The UK plans to build offshore wind farms that generate a total of 25 gigawatts. This is in addition to an existing 8 gigawatts of planned construction. This vast increase in wind power, in addition to the wave and tidal projects being tested in the Orkney islands, could power all of the UK’s homes by 2020.

The scheme could see turbines so large that they would reach 850ft into the sky. Each would be capable of powering up to 8,000 homes.

Britain’s current range of coal, gas, nuclear and other power stations are capable of generating 75 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, but less than 0.5GW comes from wind.

Business Secretary John Hutton will announce at an energy conference in Berlin tomorrow that he wants to see this target raised to 33GW-worth of wind turbines installed in the seas around Britain by 2020. If energy consumption remains stable this would mean wind power could supply the electricity needs of every home in Britain.

There would still be a need to keep fossil-fuelled power stations in reserve because windless days could leave Britain with power shortages.

Via: Peak Energy and Times Online

The air quality of urban areas would greatly improved if we could replace the thousands of diesel delivery trucks currently in use with zero-emission vehicles. In this vein, a company called  Smith Electric Vehicles will be introducing their electric trucks to the U.S.  Their Newton truck (pictured above) can be recharged via an regular electric socket. They have some pretty impressive features, including a range of up to 150 miles when fully charged. The battery system is rated at 120 kilowatts, and trucks have a maximum speed of 50 mph. The trucks also use regenerative braking to recover energy from the braking process.

In the U.K., Smith Electric Vehicles is on track to ship 250 trucks in 2007. Customers include DHL, Starbucks and the Royal Mail. Production in the U.S. is projected to start in 2010. In the U.S. they plan to set up manufacturing and produce up to 10,000 of the electric trucks per year.

Via: Ecotality