The hot air of hypocrisy

One year ago the European Union leaders reviewed their plan to lead the world in the fight against climate change. They agreed to make deep cuts in carbon emissions, even if other rich countries did not follow. They put out a signal to the rest of the world: "Europe will start saving the planet now, even if the selfish Americans are not ready." Bigger cuts were promised if other countries joined in.

But that was then. A year on, leaders from countries with powerful heavy-industry lobbies called for explicit measures to “protect” European firms, in case talks on a global climate-change deal failed. The most important European countries all asked the EU to plan for failure, insisting that defensive measures must be agreed before climate-change talks in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.
Demanding “certainty” today for businesses that have to make long-term investment decisions, the heads of governments asked for a list of energy-intensive industries “particularly exposed to international competition”. Industries making steel, aluminium, paper, chemicals and bricks were all cited.
The excuses were that heavy industry would move to countries with “lower standards” unless helped to stay. Witch really means that they are afraid that the carbon-spewing firms might move to places with weaker environmental laws.
If Europe lets favored industries fight Chinese or Indian rivals with a “race to the bottom” on emissions, that means other bits of the economy must slash emissions even more. If you do the right thing, you will not be on a level playing-field with those doing the wrong thing.

Hopefully Europe will change their attitude of today and try to realize the words they’ve said last year.

Source

How green is the world?

Evaluating Dubai's island-reclamation project.

New artificial islands, known as “The World”, are part of a plan to create hundreds of kilometres of new waterfront for Dubai, attracting visitors and wealthy home-owners from around the (real) world. These 300 islands you can find just off Dubai's coast.


All of the artificial islands are built (by Nakheel) the same way. Masses of sand are gathered from the seafloor of the Arabian Gulf. The sand is then brought to Dubai and sprayed in a giant arc onto the shallow (10.5 meter) seabed off the coast. The sand piles up until it breaks through the surface of the water and forms an island about 4.5m high. Then a massive breakwater is built around the islands to protect them from the stiff local sea currents. It is expensive work: each development typically costs billions of dollars.

But those gigantic works bring some negative effects with them :
The intensive construction of Palm Jumeirah created vast plumes of sediment that turned blue seawater milky and temporarily damaged marine life. It also destroyed turtle nesting sites and the only known coral reef along Dubai’s coast.
However, Nakheel says that, in the end, the balance will be positive. He promisses that the environmental impact will be better than before..
Of course we have to wait and see that first.

The question that most people will have is of course :
"Do artificial structures in the ocean actually promote more life, or do they simply attract it?"
It's difficult to give an answer to that question, because people have a different idea of this situation. What we can say is, that those artificial islands will always be good for one thing but bad for the other...

We can't say that The World and the other islands are a green paradise at this time, and
as our climate continues to change, thanks at least in part to the addition of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, sea levels will probably keep rising, turning low-lying islands into something less than a paradise...

SOURCE

Please buy our dirty oil

Mar 13th 2008 OTTAWA

A new American law could limit oil-sands production in Alberta.

There will appear an American law to prohibit American government agencies from buying crude produced in the oil sands of the western province. Canada, biggest supplier of oil in America, wasn’t meant to be discriminated by the Energy Independence and Security Act 2007. It’s just the effect of banning federal agencies from buying alternative or synthetic fuel if their production and use results in more greenhouse gases than conventional oil.

The Canadian government wants to secure an exception. The Canadian ambassador, Michael Wilson, has written to the secretary of defence stressing American dependence on Canadian oil, electricity, natural gas and uranium imports and noting that the biggest players in the oil are American companies.

John Baird, the Canadian environment minister, has new proposals to reduce industrial emissions in Canada, including the oil sands by 20% by 2020. I guess it would be very good if that works. It’s a good action of Mr Baird. He says also that oil sands were an important national resource, but it had to be expanded in a nice way for the environment.

Canadians fear that the American purchasing restrictions is the start of a wholesale shift to greener as well as more protectionist policies that will be controlled by the Democrats. Also because energy exports drive the Canadian economy.

Source: www.theeconomist.com

Where is everybody?

Manufacturers struggle in southern China's industrial belt.

Nike factory in Dongguan (Guangdong province)

Throughout Guangdong province the managers of the factories thought that the lack of returning workers after the Chinese New Year break in early February was because they had been delayed by the huge blizzard that disrupted rail and power lines, and left roads impassable.
But now, when the mess is cleaned up, it's clear that the vast annual migration is beginning to diminish. Now the question is : What's the reason for this?

Research reckons that between 10% and 30% of the workers did not return after the holiday.
So many factories are reeling. Wages, who were already rising, will surely go up further, adding to surging costs for credit, materials, energy, environmental compliance and health care.
The situation looks not so positive at the moment, meanwhile revenues are falling due to slowing demand from America and a reduction, following pressure from other countries, in China's complex system of export subsidies.
Estimations say 10-20% of the 70,000 factories in Guangdong province had closed in the past year, and expected a similar number to close within the next two years. Two-thirds of those polled said they were unsure whether to invest more in the region; one-third planned to cut investment. There are not a lot op positive reactions from the factories in that area.

The hope is that the gaps in Guangdong will be filled by factories producing more sophisticated, high-value products (instead of dirty, low-paying industries) that are cleaner and less energy-intensive to produce. There are signs that this is indeed happening.

But what is now the reason of the reduced flow of migrant workers?
Factories are opening up in China's interior, providing opportunities for those in rural areas to find employment closer to home, rather than having to leave their families for an entire year.
This is more than probably the main reason, but other reasons are not excluded, such as the poor working conditions..

Hopefully this situation is getting back stable for the future, because China is ofcourse a very important trade partner for the entire world!

SOURCE

China must learn to do more with less

Since the late 1970s China’s energy intensity began to fall due to the replacement of the heavy industry by the export sector that used far less power. Between 1978 and 2000 the energy intensity dropped by two-thirds. That is why the policymakers did not even have to try to encourage sparing use of resources, it just happened naturally.

Until 2002 when the virtuous cycle went into reverse. The energy consumption suddenly began to grow one-and-a-half times as fast. The authorities were taken by surprise and didn’t react immediately. But not only the authorities were surprised, so were the global commodities markets. Resulting in rapid inflation continues to this day.
Although the authorities should have seen this coming, between 2000 and 2005 the share of metal-processing doubled and that of petrochemicals rose by two-thirds. Cement, glass, paper and other energy-intensive industries also boomed.
But why was there such a booming of the heavy industry? Economists offer two opposing, some believe that China has reached a stage in its development when labour becomes scarce and growth begins to rely more heavily on investments. The other opposing is that raising wages leads to higher incomes which leads to more spending power. So the people start to buy homes, cars and televisions. Resulting in a bigger need of natural resources.

For a lot of people economic growth is their first priority and not sparing energy. Do now China is importing even more environmental and social pressures along with the raw materials with which it fees its hungry industries.

Source

A bag full of sunshine

Portable light, when you hear this term you will probably think it’s about a flash light or something. But it’s a new invention to capture the sun’s rays by day and release them by night as useful light. It can be used wherever it’s needed. It’s a bag with solar cells with light-emitting diodes attached.
The bag can be carried around during daylight hours. In sunlight, the cells generate electricity that is stored in batteries. The solar cells themselves are made from a substance called copper indium gallium diselenide. Even though this is not quite as good at capturing sunlight as silicon, the material from which solar cells are usually made, but it’s less rigid and easier to work with. A working cell can be made by spreading a thin layer of the stuff on another material, such as a sheet of plastic. This results in a flexible and robust plastic bag.
The electricity that is generated by the solar cells is captured in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. They can store more energy per unit weight than other types, and do not lose their charge too rapidly if they go unused for long periods.

But when the bag is carried around parts of it will be in the shade while others are overwhelmed with sunlight. So the engineers devised a way to direct the energy where it is most needed together with a device that can stash away enough electricity to power the light-emitting diodes for ten hours after three hours in full sunlight.

Source

From geeks to greens

Feb 28th 2008 NEW YORK
Executives are switching in droves from the computer industry to clean-technology firms. Do they have what it takes to succeed?
Shai Agassi, long the heir apparent at SAP, doesn’t become chief executive and so he quit in the company. In January, he will have his first deal in partnership with Renault and the government of Israel. They want to get an entire country off its addiction to gasoline by switching to electric cars.

Mr Agassi will work together with Elon Musk, a co-founder of PayPal who is now chairman of Tesla Motors, an electric-car start-up. Another partner will be Vinod Khosla, a legendary venture capitalist who has switched his focus from dotcommery to greenery. Adam Grosser, a partner at Foundation Capital, said that there’s an unbelievable migration of talent from traditional technology to clean technology. They have had their social conscience energized and they believe that there is a lot of money to be made.

The most of these techies are being recruited by the same venture firms that had successive generations, from PC-makers to software companies to two waves of internet firms. Along with Foundation Capital, several of the leading venture firms are now betting on green.
There are questions if the skills that make somebody a successful entrepreneur or investor in digital technology also work with green technology. People also wonder if it will be possible to build an electric car in a garage? What a software guru brings to biofuels?

With this article, there are more good alternatives to lower the unhealthy gases. Cars cause a lot of gases so if they would be electric, it would be much better. Companies that bet more and more on green energy is how it should be by all the companies so the future looks good if they go on like that.

Source: http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10766460&CFID=8239820&CFTOKEN=6e4ce695eccc402e-938CD191-B27C-BB00-01430E2B051409A4

In search of the perfect battery.

Energy technology: Researchers are desperate to find a modern-day philosopher's stone: the battery technology that will make electric cars practical.


A couple of years ago eletric cars were supposed to herald a revolution. Many people thought this was the start of the modern mass-production of electric cars.
But its limited range, and the fact that it took many hours to recharge, among other reasons, convinced GM and other carmakers that had launched all-electric models to abandon their efforts a few years later.

Yet today about a dozen firms are once again developing all-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles (a well known example is the Toyota Prius - picture) capable of running on batteries for short trips (and, in the case of plug-in hybrids, firing up an internal-combustion engine for longer trips). So what has changed? Aside from growing concern about climate change and a surge in the oil price, the big difference is that battery technology is getting a lot better.

But the technology is not good enough. In fact, compared with computer chips, battery technology has improved very slowly over the years. The next step is rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which helped to make the mobile-phone revolution possible in the past decade, are now expected to power the increasing electrification of the car.
A big market awaits the firms that manage to adapt lithium-ion batteries for cars. Between now and 2015, 'insiders' saying the worldwide market for hybrid-vehicle batteries will more than triple.

Lithium-ion technology has a lot of advantages, but it still has weaknesses that makes those batteries not the perfect sollution for the future. Hopefully, one day, the scientists will finde a "superbattery" that is able to give power for a very long time and that will stay stable for a long period..
I certainly agree with people who say that, until now, batteries are one of the most hatefull things that are ever invented. Say your self, how many times is there a situation that, when you need those batteries, and there are out of power..

SOURCE

http://www.economist.com/search/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10789409

New Brunswick: project to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions for Nepisiguit-Chaleur Solid Waste Commission

FREDERICTON (CNB) – The Department of Environment is supporting with the New Brunswick Climate Action Fund. They have a new landfill gas flaring system and like that gas-emissions will be reduced.
The Nepisiguit-Chaleur Solid Waste Commission is getting an investment of $635,500 of the fund. In support of the construction of the new landfill gas flaring system at the Red Pine Landfill in Allardville, Environment Minister Roland Haché announced today.He says that their government is very pleased to invest in this green project which will bring a lot of reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions. The project will help them to be sustainable as well as keep their province positioned to become self-sufficient by 2026. It has also the potential to be expanded in a later phase to produce energy for electricity and heating buildings.
Haché says also that the New Brunswick Climate Action Fund is a financial resource that allows stakeholders to play a greater role in ensuring a sustainable environment. He encourages all the stakeholders in public and private sectors to help with the project so greenhouse-gas emissions in New Brunswick can be reduced.
The government launched the five-year plan in June 2007 and by these initiatives, greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 5.5 megatonnes in 2012. With the addition of federal initiatives, the plan will result in a reduction to 1990 levels in 2012. These achievements will position New
Brunswick to realize further reductions of 10 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

It's a very good project by my opinion. All the projects that are done to help the environment are very well, because it's good for us all. Like that their will be less pollution and less gas-emissions and that's how it should be.

Source: http://www.theenergynews.com/news/article.php?storyid=2395&newstype=gov

The power of concentration

A new type of power plant harnesses the sun—and taxpayers.

Acciona, a Spanish conglomerate, is due to inaugurate a new power plant a few miles from Las Vegas. The technology it uses, known as "concentrating solar power" (CSP), is hot right now, as the Hollywood luminaries might put it.
This all sounds really nice,but now we take a look how this system works, and which advantages it has..

Acciona's new plant, called "Nevada Solar One", can generate up to 64 megawatts (MW) - enough, it says, to power more than 14,000 homes. And.. More CSP plants, with a total capacity of 4,000MW, are in the pipeline and have signed contracts to sell their future output.
It looks like that those "powerplants" are going to be a big success!

As their name suggests, CSP plants generate electricity by concentrating the sun's rays, usually to boil water. The resulting steam drives turbines similar to those found at power plants that run on coal or natural gas. And there is not only one design, but there are more..
The Spanish plant uses a forest of smaller mirrors to focus light on a tower in their midst.

And what about pollution?
Solar power, of course, does not produce climate-changing greenhouse gases. But it also excites utilities because it generates the most power just when it is needed: on hot, sunny days when people turn on air conditioners.
But there is more. Some designs provide power round the clock, not just when the sun is shining, by storing energy in the form of molten salt. This means, that you don't really need the sun to provide solar power, which is offcourse a big advantage!

And maybe the most important thing, what does it cost?
CSP is still not as cheap as coal- or gas-fired plants, but in the long run, costs should come down.
And if fossil-fuel prices continue to increase and American power-plants have to start paying for their greenhouse-gas emissions, CSP might just achieve "grid parity" with the wholesale power price. That really would be an excuse for a party..

This kind of solar power, in a way that we didn't know it, is another great invention in our mission to use a much as possible green energy in this world. Offcourse we hope, and there's no doubt about it that, more of these inventions will follow...

SOURCE
http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=8780295&story_id=10727996

Ending a dammed nuisance

A Green world with a green way to produce energy that’s the purpose for the next years. But it’s not because a source is renewable that this means it’s also a green way.
The power of hydroelectric dams is renewable and the energy that’s produced is carbon-free. But there are also bad things about them. First of all they block a river which means they block the movement of fish upstream to spawn and the movement of silt downstream to fertilize fields. And the rising water overwhelms the vegetation and forms methane which is far worse than carbon dioxide.
But until now the dam was necessary to house the turbines that create the electricity and to provide a sufficient head of water pressure to drive them. Until now because they have developed a turbine that doesn’t need such a water-head to operate.
Alexander Gorlov was the first to create a turbine that could extract power without building a dam, in 2001 he won an award for his invention. Since this invention engineers have been improving his design.
The latest design is produced by OpenHydro, an Irish company. They have designed a new kind of turbine but also a new design of underwater electric generator. It looks like an open-centre turbine contained within a tube. The generators do not need lubricant, which considerably reduces the need for maintenance.
A lot of companies are already prepared to invest in new ways to generate green energy, so let’s hope this leads to a greener world.

Source: The economist