This post is based off the BBC article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6505221.stm
Portugal has now opened the most powerful solar power plant in the world, which creates enough energy to power 8000 homes. This translates to 30,000 tons of green house gases eliminated if fossil fuels were used for the same amount of power. It has created development and jobs in one of Portugal's poorer regions. Portugal is set to invest $10 billion in renewable energy and has a goal of 45% of it power consumption from renewable resources by 2010.
Imagine the impact if more countries had goals such as these and really had a vested interest in renewable resources. Moreover imagine the health impact of eliminating thousands of tons of green house gases. Clean sources such as wind and solar energy would have a particularly large impact in countries, such as China, that currently have a heavy reliance on coal. Investing in these sort of resources should be a goal for countries. Furthermore, there should be a partnership among countries working together to develop viable "green" energy sources, especially in developing countries--making sure that they do not make the same mistakes that the developed nations have done.
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6 comments:
Jen this is very interesting. I agree with you that more countries should learn from this method and it is so clear that in the future we will be having more healthy people. Via media, internet we can enhance the partnership with our nations and build up a viable “green” energy source.
Wow Jen, this is new information to me and what an amazing intiative. I know that there are companies in the US like Whole Foods Market who are pushing the same types of initiatives - it would be nice to see the US government here do the same.
Wow, jen, this is very cool. I wonder if the US is looking to join this bandwagon?
But then again, I can't help but think of GM's EV1 electric car. Remember when it came out and there was all this infrastructure in place that was created to support it...then it died...killed by big oil, etc. Now i was watching the news and there is an introduction of another electric car that only goes 25 miles per hour because it's so small and the NHTSA won't let it go faster on the road. Ridiculous! Why are we wasting our time and energy on this small potatoes stuff if we had something safe and cost-efficient already?
Well I agree with Andrea that the big energy companies will try to kill green power just like what GM did to the electric car, but I also believe in karma for nasty companies; just look at how GM is now being knocked off the market by Toyota because they were myopic to focus on short term profits and not reinvent the future, and the future is going green. so if those big companies are half intelligent, they will seriously start investing in green energy because if they don't, somebody will and those big companies will find that their focus on short term profits will be their demise.
i had no idea portugal was doing this! the evidence is mounting. i guess either the U.S. will follow suit, or it will wait until it suffers outright economic losses as a result of backwards energy practices...
Hooray for Portugal in setting an example for which other countries should strive. While we have the technology, here in the U.S, the cose of installing a solar powered system is still left up to the individual consumer. Rebate programs exist, but the initial monetary output (even with rebate programs) is cost prohibitive for most people. If the government really wants to show their support for renewable energy - build large systems that serve as primary energy systems and get rid of the rebate programs (i.e. band-aids).
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