Upcoming Events

International | Environment

no events match your query!

New Events

International

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

The Saker

Indymedia ireland

Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Fraud and mismanagement at University College Cork Thu Aug 28, 2025 18:30 | Calli Morganite
UCC has paid huge sums to a criminal professor
This story is not for republication. I bear responsibility for the things I write. I have read the guidelines and understand that I must not write anything untrue, and I won't.
This is a public interest story about a complete failure of governance and management at UCC.

offsite link Deliberate Design Flaw In ChatGPT-5 Sun Aug 17, 2025 08:04 | Mind Agent
Socratic Dialog Between ChatGPT-5 and Mind Agent Reveals Fatal and Deliberate 'Design by Construction' Flaw
This design flaw in ChatGPT-5's default epistemic mode subverts what the much touted ChatGPT-5 can do... so long as the flaw is not tickled, any usage should be fine---The epistemological question is: how would anyone in the public, includes you reading this (since no one is all knowing), in an unfamiliar domain know whether or not the flaw has been tickled when seeking information or understanding of a domain without prior knowledge of that domain???!

This analysis is a pretty unique and significant contribution to the space of empirical evaluation of LLMs that exist in AI public world... at least thus far, as far as I am aware! For what it's worth--as if anyone in the ChatGPT universe cares as they pile up on using the "PhD level scholar in your pocket".

According to GPT-5, and according to my tests, this flaw exists in all LLMs... What is revealing is the deduction GPT-5 made: Why ?design choice? starts looking like ?deliberate flaw?.

People are paying $200 a month to not just ChatGPT, but all major LLMs have similar Pro pricing! I bet they, like the normal user of free ChatGPT, stay in LLM's default mode where the flaw manifests itself. As it did in this evaluation.

offsite link AI Reach: Gemini Reasoning Question of God Sat Aug 02, 2025 20:00 | Mind Agent
Evaluating Semantic Reasoning Capability of AI Chatbot on Ontologically Deep Abstract (bias neutral) Thought
I have been evaluating AI Chatbot agents for their epistemic limits over the past two months, and have tested all major AI Agents, ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, Perplexity, and DeepSeek, for their epistemic limits and their negative impact as information gate-keepers.... Today I decided to test for how AI could be the boon for humanity in other positive areas, such as in completely abstract realms, such as metaphysical thought. Meaning, I wanted to test the LLMs for Positives beyond what most researchers benchmark these for, or have expressed in the approx. 2500 Turing tests in Humanity?s Last Exam.. And I chose as my first candidate, Google DeepMind's Gemini as I had not evaluated it before on anything.

offsite link Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem finally Admits It is Genocide releasing Our Genocide report Fri Aug 01, 2025 23:54 | 1 of indy
We have all known it for over 2 years that it is a genocide in Gaza
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has finally admitted what everyone else outside Israel has known for two years is that the Israeli state is carrying out a genocide in Gaza

Western governments like the USA are complicit in it as they have been supplying the huge bombs and missiles used by Israel and dropped on innocent civilians in Gaza. One phone call from the USA regime could have ended it at any point. However many other countries are complicity with their tacit approval and neighboring Arab countries have been pretty spinless too in their support

With the release of this report titled: Our Genocide -there is a good chance this will make it okay for more people within Israel itself to speak out and do something about it despite the fact that many there are actually in support of the Gaza

offsite link China?s CITY WIDE CASH SEIZURES Begin ? ATMs Frozen, Digital Yuan FORCED Overnight Wed Jul 30, 2025 21:40 | 1 of indy
This story is unverified but it is very instructive of what will happen when cash is removed
THIS STORY IS UNVERIFIED BUT PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO OR READ THE TRANSCRIPT AS IT GIVES AN VERY GOOD IDEA OF WHAT A CASHLESS SOCIETY WILL LOOK LIKE. And it ain't pretty

A single video report has come out of China claiming China's biggest cities are now cashless, not by choice, but by force. The report goes on to claim ATMs have gone dark, vaults are being emptied. And overnight (July 20 into 21), the digital yuan is the only currency allowed.

The Saker >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Two-Tier Justice on Full Display as Epping Protesters Get Longer Sentences Than Sex Attacker Whose C... Wed Oct 08, 2025 19:36 | Will Jones
Two-tier justice was on full display as three Epping protesters received longer prison sentences than the asylum seeker whose sex attack on a child they were protesting about, says Laurie Wastell.
The post Two-Tier Justice on Full Display as Epping Protesters Get Longer Sentences Than Sex Attacker Whose Crime They Were Protesting appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link British Steel Industry Faces ?Existential Threat? as EU Hikes Tariffs to 50% Despite Starmer?s ?EU R... Wed Oct 08, 2025 17:23 | Will Jones
Britain?s Net Zero-ravaged steel industry is facing an "existential threat" as the EU threatens the UK with tariffs of up to 50% despite Keir Starmer's recent 'EU reset' giveaway on fishing rights and youth mobility.
The post British Steel Industry Faces “Existential Threat” as EU Hikes Tariffs to 50% Despite Starmer’s ‘EU Reset’ Giveaway appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Fightback Against Politicised Art Has Begun Wed Oct 08, 2025 15:27 | Ferro
The public's indifference to art has never been greater. No wonder, says Ferro: it's all just tired Left-progressive politics by another means. But the fightback for real art that moves the human soul has begun.
The post The Fightback Against Politicised Art Has Begun appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Upon This Ice I Will Build My Church, Says Leo XIV Wed Oct 08, 2025 13:00 | James Alexander
Not until Leo XIV did we have a picture of a holy man staring at an ice cube with his hand on it, respectfully gazing as if imagining the whisky that could go with such a rock, says Prof James Alexander.
The post Upon This Ice I Will Build My Church, Says Leo XIV appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Sir Lenny Henry Wants ?18 Trillion of Slavery Reparations Wed Oct 08, 2025 11:17 | Sallust
Sir Lenny Henry has called for Britain to pay ?18 trillion in reparations to black people, arguing in a new book that high rates of black crime and unemployment are "all because of the slave trade".
The post Sir Lenny Henry Wants ?18 Trillion of Slavery Reparations appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Ireland increases it's Wind Power Capacity by 50% in 2006, Europe by 23%

category international | environment | other press author Tuesday February 06, 2007 11:24author by Terence - None Report this post to the editors

It's still not enough to counteract our recent rise in CO-2 emissions.

According to the latest statistics released by the European Wind Energy Association www.ewea.org, Ireland's wind power capacity increased by 50% last year bringing us from 495 MW (megawatts) to 745 MW. Meanwhile for Europe as a whole, new records were broken again and capacity installed for last year by 23% or 7,588 MW over the 2005 figure. Cumulatively total capacity increased by 19% with the total for Europe now over 48,000 MW.
One of the Wind Turbines at Cahore Point in Co. Wexford
One of the Wind Turbines at Cahore Point in Co. Wexford

Europe accounts for more than 50% of World capacity and is way ahead of the USA. In recent years, the top three countries Germany, Spain and Denmark accounted for much of the growth but this growth is now spreading to a wider group that includes the UK, France, Portugal, Ireland, Netherlands and Austria.

Quoting from the report:

‘Excluding the three pioneering countries – Germany, Spain and Denmark - we have experienced a six-fold increase in the annual market in four years. The figures clearly confirm that a second wave of European countries is investing in wind power. We are now witnessing the strong effect of the EU Renewable Electricity Directive passed in 2001 and, once again, urge the European Commission and the Council to introduce safeguard measures that ensure legal stability for renewable electricity in Europe...

..With 2,233 MW installed during 2006, a 23% increase compared to 2005, Germany passed the 20,000 MW mark.

Spain was the second largest market in 2006, with 1,587 MW. France moved up to third place in 2006 (from sixth place in 2005), with 810 MW installed during the year - more capacity than has previously been commissioned in the entire history of the French market. This reflects increasing success by developers in getting their projects off the ground.

Once again, Portugal performed well, with 694 MW of new capacity, more than in any previous year. With a further 1,063 MW already under construction, according to the research institute INEGI, the Portuguese market should be well on the way to meeting the government target of more than 3,750 MW by 2010.

With 634 MW installed in 2006, the UK also had another record year. Total installed capacity increased by 47%, taking one of Europe’s windiest countries close to 2,000 MW. The Italian market continued to perform well, with a further 417 MW installed, whilst Ireland set a new record with 250 MW, increasing its total capacity by 50%.


But without knowing what these figures mean they begin to sound like Soviet era announcements of annual grain harvest statistics, so I will atempt to put this in perspective.

Firstly in relation to Ireland, our electrical capacity is about 4,500 MW. So with a wind capacity now standing at 745 MW, this would suggest 16.5% of our energy is now from wind. But not quite so, because what is called the utility factor for wind power is much lower than others forms of power generaton. For coal, gas, oil, nuclear, you can probably run these for around 70 to 90% of the time, depending on demand and maintenance. For wind, the average utilty factor has only be around 26% although some sites will be better than others. This is because of two factors. One is that the wind does now blow all the time. In fact it is about half the time and the other is that it does not blow hard enough to all the time that it is windy for the wind turbine to output at the maximum power that it is designed for. Obviously we have light, moderate and strong winds. And the amount of power in wind is proportional to the wind speed cubed. So basically as the winds slacken the amount of power drops off dramatically. So the net effect is that for wind power, 1 MW of capacity is not the same as 1 MW of say coal capacity. You probably need to build somewhere between double and trible the amount of capacity of wind to replace the same given amount for other forms of power generaton. So the average amount of wind powered electricity in Ireland is probably somewhere between 7 to 10%, where on the best days this can rise to 16% or so while on others it will essentially fall to nothing.

And according to the EWEA press release, overall for Europe, last years capacity increases are reckoned to produce approximately 100 Twh (Terrawatt hours) of electricity, equal to 3.3% of Europe's total electrical consumption. In fact this figure can be calculated as follows.

365 days x 24 hours x 25% utilty factor x 48,000 MW (total Europe capacity) = 105,120,000 = 105 TWh (Note: 1 TWh = 1,000,000 MWh)

What this 3.3% figure hides is the fact that this figure is actually a good deal higher for the top wind power countries in Europe: Germany (20,000 MW), Spain (11,615 MW) and Denmark (3,136 MW) and a lot lower for many other countries like Belgium (193 MW), Finland (86 MW) and especially the East European ones with the net effect of driving down the average. The good news is that all of these are beginning to show signs of springing into life and following the leads of the pioneers.

For reference it is worth remembering that a typical modern nuclear plant is usually built with a capacity of 1000 MW and a typical coal plant being anywhere from 500 MW to 1000 MW. And at the end of 2003 the Europe total installed capacity for all forms of electrical power was 656,000 MW which has probably increased a bit since then. Taking the 48,000 MW for Wind this is about 7%, but utility factor as we know means the wind power capacity is effectively half or more, which brings the 7% down to around 3% which agrees reasonably well with the figure above.

In summary what this report confirms is that wind power is growing rapidly, more countries are getting involved, it's making a difference, but the overall capacity is still low in absolute figures compared to what is there. Yet the targets set many years ago for 2010 have been exceeded and raised at least twice in the past. It also shows that legislation like EU Renewable Energy Directive 2001 really do make a difference. On the negative side there have been reports of fairly rampant specualation in some areas with wind parks being developed in unsuitable areas and suffering low utility factors because of bad sites and insufficient wind.

The press release can be found at the URL below

Related Link: http://www.ewea.org/index.php?id=94
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy