Photo via Sky News
You can’t help but have noticed that the Tall Ships Festival has been wowing spectators at Liverpool Docks the past week. The 60 vessels are now set to embark on the first leg of a five week race, taking in Northern Ireland, Norway and Holland along the way. The superb picture above got me thinking about the ships in conjunction with more modern uses for wind power. The wind has been powering ships for as long as the sun has warmed the sea, and the first recorded use of a rudimentary windmill was in the 1st Century AD when it was used to power an organ!

Nowadays, with Climate Change being high on political agendas as well as in peoples’ personal consciousness, wind power is seen as a green, eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear power. It uses no fuel, produces no carbon emissions and according to the BBC Weather Centre, the UK’s position in the world makes it a great place to utilise wind power. According to the British Wind Energy Association there is now legislation meaning that by 2010, 10% of the UK’s renewable energy must come from wind power, so keep your eyes peeled for a turbine near you.

It’s not just wind turbines, though, that can cut emissions and give us greener power, there is now a vast array of devices that harness the power of wind to power a range of devices and applications. Ethical Superstore has some fantastically innovative wind-powered chargers which can be used to power your mobile phone, mp3 player and camera among other things. Then there was the wind powered chargers available at Glastonbury this year, and recently, a new wind turbine design has not only won a sustainability award, but has been called the “affordable personal wind turbine suited to the urban environment”! Perfect for family homes and small shops!

So, next time you’re out shopping and your hair is blown all over the place, or you’re at the coast and the wind blows your fish and chips away, just think of all the ways in which you could be harnessing that power and making the most out of a green, clean, free energy source that we are all lucky to have access to just about every day!

I’ve been aware of this blog for a while now, and I’m surprised it’s not really been picked up by the regular media yet. Anyway, without further ado, introducing Mr. William Kamkwamba:

http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/williamkamkwamba/

He’s a student in Malawi. He’s also a bit of an engineer, and he’s built himself an enormous windmill to provide power for his family.

It’s a great blog about wind power in the developing world. It is also a fantastic example of sustainable technology and it’s a great story too.

I’ve already bought the film rights, and I’ll be releasing my movie, “William and the Windmill” in Summer 2008. So back off, Mr Peter Jackson.

Here’s a neat site that helps you share the message about switching to low energy compact fluorescent light bulbs.

www.asimpleswitch.com

Which reminds me, I need to buy a new bulb. The last old skool bulb in my house has now blown.

It’s handy for me that EthicalSuperstore.com stock a whole range of energy efficient bulbs for lots of different applications!

www.ethicalsuperstore.com/tags/bulbs

We’ve not had our daily update from Our Man at Glastonbury, which means that he’s either:

• been washed away
• got so drunk he’s lost his phone
• he’s dropped his phone down one of the infamous Glastonbury toilets and hasn’t been able to retrieve it
• the wandering Goths have carried him off and held him hostage
• the sun’s gone in and he can’t charge his phone up anymore

Which brings us neatly to gotwind.org

gotwind is a DIY website for renewable energy enthusiasts. For this year’s Glastonbury, Orange have commissioned them to build a working prototype of their portable tent mounted wind charger. Very cool. via New Consumer

How Ethical! thought that we might try and spot Our Man using one of the festival webcams, but it seems that the BBC’s camera is out of order at the minute. Found an alternative here, but it’s only showing an image from the 19th June*. Maybe we’ll have to e-mail the Glasto-PhotoBlog 2007 to see if they can spot him…

*Which I’ve subsequently discovered is using the BBC’s feed, which explains why it’s not working either.