Category: Archive

Climate Friendly make Green Power available nationally through
web: Climate Friendly is a new wave company which makes Green
Power available nationally using a web interface and also directly to
the corporate sector. Customers can choose between Climate Neutral
products such as Emerald (which uses 100% accredited Green Power),
Green (25% accredited Green Power) and Economy (10% accredited Green
Power).

Climate Friendly to buy RECs to match customers energy
consumption: While Climate Neutral customers continue to purchase
electricity from their standard electricity supplier, Climate
Friendly will purchase and surrender the equivalent number of Green
Power Rights and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from eligible
generation sources to meet the customer’s electricity consumption.
The net result is identical to purchasing Green Power from an
electricity supplier.

Port Kembla’s new Green Power generator to power 1500 homes:The
Port Kembla 0.5MW Wave Energy Plant located 200m east of the eastern
breakwater in Port Kembla, NSW, was granted Green Power approval in
September 2005. Since Green Power accreditation was granted, a
full-scale ocean trial of the Energetech wave energy device has taken
place at Port Kembla, and a proportion of this power has also been
used to produce desalinated water on-board the device. Results from
the latest trial are positive, and indicate the technology is capable
of producing more power and fresh water than has previously been
claimed. Based on the recent test results, a full scale project
should power up to 1500 homes, or produce three million litres of
water per day per production unit.

Energy Australia partnership adds to Green Power portfolio:
A newly formed partnership between EnergyAustralia Pty Ltd and
International Power Pty Ltd, called EA-IPR Retail Partnership, is a
new participant in the National Green Power Accreditation Program.
Trading as EnergyAustralia, electricity and gas retailer in Victoria
and South Australia, the partnership has added to EnergyAustralia’s
Green Power product portfolio. EnergyAustralia’s Green Saver product
is 12.5% accredited Green Power and was launched on 5 September 2005
to provide residential customers with a new Green Power accredited
energy option. EnergyAustralia will also shortly be launching a new
commercial Green Power product called Green@Work
for its Commercial and Industrial customers in Victoria and South
Australia.

Erisk Net,
22/11/2005

Bats desalination plant “solution”: The council has calculated
that if the Government paid $1000 to fit 5000-litre tanks in all 1.5
million households, it would cost $1.5 billion or $200 million less
than the expected cost of the desalination plant.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 24/11/2005, p. 6

Source: Erisk – http://www.erisk.net 

Contamination caused by earlier factory explosion: The
contamination followed an explosion at a chemical factory upstream in
the Songhua River on 13 November. Five people were killed in the blast.
Schools and businesses in Harbin have been shut.

Water temporarily restored, panic residents stock up: Water was
temporarily restored to the city to allow residents to stock up as the
wave of polluted river water flowed towards the area. The provincial
government said an 8Okm stretch of heavily polluted water would flow
past on Saturday. After the taps were closed, panicked residents rushed
stores to stock up on food and water. “All containers are being used to
store water, including the bathtub,” a factory manager said. People
were jamming the airport and rail stations to leave the area, another
witness said.

The Courier Mail, 24/11/2005, p. 15

Erisk – www.erisk.net 

Fountain makes no difference, Deputy Mayor: Deputy Mayor David
Hinchliffe last night acknowledged the decision to turn off the main
King George Square fountain would make no difference to Brisbane
reaching its drought targets. “I don’t think for a moment that the Lord
Mayor was saying that our meeting of water reduction targets depended
on us turning off the fountain in King George Square,” he said. “It was
a symbol that we too had to exercise some restraint. It was his
suggestion and we have agreed to that.”

Cabinet setting an example, Lord Mayor: Lord Mayor Campbell
Newman is standing firm on the fountain closure. He said it had the
unanimous support of Civic Cabinet and the mayors of southeast
Queensland had agreed to the same policy – there was no turning back
and there could be no exceptions. “We have to set an example for the
community and every drop counts,” he said.

Fountains lost 250 000 litres annually: Newman said the two city
fountains resulted in a water loss of more than 250,000 litres a year.
“A quarter of a million litres is a quarter of a million litres,” he
said.

The Courier Mail, 24/11/2005, p. 1

Source: Erisk – www.erisk.net 

Serious pollution levels to rise: Zhang Lijun, vice-minister of
the main environmental agency, recently said China’s already serious
pollution levels could increase “four to five times” over the next 15
years based on current economic growth patterns. The problem will
intensify as the population moves from its present 1.3 billion to peak
at 1.6 billion about 2030.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 24/11/2005, p. 9

Source: Erisk – http://www.erisk.net 

New standards adopted: The California Energy Commission on
Monday, 21 November approved the Integrated Energy Policy Report, which
included new standards on greenhouse gas emissions beyond the reach of
traditional, coal-fired power plants.

Major setback to Wyoming: Wyoming energy officials said
California’s decision was a major setback to plans to build new coal
plants to supply California via a planned transmission line. The
decision also could affect the future value of Wyoming’s coal reserves.

Must be as clean as best gas-fired plant: California’s new
policy restricted future purchases of out-of-state, coal-based power to
those facilities that can prevent pollution from entering the air. Any
new coal plant that wished to sell electricity there must be as clean
as the best natural-gas fired plant.

Blow to proposed Wyoming-to-California transmission line:
Wyoming officials have said coal-fired power plants would be the most
affordable and most attainable option to secure investment in the
proposed Wyoming-to-California Frontier transmission line. Once that
investment was made, they said the line could carry power from wind,
solar and other renewable resources that California wanted.

Incentive to invest in zero emission coal technology: A
spokesman for the Wyoming Conservation Voters Education Fund said the
California decision might finally force investors to support
zero-emission coal technology.

Writing on the wall: “The writing is on the wall,” said Jason
Marsden, executive director of Wyoming Conservation Voters. “Investors
should think twice before investing their money on new coal-combustion
power plants that can’t capture global warming pollutants since
California, the biggest potential electricity customer, is no longer
interested in buying dirty, coal-fired power.”

Silver lining in the cloud for Wyoming: The California policy
could have a silver lining for Wyoming if California officials
ultimately conclude that they needed to invest funds to work with
Wyoming to develop clean-coal technologies.

Reference: Digest of latest news reported on website of Climate
Change Secretariat of United Nations Framework on Climate Change
Control (UNFCCC). 23 November. Address: PO Box 260 124, D-53153 Bonn.
Germany. Phone: : (49-228) 815-1005, Fax: (49-228) 815-1999. Email: press@unfccc.int
http://www.unfccc.int

Erisk Net, 24/11/2005