Pacific Hydro Wind Farm Generates Tourist Dollars in Australia

In come the milling crowd

Pure white blades sigh as they slice through the air, momentarily interrupting rays of sun, before gracefully completing another mesmerising cycle.

It is another windy day on the top of Albany's coastal cliffs in Western Australia, where 12 modern wind turbines provide 65 per cent of the electricity to the town below, and cut annual greenhouse emissions by 77,000 tonnes.

A surprising addition to the scenery is a group of tourists who have just disembarked from their coach, cameras at the ready. But they are not here for the whales. It is the wind farm they have come to see.

The novelty of the white windmill forests is something that is attracting curious visitors in droves. At a time when climate change and renewable energy are concerns, it is not hard to understand why there is an interest.

The tourism industry has speedily caught on. Wind farms are marketed as must-see attractions where visitors can witness the production of renewable energy and learn about wind technology.

Most wind farms in Australia cater for tourists, providing viewing platforms and information booths. The wind farm in Albany has been operating since 2001 and has a network of paths around the base of the turbines, with boards with stories and facts.

Jon Berry, the manager of economic development at Albany Council, said the turbines had enhanced the value of the area.

"The combination of the wind farm and a spectacular coastal setting has made it the most popular tourist destination in Albany," he said.

"I think people also see them as symbols that we're doing something for the environment. [Visitors] are quite awe-inspired about the pure size of the machinery towering above them, and with blades the size of a Boeing 747 wing coming towards you it's a real 'wow' experience."

The Australian Wind Energy Association says it is the role wind farms play in reducing greenhouse gases that makes them more appealing than other forms of development.

It was this interest in green initiatives that convinced Tim Brady of Port Fairy, Victoria, that there was a market for wind-farm tours. Codrington farm, near Port Fairy, has been in Brady's wife's family since 1856, but in 2001 it gained 14 wind turbines and became Australia's largest (at the time), and Victoria's first, wind farm. An open day for the public in 2001 showed just how much interest there was.

"Thousands of people showed up. We were bowled over by the amount of people who came out to the country to have a look," Brady said.

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Wind, solar offer vast potential in Chile but remain largely untapped

CAJON DEL MAIPO, Chile - These foothills in the shadow of high-country skiing in the Andes are a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts, with trekking lodges, waterfalls and snowmelt runoff feeding the Maipo River and its white-water rapids.

It is postcard images like this, of a nation blending with nature, that many Chileans would prefer their country be perceived, rather than one torn over energy resources.

Indeed, an 8,600-acre nature reserve was created here after local residents waged a successful struggle to relocate a natural gas pipeline that was proposed for this area in 1997.

With a climate that is often dry, sunny and breezy, large regions of finger-shaped Chile are ripe for development of renewable energy sources like solar and wind power.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has set a goal of 15 percent of new energy generation by 2010 to come from non-conventional sources, including wind and solar.

Although Chile's National Energy Commission and Chile's Economic Development Agency are funding more wind energy studies and projects, only 2.5 percent of the country's energy is currently derived from alternative sources.

Meanwhile, the Chilean Renewable Energy Association believes that half the country's electrical needs could be derived from wind energy. In August it was reported that 23 wind energy parks around the nation are undergoing feasibility studies, in part due to the rising price of oil.

Chile has very few proven crude oil reserves, and it obtains much of its natural gas from neighboring Argentina.

In early December when the chairman of the Spanish electricity corporation Endesa visited, he inaugurated a wind farm his company developed in Canela, a city in northern Chile. The project is what's known as a Clean Development Mechanism, which is an initiative permitted under the 1997 Kyoto agreement that allows industrialized nations to invest in projects that reduce greenhouse emissions in developing nations.

The Canela wind farm can generate 18.15 megawatts of electricity a year, small compared to the nation's current need for 12,000 megawatts. In Spain windmills generate 12,000 megawatts and in Germany windmills generate 20,000 megawatts of power.

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Pacific Hydro plans Chile renewable energy projects - Wind intiatives discussed

SANTIAGO, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Australia's Pacific Hydro said on Monday it plans to invest some $500 million to develop renewable energy projects in Chile once the Andean country passes new legislation for the sector.

"Once the Renewable and Non-conventional Energy law is approved we expect to develop projects to generate some 250 megawatts, with investment of some $500 million," Pacific Hydro said in a statement.

Pacific Hydro and mine giant BHP Billiton said in November they signed an agreement to develop wind power in excess of 100 megawatts in Chile's northern mining region.

Chile's government is working on a law that could see 5 percent of the nation's electricity generated through renewable means by 2010.

The law has been approved by the lower house, or Chamber of Deputies, and the Senate is expected to give it a green light in the first months of 2008.

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Kite-like Sail Proposed as Wind Power Agent in Eastern Europe

As part of our ongoing investigation of viable and sustainable solutions to generating alternative power, our heads really turned when we came across this proposal for a power-generating “wind dam” by UK architects Chetwoods Associates. The Wind Dam Project uses a giant spinnaker sail suspended in a mountain gorge near Northern Russia’s Lake Ladoga. The £2.5 million dam will include a unique cup-shaped spinnaker sail, an original design, which will capture and harness wind to generate renewable energy by funneling wind through an attached turbine.

The spinnaker shape is similar to the mainsail of a yacht, and is thought to be particularly effective in capturing the wind with it’s kite-like properties. Project architect Laurie Chetwood stated that the shape of the sail was influenced by functionality and a desire to produce something “sculptural”. “The sail looks like a bird dipping its beak into the water, which will be much less of a blot on this beautiful and unblemished landscape…It is also highly effective at capturing the wind because it replicates

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Wind Energy for Chile’s Mines. BHP Billiton and Pacific Hydro to develop 100 megawatt windfarm in Northern Chile – BHP has first option to buy.

SANTIAGO, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Mine giant BHP Billiton and Pacific Hydro said on Monday they signed an agreement to develop wind power in excess of 100 megawatts in Chile's northern mining region.

BHP Billiton (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) and Pacific Hydro (PHY.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) said in a joint statement construction would begin in late 2009 and would feed into the northern power grid (SING), which mainly serves Chile's mining industry.

Pacific Hydro will do the studies, engineering, construction and operation of the resulting Aeolic (wind) projects, while the miner will have the first option to buy the energy.

"Energy is one of our big operational challenges and to confront it we have developed a plan that assures supplies of energy from conventional sources, and is complemented by sources, such as Aeolic energy," said Diego Hernandez, president of BHP Billiton's base metals division.

Chile's northern mining region has been hit by energy shortages after cuts in supplies of Argentine natural gas forced generators to use costlier fuels like diesel.

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Wind Power for Europe: Italy to build 500 new wind plants - Enel & Endesa to Participate

Italy to build 500 new wind plants

ROME, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Italy plans to build 500 more wind plants to become the biggest producer of wind energy, Italian News Agency ANSA reported on Tuesday.

With the help of the 500 additional plants Italy plans to reach a 23,000 gigawatt energy production -- ten times higher than what the country is currently producing.

The new wind farms will make Italy the world's biggest producer of wind energy, leapfrogging Germany which is now producing 22,622gigawatts.

In 2006 alone, 417 wind plants were built in Italy, situated mainly in the southern regions of Sicily, Puglia, Basilicata and Molise but also in the central region of Tuscany.

Wind energy is the most lucrative type of green energy and is attracting Italian investors such as diversified holding companies Moratti and De Benedetti and big oil companies such as Garrone, according to Corriere della Sera.

Italian energy group Enel SpA is also searching for sites with steady wind out of Italy, in Europe.

Meanwhile, Spain's Endesa and Iberdrola are also building plants in Basilicata and Calabria.

The biggest investor in wind plants in Italy is the UK-based company International Power.

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