California, the state that has long symbolized the American Dream, is once again turning to wind energy and other renewables to power its future energy needs.

Earlier this week, Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation that requires utility companies operating in the state to get as much as 33% of their electricity from wind power, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2020.

A new electricity cable – the first to link the UK and the Netherlands and the first cable to be constructed from the UK to another country in 25 years – went live earlier this month, the National Grid reports.

The 260km-long high voltage cable runs between the Isle of Grain in Kent and Maasvlakte near Rotterdam. It is intended to improve the security of electricity supply and “enable the integration of electricity generated by wind farms on the European continent and the UK into the European and UK-grid”, National Grid said.

Spain was Europe’s leading producer of wind energy last year with a total production of 42,976 gigawatt-hours, replacing Germany in the top spot, according to the Spanish Wind Energy Association AEE.

Last year some 16.4% of Spain’s electricity demand was met by wind power, AEE have declared.

Germany – where wind power covered 6.2% of the electricity demand in 2010 – still remains Europe’s number one in terms of installed wind power capacity with 27,214 megawatts, while Spain has 20,676 MW.

The world’s continued dependence on fossil fuels is threatening political stability, economic recovery and environmental sustainability, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has told a global forum on the transition to a clean energy economy.

“To break this dependency, the world needs a clean energy revolution,” Nobuo Tanaka added in a foreword to the IEA’s first Clean Energy Progress Report, which was presented last week in Abu Dhabi at the second Clean Energy Ministerial meeting.

The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and two Chinese energy associations have just released a new much higher total for wind power installed in China last year.

GWEC, along with the Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA) and the Chinese Renewable Energy Industry Association (CREIA), issued a press release on Wednesday saying that China added 18.9 GW of new capacity in 2010, up from the 16.5 GW estimate released earlier.