The World's Ten Largest Renewable Energy Projects

Olmedilla Photovoltaic Park, Spain


Scientific American presents a slide show with the World's ten largest renewable energy projects. They are:

1. Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center - onshore wind farm in Texas with 421 wind turbines producing 735 megawatts of peak power
2. Lynn and Inner Dowsing Wind Farm - offshore wind farm in Lincolnshire, England producing 194 megawatts of electricity at peak
3. Rance Tidal Barrage - producing electricity from tides in Bretagne, France. Differences between low and high tides is 8 meters
4. SeaGen Turbine - transforms tides or deep ocean currents into electricity in Strangford Lough, Ireland
5. Solar Energy Generating Systems -nine separate solar thermal power plants spread across the Mojave Desert in Southern California, which collectively can produce 354 megawatts of power
6. Olmedilla Photovoltaic Park - 162,000 flat solar photovoltaic panels in Spain that deliver 60 megawatts of electricity on a sunny day
7. The Geysers - the most productive geothermal park in the world in Sonoma and Lake Counties, Northern California. Its peak production is about 1000 megawatts, providing nearly 60 percent of the electricity used in California's North Coast region
8. Oy Alholmens Kraft - dry biomass plant in Pietarsaari, Finland. it produces a peak output of 240 megawatts of electricity and also generates 160 megawatts of steam used by nearby industry and for district heating. Fuels are peat, wood by-products and wood are harvested in a sustainable way
9. Aguçadoura Wave Farm - wave power plant near Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal. It resembles a wide floating snake, half-submerged on the sea surface. Currently there are three units installed perpendicular to the beach, having each 0.75 megawatt of electricity capacity
10. Three Gorges Dam - this dam in China has an electricity capacity of 14.1 gigawatts. By 2011, it will produce 18 gigawatts of electricity, or as much as 18 large nuclear power plants.

For those of you that do not consider large dams renewable projects, there is the Puente Hills landfill gas recuperation power plant in California. This power plant uses gas released from landfills (a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide) to produce electricity. It accepts solid waste from Los Angeles county and is currently active and still growing. The peak capacity is about 50 megawatts.