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Archived material from historical editions of The Generator

  • Glacial nudists climb alps

    "They’ll be used at the right moment for our campaign, in Switzerland first and then worldwide," Mr de Roten says.

    Tunick split the volunteers into two groups of about 300 for separate shots on or around the lower end of the spectacular 23 kilometre long sweeping ice floe, at an altitude of about 2,300 metres and about an hour’s hike away from the village of Bettmeralp.

    Temperatures were well above freezing – about 10 to 15 degrees Celsius – unlike the riskier snowbound section higher up in the mountains.

    The US-born photographer is renowned for his spectacular art photos of hundreds if not thousands of naked people grouped in carefully chosen poses around landmarks.

    Tunick calls them "living sculptures" or "body landscapes" and these days he works mainly to order for contemporary galleries.

    About 18,000 nudes posed for the US-born photographer in Mexico City’s Zocalo Square in May.

    Other backdrops have included the Gateshead Centre for Contemporary Art in Britain (2005), the Biennale in Lyon, France (2005), and Grand Central Station in New York (2003).

    – AFP

  • Members Bill opposes nuclear waste dump in SA

    Labor, Liberals favour nuclear industry: "So, the big guns are circling," he continued. "It is not just Hugh Morgan. Before that we had Pangea, then we had the United States proposal to lease Australian nuclear fuel before it was used and then returned to Australia for disposal. As a state, our ability to say no to these schemes becomes much harder if we are awash with uranium dollars from our exports. On 29 April this year the Australian Labor Party (ALP) national conference marked the death of Labor Party opposition to the nuclear fuel cycle. In June this year the Liberal Party federal council voted to support the development of a global nuclear waste dump in Australia. The federal Liberal council passed the following resolution: ‘That federal council believes that Australia should expand its current nuclear industry to incorporate the entire uranium fuel cycle, the expansion of uranium mining to be combined with nuclear generation and worldwide nuclear waste storage in the geotechnically stable and remote areas that Australia has to offer’."

    Upper Spencer Gulf possible nuclear site: "I think that is code for South Australia", Parnell commented. "On 16 July this year there was a massive radioactive leak in Tokyo Electric’s giant nuclear plant as a result of a magnitude 6.8 earthquake and, just four days later, Prime Minister Howard flagged his intention to sign a nuclear pact with President Bush. This Howard move will inevitably bring Australia under pressure to become a global nuclear waste dump. It will increase terrorist focus on Australia and will create a direct incentive for nuclear power plants to be built in Australia. As you would know, Mr Acting President, time and again when possible locations for future nuclear plants are mentioned, the top of the list is usually South Australia’s Upper Spencer Gulf region. So, we cannot deny that we are front and centre to the debate in Australia over the expansion of the nuclear industry," he concluded.

  • Next step to Traveston Crossing Dam

    Impact statement due by October: "Some 112 changes and additions have been made to the original terms of reference as a result of the consultation on the draft," she said. The federal Minister for the Environment and Water Resources had advised that he was satisfied at this stage that stage 2 of the proposed dam did not require a separate referral and assessment process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act."

    Water saving efforts praised: "I am sure," Bligh said in parliament, "members will join me in congratulating the people of south-east Queensland for their inspired water-saving efforts in the face of the worst drought in the region’s history. Whether it is collecting water for gardens by using buckets in the shower or doing one less load of washing a week, households have tailor-made their own solutions to help beat this drought. Average consumption in the south east is now down to 135 litres per person per day – well ahead of Target 140. So successful have households been that the QWC has now asked the 12 councils under level 5 restrictions to help it decide whether south-east Queenslanders can be spared the prospect of outdoor watering bans as level 6 restrictions are formulated. Level 6 restrictions will shift the focus to business, particularly those small and medium sized companies that must do more to play their part by demonstrating how they can make savings of up to 25 per cent or bring their operations into line with world’s best practice. I look forward to their cooperation," she said.

    Reference: Anna M. Bligh, Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Infrastructure, Member for South Brisbane ALP, First Session of the Fifty-Second Queensland Parliament, Queensland, 7 August 2007.

    Erisk Net, 11/8/2007

  • Risk to NSW coast increases

    More storms, less sand: The study, focusing on the picturesque tourist towns of Wooli Wooli on the far north coast and Batemans Bay in the south, warned that the frequency of storms could increase by between 42 and 50 per cent and sea level rises could be up to 12 centimetres above the global average suggested by the last IPCC report. Experts believed that for every metre of sea level rise there would be about 50 to 100 metres of erosion.

    Melting of the polar ice caps not counted: Estimates of sea level rise in the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) did not include the full impact of the melting of the polar ice caps because too little is known about the long term risks. "It was the ice sheet experts who were most upset," said Professor Rahmstorf, who advises the German Government on climate change. "They felt that those risks were not properly represented."

    Danger to NSW coastal communities: Professor Rahmstorf’s visit to Australia coincided with a new study by scientists from CSIRO and the NSW Government warning that the state’s coastal communities were likely to be at much higher risk from sea level rise and storm damage than previously thought.

    The Age, 6/8/2007, p. 5

  • Renewables pass textiles in Massachusetts

    With an annual job growth rate of 20 percent projected by industry executives, clean energy will soon pass the textile industry, which now employs 15,400 people, as the 10th largest cluster tracked by the Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy, which is published by MTC’s John Adams Innovation Institute.

    "This census shows that the clean energy sector is off to a good start in Massachusetts. We need the industry to make itself heard, and we in state government need to put in place the regulatory incentives that will make Massachusetts a place where demand for clean energy technologies and products will grow," said Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles.

    In June, Governor Patrick convened two dozen entrepreneurs for a Clean Energy Roundtable, and called on the industry to organize a trade association along the lines of the Massachusetts Biotech Council. Efforts to form a Clean Energy Council are now under way.

    "The clean energy sector is key to the economic future of the Commonwealth," said Housing and Economic Development Secretary Dan O’Connell. "We need to understand what it will take to make this sector grow and thrive in Massachusetts."

    Among its findings, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Census showed that:

    • Massachusetts is an incubator for clean energy start-ups, with 116 companies founded since 2001. Nearly half of clean energy companies have less than five employees; 68 percent of firms have less than $10 million in annual revenues, 41 percent below $1 million.

    • Energy efficiency and demand response companies are currently the largest employers, with 6,300 jobs, or 44 percent of total employment in the sector. Renewable energy companies are the youngest and fastest growing firms, with executives projecting 30 percent job growth in the coming year. In both companies and jobs, the clean energy sector has significant presence in several areas of the state, inside Interstate 495 but also in the Pioneer Valley and the Berkshires.

    Also, a survey of 255 firm leaders conducted as part of the census found that clean energy executives were most worried about capital funding and revenue growth. To address this concern, in part, MTC recently launched a $15 million Business Expansion Initiative, which will provide secured loans to expansion-stage companies that produce renewable energy products.

    MTC’s Renewable Energy Trust will partner with lenders to offer loans of up to $3 million, with interest rates reduced according to jobs produced or investment made in the state, covering up to half the firm’s capital spending over a two-year period.

    "The Renewable Energy Trust is working with the Patrick Administration to make direct investments that help clean energy companies expand operations and create new jobs in Massachusetts," said MTC Executive Director Mitchell Adams. "We will continue to work with clean energy businesses—from start-ups to established high-tech manufacturers—to maximize their economic impact right here in the Commonwealth."

    Government incentives and regulatory barriers were the next biggest concerns for the clean energy companies. Executives identified California, with policies, regulatory structures and financial incentives that are geared toward driving demand for energy conservation, demand response and renewable energy, as most supportive for the clean energy industry—and as Massachusetts’ top competitor for clean energy entrepreneurs.

    These responses suggest that supportive state policies can be an important factor in developing a clean energy industry in Massachusetts. Steps taken by the Patrick Administration to date to create a clean energy future—and with it, a clean energy industry—for Massachusetts include the following:

    • Joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, with a pledge to auction all allowances of carbon dioxide emissions from large electric power plants and use the proceeds to promote energy efficiency, demand reduction, and renewable energy.

    • Issuing a "Leading By Example" Executive Order setting ambitious goals for energy efficiency and renewable energy use by state agencies.

    • Announcing that Evergreen Solar would build its first US manufacturing plant in Massachusetts, thanks to financial incentives, a state commitment to increase installed solar power from 2 MW to 250MW in a decade, and a state-brokered first-in-the-nation relationship between a solar panel manufacturer and an electricity distribution utility to market solar power and make the installation and connection process smoother.

    • Launching, through the Department of Public Utilities, an inquiry into "decoupling" electricity distribution rates from sales volume, to make utilities better partners in promoting energy efficiency.

    • Setting, with House Speaker Sal DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray, a goal of meeting all electricity demand growth through efficiency improvements, rather than additional power generation, within three years.

  • The Appeal of Animal Waste

    According to the Wisconsin Public Service Corp., the cost of a digester depends on specific farm conditions and the return on investment can range from a few years to more than 10 years. Systems typically use about 30 percent of the biogas to heat the digesters with the balance being used to supply a farm’s electricity or heating needs. Typically, a minimum herd of 300 dairy cows or 2,000 swine is needed to make such a system feasible. The cycle time to turn the manure into heat and power is 20-30 days.

    Illinois-based Ameren is now trying to determine the feasibility of using methane gas from hog manure. It is hopeful that it will be able to install an anaerobic digester and generator by year-end. The central idea is that a waste byproduct—manure—can be processed and converted to electricity.

    Manure collected from a farm in Carlyle, Illinois would be stored in the digester. Methane gas would then be siphoned off and used to power the generator, which could produce between 200-400 kilowatts of electricity. The electricity would be used by the farm, which has a peak electric demand of over 700 kilowatts. The heat created by the generator would be used to heat the digester.

    "The primary benefit would be renewable energy credits, or carbon dioxide (CO2) offset credits, that Ameren could obtain to use in responding to various future government initiatives," says Ameren Strategic Analyst Paul Pike. Pike notes for each one-ton emission of methane gas captured and converted to energy equals 21 tons of CO2 not released into the environment. Ameren is working with the Illinois EPA and the University of Chicago on the project.

    The Upside
    Pacific Gas and Electric is teaming with dairy farms throughout California to use their animal waste to create electricity. The San Francisco-based utility has already demonstrated a 60-kilowatt generator that uses cow manure as a fuel source. At least a couple dozen dairies in the state have received $6 million in federal and state grants to go forth with these kinds of projects. Similarly, Portland General Electric is partnering with dairy farms in Oregon to do the same.

    In the meantime, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Department of Development are spearheading the development of digesters in Ohio. The former will pay about $500,000 towards the cost of two separate contraptions, each of which will cost about $2 million. The state agency has set aside $1.5 million in 2008 and 2009 for a range of worthy projects. Most immediately, the Wenning Poultry and Bridgewater Dairy are working to capture methane from cow manure before it is converted to electricity. The separate projects could be operational by year-end.

    And, New Hampshire-based Microgy Inc. is making electricity from cow waste in such places as California, Wisconsin and Texas. Huckabay Ridge in Texas, for example, will entail the construction of eight 916,000-gallon digesters, sufficient to process the manure from up to 10,000 cows. The company, which is considering a second plant in the state, says that all of the enterprises in which it is involved will be profitable as long as natural gas prices stay above $4 per million BTUs.

    The Huckabay facility, which will end up costing $12 million to $18 million, is expected to produce an aggregate of one billion cubic feet of biogas per year with an energy content of 650,000 million BTUs. The gas will be treated and compressed before it is delivered via a natural gas pipeline to Austin. There, the Lower Colorado River Authority will use it as a power source.

    "We’re absolutely the pioneers in this," says Pat Chase, a Microgy regional manager based in Sulphur Springs, Texas, in the Waco Tribune-Herald. "The fact that we can take manure and other materials and digest them and make viable natural gas means the market is really unlimited. It’s only limited by how many cows and hogs you have in feedlots."

    Disposing of cow manure is literally a huge mess. And add to that the rising cost of energy and the ramifications of climate change. To help alleviate some of the problems, thousands of dairy and swine farms could play host to oxygen-free digesters. For now, the public sector is buying down some of the risks. If those first-of-their-kind projects perform, however, then the technologies and subsequent investments associated with extracting methane gas from animal waste would appear to hold lots of potential.

    Ken Silverstein is an award-winning journalist who is the editor-in-chief of Energy Central’s publication, EnergyBiz Insider. With a background in economics and public policy, he has spent several years writing about the issues that touch the energy and financial sectors, and his work has been published in more than 100 periodicals.

    Republished with permission from CyberTech, Inc. EnergyBiz Insider is published three days a week by Energy Central. For more information about Energy Central, or to subscribe to EnergyBiz Insider, other e-newsletters and EnergyBiz magazine, please go to http://www.energycentral.com/.