Alternative Energies

Along with solar, wind power is touted as one of the solutions to our energy problem, but wind turbines have their critics. Standing at 100 meters tall and boasting blades that equal the wing span of a Boeing 747, their size can be intimidating and their dependability is in question due to their reliance on a capricious resource. This month on Comment:Visions, we look at wind power and meet Christina Grumstrup Sorensen, a mechanical engineer based in Copenhagen and Senior Vice President of one of Denmark’s leading energy providers.

Sorensen is pragmatic on the visibility issue. She explains: “Obviously you can’t avoid seeing them, they have to be in the landscape as they have to catch the wind. That’s how they produce the energy”. There are other options, such as relocating the turbines to the ocean, but they too have their drawbacks. “If you move them to the sea the impact on the people and on the living areas will be less, but then, of course, you have other issues with birds and fish. But in fact, our initial studies of the wind farms that have been installed for ten years show that the effects that we were most worried about proved to be much less than we anticipated.”

Nuclear power; the feared and unloved energy source, which proved so controversial during the second half of the 20th century, is back.

Professor Janne Wallenius is a reactor physicist at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. In this eye-opening interview he talks about the advances made in the technology around nuclear power, both in terms of the safety of the plants themselves and new techniques for storing used fuel.

Could nuclear power provide 40% of the planet’s electricity needs in the future? Professor Wallenius believes that this is not only possible, but inevitable and desirable as it would reduce our dependence on oil using existing technology. Watch the interview now for a new view of nuclear.

The sun has long fascinated scientists. It’s immense power keeps the globe alive and as long as there is a planet earth there will be solar energy.

Dr Eduardo Zarza Moya has been studying solar energy for more than 20 years and in this interview he delineates the technology involved in solar concentration and its potential. Using large scale mirrors to harness solar radiation in order to produce steam, which then drives electricity turbines, solar concentration is a clean process reliant on the sort of solar radiation apparent in the hottest parts of the planet. Dr Moya is currently involved in a project to build a solar energy plant in North Africa and while he admits transmitting the electricity produced is currently prohibitively expensive he remains positive about the future.

Dr Jeremy Woods, Lecturer in Biofuels at Imperial College London, believes that there are many challenges facing the world when it comes to energy in years to come, and also that biofuels will be a major factor in dealing with them, if it is managed properly.

Can bioethanol and biodiesel power the world of the future? Comment Visions meets Dr Woods at the British Sugar factory in Wissington, Norfolk, to find out.

They were touted as the environmentally-sound and sustainable solution to fossil fuels, but in recent years biofuels have become one of the most controversial topics in the broader debate over the planet’s energy needs.

Professor José Esquinas-Alcázar is a Spanish scientist specialising in biodiversity. With background in plant genetics he has been a champion of policies promoting genetic diversity. As the cost and effects of the increase in biofuel production continues to make headlines and demand research, Euronews talks to Professor Esquinas about global interdependence, the need to protect against overreliance on certain crops and the future of the planet’s delicate ecological balance.