Although the multi-national conglomerates are often accused of doing nothing beneficial for the enviroment unless they are legislated to do so, there are some interesting exceptions. It seems that the corporate world is starting to realise our over dependence on fossil fuels is dangerous ( for the planet and the number crunchers bottom lines).

For instance, this week GE Energy Financial Services (an investment arm of General Electric Co), has stated that they will invest in a $350 million wind-generation project to supply the city of Austin, TX with renewable energy. The wind farm, developed by Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. (RES Group, UK - one of the world’s leading wind energy companies), is set to begin construction this month in Shackelford County about 30 miles northeast of Abilene. The farm will have 72 2.3 megawatt wind turbines and is expected to produce enough power every year to support 39,000 homes. There will be a 15-yr power purchase agreement in place with Austin.

Tags: Energy, General Electric, Renewable, Renewable energy, Wind, Wind power, Wind turbine

Image via Wikipedia Unfortunately, the reality didn’t quite match up with the dream. Solar power cells were ( and still are) expensive to manufacture, and unless you had a lot of panels exposed to a lot of sunlight, solar power systems didn’t produce very much power. However, now that we’re seeing more refinement and advancements in solar power technology, along with growing popularity of renewable energy systems we may be witnessing a rebirth in solar power systems, at least in certain environments.

Solar PV (photovoltaic) uses energy from the sun to create electricity to run appliances and lighting. PV requires only daylight - not direct sunlight - to generate electricity.

Tags: Electricity generation, Energy, Energy Saving Trust, Photovoltaics, Renewable energy, Solar cell, Solar Energy