The World's 10 Largest Renewable Energy Projects

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Christopher Mims

Today, renewable energy sources generate 12 percent of electricity in the U.S. But wind, wave, sunshine and others represent more than 93 percent of the energy the country could be producing, according to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy.

If renewable energy is going to be a bigger player and have a significant impact in cutting the greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that are driving climate change, it's going to have to grow quickly. According to Princeton University scientists Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow's "wedge" strategy of climate change mitigation—which quantifies as a wedge on a time series graph various sets of efforts to maintain flat global carbon emissions between now and 2055—at least two million megawatts of new renewable energy will have to be built in the next 40 years, effectively replacing completely all existing coal-fired power plants as well as accounting for increases in energy use between now and mid-century.

"It's a goal that's beyond anything probably the world's ever undertaken," says Keely Wachs, senior director of corporate communications at BrightSource Energy, a company that hopes to build 2,600 megawatts-worth of power plants that use the sun's heat to generate electricity.

Here are 10 massive projects already producing energy.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article....energy-projects

[mendeleev 69]

I clicked through your list. As I expected, they're mostly not particularly large (except for the 18 gigawatt dam in China). They all produce electricity. The rub is going to come in making renewable fuels for transport and heat. That's where the biggest technology challenges are -- and the slowest progress.

Compared to the size of the challenge, these examples are incredibly puny.

[natty bumppo 297]

maybe you should take another look at the skin care thread ... if you want a renewable resource ...

[mendeleev 69]

maybe you should take another look at the skin care thread ... if you want a renewable resource ...

Yeah -- that's a good thread.

The amount of energy available in that renewable resource is also puny

[spookyturtle 9,466]

If only there was a way to harvest the hot air in off topic.......

[Heracles 417]

If only there was a way to harvest the hot air in off topic.......

I didn't realize that your Eric. #### and I wasted time arguing with you and got suspended for it.

[NickD 203]

The good news is one BTU of heat, the amount of heat required to raise one pint of water 1*F, is equivalent to the energy it takes to lift 778 pounds of stuff one foot. That's a lot of work.

The bad news is that you would have to lift 90,000 pounds of stuff one foot to get the energy required to heat a pint of water from 55 to 170*F to make a large cup of coffee. And that is assuming 100% of that energy is converted to heat.

The point is, we use a lot of energy, even for the small stuff like making a cup of coffee. We have over a 200 year history with fossil fuel burning, and frankly, we are not doing very well, least in terms of efficiency with the accompanying air pollution it causes.

These alternate sources are relatively new, lets at least give them a chance to improve before making judgments. And the cost of fossil fuels is much greater than the pump price in terms of the wars they are causing plus the lives of our young and our own health.

[mendeleev 69]

And the cost of fossil fuels is much greater than the pump price in terms of the wars they are causing plus the lives of our young and our own health.

There's no argument that a lot of the costs associated with fossil fuels are not manifest in the prices we pay. These market failures are a big problem and a cause of a lot of the difficulties we now experience.

[SuperDuper! 230]

ANybody know if Natural Gas was on the list? I hear that there is a shortage of it.