The Oil Drum: Canada

The World Wind Energy Conference is just around the corner and happens to be in my home town. I was flipping through the conference program and noticed a familiar name pop up quite a lot: Paul Gipe. He's written a number of books on wind power and most recently has become involved in feed-in tariffs for wind power in North America. I spoke to him a while ago about how the industry has developed.

To listen to the show, you can either play it in the built in player, or download it directly via the link.

or download directly: Wind Power Conversation with Paul Gipe

As the crews stroke the Elvet, and the Durham Cow ruminates on an uncertain future, it is time again to visit the Land of the Prince Bishops and note some changes. Some forty years ago the land was dotted with pit heaps, some 26 underground coal mines had been producing coal from seams perhaps 700 ft below ground for up to a hundred years or more apiece, and the spoil bands dominated the landscape. But coal and its miners were not popular, and so now, as one drives around it is hard to find much evidence of that history. The land has been restored, and fields of rape and tall wind turbines now control a landscape where coal mining references are found only in the names of the odd village, the halves of a pit wheel, buried at the end of a housing estate, or the lone statue of a pit pony and his tub, isolated in a roundabout.