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Arctic Eclipse

Greg Chaffins

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NASA Picture of the Day

"NASA's Terra satellite was rounding the top of the globe, making its way from the eastern tip of Siberia and across the Arctic Ocean towards northern Norway and northwest Russia, when it captured this unique view of a total solar eclipse on Aug. 1, 2008.

In the area shown in the image, the sun was completely obscured for about two minutes. As Earth rotated, the shadow moved southeast across the surface. At the same time, the satellite crossed the Arctic with its path nearly perpendicular to the eclipse."

Image Credit: NASA

Norway Will Soon Have First Offshore Wind Turbine

Greg Chaffins

floatingturbine Imagine a sea of wind turbines (literally), generating energy for a nation.  This might be possible eventually, and off of Norway in 2009 you should find the Hywind project bobbing along, creating power from the wind.

The turbine is a 2.3 megawatt Siemens machine that towers 65 ft in height and is held in place by three anchors. The turbine as designed can work in depths from 120 to 700 meters.

The ideal of offshore wind turbines is not a new ideal, but there are several technical problems to be worked out before it will be practical.

Alexandra Bech Gjørv, the head of new energy at StatoilHydro, related to some of the challenges in a statement:

"The wind turbines must work satisfactorily even when subjected to movements, and it must also be possible to carry out necessary maintenance to the highest of safety standards". 

Given the real estate demand that is growing all the time, it would seem natural that off shore wind turbine technology will continue to be explored until a strong solution is found.

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