Energy and the Environment-A Coastal Perspective

Google is joining forces with Good Energies, the Japanese trading firm Marubeni and the Maryland transmission company Trans-Elect to lay a massive offshore transmission line along the Atlantic coast. This electricity “backbone” is the first such private investment of its kind in the US. Much of the financial impetus behind the renewable energy market in […]

The ocean covers over 75% of Earth’s surface, yet is an extremely sensitive area. It is home to some of the most unique organisms that need a specific environment to grow. The constant state it has been in for thousands of years has allowed the marine organisms we see today grow and thrive. Increases in […]

It seems that offshore wind farms are starting to become the best alternative to fossil fuels.  They produce zero carbon dioxide emissions and studies have shown that their presence could potentially increase the biodiversity of an area and eventually help the fisheries around the wind farms.  However, a French engineering firm has discovered that wind […]

Some of the world’s leaders in energy include Denmark, where 50% of generated energy in the country comes from wind power, and Iceland, which uses almost 100% geothermal energy; even Germany has broken a recent record in the amount of generated solar energy. However, Hawaii may be joining the ranks of renewable energy. Although currently […]

A CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) study released on July 25, 2012 in Australia has shown that wave power could have a high potential in Australia’s oceans.  The study proposes that wave power could eventually produce enough energy to provide up to 10 percent of Australia’s total energy needs and by 2050, could […]

A new windfarm has been planned for the Irish Sea, and an initial proposal for the project has been submitted to the National Infrastructure Planning Agency of the UK government as of July 14, 2012.  The proposed windfarm may generate up to 2.2 gigawatts and include between 147 and 440 turbines.  The windfarm is a […]

I read an article about a new radar project the UK government has started.  A new radar satellite, NovaSar-S, would be used that would able to see the sea surface at all times, regardless of the weather, cloud cover or time.  Some of the things the satellite will be used for are to monitor ships […]

Network for Endangered Sea Turtles (N.E.S.T.) is a program on the Outer Banks of North Carolina that aims to protect threatened and endangered species of sea turtles. N.E.S.T. started as a volunteer group who all wanted to help protect the local sea turtle hatchlings and they became a non-profit organization in 1995. A variety of […]

This past weekend, I was in West Virginia visiting family like I do every summer. I hadn’t seen everyone in a while so they all asked how I had been doing and were curious about what I had been up to lately. I explained to my cousin that I was taking an environmental science class […]

While exploring NASA’s website, a featured story about the Petermann Glacier breaking off caught my attention. This glacier is located on the northwest coast of Greenland and, like most glaciers ending in the ocean, ice chunks periodically break off and fall into the sea. In 2010, a massive iceberg, or ice island, broke away. Now […]