Political Ecology

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has announced it is no longer considering funding Africa’s tallest dam, in Ethiopia. The hydroelectric dam, called Gibe III, has drawn international criticism because of the devastating effect it is likely to have on the food security of at least eight Ethiopian tribes.In a statement, the EIB claims to have [...]

The Southern Ice Field in Patagonia is the world’s third most important reserve of freshwater after Antarctica and Greenland. And in its untamed wilderness of glaciers and mountain peaks, companies are preparing to build at least seven major hydropower dams, along with a 70-meter-high transmission line to transport power more than 2400 kilometers north to [...]

The reason Chile must build at least seven new hydrodams, sponsors of the projects say, is that forecasts show that the country desperately needs more electricity—and that it must come from Chilean sources. Environmentalists and independent energy analysts have challenged this view; they argue that by improving efficiency and investing in renewable energy, Chile could [...]

An analysis of the power output indicates that co-located offshore wind and wave energy farms generate less variable power output than a wind or wave farm operating alone. The reduction in variability results from the low temporal correlation of the resources and occurs on all time scales. Aggregate power from a co-located wind and wave [...]

The turbine, known as “Deep Green” was developed by a privately-owned Swedish/UK company, Minesto, and is intended to be tethered 100 meters above the sea bottom. It has a wingspan of 12 meters and a turbine one meter in diameter. The “kite” comprises a wing with a rudder to steer the turbine to face in [...]

The start-up of one of Southeast Asia’s biggest hydropower dams has launched a new round of debate over how much damage the megaproject might inflict on the environment. Backers led by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank say that the $1.5 billion Nam Theun 2 dam in central Laos has already taken its [...]

The offshore and inshore wave energy resource in Asturias (N Spain) is studied using wave buoy data and a hindcast dataset spanning 44 years (1958–2001). Offshore average wave power and annual wave energy values are found to exceed 30 kW/m and 250 MWh/m, respectively, at 7 of the 11 study sites. This substantial resource is [...]