Prince Charles: It’s Time to Solve the ‘Human Disaster’ of Plastics in the World’s Oceans

22.05.2017

plastic-bottles — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Britain’s Prince Charles is lending his clout to a $2 million competition to stop the 8 million tonnes of plastics entering our oceans each year.

The Prince of Wales has teamed up with Dame Ellen MacArthur and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt to launch the New Plastics Economy Innovation Prize to encourage the world’s brightest minds to come up with ideas to end marine litter—an issue described by Charles as an “escalating ecological and human disaster.”

The competition has two categories:

1. The $1 million Circular Design Challenge calls for new designs that avoid the generation of small-format plastic packaging waste, such as plastic wrappers, straws and coffee cup lids that are almost never recycled and end up clogging the environment.

2. The $1 million Circular Materials Challenge seeks ways to make all plastic packaging recyclable. For instance, food packaging can be made different materials fused together, making it hard to recycle. The challenge invites innovators to find alternative materials that could be recycled or industrially composted.

Prince Charles has long been outspoken about environmental issues and has been campaigning to end ocean trash for years.

“I was horrified to learn that, according to recent research, we collectively allow as much as 8 million tonnes of plastic to enter the oceans every year,” Charles said at a conference in Washington, DC on Thursday.

“Today, almost half of all marine mammals now have plastic in their gut and I know I am not the only person haunted by the tragic images of seabirds, particularly albatrosses, that have been found dead, washed up on beaches after mistaking a piece of plastic for a meal,” he added.

“The fact that a recent study estimates that by 2025 there will be one ton of plastic for every three tonnes of fish in the sea is not what I call encouraging!”

He pointed out that plastic pollution is a problem that can actually be solved.

“Unlike so many challenges that now confront us, there is a solution readily to hand and, speaking as a grandfather with a new grandchild due to appear in this world in a month’s time, I think we probably owe it to everyone else’s grandchildren to grasp that solution,” he said.

Source: ecowatch.com

These Two Words Can Solve the Climate Crisis

22.05.2017

climate-change- — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

If you want to see a solution to the climate crisis in your lifetime, they might be the two most important words you hear this year: carbon pricing.

Sure, the crisis is a complex challenge with no one solution. But while carbon pricing may not be a silver bullet, it’s one we’re going to need in the chamber—and critically, support is growing all along the political spectrum right when we need it.

First, a quick primer. Carbon pricing as a concept is basically just what it sounds like: attaching a market price to carbon pollution emitted from burning fossil fuels. From there, things get a little more complicated as there are several ways to do it.

Carbon Tax: The simplest approach, a carbon tax assigns a price to each unit of carbon emitted or the carbon content of a fuel, either for designated industries or entire societies. There’s a clear cause and effect: the more carbon you burn and emissions you put into the air, the more you pay. Plus, the price rises over time, gradually putting more and more pressure on people or industries to cut their emissions.

Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS): Usually called “cap-and-trade” in the U.S., the principle is that a state, provincial or national government establishes a market with a limit on how much a designated set of industries can emit in a year (the “cap” part). The government then distributes and/or sells allowances to emit a certain amount to everyone in the market. If a company, for example, is going to emit more than it originally bought, it has to buy more from someone else in the market who’s not planning to emit as much (the “trade” part).

Fuel Tax: This is where a government will directly tax a fuel based on the amount of say, coal itself, rather than the carbon it produces when burned.

Hybrid Instruments: An increasingly popular option, hybrid instruments combine elements of a carbon tax and an ETS.

There’s more to say about each of these—and we’ve put together the 2017 Handbook on Carbon Pricing Instruments to say it—but the important thing is that each uses market forces to encourage people or companies to burn less carbon—and so put less pollution driving climate change into the air.

There’s a flip side in that introducing some form of carbon pricing in turn makes low and no-carbon alternatives like solar and wind a lot more attractive because they don’t carry the same costs as coal, oil, or gas. Users save money while investors start shifting more into renewables as demand for the better economic option grows, encouraging more development that encourages prices to drop even further. And on and on in a virtuous cycle.

The important point: done right, carbon pricing shifts the transition to a clean energy economy into high gear. And does it by making one part of our economic system a little more fair, a little more just.

That’s because carbon pricing – as economists would say—helps to internalize externalities. As normal people would say, in many cases, those responsible for carbon pollution—think power plants, fossil fuel companies—aren’t the ones paying the cost of climate change. That goes to kids suffering from more frequent asthma attacks or families watching wildfires devour their houses or a hundred other examples. Carbon pricing reverses that dynamic and puts something closer to the big-picture costs of carbon into the price of burning it.

Best of all, carbon pricing can appeal to pretty much every political persuasion—and in a time when at least in the U.S., Republicans and Democrats seem to have trouble agreeing on anything other than the virtues of spicy salmon rolls and bacon cheeseburgers—that’s an important thing. More and more conservatives like carbon pricing because – if done right (and that’s a big “if”)—it can significantly cut government regulations and give businesses greater degrees of freedom, while achieving much of the same result. Better yet, carbon pricing can be designed to become revenue neutral, meaning the money generated from the plan goes back to individual taxpayers in one form or another.

This is the approach an all-star team of Republican thought leaders and policymakers from the Reagan and Bush administrations has taken, though there is a real danger of cutting regulators like the EPA almost completely out of the picture in exchange for a carbon price, as this plan would do. Meanwhile, one economist has even boiled an approach to carbon pricing he thinks can stop rising temperatures and heat up the economy down to one page.

On the other side of the spectrum, progressives like carbon pricing because, with the right design, it can help both cut down emissions and make the world a little more fair. Two factors in particular go into making this happen. First, structuring any plan to ensure that lower-income citizens get more in benefits than they personally pay in costs. Second, using a significant part of the revenue generated to actually lower emissions by investing in clean energy—and focusing investment in communities that are already suffering from climate impacts or fossil fuel industry pollution.

Progressives also like carbon pricing because it works in the real world. Scandinavian countries—Finland, Norway, and Sweden—were the first to embrace carbon pricing back in the 90s and contrary to the scare tactic stories you might expect, have actually seen their economies grow. After introducing a carbon tax in 1991, Sweden, for example, has seen emissions drop by 25 percent while its GDP has grown 60 percent—all with what has become the highest carbon tax in the world.

It’s not just idyllic Scandinavian countries making carbon pricing work either. Until the election of a premier friendly to fossil fuel interests in 2012 stalled annual rate increases, British Columbia was showing how a revenue-neutral carbon tax could work in North America to cut emissions without impeding economic growth.

More carbon pricing is on the way, too. China—the world’s largest carbon polluter—has been running ETS pilots in seven major industrial cities across the country with a view to launching a national system some time this year. In the U.S., lawmakers in Washington State, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont have learned from past setbacks and are working to introduce plans at the state level. Plus, Canada just announced a new plan requiring all provinces to develop some approach to carbon pricing by 2018—or adopt a hybrid federal plan that’s one part fuel tax and one part ETS.

It’s not only the urgency of the crisis itself that’s driving policymakers to look at carbon pricing as a feasible strategy for cutting emissions. After promising to cut emissions as part of the Paris agreement in 2015, many leaders started looking into real-world paths to live up to their commitments. In a world where no country wants to be the one that can’t honor their word, carbon pricing looks like a very attractive and practical path forward.

Source: ecowatch.com

Germany Onshore Wind Auction Fetches ‘Unexpected Low’ Price

22.05.2017

Germany’s first competitive wind power auction under its new feed-in tariff regime has defied expectations by delivering an average bid price of just 5.71 Euro cents.

The country’s Federal Energy Network Agency – or Bundesnetzagentur – announced on Friday it has accepted 70 bids totalling 807MW from onshore wind projects, ranging from €0.042 to as high as €0.0578 per KWh.

The auction had attracted as many as 256 bids totalling more than 2GW of installations, with a significant proportion coming from civil society energy companies, the Agency said.

“The first tender for wind farms was successful, with a pleasingly high level of competition allowing an average surcharge of 5.71 cents”, said Jochen Homann, president of the Federal Network Agency.

It follows Germany’s first offshore wind auction last month, which also fetched an average bid price far below expectations at €0.44 per KWh, with experts suggesting at least one of the succesful projects could deliver subsidy-free power.

Klaus Baderhead, head of European energy at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, said that while onshore wind bidders would have planned for significant pressure on the auction price, few expected an average bid price below six Euro cents.

He said the resulting average price would have “an enormous impact on the economics of a wind farm”, potentially giving impetus for project takeovers from manufacturers, developers and investors.

“For an investor to achieve the same equity internal rate of return level of say five per cent, the total price of a standard German onshore wind farm will need to be reduced by about a third,” explained Baderhead. “This difference has to be shaved off somewhere, whether that is through a reduction of the developer margin, turbine price, cost of operation or financing costs. Otherwise an investor fundamentally has to accept lower returns on their investment.”

The auction provides the latest evidence that onshore wind farm costs are continuing to fall and are frequently able to undercut the cost of building new gas power capacity.

The news came in the same week as Spain’s first renewable energy auction in three years delivered 3GW of projects at a new European record low price of €43/MWh.

Source: businessgreen.com

Brilliant or Bizarre: The world’s strangest sources of biofuel

21.05.2017

biogorivo — Photo - illustration: Pixabay

Seemingly biofuel can be made out of almost anything, from chocolate to human fat. But what are the weirdest biofuel sources out there?

Biofuel can be made from a variety of weird and wonderful sources, and researchers and companies around the world are constantly finding new options. Some, like the American plastic surgeon Dr Craig Bittner found guilty of running his car off of liposuction fat in 2008, are unlikely to catch on. As is Prince Charles’ ability to rely of waste wine to power his Aston Martin D86.

However, there are more successful avenues, and while these more niche options are unlikely to compete with plant-based biofuel sources, they could help boost biofuels’ role in the energy mix.

A few years ago Sweden made headlines around the world for its unusual, and to many distasteful, solution to being overrun by rabbits. Stockholm culls the non-native rabbits that overrun the city every year to protect the parks and greenspaces of the city. Thousands are hunted, and instead of simply wasting the rabbits they are being used to power Stockholm.

The rabbits are frozen and then shipped to a heating plant in Karlskoga where they are crushed and mixed in with wood chipping and peat, before being burned. As such, the rabbits are helping to power the city, a decision has divided opinions.

The knowledge that biofuel can be made out of beer is not new, but one company in New Zealand became the first to provide beer based biofuel commercially in 2015. DB Brewery has teamed up with biofuel retailer Gull to create fuel from yeast slurry, a by-product of beer making that is usually binned.

DB developed a system to strip the ethanol from the yeast slurry and refine it to create high-grade E10 biofuel. This biofuel was mixed with petroleum to create DB Export Brewtroleum. During a six-week project in 2015, Brewtroleum replaced Gull’s standard biofuel, Gull Force 10, at the pumps and sold 300,000 litres. DB and Gull estimate that the use of Brewtroleum over just those six weeks saved the equivalent of 55 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

AMEC took a smellier route to biofuel, announcing plans to develop a plant in Quebec fuelled by dirty nappies. The plant is based on the idea of pyrolysis, a heat treatment that would convert the collected nappies into a mix of synthetic diesel fuel, methane gas and ‘carbon-rich char.’

This is hardly the first time human waste has been a suggested source of power, and around the world there have already been several successful human waste-based biofuel projects. In 2012, Waste Enterprisers won a SEED Initiative Award founded by the United Nations Environmental Program and financial support from the Gates Foundation for its pilot scheme to convert waste into biodiesel in Ghana.

Researchers at the University of Warwick, UK, have developed a Formula 3 car like no other. The car is not only made out of plant products, with mirrors made from potato starch and brake pads from cashew nut shells, but it is also powered by chocolate.

Waste chocolate provided by Cadbury’s was used to power the car. It was mixed with vegetable oil to create a biodiesel that propelled the car from 0-60 in just 2.5 seconds.

Source: power-technology.com

U.S. Military Is World’s Biggest Polluter

20.05.2017

Last week, mainstream media outlets gave minimal attention to the news that the U.S. Naval station in Virginia Beach had spilled an estimated 94,000 gallons of jet fuel into a nearby waterway, less than a mile from the Atlantic Ocean.

While the incident was by no means as catastrophic as some other pipeline spills, it underscores an important yet little-known fact—that the U.S. Department of Defense is both the nation’s and the world’s, largest polluter.

Producing more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined, the U.S. Department of Defense has left its toxic legacy throughout the world in the form of depleted uranium, oil, jet fuel, pesticides, defoliants like Agent Orange and lead, among others.

In 2014, the former head of the Pentagon’s environmental program told Newsweek that her office has to contend with 39,000 contaminated areas spread across 19 million acres just in the U.S. alone.

U.S. military bases, both domestic and foreign, consistently rank among some of the most polluted places in the world, as perchlorate and other components of jet and rocket fuel contaminate sources of drinking water, aquifers and soil. Hundreds of military bases can be found on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) list of Superfund sites, which qualify for clean-up grants from the government.

Almost 900 of the nearly 1,200 Superfund sites in the U.S. are abandoned military facilities or sites that otherwise support military needs, not counting the military bases themselves.

“Almost every military site in this country is seriously contaminated,” John D. Dingell, a retired Michigan congressman and war veteran, told Newsweek in 2014. Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina is one such base. Lejeune’s contamination became widespread and even deadly after its groundwater was polluted with a sizable amount of carcinogens from 1953 to 1987.

However, it was not until this February that the government allowed those exposed to chemicals at Lejeune to make official compensation claims. Numerous bases abroad have also contaminated local drinking water supplies, most famously the Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa.

In addition, the U.S., which has conducted more nuclear weapons tests than all other nations combined, is also responsible for the massive amount of radiation that continues to contaminate many islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Marshall Islands, where the U.S. dropped more than sixty nuclear weapons between 1946 and 1958, are a particularly notable example. Inhabitants of the Marshall Islands and nearby Guam continue to experience an exceedingly high rate of cancer.

The American Southwest was also the site of numerous nuclear weapons tests that contaminated large swaths of land. Navajo Indian reservations have been polluted by long-abandoned uranium mines where nuclear material was obtained by U.S. military contractors.

One of the most recent testaments to the U.S. military’s horrendous environmental record is Iraq. U.S. military action there has resulted in the desertification of 90 percent of Iraqi territory, crippling the country’s agricultural industry and forcing it to import more than 80 percent of its food. The U.S.’ use of depleted uranium in Iraq during the Gulf War also caused a massive environmental burden for Iraqis. In addition, the U.S. military’s policy of using open-air burn pits to dispose of waste from the 2003 invasion has caused a surge in cancer among U.S. servicemen and Iraqi civilians alike.

While the U.S. military’s past environmental record suggests that its current policies are not sustainable, this has by no means dissuaded the U.S. military from openly planning future contamination of the environment through misguided waste disposal efforts. Last November, the U.S. Navy announced its plan to release 20,000 tons of environmental “stressors,” including heavy metals and explosives, into the coastal waters of the U.S. Pacific Northwest over the course of this year.

The plan, laid out in the Navy’s Northwest Training and Testing Environmental Impact Statement, fails to mention that these “stressors” are described by the EPA as known hazards, many of which are highly toxic at both acute and chronic levels.

The 20,000 tons of “stressors” mentioned in the Environmental Impact Statement do not account for the additional 4.7 to 14 tons of “metals with potential toxicity” that the Navy plans to release annually, from now on, into inland waters along the Puget Sound in Washington state.

In response to concerns about these plans, a Navy spokeswoman said that heavy metals and even depleted uranium are no more dangerous than any other metal, a statement that represents a clear rejection of scientific fact. It seems that the very U.S. military operations meant to “keep Americans safe” come at a higher cost than most people realize—a cost that will be felt for generations to come both within the U.S. and abroad.

Source: ecowatch.com

AUSTRIA WIND POWER: Local farmers grow their own energy

20.05.2017

A small Austrian town fights climate change with an innovative partnership of small, local entrepreneurs.

The small town of Bruck an der Leitha 45 kilometers southeast of Vienna is at the forefront of Austria’s drive for renewable energy. Its latest venture involves 52 local investors in an innovative cooperative project. Organic farmer Friedrich Metzker is proud of his investment. “In 2000, we switched to organic farming to produce fruits and vegetables in a more sustainable way,” he says. “Since then we are using renewable energy for our work and also in our personal lives. Organic farming and renewable energy fit just perfect.”

The first Bruck wind farm in 2000 was intended to move the town toward fully renewable energy usage. Bruck set up a non-profit organisation to develop three major renewable energy sectors—a biogas plant, biomass district heating, and wind parks. “The most recent wind energy project has created approximately 20 jobs,” says Michael Hannesschläger, the wind parks’ manager. “That’s remarkable at a time when employment is falling as a result of increased retail competition from Vienna.”

The 12 turbines with a total power of 36 MW produce clean energy for 27, 000 households. The latest deal is financed with a loan backed by the Investment Plan for Europe, the EU scheme implemented by the European Investment Bank that’s intended to trigger EUR 315 billion in additional investment over three years. The Plan allows the EIB to make investments it might not have made in years past. In this case, it is able to take on a larger portion of the deal. “This is the first Investment Plan project that we financed in Austria,” says Melchior Karigl, a renewable energy expert at the European Investment Bank. “Given it is a clean energy investment, we could support the project with a higher amount of EIB financing that’s almost 75 % of the total project cost.”

A citizen project

The project is the fruit of 52 local shareholders who organized themselves in a private limited partnership. This local factor may have a positive effect on the acceptance of wind farms in the region. A quarter of the investors are farmers and the average investment was about EUR 100 000. “At the EIB, we often work with larger corporates, but here the Investment Plan allowed us to support a group of small entrepreneurs and to take on more project risk than in previous onshore wind transactions,” says Karigl. “This brings high value added.”

Energiepark Bruck Leitha GmbH is also an investor. The company has already implemented six wind farms in the area with a total capacity of 147 MW. “The engagement of the EIB played a significant role in making this project come true especially in terms of risk minimization,” says Hannesschläger. “It makes sense as a small company to think out of the box and to apply for European funding.”

The community now takes a lot of pride in what they call “their windfarm.” All the energy is sold to the grid, because of the legal framework in Austria. Green-funded wind power is bought by a state-owned organisation, which is responsible for the commercialisation of green power on the free market. “We are proud of it,” says Metzker, the farmer.

Renewable energy: favourable politics and economics

Austria has a commercially and politically favourable environment for renewable energy installations, which has led to the achievement of significant cost and carbon savings across the country. A “feed-in tariff” introduced in 2002 means that each kWh of renewable electricity generated is purchased by the local power company at a set price. The tariffs were high enough to make many renewable energy systems commercially viable.

The uptake was more than twice as high as the government had expected. As a result in 2006 the government exceeded its renewable electricity target of 4% to provide 8% of electricity from renewable energy. “More than 15% of Austrian installed capacity in wind power is situated in our region,” says Hannesschläger. “The high share of local investors leads to a high level of identification with the wind power and renewable energy in general.”

The region now produces more green electricity than its annual electricity consumption.

Source: eib.org

Utility-Scale Solar Grew 72% Per Year Between 2010 & 2016

19.05.2017

solar-panels — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Utility-scale solar installations—including both photovoltaic (PV) and thermal technologies—grew at an average rate of 72% per year between 2010 and 2016, faster than any other generating technologies. Utility-scale solar (plants with a capacity of at least one megawatt) now makes up about 2% of all utility-scale electric generating capacity and 0.9% of utility-scale generation. The first utility-scale solar plants were installed in the mid-1980s, but more than half of the currently operating utility-scale solar capacity came online in the past two years.

As of December 2016, more than 21.5 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar generating capacity was in operation across the United States, with more than 7.6 GW of that capacity coming online in 2016. Although California has the highest total installed capacity of any state, a number of states have deployed significant utility-scale solar capacity in recent years. Several states have policies such as renewable portfolio standards or state renewable tax credits to encourage solar deployment. Since 2005, the federal government has provided a 30% investment tax credit, which is scheduled to phase down or expire by 2022.

Utility-scale solar generation has been increasing as a result of the rapid growth in capacity; however, solar’s share of utility-scale electricity generation is 0.9%, about half of its share of capacity. Most solar generators are considered an intermittent or non-dispatchable resource because their availability depends on ambient insolation (exposure to the sun).

Some systems, such as the Crescent Dunes solar thermal plant, are paired with an energy storage system, which allows greater operational flexibility. As monthly capacity factors indicate, solar generation is strongly seasonal, with more sunlight available in the summer (about 30% capacity factor on average) than in the winter months (near 15%).

In addition to utility-scale solar, electric generating capacity from small-scale solar systems (such as rooftop and other customer-sited PV systems) has also grown. In 2016, EIA estimates that the United States added 3.4 GW of small-scale solar generating capacity across all three end-use sectors (residential, commercial, and industrial), ending the year with more than 13.1 GW of installed capacity. (EIA reports capacity values in GW of alternating current output.)

According to EIA estimates, California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts had the most small-scale solar capacity with 5.4 GW, 1.3 GW, and 1.0 GW, respectively. Monthly generation from small-scale solar capacity is estimated to have been 1.6 million megawatthours (MWh) on average in 2016, or about two-thirds of the amount generated by utility-scale solar generators.

Source: cleantechnica.com

LEGO Smashes 100% Renewable Energy Goal

19.05.2017

The LEGO group announced it reached its goal of balancing 100 percent of its energy use with renewable sources.

The beloved toymaker’s ambitious feat was achieved three years early thanks to its 25 percent stake in the massive, 258-megawatt Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm that just opened Wednesday in the UK’s Liverpool Bay.

“We work to leave a positive impact on the planet and I am truly excited about the inauguration of the Burbo Bank Extension wind farm,” said Bali Padda, CEO of the LEGO Group.

“This development means we have now reached the 100 percent renewable energy milestone three years ahead of target. Together with our partners, we intend to continue investing in renewable energy to help create a better future for the builders of tomorrow.”

As CleanTechnica reported, the wind farm is a joint venture between DONG Energy, PKA and KIRKBI A/S—the parent company of the LEGO Group. Because of that, LEGO was able to reach its 100 percent renewable energy goal after only four years and DKK 6 billion worth of investment into two offshore wind farms.

According to an announcement, the LEGO Group has supported the development of more than 160 megawatts of renewable energy since 2012. Total output from its investments in renewables now exceeds the energy consumed at all LEGO factories, stores and offices globally, it said.

To celebrate the milestone, the Danish company set a Guinness World Record by building the largest ever LEGO brick wind turbine—a seven and a half meter tall structure made from 146,000 bricks. LEGO even enlisted its mascot, Batman, to receive the recognition at a ceremony in Liverpool.

“We see children as our role models and as we take action in reducing our environmental impact as a company, we will also continue to work to inspire children around the world by engaging them in environmental and social issues,” Padda said.

Source: ecowatch.com

Taiwan to invest $22.7 billion in wind energy

18.05.2017

vetroturbina — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The East Asian island plans to invest 684 billion New Taiwan dollars ($22.7bn) as part of the nation’s 8 year plan to boost wind generated electricity to 4,200 megawatts (MW) by 2025.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has released the details of the country’s 8 year green energy development plan, which aims to completely phase out nuclear power plants by 2025.

To meet this ambitious goal, Taiwan plans to increase the share of renewables in the nation’s power mix from 4.8 per cent to 20 per cent over the next 8 years.

At the same time, the country will decrease reliance on coal power plants from 45.4 per cent in 2016 to 30 per cent by 2025.

MOEA will invest a total of $22.7 billion to increase electricity generated from inland wind farms to 1,200 MW and offshore wind farms to 3,000 MW by 2025.

The hope is that this initial investment will stimulate private sector contributions of up to $478 billion New Taiwan dollars ($15.9bn) from 2017 to 2024.

Lin Chuan-neng, Director-General of Bureau of Energy under MOEA, projects that the return on investments for offshore wind investors will be around 3 to 5 per cent.

He went on to detail that the government will offer a 20 year guarantee to private investors.

Within the 684 billion New Taiwan dollar investment, $7.76 billion New Taiwan dollars ($258m) will be dedicated to additional investments in the Kaohsiung and Taichung port offshore wind turbine industry zones, added Lin.

Specifically, the marine technology park in Kaohsiung will receive $5.5 billion New Taiwan dollars ($183m) under the special budget, while Taichung City will receive $2.8 billion New Taiwan dollars ($93m) from 2016 to 2024.

The government will also set aside a sum of $1 billion New Taiwan dollars ($33m) for the construction of an offshore wind turbine verification system and database, while state-owned electric utility company Taipower will spend $197.5 billion New Taiwan dollars ($6.6bn) on the development of wind farm infrastructure from 2016 to 2024.

Source: climateactionprogramme.org

Romania Doubles Incentives For Plug-In Electric Vehicles

18.05.2017

electric car BMW — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

In a bid to help reduce the country’s growing air pollution problems, the government of Romania has reportedly doubled the incentives on offer for buyers of plug-in electric vehicles.

Following the changes — creating the “Rabla Plus” program out of the earlier “Rabla” program — the government in the country is now offering up to €11,000 towards the purchase of new plug-in electric vehicles (EVs).

The earlier Rabla program provided EV buyers with as much as €5,000 in incentives, which was itself building on an earlier incentives program offering EV buyers up to €3,700 in incentives.

The new Rabla Plus incentives program is slated to run until 2019. The new program will also provide buyers of non-plug-in hybrids with up to €1,450 in incentives.

Green Car Reports provides more: “Despite the incentives, the most recent European Alternative Fuel Observatory report notes that only about 160 plug-in electric cars were registered in Romania last year.”

“Local media Economica.net projects that up to 100,000 Romanians will take advantage of the higher rebates… However, the Romanian government is facing a similar challenge in promoting electric cars to one in the US. The lack of charging infrastructure has put a damper on buyers’ enthusiasm — and it’s far worse in the smaller country.

“A program to boost the number of charging stations was launched in 2011 with very little success. 5 years later, a mere 10 stations were up and running. Last year, the government launched a new program to support the installation of charging stations in certain public institutions. Its goal is to grow their network to at least 20,000 charging points by 2020.”

In related news, the government of Romania has also now expanded the country’s “cash-for-clunkers” program to incentivize the purchase of electric vehicles following the turning in of old, heavily polluting vehicles.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Jordan Refugee Camp Becomes First in the World to be Powered by Renewables

18.05.2017

Up to 20,000 Syrian refugees living in the Azraq refugee camp have been given access to free clean power thanks to the world’s first solar farm to be deployed at a UN refugee camp.

The UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, yesterday announced the 2MW is covering the power needs of 5,000 shelters, allowing refugees to power lights, phone chargers, fans, fridges or TVs.

The microgrid is now expected to be extended to all the 36,000 refugees living in the camp by early next year, while the solar farm will be extended to deliver 5MW of capacity. Any excess power will then be fed into Jordan’s national grid, providing a boost to its plans to build a “green economy” by 2020.

The €8.75m project has been funded by the IKEA Foundation through the Brighter Lives for Refugees campaign, which raised €30.8m UNHCR projects. For each LED light-bulb sold by IKEA during the campaign period, the IKEA Foundation donated €1 to UNHCR to bring renewable energy and education to refugees.

The first phase of the project is already expected to deliver carbon savings of 2,370 tons a year and cut running costs at the refugee camp by $1.5m a year.

Moreover, the UNHCR said the construction of the Azraq solar plant has provided an income opportunity to over 50 refugees who have been trained and employed to help build the solar farm in partnership with Jordanian solar company Mustakbal.

“Lighting up the camp is not only a symbolic achievement; it provides a safer environment for all camp residents, opens up livelihoods opportunities, and gives children the chance to study after dark,” said Kelly T. Clements, UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner, in a statement. “Above all, it allows all residents of the camps to lead more dignified lives. Once again the partnership between IKEA Foundation and UNHCR has shown how we can embrace new technologies, innovation and humanity while helping refugees.”

Per Heggenes, CEO of the IKEA Foundation, said the project provided a model that could be emulated around the world. “The world’s first solar farm in a refugee camp signals a paradigm shift in how the humanitarian sector supports displaced populations,” he said. “UNHCR Jordan will save millions of dollars, while reducing carbon emissions and improving living conditions for some of the world’s most vulnerable children and families.”

Source: businessgreen.com

Scottish Offshore Wind Farms Given Second Life Following Court Ruling

18.05.2017

Vetropark, Njiva, kukuruz — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

A legal ruling in Scotland has given second life to as much as 2.3 gigawatts worth of offshore wind farms that had previously been halted due to concerns over their impact on migratory seabirds.

Back in July a judge in the Outer Court of Session in Scotland revoked consent for four separate wind farms — the 600-megawatt (MW) Inch Cape Offshore wind farm, the 450 MW Neart Na Gaoithe offshore wind farm, and the 525 MW (each) Seagreen Alpha and Bravo projects — due to the potential danger to certain species of migratory seabird living in the Special Protection Areas.

However, this week, the Inner House at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland, overturned the July revocation. Lord Carloway, the Lord President of the Court of Session, penned an Opinion of the Court which dispatched the original judge’s findings, saying that the judge “strayed well beyond the limits of testing the legality of the process and has turned himself into the decision-maker following what appears to have been treated as an appeal against the respondents’ decisions on the facts.” Further, the judge appears to have acted “almost as if he were the reporter at such an inquiry… For this reason alone, his decision on this ground cannot be sustained.”

The decision now opens the way for developers Mainstream Renewable Power (Neart na Gaoithe), Red Rock Power (Inch Cape), and joint partners SSE and Fluor (Seagreen Alpha and Bravo) to proceed with their respective developments. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the projects could pave the way for up to £10 billion in investments to develop up to 2.3 GW of offshore wind capacity.

Unsurprisingly, the move was welcomed by all developers involved.

“We welcome the ruling of the Inner House of the Court of Session in favour of Scottish Ministers, overturning last year’s decision by Lord Stewart,” said David Sweenie, Mainstream Renewable Power’s Offshore Manager for Scotland. “This £2 billion project is capable of supplying all the homes in a city the size of Edinburgh with clean energy. It will create over 500 jobs during construction and over 100 permanent jobs once operational. More than £540 million will be directly invested in Scotland during the construction phase and a further £610 million during the operational phase.”

“Red Rock Power welcome the court’s ruling which supports the continued development of a £2 billion investment in Scotland’s energy infrastructure,” added a spokesman for the Project Owner Red Rock Power Ltd. “Red Rock Power also acknowledges the important and continued role that RSPB has in protecting our internationally important wildlife.

We will therefore continue to work collaboratively with the RSPB and all stakeholders to refine the project design to ensure that the project can be delivered whilst minimising environmental impacts.”

Source: cleantechnica.com

Dams Significantly Impact Global Carbon Cycle, New Study Finds

18.05.2017

There are an estimated 84,000 dams in the U.S., blocking more than 17 percent of rivers in the nation. Dams are interrupting wildlife habitats, damaging the ecosystem and impacting the global climate cycle, according to a new study in Nature Communications.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo and Université libre de Bruxelles, reveal that nearly one-fifth of the organic carbon that moves from land to ocean is trapped by man-made dams. The reservoirs can act as a carbon sink or significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, which, the researchers say, are not properly represented in climate change models. More than 90 percent of the world’s rivers are projected to be blocked or rerouted by at least one dam within the next 15 years.

The new information is helping climate scientists track carbon and get a better understanding of the overall carbon cycle, which is critical in mitigating the impacts of climate change, including severe drought, flooding and sea level rise.

“Dams don’t just have local environmental impacts. It’s clear they play a key role in the global carbon cycle and therefore the Earth’s climate,” said Philippe Van Cappellen, co-author of the study. “For more accurate climate predictions, we need to better understand the impact of reservoirs.”

But dams don’t just affect the carbon cycle, they interfere with vital nutrients. The researchers found that ongoing dam construction blocks the transport of phosphorus, nitrogen and silicon from flowing into wetlands, lakes, floodplains and coasts downstream. This alters the entire ecosystem, and the wildlife and marine life dependent on it.

Dams have also been found to be a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. According to a 2016 study, published in the journal BioScience:

“Much attention has been paid to negative impacts of dams on fish and other riverine biota, but the indirect effects on biogeochemical cycling are also important to consider. Although reservoirs are often thought of as “green” or carbon-neutral sources of energy, a growing body of work has documented their role as greenhouse gas sources. Artificial reservoirs created by dams are distinct from natural systems in a number of key ways that may enhance greenhouse gas emissions from these systems.”

“Methane emissions at Hoover Dam have been estimated to be as bad as carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants,” said Gary Wockner, river activist and board member of Waterkeeper Alliance. “Hoover Dam in 1937 was the planetary genesis of megadams and the hydropower industry, and now it’s likely also a big contributor to climate change.”

“If we keep building dams around the world, especially in warm environments, global climate change emissions likely won’t slow down no matter how much coal and gas stays in the ground,” Wockner concluded.

Source: ecowatch.com

Researchers At Australia’s University Of Newcastle Testing Printed Solar Panels

17.05.2017

Printed-Solar-Velcro-Fixing-edit2 — Foto: newcastle.edu.au

A team of researchers headed by Professor Paul Dastoor at the University of Newcastle in Australia has begun testing printed solar panels. The experimental panels are made by printing a special electronic ink onto clear laminated sheets as thin as a single piece of paper using conventional printing presses. The sheets have been installed using velcro strips and cover an area of about 100 square meters. This represents the first large-scale test of a project Dastoor and his team have been working on for more than 15 years.

“This installation brings us closer than we have ever been to making this technology a reality. It will help to determine the lifespan of the material and provide half-hourly feedback on the performance of the system,” says Professor Dastoor. “There are just three demonstration sites at this scale that we know of anywhere in the world, so Australia has joined quite an elite group of global leaders poised to make this technology a commercial reality.”

The printed solar panels are light and flexible and can be literally rolled out anywhere there is a flat surface. Dastoor says the cost of producing the printed panels is about $10 per square meter. “The low cost and speed at which this technology can be deployed is exciting, particularly in the current Australian energy context where we need to find solutions, and quickly, to reduce demand on base-load power,” Dastoor says.

“No other renewable energy solution can be manufactured as quickly. On our lab-scale printer we can easily produce hundreds of meters of material per day. On a commercial scale printer, this would increase to kilometres. If you had just ten of these printers operating around the clock we could print enough material to deliver power to 1000 homes per day,” he says.

Dastoor says the printed solar panels are more sensitive to low light levels, which means they produce a more constant flow of power on cloudy days. They can even produce a small amount of energy from moonlight. Their light weight and ease of installation make them an ideal choice for bringing electricity to areas hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes and storms.

The test at the University of Newcastle will allow researchers to monitor a large area of panels under real world conditions for the first time. If successful, the proof of concept demonstration could inspire a new service delivery model, removing key barriers to solar uptake in the community.

“It might operate like a telephone line, where customers choose a service plan based on their usage requirements but do not need to outlay the physical cost of the line installation and associated upkeep. The system is owned, maintained and updated by the provider and customers could scale their plan up or down as their requirements change,” said Professor Dastoor. “By reinventing the delivery model we remove the need for initial lump sum outlays, overcoming the key barrier to community uptake and ensuring that the science actually ends up on our rooftops,” he says.

Dastoor has not revealed any specifics about the conversion rate of his printed solar panels or how they compare in electricity production to conventional crystalline panels.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Solar Energy Brings A Ray Of Hope To Salt Farmers In Gujarat

17.05.2017

A vast majority of India’s salt comes from Gujarat’s Little Rann of Kutch desert. Here, about 43,000 salt farmers, mostly women, work in brutal heat to produce salt from briny tidal water. It is hard work for little pay. Most of these salt farmers barely earn enough to support their families. But a new effort to bring solar energy to the salt flats is helping lift these rural women and their families out of poverty and into India’s clean energy future.

Salt farming is the only source of income for the local Agaria community, where children start typically working on the salt farm at age 10 and have little education. During the dry season, salt farmers pump briny groundwater out over the salt flats, and coax out the salt using rakes and rollers over the next few months as the water evaporates. The pumps are typically diesel-powered, meaning most salt farmers have to set aside 40% of their meagre earnings to purchase diesel fuel for the following year. The yearly fuel expenses keep these women and their families in poverty.

The Agarias use the power of the sun to help dry the salt— but today, they can also use it to operate their pumps, avoiding the expense and pollution of diesel.Over the past three years, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), working closely with India’s Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and other partners, has helped design a program to bring more than 500 solar-powered water pumps to salt farming families in the Rann of Kutch. The pumps have proven to be more efficient and reliable than diesel pumps, and save time and money for the hard-working farmers.

I met one of these families recently when I visited India, a multi-generational crew who all worked together in the salt marsh. Thanks to a system set up by NRDC and SEWA experts, they were able to obtain a solar pump through a low-cost loan a few years ago. The pump has been so successful they’ve already paid back their loan and want to buy one more. I asked the matriarch what she was doing with all the money they were saving and she laughed, gesturing to her grandchildren. “It’s all for them,” she told me, “what else?”

NRDC-SEWA research showed that salt farmers who switched from diesel to solar-powered pumps saw their savings increase more than 150%. Today, as prices for pumps have fallen substantially and the price of diesel has increased, farmers who make the switch could save even more. The new pumps allow families like the one I met to have more economic independence, to do things like send children to school.

The solar pumps also run cleaner than diesel pumps. Diesel exhaust contains fine particles which can enter the lungs and bloodstream, creating respiratory problems, heart disease, and even premature death. Other chemical components in diesel exhaust are known carcinogens. Even in India’s rural areas, fine particle pollution can be four to five times higher than national air quality standards.

Climate pollution from diesel is a serious concern as well. Millions of Indians are vulnerable to the more frequent and intense heat waves, flooding and drought caused by climate change. An analysis by NRDC and SEWA estimates that replacing diesel water pumps in the Rann of Kutch with solar and hybrid solar/diesel water pumps can potentially avoid as much as 115,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year. That is the equivalent of taking more than 24,000 cars off the road.

NRDC and SEWA’s work has allowed salt farmers to demonstrate a solid track record of paying back their loans, which should open the door for commercial banks to make more solar loans available to thousands of salt farmers who still use diesel pumps. But the story doesn’t end in the deserts of Gujarat. The financing models and other lessons learned from this project can be applied to communities across India. By developing new methods of clean energy financing, India can greatly expand clean energy access and build a clean energy economy that will benefit millions of people.

Source: huffingtonpost.in

1...318319320...412 Page 319 of 412

Newsletter

Calendar of events

2025 August

Events for 31 August

Events for 1 September

Events for 2 September

Events for 3 September

Events for 4 September

Events for 5 September

Events for 6 September

Events for 7 September

Events for 8 September

Events for 9 September

Events for 10 September

Events for 11 September

Events for 12 September

Events for 13 September

Events for 14 September

Events for 15 September

Events for 16 September

Events for 17 September

Events for 18 September

Events for 19 September

Events for 20 September

Events for 21 September

Events for 22 September

Events for 23 September

Events for 24 September

Events for 25 September

Events for 26 September

Events for 27 September

Events for 28 September

Events for 29 September

WRITE US