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First Minister Alex Salmond believes Scotland has hit the energy jackpot for the second time. First came North Sea oil. Now, it's Scotland's abundance of wind and water which could prove to be our economic saviour. The big question is: How can Scotland cash in on its good fortune? Wind farms have become a common feature of the Scottish landscape. Indeed, many would argue they are all too common. The power companies themselves admit they are finding it harder and harder to identify suitable sites for new onshore wind farms.

First Minister Alex Salmond believes Scotland has hit the energy jackpot for the second time. First came North Sea oil. Now, it's Scotland's abundance of wind and water which could prove to be our economic saviour. The big question is: How can Scotland cash in on its good fortune? Wind farms have become a common feature of the Scottish landscape. Indeed, many would argue they are all too common. The power companies themselves admit they are finding it harder and harder to identify suitable sites for new onshore wind farms.

""Wind and water: the perfect synergy" - With great ascents and high wind energy potential (Trade Winds), El Hierro proves to be a very suitable place for the implementation of a Wind-Hydro power station; it is also the first Wind-Hydro power station that will be providing close to 80% of the electricity demand of a totally isolated area. The major advantage of such a combination is that the system can overcome the usual problems of discontinuity and power fluctuation caused by the intermittent characteristic of the wind resource. When the energy produced by the wind farm exceeds the demand, the surplus is used to pump desalinated water in a reservoir situated 700 m above sea level."

"t is a crucial, if geekish, point: Wind and solar power are NOT intermittent, they are VARIABLE. If someone talks about problems with the intermittencies of wind and solar energies, it is out of ignorance or to intentionally discredit them. Obviously, the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow but those things can be scheduled and forecasted and are no reasons whatsoever not to keep building wind power and solar energy as fast as is humanly possible. The Western Wind and Solar Integration Study, from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), says transmission system tools are now available that would allow the Mountain West and Southwestern states to get 35% of their electricity from wind and solar energies by 2017. All it will require, aside from the building of the wind and solar production capacity, is a change in the WestConnect group of grid operators' standard operating procedures."

Daniel Barrie and Daniel Kirk Davidoff, from the University of Maryland, conducted an experiment aimed to demostrate what huge wind turbine fields could do to the environment, extra to producing electricity. They took the pattern of expanding turbine fields to an extreme, and used a computer model to calculate what might happen if all the land from Texas to central Canada, and from the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains were covered in one massive wind farm. What did they get with this simulation? They got a decrease of the wind speed with 2-3 meters per second (5.5 - 6.7 mph), plus a disruption of the air currents over all the north hemisphere. And that could be a source for storms, hurricanes, and other meteorological phenomena.

To be explored after we've fully exploited energy efficiency's potential, and all the onshore and offshore technologies we can think off. But the market will take care of this automatically, unless the EU comes up with the idea of a kite directive ...

Danish researchers now suggest that in order to assess the overall environmental impact of wind power, however, the finite lifespan of wind turbines and the need to replace and recycle them must be taken into account.

Small wind could cost 10 times the cost of residential solar to make the same power. The energy yield was measured in an average wind speed of 8.5 mph over the year. Here are the results, translated for the U.S. reader, with the comparative solar costs:

Despite the current economic crisis, there is good news for the U.S. wind power sector: R&D is paving the way for increased efficiency in wind power.

"The European Union looked to wind energy to provide 39 percent of its new power capacity in 2009, trouncing natural gas and solar power, statistics reveal. The European Wind Energy Association in statistics published Wednesday show the EU looked to wind energy in 2009 more than other sources. New wind power in the EU made up 39 percent of the new energy projects in 2009, with natural gas making up 26 percent followed by 16 percent for solar energy, the EWEA said. Meanwhile, the EU decommissioned more coal and nuclear facilities than were installed in 2009, suggesting renewable energy made up 61 percent of the new capacity in 2009."

It was supposed to be a great leap forward in Britain's green energy revolution. Three of Labour's biggest beasts - the prime minister, Lord Mandelson and Ed Miliband - lined up in London on Friday to launch a new wave of offshore wind turbines the government hopes will create up to 70,000 "green collar" jobs over the next decade. But as snow brought Britain to a halt, the green dream had little hope of dominating the headlines.

It was supposed to be a great leap forward in Britain's green energy revolution. Three of Labour's biggest beasts - the prime minister, Lord Mandelson and Ed Miliband - lined up in London on Friday to launch a new wave of offshore wind turbines the government hopes will create up to 70,000 "green collar" jobs over the next decade. But as snow brought Britain to a halt, the green dream had little hope of dominating the headlines.

"Facility Could Meet up to 75 Percent of Cape Cod and Islands' Electricity Demand CAMBRIDGE (April 28, 2010) - Leading environmental organizations hailed today's historic decision by Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar to provide federal approval for Cape Wind, allowing the country's first utility-scale offshore wind farm to move forward. The announcement signaled the Administration's intentions to support renewable energy development off U.S. shores, a major component of a clean energy economy and reduced dependence on fossil fuels, the organizations said. Today's announcement ends a nearly nine-year environmental review process, much longer than is typical for a traditional coal power plant. The decision clears the way for Cape Wind to begin the permitting process and develop a 130 turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound, which could meet as much as 75 percent of the electricity demand for Cape Cod and the Islands."

Mexico, one of the leading suppliers of oil to the United States, has increasingly embraced alternative energy in the face of dwindling crude output, infrastructure and investment. In response to energy and economic woes, President Felipe Calderón has pushed through energy reforms, pledging that Mexico will be producing a minimum of 2,500 megawatts of wind capacity by the time his term ends in 2012. So far, Mexico's progress has been impressive. In 2005, the nation only produced 3 megawatts electricity from wind. By the end of 2010, the country had 519 megawatts of installed wind power. And the future prospects look promising.

"U.S. Wind Market Grew by 39% The U.S. wind industry brought in a historic year in 2009, installing nearly 10,000 MW of new wind. During one of the worst financial crises in recent history, the wind market grew 39% in 2009, bringing new major developers and turbine manufacturers to the market, making the "top ten" rankings an ever-changing list. The AWEA Finance & Investment Workshop offered insights on how to position your company to gain from the tremendous wind industry growth. The expert speakers, presenters, and financial gurus shared the successes of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and how creative uses of new policies could create investment opportunities for 2010. "

Will we see a future of photovoltaics onshore and wind offshore?

Wind speeds of 100 mph were recorded across Europe and topped 135 mph at the Czech Republic's highest mountain, Snezka. The surplus electricity on the grid, produced mostly by German and Danish wind farms pushed prices down by 12% on the spot market.