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Archived material from historical editions of The Generator

  • Largest solar panel rollout in US begun

    California PUC President Peevey said, “This marks another milestone in meeting California’s commitment to lead the nation in producing and using clean renewable energy. Solar is an important part of California’s goals in doing what is right for our businesses, citizens and the environment. I commend Kohl’s for its leadership.”

     

    Once completed, Kohl’s use of solar power will generate more than 35 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable energy annually, the equivalent of powering an estimated 3,087 California homes. Additionally, in the first full year of operation, Kohl’s clean energy output will offset more than 28 million pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas directly linked to global climate change. Over the span of 20 years, Kohl’s solar deployment will prevent in excess of 515 million pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

    “Today’s activation marks a significant milestone for Kohl’s. Through our solar introduction, we’re further extending our commitment to green power and making a significant contribution to California’s renewable energy goals,” said Ken Bonning, Kohl’s executive vice president of logistics.

    Kohl’s rooftop solar photovoltaic systems are being built under an agreement with SunEdison, North America’s largest solar energy services provider. Under the agreement, SunEdison manages the rooftop solar energy systems in exchange for Kohl’s commitment to purchase energy from SunEdison. In total, more than 138,000 solar panels are expected to be used when Kohl’s solar installations are complete in 2008.

    “Kohl’s has chosen to use renewable energy to demonstrate environmental stewardship and contribute to a healthier environment in the communities in which they operate. We applaud Kohl’s leadership in finding a financially viable solution to deploying clean solar energy in a meaningful way,” said SunEdison CEO Tom Rainwater.

    In July, Kohl’s was ranked No. 8 on EPA’s National Top 25 list – up from its No. 24 ranking in April 2007 – as well as rising to No. 2 on EPA’s Top 10 Retail list – up from No. 5 in April 2007. These lists highlight EPA Green Power Partners(a) that have completed the largest annual voluntary green power purchases through July 9, 2007. The EPA updates its Top Partner lists quarterly, which are available at http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/partners/top25.htm.

    Kohl’s is also participating in EPA’s Fortune 500 Green Power Challenge(b) and currently ranks No. 6 among participating Fortune 500 partners. The goal of this campaign is roughly to double the existing green power purchases among Fortune 500 Green Power Partners to exceed 5 billion kWh of collective green power purchasing annually.

    According to the EPA, solar power is one of many green sources of power which also include wind, geothermal and biogas. These sources of power are partially or entirely generated from clean resources and are considered cleaner than conventional sources of electricity in part because of lower carbon dioxide emissions.

    ABOUT KOHL’s

    Based in Menomonee Falls, Wis., Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) is a family-focused, value-oriented specialty department store offering moderately priced, exclusive and national brand apparel, shoes, accessories, beauty and home products in an exciting shopping environment. A company committed to the communities it serves; Kohl’s operates 834 stores in 46 states and has raised more than $85 million for children’s initiatives nationwide through its Kohl’s Cares for Kids® philanthropic program. For a list of store locations and information, or for the added convenience of shopping online, visit www.kohls.com.

    ABOUT SUNEDISON

    Sun Edison LLC is North America’s largest solar energy services provider. SunEdison provides solar-generated energy at or below current retail utility rates to a broad and diverse client base of commercial, municipal and utility customers. For more information about SunEdison, please visit www.sunedison.com. The company headquarters is located in Beltsville, Md.

  • Wildlife fund declares five point plan for desalination

    Desalination plants should follow five-point plan and keep an eye on climate change coastal consequences, says WWF

    As a very energy intensive process whose product was once famously labelled “bottled electricity”, desalination needed to be powered in such a way that it did not become a significant major new contributer to increasing emissions and climate change risk, according to the WWF’s Phil Dickie

    Some golden rules:. Accordingly, plant promoters and approval agencies needed to ensure that:

    • plants used the most energy efficient technologies;

    • plants were developed in stages to take advantage of improving energy efficiency;

    • plants needed to be sited with due regard to protecting sensitive areas;

    • plants were sited to minimise the energy required to pump water to consumers; and

    • plants were powered through renewable energy, purchased green energy or used “Gold Standard” offsets for all their emissions.

    Coastal desalination plants particularly needed to consider the implications of climate change, which was predicted to lead to sea level rises, more severe extreme coastal weather events and increased risks of saline intrusion into coastal aquifers.

    Reference: Phil Dickie, WWF for a living planet, ‘Making Water – Desalination option or distraction for a thirsty world?’, June 2007.

    Erisk Net, 23/9/2007

  • Sri Lanka blacks out in self defence

    Amusing Rambo-like contradictions: According to Eric Ellis, reporting in The Sydney Morning Herald, (22/9/2007), p. 44, flying into Colombo’s civil war on a tourist-less Sri Lankan Airlines flight, the three plugs in the inflight magazine from the country’s in­vestment board extolling the island’s corpor­ate virtues were arresting, if not amusing:

    • "generous fiscal incentives";

    • "transparent legal system"; and

    • "one of the most liveable countries in Asia".

    A government for sale: "Generous fiscal incentives" seemed an apt advertisement for Sri Lanka’s public service, for this seems a government for sale;

    • Police posts along Colombo’s locked-down corniche were sponsored by a leasing company;

    • a steelmaker advertises on the checkpoint to the city’s besieged military HQ, which is fre­quently infiltrated by Tamil Tiger separatists intent on blowing up the brass.

    Cult of personality of the Presi­dent;"The growing cult of personality of the Presi­dent, Mahinda Rajapaksa, is plastered all over the central bank’s offices, though its governor insists he and the bank are unflinchingly inde­pendent. The statistics tell their own story:

    • interest rates at 18.3 per cent;

    • inflation at 16 per cent; and

    • a money supply that grew by 17 per cent in April to finance the escalation of an unwinnable war.

    Lanka has just eight kilo­metres of motorway, and infrastructure Churchill would recognise as new. When last here, in April, I saw the war frighteningly up close.

    ack-ack lights the night:"When the board switched off the power, Colombo was immediately bathed in light, and the HQ of the National Intelligence Board, Sri Lanka’s MI5 and "high-value target", blazed brighter than most. A gun tower barked into action 50 metres from my room in the Galle Face hotel. Its ack-ack lit the night, as excitable grunts on the tower blazed away Rambo-like at nothing in particular, including the hotel".

    The Sydney Morning Herald, 22/9/2007, p. 44

  • UK claims South Atlantic


    Relying on detailed geological and geophysical surveys by scientists and hydrographers, any state can delineate a new "continental shelf outer limit" that can extend up to 350 miles from its shoreline. Data has been collected for most of Britain’s submissions and Chris Carleton, head of the law of the sea division at the UK Hydrographic Office and an international expert on the process, said preliminary talks on Rockall are being held in Reykjavik, Iceland, next week.

    Mr Carleton believes the Falklands claim has the most potential for acrimonious political fallout. Britain and Argentina fought over the islands 25 years ago, and the value of the oil under the sea in the region is understood to be immense: seismic tests suggest there could be up to 60m barrels under the ocean floor.

    Britain has been granted licences for exploratory drilling around the islands within the normal 200-mile exploration limit and any new claim to UNCLCS would extend territorial rights further into the Atlantic.

    "It would be beyond the 200-mile limit but less than 350 miles," said Mr Carleton, who is involved in preparing the submission. "It effectively joins up the area around South Georgia to the Falklands. It’s a claim but how it’s handled has not been decided yet. The Argentinians will say it’s not ours to claim. It’s all a bit tricky."

    Martin Pratt, director of research at Durham University’s international boundaries research unit, added: "The Russians may be claiming the Arctic but the UK is claiming a large chunk of the Atlantic. Some states might ask why a big power is entitled to huge stretches of the ocean’s resources thousands of miles away from its land, but that’s the way the law is."

    Because of the sensitivities – earlier this year Buenos Aires scrapped a 1995 agreement with the UK to share any oil found in the adjacent waters – the first formal application from the UK is likely to centre on Ascension.

    The volcanic island, 1,000 miles from the African mainland, sits just to one side of the mid-Atlantic ridge. No gas or oil is likely to be found below the surrounding waters but there could be significant mineral deposits on the ocean floor.

    Talks have already begun between Ireland, Iceland and Denmark for the division of rights far out into the north Atlantic. It includes the island of Rockall and the sub-sea Hatton ridge. The competing claims are nowhere near final resolution although Ireland and the UK have agreed a common boundary.

    Other countries that have submitted claims to the ocean floors around remote overseas dependencies have run into fierce resentment from neighbouring nations. France, which this summer registered its claim to thousands of square miles around New Caledonia, in the Pacific, has received protests from Vanuatu warning that the claim has "serious implications and ramifications on Vanuatu’s legal and traditional sovereignty". Russia was criticised this summer for making claims beneath the Arctic Ocean.

    The UN body has been progressing slowly through its casework. The process of extending the normal 200-mile limit requires volumes of technical evidence of submarine soundings. According to the convention on the law of the sea, applicant states may register their rights by "establishing the foot of the continental slope, by meeting the requirements stated for the thickness of sedimentary rocks".

    Once demarcated, the ocean floor may then be claimed up to 60 nautical miles from the bottom of the continental slope. When territorial rights have been obtained, states have the right to extract any minerals, natural gas or oil discovered in the annexed seabed.

    There is a deadline of May 2009 for claims from the UK and other countries to be submitted, although states that ratified the treaty later have more time. "The amount of technical data required is massive," said Mr Pratt. "Australia recently submitted 80 volumes."

    In the past, Greenpeace has described the process as a "land grab".

  • Escape from suburbia

    The sequel to the ground breaking End of Suburbia will be available from the Ebono Institute as ofCover of Escape from Suburbia October 1. The film deals with different approaches to tackling a low energy future and examines the obstacles people face as they attempt to implement a low carbon lifestyle.

    See a snip from the film and read reviews at One Stop Green Shop  

    Premier screenings will be held in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne during October. Stay tuned for details of those events. 

  • One Cow One Planet

    One Cow One PlanetOur existence on this planet is precarious.

    How to save the world DVD exposes globalization and the mantra of infinite growth in a finite world for what it really is: an environmental and human disaster.

    But across India marginal farmers are fighting back. By reviving biodynamics an arcane form of agriculture, they are saving their poisoned lands and exposing the bio-colonialism of multinational corporations.How to save the world DVD tells their story through the teachings of an elderly New Zealander many are calling the new Gandhi.

    Find out more at One Stop Green Shop