(Worldchanging, Sept 29, 2006) This morning kicked off the first annual West Coast Green conference and expo in San Francisco. I couldn't have been more pleased with the choice of opening keynote speakers: Ed Mazria, a truly forward-thinking, staunchly proactive architect whose numerous efforts towards overhauling our building and design practices include Architecture 2030 and Imperative 2010, for ecological literacy in all design schools. He began his talk -- which we'll have more on later -- by emphasizing that the world is largely not moving in the direction we want to see it go (no surprise there, of course), and that coal is one of our worst - and fastest growing - problems.

So it was synergistic to sit down at my computer and see this New York Times article on the growth of wind power in India and China catching up to and surpassing many of the large wind producers in the West. Although 79% of coal growth last year happened in China, the country is also had a 65% increase in wind turbine intallation during the same period. This fits into their resolution to achieve reductions in coal and increased use of renewables by 2020 (again paralleling Mazria's call for solid deadlines and goals, though as Jamais pointed out when this was first released, the goals are somewhat unambitious and could be pushed further given the simultaneous explosion in non-renewables).

The Times piece focused in particular on an Indian company, Suzlon Energy, which has an interesting success story, having in the last four years raced past Siemens and become a major provider not just within India, but also in China. They play a juggling game between providing for and competing with China, which has an advantage in terms of domestic manufacturing, while India manufactures some parts abroad and must import them.

What really intrigued me about the article was a nearly skimmed-over comment toward the end of the piece about the forced elimination of squatter settlements (and displacement of squatters) in order to make space not even for the wind turbines themselves, but for the turning radius of the giant trucks that carry the turbines into urban outskirts and remote areas; and the fact that the company holds no obligation to offer recompense to the displaced persons. It was too quick a mention to offer any insight into the backstory there (if one even exists, given that squatters don't generally attract much media attention), but it does raise questions about the ripples of human and social impact around the progress we hear so much about in renewables.

Source:Worldchanging
tag:energy