The prestigious journal Energy Policy has recently reported two studies that highlight some key issues for the future of wind energy in Spain.
A team of engineers from the University of Zaragoza believes it is “technically viable and economically reasonable” for wind energy to account for 30% of Spain’s overall energy production.
A report by two researchers from the University of Alcalá (UAH) and the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), meanwhile, says the number of jobs generated by this sector in the European Union has increased by 226% since 2003.
“Nowadays, wind farms supply around 12% of the electric energy produced in Spain, but by 2030 this could rise to 30%”, José Luis Bernal, of the Department of …

There are many fantastic advantages of using solar energy to fuel our world’s energy wishes. Currently the industrialized world depends on crude oil and coal to fuel our automobiles, houses, factories and even generators we use to make power themselves. While the technology is still being developed, there are lots of benefits to using solar energy.
For a start, solar electricity is clean. There’s no carbon footprint left when using the sun for power generation. Solar power does not make a contribution to acid rain, smog or global temperature rises. It is completely clean and’green,’ which is the way of the future.
Another great advantage to using the sun for power is the abundance of daylight. It’s …

The long-term effects of pesticides on living organisms in rivers and on water quality can now be assessed more easily.
Researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) have developed a tool that can estimate the harmful effect of pesticides, such as those flushed into rivers and streams from agricultural land, within minutes.
“It used to be very difficult to detect which chronic effects occur,” explains Dr Matthias Liess, head of the UFZ’s System Ecotoxicology Department.
In their new approach, the Helmholtz researchers exploit the fact that pesticides cause characteristic changes to the composition of the life community that is affected.
“You just need to find out which living creatures, e.g. insects and crabs, are found at a …

Inaction already threatening multi-billion dollar coral reef services and livelihoods of half a billion people
Investing in restoration and maintenance of the Earth’s multi-trillion dollar ecosystems – from forests and mangroves to wetlands and river basins – can have a key role in countering climate change and climate-proofing vulnerable economies.
This is among the central findings of a new climate issues update by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a project launched by Germany and the European Commission in response to a proposal by the G8+5 Environment Ministers (Potsdam, Germany 2007) to develop a global study on the economics of biodiversity loss. The study is hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme. The issues update was …

With good directions, anyone can find the right path. That’s what George Mason University Professor Nicole Darnall is hoping with her new report that gives clear guidelines on how the government can help businesses “go green” and how being green will even help companies financially in the long-run.
According to Darnall, companies don’t green their production processes because there are unclear and mixed messages about how doing so will benefit them and their bottom line.
“Many companies want to ‘do the right thing’ and undertake green production in some form, however they don’t know how or lack a compelling reason to do so,” says Darnall, an associate professor of corporate sustainability and public policy.
In her report, “What …

The future of the Earth could rest on potentially dangerous and unproven geoengineering technologies unless emissions of carbon dioxide can be greatly reduced, the latest Royal Society report has found.
The report (published 1st September, by the Royal Society(1), the UK’s national academy of science) found that unless future efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are much more successful than they have been so far, additional action in the form of geoengineering will be necessary if we are to cool the planet.
Geoengineering technologies were found to be very likely to be technically possible and some were considered to be potentially useful to augment the continuing efforts to mitigate climate change by reducing emissions. However, the report …

The future of the Earth could rest on potentially dangerous and unproven geoengineering technologies unless emissions of carbon dioxide can be greatly reduced, a new study has found.
The report (published September 1, by the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science) found that unless future efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are much more successful than they have been so far, additional action in the form of geoengineering will be necessary to cool the planet. However, the report identified major uncertainties regarding the effectiveness, costs, and environmental impacts of geoengineering technologies.
“Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions is more important than ever,” said coauthor Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, “but even …