Space shows way to Europe’s renewable energy future


A windfarm in Germany
 
View to Klettwitz, eastern Germany, 80 miles south of Berlin, Europe' s most powerful and biggest area for wind power plants.

Solar power
 

 
Solar electricity represents a free, abundant and inexhaustible fuel source that already provides energy to hundreds of thousands of people and represents a billion Euro business. The possibilties for expansion are vast: the total energy shone from the Sun to our planet's surface is equivalent to 10,000 times annual global energy consumption.

Wind energy
 
Offshore windmills
 
An offshore windfarm. Coastal installations have an output up to 50% higher than land-based winfarms and most future expansion is expected in this area. (Photo: AMEC Border Wind)

Hydropower
 

 
Hydroelectric power - based on running water turning turbines - is the single largest contributor to the world's production of green energy.

The next step
 

 
An ERS-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image of Horns Rev windfarm in the North Sea off Denmark. SAR satellite images can be used to accurately estimate offshore wind resources.



Release date: 28 June 2004