By Tiffany Stecker

Linking offshore wind turbines together could help make wind energy more reliable, says a study published in the 5 April issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Despite abundant wind power resources offshore, wind turbines cannot provide a steady stream of power, due to changes and fluctuations in wind direction and strength. However, wind power output can be made more consistent if turbines are located in places that take advantage of regional weather patterns. Connecting wind power generators on a common power line also helps with regularity, researchers found.

“Making wind-generated electricity more steady will enable wind power to become a much larger fraction of our electric sources,” said lead author Willett Kempton, professor of marine policy at the University of Delaware in the US, and director of the Center for Carbon-free Power Integration.

The researchers studied five years of wind monitoring data from 11 stations along the American East Coast.They estimated output from a hypothetical five-megawatt offshore turbine. The team also explored the seasonal effects on power output.

“A north-south transmission geometry fits nicely with the storm track that shifts northward or southward along the U.S. East Coast on a weekly or seasonal time scale,” said researcher Brian Colle.

The researchers found that when a power line connected each site, the overall power output was evened out. Maximum or minimum output was rare.

Currently, no wind turbines are located in U.S. waters, although projects have been proposed.¹

Value of species status gauged with ‘biodiversity barometer’

Scientists have calculated that it would cost US$60m (£39m) to learn about the conservation status of millions of species, some that have not yet been identified.

Experts from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Conservation International published their article “The Barometer of Life” in Science. “Our knowledge about species and extinction rates remains very poor, and this has negative consequences for our environment and economy,” said Simon Stuart, chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission.

Almost 48,000 species have been assessed on the IUCN Red List, costing about $4m (£2.6m) each year.

Only 1.9 million species have been identified in the world, though the estimated number of species is believed to be between 10 and 20 million.²

Climate funding tripled before financial crisis hit

Philanthropic donations for climate change initiatives grew threefold in 2008 from the previous year, according to a study conducted by the Foundation Center in New York.

Donations jumped from US$240m (£155.2m) in 2007 to $897m (£580m). The top donor was the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, of printer manufacturer fame. The foundation gave almost $550m (£355.7m) to the ClimateWorks Foundation, which seeks to reduce emissions in the sectors with the highest carbon footprints.

The remaining 267 foundations gave a total of $348.7m (£225.6m)- a 45 per cent increase over the total value of donations in 2007.

The 2007 Design To Win report issued by California Environmental Associates states that charities will need to provide approximately $800m (£517.8m) annually to implement the necessary strategies to address climate change. Since the financial crisis hit in late 2008, overall foundation funding has been strained, a trend the Foundation Center expects to continue through 2010.

Tortoises in trouble

Madagascar’s radiated tortoise may become extinct in the next 20 years, say biologists, due to exploitation for food and animal trafficking.

A team of biologists from the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) surveyed the country’s southern spiny forest. These surveys showed areas once abundant with tortoises now devoid of the species. Local residents also spoke of poachers taking away truckloads of tortoises for meat markets. Poaching camps, with the remains of thousands of radiated tortoises, were also found.

“The rate of hunting of radiated tortoises is similar to the hunting pressure on American bison during the early 19th century, where they were nearly hunted to extinction when they once numbered in the tens of millions,” said Brian D. Horne, turtle conservation coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Species Program.

1. Kempton, W., Pimenta, F., Veron, D., & Colle, B. (2010). Electric power from offshore wind via synoptic-scale interconnection Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107 (16), 7240-7245 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0909075107 [↩]
2. Stuart, S., Wilson, E., McNeely, J., Mittermeier, R., & Rodriguez, J. (2010). The Barometer of Life Science, 328 (5975), 177-177 DOI: 10.1126/science.1188606 [↩]