The output of wind, wave and other renewables fluctuates and cannot be fully controlled.

Fears that wind power would have to be backed up by other energy sources are unfounded, said a new report.
A study from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) rejected claims that the intermittent nature of wind means this form of energy would be unreliable.
Extra capacity would be needed to keep supplies secure, the government funded body says, but it insists this would be “modest and a small part of the total cost“.
The government has a target of getting ten per cent of Britain’s electricity from renewable sources by 2010, and wind power is likely to play a major part in this, as the country has some of the best wind in the world, politics.co.uk reported.
Energy minister Malcolm Wicks welcomed today’s report, which comes as part of the government’s energy review, saying it showed scare stories “peddled“ by critics of wind power were exaggerated.
“Suggestions that it is excessively expensive, or that traditional power stations are needed to back-up the energy produced by all our wind farms, are just two of the myths that have been peddled by their opponents,“ he said.
“The UKERC’s study demonstrates that these claims have been exaggerated. I welcome the report’s contribution to the debate.“
The report claims that if wind power were to supply one fifth of Britain’s electricity, the cost of covering possible drops in wind would bring wind generating costs to between 3.5 and 5.8 pence p/kWh, compared to three pence pk/Wh for gas fired power stations.
However, although it notes that wide geographical dispersion and a diversity of energy sources would keep costs down, the study warns intermittency costs will rise as the use of renewables expands.
“The output of wind, wave and other renewables fluctuates and cannot be fully controlled. The extent to which this is likely to create problems, costs or even lead to blackouts is the subject of a long running debate,“ said report author Robert Gross.
“Reports that suggest it is highly costly, or restricts the role of renewables are out of step with the majority of expert analysis, reflect regional problems that the UK can avoid, or both. However, costs will rise to a degree, and we can quantify the factors responsible.“
The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) welcomed the report saying it “put the final nail in the coffin“ for the myth that there was a technical barrier to bringing wind power into the UK’s electricity network.

The governments of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania must accelerate the implementation of the of East African Power Master Plan, in part to stem the grinding electricity shortage across the region that is depressing it’s economy, the EAC Council of Ministers have said.
At their 11th meeting in Arusha, Tanzania, the three ministers of Foreign Affairs (Uganda’s Sam Kutesa and his counterparts from Kenya and Tanzania) proposed that a Standing Committee on power, comprising six members from each of the three countries, be formed to centrally coordinate the work and specifically keep adequate momentum in the implementation process.
The plan involves regional harmonization of investment strategies in energy sector, creation of a regional power pool, joint conservation of energy resources, pursuit of alterative energy sources and coordination of efforts to develop better generation, transmission and distribution infrastructures that are supposed to help more people access the grid, allafrica.com said.
Broader access to power is also an important component in efforts to achieve a set of minimum human welfare standards set by the United Nations in 2000-the so called Millennium Development Goals, (MDGs).
“Funds for the plan of action will be mobilized through the partner states and contributions and grants from development partners,“ said a press release issued at the end of the meeting on April 3.
Execution of the master plan, it said, will cost an estimated $1.6 million (about Shs..) and according to a tentative timeline, work is supposed to commence this year and proceed through 2010.
The ministers also requested the partner states to “develop a strategy for accelerated provision of sustainable modern energy services to serve rural, urban and peri-urban poor to meet the MDGs.“
The regional focus on power is coming against a crisis as the three countries grapple with the impact of a searing draught; a drastic decline in Lake Victoria water levels that subsequently lowered the hydro power production capacity in the all the three countries.
In Uganda, the output at the two dams of Kiira and Nalubaale collapsed from about 240MW to 135MW, plunging the country in a nightmare of frequent blackouts and forcing manufacturing firms to halve their normal production levels. The East African Community Secretariat was directed to develop “investment and action programs“ that would immediately halt the excessive loss of water in Lake Victoria, mitigate the impact environmental degradation and promote a long-term sustainable management of the lake.
Uganda was specifically asked to hasten its plan to check the alleged prodigious release of water into the Nile at Jinja dams.
On February 9, the US-based International Rivers Network accused the country of secretly draining the lake-the shoreline has receded by 1.2 meters marking the shallowest level since 1951-to sustain it’s power supply.
At the meeting, the ministers mooted a proposal to initiate a new EAC policy that would govern the release of Water at Jinja.
As part of a long-term plan to master the community’s unending energy crisis, the ministers underlined the need for national innovation and strategizing to broaden the mix of energy sources and gradually cutback dependency on hydropower.

Wave-recording buoy's deployment at Galway Bay Wave Energy Test Site readies the site for several other Irish wave device designs and developers currently in operation.

An initiative to open a wave energy test site one and a half miles off the coast of Spiddal, County Galway, is under way with the arrival of the first wave energy generator, Wavebob, which has arrived at Galway Docks. Made possible by the Marine Institute and Sustainable Energy Ireland, the 37-hectare Galway Bay test site will be open for engineers to field-test other prototype ocean-energy generators as well, all in the interest of harnessing the power of the Atlantic Ocean.
“The most energetic waves in the world are located off the West coast of Ireland,“ said Peter Heffernan, Marine Institute, CEO. “The technology to harness the power of the ocean is only just emerging and Ireland has the chance to become a market leader in this sector.“
Wavebob will test a quarter-scale prototype, which is hoped to provide the most accurate evidence to date for the cost and performance potential for the device. Wavebob has already gone through a rigorous path of theoretical modeling followed by small-scale prototype testing in wave tanks. Some of this testing has been performed at the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Center, University College Cork, solaraccess.com said.
Both agencies have been working closely to develop a research and development strategy for ocean energy technology in Ireland. This strategy will define a phased approach toward product development complemented by an outline of the investment levels required to sustain the development of an ocean energy industry in Ireland. The Marine Institute and Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) have invested Euro 300,000 [USD$365,000] in university-based research and a further Euro 850,000 [>USD$1 million] in industry-based research of ocean energy technology.
It is expected that the implementation of the Ocean Energy Development Strategy will see a progressive increase in the range and scale of research and innovation investment. In 2004, Teresa Pontes of Portugal, an ocean energy expert who spoke at an EurOcean marine science event in Galway, said that up to 20 million homes in Europe could be powered by clean, renewable energy from the sea. She estimated that by harnessing energy from waves and ocean currents, Europe could produce around 200 terawatt (200 million megawatt) hours per year of electrical power.
The Marine Institute, which hosted the event during Ireland’s EU presidency, is mandated to spearhead all aspects of marine R&D; leading to the sustainable development of Ireland’s 220 million acres of underwater territory and has also drafted a comprehensive marine research and development strategy for the next seven years.

The Woodland Heights project in Huntsville will feature homes that power themselves--with a little help from the sun.
The high-end resort community--two hours north of Toronto--offers self-sufficient, solar-powered houses as a viable alternative for people who are concerned about power availability and rising energy costs.
Nestled within a forested setting five minutes east of downtown Huntsville, the year-round community will include 136 custom residences that can be equipped with a self-sustaining solar-power system for between $25,000 and $50,000. (For $10,000, buyers can opt for a back-up system, which can be upgraded later.)
Owners can go off-grid, or choose a system that allows them to sell excess power back to the hydro company.
Given the province’s new plan to compensate homeowners 42 cents a kilowatt hour of solar energy generated, residents could increase the return on their investment, says Chuck MacDougall, vice-president of sales and marketing for Woodland Heights Properties Ltd, theglobeandmail.com said.
The company estimates that buyers will be able to recover the cost of the self-sustaining system within 14 to 18 years, factoring in the provincial subsidy for those who sell back excess power.
The other clear advantage for the homeowner, Mr. MacDougall says, is that “if the power goes out, the house is operational. [Owners] can still live their lives without worry about someone turning a switch off or rolling brownouts.“
The initiative also will reduce carbon monoxide emissions, and help protect the local wildlife and landscape.
The father of Bill Waterhouse, president of Woodland Heights Properties, originally bought 400 of the 500 acres that would become Woodland Heights. About 160-acres of that is now open as a nature sanctuary.
The developer will retain as many trees as possible, which will also form a natural barrier between neighbors.
About 85 of 105 lots put on the market have been sold, and 40 homes are occupied. The 20 lots left in the third phase are 1ù to 4Ú acres in size and have frontages ranging from 200 to 600 feet. A home can be built in about five months.
All the residences will have high-speed Internet, phone and cable access, and city services such as road plowing and garbage pickup. Each will also have a septic system and well.
There will be a monthly fee of $90 for maintenance of a clubhouse equipped with a lounge, dining hall, party rooms, spa and indoor and outdoor pools.
Additional recreational activities include boating, hiking and cross-country skiing at Hidden Valley and Arrowhead Provincial Park, or golfing at Bigwin Island or Grandview Resort’s new Clublink Mark O’Meara Course. And just a few kilometers east on Highway 60 is Algonquin Provincial Park.

All of the renewable resources help reduce the environmental impact associated with traditional power generation.

This afternoon I bought some ginger and carrot soup “to go“ from a Wild Oats Natural Marketplace. I drank it out of a paper container on my walk home in the rain. I tossed the empty container into a city trashcan about a block from my apartment and haven’t thought about it since. The average American produces 4 pounds of trash each day. In Santa Cruz County, a new, multi-million dollar facility is now using what we have plenty ofÐtrashÐto provide what we need: renewable energy.
The Santa Cruz Buena Vista Landfill accepts over 450 tons of refuse on a daily basis. The gas produced by the rotting trash is about fifty percent methane, a greenhouse gas that is 20-30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. This landfill gas, which was previously burned for disposal, is now being harnessed by Ameresco, North America’s largest independent energy solutions provider, and used to generate 3.2 megawatts of alternative energy, enough to power 3,000 average homes, visionmagazine.com said.
Under the 20-year contract, Massachusetts-based Ameresco pays Santa Cruz County Public Works about $150,000 dollars per year for the landfill gas, which was already being captured in underground reservoirs. It then pipes the gas through a new line from the landfill to the $5 million dollar on-site gas-to-energy plant that the company funded, designed, and built. Inside the plant, four giant, green engines burn the methane to produce electricity. Ameresco then owns the power produced from burning the methane, and sells it to the city of Palo Alto and Alameda Power & Telecom, who get credit for putting the 3.2 megawatts of alternative energy onto the PG & E grid.
This new system has several advantages. Methane is produced whenever organic material decays; thus, the landfill is going to produce this natural but dangerous greenhouse gas regardless of how it is handled. Usually the methane is burned for disposal, thereby converting it into the less dangerous carbon dioxide before it is released into the atmosphere. According to Patrick Mathews, the Recycling and Solid Waste Services Manager of Santa Cruz County Public Works, the new system still emits a comparable amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but, the heat released from flaring is no longer being wasted; instead, it is transformed into usable energy.
Another benefit of converting landfill gas to power is that the methane produced by the landfill is a renewable energy resource. Renewable resources are those that are continuously replenished, including: wind, solar, geothermal, low impact (or small) hydropower, biomass, and biogas. All of these renewable resources help reduce the environmental impact associated with traditional power generation. The “green“ power that is now being put onto the grid by the new system lessens the need for energy from traditional power plants that consume fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. While fossil fuels are still the nation’s primary source of electricity due to their low costs, they are finite resources and cannot by replenished within a human time scale. And, “With the current price of oil now, it’s probably cheaper,“ said Mathews. According to the Ameresco, Inc., the power produced by this one facility is equal to removing more than 27,000 cars from the highwayÐor preventing the use of 286,000 barrels of oil annually.
This new project only adds to the area’s green reputation: “Palo Alto’s strong environmental ethic began in the 1960s with major investments in hydroelectric resources, and it continues today through supporting renewable energy projects like this one,“ said Girish Balachandran, Assistant Director of Resources Management at the City of Palo Alto Utilities. “By securing this long-term contract for landfill gas, we can continue to serve our customers reliably and responsibly through our ongoing commitment to clean energy.“
Jolia Einstein is a
journalist and poet who teaches English at Santa Monica College.