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From: info <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2001 8:14 AM
Subject: [mobilize-globally] Wind energy
Subject:
[gaia-l] Wind energy
Date:
Fri, 9 Mar 2001 22:36:26 -0400
From:
"Mark Graffis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To:
"Danny Fagandini" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"x5" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"gaia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Energy answer may be blowing in the wind
Friday, March 9, 2001
By United Press International
The last time the nation had an energy crisis - think long lines at
gas pumps instead of rolling blackouts - renewable sources of
energy
made the news. Since then, few of us have heard much about them.
That doesn't mean progress in renewable energy has stalled, though.
Wind-generated power, in fact, is the fastest-growing form of
electricity worldwide, according to the Washington-based Renewable
Energy Policy Project.
Wind power transforms the mechanical energy of air moving past the
blades of a turbine into electricity. The smaller, faster rotors on
older machines were seen as a threat to birds, so new machines have
larger, slower-moving blades - three per turbine, turning at 20 to
30
revolutions per minute.
Farming communities often encourage wind projects. Farmers get
much-needed royalties from having turbines among their crops, while
most of their land can still be farmed.
In 1999, wind energy projects increased by 37 percent from the year
before, and in 2000 increased by 26 percent, according to Christine
Real de Azua, a spokesperson for the American Wind Energy
Association
(AWEA), an industry group based in Alexandria, Va.
This year, wind-produced power sources are expected to nearly
double.
But even this spurt doesn't do much for wind power's currently very
small U.S. market - meeting less than 1 percent of the nation's
energy
demands.
That proportion is likely to rise, said George Darr, manager of the
renewable resource program at the Bonneville Power Administration
in
Portland, Ore. The cost of wind-generated electricity has dropped
to
the point where it's on a par with energy produced from coal and
natural gas.
In addition, Darr said, "wind has a predictable cost over time, and
that predictability has a big appeal in the current market."
Some of the world's largest wind farms are expected to come on line
this year, including a 300-megawatt project on the
Oregon/Washington
border. When fully operational, more than 450 wind turbines will
produce enough electricity yearly to serve the energy needs of
about
70,000 homes across 11 Western states.
Three other wind farms, generating at least 200 megawatts, will be
installed in Texas, California, and the Pacific Northwest this
year.
Thanks in part to a federal production tax credit, electricity from
some wind projects has been contracted at a cost of about 3 cents
per
kilowatt-hour. A kilowatt-hour equals the electricity used by 10,
100-watt light bulbs left on for an hour.
The cost of natural gas typically hovers around that price, but
during
California's current crisis it has cost between 15 and 20 cents per
kilowatt-hour.
"Renewables provide price certainty, in that the large part of the
investment comes up front," since the equipment to tap renewable
energy is often expensive, said Blair Swezey of the National
Renewable
Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.
Part of the reason renewable energy sources haven't grabbed a
bigger
portion of the U.S. energy market is that oil has been
significantly
cheaper than predicted, Swezey said.
One of the triggers for the California crisis is that the state
simply
doesn't make enough electricity to satisfy its needs. Thus,
officials
are encouraging construction of new power plants. However, it takes
several years to build a conventional plant powered by oil, coal,
or
natural gas.
"It's much more complicated to put up a big power plant than to put
up
a big tower and a big turbine," Swezey said. "In general,
renewables
are faster to permit and easier to install."
The U.S. isn't alone in pursuing wind power: Germany, Spain, and
Denmark are also tapping their wind resources. In fact, more than
90
percent of the wind projects installed worldwide last year were in
Europe.
This is largely because the U.S. lacks established long-term
support
for wind energy, offering instead a small tax credit that must be
renewed every few years.
"It's ironic that at a time when California and much of the West is
reeling from a shortage in electric generation capacity, the growth
of
one of the most promising and economical new energy sources has
been
hampered by on-again, off-again federal government policies," said
Randall Swisher, AWEA's executive director.
Renewables aren't going to solve the country's energy needs on
their
own. Despite the current energy crisis in California - caused by
the
rupture of natural gas lines and drought conditions that limit
water-generated power (hydropower) - the state gets more of its
energy
(about 12 percent) from non-hydro renewable energy resources than
the
rest of the country (2 percent).
"We can't power the whole country based on wind when the primary
wind
resources are in the interior of the country and the highest
population are on the coasts," said Joe Lucas of Americans for
Balanced Energy Choices in Alexandria, Va. The organization also
supports coal-fired electric plants.
In addition, the demand for energy continues to rise as Americans
use
more and more electronic devices, he said. "We can't get all the
energy we need by relying only on wind, solar, and other
renewables."
Proponents of renewable energy point out a number of additional
benefits: fewer environmental costs, such as pollution; less
likelihood of depletion than conventional sources such as oil; and
reduced reliance on imported energy.
Wind power, de Azua adds, has yet another benefit: "New projects
have
been very popular with the locals, who call them relaxing to watch,
and some [projects] have even attracted tourist buses."
Editor's Note: This is part one of a five-part series on renewable
energy sources, policies that promote their use, and how renewables
fit into today's fluctuating energy market.
Copyright 2001, United Press International
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Subject:
[MLNews!*] Fwd: [Am-Adv] New 'nonlethal' energy ray to be
used
against civilians
Date:
Fri, 9 Mar 2001 18:53:45 -0800 (PST)
From:
Paul Pureau <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To:
activist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
CC:
mainline <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
awarcomp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
eternera <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > Content-Disposition: Inline
> > Xref: news alt.government.abuse:15832
> alt.thebird:18568 alt.activism:37919
http://www.ljworld.com/section/worldnation/story/44426
>
> > The Associated Press
> > FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2001
> > Washington =97 The Pentagon on Thursday unveiled a
> new "non-lethal"
> > weapon designed to drive off an adversary with an
> energy beam that
> > inflicts pain without causing lasting harm.
> > The weapon could be used for riot control and
> peacekeeping missions when
> > deadly force is not necessary, officials said.
> > The weapon, called "active denial technology," was
> developed by Air
> > Force research laboratories in New Mexico and
> Texas as part of a
> > multiservice program run by the Marine Corps.
> > "This revolutionary force-protection technology
> gives U.S. service
> > members an alternative to using deadly force,"
> said Marine Corps Col.
> > George P. Fenton, director of the program at
> Quantico, Va.
> > The weapon is designed to stop people by firing
> millimeter-wave
> > electromagnetic energy in a beam that quickly
> heats up the surface of
> > the victim's skin. Within seconds the person feels
> pain that officials
> > said is similar to touching a hot light bulb.
> > "It's the kind of pain you would feel if you were
> being burned," said
> > Rich Garcia, a spokesman for the Air Force
> Research Laboratory at
> > Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. "It's just not
> intense enough to cause any
> > damage."
> > The Pentagon has made a strong push to develop
> "non-lethal" weapons in
> > the aftermath of a humanitarian mission in Somalia
> in 1992-93 that put
> > soldiers in the line of fire in urban areas where
> civilians were
> > present.
> > A prototype of the weapon will be tested on goats
> and humans at Kirtland
> > in the next few months, Garcia said.
> > The Marine Corps said $40 million was spent
> developing the weapon during
> > the past decade.
> > The Marine Corps plans to mount the microwave
> weapon on top of Humvees,
> > the Jeep-like vehicles used by both the Marines
> and the Army. Later it
> > might be used on aircraft and ships, officials
> said.
> > The weapon could be fielded by 2009, Pentagon
> officials said.
> >
> >
> > news:alt.thebird.copwatch
> > Copwatch Newsgroup =A0 =A0 =A0
> http://thebird.org/newsgrps/chart2.html
> > http://thebird.org/foundation/indexg.html
> > Do you know where your peace flag is?
> http://thebird.org/store/flags
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Donate free food for the
> hungry click on the
> > hungersite http://www.thehungersite.com/
>
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