“China invested almost twice as much in clean energy projects last year compared with the US, and has emerged as the world’s market leader in installed wind power capacity in 2009”. An impressive opening by the last issue of the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices, released by Ernst & Young. The US, despite the increasing likelihood that the clean energy bill will not pass before the November mid-term elections and the lowest installed wind capacity last quarter since 2007, is placed as the second most attractive country in the world to invest in renewable energy.
On one side, two countries have experimented a two point increase in the index, India and UK, due to Government’s injection (US$ 1 billion) in the green economy by the former, and the government plans to launch a £2 billion “green investment bank” fund by the latter. On the other side, “Greece, Spain and Portugal have all suffered negative score changes due to worsening capital markets and a downward revision of sovereign credit ratings by Standard and Poor (S&P)”, stresses the report.
The report shows that China is now tied with America as the most attractive location in which to invest in renewable energy projects. The report looks at the "Shift to green" and challenges for renewable support mechanisms.
The Country Attractiveness Indices track the relative attractiveness of 27 countries’ renewable energy markets across a selection of technologies each quarter. The Ernst & Young index tracks and scores investment in renewable energy, all renewables, long-term on or off-shore solar photovoltaic, concentrated solar power, biomass, geothermal and infrastructure. Since 2003, the Ernst & Young Energy and Environmental Infrastructure Advisory team has been releasing quarterly data that ranks national renewable energy markets, and their suitability for individual technologies.
Via: EY
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Canada has been frequently criticized by green groups for not doing enough to protect the environment and for allowing emissions of greenhouse gases to rise steadily over the last two decades. Probably they are right to be upset. According to US Department of Energy’s Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), Canada was in 2006 the 10th highest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases in the world (16,7 metric tons), and the 8th highest in total emissions (545 million metric tons).
But green groups might have a reason to be partially happier. The good news is that Environment Minister Jim Prentice said last Wednesday (23th of June) that Canada will phase out older coal-fired power plants to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. The not so good news is that the country will move to make natural-gas fired plants the new clean-power standard.
Canada will require electricity producers newer facilities to match the lower greenhouse gas emissions of more efficient natural-gas fired plants by establishing new standards which are expected to be firmed up by early 2011. The measure is expected to reduce emissions by 15 million metric tons, the equivalent of taking 3.2 million vehicles off the road.
Nowadays, 19 percent of the country’s electricity, and 13 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions, is being produced by 51 coal-fired units. However, 33 of those plants will reach the end of their economic lives by 2025. Unless the operators make substantial investments to cut emissions from the aging facilities, they’ll be required to shut down.
Along with the proposed regulations, Prentice also announced the government would contribute C$400 million (US$384 million) for its share of a fund set up under the Copenhagen accord to help impoverished countries cope with climate change.
In the international year of biodiverstiy the EU is encouraging industry, governments and NGOs to set up certifications schemes to ensure biofuels help cut emissions and do not threaten biodiversity.
Under the EU Renewable Energy Directive, established in 2009, the 27 members set the target of ensuring that 20% of its energy consumption will come from renewable sources by 2020. The directive also required nations to ensure that renewables accounted for 10% of the energy used in the transport sector. According to the EU, renewables include solid biomass, wind, solar energy and hydro power as well as biofuels.
In a statement realeased last June 10th, the European Commission declared that only biofuels that meet the EU’s sustainability requirements can count towards the targets in the Directive, to be fulfilled in 2020.
The prospect of fueling computing centers with cow manure may sound absurd, but according to a newly released study by Hewlett-Packard, it is not only feasible but in fact quite beneficial for all parties involved.
Data centers, housing information technology (IT) equipment in controlled environments, are becoming increasingly crucial to our modern, Internet and computer-dependent society. They require large amounts of energy to operate, a source of which may have been under their noses all along.
Data transfer technology has improved and quickened such that the physical location of large computing centers has become less contingent on proximity to cities and centers of commerce. In the search for cheaper land on which to build ever-bigger data centers, the trend among companies such as Google and Microsoft has been to relocate to rural areas of the U.S. In many cases they are the new neighbors of dairy farmers, who for their part are searching for ways to get rid of vast amounts of manure by selling it for the creation of biogas.
Harnessing the energy of ocean waves could be the next step in the search for viable renewable energy sources. New wave energy harnessing technology is now being tested in a research tank in Gosport, UK in the form of an 8-meter long rubber “snake” appropriately called Anaconda. A full-sized 200-meter working version could be functional in just five years, as Checkmate Seaenergy plans to commercialize the device. Estimates are that each full-sized Anaconda could produce enough electricity to power 1000 homes.
Anaconda is a rubber mechanism that floats at the water’s surface and is filled with fresh water – in order to keep ocean organisms from making it their home – then sealed at both ends. As waves move along the tube, which is tethered to the sea floor at one end, they create “bulge waves” by forcing the water inside to expand outward where there is less pressure. Each bulge moves along the inside of the tube just in front of the sea wave and as it reaches the end of Anaconda, it spins a turbine thus generating electricity.
How should new technologies be valued to analyze their feasibility? Global action should redefine cultural values of sustainability and its real cost. Local responsibilities should lead the change and create legal frameworks that enhance the internalization of the new paradigms from a financial point of view.
Current pollution problems, expected future shortage of fuel supply, and climate change lead us to search for sustainable solutions. How can these solutions be implemented? Will the effort be worth it? Or would time be wasted with technologies that would not turn out to be sustainable?
History shows that every bet on new technologies is a constant process of trial and error. Take a look at the Industrial Revolution. Man created machines based on fossil fuels with the purposes of improving efficiency in global production and increasing the standard of living (trial), and now comes the time when conscience of the unfavorable consequences arises: pollution problems and shortage of fuel supply (error). This shows the difficulty in measuring the impacts of changes made in a complex system.
The moral of centuries of trials and errors should be clear: when facing a problem it should not be enough to propose any solution without thinking of the externalities associated to neglecting its sustainability.
Which is the value of a technology?
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Construction began in 2006, and it will be finished later this year. The architecture firm behind this 71-story high building is Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The skyscraper will be home to the China National Tobacco Corporation.
Let’s see, this building will include solar panels, wind turbines, greywater recycling, efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning, among other features.
The Pearl River Tower will have motorized louvers that open or close according to the position of the sun, and the interior and exterior temperatures. These help keep the building cool, and provide ventilation.
As for the wind turbines, they will generate 4% of the tower’s power. Together with the solar panels, the turbines will power the HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning).
On the whole, the building will be 58% more energy efficient than conventional skyscrapers.
The team is from Tianjin University, and their house has been called “Sunflower”, and it also uses solar energy, thanks to which it doesn’t need to be connected to the grid.
This year’s Solar Decathlon will be held in Spain, in June.
Among the Sunflower’s sustainable features are its energy efficient kitchen and its recycling toilet system. Part of its exterior is covered in solar panels. I’ll be posting more details when they become available.
VIA: Ecofriend
Waste is trash, garbage, a problem, a nuisance. But it can also be an energy source. By using trash as an energy source we are being smart, we are imitating nature with its cyclical processes. Waste comes from somewhere; waste is a left-over which required energy to be produced. So instead of just dumping it, we should be profiting from it, instead of throwing it away and contaminating our world.
Now, there are scientists and people around the world who are already studying and exploring waste as an energy source. Among them is the University of Zaragoza, in Spain, where researchers have analyzed “the energy and economic potential of urban solid waste, sludge from water treatment plants and livestock slurry for generating electricity in Spain”. It turns out waste could generate up to 7% of electricity in Spain. Huh…
Since the late 80s, Raphaël Domjan has been trying to tour the world on a ship with low energy consumption. He tried different methods until he bumped into solar power and did not stop until he got the required funding and equipment. He was finally able to develop the PlanetSolar, which is the largest ship powered by solar energy. Next year he will set sail to make his long-awaited trip around the world alongside Frenchman Gerard d’Aboville.
The PlanetSolar is a catamaran with three hulls, which has 500 m2 of photovoltaic panels. They generate 103.4 kw of power. The good news is that the engine only needs 20 kw to achieve an average speed of eight knots.
The week before last, the ship was first shown in Kiel, Germany.
The PlanetSolar has two engines, it is 31 meters long by 15 wide and is capable of carrying 50 people. The approximate cost was 18 million euro.
Sweden has for years been working to lower its dependence on fossil fuels for energy, while investing and developing renewable energies. Last week, the Enterprise and Energy Minister Maud Olofsson announced that 2,000 new wind turbines will be built during the next decade. This will help Sweden reach its goal of being supplied by renewable energies 50% by 2020.
The project to build 2,000 wind turbines is intended to add 10 terawatt hours (TWh) a year. One terawatt is one trillion watts.
"This would be the highest share in the world," Olofsson said. No other country has such a high share of renewable energies. Actually, Sweden is already one of the most advanced countries in terms of usage of renewable energy. “Renewable energy makes up 40 percent of our energy consumption”.
Oil accounts for one third of Sweden’s energy system. In the 70s, oil represented more than 70% of the total energy supply. Thanks to diversification of fuels and an increasingly efficient use of energy, this percentage keeps going down.
Nowadays, around half of the electricity comes from hydropower, and nuclear power also plays an important role.
Among the renewable energies that have been growing in Sweden are biomass and wind energy. Biomass is very much used for heating. In fact, bio-energy has been growing very much in the last decades. In the 80s, it accounted for around 10% of the total energy supply; in 2004 that share had risen to 16% or 100 TWh. Some of the biofuels used include wood fuels, black liquors and tall oil pitches, and ethanol.
An interesting tool which is used by the Swedish government is the green electricity certificate system. Energy suppliers need to have a quota of renewable energy. The goal of this Renewable electricity with green certificates Bill is to foster the development of renewable electricity production. There are established targets of renewable energy growth rates which help determine quotas. Renewable energy producers are given certificates for every MWh of electricity produced, which can be bought by electricity suppliers, who need to complete their quota obligation.
VIA: Treehugger
Seattle has been working hard to be more environmentally friendly for years now. It is one of America’s more advanced cities in terms of sustainability. Last week, the City Council announced that Seattle aims at becoming carbon neutral by 2030. The city will analyze the feasibility of making this ambitious project a reality.
Let’s look at what Seattle has done so far.
In 2005, the city’s mayor, Greg Nickels, launched Seattle’s Climate Protection Initiative. This helped maintain the city’s already existent environmental programs. By 2008, greenhouse gas emissions were 7% below 1990 levels, meeting Kyoto’s targets. This stands out even more when we consider that Seattle has grown 16% since 1990.
Environmental actions are organized in different fronts.
The most challenging area is transportation which accounts for around 40% of Seattle’s GHG emissions. So what is being done? The car as a means of transport is intended to be increasingly replaced by alternative methods. Walking and biking are encouraged. Last year, Seattle adopted the Pedestrian Master Plan, which works specifically on fostering walking and improving conditions, such as better sidewalks. Regarding biking, there are now 201 miles of bike lanes. “The Bicycle Master Plan calls for Seattle’s bike system to more than double in size, stretching 450 miles.” Hopefully, biking as a means of transport will continue to grow; between 2007 and 2009, it grew 15%.
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