In a world where there are so many people who just whine about wind power because it’s fun to whine — a company, a power broker, and a country put together their collectively separate thinking caps and turned the problem upside down. Meet the Andritz Hydro Hammerfest’s 1 Megawatt HS1000 Underwater Tidal Turbine, capable of powering 500 homes per single unit:
Right now in Scotland, a power broker called ScottishPower Renewables (which is a part of an even bigger conglomerate, Iberdrola, claiming a portfolio of over 14,000 megawatts of wind power generation) just put in the first one of ten 1 Megawatt units in Orkney, Scotland. It’s generating power and is doing fine apparently, and between 2013 and 2015, that part of Scotland will have 10 Megawatts of tidal power. That’s 10 million watts. 10,000,000 watts of completely renewable power. Way to go, Scotland!
Some info about ANDRITZ HYDRO Hammerfest:
- Hammerfest Strøm was established in 1997 in Hammerfest in Norway. The company’s main business is development of tidal stream turbines and the installation of tidal power arrays.
- The subsidiary company Hammerfest Strøm UK established in Glasgow, Scotland is responsible for developing the British and Irish energy markets. Hammerfest Strøm UK also has a joint venture with ScottishPower Renewables.
- ScottishPower Renewables is part of Iberdrola Renovables, the largest wind energy company in the world with an installed capacity of close to 11,000 MW at the end of 2009, and a pipeline of over 57,400 MW. ScottishPower Renewables had over 800 MW of installed capacity at the end of 2009, and a pipeline of 5,115 MW.
Also, a minute+ long piece from BBC News on the actual installation of the first HS1000, which was a pretty crappy day in seaman’s land:
Suck on that, complainers. This is an awesome solution that will no doubt make some progress while we have to figure out how to appease the whiners who want to favor coal and oil over completely free wind power that is ever-present and never-ending. Seems like a real waste of time, doesn’t it? You know, to have to convince people that their vanity is less important than the collective progression of humanity? Ah, the things I’ll never understand…
Editor’s note:
I’m sure that you’ve heard news out there from people who just don’t wanna see those dreadful wind turbines from the back deck of their house, and those whiners who don’t want wind turbines offshore because they are more expensive than their onshore counterparts. I’ve also seen a complaint about “interfering with shipping routes.” COME ON. How can you make a grand claim like “offshore wind turbines will interfere with offshore shipping routes” without having first completely done every permutation and calculation of such a statement without the understanding that things like shipping routes can be re-arranged?
Maybe it needs to be said out loud: we’re going to hit peak oil if we haven’t already, we’re going to either run out of coal or poison our atmosphere, and nuclear power is what it is — controlled chaos with no safe way to store the waste. We’ve had three major nuclear accidents on this planet with respect to nuclear power generation, and each event (Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima) have already caused enough destruction for hundreds of years. If we don’t get a grip on the actual problem and not let the big oil and coal companies continue to bank on future destruction, we will all be gone. We have all we need, provided here on our planet, for everyone to have free power (and consequently free food, but that’s another post). All we have to do is make it happen.
Thanks to DVICE, Inhabitat, BBC News, STV, and ScottishPower Renewables!
