The main work of wind turbines is to utilize the energy of wind and convert it into electricity; stronger wind is considered good for electricity production. But the speed of wind should not be too strong because it makes turbines spin too fast and in this process it commits suicide! Why is it so? Because turbine blades get ripped off by stronger winds – excessive heat damages the alternator. Turbine tower too can’t remain unaffected by the strong wind. To prevent all this damage a mechanical breaking system furling is generally used. This method prevents wind turbine from spinning too quickly by turning the blades away from the direction of the wind. Furling can be manual or automatic with same goal i.e. turning the turbine blade edges into the wind when the wind is dangerously strong and stormy. (more…)

Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, and Eat Well Guide, North America's premier free online directory for finding local, sustainable food, have partnered to launch the Thanksgiving Local and Organic Food Challenge. The Thanksgiving Challenge aims to inspire Americans to learn more about local, sustainable or organic food by using Eat Well Guide's comprehensive online tool for finding local ingredients for at least one dish they will prepare as part of their holiday meal.

The discovery of Amur tiger tracks in Changbaishan in north-eastern China has given conservationists hope for a species that is rarely seen in that area.

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Honey bees, whose numbers are falling, must be given flowery "recovery zones" in Europe's farmlands to aid their survival, a leading EU lawmaker said Wednesday. Bees pollinate numerous crops and scientists have expressed alarm over their mysterious and rapid decline. Experts have warned that a drop in the bee population could harm agriculture.

The White House on Saturday said it was not proposing relaxing fuel efficiency requirements as part of efforts to speed up government loans to the ailing auto industry. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said media reports saying that was a White House proposal were "false."

Last week I attended a discussion entitled After the Election: Where is Cleantech Headed Now? hosted by TiE(The Indus Entrepreneurs) at their Silicon Valley headquarters. The event was moderated by Andrew Chung ofLightspeed Venture Partners with presentations by Chris Flavin of Worldwatch Institute and Dr. Dick Swanson, founder of SunPower.

Dow Chemical Co has called on the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and Congress to implement a comprehensive national energy policy. "I will guarantee you that I am not going to drop my voice one iota until we get an energy policy in this country that makes sense," Chief Executive Andrew Liveris told Reuters in an interview on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Surging U.S. ethanol production may force the industry to step up transport safety measures in the face of growing concern that communities are ill-prepared to deal with the volatile, flammable liquid.

Call it an economic and environmental murder mystery in the making: Will a cash-strapped Detroit kill the electric car -- again? Stung by an association with gas-guzzling SUVs and pushed to the brink of failure by plunging sales, U.S. automakers have been touting efforts to roll out more fuel-efficient small cars, gas-saving technology and gas-free electric vehicles.

The first section of solar panels has been installed atop the Atlantic City Convention Center. The power system is to be the largest single-roof photovoltaic system in the U.S., with some 13,321 panels capable of generating 2.36 megawatts. The panels will cover 290,000 square feet, or two-thirds of the venue's roof.

Brussels, Belgium: A coherent plan to reduce energy consumption was conspicuous by its absence from the European Union’s latest attempt to deal with the energy and climate crisis. The European Commission today released an “Energy security and solidarity action plan”, which addresses some of the gaps in the present EU climate and energy policy.

[BAMAKO] Several key African countries have done "very little" to invest in health research since pledging to do so at a world meeting of health and science ministers in Mexico four years ago, say critics. But others — including Tanzania, Rwanda and Mali — have made significant progress in investing in their health research.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Half the world's population could face a shortage of clean water by 2080 because of climate change, experts warned Tuesday. Wong Poh Poh, a professor at the National University of Singapore, told a regional conference that global warming was disrupting water flow patterns and increasing the severity of floods, droughts and storms — all of which reduce the availability of drinking water.

Will the world's economic meltdown stall initiatives to curb global warming? World leaders in the campaign to address climate change will confront that question as they gather in Beverly Hills tomorrow and Wednesday to shape policies aimed at responding to the mounting threats to food production, public health and the environment.

TOKYO (Reuters) - The main ship in Japan's whaling fleet set out for the Antarctic on Monday for its first hunt in the region since limping home with just over half its planned catch in April following clashes with militant anti-whaling activists, environmentalist group Greenpeace said.

It is an image worthy of a Keats poem or a Constable landscape: great orchards bursting with fruit, fields crammed with ripening vegetables and hillsides covered with sheep and cattle. But this is no dream of long-gone rural glories. It is a vision of the kind of countryside that Britain may need if it is to survive the impact of climate change and higher oil prices, according to leading agricultural experts.

ONE way of helping to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is to pump the gas into underground caverns or old oil fields. But there is also a rock that is happy to gobble it up, and according to the latest research its appetite for the greenhouse gas is not only massive but could also be increased by a little human intervention.

The ongoing conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has recently intensified. As a result more than 50 Congolese park rangers fled to safety from Virunga National Park and more than one million people have been displaced. The rebels have advanced to just outside of Goma — the regional capital — threatening the stability of the entire country.

Greenhouse gas emissions in many industrialised nations are still rising, especially in the former Soviet bloc, despite agreements to cut back, the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said on Monday. Emissions by 40 industrialized nations grew by 2.3 percent to the equivalent of 18.0 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2006 from 17.6 billion in 2000, it said. They dipped 0.1 percent in 2006 compared with 2005 but underlying trends were still up.

Steve Schainker sometimes makes his rounds as Ames city manager in a two-seater Zenn, an electric car. The tiny vehicle, plugged in to an electrical outlet behind City Hall, tops out at 25 mph and gets 35 miles to a charge. It is one of the more visible elements of an EcoSmart program designed to save fuel and to cut carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change.