Customers go green
Australian Green Power sales grow to 22 per cent to 160GWh in September
2005 while customer numbers rise 60 per cent to 186,000 due to a number
of new initiatives.
Category: Archive
Archived material from historical editions of The Generator
Domestic tanks better solution than desalination
Don White, who chairs the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, said
subsidising rainwater tanks in backyards was a simple solution to
combat water shortages, reported The Sydney Morning Herald (24 November 2005 p6). “We could postpone any water shortage in Sydney by 60 to 80 years,” he said.
Nine million Chinese without water
Chinese authorities cut off water supplies to nine million people in
Harbin, capital of north-eastern Heilongjiang province, on 22 November,
after it was revealed the local river was massively polluted. “Benzene levels were 108
times above national safety levels,” said China’s Environment
Protection Administration. Benzene is an industrial solvent and a
component of petrol.
Brisbane’s leaking water mains lose 20.3 million litres a day
Brisbane’s aged and leaking mains lose enough water each day to run the
decommissioned King George Square fountain for more than a century and
a half, according to The Courier Mail (24 November 2005, p.1).
About 357 litres a day will
be saved by closing the fountain. But each day, about 20.3 million
litres spew from the city’s water pipes.
100 of China’s 660 cities to run out of water
One of China’s largest cities, Harbin, has cut off water supplies in a
warning to a country rapidly ruining its water resources. Harbin’s
experience comes after the nation’s Deputy Construction Minister, Qiu
Baoxing, warned that 100 of China’s 660 cities could soon run out of
water because of waste and pollution, as well as degradation of the
headwaters of rivers. Other officials say 70 per cent of river water is
too polluted to drink, according to The Sydney Morning Herald (24 November 2005, p.9).
California stops importing power from coal
California regulators had approved new standards for energy production
that precluded importing electricity generated in conventional
coal-burning power plants in Wyoming, reported Associated Press.