Bladeless Wind Turbine

Vortex Bladeless Ltd. is a Spanish technology startup company that is developing a type of wind power generator without rotating blades or lubricants, unlike the more common wind turbines. Power is produced from resonant vibrations produced when wind passes the turbine and is deflected into vortices in a process called vortex shedding.

This technology has some traits which are more similar to solar power than to large wind turbines, such as being better suited to autonomous operation and distributed generation of energy off the grid, for and on low-power systems.

Typical energy returns:

– Vortex Nano – 1 metre (3.3 ft) high and 3 W nominal power output. Designed mainly to bring energy to off-grid locations for low-power systems, working along with solar panels. Stage: pre-production of a first beta series.
– Vortex Tacoma – 2.75 metres (9.0 ft) high and 100 W nominal power output. Designed mainly for small-scale residential and rural autonomous operation, working with solar panels. Stage: prototype, being developed.
– Vortex Atlantis/Grand – 9–13 metres (30–43 ft) high and around 1 kW nominal power output. Designed for residential and rural autonomous operation and complementary installation with solar panels over buildings and factories. Stage: projected but not being developed yet.

[vortexbladeless.com] – Company site
[wikipedia.org] – Vortex Bladeless, Spanish company
[eib.org] – Green energy from a floppy bridge
[theguardian.com] – Good vibrations: bladeless turbines could bring wind power to your home

Pontevedra – Spanish Car-free City

[politico.eu] – The city that pioneered Europe’s car-free future
[theguardian.com] – ‘For me, this is paradise’: life in the Spanish city that banned cars
[wikipedia.org] – Pontevedra
[Google Maps] – Pontevedra

Iberdrola & BP into 6 GW Green Hydrogen

Spain’s Iberdrola — the world’s third-largest power company and a major renewables developer — and BP, the sixth-largest oil company, say they aim to jointly build “advantaged hydrogen production hubs… integrated with renewable power” in the three countries with a total capacity of up to 600,000 tonnes per year. That volume would require roughly 6GW of electrolysers.

The aim is to build production facilities in Spain, Portugal and UK and produce green hydrogen for the northern European markets.

[rechargenews.com] – Energy giants BP and Iberdrola team up to build about 6GW of green hydrogen projects in Europe

Towards the End of Open Air Farming?

The current drought in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, followed by drastic measures to reduce water consumption, underline that open air farming could slowly become a thing of the past. The production of 1 kg tomatoes in open air farming requires 200 liter water. In a closed-system hydroponics greenhouse, that consumption is reduced to 12 liters. At this low level, even desalinated seawater can be considered as a source, as this project in Australia has proven. An additional advantage is that production can take place all year around.

[bbc.com] – Drought emergency declared in northern Italy
[deepresource] – Growing Crops in the Australian Desert with Seawater

Spain is Greening the Desert

YouTube text:

How Spain is Turning it’s Deserts into a Farmland Oasis

Spain is home to The Tabernas Desert, known as mainland Europe’s only desert. Shockingly scientific research suggests that Spain is set to become completely desertified in the next 80 years, right now 31.5% of Spain is already affected by desertification and 18% is at high risk of becoming irreversibly desert. This is due to the increase in temperatures, droughts, and less precipitation has made southern Europe vulnerable to problems such as “lower food production, soil infertility, decreases in the land’s natural resilience, and reduced water quality” as the European Court of Auditors (ECA) has pointed out in its report “Combating desertification in the EU.”

The Iberian peninsular was once covered in ancient oak forests, and over the last centuries was completely deforested for timber use and overgrazing livestock. Currently 16 million hectares of land is used for Intensive industrial agriculture which is rapidly eroding the soil further.

However Spain has been making some remarkable restoration developments turning large areas suffering from desertification into fertile land. This transformation is a major accomplishment considering Spain’s semi arid regions only receive 11 inches of rainfall per year.

We are going to tell you how and why Spain is turning its deserts into bio-diverse ecosystems and fertile farmlands

In this episode of our Greening the Desert Series we will be exploring one of Spain’s many remarkable restoration projects to re-green the desert and turn it back into fertile land.

We will start of by visiting one of the most drastically effected areas in the north eastern coastal region of Spain called Catalonia. Where Coastal forests and farmlands are affected by saltwater intrusion and soil salinization due to sea levels rising, storms, tides, droughts, and water resources management. Salinization of soil negatively impacts plant development and induces land degradation, turning these already semi arid regions into deserts. The increased amount of soil salination is exasperated by the loss of the dune habitat which acts as a natural barrier between the land and the sea.

The sand dunes of coastal Spain having been declining since the 1970s and accelerated in recent decades due to over tourism. Local wildlife has suffered, sea turtles and birds have declined with many species of plants endangered or have disappeared all together.

In 2003 the government started a restoration of the dunes project near Barcelona airport and by 2019 it has expanded its initiative countrywide by using a very simple and cost effective technique.

A report on the Assessment of the Restoration of the Dunes was published by Antoni Calafatlast last year, which have shown a considerable improved in recent years and I have seen first hand how it has helped to restore coastal forests and farmlands since.

[wikipedia.org] – Desert greening

Siemens-Gamesa B115 Recyclable Blade

[electrek.co] – Siemens Gamesa is now producing 115-meter-long offshore wind turbine blades

Spanish-German wind giant Siemens Gamesa has started production of its first B115 blades at its facility in Aalborg, Denmark. The blades will be used on its SG 14-236 DD offshore wind turbine, which will have an output of 14 MW and a rotor diameter of 236 meters (774 feet).

[source] Siemens-Gamesa facility in Aalborg, Denmark

Installing an Onshore Windturbine

[wikipedia.org] – Los Ausines

Siemens-Gamesa Studies Thermoplast Hydrogen Pipes

Electrolysers mounted at the foot of the wind tower. The future?

Siemens Gamesa has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Strohm, a manufacturer of fully bonded, Thermoplastic Composite Pipes (TCPs), to jointly develop transfer solutions for the hydrogen produced at offshore wind turbines.

These ‘plastic’ pipes can be rolled from a spool:

As reported earlier, copper could be in short supply after 2040, hence the drive to (partially) generate hydrogen at the wind source.

[offshorewind.biz] – Siemens Gamesa Looks Into Replacing Offshore Power Cables with Pipes
[deepresource] – The Energy Transition has a Copper Problem
[strohm.eu] – Strohm company site

Iberdrola in €2.3B, 1 GW Green Hydrogen Deal for Steel

Iberdrola takes another step towards decarbonisation. Iberdrola and H2 Green Steel have signed an agreement to build a green hydrogen plant with an installed capacity of 1,000 MW and an estimated investment of 2.3 billion euros. The new plant will power with clean fuel a direct steel reduction furnace with a capacity to produce around 2 million tonnes per year of pure green steel, with a 95% reduction in CO2 emissions.

The site will be located on the Iberian Peninsula, where several possible locations are currently being considered, with the intention of production starting in 2025 or 2026. All locations that H2 Green Steel and Iberdrola are evaluating will have access to renewable energy, as well as all the infrastructure necessary to operate a successful hydrogen, green steel business.

[iberdrola.com] – Iberdrola and H2 Green Steel sign €2.3B green hydrogen deal
[h2greensteel.com] – Accelerating the decarbonization of steel production

This kind of news repeats itself on a near daily basis. This is the result of Europe having a coherent, invasive, all-encompassing renewable energy strategy, that has the potential to catapult Europe back to the top of the geopolitical pecking order, where it belongs, based on its enormous cultural, scientific and technological heritage, not to mention its more than 4 centuries planetary dominance 1492-1939, as a set of 5-6 competing mid-sized nations, an experience that is still buried deep in its DNA. The European Right (Lega, AfD, National Rally) needs to bury its petty, backward nationalism and understand the potential for a European renaissance, centered around the energy, decarbonization and ecology cluster, as well as the Samuel Huntington model for a multi-polar world, that is going to replace George Soros his One World Open Society program, that is killing the US and implies its immanent Balkanization.

The new German government is ready to transform the EU into the United States of Europe (USE):

[nzz.ch] – Die Ampelkoalitionäre träumen von den «Vereinigten Staaten von Europa»

No need to resist this, it is coming anyway, as somebody needs to prevent a Chinese-owned planet, after China will have replaced the US as the next #1 country, probably later this decade, possibly after hostile exchanges in the South China Sea over Taiwan.

Both France and Germany need to jump over their own shadow and strike a grand deal: the Europeanisation of the Force de Frappe against collectivization of debt.

[parisberlinmoscow] – What Comes After the Three Anglo Empires?
[parisberlinmoscow] – The United Statelets of Europe
[parisberlinmoscow] – Alfred McCoy Predicts the U.S. Empire will Collapse
[parisberlinmoscow] – AUKUS is the Countdown towards the End of Anglo-Australia
[parisberlinmoscow] – Brexiteers Announce the End of the American Century
[parisberlinmoscow] – The EU needs to help France and take over Submarine Deal from Australia

A New Largest (14 MW) Wind Turbine in the World is Standing

The third and final 108-metre blade has been installed on Siemens Gamesa’s SG 14-222 DD prototype offshore wind turbine at the test centre in Østerild, Denmark.

[offshorewind.biz] – World’s Largest, Most Powerful Wind Turbine Stands Complete