Dutch Gemini windpark opens.

[PA5COR]

Dutch officials have opened what is being billed as one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, with 150 turbines spinning far out in the North Sea.

Over the next 15 years the Gemini windpark, which lies some 85km (53 miles) off the northern coast of the Netherlands, will meet the energy needs of about 1.5 million people.


At full tilt the windpark has a generating capacity of 600 megawatts and will help supply 785,000 Dutch households with renewable energy, according to the company.
“We are now officially in the operational stage,” the company’s managing director Matthias Haag said, celebrating the completion of a project first conceived in 2010.
The €2.8bn ($3bn) project is a collaboration between the Canadian independent renewable energy company Northland Power, wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Wind Power, Dutch maritime contractor Van Oord and waste processing company HVC.
It was “quite a complex” undertaking, Haag said, “particularly as this windpark lies relatively far offshore ... so it took quite a lot of logistics”.


Gemini would contribute about 13% of the country’s total renewable energy supply and about 25% of its wind power, he added.
It would help reduce emissions of carbon-dioxide emissions, among the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, by 1.25m tonnes, the company says..


The Dutch government has committed to ensuring 14% of its energy comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar power by 2020, and 16% by 2023, with the aim of being carbon neutral by 2050.
Gemini “is seen as a stepping stone” in the Netherlands and has “shown that a very large project can be built on time, and in a very safe environment”, Haag said.

[KG4CGC]

I guess if the US isn't going to do anything about polluting ... *sigh*

[PA5COR]

More windparks are planned, cheaper even because more firms offer larger windturbines, and placing them became cheaper.
We here still have a way to go, but the future looks better with this news, some countries here now almost have 100% gren wind turbine energy.
And price per KW/H the same or cheaper as fossil fuel like natural gas coal etc.
Reducing CO2is important, as well all other for people dangerous gasses.
Just in the UK bad air quality from diesel engines cause 40.000 deaths per year, as well asthma, and other preventable illnesses.
It's a choice a country must make, we do our parrt here, with Trump there and repuglicans there? no way.

[WØTKX]

Despite the political "winds" here, wind and solar power continue to grow.

No subsidies needed anymore, it is just a good investment.

Imagine that.

BTW, I "manage" from the technical side multiple solar sites here at work.
That is one of the most interesting and enjoyable parts of my job.

[NA4BH]

Solar farms are popping up all around here. They don't have blades that "Whopper-Chopper" birds when they fly by.

[KG4CGC]

I wouldn't expect blades, eh?

[PA5COR]

The effect the blades have on birds is overstated by the oil lobby.
more bird deaths occur flying into buildings or getting killed with traffic etc.
Solar panels privately installed here is quite large, as is heatpumps for warming the house.

[K0RGR]

Well, Minnesota has over 12,000 lakes, not the 10,000 on the license plates, but we don't talk about it, because we don't like to brag. However we have a goal of 25% renewable energy by the year 2025, and we're already at 22%, so they're talking about raising the goal. The city I live in us undergoing a multi-billion dollar redevelopment, primarily funded by the Mayo Clinic and other private concerns, but with a government commitment of $500 Million to build needed infrastructure. The city has a goal of 100% renewable energy. We have big wind farms all around us and solar is growing very rapidly, in spite of continued interference from the fossil fuel industry and their allies.

[PA5COR]

More states in the USA realize that green energy is on par or cheaper as what they use now and switching over, as happens here].
In the Eu large investments in infrastructure is made, so that over large distances excess electricity can be transported to places where there is a shortage between country's as well.
Mixing the different green sources, hydro, solar wind, geo heat etc makes it reliable, even from Iceland geoheat is used to make electricity and transported by undrwater cables to the EU, as we have cable under the channel to the UK.
DC to limit losses though.

[NA4BH]

The effect the blades have on birds is overstated by the oil lobby.
more bird deaths occur flying into buildings or getting killed with traffic etc.
Solar panels privately installed here is quite large, as is heatpumps for warming the house.

I couldn't agree more.

Do your heat pumps utilize the tubing that is buried in the ground that the air circulates through to heat and cool? A friend was going to install this type system in his house, many years ago. We lost contact so I don't know if he did it and/or how it worked out for him.