Archive - Jan 1, 2004

Date

New Farm Seen as Model for Wind Energy

Submitted by acampbell on Thu, 01/01/2004 - 21:00.

New Farm Seen as Model for Wind Energy

By TERENCE CHEA, Associated Press Writer

BIRDS LANDING, Calif. (January 2, 2004) - Environmentalists say the dozens of turbines that rise more than 300 feet over wheat fields and herds of sheep here represent the future of wind energy - and a model for overcoming the shortcomings that have kept wind from threatening the dominance of fossil fuels.

The High Winds Energy Center, completed in December in the rolling hills between San Francisco and Sacramento, features turbines that can swivel with the direction of the wind, produce energy even if the wind is blowing less than 8 mph and generate 20 times more energy than earlier machines.

Scottish Skiing Meets Global Warming

Submitted by acampbell on Thu, 01/01/2004 - 21:00.

Scottish Skiing Meets Global Warming

By Pete Harrison, Reuters

AVIEMORE (January 2, 2004) - This school holiday week, thousands will be bracing themselves against the wind and sliding downhill through a mixture of mud, ice and boulders -- Scottish skiing has met global warming.

Children will be filing onto chairlifts to be borne up the piebald Scottish mountains for their first taste of snowploughing and of what climate change can actually mean in practice.

A walker makes his way past a snow plough on the slopes of Aonoch Mor ski area in Scotland in days of better snowfall. REUTERS