Today is World Energy
Day which highlights the importance
of society's choices regarding energy production and the environment. I love positive solution stories, so had a look in our photo archive to share some of our interesting energy pictures with you and celebrate this day.
Over the years we have documented renewable energy projects from solar projects in India to geothermal plants in Iceland showing what options we have if no oil is left.
Andasol 1 solar power station is Europe's first commercial parabolic trough solar power plant. Andasol 1 will supply up to 200.000 people with climate-friendly electricity and save about 149,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year compared with a modern coal power plant. 2009 © Markel Redondo / Greenpeace
The solar-powered reverse osmosis plant in Kotri village, Rajasthan, India produces over 3000 litres of drinking water per day from the brackish groundwater. 2010 © Prashanth Vishwanathan / Greenpeace
Wind turbines in the early morning light at the Datang Saihanba Wind Farm in Chifeng. Datang is one of the largest wind power developers in China. The Saihanba Wind Farm has an installed capacity of 49.5MW and the power generation output is 275.14GWh. 2010 © Simon Lim / Greenpeace
The Hellisheidi Geothermal Plant is situated at Hengill, an active volcanic ridge in SW Iceland. The Hellisheidi Power Station is the second largest geothermal power station in the world, and the largest in Iceland. The plant´s purpose is to meet increasing demand for electricity and hot water for space heating in the industrial and domestic sectors. Current production capacity is 213 MWe (December 2010). Estimated production capacity for the completed Hellisheidi Plant is 300 MW electricity and 400 MW thermal energy. Once this capacity is reached, it would rank as the largest geothermal power station in the world, in terms of installed capacity. 2010 © Steve Morgan / Greenpeace
Pipelines run through the Svartsengi Power Station in Iceland where superheated water is vented from the ground near a lava flow and used to run turbines that generate electricity. After going through the turbines, the steam and hot water passes through a heat exchanger to provide heat for a municipal hot water heating system. Then the water is fed into a geothermal spa called the Blue Lagoon (a popular tourist attraction) for recreational and medicinal users to bathe in. 2010 © Steve Morgan / Greenpeace
Workers at Dafeng Power Station, China's largest solar photovoltaic-wind hybrid power station, with 220MW of grid-connected capacity, of which 20 MW is solar PV. Located in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, it came into operation on December 31, 2010 and has 1,100 annual utilization hours. Every year it can generate 23 million KW-h of electricity, allowing it to save 7,000 tons of coal and 18,600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. 2011 © Greenpeace / Zhiyong Fu
Gemasolar, a 15 MW solar power tower plant. Gemasolar employs molten salt technologies for receiving and storing energy. Its 16-hour molten salt storage system can deliver power around the clock. It runs the equivalent of 6570 full hours out of 8769 total. Gemasolar is owned by Torresol Energy and has been completed in May 2011. © Markel Redondo / Greenpeace
Greenpeace Switzerlands staff places solar cells on the roof of an industrial building in Wohlen. On the grid since October 2012, this is the largest photovoltaic plant of German-speaking Switzerland. 2012 © Jonas Scheu / Greenpeace
Wind turbines on the Story County 1 Energy Center, just north of Colo. Each turbine has a 1.5-megawatt capacity and contributes to generating electricity for up to 75,000 homes. The NextEra Energy-owned wind farm has been in operation since 2008.© Karuna Ang / Greenpeace 2012
Wind turbine in Nakhon Si Thammarat province. People of Pak Phanang river basin oppose Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand's (EGAT) plans to build a coal-fired power plant in the area. The government must instead invest in renewable energy and put in place more energy efficiency systems. 2012 © Jonas Gratzer / Greenpeace
A village partly powered by solar energy.Thailand has great potential in producing solar power. Government promotion of renewable energy supports these cleaner technologies. The Thai Government has also set a National Agenda for renewable energy, which aims for 25% of the countrys energy portfolio to come from renewable sources by 2022. 2012 © Athit Perawongmetha / Greenpeace
Alamosa Solar Generating Plant, a 30 megawatt concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) power plant near Alamosa owned by Cogentrix Energy. it was called the largest CPV facility in the world when it came operational in May 2012. The 500 dual-axis CPV Amonix 7700 tracker assemblies cover a 225-acre plot. Each tracker is 70 feet (21 meters) wide and 50 feet (15 meters) tall. Each has 7,560 Fresnel lenses that concentrate sunlight by a multiple of 500 onto multijunction gallium arsenide photovoltaic cells. 2013 © Robert Meyers/Greenpeace
Vivek Mundkur with portable solar pumping system. With his company Atom Solar in Pune he works on further development of his solar powered irrigation pump. It's called the Atom Solar Suntrolley, a 1 horse power portable solar water pumping system which can replace diesel irrigation pumps for small farmers. It can deliver 10,000 litres of water per hour. 2014 © Vivek M. / Greenpeace
People walk past a solar powered street light in Dharnai Tolla, Dharnai vilage, India. A solar-powered micro-grid is now supplying electricity to the village. 2014 © Vivek M. / Greenpeace
More London is a new development on the south bank of the River Thames. Most of an office building's energy consumption over its lifetime is in lighting, lifts, heating, cooling and computer usage. Effective use of passive solar heat and the thermal mass of the building, high insulation levels, natural daylighting and wind power can all help to minimize fossil energy use. 2011 © Steve Morgan / Greenpeace
