U.S. added 5,243 megawatts of wind power to the U.S. electric grid, the largest amount ever added by a single country in a single year. In 2007, the countries with the highest total installed capacity were Germany, the United States, Spain, India, and China.

Wind energy is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions when it displaces fossil-fuel-derived electricity. By 2010, the World Wind Energy Association expects 160GW of capacity to be installed worldwide.

Here is forbes list of top 5 America’s Best Places For Wind Power Alternative Energy

1. Alaska
2. Texas
3. Kansas
4. Nebraska
5. Montana
[ Best Places For Alternative Energy ]

What Is Ozone And How Is It Formed?

A gaseous layer (O3 ) in the upper atmosphere that protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. At lower levels, ozone becomes a major pollutant.

"The ozone layer" refers to the ozone within stratosphere, where over 90% of the earth’s ozone resides. Ozone is an irritating, corrosive, colorless gas with a smell something like burning electrical wiring. In fact, ozone is easily produced by any high-voltage electrical arc (spark plugs, Van de Graaff generators, Tesla coils, arc welders). Each molecule of ozone has three oxygen atoms and is produced when oxygen molecules (O2) are broken up by energetic electrons or high energy radiation.

Troposphere - Stratosphere

The earth’s atmosphere is composed of several layers. We live in the "Troposphere" where most of the weather occurs; such as rain, snow and clouds. Above the troposphere is the "Stratosphere"; an important region in which effects such as the Ozone Hole and Global Warming originate. Supersonic jet airliners such as Concorde fly in the lower stratosphere whereas subsonic commercial airliners are usually in the troposphere. The narrow region between these two parts of the atmosphere is called the "Tropopause".

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Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines.

Although wind currently produces about 1% of world-wide electricity use,it accounts for approximately 19% of electricity production in Denmark, 9% in Spain and Portugal, and 6% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland (2007 data).

Advantages

• Wind is free, wind farms need no fuel.
• Produces no waste or greenhouse gases.
• The land beneath can usually still be used for farming.
• A good method of supplying energy to remote areas

Disadvantages

• The wind is not always predictable - some days have no wind.
• Suitable areas for wind farms are often near the coast, where land is expensive.
• Wind turbines are noisy. Each one can generate the same level of noise as a family car travelling at 70 mph.
  
• Many people see large wind turbines as unsightly structures and not pleasant or interesting to look at.
• They disfigure the countryside and are generally ugly.
  When wind turbines are being manufactured some pollution is produced. Therefore wind power does produce some pollution.

The Green Revolution

The Green Revolution refers to the transformation of agriculture that began in 1943 in the developing world, and led in some places to significant increases in agricultural production between the 1940s and 1960s. The Green Revolution has had major social and ecological impacts.

• With the experience of agricultural development begun in Mexico judged as a success, the Rockefeller Foundation sought to spread the Green Revolution to other nations.
• In 1961 India was on the brink of mass famine. Indian state of Punjab was selected by the Indian government to be the first site to try the new crops because of its reliable water supply and a history of agricultural success. India began its own Green Revolution program of plant breeding, irrigation development, and financing of agrochemicals.
• India soon adopted IR8 - a rice variety developed by the International Rice Research Institute that could produce more grains of rice per plant when grown properly with fertilizer and irrigation.
• In the 1960s, rice yields in India were about two tons per hectare; by the mid-1990s, they had risen to six tons per hectare. In the 1970s, rice cost about $550 a ton; in 2001, it cost less than $200 a ton. India became one of the world’s most successful rice producers, and is now a major rice exporter, shipping nearly 4.5 million tons in 2006.

It’s Time for a second green revolution in view of the global food crisis.

How to grow more food on the same amount of land: the challenge has been a constant in human history. New answers have allowed growth in population and in living standards, but with today’s surge in food prices the need to raise agricultural productivity is once again pressing. To grow more food is possible – but dogmatism about how or where to do so would be unwise.

More on FT.com [Time for a second green revolution] and [wikipedia]

image credit : greenschool.org