Energy Law

For years, New York officials have envisioned powering the region from a set of huge wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island. But well before an offshore wind farm would be up and running, giant turbines may soon be spinning much closer to the city.

Within three years, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hopes to have five wind towers, each more than 280 feet tall, operating on the west side of New York Harbor. Nearby, the City of Bayonne, N.J., plans to install an equally large turbine to power a sewage-pumping station. Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs is considering placing wind turbines on or near its hospitals in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

New York, it turns out, is a windy city, well suited for turning stiff breezes into electricity. If open space were not so rare, the city might be a prime spot for harnessing the wind, said Bill Baroni, deputy executive director of the Port Authority.

California has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to renewable power, and the state's clean energy business is flourishing. One of the first large-scale wind farms in the country was built just outside the Bay Area at the Altamont Pass, and this year, California regulators are reviewing twice as many renewable power contracts as last year.

More of those projects are coming online, including a 16-acre solar farm outside of Sacramento a few weeks ago.

The reason for this boom has to do with ambitious clean energy goals the state announced in 2002. But reaching those goals is proving to be a challenge.

The Arizona Commerce Authority on Monday will announce that four rural Arizona companies will receive $3.4 million in federal grants to produce innovative renewable-energy products, including a high-efficiency electric bicycle motor.

The projects were selected because of their innovation and potential to create jobs.

"Each of these projects demonstrates the excellence in renewable-energy innovation occurring right here in our state," said Don Cardon, president and CEO of the authority, which Gov. Jan Brewer created in July to replace the Arizona Department of Commerce.

Wind energy as a source to produce low-carbon electricity is gradually gaining ground in Latin America. The need for clean energy has become a goal for many governments in the region and ranks high on their agendas.

However, there are still many Latin American nations that use highly-polluting fuel sources to produce their power, namely coal and oil. In Central America, countries like Honduras produce 50 per cent of its electricity from oil, while in neighboring Nicaragua it is topping 70 per cent.

The growing importance of renewables in the region was recently illustrated by Brazil's energy and mining minister, Marcio Zimmermann. Attending a summit on clean energy, hosted in Washington DC, USA, in which 24 nations participated - including China, Canada, Russia, India and Spain ?he revealed that 47 per cent of the electricity produced in the country currently comes from renewable sources. Out of this 47 per cent, 14 per cent is derived from wind farms.

St. Lucia, a small Caribbean nation on the Small Antilles volcanic arc is getting ready to exploit one of their greatest natural resources: geothermal energy.

The island has entered into an agreement with U.S.-based Qualibou Energy to develop a series of geothermal plants that will total an installed capacity of 120 MW, enough for the island of 175,000 to use and export. About one-third of that energy will go toward powering St. Lucia with the rest being transmitted to neighboring Martinique through an underwater cable.

Thirty kilometers off the west coast of Denmark, near the port of Esbjerg, the 91 turbines of the Horns Rev 2 wind farm turn night and day, by fair wind or foul. A total production capacity of 209 MW has been deployed since September 2009 over an area of almost 35 sq km.

Nearer to the coast the Horns Rev 1 farm, established in 2002, consists of 80 turbines rated at 160 MW. Together the two groups of machines make up the world's largest offshore wind farm. They are also the most recent example of Denmark's policy of promoting renewable energies.

In France the tumultuous adoption of the Grenelle-2 bill has ushered in a period of uncertainty for wind power, but the Danes are showing off the positive results of concerted development over the last 30 years, rooted in a mixture of political determination, streamlined administrative procedures and co-operation with local communities.

The wooden building under construction in physics teacher Tom Tailer?s backyard looks like it can be anything ? except for the 828 soda bottles stacked against the wall.

Tailer and his team of 10 interns are building a passive freezer that will keep food frozen year round using no purchased energy. It?s constructed out of mostly local, recycled or reused products.

?We are going to be using the cycle of hot and cold that is natural to this area in Vermont to make a more sustainable way of freezing and refrigerating food,? Tailer said.