Following an upward trend that began with the Industrial Revolution, the parts per million (ppm) concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere has soared from an average of 278 ppm in 1760, to an average of 400ppm in 2013 — while the average global temperature has seen a corresponding temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius during that timeframe.

Prior to the year 1760, CO2 levels moved from 185ppm to 278ppm over a 3 million year timespan – while the average global temperature saw a corresponding temperature increase of 3 degrees Celsius during that timeframe.

From studying air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice, scientists know that going back 800,000 years, the carbon dioxide level oscillated in a tight band, from about 180 parts per million in the depths of ice ages to about 280 during the warm periods between. The evidence shows that global temperatures and CO₂ levels are tightly linked.

For the entire period of human civilization, roughly 8,000 years, the carbon dioxide level was relatively stable near that upper bound. But the burning of fossil fuels has caused a 41 percent increase in the heat-trapping gas since the Industrial Revolution, a mere geological instant, and scientists say the climate is beginning to react, though they expect far larger changes in the future. – Justin Gillis, New York Times, Environment reporter

Human activity (primarily burning of fossil fuels and large-scale livestock and agriculture production) has changed our planetary climate. Almost as much change has occurred over the past 253 years, as occurred over the previous 3 million years!

“It symbolizes that so far we have failed miserably in tackling this problem.” — Pieter P. Tans, Program Monitoring Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

“It means we are quickly losing the possibility of keeping the climate below what people thought were tolerable thresholds.” — Ralph Keeling, Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego

Here is a nice infographic from Climate Central

Infographic courtesy of: Climate Central

Did I mention that sea levels were 20 metres higher (66 feet) than they are nowadays, due to the completely-melted icecaps?

As global warming accelerates, most of the world’s cities could be under water before the end of the century, as many of them are already at or near, sea level now.

Did I mention that the CO2 we are putting into the air will stay in the atmosphere for up to 100 years and it will continue to help increase the global temperature the entire time?

The CO2 that was put into the air in 1960, could still be around for up to another 47 years. Almost without exception, every new year we put more of it into the atmosphere than the year before.

Last year, 2012, we put 36 billion tons (36 Gigatons) of man-made CO2 into the atmosphere — and the Earth systems were only able to absorb half of that. This basic ratio has been occurring for many years now. In 2013, we will add more than 37 Gigatons of greenhouse gases to the air-mass that surrounds the Earth.

What is even worse, and is not being discussed in all of this, is that Oxygen, the one gas that is absolutely necessary for all animal life on the planet, is slowly being replaced by CO2. Oxygen is consumed when fossil fuels, or almost any fuel combusts (burns), and CO2 is what is left over after the Oxygen is consumed.

Professor Ian Plimer of Adelaide University and Professor Jon Harrison of the University of Arizona concur. Like most other scientists they accept that oxygen levels in the atmosphere in prehistoric times averaged around 30% to 35%, compared to only 21% today – and that the levels are even less in densely populated, polluted city centres and industrial complexes, perhaps only 15 % or lower. – Peter Tatchell, “The oxygen crisis” Could the decline of oxygen in the atmosphere undermine our health and threaten human survival?” The Guardian

In humans, failure of oxygen energy metabolism is the single most important risk factor for chronic diseases including cancer and death. ‘Oxygen deficiency’ is currently set at 19.5 percent in enclosed spaces for health and safety [6], below that, fainting and death may result. – Institute of Science in Society (ISIS)  Living with Oxygen (SiS 43)

Not only are CO2 levels rising dramatically and warming the planet — potentially flooding huge rural areas and cities before the end of the century, but Oxygen levels worldwide are falling.

Our civilization is at a critical juncture. 

Are we up to the task of making the right decisions, or will we take a pass — thereby forcing our grandchildren to wear oxygen masks every time they leave our airlocked houses to walk to their airlocked school, while we work in office buildings with airlocks and drive cars with oxygen bottles in the passenger compartment, to boost-up the breathable oxygen inside the car, so we don’t fall asleep from breathing higher levels of CO2 and lower levels of life-sustaining oxygen? This scenario is no longer science fiction, but an eventual reality if we don’t change course.

To our credit, we now realize that excessive atmospheric greenhouse gas levels equates to and is directly-linked to excessive consumption of oxygen caused by fossil fuel use and other combustible materials being burned, and we know that CO2 stays in the atmosphere for up to 100 years.

All of which means that much sooner than we may realize, some very serious choices must be made regarding our future fossil fuel burning and combustion-based civilization.

Related articles

• Global CO2: highest levels in 3 million years (arabiangazette.com)
• Carbon Dioxide milestone: full day at 400 ppm (wtvr.com)
• Climate hits 400ppm of CO2 for first time in 3 million years (treehugger.com)
• Carbon dioxide in atmosphere at highest level for 5 million years (independent.co.uk)
• 400 ppm: Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reaches prehistoric levels. (blogs.scientificamerican.com)
• 400 ppm …. yikes! (skeptical-science.com)
• 400 (slate.com)
• As carbon dioxide hits a new high, there’s still no Planet B (theconversation.com)
• World in ‘new danger zone’: UN on CO2 record (dailystar.com.lb)
• Carbon Dioxide Passes 400 PPM Milestone, NOAA Finds (climatecentral.org)

Image Courtesy of: SolarPraxis

by John Brian Shannon

One option for renewable energy producers that has been open to utility companies but rarely utilized, is the installation of both wind and solar power plants together at the same location, which results in a doubling in the amount of electricity produced.

Prior to a study done by Reiner Lemoine Institut and Solarpraxis AG, it was (incorrectly) thought that the huge towers upon which the wind turbines are mounted would cast long shadows over the photovoltaic solar panel array, thereby reducing their efficiency by a significant factor.

It turns out that when solar and wind power generation are combined on the same site, such hybrid power plants complement each other better, than had been imagined. Approximately twice the power generation is available from any such hybrid power plant site, when compared to wind only, or solar only.

Click here to read the Solarpraxis AG, news release.

The landmark study took into account the amount of sunlight loss (shading) which would occur in a carefully designed hybrid power plant. Energy losses were less than 2 percent of total output. This is a lower energy loss percentage, than compared to conventional power plant energy, such as coal — where up to 10 percent of the coal can be lost during transport from North America-to-China, or from Australia-to-China, and later storage, for example.

 A major benefit of such hybrid power plants is that due to the relative intermittency of both wind power and solar power is they tend to cancel out the others weaknesses. Grid expansion, is therefore not required for hybrid power plants. Wind power peaks at night, during cool days, and in the colder seasons of the year — while solar produces power during the daylight hours, the warmer parts of the day and most especially during the warmer seasons, when the Sun is high in the sky, directly over the solar panel array.

“Until now, it was thought that the shadows cast on solar plants by wind turbines led to high yield losses. The study shows, however, that these shading losses are much lower than expected, provided the hybrid power plant is well designed. Initial requests to create yield reports as well as technical and economic system planning have given us cause to hope that the more efficient utilization of space and infrastructure created by hybrid power plants has excellent prospects for the future.” — Alexander Woitas, Head of the Engineering Department at Solarpraxis AG

Image Courtesy of: SolarPraxis

Many utility companies are already operating solar and wind hybrid power plants, or are planning for such installations over the next few years.

The U.S. state of Massachusetts has easily surpassed its previous goal of 250 megawatts (MW) of solar energy by 2017 and is planning to increase that goal to 1,600 MW (1.6 GW) of solar energy by 2017. View an interactive wind power map for the U.S. state of Massachusetts (103 MW as of 2012).

Boulder City, Nevada, is likewise adding wind turbines to their huge and ongoing solar power plant installations — so they can sell solar electricity to nearby cities and towns during the day, while adding the ability to sell wind electricity during the night. Find out about another U.S. state of Nevada wind energy project (151.8 MW as of 2013).

Washington Gas Energy Services (WGES) in Washington, D.C., buys wind power from a nearby producer and solar power from another nearby producer, and sells that electricity to residents, businesses, industry and the government throughout the northeast United States, including D.C.

I recently interviewed Mr. Harry Warren, the President of WGES, and speaking on the intermittency of wind power (and similar applies to solar power) that it is quite normal for different power producers to add their particular kind of power at different times of the day.

“The power grid operates with a variety of power plants constantly coming on line, going off line, and ramping production up and down to meet the varying demand for electricity over the course of the day and over the course of the year. There are always power plants idle and ready to generate more as part of the overall plan to assure reliable power.

So, nothing special is needed to back up wind power. Load merely shifts to other power plants when the wind isn’t blowing.

When the wind is blowing, other power plants, many of which burn fossil fuels like coal, ramp their operation down.” – WGES President, Harry Warren

Click here to read Part I, Part II and Part III of my interview with Harry Warren, WGES President.

Wind and solar power combined in hybrid power plants can add power 24/7/365 to any electrical grid, lower emission levels and help to levelize the cost of electricity for consumers.

Related articles

• Solar – Wind Hybrid Power Plants Approximately Twice As Efficient (cleantechnica.com)

A growing and forward thinking organisation called the C40 Initiative, promotes sustainable development for the world’s cities. C40 cities are conducting empirical research to perfect ways to lower CO2 levels and employ programmes such as ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ within city government departments and are also offered to city residents.

• The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) is a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change.
• Acting both locally and collaboratively, C40 Cities are having a meaningful global impact in reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks. Through a partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative, C40 brings together a unique set of assets and creates a shared sense of purpose.
• C40 offers cities an effective forum where they can collaborate, share knowledge and drive meaningful, measurable and sustainable action on climate change.
• Explore an interactive list of the C40 Cities and their current initiatives.

C40 cities today comprise 58 cities as of May, 2013. These cities represent 18 percent of global GDP and 1 in 12 people worldwide live in a C40 city.

Here are some featured C40 cities with links to their successes and challenges;

San Francisco, United States

As one of the most sustainable cities in the U.S., San Francisco has plans to move to zero waste by 2020. The city currently recycles or composts 77% of its waste, the highest rate of any major U.S. city. For more information on San Francisco’s sustainability successes click on this link.

Sydney, Australia

This Australian city has planned a large-scale scheme to have every resident be within a 250-metre walk of continuous green links that connect to major city parks. To read more fascinating information on the Sydney story, click here.

London, United Kingdom

London’s innovative congestion charging scheme has reduced vehicle numbers in the central business district by 70,000 per day, cutting CO2 emissions in central London by 15% since 2003. Read more about their impressive progress, here.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This African metropolis is using low-carbon building designs in an enormous construction programme that is moving a large population from unplanned ‘shanty towns’ into more formal living arrangements. The Mayor of Addis Ababa has plans to lower the city’s CO2 emissions by 75% in 2020, as compared to 2010 levels.

Bangkok, Thailand

Highly threatened by climate change, including an increase in extreme weather and heatwaves, the city has introduced a number of ambitious local public health infrastructure and education programmes. Read more about the threat of having to relocate an entire city, due to rising (global) sea levels and a slowly sinking (local conditions) city.

Each city in the C40 is unique in its infrastructure and progress in addressing climate change. C40 works to empower cities to connect with each other and share technical expertise on best practices. – C40

Strong advocates for the role of cities in addressing climate change.

• C40 was created in 2005 by former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, and forged a partnership in 2006 with the Cities Program of President Clinton’s Climate Initiative (CCI) to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency in large cities across the world. Under the leadership of then Mayor of Toronto David Miller, who served after Mayor Livingstone as C40 Chair, the organisation advanced programs and partnerships that drew international recognition for the role of cities as leaders in climate action.
• The current chair of C40 is New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg who leads the C40 together with the steering committee and executive leadership team.
• Learn more about the people leading the organisation.

 

All information, courtesy of C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.

Filed under: Economics Tagged: ‘reduce, C40 Cities, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, C40 Initiative, Climate change, CO2 emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, low-carbon building designs, President Clinton’s Climate Initiative (CCI), reuse and recycle’ ]]> http://jbsnews.com/2013/04/28/c40-initiative-mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-which-is-the-greenest-city-of-all/feed/ 1 jbsnews C40 Cities Initiative The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, USA. (Anthony Larson / Flickr) Sydney Harbor Opera House and skyline in Sydney, Australia. (Fuse / Getty) Sunset over Westminster and Houses of Parliament, London, UK. (Anthony Beyga / Getty) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (Travlr / Flickr) View of Chao Phraya River in city of Bangkok. C40 Cities http://jbsnews.com/2013/04/18/bicycle-sharing-systems-let-you-pedal-your-way-to-better-health/ http://jbsnews.com/2013/04/18/bicycle-sharing-systems-let-you-pedal-your-way-to-better-health/#comments Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:14:14 +0000 John Brian Shannon https://jbsnews.wordpress.com/?p=1527 Continue reading →]]> by John Brian Shannon

Honk your horn, if you want better health!

OK, we all want to feel healthier, and many people these days ‘want to do their part’ to lower their personal carbon footprint. One way to accomplish both at the same time is to ride a bike anytime you can. It is so obviously, a good thing to do.

But when you are traveling, it can be difficult to lug your bike around just so that you can take a daily, hour-long ride in Naples, Barcelona, Miami Beach, or other warm and sunny place.

So, it may surprise you to know just how many bikes are available for rent at low cost, or are completely free to use, from the so-called Bicycle Sharing Systems (BSS) in many of the world’s cities. The total number of bikes available from the various BSS’s  around the world at the end of 2011, was 236,000 bicycles. That’s right, from 5 European-only operations with less than 100 bicycles ten years ago — to over 375 BSS’s worldwide, with 236,000 bikes in almost every country as of Dec 31st, 2011, BSS is a textbook definition of high growth!

Launched in 2008, the Hangzhou Public Bicycle programme in China is the largest bicycle sharing system in the world, with around 61,000 bicycles and over 2,400 stations; the Vélib’ in Paris, which encompasses 20,000 bicycles and 1,450 bicycle stations is the largest outside of China.^[2] Other countries with systems are Spain (100+), Italy (80), and Germany (50). – Wikipedia

Please note, the following map does not cover free-to-use bikes which are provided by some cities or towns — nor does it cover bikes you rent from a real human being at a bike rental shop, or other bikes which may be rented in various ways. This Bike-sharing World Map shows only 2nd generation (coin deposit) and 3rd generation (high-tech) bike-sharing services, and the information is provided in conjunction with The Bike-sharing Blog by MetroBike, LLC. Here is the BikesharingMap Twitter account: @BikesharingMap

Accompanying the Google map is a comprehensive list of cities with bike-sharing, rental information and the number of bikes available within each city.

According to the Bike-sharing World Map info — just the cities and towns beginning with the letter “A” boast some 5000 bikes which are available only by coin deposit and high-tech (pre-paid passcard or credit card) but the numbers may be even higher, as accurate record-keeping is difficult to maintain with high rates of growth. (Again, on this map, the number of bikes available does not include bikes that are available at 1st generation bike-sharing, or bike-rental services — nor does it include free-to-use bike services.)

There are many compelling reasons to have a bike-sharing operation in your city or town. If you drive part-way to work in the city, many cities have convenient and low cost parking areas for your car which is where you pick up a bike. Done with your bike? Just pull out your smartphone, it will display a drop-off point close to you.

Does your city have a bike-sharing program or low cost bike-rentals? If it doesn’t, ask why not.

Solar powered bike-docking stations are popping up across New York City in preparation for the launch of the United States’ largest bike-sharing program, CitiBike. The initial roll-out of the program will include 300 stations and 5,500 bikes. A few years ago, the city’s department of transportation (otherwise known as NYC Dot) started replacing single-space parking meters with bike parking. Now, many more parking spaces will be converted into CitiBike hubs. – Meribeth Deen, EnergyBoom.com

Cities like Washington, D.C., can’t install bike stations fast enough to keep up with the demand — even with their time-weighted pricing schedule. The D.C. program has been called a victim of it’s own success.

• From a government perspective, having healthier citizens will help to lower total health infrastructure expenditures and overall health care costs, while cleaner air and less traffic congestion in downtown or tourist areas can improve access, lower infrastructure costs and improve the visitor experience — meaning visitors might stay longer and spend more money.
• For daily commuters or for tourists from outside the immediate area, adding the option of affordable bikes, means lower gasoline and parking costs. It adds convenience, health and enjoyment to their visit.

So, the next time you are planning to run errands downtown in the car (and trying to find parking spots) or if you are enjoying a weekend at the beach, ask yourself; Would my life be more enjoyable and would I spend less money on parking fees and gasoline, if I simply rented a bike?

Of course it would. Enjoy getting that extra sunshine! It will do you a world of good.

(Check the rates in your city.)

(Here is a handy carbon footprint calculator from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

Related articles

• Citi Bike Bicycle Sharing Program Expected to Open Next Month in NYC (inhabitat.com)
• Linus Bike, Commuter Bike Specialists, Comment on Portland’s Fundraising for Bike Sharing (prweb.com)

(Washington, D.C.) The most visited tourist site in Washington, D.C. strengthens its dedication to environmental sustainability. Union Station has signed a three-year contract for 100 percent WGES CleanSteps® WindPower from Herndon-based Washington Gas Energy Services (WGES). One of the nation’s premier, historic transportation hubs, Union Station previously used 50 percent WGES CleanSteps® WindPower for its electricity needs.

“Reducing our environmental impact is a key priority for Union Station and using renewable wind energy greatly aids us in decreasing our carbon footprint. As one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world, Union Station’s switch to wind energy through Washington Gas Energy Services is an important milestone in its history and a great opportunity to inform visitors about wind energy’s viability for businesses of all sizes.” — Roy Staeck, vice president of business development for Union Station

Month-long Interactive Eco-friendly Event at Union Station

Union Station is hosting Earth Month 2013, a month-long event throughout April featuring interactive, eco-friendly experiences designed to raise awareness of environmental issues and encourage sustainability. Presented by Earth Day Network and the Premier Tourist and Landmark Association, this event will reach the more than 100,000 visitors who travel through Union Station’s doors each day. As an event sponsor, Washington Gas Energy Services will educate attendees about how they can reduce the environmental impact of their energy use through carbon offsets and wind power.

Calculate Your Carbon Foot Print

What is your carbon foot print?

If you are a corporation or an individual, no matter where you are in the world, you can measure your carbon foot print here. 

How to get Green Energy Working for You!

In the District of Columbia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, businesses, organizations, government entities, institutions and individual residents can purchase their electricity and natural gas supply from retail energy providers. Customers in Virginia may purchase natural gas and customers in Delaware may purchase electricity from retail energy providers. To learn more about WGES and its CleanSteps® products, visit http://www.wges.com or call 1-888-884-WGES (9437).

Related articles

• Washington, DC government agencies to run 100% renewable energy (jbsnews.com)
• Wind Energy Update: Foundation Costs Top List of Industry Focus Points (prweb.com)
• D.C. government eyes wind for a third of its electricity supply (bizjournals.com)
• Wind power surpasses Nuclear in China (jbsnews.com)
• Using wind power, Audi aims for carbon neutral motoring (reviews.cnet.com)
• Washington, D.C.’s Union Station Now Powered by 100 Percent Wind Energy Provided by Washington Gas E (dailyfinance.com)

The EPA’s newly-proposed Tier 3 rule would cut sulfur levels in American gasoline by two-thirds, and by 2018 the new standard could be fully implemented.

According to the EPA, introducing and enforcing the new regulations would cost $3.4 billion between now and 2018, but Americans would save $23 billion in health care and environmental costs — amounting to a net savings of $19.6 billion dollars over the same time frame.

EPA is proposing the Tier 3 standards to address public health issues that exist currently and are projected to continue in the future as requested in a May 21, 2010 Presidential memorandum;

[From Section 2.1] “Over 158 million Americans are currently experiencing unhealthy levels of air pollution which are linked with adverse health impacts such as hospital admissions, emergency room visits, and premature mortality. Motor vehicles are a particularly important source of exposure to air pollution, especially in urban areas.”

[From Section 2.4] “EPA is also proposing that federal gasoline contain no more than 10 parts per million (ppm) of sulfur on an annual average basis by January 1, 2017. In addition, EPA is proposing to either maintain the current 80-ppm refinery gate and 95-ppm downstream caps or lower them to 50 and 65 ppm, respectively. The proposed Tier 3 gasoline sulfur standards are similar to levels already being achieved in California, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and several other countries.” – U.S. EPA 

Longer longer life-expectancy for citizens, a better quality-of-life during the time they are living in the U.S. and lower acid rain levels will result from this new regulation standard — benefiting many Americans while lessening the damage caused by acid rain to national infrastructure. Acid rain damage translates into crop damage, forest ecosystem damage (‘crowning’ on trees) and ‘spalling’ on concrete structures (especially historic concrete structures like the Brooklyn Bridge, for just one example) which are caused solely by acid rain — whether from anthropogenic (man-made) sources, or from minor acid rain causes, like volcano’s or forest fires.

(Read about anthropogenic acid rain damage to the bronze statues at Harvard University, here.)

Increasing the ethanol level in U.S. gasoline neatly solves the problem, as it has no sulfur component whatsoever. Simply increasing the percentage of ethanol in gasoline will allow oil companies to meet the new regulations. New cars and light trucks sold in the U.S.A. from 1990 onwards are able to run up to 85% ethanol with no harm to engine or exhaust components – in fact, ethanol is easy on engines and their related systems precisely because it burns so cleanly.

The EPA refers to the proposed new regulations as “common-sense standards” that will save American lives and money. The oil and gas industry are attempting to influence public opinion, by saying they must now invest $10 billion in new infrastructure, (one-time-cost) and spend $2.4 billion per year to cover the increased operating costs to implement the standards — resulting in an increased price at the pump of 9 cents per gallon.

Others, such as the U.S. auto industry are concerned with the proposal, saying European-style gasoline prices could be the end result. – OilPrice.com (newsletter)

Instead of spending billions on unproven and expensive technology to solve this problem, simply adding a larger percentage of bio-ethanol can solve the problem of sulfur content in gasoline. And as ethanol and bio-ethanol are already part of the petroleum feedstock, no other alterations need to be made to existing refineries to increase the percentage of ethanol or bio-ethanol in gasoline.

A happy coincidence related to this problem and its implementation timeline, is that new bio-ethanol supply streams are already available. In addition to the successful algae and camelina bio-fuel projects which the EIA, the U.S. Navy, Boeing, and Virgin Atlantic have all reported excellent results with — these organizations are now developing large scale biofuel supplies to fuel their fleets.

“Boeing’s (SBRTP) Sustainable Biofuels Research & Technology Program reported up to 80% lower CO2 emissions when compared to petroleum-sourced jet fuel.” – John Brian Shannon, Huffington Post

A second-generation bio-fuel, switchgrass — and other crops which grow well in poor soils and are tolerant of drought conditions, are becoming available to farmers who are able to grow this bio-fuel crop on marginal land and with little water usage. Not only that, the naturally self-seeding and disease resistant species require little or no pesticides or land-management such as, but not limited to, tilling, seeding, irrigation, repeated chemical applications and the like. Switchgrass (a tall, native, coarse grass of the American prairie) is being cultivated in the U.S. for bio-ethanol production at experimental facilities, where new enzymes and harvesting techniques are now showing good results.

Regarding third-generation bio-fuels, ethanol from algae shows record-smashing potential.

Algae can produce up to 300 times more oil per unit area than conventional [biofuel] crops such as rapeseed, palms, soybeans, or jatropha. As algae have a harvesting cycle of 1–10 days, their cultivation permits several harvests in a very short time-frame, a strategy differing from that associated with yearly crops (Chisti 2007).

Algae can grow on land unsuitable for other established crops, for instance: arid land, land with excessively saline soil, and drought-stricken land. This minimizes the issue of taking away pieces of land from the cultivation of food crops (Schenk et al. 2008).^[41] Algae can grow 20 to 30 times faster than food crops. – Wikipedia

Simply stated, the solution to lower sulfur content in gasoline, is to increase bio-ethanol production. Farmers have plenty of marginal and otherwise unusable lands and will be quite happy to hear about the new EPA regulations.

It can become a ‘win-win’ situation for everyone, if we look profoundly enough at the situation that now exists and then move towards the obvious policies to take us into conformance with the EPA’s proposed new regulations.

The nations of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Gulf are blessed to have access to unfathomable amounts of sunlight and salt water. With growing populations and scarce water reserves, governments, public or privately-held power companies and water utilities can capitalize on these national assets — when the economics work.

Even when the economics don’t work, human beings still need water! Growing cities need water for domestic use and industry needs water to produce the goods that we buy, or that they export.

In previous decades, the power-hungry desalination plants widely-used throughout the Middle East were powered by electricity created from burning vast amounts of fossil fuel. The economics barely worked when the oil prices were low – but now, with oil once more approaching $100. per barrel, they are costing a king’s ransom to operate. Even oil-rich kingdoms are feeling the pinch nowadays.

A cogent case can be made for adopting alternative energy to power existing and future desalination plants – thereby allowing that oil and gas to be sold at export instead of being burned up. Why burn your money?

The question for Oman is; How much of Oman’s oil and gas is burning up at desal plants — instead of being exported to add to Oman’s GDP?

At $96.80/barrel for oil (April 2/13) and the natural gas price passing $4.08/MMBtu (April 2/13) the annual fuel cost to produce electricity with fossil fuel is unimaginably high. Really, you don’t want to know.

Fossil fuel exports power the economies of rapidly growing Middle East and North Africa (MENA) nations. Each barrel of oil burned for local desal operations, is one less barrel contributing to the national GDP. A similar situation is at play with regards to natural gas in Oman and the other GCC nations.

Modern solar power plants, such as Masdar’s Shams 1 solar power plant can produce 100 megawatts of clean power for 30-years or more, powered only by sunshine. These modern electrical energy power plants are powerful enough to run; (1) a desalination plant, with enough energy surplus to run (2) a nearby town, or (3) a rural area – or, perhaps all three!

There are two basic types of solar power;

• Photovoltaic solar, properly called ‘PV-solar’ or ‘PV-solar modules’. The solar panels only produce power when the Sun is shining. Which is fine, because the highest electrical demand occurs during daylight hours.
• Thermal solar, known as ‘Concentrated Solar Power’ or ‘CSP’ produce power 24 hours a day, by storing excess daytime heat in liquids such as molten salt or oil, to run a steam turbine/electricity generator.

PV-solar (panels) have increased efficiency from their 1980’s-era, 11% efficiency rating — to today’s +33% efficiency rating units. Panels with much higher efficiency ratings (perhaps as high as 100%) will hit the market within 20-years. And through all this, PV-solar panel prices have been falling dramatically, to the point that PV-solar utility-scale power plants are now price-competitive with other kinds of power – assuming similar subsidy levels are in place.

Solar Bonus

As PV-efficiency continues to increase through the next few years, just as it has been doing thus far, PV-solar ‘scaling up’ will be very easy. For example, solar panels are size-standardized, so simply unbolting the ‘old’ 11% efficiency panels and replacing them with the ‘new’ 22% efficiency panels, effectively doubles the power output of the solar power plant — practically overnight! (e.g.; 100 MW to 200 MW)

A few years later, when PV-efficiency increases, those (by then) ‘old’ 22% panels can be replaced with ‘new’ 45% efficiency panels – thereby doubling (again!) the total output of the solar power plant. The ‘old’ solar panels will still work fine, and they can be sold to developing nations, or traded-in against the cost of the new panels, just the same way you would trade your old car for a new one.

In fact, PV-solar power now costs less than comparable coal-fired power — and that’s not factoring in the costly ‘externalities’ of coal-fired electrical power generation, which range from huge amounts of water usage by coal-fired power plants, to toxic airborne emissions, to adverse health effects on citizens – which prematurely killed 1.2 million people in 2010, in China alone!

PV-solar power now costs less than comparable coal-fired power

CSP solar technology has advanced remarkably and several different designs have proven themselves viable in Spain, the United States and the UAE, although CSP costs are still high when compared to PV-solar and conventional power. This is changing as CSP production ramps up around the world. The one great advantage of CSP solar, is that these power plants produce power 24-hours per day, 365-days per year – and, no harmful emissions.

Holding nearly half of the world’s renewable energy potential, the Middle East and North Africa are poised for unprecedented growth in renewable energy. — Masdar

Masdar’s Shams 1 Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) 100 megawatt power plant near Abu Dhabi. image courtesy: Masdar

“The inauguration of Shams 1 is a breakthrough for renewable energy development in the Middle East. With the demand for energy rising exponentially, the region is undergoing a major transformation in how it generates electricity. In fact, the Middle East is poised for major investments in renewables, and Shams 1 proves the economic and environmental advantage of deploying large-scale solar projects.” — His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar. (Read Masdar Shams 1 Press Release here)

It’s safe to say that MENA nations should be planning a long-term switch to solar energy, starting with PV-solar now, and CSP solar starting within the next ten years.

Financing these new, pollution-free power plants could be assisted by GCC government investment (sovereign wealth funds) financed through increased oil and gas exports – as oil and gas will be ‘freed-up’ for sale to international buyers.

It must be said that in areas of the country that make the switch from fossil fuel to solar, the cost of externalities will fall and residents will notice better health and enhanced ‘quality of life’ due to lower airborne emission levels and governments will notice lower health care costs. Not to mention plenty of clean, low-cost water for citizens and industry.

The Chinese government has committed itself to producing 16% of its primary (electrical) energy from renewable sources by 2020 — UNEP | Photo credit: Barton Merle-Smith, Wind Currents

Wind power surpassed nuclear power to become China’s third-largest energy source.

In 2007, due to the political leadership of then-President Hu Jintao and then-Premier Wen Jaiboa of China, renewable energy began a dramatic surge which continues to this day — one that by all accounts is expected to continue in that rapidly growing, and energy-ravenous country. A fortuitous convergence of German wind turbine technology, combined with the ability to manufacture them in China, ushered-in sudden lower prices for wind energy projects in the country. The resultant boom in wind turbine installations continues to this day.

Wind power [in China] exhibited an annual growth rate of more than 100 per cent from 2005 to 2009. With new installations of 13.8 GW coming on line in 2009, China led the world in added capacity, and is second in terms of installed capacity, after the U.S.  – UNEP Green Economy Success Stories Renewable Energy in China

Although wind installations in the country slowed in 2012 due to market forces, (compared to their breakneck 2011 pace) the rate of wind turbine installations are again expected to increase to record levels.

He Dexin, Chairman of the China Wind Energy Association said; [The] country’s development of wind power has slowed down, with 14 gigawatts of newly installed capacity from wind turbines in 2012, down from 20.66 gigawatts in 2011. — People’s Daily Online

But based on current projects under construction, China will be operating more than 100,000 megawatts (100 GW) of grid-connected wind capacity by 2015. The Chinese Renewable Energy Industry Association (CREIA) says China will be operating 200,000 megawatts (200 GW) of wind power by 2020.

Image courtesy: IAEA (republished by Earth Policy Institute)

China has astronomical wind power potential, with total wind energy resources far outstripping electrical consumption in the country.

Image courtesy: EIA (republished by Earth Policy Institute)

Exponential growth for wind power is in China’s energy future as they ramp-up wind capacity from 2% of the total electrical energy mix in 2012, towards the Chinese government’s goal of supplying 16% of the country’s electrical energy requirements with renewable sources of all kinds, by 2020. Wind will form a large part of China’s renewable energy portfolio — as it is the natural choice for the country due to the steady onshore and offshore winds in thousands of suitable locations.

Related articles

• Wind Power: Healthy and Growing! (jbsnews.com)
• Washington, DC government agencies to run 100% renewable energy (jbsnews.com)
• We’re Number One: U.S. Installed Most Wind Power In 2012, U.S. Company GE Wind Is #1 Supplier (thinkprogress.org)
• Wind power capacity grew 20% globally in 2012 (guardian.co.uk)

Since the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown which was initiated by an unprecedented earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, some have wondered, “Is this the end of nuclear power?”

For some nations it is. Following Japan’s Fukushima disaster, Germany investigated the status of it’s aging nuclear power stations and became the first nation to begin an orderly shutdown of all of it’s nuclear power plants by 2022 – although full decommissioning and land remediation may take until 2045. Some n-plants failed so-called stress tests which were instituted in the aftermath of Fukushima-Daiichi.

Germany has begun replacing that lost capacity by ramping-up it’s wind, solar and biomass electrical power generation via an aggressive feed in tariff scheme which has added to the growth of renewable energy manufacturing in the country. Exports too, of wind turbines and solar panels, along with the signing of international renewable energy construction contracts worth billions, have resulted in the creation of 300,000 new jobs. Not only that, countries like the Netherlands are shutting down their traditional power plants and buying gigawatts of affordable German renewable energy.

Switzerland has decided to decommission all of it’s nuclear power stations by 2045, as decision-makers there decided that the cost to bring their n-plants up to a modern standard was unaffordable. Italy quit nuclear power in 1987, as the costs to retrofit their old n-power plants with new technology exceeded any potential profits.

After the Fukushima incident, Japan put their reactors through stress tests. The modern plants passed the tests — while the older plants may require billions to upgrade. Speaking about the age of Japan’s nuclear fleet, the first Fukushima-Daiichi unit was designed in the 1960’s, construction began in 1969 and it was commissioned into service in February of 1971.

And herein lies the problem with nuclear power. Most of the world’s nuclear plants were commissioned prior to 1990 and feature design, engineering and construction techniques of a different era — to put it politely.

The median age of the world’s nuclear power plants is 33-years.

But a new hope has arrived in the form of the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) which is a comparatively tiny reactor built on an assembly-line by nuclear technicians and delivered to a site by transport truck — as a fully-assembled unit.

SMR’s can range in size from a tiny 25-megawatts (Gen4 Energy) which is enough to power a small town — up to 300-megawatt units that are powerful enough to run a small city. Most SMR’s fall within the 45-megawatt (Nu-Scale) to 225-megawatt (Westinghouse) size. The winner of a recent U.S. Department of Energy SMR funding program (all, or part, of $452 million) was the Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) mPower SMR, which is a 180-megawatt reactor.

Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) mPower 180-megawatt Small Modular Reactor.

Quite the opposite of behemoth nuclear power plants of the past, with their 1,000-acre (or more) site requirements, unimaginable water usage and huge grid and infrastructure commitment – an entire SMR facility could fit inside a football stadium, use tiny amounts of water and ‘hook up’ to normal high-tension power lines.

The best part of the SMR story is that they use many passive, redundant safety systems – quite unlike old-fashioned nuclear power plants. For example, most SMR’s will be installed underground in a room surrounded by thick concrete on all sides, while above the reactor enough gravity-fed cooling water is stored to last for a minimum of 7-days (some SMR’s store 14-days worth of emergency cooling water on-site) which activates without any human assistance whatsoever, in the event of excess heat buildup inside the reactor pressure vessel.

SMR’s are a perfect fit for renewable energy, as they can quickly ramp-up (load-following) to meet electricity demand resulting from shortfalls in solar power output (such as night-time) or during the day (usually mornings) when wind power can be less efficient.

The modern, Small Modular Reactor can deliver safe and secure electrical power to complement the future of energy – renewable energy.

The United States has tremendous wind resources both offshore and on land. In 2012, the total installed wind capacity in the United States reached 50,000 MW. That’s enough to power more than 12 million homes annually, and it represents an 18-fold increase in capacity since 2000. — photo courtesy of U.S. DoE

Until now, U.S. government buildings in Washington, D.C. have had 50% of their electrical power needs met with wind-turbine powered electricity supplied by Washington Gas Energy Services CleanSteps® WindPower. That percentage increased recently to 100% as part of the government’s renewable energy target and building efficiency improvement plan.

Using 100 percent wind power for electricity equates to the Washington, D.C. government avoiding the consumption of 32,825,000 gallons of gasoline or taking 61,000 cars off the road for a year. The world’s fastest-growing energy resource, wind power displaces conventional power, reduces carbon dioxide and helps eliminate air pollution.

“Going green helps foster economic growth and creates modern and vibrant communities across the District of Columbia,” said Brian J. Hanlon, Director, Department of General Services. “Our goals are to become more energy efficient and reduce our carbon emissions, and our strategic partnership with WGES is playing a role in helping us achieve these objectives.” – WGES press release

Even prior to this announcement, Washington, D.C. held the record among U.S. cities for the highest total renewable energy use at over one billion kilowatt hours per year – or, 11.4% of it’s total electricity consumption. To read a complete breakdown of U.S. cities and their renewable energy use in 2012, visit this EPA Green Power Community Challenge Rankings page.

“We have stated our mission for Washington, D.C. to be the cleanest, greenest city in the nation, which includes the use of renewable energy for our power sources. We’re proud that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized Washington, D.C. as the leading Green Power Community for our commitment to purchase green power.” — Keith Anderson, Director, District Department of the Environment

In his National Geographic NewsWatch piece, Sam Brooks, Associate Director of the Washington, D.C. Department of General Services and head of its Energy Division said, “conservative estimates indicate a long-term purchase of regional wind power could save more than $100 million over 20 years.”

What could be better than breathing clean air while saving 100 million dollars?

Related Articles:

• Expert Voices: Sam Brooks, Associate Director of the Washington, DC DGS (National Geographic)
• DC Government Agencies Switching to 100% Wind Energy (Scientific American)
• New Contract with Washington Gas Energy Services Helps City Retain Position as the Nation’s #1 Green Power Community (Washington Gas Energy Services)
• Green Power Community Challenge Rankings (epa.gov)
• Wind Powering America (windpoweringamerica.gov)
• Wind Program (energyefficiencyrenewableenergy.gov)
• How Does a Wind Turbine Work? Interactive animation & related information at the: (U.S. Dept of Energy – Energy Efficiency Renewable Energy program)
• Renewable Energy Hits the Roof (jbsnews.com)

NOTES:

1. The U.S. Department of Energy funds R&D to develop wind energy. Learn about the DOE Wind Program, how to use wind energy and get financial incentives, and access wind energy information.
2. In the District of Columbia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, businesses, organizations, government entities, institutions and individual residents can purchase their electricity and natural gas supply from retail energy providers. Customers in Virginia may purchase natural gas and customers in Delaware may purchase electricity from retail energy providers. To learn more about WGES and its CleanSteps® products, visit www.wges.com or call 1-888-884-WGES (9437).

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, which is the cleanest fossil fuel of all?

You guessed it! Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel – and by significant margins, as data from the Environmental Protection Agency illustrates in the chart below.

Natural gas, as the cleanest of the fossil fuels, can be used in many ways to help reduce the emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere. Burning natural gas in the place of other fossil fuels emits fewer harmful pollutants, and an increased reliance on natural gas can potentially reduce the emissions of many of the most harmful pollutants. — naturalgas.org

After investigating the externalities associated with conventional sources of energy and cognizant of their commitments towards clean air, many nations have begun to embrace natural gas as a stepping stone towards a cleaner energy future.

In the case of the U.S.A., as far back as 2003 when coal supplied more than 50% of America’s electrical power, coal-fired plants have been retired more quickly than new ones have come online. By 2012, coal supplied only 38% of U.S. electricity.

Nine gigawatts of U.S. coal-fired power generation was shut-down in 2012 alone, and replaced by an almost equal amount of natural gas power generation. Emission levels from those comparably-sized replacement natural gas power plants are less than half that of the now defunct coal-fired plants! Many more U.S. coal-fired power plants are scheduled for complete shutdown, or conversion to natural gas, over the next few years totalling 35 gigawatts (35,000 megawatts) according to experts.

Infographic courtesy of the U.S. Energy Information Administration — shows carbon emissions dropping as a result of switching from coal to natural gas,  2005-2012.

‘”Carbon emissions of all end-use Sectors have decreased since 2005 in the United States. The largest reductions appear to be due to the Electric Power and Transportation sector’s emissions, followed by the Industrial, Residential and Commercial sectors.”

[Of all sectors] “the largest reduction to carbon emissions is due to coal-to-natural gas ‘fuels switching’ and construction of higher efficiency power plants.  Expansion of renewable power, overwhelmingly due to expanded wind power, has been the second largest factor to reduced Power Sector carbon emissions.” – theenergycollective.com

Infographic courtesy of peakoil.org.au — shows CO2 emissions dropping as a result of the combined effects of many countries switching from coal to natural gas and the switch to renewables, 1990-2100.

The change-up to renewable energy will vary by country as OECD nations continue to take the lead in renewable energy between now and 2100. Even so, total worldwide emissions will drop dramatically and the switch from coal to natural gas is one big step towards a cleaner environment.

Related Articles:

• Emissions from the Combustion of Natural Gas
• Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Smog, Air Quality and Acid Rain
• Pollution from Industry and Electric Generation
• Pollution from the Transportation Sector
• The Natural Gas Industry and the Environment
• Obama Calls For Big Bet On Natural Gas As ‘Blueprint’ For The Future Of US Energy (businessinsider.com)

President Obama visited the Argonne National Laboratory today in Argonne, Illinois, to give a major speech on the future of American energy. A new, USD $2 billion dollar program called the energy security trust was announced which gives focus to the administration’s plans for more renewable energy and proposes lower subsidies for fossil fuels.

Much of the resulting policy statement is based upon information supplied to the administration by the nonpartisan, Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) which represents senior business and former military leaders on both ends of the American political spectrum.

Here are the main points of the energy security trust – more detailed information is available by clicking here and here. And you can read the transcript of the President’s speech today in Argonne, Illinois, as compiled by the Chicago Sun-Times here.

By 2020, the President and Energy Secretary Steven Chu want the US;

• To double the present level of U.S. renewable electricity generation
• To double American energy productivity (by 2030)
• To cut energy waste in the U.S. by half over the next twenty years
• To invest in technology promoting energy efficiency & reduced waste
• To cut net oil imports in half by the end of the decade
• To enable safer production & cleaner electricity from natural gas
• To promote safe & responsible oil and natural gas development
• To assist the Nation’s truck fleets to adopt natural gas & alternative fuels
• To improve energy efficiency through the Better Buildings Challenge program
• To help U.S. states cut energy waste, improve efficiency & modernize grids
• To streamline Interior Department regulations for faster project permitting
• To work with the G20 & other fora to phase-out fossil fuel subsidies worldwide
• To work with the IEA & others to strengthen energy security
• To promote energy efficiency & development & deployment of clean energy via Clean Energy Ministerial & other international fora
• To promote safe & secure nuclear power in nations pursuing nuclear energy
• To design a responsible nuclear waste strategy for the U.S.

As the President continues to pursue his ‘all-of-the-above’ energy strategy, it should be noted that significant progress has been made. As President Obama stated in his speech today,

“We produce more oil than we have in 15 years. We import less oil than we have in 20 years. We’ve doubled the amount of renewable energy that we generate from sources like wind and solar. We have tens of thousands of good jobs to show for it.

We’re producing more natural gas than we ever have before with hundreds of thousands of good jobs to show for it. We supported the first new nuclear power plant in America since the 1970’s. And we’re sending less carbon pollution into the environment than we have in nearly 20 years. So we’re making real progress across the board.” – President Barack Obama

All of this is adding up to huge changes in the American energy sector and for the producers, consumers and investors of energy, the energy map in 2020 will bear scant resemblance to our present-day energy model. And that means that seven years from now, the air in and around large U.S. cities will be the cleaner for it.

Related articles

• Obama to Announce $2 Billion Plan to Get U.S. Cars Off Gasoline (blogs.scientificamerican.com)
• Obama to unveil alternative energy proposal – CBS News (cbsnews.com)
• Obama at Argonne: Energy Security Trust fact sheets here (blogs.suntimes.com)
• Obama to push for Energy Security Trust in Argonne Labs visit Friday (blogs.suntimes.com)
• In an America ‘can do’ speech, Obama introduces Energy Security Trust for transportation innovations (dailykos.com)
• Obama wants $2 billion for Energy Security Trust (usatoday.com)

Infographic: Energy Security Trust — courtesy of The White House

Several major retailers with worldwide operations are busily installing solar panels on top of their ‘big-box’ retail stores and offices. Walmart, Walgreens, IKEA and others, are spending huge sums of money to cover their rooftop spaces with solar panels — and are installing wind turbines at, or near, their retail store locations.

Walmart is the world’s largest retailer and is fully committed to obtaining 100% of the energy it uses from renewable sources. As Walmart continues to add stores around the world and increase its car and truck fleets, it bases its calculations for CO2 emissions (from all sources) on the calculation of tonnes of CO2 used/emitted – per $1 million U.S. dollars of retail sales.

In 2005, Walmart operations emitted just over 60 tons of CO2 per $1 million (USD) it took in from retail sales. While adding more stores and adding capacity to existing stores, that ratio had decreased to just over 50 tons of CO2 per $1 million (USD) by 2009. This lowering of CO2 emissions occurred during a period of unprecedented growth for the chain, which means that Walmart got a lot more energy-efficient.

In addition to solar panels on its rooftops and wind turbines on its properties, Walmart is purchasing green energy from utility companies which operate solar and wind power plants, via power purchase agreements (PPA’s).

We are in the second year of a four-year agreement to purchase clean energy from a state-of-the-art Duke Energy wind farm in Notrees, Texas. The agreement supplies up to 15 percent of the energy needs in 350 of our Texas locations. It has reduced our carbon emissions by 139,000 metric tons per year, which is the equivalent of taking 25,000 cars off the road or eliminating the CO₂ produced by 18,000 homes annually, raising environmental quality and quality of life in the communities we serve. — Walmart

And in Canada: The opening of the Balzac Fresh Food Distribution Centre on November 10, 2010, marked a major ­milestone. With hydrogen fuel cells used to power forklifts, as well as solar thermal and wind power, the 400,000-square-foot facility serves as a living lab for ­sustainability. It will boost energy efficiency by an estimated 60 percent over the company’s traditional refrigerated centres, while cutting costs by USD $4.83 million over the next five years. – Walmart

Walgreens, which owns and operates 8000 stores is building the first of many Net Zero Buildings – so designated for producing as much electricity as they use and often producing surplus electricity to sell to the local grid.

The first such store will be located at Evanston, Illinois, and according to Energy Manager Today, the store will include:

• more than 800 roof-top solar panels,
• two wind turbines,
• geothermal energy obtained by drilling 550-feet into the ground below the store, where temperatures are more constant and can be tapped to heat or cool the store in winter and summer,
• LED lighting and daylight harvesting,
• carbon dioxide refrigerant for heating, cooling and refrigeration equipment,
• and energy efficient building materials.

Engineering estimates, which can vary due to factors such as weather, store operations and systems performance, indicate the store will use 200,000 kWh per year while generating 256,000 kWh per year.

Walgreens will attempt to have the store achieve LEED Platinum status from the US Green Building Council, and plans to enter the store into the International Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge. The store will be Walgreens second showcase project in the Department of Energy Better Buildings Challenge. Through the Better Buildings Challenge, Walgreens has committed to a chain-wide 20 percent energy reduction by 2020.

The Better Buildings Challenge is gaining momentum. Recently, Sprint became the first telecommunications company to join the program. And more than 100 companies have joined the DOE’s Better Plants program. – Energy Manager Today

IKEA has a robust renewable energy program dedicated to 100% energy self-sufficiency by 2020 with plans to spend 1.5 billion euros by 2015 towards that goal.

IKEA Group’s chief sustainability officer, Steve Howard said “within three years, IKEA will receive 70% of its electricity from renewable energy [which] we own and operate” adding, “We’ll expand that from 2015 – 2020 to 100 per cent”.

In reference to utility-supplied electricity rate spikes anticipated by IKEA, Howard said, “We know we’re going to be using energy in 20 years’ time. If we can own our own renewable energy plants, it gives us complete price certainty.”

It appears that major users of electricity such as ‘big box’ stores and other large commercial spaces are predicting higher prices for utility-supplied electricity — and rather than pay those higher rates, are opting for their own solar and wind power plants. As polysilicon solar panel prices have fallen in price almost every month since September 2010 and continue to fall in price (bottoming-out in June or July of 2013) you may see solar panel installations appearing on large buildings featuring (largely empty) rooftop spaces such as the rooftop of your favourite retail store.

Filed under: Economics Tagged: Balzac Fresh Food Distribution Centre, Better Buildings Challenge, big box store, CO2, Duke Energy, Duke Energy Wind Farm Notrees Texas, economist, electricity, environmental quality, Evanston Illinois, geothermal energy, IKEA, International Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge, John Brian Shannon, Kilowatt hour, LEED Platinum, Living Building Challenge, Net Zero Building, polysilicon, Power Purchase Agreement, PPA, Renewable energy, Solar panel, Steve Howard, sustainability, US Green Building Council, Walgreens, WalMart, Wind power, wind turbine ]]> http://jbsnews.com/2013/03/11/renewable-energy-hits-the-roof/feed/ 2 jbsnews http://jbsnews.com/2013/03/08/dc-seu-wins-epa-s-e-award/ http://jbsnews.com/2013/03/08/dc-seu-wins-epa-s-e-award/#comments Fri, 08 Mar 2013 22:31:04 +0000 John Brian Shannon https://jbsnews.wordpress.com/?p=1449 Continue reading →]]> EPA RECOGNIZES DC SEU AND NORTHEAST ENERGY EFFICIENCY INITIATIVE WITH 2013 ENERGY STAR® SUSTAINED EXCELLENCE AWARD

The DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DC SEU) in partnership with Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships earns award for protecting the environment through energy efficiency.

Press Release March 5, 2013 (Washington, DC) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded the DC Sustainable Energy Utility a 2013 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award as part of the Northeast Retail Products Initiative in recognition of its continued leadership in protecting our environment through energy efficiency. The initiative, facilitated by Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) and made up of utilities and energy efficiency program administrators in New England, New York, and Washington D.C., will be recognized at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. on March 26, 2013.

In 2012, the DC SEU sold more than 43,000 compact florescent light bulbs (CFLs). This year, the DC SEU has already sold more than 80,000 CFLs and now offers rebates for ENERGY STAR qualified light-emitting diodes (LEDs), clothes washers, and refrigerators.

“Working with local retailers, the DC SEU is committed to ensuring energy-efficient products are available to all District residents throughout the city.” — Ted Trabue, Managing Director of the DC SEU.

An ENERGY STAR Partner since 2000, the Northeast Retail Products Initiative will be honored for its long-term commitment to energy efficiency. During the last thirteen years, the Initiative has won 14 awards including six Excellence Awards.

“Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships is committed to speeding the adoption of high efficiency products in the region through our partnership with the DC SEU in the Retail Products Initiative.

By leveraging our resources, our initiative, which collectively serves over fifteen million households, [DC SEU] is able to yield more energy and cost savings for families and businesses than through individual program efforts.

We are very proud of the DC SEU for their tremendous efforts in helping to make the Northeast a sustained leader in energy efficiency.

Our success for the region is a direct result of the commitment they dedicate to accelerating energy efficiency for our environment, our economy, and our communities.” — Sue Coakley, Executive Director of NEEP.

For over 20 years, with help from ENERGY STAR, American families and businesses have saved more than $230 billion on utility bills and prevented more than 1.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

The 2013 Sustained Excellence Awards are given to a select group of organizations that have exhibited outstanding leadership year after year. These winners have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by setting and achieving aggressive goals, employing innovative approaches, and showing others what can be achieved through energy efficiency. Award winners are selected from about 20,000 organizations that participate in the ENERGY STAR program.

___

ABOUT the DC SEU

Created by the City Council as part of the Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008 (CAEA), the DC SEU is managed by the Sustainable Energy Partnership under contract to the District Department of the Environment (DDOE).

For more information on the DC SEU, visit: www.dcseu.com 

ABOUT NEEP

NEEP is a regional non-profit whose mission is to serve the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic to accelerate energy efficiency in the building sector through public policy, program strategies and education. NEEP’s Market Strategies team supports the collaboration of energy efficiency program administrators and other key stakeholders in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states to achieve long-term cost-effective energy savings by broadening the market availability and consumer demand for high quality, energy efficient products and services.

Visit www.neep.org for more details.

Royal Dutch Shell has published a startling report in which it lays out it’s future view and it has detailed huge global implications for citizens, governments and the energy industry.

Shell’s New Lense Scenarios paints a picture of a new order among the different kinds of energy and how energy use will change between now and 2100.

Two different scenarios are discussed and named. The two, named ‘Mountains’ and ‘Oceans’ take different views of the many factors likely to affect the industry over the next 87 years,  but there is far more consensus than disagreement between them.

The boom in natural gas figures prominently in both scenarios with natural gas dramatically ramping up to become the number one kind of energy in the world by 2030. The quote from the report’s main authour Jeremy Bentham, speaks volumes about the anticipated level of demand for the gas.“The underlying pent-up demand for gas is very strong…we see it being sucked up, every molecule.”

By 2060, the report has PV solar power moving into number one position to provide at least 38% of global energy supply — well up from today’s distant ranking of 13th place. See; Shell Sees Solar As The Biggest Energy Source After Exiting It in 2009.

Due to enhanced Carbon Capture and Storage, clean combustion technology and the use of CO2 gas for industrial processes by 2100, Shell sees “global emissions of carbon dioxide dropping to near zero by 2100”.

By 2100, energy from oil will account for only 10% of worldwide energy use and natural gas will account for just 7.5% of the global total, Shell said.

What might lie ahead 50 years from now… or even in 2100? We consider two possible scenarios of the future, taking a number of pressing global trends and issues and using them as “lenses” through which to view the world.

The scenarios provide a detailed analysis of current trends and their likely trajectory into the future. They dive into the implications for the pace of global economic development, the types of energy we use to power our lives and the growth in greenhouse gas emissions.

The scenarios also highlight areas of public policy likely to have the greatest influence on the development of cleaner fuels, improvements in energy efficiency and on moderating greenhouse gas emissions.

Mountains

The first scenario, labelled “mountains”, sees a strong role for government and the introduction of firm and far-reaching policy measures. These help to develop more compact cities and transform the global transport network. New policies unlock plentiful natural gas resources – making it the largest global energy source by the 2030s – and accelerate carbon capture and storage technology, supporting a cleaner energy system.

Oceans

The second scenario, which we call “oceans”, describes a more prosperous and volatile world. Energy demand surges, due to strong economic growth. Power is more widely distributed and governments take longer to agree major decisions. Market forces rather than policies shape the energy system: oil and coal remain part of the energy mix but renewable energy also grows. By the 2060s solar becomes the world’s largest energy source. – Shell

Download New Lens Scenarios PDF (PDF, 9 MB) – opens in new window

After selling off it’s global solar holdings in 2009, except for those located in Japan, Shell, having taken a long, studious look into the future, has since embraced PV solar as never before and is presently buying back it’s own shares at a brisk pace.

Related articles

• Shell Sees Solar as Biggest Energy Source in Next Half Century (bloomberg.com)
• Solar power may eclipse oil in fifty years: Shell (business.financialpost.com)
• Solar power can outshine oil in a few decades – Shell (rt.com)
• Shell report shows decreasing role for oil (upi.com)
• New Shell Scenarios Sharpen Focus on Future for Society, Energy (prnewswire.com)
• Shell Scenario: Solar To Be #1 Source Of Energy (But Don’t Jump Yet) (cleantechnica.com)
• Royal Dutch Shell Drops Two ‘Bombs’ in One Week (jbsnews.com)
• Royal Dutch Shell Plc: Buyback of Own Shares (PR Newswire)

First came the announcement this week by Shell senior executives that oil extraction in the Arctic would be postponed for the second year in a row, and second is yesterday’s announcement foreshadowing the company’s plan for the future, Shell Sees Solar As The Biggest Energy Source After Exiting It in 2009.

The New Lens Scenarios Europe Shell report depicts two different energy policy scenarios, predicts that “photovoltaic panels will be the main power source by 2060 or 2070”  (depending on which scenario) and “lower costs and state support will boost solar to about 600 gigawatts in 2035” – worldwide totals.

• Download New Lens Scenarios PDF (PDF, 9 MB) – opens in new window

What might lie ahead 50 years from now… or even in 2100? We consider two possible scenarios of the future, taking a number of pressing global trends and issues and using them as “lenses” through which to view the world.

The scenarios provide a detailed analysis of current trends and their likely trajectory into the future. They dive into the implications for the pace of global economic development, the types of energy we use to power our lives and the growth in greenhouse gas emissions.

The scenarios also highlight areas of public policy likely to have the greatest influence on the development of cleaner fuels, improvements in energy efficiency and on moderating greenhouse gas emissions.

Mountains

The first scenario, labelled “mountains”, sees a strong role for government and the introduction of firm and far-reaching policy measures. These help to develop more compact cities and transform the global transport network. New policies unlock plentiful natural gas resources – making it the largest global energy source by the 2030s – and accelerate carbon capture and storage technology, supporting a cleaner energy system.

Oceans

The second scenario, which we call “oceans”, describes a more prosperous and volatile world. Energy demand surges, due to strong economic growth. Power is more widely distributed and governments take longer to agree major decisions. Market forces rather than policies shape the energy system: oil and coal remain part of the energy mix but renewable energy also grows. By the 2060s solar becomes the world’s largest energy source. – Shell

According to information compiled from Bloomberg New Energy Finance and the International Energy Agency, solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity has grown to about 102 gigawatts worldwide in 2012 – which is up from 1 gigawatt globally in 2000.

Since year 2000, an average of 10 gigawatts of PV solar, per year, has been very unevenly added to the world’s electrical grids, but if PV solar installations were to grow at the same rate as the 2000-2012 timeframe, just 450 gigawatts of PV solar would be installed by 2035 — not the 600 gigawatts predicted by the report. The growth rate for PV solar has been astonishing for a new kind of energy for utility companies — and additionally so, considering it is battling with the big boys of the energy world, oil & gas, coal and nuclear. Regardless of past challenges, strong growth in PV solar is forecast until 2100.

All of this means that PV solar is set to grow dramatically between now and 2035, let alone by 2070.

The report has PV solar power moving to number one position to provide at least 38% of worldwide energy supply (well up from today’s ranking of 13th place) to become the predominant kind of energy by 2100.

By 2100, energy from oil will account for only 10% of worldwide energy use and natural gas will account for just 7.5% of the worldwide total, Shell said.

Due to enhanced Carbon Capture and Storage, clean combustion technology and the use of CO2 gas for industrial processes by 2100, Shell sees “global emissions of carbon dioxide dropping to near zero by 2100”.

As all of the above plays out, natural gas demand is expected to surpass the historic demands seen for any other kind of fuel and the quote from the report’s main authour Jeremy Bentham, speaks volumes about the anticipated level of demand for the gas.“The underlying pent-up demand for gas is very strong…we see it being sucked up, every molecule.”

The overall demand for energy will double in the next 50 years due to population growth and increases in living standards, and natural gas will eventually enjoy the highest level of fuel demand in history. But by 2100, the world will mainly run on PV solar, while other kinds of energy will contribute small percentages to the overall global energy mix.

It now appears that Shell would rather ‘switch than fight’ the move to PV solar. It is likely to be the first of many such switches in the global energy industry.

Related articles

• Shell Sees Solar as Biggest Energy Source in Next Half Century (bloomberg.com)
• Solar power may eclipse oil in fifty years: Shell (business.financialpost.com)
• Solar power can outshine oil in a few decades – Shell (rt.com)
• Shell report shows decreasing role for oil (upi.com)
• New Shell Scenarios Sharpen Focus on Future for Society, Energy (prnewswire.com)

Shell Solar GmbH 2004 | World’s then-largest solar power plant in Espenhain, Germany | Peter Endig/dpa via AP Images

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Watch the video. Click here >> ALL YOU CAN EAT

This is a one-minute United Nations video which demonstrates how much water it takes to produce the different foods that we eat every day.

Many of the world’s nations face water shortages and as climate change brings on more droughts, less rainfall will result in the lowering of underground water tables and crop failures will become more common. In the United States, 2012 was a drought year (again) and billions of dollars of crops died while still in the ground. It was a record year for crop failure insurance payouts in the U.S.A.

How can you help? Watch and share the video — and eat less meat. For myself, I decided long ago to eat meat only five days per week, instead of the usual seven. If large numbers of people in the developed nations would do this, it would have a measurable effect on the  developed world’s water consumption and we would all feel a lot healthier!

Bonus video. Click here >> WATER 101 Water for Food

This two-minute video shows some interesting statistics around water usage vs. population growth.

Related articles

• Water: Lake Powell may dry up within a few decades (summitcountyvoice.com)
• Spring Forward into Green Apartment Living – Rent.com | The Shared Wall (rent.com)
• Climate Change May Dry Up Important U.S. Reservoirs (theenergycollective.com)
• Drought restrictions kick in early (krqe.com)
• Climate Change and the Shrinking Mississippi (huffingtonpost.com)
• Prolonged Drought Threatens Western Water Supplies (climatecentral.org)

What if you could buy a car and (except for the normal taxes, insurance, maintenance and parking stall fees, etc.) you could drive it around for free? What I’m talking about is fuel, which for most people is a major cost these days.

Steve: In Los Angeles, the gas price is hovering around $4.00 per gallon. At that price, ‘Steve’ uses about $21.00 of gas (5.3 gallons) to travel 96 miles every weekday. He is likely to spend $106. per week in mixed driving, totalling about $425. per month.

The question is; What would ‘Steve’ rather do with $5100. per year?

If you want an easy way to calculate vehicle fuel costs, miles per dollar (MPD) works as good as anything – and for this hypothetical SUV it costs about $0.22 per mile to drive in mixed traffic. (Maintenance, taxes, registration, parking, etc.… not included in these figures.)

Suzy: Her Hybrid Prius also does a lot of stop and go city driving. Her EPA sticker says she should get 48 MPG city driving and 45 MPG highway driving. At $4.00 per gallon for gas, she uses $8.00 of gas (2 gallons) to travel 96 miles. Her cost per mile? Suzy’s Prius costs about $0.08 per mile to drive in mixed traffic. (Maintenance, taxes, registration, parking, etc.… not included in these figures.)

Ken: He drives a Nissan LEAF, which doesn’t even have a gas tank — because it is an electric vehicle, but the EPA sticker on the car when it was new advertised an equivalent of 95 MPG, which is expressed as 95 MPG-e.

Scenario A) If Ken charges his car’s battery pack at home, he pays for the electricity to charge it resulting in an electricity cost of $0.04 per mile. Depending on how Ken drives and his electricity rate, each $1.00 of stored electricity could get him up to 25 miles.

Scenario B) If Ken uses the many available and free fast-chargers placed around the city to recharge his EV battery pack, he doesn’t pay anything per mile — as most 30 minute fast-chargers for electric vehicles are free to use in the U.S.A. In which case, his cost is $0.00 per mile. Buy the car, drive it for free! (Maintenance, taxes, registration, parking, etc.… not included in these figures.)

It may interest you to know that there are over 11,500 EV chargers in the U.S.A. as of Jan 2013, with more are being added every month. They are easily located via smartphone app and are conveniently located in almost every U.S. city.

Now, what to do with that extra $5100. each and every year?

These numbers are hypothetical examples, your costs and/or savings will be determined by your city’s gas prices and your vehicle mileage. Your electricity rate only matters if you choose to charge your EV at home — instead of at a 30 minute fast-charging station, where you can fully charge it for free!

Related articles

• The plugged-in Prius (reviews.cnet.com)
• Chevrolet Volt by the Numbers (motortrend.com)
• 2012 Toyota Prius C Takes on the High Sierras (motortrend.com)
• Honda Fit EV takes top EPA fuel economy spot (reviews.cnet.com)
• Fisker Karma Drivers Achieved An Average Of 150 MPG (cleantechnica.com)
• The New MPG is MPD: Miles per Dollar (jbsnews.com)
• Obama’s EPA Seeks 56.2 MPG By 2025 (motortrend.com)

Image courtesy of Cleantechnica.com

Images by Cleantechnica

For several decades, U.S. environmental regulators have been the tall, silent type.

These highly-educated people worked for the government, but alongside industry, to craft energy regulations reflecting the ecological notions of their particular era. For most of the 20th century politicians favoured regulations which worked to promote the rapid growth of the economy and to advance the use of energy – particularly fossil-fuel energy.

But now, a new generation of regulators are actively contributing to the debate and they are doing so in significant ways. So much has changed and with little media coverage considering the scope of the changes which are now becoming apparent.

Such are the recent regulatory changes in the U.S.A. that people are now openly wondering if another coal-fired powerplant will ever be built in the United States! Coal, which produced a majority of America’s electrical energy in 1997,  has since dropped to 36% of total electrical energy production.

The average share of electricity generated from coal in the US has dropped from 52.8% in 1997 to 45.0% in 2009.^[1] In the first quarter of 2012, the use of coal for electricity generation has declined substantially more, declining 21% from 2011 levels. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 27 gigawatts of capacity from coal-fired generators [are] to be retired from 175 coal-fired power plants between 2012 and 2016.^[8] Coal’s share of electricity generation dropped to just over 36%. – Wikipedia

The explanation for this sea-change is both simple and complicated. EPA regulators attempted to enforce the new for 2011 Cross-State Air Pollution Rule regulations (read other important CSAPR information here) due to go into effect on 7/7/11, but that act was struck down in appeals court on 21/8/12 for contravening another set of regulations called The Clean Air Act. Happily, another act (but with lower standards) called the Clean Air Interstate Rule automatically resumed as the prevailing regulatory framework until the CSAPR could be re-written so as not to contravene The Clean Air Act.

In the meantime, EPA bureaucrats set to work on changing the regulations for natural gas extraction, including fracking, which helped to make electricity produced by natural gas much cheaper than electricity produced by coal — and as a result, coal-fired plants are closing down far faster than if the CSAPR had been enacted and not struck down. (Moral: Never argue with the bureaucrats).

Yet more changes lay ahead due to upcoming proposed regulatory changes. A good example of this is Tina Casey’s post “Texas Wind Power Up, Nukes Down” which describes how the nuclear powerplant operator Exelon is shifting away from nuclear to wind energy.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune last week, the CEO of energy giant Exelon, Christopher Crane predicted that the influx of low cost wind power would lead the company to start shuttering its nuclear plants.

Though wind and other renewables only account for about three percent of the company’s capacity now, that could change pretty fast.

Exelon’s first commercial wind farm only started operating in January 2012, and the company already has 44 wind projects operating in 10 different states. Tina Casey (Cleantechnica.com)

Coal is now being undercut by lower priced natural gas-fired electricity — and nuclear power is being undercut by lower priced wind-powered electricity, causing a historic shift in America’s energy makeup. We are just at the beginning of that road.

What happens if regulators decide to drop the huge subsidies the government pays to both the coal industry and the nuclear industry?

Even if regulators decided to bring subsidy levels for sustainable energy up to the same levels that coal and nuclear now enjoy – the changes we have seen thus far will seem microscopic.

In the U.S.A., Oil and Gas receives 13 times more in historical subsidies than clean energy.

Over the first 15 years of these energy sources’ subsidies, oil and gas got 5 times what renewables got (in 2010 dollars) and nuclear energy got 10 times as much.

“Nuclear spent an average of about $3.3 billion a year, oil and gas about $1.8 billion, and renewable energy just under half a billion,” DBL Investors Managing Partner Nancy Pfund and Ben Healey recently wrote in “What would Jefferson do?” – Cleantechnica

The energy regulatory climate is changing in the U.S.A., and we have only seen the beginning of these changes. By 2020, America’s energy regulations will have changed significantly to reflect what a large percentage of voters want. Clean energy, delivered on a (subsidy) level playing field.

Related Articles:

• Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAP) (www.epa.gov)
• Wind Power subsidies don’t compare to Fossil-fuel & Nuclear subsidies (Cleantechnica.com)
• Texas Wind Power Set to Double Transmission As Energy Exec Hints at End of Nukes (Cleantechnica.com)
• Oil and Gas receive 13 times more in historical subsidies than clean energy (Cleantechnica.com)
• Yes, Obama Can Tackle Climate Change Alone – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Analysts say renewable energy now cheaper option than new fossil fuels in Australia (gizmag.com)

Actually, charging stations for electric vehicles are popping up all over the place these days, not just in Washington, DC — and that’s a good thing! Ford Motor’s Mike Tinskey has said the total number of charging stations in the U.S. has risen sharply in the past few years to more than 11,500 installed units.

How to find them has been a problem in the past. But that is changing as sophisticated smartphone apps are now providing better information and easier access to EV charging points. Manufacturers of charging stations are forming vast complementary and interconnected charging networks across the country that are available via the new smartphone apps. Which is handy, and a good way to increase range and perhaps your EV’s overall performance. Not to mention lowering anxiety.

One such network is ChargePoint – now the world’s largest EV charging network.

“Through ChargePoint, DBT USA can now provide station owners and EV drivers features including the ability to help with trip planning, manage the cost of charging, and find and operate public stations.” — Green Car Congress

More and better charging stations, entire charging networks made easily accessible via smartphone, combined with recent, significant price drops for EV’s — what’s not to like?

ChargePoint Smartphone App image courtesy of: Cleantechnica

Car manufacturers are getting into the game directly and Nissan’s new network will initially start with 40 of their so-called eVgo Freedom Stations to be installed throughout the greater Washington, DC area — thereby becoming the first network of public fast chargers in the region. Owners of cars like the Nissan LEAF will enjoy the eVgo experience as these fast chargers can give an 80% charge in 30-minutes. Time for a latte? Of course, there’s no range anxiety here.

Ford’s MyFord Mobile teams up with PlugShare to give real-time information on nearby charging stations for Ford hybrid-electric and EV vehicles as you drive through the countryside or city.

“It is a little known fact that the majority of charging stations are currently free to use. By giving drivers a clear view of the reality of charging, PlugShare and Ford are showing more and more drivers that now is a great time to start driving on electricity,” Forrest North, CEO of Xatori, which makes PlugShare, said in a statement. “With our real-time, crowd-sourcing features that include photos, reviews and check-ins, PlugShare has quickly become one of the largest and most popular charging station locators in North America.” –  PCMag.com

The MyFord system will conveniently and automatically locate the nearest charger to your favourite pizza joint, Starbucks, the mall, or wherever it is that you are going. I love it when technology plays this nice!

MyFord Mobile is available in the App Store and Google Play. Car information is also accessible on the Web via myfordmobile.com.

Related articles

• Ford taps PlugShare for EV charging app (sfgate.com)
• Nissan to Build 500 EV Fast-Charge Stations in U.S. Within 18 Months (treehugger.com)
• Report: KC is electric vehicle ‘ready’ (kansascity.com)

Wind power around the world is growing at an exponential rate. For example, China has now installed more wind turbines than any other country. China began 2011 with 41.5 gigawatts of installed wind power capacity and is adding more wind turbines to their grid almost daily. And by 2015 (one year ahead of schedule) China’s citizens will enjoy 100 gigawatts of clean, wind powered electricity. Wind power surpassed nuclear energy in 2012, to become China’s 3rd largest source of electrical power. By 2020, they plan to have 200 gigawatts of wind power, which will displace many billions of tons of airborne emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The United States is second with 47 gigawatts of wind power capacity (at the end of 2011) and must add 305 gigawatts of wind power by 2030 to reach the goals set out in the U.S. Department of Energy 2008 report 20% Wind Energy by 2030 (downloadable PDF) which predicted that wind power could meet 20% of all U.S. electricity demand by 2020.

The use of wind power in the United States has expanded quickly over the last several years. Construction of new wind power generation capacity in the fourth quarter of 2012 totaled 8,380 megawatts (MW) bringing the cumulative installed capacity to 60,007 MW.^[1] This capacity is exceeded only by China.^[2] For the 12 months from November 2011 to October 2012, the electricity produced from wind power in the United States amounted to 137 terawatt-hours, or 3.4% of all generated electrical energy.^[3] The United States produced enough electricity from wind in the 12 months [prior to] November 2012 to power over 11 million US households annually^[4] or meet the total energy demands of Poland.

The U.S. wind industry generates tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity.^[9] Wind projects boost local tax bases, and revitalize the economy of rural communities by providing a steady income-stream to farmers with wind turbines on their land. – Wikipedia

Wind energy has grown exponentially in the last decade, with an average increase of 29.7%/year. At an exponential growth of 29.7%, the U.S. would obtain 20% from wind by 2020. — Image courtesy of Wikipedia

If you think that only large countries can use the wind to create clean and fuel-free electrical energy, read: Denmark Sets Goal of 100% Renewable Energy by 2050. Denmark has proven to the world that when citizens back government efforts towards sustainable energy — the transition to 100% green energy is possible. The Danes are making it look easy.

It is time to harness that wind and produce clean electricity from it, create jobs and make profit by it, while enjoying the benefits of clean air as more wind farms displace fossil-fuel power plants!

Sidebar information is courtesy of Wikipedia, click to read here:

Complementary power

Solar power tends to be complementary to wind. On daily to weekly timescales, high pressure areas tend to bring clear skies and low surface winds, whereas low pressure areas tend to be windier and cloudier. On seasonal timescales, solar energy peaks in summer, whereas in many areas wind energy is lower in summer and higher in winter.^{[nb 3][95]} Thus the intermittencies of wind and solar power tend to cancel each other somewhat. In 2007 the Institute for Solar Energy Supply Technology of the University of Kassel pilot-tested a combined power plant linking solar, wind, biogas and hydrostorage to provide load-following power around the clock and throughout the year, entirely from renewable sources.^[96] 

Pumped-storage hydroelectricity or other forms of grid energy storage can store energy developed by high-wind periods and release it when needed.^[103]

Cost trends

Wind power has low ongoing costs, but a moderate capital cost. The marginal cost of wind energy once a plant is constructed is usually less than 1-cent per kW·h.^[113] This cost has reduced as wind turbine technology improved.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory projects that the levelized cost of wind power in the U.S. will decline about 25% from 2012 to 2030.^[112]

Related articles

• Wind Enegy Surpasses Nuclear As China’s 3rd Largest Source Of Electrical Power (cleantechnica.com)
• U.S. Installed Record 13.2 Gigawatts Of Wind Energy In 2012 (forbes.com)
• Official: US Wind Power Accounted For 42% Of New Power Capacity In 2012, Beat Natural Gas (cleantechnica.com)

In 1970, of the 89,244 new cars and trucks sold in the U.S.A., 84.9% of them were built in North America, while only 15.1% of them were manufactured in other countries and shipped to this continent for purchase and registration.

In 2012, of the 14.4 million new cars and trucks sold in the U.S.A., 44.5% of them were built in North America, while imports accounted for 55.6% of registrations. Read here.

By any measure, this is an ongoing paradigm shift which directly relates to American unemployment statistics since 1970.

A total of 15.4 million car and light truck sales are expected in the U.S. for calendar year 2013 — the best year since 2007. By 2014, U.S. sales are expected to reach 16 million, with imports continuing to increase their market share in the U.S.

Since the first Model T Ford rolled off the Dearborn, MI assembly line, millions of  workers have been employed by American automakers – including some workers who worked for the same company their entire career. Fathers who worked at Ford, GM or Chrysler from their childhood until retirement, found their sons and daughters good-paying jobs with their old employers. Unemployment in the 1945 – 1975 era was generally quite low — and that, in the midst of an economically damaging Cold War which negatively affected many parts of society including the unemployment rate, not incidentally.

Generally during the post-war boom, everybody worked, everybody earned a paycheque, and almost everybody contributed to the economy. About late 1973 or early 1974 this began to profoundly change in the United States and in the Western nations generally.

Not to blame the American auto manufacturers for the Arab Oil Embargo, as the Big Three had been assured of low petroleum prices by foreign governments and several domestic administrations — hence the big, V-8 powered cars of the era and their consequently-low MPG figures were popular with both manufacturers and consumers.

But American consumers are a fickle lot. Once the gas price shot upwards in the aftermath of the Arab Oil embargo, Datsun (now Nissan), Toyota and Honda nameplates began selling as fast as the ships could deliver them from Japan.

If only the foreign vehicles were of inferior quality! But they’re not. If only they used more fuel than their U.S. equivalents. But they don’t. The corporate fuel economy average for foreign and domestic makes still favours imported vehicles. Not by the wide margin it once did — and not that GM and Ford haven’t scored impressive MPG victories in some categories, because they have.

But, to put it bluntly, many employed Americans prefer their foreign-built cars. (“And those millions of now-chronically-unemployed Americans will just have to get by.”)

It’s not just cars and trucks either. Historically, most home electronics sold in the U.S.A. including televisions, smartphones and computers were also ‘Made in the U.S.A.’  — but not these days.

Most of the clothing, plastics and extruded metals purchased in the U.S. are now manufactured in Asian and Southeast Asian nations, where countries like Indonesia rely heavily on textile exports to us and other Western nations.

Much of the American conversation these days revolves around the old austerity vs. stimulus debate which reporters and op/ed journalists are required by their respective organizations to cover.

Meanwhile the 80-ton elephant in the room is the trillions of manufacturing dollars which have transferred from the West to Asia since 1970 — and the manufacturing jobs that have gone with them.

Related articles

• Auto companies post strong sales (cbsnews.com)
• January U.S. car sales signal return to normal (marketwatch.com)
• Ford Leads U.S. Automakers as January Sales Gain (bloomberg.com)
• Chrysler sales up 16 percent in January (miamiherald.com)
• The “Made In America” Movement Running Strong As Consumers From All Over The Nation Demand Made In The U.S.A. Products (prweb.com)

The multiphase project, owned by the NaiKun Wind Energy Group, will consist of 550 square feet kilometres, with a total of 396 megawatts (MW) of energy is set for phase one.

A total of 110 wind turbines are planned, providing British Columbian residents a cleaner alternative, according to the website. This will cut 450,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year rather than using natural gas, and power 200,000 homes.

Located in Hecate Strait, between Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii, the NaiKun wind project is giving a much-needed boost to the province’s energy plan of having no carbon emissions come from new energy projects. Meanwhile clean energy, according to the province, accounts for 90% of all energy produced in B.C., which will certainly be given a boost by this new offshore wind farm.

If wind projects continue to sprout up across Canada like this one, wind energy will no doubt continue it’s upward trend as a real choice to power Canada’s energy needs. In 2012 new Canadian wind projects were expected to increase by 20%, or 1,200 MW and a total of C$2.5 billion in new investments. However, British Columbia was not one of the three top provinces in new wind capacity in 2012. Ontario (2,000MW), Quebec (1,600MW) and Nova Scotia (1,000MW) led the way.

Will B.C.’s new offshore wind farm help catapult a province that is known more for hydro energy than wind? NaiKun Wind Energy Group certainly thinks it can’t hurt.

Main Source: NaiKun Wind Energy Group

This article, Canada’s First Off-Shore Wind Farm Set for B.C., is syndicated from Clean Technica and is posted here with permission.

Greenhouse gas is a catch-all term used to describe a class of gases — either naturally-occurring or man-made (anthropogenic) which have a detrimental effect on the Earth’s atmosphere. It is no longer in academic dispute that any upset to the natural atmospheric equilibrium can wreak havoc on the climate of the entire planet.

As more of these gases are added to the planet’s atmosphere they allow more of the Sun’s rays to penetrate into the air mass which surrounds our planet, instead of bouncing harmlessly back into space. Scientists refer to this process as ‘solar forcing’ whereby more heat is added to the Earth each year than can be removed by natural systems. When more heat is allowed in, more of the polar ice caps melt each summer. It’s a simple equation.

It is likely that later this century there will be no northern ice cap. The other ice cap covers the continent Antarctica which is nearly the size of the United States, and is permanently covered in ice. The ice cap in Antarctica is dissipating at an increasing rate and that is no longer in academic dispute either. Both effectively function as the air-conditioning system for planet Earth and trillions of dollars are at stake for the world farming community.

Heat and drought are the deadly enemies of food crops and both excessive heat and drought are on the increase as more solar forcing is added to Earth’s climate equation. Scientists say that in the best-case scenario — with modern technology and farming practices, that up to a 2 degree worldwide average temperature increase can be accommodated with the only disruptions being in the number of food-producer bankruptcies and higher food costs for consumers. According to scientists, it is beyond our present-day ability to compensate for any worldwide temperature increase of more than 2 degrees.

Here is a staggering number to keep in mind, it costs farmers, ag corporations, consumers and governments one-trillion-dollars per year, for each one degree of worldwide temperature increase – costs which are already starting to be passed on to consumers and taxpayers.

So, who do you love: CO2 or methane? There is no doubt all greenhouse gases contribute to global warming, but some are worse than others — which is why a significant and growing movement is afoot these days to enhance and enlarge the Montreal Protocol an international agreement which limits ozone-depleting gases — to include selected greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide.

Which makes some amount of sense, as methane causes 72 times more global warming per tonne than CO2. Nitrous oxide causes 289 times more global warming per tonne than CO2. Others are exponentially worse, such as sulfur hexafluoride which contributes 16,300 times it’s weight to our atmospheric problems. Get used to hearing the term CO2-equivalent we will be hearing a lot about that in the coming months.

The worldwide tonnage of these pollutants are much lower than the billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere each year, but at those ratios even a few million tons can do a lot of lasting damage. Also, some of these emissions can stay in the atmosphere for up to 50,000 years eating ozone the entire time.

This chart is courtesy of Wikipedia, to view it full size, click here.

More CO2 is produced by our civilization than any other gas and it is prudent to limit CO2 emissions wherever possible — and to use carbon capture and storage to mitigate anthropogenic CO2 production. But it is beginning to look like all of the other greenhouse gases are the real story — and the ones most easily reduced.

At one-trillion-dollars per one-degree-of-global-warming, it is already costing consumers and taxpayers a huge amount of money. If our civilization spent just ten percent of that mitigating all of the other greenhouse gases besides CO2, we might be starting to show our planet and each other some respect.

And then, we would then know the answer to the question; Who do you Love?

Related articles

• Changes in Atmospheric Constituents and in Radiative Forcing (IPCC – downloadable PDF)
• CO2 hit record high in 2011 – UN report (guardian.co.uk)
• Greenhouse Gasses Hit Record High in 2011 Says UN (redorbit.com)
• CO2 Hits New High; World Could Warm 7°F by 2060 (climatecentral.org)
• Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Reach New Record (ecowatch.org)
• Cleaning up Carbon Pollution 101 (Center for American Progress)

by John Brian Shannon

President Obama advertised that he would bring “Hope and Change” to the U.S.A. when he campaigned for president first time around and he did, in fact, bring about momentous change during his first term.

I know this, because in my area of specialty — earth-shaking change has occurred. Change that by some accounts, was too much to hope for in an entire lifetime!

Sometime after his 2009 inauguration, the 44th President of the United States laid out his (then-controversial) positions on energy, energy security and sustainable energy as they related to the United States.

In fact, he wrote me a letter back in March 2012 outlining his energy plans. It is a profound document and is available at: johnbrianshannon.com

At the time, these seemed like grand but unreachable goals. But not now — less than a year later! In hindsight, it is now obvious that President Obama had a strong, overriding vision of a self-sufficient and energy-secure America. For an overview, visit: The Biggest Energy Story of 2012

It is also enlightening to read the Reuters report on what the IEA has said about President Obama’s startlingly successful energy, energy security and sustainable energy policies: U.S. to overtake Saudi as top oil producer: IEA

“(Reuters) – The United States will overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world’s top oil producer by 2017, the West’s energy agency said on Monday, predicting Washington will come very close to achieving a previously unthinkable energy self-sufficiency.” (Reuters excerpt)

President Obama promised positive change in America’s energy future — and he delivered unprecedented positive change! Energy industry experts are still reeling.

Which gives me hope.

Hope that with some cooperation from U.S. politicians and from America’s allies, this President and his administration can overcome the economic damage that has threatened the ongoing success story that is our Western society.

How to do that over the long term? And how to do it without throwing billions of dollars at temporary solutions and then ending up in a similar position 10 or 15 years later.

Many Americans and America’s well-wishers around the globe are unhappy with increasing inequality in the U.S.

Initially the U.S. became great on account of the opportunities to citizens (first) and immigrants (second) and its trading partners around the world (third). What built America was the hopes and aspirations of several generations who saw the opportunities offered to those who worked smart and hard, and who also invested their time and resources well.

Millions of people were self-incentivized to be productive, to contribute to the betterment of the nation and to add value to their lives and to their communities. Having the opportunity to succeed — allowed and created all of the success that citizens and trading partners of the U.S.A. have enjoyed over the past hundred years or more.

For those who can be honest about it, those opportunities have dissipated alarmingly in recent decades.

Rarely can one finish their education, begin a career at one level and years later, finish their career as a CEO or owner of a large and prosperous business. People have little upward mobility and for those born into poverty situations, the vast majority of them continue to live in poverty until they pass out of this world — no matter how great their work ethic.

This has been well-documented elsewhere, so I won’t go on about it at length here.

But if anything is going to help restore citizens faith in the American dream, and restore the faith well-wishers of the United States around the world, it will be a healthier and better-educated American society.

One of the best ways to improve peoples economic standing, (according the the UN and other organizations expert in governance and human development) are by society-wide improvements to health and education.

It needn’t cost a trillion dollars — but it does need direction.

The same sort of direction that President Obama used to take his country from a nation perilously addicted to foreign oil and turn it into an net exporter of oil and gas — in the process making it an almost energy self-sufficient nation and a nation on the forefront of sustainable energy worldwide. All accomplished during a time of unprecedented worldwide economic upheaval. By any standard, a monumental accomplishment! Congratulations are in order, Mr. President.

So, where are we now and what could we hope for?

• An energy-secure America. Done. Check.
• A uniformly healthy America. In progress. Gaining momentum.
• A uniform minimum education of ‘one-college-level-degree’ or ‘one-vocational-certification’  for all Americans. Let’s hope.

If this President’s first term accomplishments are remembered as making America energy secure combined with a well-begun universal health-care plan — then let us hope that his second term will be remembered by a “Done. Check.” on a uniformly healthy society and a college or vocational education plan for all American citizens — so that all citizens can become part of America’s overall economic success.

Good health, a good education and plenty of career opportunities for citizens, will thereby and effectively remove present inequality, restore the hope of opportunity for success to the American people and improve the nations economic health. These are not new ideas. These have worked before, and profoundly, are what made America great from its beginning.

Let’s restore the American Dream, but this time let it be a Sustainable American Dream and one that will work for all U.S. citizens — not just the wealthy.

Related articles

• The Big Energy Story of 2012 (jbsnews.com)
• America’s Sudden Energy Pivot (jbsnews.com)

by John Brian Shannon

The world energy industry is suddenly transforming into something very different from the industry we have grown accustomed to over the past decades. In those previous decades, it was pump and burn more oil, mine and burn more coal and build more coal-fired burners to produce electricity. More, more and more smoke — that is!

Anti-nuclear protesters were a constant feature in the press anywhere a reactor was considered, built or commissioned into use. Urban residents held irregular anti-smog protests outside of City Hall in large cities like LA and Tokyo.

Small-scale and large wars, were fought over control of the world’s oil and gas fields — sometimes affecting the very economic health of those nations.

Welcome to 2013. The world is still reeling from President Barack Obama’s decision to wean America completely off of foreign oil, he also ordered oil and gas production to be dramatically ramped up in the U.S.A. – and he decided to make his country a net oil exporter of oil and gas. Not just any-old net exporter mind you, but the world’s number one exporter of both oil and gas by 2017! That’s in four years.

Heady stuff for a normally ambivalent world.

Remember back in February of 2006, when then-President George W. Bush famously stated in his State of the Union speech that “America is addicted to oil.” That of course, is true. The U.S.A. and the other industrialized nations wouldn’t survive without oil as the entire Western economy is based on petroleum and the products made from it. From transportation and energy fuels, to plastics, medicines, agricultural fertilizers, residential and commercial buildings – virtually everything we live in, drive, wear, buy or use, is a product or by-product of petroleum.

Both Presidents — Obama and Bush, foresaw the importance of lowering overall energy use to improve the health and quality of life for American citizens, to lower international tensions by sourcing oil and gas domestically and to invest in clean technology to improve conservation and efficiency.

It turns out that conservation, green energy and domestic energy extraction is not a Democrat or Republican thing — it’s a leadership thing. And all over the world, it is catching on. Welcome to 2013, indeed!

Related Articles:

• George W. Bush: The Hero of US Wind Energy (oilprice.com)
• America’s Sudden Energy Pivot (jbsnews.com)
• US to become world’s top oil producer by 2017 – IEA (arabiangazette.com)
• Energy Year Ahead: Energy Lobbyists Gird for Tax Overhaul Fight (bloomberg.com)
• 10 Big Energy Statistics From 2012 (cleantechnica.com)
• U.S. to Become Top Gas and Top Oil Producer in the World by 2017, According to IEA; Special Report by Leading Financial e-Letter Investment Contrarians (prweb.com)
• U.S. to become biggest oil producer – IEA (money.cnn.com)
• U.S. to overtake Saudi as top oil producer by 2017: IEA (business.financialpost.com)

[Courtesy of:  The Washington Post]

Click here: 2012: The Year in Graphs  Posted by The Washington Post — Wonkblog Team on December 27, 2012

“As 2012 draws to a close, Wonkblog asked our favorite professional wonks — economists, political scientists, politicians and more — to see what graphs and charts they felt did the best job explaining the past year. Here are their nominees.” The Wonkblog Team.

[A special, year-end treat! Such great charts and no opinions to be found. Read the charts, absorb the new information, and make up your own mind.] – Ed.

Happy Holidays!!!

by John Brian Shannon

Read Paul Krugman’s fascinating New York Times economics blog “Is Growth Over” which deals with the political, economic and social picture of the future.

Some nations are replacing retiring workers with robots at an accelerating pace — and for good reason.

In Germany, this is an absolute necessity as a huge pool of German workers are approaching retirement and there aren’t nearly enough Germans to replace them. Germany imports (low) millions of workers from Turkey and the MENA nations, but Germany still can’t keep up with the demand for labour in their export-driven economy.

What’s a country to do? Phone all their export customers and tell them they can’t produce all the widgets they ordered? Not the German way!

So, I understand, precisely, the position of the Germans and agree with their moral reasoning and their necessary choice.

While at the same time, I worry about other nations (us) making a massive shift to robotics – for very different reasons, and none of them moral — causing workers (who are human beings, after all) to become redundant while concentrating evermore billions into the hands of the infamous 1% of the population.

A switch to robots to improve the bottom line could become a threat to millions of workers in the coming decades and might become the most profound, social issue since the 1960′s anti-war movement.

Replacing retiring workers with robots (as is the case with Germany now) is a moral decision, which was made to ensure the German economy does not falter and thereby harm large numbers of citizens.

In this case, it is a completely understandable and moral decision, one that benefits vast numbers of German citizens.

Replacing presently-employed workers with robots so that 1% of the U.S. population can make more profit is an immoral decision, which will allow the 1% to keep evermore of the U.S. money supply for themselves at the expense of the other 99% of the population.

In this case, it is not understandable, nor is it a moral decision – as it primarily benefits 1% of citizens over 99% of citizens.

It will come down to this, will we assure human rights for American citizens who want jobs and want to contribute to their nation’s economy, or will we favour a small number of people (the 1%) who want more, more, more, for themselves?

Who is America in business for? The 1% or the 99% of American citizens? It is a political, economic and social decision that voters will need to make in the next election cycle.

Or, put another way, should 3.1 million citizens have near total employment and economic control over 315 million citizens? [315,091,138 U.S. Census Bureau Jan 1, 2013 estimate]

Unfortunately, the 1% may be holding all the cards by the time a full conversation can occur and by the time the masses fully realize this, it may be far too late to do anything about it.

There is a better way. Read the Financial Post‘s “Employee compensation is an integral part of corporate culture” by Marty Parker, for one shining example of a better way. While just the tip of the iceberg, this one example could foreshadow a quiet and heart-warming revolution, one that benefits workers and corporations, while strengthening the very fabric of our Western society.

Related articles

• Germany’s looming skills shortage (jbsnews.com)

by John Brian Shannon

High energy costs to pump crude oil from the bottom two-thirds of an oil reservoir is one of two main reasons that some of the largest oil wells have been capped and abandoned. Therefore, until recently much of the global proven reserves have lain dormant in so-called ‘ageing’ or ‘spent’ oilfields.

Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) can allow oil companies to resume extraction of crude oil at previously abandoned facilities.

This kind of CCS is a fine way to alleviate greenhouse gas emissions by storing the CO2 deep underground forever — and helping to help bring crude oil to the surface.

ICO2N Enhanced Oil Recovery – Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage

Recently, and where vast quantities of CO2 are available locally from industry, millions of tons of CO2 gas have already been pumped deep into the underground crude, increasing the volume and raising the overall pressure of the oil reservoir, thereby ‘forcing’ more crude oil to the surface. This is starting to become a common practice in Canada, the U.S.A., and in Saudi Arabia.

More often than not, this process has made economic sense based on it’s own economic merit, but government subsidies have also been employed on and off over the years — on an experimental and case-by-case basis.

So, why isn’t this being done everywhere if it is such a great idea? It turns out that much of the industry-produced CO2 that is available for CCS use is already being used for that purpose. But two factors have (so far) limited more CCS injection for oilfield rejuvenation:

1. The remote locations of some oilfields can limit the use of industrial CO2 emissions for use, as pipelines to deliver the gasses to capped wells are expensive.
2. The high energy costs of pumping supercritical (liquified) greenhouse gasses deep underground at high pressure — and pumping the crude oil up the pipe and out through the wellhead

_

And… Voila! Just like that, high energy costs are no longer a factor in that equation — thanks to the dramatic fall in solar panel prices over the past 26 months! What?

It’s true! Up ‘till now, the high cost of all kinds of energy have prevented many CCS projects from going forward, as Carbon Capture and Storage requires huge amounts of energy. But solar costs have now dropped so dramatically that free energy from the Sun is being harnessed to inject liquified CO2 deep underground to rejuvenate massive oilfields — while at the same time, sequestering millions of tons of harmful greenhouse gasses.

Semprius Inc. 33.9% efficiency solar panel arrays mounted on Solar Tracker

It’s a win-win for the environment. Some might argue that point. But each year, our civilization is consuming more crude oil producing billions more tons of greenhouse gasses.

“The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes (21.3 gigatonnes) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per year, but it is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount, so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year…^{” — Wikipedia Fossil Fuel}

We can continue to allow those gasses to escape unimpeded into the atmosphere, further warming the planet — or we can inject billions of tons of these gasses underground where they will stay for millennia.

The millions of tons of CO2 per year already being injected underground (now) and billions of tons of CO2 per year (in the near future) can only be seen as positive. If only all of the industry-produced CO2 could be so treated! Suddenly, that noble goal seems a lot closer to becoming a reality.

Who could have predicted that the oil industry and the solar industry would become such strong and complementary partners in this great and lofty enterprise?

Highly Recommended CCS articles:

• The Investment for 2013: Solar Oil Extraction (oilprice.com  – Energy Intelligence Report)
• Carbon Capture for Oil May Generate $4.3 Billion for Scotland – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• How to Make CO2 Better at Extracting Oil (scientificamerican.com)
• A Guide to Carbon Capture and Storage (scientificamerican.com)
• The Carbon Contained in Global Oils (carnegieendowment.org)

by John Brian Shannon

Of all of the energy produced and used by humans worldwide, approximately one-third is used for all forms of transportation. This kind of energy is the ‘dirtiest-third’ contributing substantially to total atmospheric emissions when compared to other kinds of energy usage.

Another third of the energy consumed by our civilization is used by industry, which also contributes to atmospheric emission levels — and depending on where you live in the world, the environmental effects of that pollution can range from negligible to toxic.

The last third of energy consumption on the Earth is used for residential and commercial uses. When you turn on the heat, the lights, or look at illuminated signs and streetlights on your way to the air-conditioned shopping mall, these are all examples of residential and commercial energy use.

When we talk about the emissions from the three main kinds of energy users, the question arises; Which of the three can lower emissions at reasonable cost?

Another related question; Is green energy the answer, or is conservation?

It turns out that conservation beats anything else, hands down. No matter how clean your car operates for each mile you drive it — for each mile that you don’t drive it, the car produces zero emissions. The same holds true for cities that shut-off or power-down their streetlights after midnight. No matter how energy-efficient streetlights are these days, they still use less power turned OFF, when compared to turned ON.

Of course, we need energy to live in our modern world – that is a given. But it seems right to reduce wasted energy and one of the most cost-effective ways to do this is to employ conservation AND green energy in our buildings.

Until recent decades, energy wastage for commercial buildings and residential buildings was truly mind-boggling (sometimes much more than 50%) but great progress has been made and continues to be made in the fields of energy conservation and energy-efficient buildings.

Buildings which employ such technologies can become LEED certified if their architects apply for that certification — and the buildings meet the strict criteria, which confers a high level of efficient design and engineering technologies on a building, resulting in low emissions and low energy use. We call this having a Low Environmental Footprint here in North America, while in the UK such buildings have a Zero Net Building status.

Under the leadership of Mayor Vincent C. Gray, Washington, DC, is setting a great example for other cities by rapidly becoming a world leader in clean and green buildings.

The Living Building Challenge is part of numerous efforts by the city to reach Mayor Gray’s “Sustainable D.C.” initiative, which includes 11 key categories for environmental/fiscal improvement. The categories include goals such as cutting the energy consumption [of] the entire city by half, being able to bring in locally grown food within a quarter mile of the city and have it consumed by 75 percent of D.C. residents, as well as triple the number of small businesses within the city. — Carl Pierre, InTheCapital.com

Renewable Energy Big Pic: Part 1 (Including 34 Charts & Graphs)

• Related articles

  • Renewable Energy Big Pic: Part 1 (Including 34 Charts & Graphs)(Clean Technica)
  • Renewable Energy Big Pic: Part 2 (Including 19 Charts & Graphs) (Clean Technica)
  • Renewable Energy Most Cost-Effective Electricity Option For Millions, IRENA Reports (cleantechnica.com)
  • Interactive World Map on Renewable Energy & CO2 Emissions(cleantechnica.com)
  • CU-Boulder Offers Renewable Energy Certificate for Online Distance Learners and Working Professionals (prweb.com)

Renewable Energy Big Pic: Part 2 (Including 19 Charts & Graphs) (via Clean Technica)

Continuing on from yesterday’s “Renewable Energy Big Pic” post, here’s Renewable Energy Big Pic: Part 2. As noted yesterday, this two-post series is basically a presentation I gave to a class of renewable energy graduate students this week…

Related articles

• Renewable Energy Big Pic: Part 1 (Including 34 Charts & Graphs)(Clean Technica)
• Renewable Energy Big Pic: Part 2 (Including 19 Charts & Graphs) (Clean Technica)
• Renewable Energy Most Cost-Effective Electricity Option For Millions, IRENA Reports (cleantechnica.com)
• Interactive World Map on Renewable Energy & CO2 Emissions(cleantechnica.com)
• CU-Boulder Offers Renewable Energy Certificate for Online Distance Learners and Working Professionals (prweb.com)

.

by John Brian Shannon

In one of Paul Krugman’s latest blogs (which are always great reads) entitled “Bleeding Europe” our favorite Professor takes the side of all the Eurozone nations — except for the one that has to pay the bills – Germany!

Which is fine, because those countries have been beaten up by everyone including, well, everyone. They need as many powerful voices on their side as possible, so that they can continue to run huge deficits forever — and have Germany foot the bill.

And, why not? It’s all Germany’s fault for WWI and WWII, isn’t it? Ergo, they are punishing Germany and it feels good!

The fact is, that all of the people who started both wars are long dead, as are most of the brave soldiers who were told to fight brother Europeans because the politicians of the day on both sides couldn’t get their diplomatic acts together.

But it’s a great relationship while it lasts, isn’t it? Spend like drunken sailors and have Germany’s grand-kids pay for it and if they so much as dare to hint this is a bad deal, then browbeat them with WWII-era propaganda until they stop.

It is not a sustainable relationship — even for the Germany-haters. Why? Because the combined debts and deficits of southern Eurozone nations are so large, soon even Germany won’t be able to cover the losses at the casino and they will all sink into the economic abyss together. (Then it will be; “Hey, South Korea, wanna buy the Eurozone, cheap? Their assets are mortgaged to 200% of their value, but maybe you could kick-start it.”)

It is not a sustainable relationship for 21st-century German taxpayers either, all of whom have nothing to do with WWI or WWII by the way, and are tired of paying for the neighbour’s “no wine is good enough for us” trips to the casino!

But in the end, all of this will come to a crashing halt when German voters have had enough of footing the bill for spendthrift nations who badmouth Germany at every opportunity.

And then watch what happens. Not only will the good ole days of eat, drink and be merry on Germany’s tab be well and truly OVER, the credit-ratings agencies themselves will dictate what kind of budgets countries like Greece are allowed to run. A sudden transition to balanced-budgets would be quite the shocker! If you happen to be visiting southern Europe when that happens — be sure to duck.

I think German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the smartest woman on the planet. For now, she is paying their way, biding her time, no doubt biting her tongue and just waiting for the almost inevitable day that the credit-rating agencies finally take control of overspending Eurozone member-state economies.

If and when that happens she will suddenly be recast as the sweet and gentle fairy-godmother of Europe who convinced her countrymen and women to pay the bills for her free-spending southern neighbours for as long as humanly possible. Sie haben meine Bewunderung, große Dame!

Related articles

• Bleeding Europe (krugman.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Europe seeks to make progress on banking union (miamiherald.com)
• Europe seeks to make progress on banking union (seattlepi.com)
• EU Finance Ministers Huddle Over Banking Union (npr.org)
• Eurozone leaders pleased with deal (upi.com)
• German real estate booms as people seek security (miamiherald.com)

The fiscal cliff that overhangs Washington, is a legally-binding 600-billion dollar tax increase and spending cut package, which automatically takes effect unless another solution can be found, agreed, signed and enacted by January 1, 2013.

But according to Laurence Kotlikoff, that 600-billion-tax-increase-and-spending-package is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the 222-Trillion-dollar fiscal gap in the U.S. economy – which is also here right now, not in some distant future.

Kotlikoff believes Washington has been running a Ponzi scheme for six decades and higher taxes and belt tightening won’t be enough to stop the coming Greek tragedy.

If U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman is right, the U.S. economy will be side-swiped on January 1st by 600 billion dollars worth of tax increases and spending cuts. While that would certainly shrink the country’s annual budget deficit, most independent observers say it would also push the U.S. far into recession, and maybe take the rest of the world down with it.

Laurence Kotlikoff is an economist at Boston University and the author of several books, including Clash of Generations. He also launched a Presidential run in this last election as the candidate for the advocacy group Americans Elect, but ended his campaign last spring. CBC Radio One – Gord Westmacott

Listen to this fascinating ‘The Current ‘ segment produced by CBC Radio One Gord Westmacott. (Courtesy of CBC) Laurence Kotlikoff: Is the United States Broke?

Some highly-recommended reading to accompany the audio clip:

• Avoiding a New American Recession

• America’s Political Recession

• Inside America’s Tax Battle

• America’s Fiscal Cliff Dwellers

• The Big Budget Mumble

• The Forgotten MILLIONS

• STATE OF WORKING IN AMERICA

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama sent me a letter outlining the Administration’s energy goals. In it, he laid out his ambitious plans to decrease dependence on foreign oil imports, increase oil and gas exploration and extraction, lower the fuel prices paid by consumers and set historic fuel-efficiency standards for U.S. cars and trucks. Below is a short excerpt of the letter which you can read in full at johnbrianshannon.com

March 21, 2012

Dear John:

Thank you for writing.  I appreciate hearing from you, and I share the vision of millions of Americans who want to take control of our Nation’s energy future.  My Administration’s all-of-the-above energy strategy is about developing every source of American energy—a strategy aimed at saving families and businesses money at the pump by reducing our reliance on foreign oil, expanding oil and gas production, and positioning the United States as the global leader in clean energy.

The hard truth is there are no overnight solutions to our energy challenges.  The only way to deal with this problem is through a sustained, serious, all-of-the-above approach.  Under my Administration, American oil production is at its highest level in 8 years, and we are now less reliant on foreign oil than in any of the past 16 years.  We have more working oil and gas rigs than the rest of the world combined, and we have opened up millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration where appropriate and where it can be done safely.  My Administration has also approved dozens of new pipelines to move oil around, including from Canada, which will help create jobs and encourage more energy production.  Thanks to our Nation’s booming oil production, more efficient vehicles, and a world-class refining sector that last year was a net exporter for the first time in 60 years, we cut net imports by 10 percent—or a million barrels a day—in the last year alone.

Only eight months later, on November 12th, the International Energy Agency reported that the United States had suddenly moved from a country historically dependent on foreign oil, to a net exporter. But that is just the beginning. According to the IEA the United States will become the world’s largest oil producer by 2017 — surpassing even Saudi Arabia. Reuters said the IEA annual long-term report surprised top IEA analysts:

“Energy developments in the United States are profound and their effect will be felt well beyond North America – and the energy sector”

“The recent rebound in US oil and gas production, driven by upstream technologies that are unlocking light tight oil and shale gas resources, is spurring economic activity – with less expensive gas and electricity prices giving industry a competitive edge.”

“The United States, which currently imports around 20 percent of its total energy needs, becomes all but self-sufficient in net terms – a dramatic reversal of the trend seen in most other energy importing countries.”

“The Chief Economist for the IEA said the US would far surpass Russia as the world’s largest gas producer by 2015 and become the world’s largest oil producer by 2017.”

Former President George W. Bush was completely right when he declared, “America, is addicted to oil.” Sadly, that has not changed. But instead of staying with the status-quo (perilously dependent on foreign oil) the Obama Administration decided early-on to keep billions of dollars of oil & gas investment, jobs, profits and other related economic activity here for the benefit of North Americans. And that, my friends — is historic change for the better.

Related articles

• U.S. to Become Top Gas and Top Oil Producer in the World by 2017, According to IEA; Special Report by Leading Financial e-Letter Investment Contrarians (prweb.com)
• U.S. to become biggest oil producer – IEA (money.cnn.com)
• U.S. to overtake Saudi as top oil producer by 2017: IEA (business.financialpost.com)
• America Needs Less Foreign Oil… For the Wrong Reasons (motortrend.com)

While some might think that the sky is falling now that a new President of China and a new Chinese Premier will be installed in March 2013 – Stephen S. Roach with his years of professional experience working with many of the individuals involved, tells us in his latest Project Syndicate article China’s Dream Team we should feel hopeful this time around.

Not that we didn’t feel hopeful when President of China Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jaibao came to power. In fact, I would like to take the opportunity to compliment the team of Hu Jintao and Wen Jaibao for their many successes — including the massively successful XXIX Olympiad held in Beijing.

Both men attended Harvard in younger years, both had plenty of exposure to Western ideas and neither seemed to ‘have it in’ for the West.

Historically speaking, communist leaders have generally displayed hostility or skepticism to the West and have been critical of Western thought and actions, even when some Western policies were of little concern to communist nations.

During the tenure of Hu Jintao and Wen Jaibao, China has advanced in many areas and has remained a peaceful partner of the West. In particular, both leaders ushered in powerful policies and regulations to help mitigate the environmental catastrophe which has resulted from such rapid industrialization.

China presently burns more than 3 billion tons of coal each year resulting in the production of 7.2 billion tons of CO2, plus other gaseous pollutants and particulates. These numbers are expected to double by 2020 based on already planned and funded (but not yet built) coal power plants adding to the output from existing coal-fired power plants there.

The successful Chinese program directed by these two great men to dramatically limit nitrous oxides at coal-fired power plants comes to mind. This is important because, according to Wikipedia; “Nitrous Oxide is a major greenhouse gas and air pollutant. Considered over a 100-year period, it has 298 times more impact ‘per unit weight’ (Global warming potential) than carbon dioxide.[2]“

For an overview of the Chinese environmental situation and their response to it (current as of May 2012), please see my UNDP article here:

Or go directly to the downloadable PDF.

Over 382 billion dollars worth of conservation and sustainable energy projects have been announced since May 2012. And, another 56 billion was announced today, December 5, 2012 read the Reuters article here.

By 2020, when China will pump 15 billion tons of CO2 into the air just from its coal plants, any positive conservation and mitigation efforts made now will have enormous consequences then.

Let us hope that the new leadership team is as enlightened about the environment as the previous team. Let’s hope the calm and reasonable approach to international affairs and the wise economic choices of former President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jaibao will continue.

Above all, let’s not spoil the atmosphere with fearful or angry rhetoric. Minor irritants must remain minor! China needs us, we need them. Full stop.

Only second in importance to ending the Cold War (which was successfully ended by dialogue, goodwill and cooperation between the various players) is the need for China and the West to find ways to work together everyday for the betterment of the largest number of citizens in China and the West.

If the same degree of dedication, goodwill and cooperation is employed to find ways for China and the West to work together as was done to end the Cold War, everyone on the planet will reap those benefits for decades to come!

I welcome incoming Chinese leader President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to their new official positions and hope that Western leaders will reach out with sincere invitations to promote a grander and better vision of our world than was ever thought possible just 30-years ago.

Note: Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the CCP’s Central Military Commission, giving him supreme authority over China’s armed forces. Next March, he will become President of China as well. Read more here.

ABOUT JOHN BRIAN SHANNON

I write about green energy, sustainable development and economics. My blogs appear in the Arabian Gazette, EcoPoint, EnergyBoom, Huffington Post, United Nations Development Programme, WACSI — and other quality publications.

“It is important to assist all levels of government and the business community to find sustainable ways forward for industry and consumers.”

• Green Energy blog: http://johnbrianshannon.com
• Economics blog: http://jbsnews.com
• Twitter: @JBSCanada

Related articles

• China pledges $56 billion to cut air pollution (www.reuters.com)
• Hu Jintao Exit Speech – Analysis (eurasiareview.com)
• VIDEO: China’s Hu Jintao opens congress (bbc.co.uk)
• More than 1,000 new coal plants planned worldwide, figures show (guardian.co.uk)
• China’s president Hu Jintao steps down and brings congress to its ‘victorious conclusion’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• America’s Coal Export Dilemma Intensifies (sustainablebusiness.com)
• Radioactive coal ash from mines near uranium deposits falls on China cities (chinadailymail.com)
• What Is The Future Of King Coal In China? – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)

It was fascinating to read the Project Syndicate article by Former US Secretary of Defense Harold Brown on America’s trouble with China discussing some of the history and modern-day challenges to Sino-American relations.

Although I have the greatest respect for former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, I respectfully disagree with his proposed solution to the present challenges. Starting a new Cold War to secure America’s future is a step backward — not a step forward.

Rather, as both Western and Chinese interests converge at so many levels in the modern paradigm, it is in our best interests to work on solutions together.

Instead of the “Win – Lose” thinking of the past, it is incumbent upon us to find ways to “Win – Win” as so much is at stake.

We survived the last Cold War, but that is no guarantee we would survive another one. It’s simply too big a risk to take — especially when there are better options available. And, there are.

The former Secretary of Defense states that; “China’s export-led economic model has reached its limits…” and I believe this is a most profound point.

IF China has reached it’s export-led model as he asserts, it has only done so because there are presently a lack of purchasers to purchase Chinese goods.

For years, China has manufactured products to sell around the world and as long as there has been plenty of disposable income in the West, there has been plenty of sales.

As the Western economies fell backwards — so did Chinese exports.

Funny how that works.

In case policy-makers haven’t yet reached the same conclusions I have, let me say the situation I describe above is easily verifiable and directly correlates with the economic events of the early 21st century.

Whether political leaders in the U.S. or China like it or not, the relationship has been, is, and must continue to be, a symbiotic one.

China NEEDS a healthy, stable and frankly, a wealthy Western world to sell it’s wares to — and the West needs a source of low priced goods to assist growth to continue at lower cost than otherwise would be the case.

The U.S. needs a large export market for its billions of tons of coal and millions of barrels of petroleum that it must sell every year to support those industries here.

By 2017 the U.S. will surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s #1 oil exporter — according to the IEA — but in actuality, this may occur in 2015.

http://arabiangazette.com/us-top-oil-producer-2017/

Not only that, so many products are manufactured by American corporations in China at lower cost than they could be here — therefore personal happiness is enhanced on a massive scale by products Western consumers can afford. Thanks China!

And without a healthy China (and Japan) who will continue to buy all those T-Bills to float the American economy? Along with all of the other China-driven (and increasing yearly) investment and purchasing of American goods and services.

For the next few decades, the only politics that make over-arching sense will be the politics of economics. For now, more than ever, the politics of self-interest will be the politics of economics and the politics of economics will be the politics of self-interest.

The stronger the Chinese economy, the better the effect on Western economies and Western governments. The stronger the American and other Western economies, the better for Chinese exports.

Any other model will be a lesser model and will bring it’s own problems with it.

As for the long-range bomber advocated for by former Secretary Harold Brown. I too, want a strong, secure and freedom-loving North America — but let us hope the days of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) are over.

Instead of sabre-rattling and an ever-present nuclear threat, let us hope that our thinking as a species has moved on.

A Pentagon report laid it out in stark terms a couple of decades back, “it is not a case of if, but of when” a nuclear exchange would take place under the then-MAD paradigm.

If we can’t co-exist, if we can’t form and retain viable and symbiotic relationships with other nations — every one of us will be dead — eventually. And then, none of this will matter.

That’s not the goal I’m working for.

.

ABOUT JOHN BRIAN SHANNON

I write about green energy, sustainable development and economics. My blogs appear in the Arabian Gazette, EcoPoint, EnergyBoom, Huffington Post, United Nations Development Programme, WACSI — and other quality publications.

“It is important to assist all levels of government and the business community to find sustainable ways forward for industry and consumers.”

• Green Energy blog: http://johnbrianshannon.com
• Economics blog: http://jbsnews.com
• Twitter: @JBSCanada

Read more at: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/from-competition-to-confrontation-for-the-us-and-china-by-harold-brown#yD3qLMzsctZhgiyR.99

Amonix 34.5% peak efficiency solar module record
Verified by National Renewable Energy Laboratory – May, 2012

by John Brian Shannon

Most installed solar panels (also known as solar modules) in North America and Europe have an 11% efficiency-rating. That is, of the sunlight falling on them approximately 11% of that sunlight is converted into direct current electricity.

These are the panels with which we are most familiar and for the countries mentioned, they provide a tiny percentage of total electrical production there.

For example, Germany has over one-million solar panels installed with more installed every day. Even so, all of Germany’s solar panels combined supply less than 3% of German electricity needs.

Thanks to our computer-controlled electrical grids, utility companies can switch to the lowest cost minute-by-minute electricity during the day due to something called ‘Merit Order’ ranking.

When the Sun is shining, every kilowatt of solar energy is spoken-for as it is by far the lowest-priced electricity available to utility companies during the daylight hours. In Germany, electrical rates drop by 15 – 40% during the daytime — due to the lower Merit Order price of solar power.

Solar provides lower cost electricity than the electricity produced by feeding a coal-fired burner with expensive coal ($70 – $155 per ton, plus transportation) with the required small army of personnel to unload coal from rail cars, oversee safety in the power plant, load the coal and otherwise maintain a billion dollar coal-fired power plant for example.

What is new under the Sun, is that many of those old 11% efficiency solar panels are soon to be replaced with 22%-24% efficiency solar panels. That’s right, technology marches along and not just in regards to video games! The latest production solar panels are a ‘drop in’ replacement for the older panels.

Yes, a 100 megawatt solar power plant can become a 200 megawatt power plant — just by replacing the panels with more efficient ones.

And, unlike doubling the capacity of a coal-fired, natural gas or nuclear power plant, this won’t cost another billion dollars, nor entail yet another lengthy political fight to obtain approval. No, the old, low-efficiency panels will simply be unbolted from their brackets and the new higher-efficiency ones will be bolted into place. All of which should take a few weeks while the rest of the solar power plant continues to operate normally.

It turns out that due to mass production and a competitive marketplace, the per panel price of the new efficient panels is lower than the originally-installed panels.

To oversimplify this equation, Germany will jump from 3% solar electrical power production to 6% — just by replacing their panels with more efficient ones.

Where will it end you ask? Earlier this year, a new solar panel was announced which surpasses the 24% panel by a significant margin.

In only ten years, we have come from panels with an 11% efficiency-rating typically costing around $100. per panel, to 24% efficiency-rating panels costing $20. per panel at utility-scale volumes. Within 24-months, Amonix 33% efficiency (CPV) solar panels will go into full production. At this rate, I can’t wait for 2030!

To watch a YouTube video about the Amonix 33% CPV solar program, click here.

ABOUT JOHN BRIAN SHANNON

I write about green energy, sustainable development and economics. My blogs appear in the Arabian Gazette, EcoPoint, EnergyBoom, Huffington Post, United Nations Development Programme, WACSI — and other quality publications.

“It is important to assist all levels of government and the business community to find sustainable ways forward for industry and consumers.”

Green Energy blog: http://johnbrianshannon.com
Economics blog: http://jbsnews.wordpress.com
Twitter: @JBSCanada

Related articles

• Solar panel breaks “third of a sun” efficiency barrier (gizmag.com)
• Solar Panel Breaks “Third of a Sun” Efficiency Barrier (tech.slashdot.org)
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• Largest Array of Solar Panels in Miami Florida Now Covers Sun Electronics Warehouse (virtual-strategy.com)

Yesterday, the UNDP opined on Twitter that “Africa is on the move.”

Today, on Project Syndicate David Fine wrote “Inside Africa’s Consumer Revolution” where he pointed out some interesting facts about that continent.

“Nowadays, Africa’s economic potential – and the business opportunities that go with it – is widely acknowledged. Poverty and unemployment are still more widespread than in other emerging markets, but accelerating growth since 2000 has made Africa the world’s second-fastest-growing region (after emerging Asia and equal to the Middle East).”

The above chart is from the IMF which is noted for it’s careful and qualified assessments of developing nations and regions. Here is a small excerpt from their authoritative October report:

Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa Maintaining Growth in an Uncertain World

”Economic conditions in sub-Saharan Africa have remained generally robust despite a sluggish global economy. The near-term outlook for the region remains broadly positive, and growth is projected at 5¼ percent a year in 2012–13. Most low-income countries are projected to continue to grow strongly, supported by domestic demand, including from investment. The outlook is less favorable for many of the middle-income countries, especially South Africa, that are more closely linked to European markets and thus experience a more noticeable drag from the external environment. The main risks to the outlook are an intensification of financial stresses in the euro zone and a sharp fiscal adjustment in the US–the so called fiscal cliff.”

Mind you, not everything is trending upwards — some things are going downhill there too. Way down. Here is a nice chart to underscore that trend.

Figure 1: African Debt and Debt Service Source: International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database, October 2009.

The World Bank agrees with the optimistic view of things and has noted this progress in their twice-yearly report on Africa — Africa’s Pulse. Here is a short excerpt from that report:

In its wide-ranging analysis of new developments in Africa, the new report notes that after ten years of high growth, an increasing number of countries are moving into ‘middle- income’ status, defined by the World Bank as those countries achieving more than $1,000 per capita income.

Of Africa’s 48 countries, 22 states with a combined population of 400 million people have officially achieved middle-income status; while another 10 countries representing another 200 million people today would reach middle-income status by 2025 if current growth trends continue or with some modest growth and stabilization.

On October 15, 2012 Jean-Michel Severino and Emilie Debled wrote about Africa’s huge growth opportunity in their great Project Syndicate piece, “Africa’s Big Boom”

“Africa is undergoing a period of unprecedented economic growth. According to The Economist, six of the ten fastest-growing countries in 2011 were in Africa. Average external debt on the continent has fallen from 63% of GDP in 2000 to 22.2% this year, while average inflation now stands at 8%, down from 15% in 2000. This positive trend is likely to persist, given that it is based on structural geographic and demographic factors, such as rising exports, improved trade conditions, and steadily increasing domestic consumption.”

The continent we call Africa, once an economic backwater is rapidly-transforming into an important partner of the world’s major economies, by providing much-needed raw resources and increasingly, agriculture is playing an important role there.

A major UN paper dated June 2011 remarked on the recent optimism felt by many world leaders, “The African Moment: On the Brink of a Development Breakthrough”

In the words of UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon (2011:1) at the Summit of the African Union in January 2011: ‘Africa is on the move. The new narrative for Africa is a story of growth.’ And as Donald Kaberuka (2010:4), President of the African Development Bank, noted at the opening of the 2010 African Economic Conference, there is now ‘broad agreement that an unusually strong momentum has built up in the African economies over the last decade’. This change in perception does not mean that the immense challenges faced by the continent  are being glossed over, but the Afro-pessimism of the 1990’s has clearly been replaced by a much more realistic and confident outlook. African people seem to share this view.

The answer to the question What’s up with Africa? Everything you want in a growing continent.

Please take the time to read the seminal articles that I have cited in this post. They will enrich your understanding of this coming-of-age continent.

• Africa’s Big Boom Jean-Michel Severino & Emilie Debled in Project Syndicate
• Inside Africa’s Consumer Revolution David Fine in Project Syndicate
• Sub-Saharan Africa Maintains Growth in an Uncertain World — International Monetary Fund (read the article here OR download the entire PDF report here)
• Despite Global Slowdown, African Economies Growing Strongly― New Oil, Gas, and Mineral Wealth an Opportunity for Inclusive Development — The World Bank

• The African Moment: On the Brink of a Development Breakthrough – United Nations Development Programme – Regional Bureau for Africa (download the entire PDF report here)

ABOUT JOHN BRIAN SHANNON

I write about green energy, sustainable development and economics. My blogs appear in the Arabian Gazette, EcoPoint, EnergyBoom, Huffington Post, United Nations Development Programme, WACSI — and other quality publications.

“It is important to assist all levels of government and the business community to find sustainable ways forward for industry and consumers.”

Green Energy blog: http://johnbrianshannon.com
Economics blog: http://jbsnews.wordpress.com
Twitter: @JBSCanada

Related articles

• FDI flows into Africa to hit $31b in 2012 – World Bank (ghanabusinessnews.com)
• Ghana’s economy to be 5th fastest growing in sub-Saharan Africa in 2012 – World Bank (ghanabusinessnews.com)
• Western Companies See Big Money-Making Opportunities in Africa (atlantablackstar.com)
• Africa Continues Growth Despite Global Economic Woes (atlantablackstar.com)
• Africa’s economic growth miracle: ‘It’s the real thing’ (dailymaverick.co.za)
• Africa may be rising, but not as much as Walmart (guardian.co.uk)
• IMF Sees Continued Growth for China, Sub-Saharan Africa (voanews.com)

[“It is also a pleasure to be back at the World Economic Forum, a place where a great many people who want to make a difference regularly come to meet.

“And I am delighted to see that you have also chosen to be in India, a place where globally important decisions are increasingly being made.

“Almost a year ago, during your last Davos gathering, I highlighted some of Canada’s economic strengths and challenges.

“On the former, on the strongest, Canadian banks remain the soundest in the world.

“The World Economic Forum is one of several organizations that says so.

“Canada’s net debt-to-GDP ratio remains the lowest in the G-7, and the lowest by far.

“Thus Canada’s top credit rating has been reaffirmed by all of the major rating agencies.

“Among G-7 countries, Canada now has the lowest overall tax rate on new business investment.

“Canada also possesses a diverse yet harmonious society, with public institutions and a public service noted for professionalism and integrity.

“All of these assets, as Borge mentioned, and others have helped Canada better weather and better recover from the global recession.

“Indeed, despite the uncertainty of the times, the Canadian economy has now added more than eight hundred thousand net new jobs since July 2009.

“Still, we remain acutely aware of the difficult global trends, especially for many developed countries.

“As I said to the World Economic Forum in January, many countries with which Canada is traditionally aligned continue to be weighed down by debts they cannot seem to control, by entitlements they can no longer afford and by growth which threatens to remain sluggish for the foreseeable future.

“As I said in January, it is high time we realize that:

“The wealth of western economies is no more inevitable than the poverty of emerging ones.”

“As these last four years have revealed, the wealth we enjoy today in the West is not inevitable.

“Our standard of living will be based on – and will be based only on – strong, growth-orientated policies and on getting the hard choices right.

“That is why, over the past year, the Government of Canada has committed itself to a series of determined actions, we want to help ensure that growth, job creation and economic prosperity will be there for Canadians over the long term.]

End excerpt.

This information was provided by the Prime Minister’s office (Official News Feed, November 7, 2012)

Related articles

• Stephen Harper urges India to embrace free trade with Canada (canada.com)
• Stephen Harper kicks off India visit with stop at Taj Mahal (thestar.com)
• Harper tries hard and soft sell for India trade (macleans.ca)

Graphic courtesy of: Perez & Perez 2009a

Comparing finite and renewable planetary energy reserves.

Total reserves are shown for the finite resources.

Yearly potential is shown for renewable resources.

by John Brian Shannon

What energy shall we use between now and 2050? That’s the real question, isn’t it? Our choices are laid out before us just like at the shoe store – all we have to do is choose! So, lets see what’s available.

It turns out that there are two kinds of energy. Non-renewable and renewable.

Non-renewable energy:

Our worldwide 2009 energy consumption including all forms of transportation, was 16 Terawatt-years. We can see from the Perez & Perez graphic that the finite,  non-renewable energy sources are estimated to total 1445 – 1655 Terawatts. The total energy available from those sources is equal to 90.3 – 103.44 years of energy usage at 2009 consumption.

Once consumed, this kind of energy will be gone forever.

Renewable energy:

Keeping in mind the 2009 energy consumption total of 16 Terawatts per year, we see that renewable energy sources total 23,034.2 – 23095.7 Terawatts per year. That’s 1439 – 1443 times more energy than we required in 2009 – including all forms of transportation.

This kind of energy will be available every year until the sun burns out, the ocean’s freeze and the wind stops blowing.

What’s the difference some might ask, why worry? Even in the worst-case scenario we’re covered for 90 years of fossil fuel use if we keep our energy consumption at 2009 levels.

One, the difference in the actual cost per energy unit. Costs for renewable energy have been falling dramatically and it looks set to continue. Some kinds of renewable energy are already reaching price parity with coal and nuclear power.

Two, sustainable energy per-kilowatt-hour cost savings are becoming apparent when compared to conventional energy, because of something called “Merit Order” ranking, which is a program designed to help utility companies choose from the different kinds of energy available at different times of the day.

Three, the costs associated with certain kinds of energy use must be factored in as China’s leaders (for just one example) are now realizing that  410,000 people per year die from pollution of the air, water, soil and locally-grown food in that country.

Energy usage will continue to increase in developed nations with their 1-billion citizens. In developing nations, energy requirements will continue to increase exponentially along with their 6-billion citizens. Almost 3-billion more developing world citizens are expected by 2050.

To be… or not to be… Green? Isn’t the answer obvious?

Please see: “A FUNDAMENTAL LOOK AT ENERGY RESERVES FOR THE PLANET” — by Richard Perez and Marc Perez

ABOUT JOHN BRIAN SHANNON

I write about green energy, sustainable development and economics. My blogs appear in the Arabian Gazette, EcoPoint, EnergyBoom, Huffington Post, United Nations Development Programme, WACSI — and other quality publications.

“It is important to assist all levels of government and the business community to find sustainable ways forward for industry and consumers.”

Green Energy blog: http://johnbrianshannon.com
Economics blog: http://jbsnews.wordpress.com
Twitter: @JBSCanada

Related articles

• South Africa Approves $5.4 Billion in Renewable Energy Projects to Provide 1,400MW by 2016 (inhabitat.com)

This blog examines Canada‘s debt and deficit-cutting success of the 1990′s and early 2000′s which improved Canada’s credit rating, lowered borrowing costs for the government and when combined with a new 7% nation-wide Goods and Services tax (1990) allowed many job-creation projects to be funded which lessened the blow of the government’s (then) austerity program.

Read “How Canada Cut Its Deficits and Debt” — by former Prime Minister of Canada Paul Martin (prior to that he was Finance Minister) who famously took Canada from second-worst among the G-7 countries to the most stable economic performer in only a few short years. The above link takes you to a downloadable PDF document. It is a must-read for students of macroeconomics.

Paul Martin, 21st Prime Minister of Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Fiscal Turnaround

“When the Liberal Party took office, Canada’s deficit and debt were by far the worst among the G-7 but for one, and our level of foreign debt was the highest of the industrial world. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal had publicly dubbed Canada all but bankrupt. Four years later, our debt-to-GDP ratio was dropping like a stone. Our financial record was second to none and Canada’s deficit was no more.” — Paul Martin quote in The Magazine of International Economic Policy — The International Economy.

Many American friends of mine, are asking how the U.S. can solve its massive U.S. deficit and debt problems — problems which seem almost as insurmountable as going to the Moon was viewed in the early 1960′s.

The fact is, these problems have been solved in Canada and they can be solved in the United States. What has been lacking up until now, has been the will to act. Once elected, leaders who are empowered by their electorate to slay the twin dragons of debt and deficit could do so relatively quickly.

Some final advice from the Right Honourable Paul Martin former Prime Minister of Canada, the man most directly responsible for solving Canada’s historic debt and toxic deficit problem.

“The final lesson I would draw is that if deficit reduction is to be a priority, then it has to be a “national” priority.

When Canada’s debt ratio hit 70 percent, it was assumed by most economists that we had crossed the tipping point. The United States is there now, and the IMF projects that within eight years it will hit 115 percent. [!]

These are serious numbers, and yet the so-called deficit debate in the United States is not about the deficit at all. It’s about winners and losers.

One thing to remember from the Canadian experience it is that for deficit cleansing to succeed, there can be no winners while most people are losing. If deficit reduction is to gain public support, it requires a united effort—in other words, it must be a truly national exercise.” — Paul Martin quote in The Magazine of International Economic Policy — The International Economy.

ABOUT JOHN BRIAN SHANNON

I write about green energy, sustainable development and economics. My blogs appear in the Arabian Gazette, EcoPoint, EnergyBoom, Huffington Post, United Nations Development Programme, WACSI — and other quality publications.

“It is important to assist all levels of government and the business community to find sustainable ways forward for industry and consumers.”

Green Energy blog: http://johnbrianshannon.com
Economics blog: http://jbsnews.wordpress.com
Twitter: @JBSCanada

Related articles

• How Canada Cut Its Deficits and Debt  (The International Economy)
• The Prescription for America’s Economy (jbsnews.wordpress.com)
• The Canadian Austerity Success Story (jbsnews.wordpress.com)
• Canada’s Fiscal Success Story (The Washington Post)
• Canada’s Budget-Cut Veteran Has Warning for U.S. (blogs.wsj.com)
• The Debt of Democracy! (jbsnews.wordpress.com)
• Looking Through the Wrong End of the Telescope Won’t Fix the Economy (jbsnews.wordpress.com)
• Canada says “close” to eliminating deficit on schedule (news.yahoo.com)

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• Canada says “close” to eliminating deficit on schedule (news.yahoo.com)

Everyone knows more electricity is needed in developed nations and electrical needs in developing nations are skyrocketing. No problem there — everyone deserves to live a good lifestyle and enjoy our modern technology to the fullest.

The problem occurs in the means used to generate that electricity. Some kinds of electrical power generation cause huge billowing clouds of pollution 24-hours per day, every day of the year.

All of this adds up to astronomically high costs for electrical power producers and users, which can be measured in several different ways.

For instance, new conventional nuclear  power plants can cost up to $20 billion dollars each. Added to that cost, is the cost incurred to store thousands of tons of (so-called) spent nuclear fuel. Some spent fuels must be stored in air-conditioned bunkers for up to 20,000 years, with never more than 36 hours of A/C interruption. The costs of that are so high, they can’t even be calculated.

New coal plants cost about $250 million dollars/per hundred megawatts. A hundred megawatts isn’t much, by the way – enough to power 16,000 power-hungry A/C homes in the U.S. or about 29,000 homes in China. Some coal-fired power plants cost upwards of $1 billion dollars. The cost of the coal must be added to the equation from day one – the price of which rises and falls typically between $80.00 and $160.00 per ton, plus the significant transportation costs. It may interest you to know that China burned 3 billion tons of coal last year, emitting 7.2 billion tons of CO2 and other toxic gasses. Approximately 410,000 Chinese people die every year as a result of pollution-related deaths.

Natural gas power plants are clean, they cost a little more than comparable coal plants and the only real drawback is they emit huge volumes of CO2. Unlike coal, they emit little in the way of other toxic gasses or soot. Again, a costly and continuous and supply of natural gas must be available every day of the year.

No matter which choice is made, the construction of electrical generation power plants incurs high costs to nations — and the cheapest options come with the highest fuel and health-care costs.

In the United States, nuclear power receives significant subsidies on the order of $3.50 billion per year on average and oil and gas receive $4.86 billion subsidy dollars per year on average.

We can see from the chart above that in the United States most forms of electrical power generation are heavily subsidized. Who could afford electricity otherwise?

If solar, wind and geothermal energy were subsidized at the same per kilowatt rate as Oil & Gas, Coal, or Nuclear — total U.S. emission levels would drop dramatically and Americans would be breathing much cleaner air.

National health-care costs would drop, acid rain damage would decrease to near zero, crop damage from power plants would become a thing of the past and meeting international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol would become boringly simple.

To have the enjoyment of breathing clean air and the other benefits listed above, all governments should calculate the highest subsidy they pay per kilowatt hour and then begin paying ALL electricity providers that same per kilowatt hour subsidy.

Solar power, wind power and geothermal would then become ultra-competitive with coal, N-power and Oil & Gas. Every large rooftop area, such as big box retail outlets like IKEA stores for one good example, could assist national power production and air-quality goals by lowering demand on the grid and potentially adding power to it, while helping to enhance the health of citizens.

One nation has already begun such a program and is right on schedule. Denmark has decided that all energy, including transportation energy(!) will come from renewable sources by 2050 and they have made substantial progress in only a few short years.

Even with the patchwork and grossly unlevel subsidy regimes in place in the United States, this transition is already occurring. Organizations from the U.S. Navy, to IKEA and WalMart, some cities and towns, the Big Three auto manufacturers and many more businesses and organizations, are converting their unused rooftop spaces and vacant land into clean power stations — thereby tapering the need for behemoth, pollution-spewing power plants.

If governments standardized the subsidies they already pay for Oil & Gas, Coal and Nuclear power (instead of paying billions of dollars to some power providers — whilst paying pennies to others) we would all breathe a lot easier.

We need oil & gas, coal, natural gas and conventional nuclear power to feed our grids, what I’m  advocating for is directly comparable subsidies for all electricity providers, including green energy — and there are no real reasons why such subsidy levelization couldn’t soon happen in every country.

ABOUT JOHN BRIAN SHANNON

I write about green energy, sustainable development and economics. My blogs appear in the Arabian Gazette, EcoPoint, EnergyBoom, Huffington Post, United Nations Development Programme, WACSI — and other quality publications.

“It is important to assist all levels of government and the business community to find sustainable ways forward for industry and consumers.”

Green Energy blog: http://johnbrianshannon.com
Economics blog: http://jbsnews.wordpress.com
Twitter: @JBSCanada

“Developing just 54 gigawatts of offshore wind in Atlantic waters would generate $200 billion in economic activity and create 43,000 permanent, well-paid technical jobs, in addition to displacing the annual output of 52 coal-fired power plants.” — Center for American Progress – Fact Sheet/Regional Energy, National Solutions

I have selected excerpts from this report, which you can read below. I suggest you read or download the entire report in PDF form, click here:

Excerpts from the Southeast: Energy efficiency and smart grid

The Southeast, a region historically dependent on fossil fuels, has become a leader in the emerging field of smart-grid technology—which is at the center of the impending wholesale modernization of our electric infrastructure. An enhanced commitment to regional smart-grid innovation, manufacturing, and deployment, coupled with a robust plan to address the region’s traditional energy efficiency shortfall, point to an economic and environmental boon. — Center for American Progress – Fact Sheet/Regional Energy, National Solutions

• The Southeast boasts more firms across the high-tech smart-grid value chain than any other region. Continuing to lead this transition offers the opportunity to create jobs across a range of skill-levels and fields; to diversify existing companies and to build new ones; to improve quality of life by connecting home, utility, renewable, and vehicle technology; and to reap the environmental and cost-saving benefits of using our resources more efficiently. — Center for American Progress – Fact Sheet/Regional Energy, National Solutions

• At the same time, addressing the region’s serious shortfall in implementing conventional energy efficiency policies provides a tremendous and complementary economic and environmental opportunity. A study by Georgia Tech and Duke University showed the potential to cut energy use across the region by 16 percent in 2030. This would result in annual consumer savings of $71 billion and lead to the creation of 520,000 jobs by 2030. — Center for American Progress – Fact Sheet/Regional Energy, National Solutions

Excerpts from the Midwest: Advanced Vehicles

The auto industry revival that is taking place in the Midwest is proof that states and the nation prosper when we make energy choices that take the American people, our economy, and our outdoor heritage forward together. Having recovered from near bankruptcy less than three years ago, the auto industry is now profitable, sales are rebounding, and fuel-economy projections have exceeded expectations. — Center for American Progress – Fact Sheet/Regional Energy, National Solutions

In addition to revitalizing American manufacturing, the deep oil savings from vehicles being built now under strong new fuel-economy standards will mean net savings to consumers of more than $54 billion a year in 2030 and will add 570,000 jobs to the economy. — Center for American Progress – Fact Sheet/Regional Energy, National Solutions

Excerpts from Mountain West: Wind and solar development and distribution

The Mountain West is experiencing firsthand the economic and environmental benefits of transitioning to low-carbon energy sources. Continuing this shift will be critical—the West is already experiencing serious damage from climate change and would face an even grimmer future if the nation turns its back on clean renewable energy in favor of a continued reliance on dirty fuels. — Center for American Progress – Fact Sheet/Regional Energy, National Solutions

• The West boasts nearly unlimited renewable energy resources—particularly wind, solar, and geothermal—that promise a brighter economic future than is possible with fossil fuels. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory identified 11,788 megawatts of nonhydro renewable energy projects either under construction or in advanced development in the region. Using the Electric Power Research Institute’s estimates of jobs per megawatt, these projects represent 71,872 jobs. — Center for American Progress – Fact Sheet/Regional Energy, National Solutions

Excerpt from the Pacific Coast: Solar power innovation and installation

The Pacific Coast and the adjoining western states are referred to as the “sun belt” for a reason. Capitalizing on that abundant solar resource is paying huge dividends for the region—providing jobs, spurring new industries, and spawning new innovative technologies. Abundant resources and aggressive renewable energy standards, including incentives for both utility-scale and small-scale rooftop solar, position the region to build on its current status as a national leader in solar energy installation and generation. — Center for American Progress – Fact Sheet/Regional Energy, National Solutions

• The solar industry in California has experienced significant growth over the past 15 years. Since 1995 the number of solar businesses grew by 171 percent, and total employment jumped by 166 percent. As a point of comparison, the total number of California businesses has grown by 70 percent, and employment has increased by 12 percent. — Center for American Progress – Fact Sheet/Regional Energy, National Solutions

To read or download the entire report in PDF form, click here.

Filed under: Economics Tagged: American Progress - Fact Sheet/Regional Energy, Center for American Progress, Economics, economist, economy, Economy of the United States, Electric Power Research Institute, Energy, Energy development, environment, Environment, green energy, jbsnews.wordpress.com, jobs, John Brian Shannon, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, National Solutions, National SolutionsExcerpt, Politics, Renewable energy, solar power, sustainable energy, U.S.A., United States ]]> http://jbsnews.com/2012/10/22/excerpts-from-the-center-for-american-progress-fact-sheetregional-energy-national-solutions/feed/ 0 jbsnews http://jbsnews.com/2012/10/12/king-ludd-is-still-dead-my-comment/ http://jbsnews.com/2012/10/12/king-ludd-is-still-dead-my-comment/#comments Fri, 12 Oct 2012 22:25:35 +0000 John Brian Shannon https://jbsnews.wordpress.com/?p=994 Continue reading →]]> by John Brian Shannon

Please read “King Ludd is Still Dead” by Kenneth Rogoff — at Project Syndicate.org.

Professor Rogoff’s excellent article has outlined the way our modern economic systems work and his statement succinctly describes the need for change to our present paradigm;

“…and the great economist Wassily Leontief worried that the pace of modern technological change is so rapid that many workers, unable to adjust, will simply become obsolete…”

Workers do become obsolete and must then train for other jobs. Which is VERY inefficient from the national economy standpoint. Not to mention lowering the quality of life for that worker and the family that worker supports.

I believe it is in our best national interest to enhance the ability of skilled workers to continue in their chosen career — rather then having their careers suddenly ended by the economic whims of a local marketplace.

Which is why economists everywhere should be proactively calling for the freedom of movement for skilled labour and semi-skilled labour to match local market demands all over the planet.

For just one telling example, take the people who work in high steel. These are the people who build skyscrapers, communications towers and bridges. These are highly skilled workers and it would be a shame for them to become unemployed, or under-employed on account of local conditions.

Such workers add to the knowledge base of a nation and for them to enter training programs to become bus drivers, painters, or insurance salesmen, is deplorable.

But this is what is happening all over America and other Western nations — and not just to the workers in high steel!

Rather than list all of the skilled occupations which face such calamities worldwide, (that would be most occupations which require skilled workers AND also suffer from the boom and bust economic cycle) suffice to say that many skilled workers can be laid off as a national economy tanks. What then?

Economists should be leading the charge in calling for an international treaty to guarantee and enhance the ability of skilled and semi-skilled labourers to go to where the work is, to live in that country with their immediate family until the project is completed, and then move on unhindered to the next project — wherever it may be in the world.

Most often, these workers will return to their home country when their own nations’ economy rebounds and they are again in demand at home.

Instead of staying in the U.S.A. and becoming bus drivers or shopping mall security guards, they will still be in top form — having kept their skills sharp in the interim and will have learned new techniques and practices from working in different jurisdictions around the planet. They will return with a sharp skill-set, positive experiences, they will be more rounded-out and their quality of life will have been enhanced.

This contributes more to the national knowledge base than allowing these people to drift into other employment, unemployment or under-employment during local economic slowdowns.

Economists should not be leading from behind on this, but should research and arrive at a common position which they should present to politicians and separately to the UN, in order to facilitate economic change for the better — change that will benefit all nations. If economists don’t impart this knowledge to political leaders, then who will?

Freedom of skilled labour to swiftly and easily move to where the work is — equals a more efficient world economy, better quality of life for those workers and their families and additional knowledge for the national skilled labour knowledge base.

John Brian Shannon

Related articles

• Rogoff: King Ludd is Still Dead (economistsview.typepad.com)
• King Ludd is Still Dead (project-syndicate.org)
• The good news? King Ludd is still dead (japantimes.co.jp)
• Skilled workers needed for economic reforms: Moily (news.in.msn.com)
• Singapore: Economic slowdown opens foreign labour debate (bbc.co.uk)

ABOUT JOHN BRIAN SHANNON

I write about green energy, sustainable development and economics. My blogs appear in the Arabian Gazette, EcoPoint, EnergyBoom, Huffington Post, United Nations Development Programme, WACSI — and other quality publications.

“It is important to assist all levels of government and the business community to find sustainable ways forward for industry and consumers.”

Green Energy blog: http://johnbrianshannon.com
Economics blog: http://jbsnews.wordpress.com
Twitter: @JBSCanada

Many nations in Africa are presently experiencing a boom in resource exports. And that is truly wonderful news as exports of any kind contribute handsomely to national GDP and balance-of-trade figures. Not only that, millions of dollars of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) often accompany resource exports.

For workers involved in the resource sector of a nation, it is unquestionably a positive development. Many other businesses and citizens at the periphery of the resource sector benefit too.

But does resource extraction benefit the rest of the society? It is heartening when one sector experiences strong growth – but when that rapid economic growth is limited to a small proportion of the population, tensions can become inflamed.

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel laureate in economics and Professor at Columbia University has noted the problems inherent to resource-based economies in his recent and excellent article; “From Resource Curse to Blessing” which I urge you to read. Early into his piece, he says;

“On average, resource-rich countries have done even more poorly than countries without resources. They have grown more slowly, and with greater inequality – just the opposite of what one would expect.” — Stiglitz

Rather than develop the resource sector to the exclusion of all else and hope the rest of the society holds itself together — it would be prudent to tax all raw resources which are leaving the country.

In that case, comparatively few people will still make a good living directly from the oil (or other resource) company, while the rest of the country benefits in other ways from additional government spending on programs like improvements to national infrastructure, such as airports, highway systems, rail transportation and hospitals and schools on account of the tariff revenue.

When governments take in additional multi-millions of dollars from raw resource tariffs they will have additional money to improve services across the country.

The one thing governments shouldn’t do is add a tariff when resource prices are high! The major powers in the world will not let that happen as prices begin to skyrocket because that will add to uncertainty in the stock market and huge pressure will be brought to bear against any government attempting such a thing.

The time to add a small tariff is now, when prices are comparatively low and therefore, complaints will be few. Prices won’t drop much anytime soon. Due to the supply and demand equation they will be more often rising in the coming decades.

As we know, many African nations export significant amounts of unrefined oil, raw metals (ore and ingots), minerals or uncut and un-mounted gemstones. When African nations implement a 5% tariff on every exported tonne of resource — or barrel of oil — their economies will fire on all cylinders and with little complaint from rapidly growing and resource-hungry nations.

John Brian Shannon

Related articles

• Why Resource-based Economies Need Tariffs (jbsnews.wordpress.com)
• Joseph Stiglitz | Africa’s natural resources can be a blessing, not an economic curse (guardian.co.uk)

ABOUT JOHN BRIAN SHANNON

I write about green energy, sustainable development and economics. My blogs appear in the Arabian Gazette, EcoPoint, EnergyBoom, Huffington Post, United Nations Development Programme, WACSI — and other quality publications.

“It is important to assist all levels of government and the business community to find sustainable ways forward for industry and consumers.”

Green Energy blog: http://johnbrianshannon.com
Economics blog: http://jbsnews.wordpress.com
Twitter: @JBSCanada

What is the matter with energy? A scientist might say, what is the energy with matter?

There are really only two things in the universe. One is matter and the other is energy. All matter can be turned into energy if you have a large enough or sophisticated enough machine available.

Take the Sun for example. It is a big, hot ball of nuclear fusion taking place somewhere in space not too far away from us, thankfully. If it were too far away, we wouldn’t receive enough energy (mostly in the form of heat and visible, infrared and UV light) to support the many life forms on this planet.

So is the Sun matter, or energy? Our Sun is made up of matter which produces energy using the nuclear fusion process which takes place there on a huge scale.

Our Sun produces energy from its mass using fusion while today’s nuclear reactors produce energy from matter using a highly-efficient process — nuclear fission. Nuclear physics is used to enhance energy production from matter and this process requires certain metallic elements for maximum efficiency.

When we discuss electrical power generation using nuclear power, there are really only a few downsides. All of which cost you a lot of money, unfortunately, as some costs are paid by taxpayers (government-funded R&D and national security, to name just two) while other costs are in the form of electrical bills, paid by electricity users.

One of the highest costs has been the research and development of nuclear materials and nuclear power plant design/engineering to provide electrical power for cities and towns, which began in the cold War era. The United States has borne much of the cost of nuclear power research in the Western nations over the past decades. Such R&D is very costly and continues.

The various fuels used in nuclear reactors are (like many things) hazardous if misused. A crude nuclear bomb, one that a domestic or foreign terrorist could make from a new or ‘spent’ nuclear fuel rod requires a full-blanket approach to security of nuclear plants, processing facilities, transportation of nuclear materials and even uranium mines, which translates to high costs.

Another high cost are the power plants themselves, which must first of all be constructed with very high security in mind, have locations near waterways and the very high levels of design and engineering required for dealing with nuclear materials combine to add to the costs involved.

So far, so good. Because thus far, nuclear power plants in the U.S. and the rest of the Western world have thrived and produced profit for their investors. Whether government or privately-owned, nuclear power is so efficient and has such a small carbon footprint, that it would be almost unimaginable to not have had them adding baseline load to Western power grids all along. Yes, they have been that good, and, for that long!

There is one unsolved externality with regards to nuclear power; What to do with the spent rods? This is one kind of cost which could turn out to become larger than all the other costs put together – IF this part of the nuclear equation isn’t handled properly.

Or, if handled properly, and recognized for the true resource it really is, it could spark a renewed interest in nuclear energy AND could become the greater part of a solution to the entire spent fuel problem!

For decades people have been rightly concerned about the thousands of tons of so-called spent nuclear fuel stockpiles just sitting around in astronomically expensive storage facilities in many Western nations. Which is where some of it must stay for up to 20,000 years or longer, in massive air-conditioned underground bunkers. Were the A/C shut down for more than 36 hours — even once, a catastrophic event of national proportions could occur.

The amount of energy which could be extracted from this spent fuel is truly mind-boggling. With careful usage, these presently useless and costly-to-store materials could power much of North America for decades.

Yes, some government subsidy money would be required in order to ‘burn’ these partially-spent fuel rods and produce plenty of power from them until they are only slightly radioactive and infinitely safer to dispose of – but that will pale in comparison to the amount of subsidy money the U.S. government already spends to securely store, monitor and keep cool, spent nuclear fuel rods for up to 20,000 years!

There are tons of very expensive and toxic matter that is presently sitting around, costing uncountable billions to store and becoming ever more unstable as time goes by. It can become one of the nation’s prime sources of energy by re-processing it and ‘burning it’ as nuclear power generation fuel, and doing so will dramatically increase America’s energy and environmental security.

Which is why I respectfully call on President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to call for an assessment of all spent, otherwise unused, or unusable, processed nuclear materials of any kind, in the U.S. – much of which could be re-processed or used ‘as is’ for electrical power generation by a new generation of American SMR nuclear reactors, thereby solving the ‘thus far unsolved’ externalities of nuclear power.

John Brian Shannon

• http://arabiangazette.com/size-modular-nuclear-reactor/
• https://epic.sites.uchicago.edu/sites/epic.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/EPICSMRWhitePaperFinalcopy.pdf
• http://www.pri.org/stories/science/technology/new-modular-nuclear-plant-ready-for-u-s-introduction-8011.html
• http://energy.gov/articles/obama-administration-announces-450-million-design-and-commercialize-us-small-modular
• http://energy.gov/articles/energy-department-takes-first-step-spur-us-manufacturing-small-modular-nuclear-reactors
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_modular_reactor
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Reactor_Innovative_and_Secure

ABOUT JOHN BRIAN SHANNON

I write about green energy, sustainable development and economics. My blogs appear in the Arabian Gazette, EcoPoint, EnergyBoom, Huffington Post, United Nations Development Programme, WACSI — and other quality publications.

“It is important to assist all levels of government and the business community to find sustainable ways forward for industry and consumers.”

Green Energy blog: http://johnbrianshannon.com
Economics blog: http://jbsnews.wordpress.com
Twitter: @JBSCanada

In July of this year, the UN asked me to contribute an article to the United Nations Development Programme — and it is now published in a 60-page report.

I’m in the credits on page 2 and my article is published in full starting on page 26. The full report is downloadable as a PDF. Click here to download — you may need to click again when a new window opens.

GREEN ECONOMY IN ACTION: Articles and Excerpts that Illustrate Green Economy and Sustainable Development Efforts
August 2012

I would like to thank Hussein Abaza, who is the former Chief of the Economics and Trade Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and a person who has contributed unstintingly in the service of our civilization in several UN organizations for over 30 years.

I would be remiss if I did not express my appreciation to Veerle Vandeweerd, Director, Environment and Energy Group Bureau for Development Policy, United Nations Development Programme.

Grateful thanks also to Marjolaine Côté, Special Assistant to the Director Environment and Energy Group Bureau for Development Policy, United Nations Development Programme.

Thanks due to Serena Bedwal, Environment and Energy Group Bureau for Development Policy United Nations Development Programme

Many thanks to Danielle Crittenden my Managing Editor at Huffington Post Canada who was the first editor to approve and publish the first version of this article which was titled As China Goes Green What Is Canada Waiting For?

I also owe thanks to Emma Ellwood-Russell, my editor at EcoPoint™ who published a later version of this article titled China Goes Green and to EnergyBoom.com which also published the last variant of this article China Motivated to Adopt Sustainable Energy Solutions.

The UNDP elected to generously provide a link to the EcoPoint™ website in the United Nations Development Programme report.

Please take a few moments to look over this 60 page report. I would be very interested to hear your comments about any part of it. Thank you.

John Brian Shannon

Related articles

• UNDP: Norwegian Crown Prince Continues to Speak Out for World’s Poor (prweb.com)
• Celebrities Join UNDP Video Spot Ahead of Rio+20 Summit – PR Web (press release) (prweb.com)

ABOUT JOHN BRIAN SHANNON

I write about green energy, sustainable development and economics. My blogs appear in the Arabian Gazette, EcoPoint, EnergyBoom, Huffington Post, United Nations Development Programme, WACSI — and other quality publications.

“It is important to assist all levels of government and the business community to find sustainable ways forward for industry and consumers.”

Green Energy blog: http://johnbrianshannon.com
Economics blog: http://jbsnews.wordpress.com
Twitter: @JBSCanada