Here's what has been going on in the world of renewables this week...

Wind Week

The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) are holding their annual Wind Week this very week. Celebrate by taking a peak at their site and show your support for wind power. You can also make the most of the opportunity and go and visit one of the wind farms they have open throughout the week for a learned experience. Take a NIMBY along – “see they look nice… listen, they are very quiet…”.  Visit a wind farm for the day. There’s also some lovely images from their photography competition that are worth a look.

Huge Australian Wind Farm given go ahead

In perfect timing with Wind Week the Australian government have just announced the approval for one of the world’s largest wind farms to be built. New South Wales is to be the host of nearly 600 turbines to create a 1GW plant that covers 32,000 hectares. Yup, it’s huge! The Silverton Wind Farm is the first major step in the Australian government’s desire to source 20% of its electricity from renewables by 2020. It’s a bold move, especially considering that Australia is one of the world’s highest per capita polluters – largely due to its abundance of cheap coal.

Activists lead by example

In the build up to the UN climate conference in Copenhagen this December, 50 leading environmental NGOs have gathered together to thrash out a treaty they’d like to see passed. The document will be sent to international leaders and put forward as a climate solution. "It's going to be unpopular with almost everyone," said Tasneem Essop, of WWF International. Their proposal is to limit temperature rise to 2°C by developing nations investing heavily in climate solutions ($160 billion a year) whilst allowing developing countries to do so sustainably.
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5574O420090608

Poo Power

A £4.3 million trial project in Manchester will heat homes and stoke hobs with energy generated from sewage. A plant will extract methane gas from raw sewage and use it to supply 5,000 homes by 2011.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5545961/Human-sewage-to-power-thousands-of-homes.html

At Good Energy we also source power from poo (but ours is from cow poo), and our customers come up smelling of roses! See more here.

Kinetic shopping

In another novel energy experiment supermarket chain Sainsburys will be generating energy for their new Gloucester shop by harnessing electricity from kinetic panels in the car park. When shoppers drive over the plates they convert kinetic energy into electrical and power the tills inside. Nice PR, Sainsburys, now about those food miles….
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/5533176/Shoppers-power-their-own-checkout-in-new-green-supermarket.html