9 GREEN GIANTS, 1 NEW ENERGY WORLD

Originally posted May 5.
A great summary of where we are and a peek at where we are going. Like it says on the Statue of Liberty, it takes all kinds. (Well, something like that.) In this case, it's going to take all kinds of New Energies to do what needs doing.

Lead, follow or get out of the way.

Green Giants: The World’s Biggest Clean-Energy Projects
William Pentland, April 30, 2008 (Forbes)

WHO
(1) Masdar Initiative
(2) T. Boone Pickens
(3) Shell Wind Energy, E.ON, Renewables and DONG Energy
(4) Siemens, Norsk Hydro
(5) Scottish Power
(6) Ormat Technologies; Itochu (Japan)
(7) Solel Solar Systems, Pacific Gas & Electric
(8) CLP Group, Solar Systems
(9) Shawn Frayne, Humdinger

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WHAT
(1) Largest Alternative Energy Initiative
(2)Wind Farm
(3) Offshore Wind Farm
(4) Floating Wind Turbine
(5) Wave Energy
(6) Geothermal Power
(7) Solar-Thermal Plant
(8) Photovoltaic Solar Park
(9) Windbelt, the smallest project

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WHEN
(1) Partial Completion Date: 2009
(2) Construction Starts: 2010
(3) Completion Date: 2010, first turbine installed 2008
(4) Completion Date: One turbine in 2009, with potential for 200 turbines by 2014
(5) Completion Date: Partially operational in 2009
(6) Completion Date: 2011
(7) Completion Date: 2011
(8) Completion Date: Partially online in 2010, completed by 2013
(9) Popular Mechanics' Breakthrough of the Year Award in December 2007; purely theoretical

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WHERE
(1) Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
(2) Amarillo, Texas
(3) Outer Thames Estuary, U.K. (seven miles off the Kent Coast)
(4) the turbine will be installed more than 50 miles from the mainland in the North Sea.
(5) Orkney Island, Scotland
(6) Suralla Project, North Sumatra, Indonesia
(7) Mojave Desert, Southern California
(8) Mildura, Australia
(9) Mountain View, Calif.

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WHY
(1) Estimated Impact: Zero emissions for roughly 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses
(2) Estimated Power Generation: 4,000 megawatts; 2,700 turbines; Cost: $6 billion
(3) Estimated Power Generation: One gigawatt; 340 trubines; Cost: 2 billion pounds ($4 billion)
(4) Estimated Power Generation: Five megawatts; Cost: 200 million krone ($39 million)
(5) Estimated Power Generation: 750 kilowatts (1,300 megawatts by 2020); 4 metal turbines ~500 feet long.
(6) Estimated Power Generation: 330 to 360 megawatts; Cost: $600 million
(7) Estimated Power Generation: 553 megawatts, will possibly expand to 850; Cost: $2 billion
(8) Estimated Power Generation: 154 megawatts; Expected Cost: $270 million
(9) Windbelt captures small pockets of energy emitted from a small vibrating membrane.

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QUOTES
- Pentland, Forbes, about (1): “A few weeks ago, 100-foot-wide propellers began turning on the recently completed World Trade Center building, making Bahrain home to the world's first building-integrated wind turbine skyscraper.”
- Pentland, Forbes, about (7 & 8): “Bahrain isn't the only desert blooming green this year. California's Mojave Desert is rapidly filling up with solar-thermal power plants, courtesy of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.”
- Pentland, Forbes, about (3, 4 & 5): “Deserts aren't the only place being developed--quite a few projects are taking place in the ocean.”
- Pentland, Forbes, about (5): “If wave energy proves as profitable as many say, Scotland could produce more than 1,300 megawatts by 2020, enough to power a city the size of Seattle…”
- Pentland, Forbes, about (2 & 3): “Although London Array is hard to beat on the big scale, that's hardly enough to stop a Texas oil tycoon like T. Boone Pickens from trying. Nothing shows the continuity between Big Oil and Big Green quite like Pickens, the oilfield roughneck turned Texas oil tycoon who plans to build the world's largest wind power farm…”