Ten of the World's Largest Renewable Energy Projects

July 8, 2010
By Travis Williams

Costing $420 million dollars, Blue Diamond Ventures in partnership with Freedom Works LLC will begin construction on a 198MW wind farm in Southern Colorado. Both companies have gained great reputations in the past years, working with states to lower their greenhouse gas emissions. This project is the largest venture.

The California utility, PG&E plans to create 500MW of solar energy under its new solar program set to be complete in five years. Each solar plant will be nearly 20MW in size and once finished, the solar power will be enough to fuel close to 150,000 homes. Governor Schwarzenegger applauded the project as forwarding the states initiative to meet the goals of reducing California�s greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia plans on building the largest solar plant in the world, three times larger than the current solar plant in Southern California which generates over 350MW of energy and was built in the mid 1980�s. Bidding is currently underway in Australia to determine which company has the necessary success in the industry needed to undertake such a grand project. The proposed project will generate 1GW of energy to Australia�s power grid at a cost of 1.4 billion dollars. The initial investment will be coming from the government as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that the project is intended to boost the country�s independence from foreign fuel sources, while also making use of the countries much ample natural resource - sunshine.

Caithness Shepherds Flat, LLC is a wind energy company from Southern California with big plans for Oregon. The company plans on building one of the largest wind farms in the world at 909MW. In mid summer of 2008, the company completed three long term PPA�s with Southern California Edison. The project is set to be complete in 2012.

The Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center comprises 291 wind turbines built by GE and 130 wind turbines build by Siemens together, on 47,000 acres of Texas, generate 735MW of power. Another wind company in Texas, EON Climate and Renewables operates the Roscoe Wind Farm in Texas, delivering 781.5MW of energy.

The largest wind farm in Europe, set to be complete in 2020 will be in the hills of Markbygden Sweden, with 1,100 turbines. The wind farm will produce an astonishing 12tWh a year (thats a power of over 4GW, powering close to 2,000,000 homes) of electricity and is expected to cost $6.9 billion dollars. When the project is completed and is fully functional, the wind farm will generate close to a quarter of Sweden�s total energy.

Offshore wind, gaining popularity over the past years has the opportunity to create vast amounts of energy due to the shear area the ocean covers and wind speeds which are exceptional in most places. The UK is almost completed with the London Array which will become the world�s largest offshore wind farm at 1GW of energy, powering 25% of the homes in London and avoiding 1,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over its life. The plan, like many renewable energy projects, has come under the governments plan to have 10% of the UK�s electricity coming from renewable sources by 2010.

The UK is also planning on making use of the Severn Estuary that is between England and Wales by implementing a tidal barrage, which would be over 7 miles long. The proposed project is in the permitting stage but if completed, the tidal power would produce 8.6GW of electricity or 5% of the electricity currently used in the UK.

The geothermal plant in Sonoma California has been active for 25 years and when it was built over the geysers, it produced close to 2GW of electricity. The geysers have reduced their activity over the years but it still generates over 1GW of electricity, giving energy to 60% of California�s North Coast region.

Pietarsaari, Finland houses the largest biomass fired power plant in the world which generates 550MW of heat and generates 240MW of electricity. The plant makes use of local bark, branches and peat, used to go into the giant boiler. The process is completely sustainable in that every tree that is used is tagged and counted, in order for the same amount to be planted every year, then harvested at maturity.

We at Points North Energy see these projects as the beginning of a booming renewable energy market. Almost all of these projects have been planned, and completed, or in the middle of completion, in just the past five years. Each added watt of renewable energy is followed by a decrease in the price of renewable energy projects, coming ever closer to the day when the price of a kW of energy from a renewable source will be equal or lower to the price per kW from a non-renewable source.