies in terms of its presence and strength, that doesn't remove the very large benefits to utilizing the inexhaustible resource that is the wind. Strategic placement of wind farms and improvements in the technology's ability to harness the energy the wind generates promise to greatly reshape the energy pollution issues we are currently facing.

2. Wind Energy Creates Jobs

In 2017, the wind energy sector accounted for about 200,000 jobs in the United States. Current projections estimate that this number will rise to 250,000 jobs sometime in 2020. Also, wind energy infrastructure needs to be built. This creates jobs wherever construction takes place. Whole projects can take years to finish and of course, there is the maintenance and upkeep to consider. Then, there are the manufacturing jobs for the materials needed to build the facilities and maintain them to consider as well. (Source: American Wind Energy Association)

3. Benefits Rural Populations

In rural areas where open space is a more available resource, wind energy can have a significant impact. Communities far from urban power grids can benefit from locally produced wind energy. While each situation will be different, urban areas can even see a lower cost of energy due to the offset the local wind farm produces.

4. Benefits Off-Grid Communities and Businesses

Another of the pros of wind energy for rural areas is the potential for energy independence. Homes and facilities located far from power grid hubs can use wind energy to enhance their self-reliance.

5. A Clean Financial Boost to the Economy

As wind energy currently stands, it has a total economic impact of over 20 billion US dollars, but it is expected to reach 24 billion dollars or more by the end of 2020.

6. Clean Energy Source

Wind energy is also more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels. Construction and materials used to build wind energy turbines and their networks represent the bulk of their carbon footprint. This impact is later recouped by the positive environmental effects of wind energy. Wind energy itself produces no air or water pollution. (Source: National Geographic)

7. Space Savings

While contemporary wind turbines might seem large and require open spaces, they still allow for large amounts of usable space on the ground below. Unlike large fossil fuel power plants, the land surrounding wind turbines can be used as grazing land for farm animals or even as farmland.

8. Growing Possibilities

Like other emerging technologies, the pros of wind energy include more possibilities as technology develops. Residential wind production could be as common as rooftop solar panels, for example.
New advancements in wind turbine technology have allowed for changes to the overall size and shape of wind turbines. There are even efforts to develop bladeless wind power that promises new changes to the wind energy industry as a whole.

Potential Cons of Wind Energy

There are some challenges to using wind energy effectively. There are challenges to anything worthwhile. But there isn't any honest doubt that wind energy will be a part of our energy future. Scientific American expressed this point well when they wrote:

Because the wind blows during stormy conditions when the sun does not shine and the sun often shines on calm days with little wind, combining wind and solar can go a long way toward meeting demand . . .

-Mark Z. Jacobson & Mark A. Delucchi, Scientific American, Nov. 2009

As we further explore wind turbines' pros and cons, we hope you see the cons as puzzles that can be solved or as debatable points. They're all solvable problems.

1. Investment Costs

One of the primary cons of wind energy is the cost associated with constructing wind energy facilities. The job creation and future carbon benefits can offset this factor, but the need for significant upfront investment remains a reality for companies seeking to make this kind of energy more mainstream.
"The costs for a utility-scale wind turbine range from about $1.3 million to $2.2 million per MW of nameplate capacity installed. Most of the commercial-scale turbines installed today are 2 MW in size and cost roughly $3-$4 million installed." - Windustry
The tax benefits that have been instituted for companies involved in these efforts, as well as the improvement in the technology that has made it easier to construct the needed facilities, have made the whole endeavor much more affordable.
Remember, once our infrastructure of renewable energy is created, it can continue generating electricity forever for as long as the Earth lasts.

2. Competition for Land Use

While no one would probably like to think this way, the city, state, or landowner would probably stand to make more money by developing the land in question for either housing or business. Of course, this only applies to certain plots of land, but it is still something officials and landowners are expected to consider when deciding how to use the land allotted to them.

3. Effect On Wildlife

We find this argument to be a bit of a stretch but it should be stated for full transparency. There are reported issues of birds being killed by flying into the spinning blades, but as far as we are aware, this isn't causing massive losses. It has also been pointed out that in some cases the development of these facilities would be taking up more space, but since these facilities are best suited for large open areas it is not something that has been shown to cause true problems.

4. Limited Noise

While wind energy technology continues to improve, one of the cons of wind energy is the noise wind turbines produce. This can be less of an issue in open, rural areas, but if wind energy is to be expanded, particularly in urban settings, it could pose a problem-but to be honest the only people we can find that have submitted actual complaints about this lived within a mile of a wind turbine farm, so we are talking about a very small affected area.

5. Appearance of Wind Turbines

Finally, the appearance of a conventional wind turbine sparks debate. Some love their futuristic look, while others consider them to be eyesores blighting the surrounding scenery. As wind energy grows, the design may take aesthetics into consideration almost as much as efficiency.

6. Intermittent Energy

A flipside to one of the pros of wind energy is the fact that wind is unpredictable. While wind will always be an environmental reality, knowing when and how much a given area will get remains as reliable as next month's weather forecast.
But this has been a known issue for a long time now and significant R&D has been put into this issue, and the solution is already showing signs of removing this as a con entirely. Energy storage is the key to offsetting the less windy days by effectively and efficiently storing the excess energy produced during the more windy days. ( See our post detailing energy storage options here)

7. Most Useful in Certain Areas

Another of the cons of wind energy to counter its pros is the fact that wind energy is great for some places and less so for others. Rural communities stand to benefit greatly, while there is currently less benefit to cities, where space is at more of a premium. Of course, in discussing wind energy pros and cons, we might acknowledge that there might not be a universal solution that will cover the entire earth, and that's okay. That's why there are other renewable energy sources, like solar, that are more custom fit for the needs of a given area. Wind turbines, as pictured below, can also be placed in a variety of unique areas, such as open water, that other energy production means are not viable for.

Like so many things in life, wind energy pros and cons come down to trade-offs. Some of the cons can be addressed as technology advances. Ultimately, the balance of wind energy pros and cons comes down to the consumers who make the choice to make the leap or not. One thing that seems to be certain is that wind energy is on the rise. To learn more and to explore options, sign up for Kiwi Energy. The future of energy can be yours.

Final Thoughts

Energy is a major concern for people everywhere. Populations and energy consumption continue to grow while conventional, non-renewable sources of energy spring from limited resources. Combined, these trends have the potential to significantly impact the quality of life and economic growth in the future.
To bridge the current and anticipated gap between energy and consumption, we are turning more and more to alternative sources.
The focus of these efforts lies in renewable sources of energy. The benefits of these energy sources include their sustainable nature, lower environmental impact, and wider availability.
Now that you've read these wind energy pros and cons, do the pros outweigh the cons? As we have delineated above, even the cons of wind energy that honestly used to be more significant, are mere inconveniences at this point. When you look at what we are facing in the world today, it is clear that when considering the pros and cons of wind energy, the pros greatly outweigh the cons, by a long shot.
Barack Obama said, "To truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy."
But we can't necessarily wait for our government to take care of our environmental problems for us. If we want more renewable energy, it's up to each of us to choose providers of it and make other pro-environment choices.

Resources Referenced:
https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/articles/top-10-things-you-didnt-know-about-wind-power
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/31/us-wind-energy-capacity-now-over-100-gigawatts-says-new-report.html
https://www.awea.org/resources/news/2019/wind-at-100-gw
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/tom-steyer-quotes
https://www.awea.org/Awea/media/Resources/Fact%20Sheets/4Q-2017-AWEA-Market-Report-Public-Version.pdf
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/wind-power/
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/29/the-future-of-wind-turbines-could-be-bladeless.html
http://www.notable-quotes.com/a/alternative_energy_quotes.html
http://www.windustry.org/how_much_do_wind_turbines_cost
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_wind_power

http://www.notable-quotes.com/a/alternative_energy_quotes.html

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Using wind energy is more affordable and widespread than in the past. Wind turbines generate electricity using offshore wind turbines on oceans and lakes, making it easier to access.

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"To me, this is like when oil was first discovered in the U.S.," says Jerome Hajjar, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University. It's a moment of untapped potential that, if harnessed properly, could transform the way the U.S. uses energy, he says.

Like oil, wind energy can be harvested to power the country. Unlike oil, wind energy-which is captured and transformed into electricity by giant fan-like structures called wind turbines-is totally renewable. These wind turbines can be installed in groups, either on land or at sea, to create a power plant known as a wind farm.

The country's coasts are rich with potential for wind farms, but much of these coastal waters are undeveloped. There's one fixed-bottom wind farm (a wind farm with turbines attached to the soil beneath the ocean, not floating on top of it) on the East Coast, Hajjar says, off the coast of Block Island in Rhode Island.

So, why aren't more energy companies capitalizing on the offshore wind energy potential of Massachusetts and its coastal cohorts? Part of it has to do with another key East Coast feature: hurricanes.

It will require specialized equipment and in-depth engineering research to stabilize offshore wind farms on the United States coasts, Hajjar says.

"We're dedicated to trying to help spur this industry here," Hajjar says. "We can do the research that's needed to help the industry build safe and effective wind farms and in turn create a whole new workforce."

That research is already underway. This week, Hajjar and his colleagues put their heads together with industry leaders, public officials, and other academics from the U.S. and France in a conference called the French-American Innovation Day. The conference was co-chaired by Myers, who is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.

Organized by the Office for Science & Technology of the Embassy of France in the United States, Northeastern University, and the University of Nantes, the conference, held this year at Northeastern, converged some of the leading thinkers and doers around wind energy to trade knowledge and collaborate on building the future of wind energy.

At the end of 2018, Hajjar and his colleagues teamed up with the Partnership for Offshore Wind Energy Research to release a report that outlined a blueprint for developing comprehensive wind energy infrastructure in the United States.

Massive wind farms can be found throughout the U.S., particularly in southern California and in the middle of the country where high wind speeds create prime conditions.

But the coastal waters just off the country's eastern seaboard are also ripe with potential. They could be transformed into wind farms that provide enough energy to power the entire United States, Hajjar says.

The waters off Massachusetts in particular, says Hajjar, are like "the Saudi Arabia of offshore wind." That is to say, coastal Massachusetts has the natural resources to be a global leader in wind energy production, the way Saudi Arabia has one of the largest oil reserves in the world.

The East Coast has "supreme wind conditions" in both shallow and deep water, Hajjar says. Massachusetts in particular, which has shallow water further from the coast than other states, is prime real estate for ocean wind turbines.

"The capacity is out there," Hajjar says. "We just need to work together to build it."

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The US is on the cusp of an offshore wind energy boom. Why aren't energy companies capitalizing on 'the Saudi Arabia of offshore wind?'

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"To me, this is like when oil was first discovered in the U.S.," says Jerome Hajjar , a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University. It's a moment of untapped potential that, if harnessed properly, could transform the way the U.S. uses energy, he says.

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