Archived material from historical editions of The Generator
17 July: Melbourne records coldest day in nine years; NSW hunger for heat on 16 July drives consumption on national grid to record 33,027 megawatts Melbourne on 17 July recorded its coldest day in nine years. The temperature hovered around 6 degrees for most of the afternoon, dipping to 5.4 degrees at 6pm, reported The Continue Reading →
"It’s like going back to a Cold War era of politics where the US backs one political faction because their political profile suits their requirements", said Patrick Smith, editor of the newsletter Africa Confidential, widely read in policy circles, reported The Australian Financial Review (22/6/2007, p.3). US moves into Africa: "It’s a move away from Continue Reading →
An emergency water pipeline will be built in the next 12 months to lift Goulburn’s water security, reported The Land (21/6/2007, p.1).
Big help to drought-hit town: The $40 million pipeline, to be run from the Wingecarribee Reservoir in the Southern Highlands, will pump 1.8 billion litres a year to the Southern Tablelands city – representing almost half its water use. Goulburn-Mulwaree Mayor, Paul Stephenson, welcomed the pipeline, and said it was a necessity for the city. "The idea of a water pipeline was mooted in the 1980s and again in the 1990s," he said. Goulburn has been on level five water restrictions, the most stringent category, for the past three years and its usable water storage was at 20 per cent, which would provide about a year’s supply.
Ashley Seager
The Guardian
In the desert, just across the Mediterranean sea, is a vast source of energy that holds the promise of a carbon-free, nuclear-free electrical future for the whole of Europe, if not the world.
We are not talking about the vast oil and gas deposits underneath Algeria and Libya, or uranium for nuclear plants, but something far simpler – the sun. And in vast quantities: every year it pours down the equivalent of 1.5m barrels of oil of energy for every square kilometre.
Most people in Britain think of solar power as a few panels on the roof of a house producing hot water or a bit of electricity. But according to two reports prepared for the German government, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa should be building vast solar farms in North Africa’s deserts using a simple technology that more resembles using a magnifying glass to burn a hole in a piece of paper than any space age technology.
Two German scientists, Dr Gerhard Knies and Dr Franz Trieb, calculate that covering just 0.5% of the world’s hot deserts with a technology called concentrated solar power (CSP) would provide the world’s entire electricity needs, with the technology also providing desalinated water to desert regions as a valuable byproduct, as well as air conditioning for nearby cities.
Focusing on Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, they say, Europe should build a new high-voltage direct current electricity grid to allow the easy, efficient transport of electricity from a variety of alternative sources. Britain could put in wind power, Norway hydro, and central Europe biomass and geo-thermal. Together the region could provide all its electricity needs by 2050 with barely any fossil fuels and no nuclear power. This would allow a 70% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from electricity production over the period.
The Synfuel Alternative Symposium, hosted by CSIRO, will bring together Australian and international research experts from July 17 to 19, to discuss the latest developments in gas-to-liquids and coal-to-liquids technology and examine the technical challenges to overcome in order to establish such an industry in Australia.
With the forecast declining levels of self sufficiency in oil, the search for alternative, locally produced fuels has become urgent. Australia’s large natural gas resources and coal reserves have the potential to provide security of supply for transport fuels.
However, according to CSIRO Petroleum’s gas-to-liquids expert, and Symposium Chair, David Trimm, there are significant technological hurdles which must be overcome to establish a viable synfuels industry in Australia.
“Many of the technical issues are unique to Australia and therefore demand local solutions – we cannot necessarily rely on imported technology,” Professor Trimm says.
“The Federal Government has recognised this and recently allocated $A59.6 million to CSIRO to increase research into alternative fuels.”
BEIJING (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of villagers in east China’s Huai river basin, already suffering the region’s worst flooding in 50 years, have been told to brace for more heavy rains this week, state media reported on Monday.
Torrential summer rains across the country have fed floods and landslides that had killed 403 people, left 105 missing and forced the evacuation of 3.17 million by Friday, the China Daily said.
Government authorities warned that water levels along tributaries feeding the Huai river, which originates in central Henan province and runs east through densely populated and impoverished parts of Anhui and coastal Jiangsu provinces, were rising again and threatening to breach embankments.
Anhui’s flood control office flagged further deliberate flooding to ease pressure on key control points along the river, the paper said.