ESA - Observing the Earth - Space shows way to Europe’s renewable energy future

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Space shows way to Europe’s renewable energy future

31 July 2003

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

Credits: AP Photo-Matthias Rietschel

Solar power

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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

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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

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

The next step

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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.

Credits: ESA/Risø National Laboratory