Keneally offers 4c to heat your home
Keneally offers 4c to heat your home
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- April 16, 2010
THE million families that Premier Kristina Keneally says won’t need to choose between heating or cooking this winter will get an extra 4c a day.
A meagre $15 a year increase on the current $130 a year electricity subsidy will be available to almost one in three NSW households to counter bill rises of hundreds of dollars.
Earlier this week Ms Keneally said that “no family need fear that they will have to make the devastating decision between providing heat and providing food”.
Row over ‘Texas oilfield’ deep in the heart of scenic hills
Row over ‘Texas oilfield’ deep in the heart of Scenic Hills
MATTHEW MOORE, URBAN AFFAIRS EDITOR
April 16, 2010
AN APPLICATION by power company AGL to build gas wells and a processing plant risked transforming hills north-west of Campbelltown into a ”Texas oilfield”, the mayor has warned.
”My concern is that I don’t want my Scenic Hills turning into a Texas oilfield,” the Labor mayor, Aaron Rule, said. ”The image I’m getting is of a lot of little gas wells all over the place feeding into a gas extraction plant to feed into Sydney gas supply.”
Since the Macarthur Development Board began work on the area 40 years ago the Scenic Hills, which run for about eight kilometres along the Hume Highway, were expected to serve as a green buffer marking Campbelltown’s western side. But Sydney’s expansion has seen increasing pressure to develop the area.
”These hills are very important to us, much loved and highly valued … the struggle goes on to protect them. They’re the lungs of the community,” Cr Rule said.
While the Campbelltown City Council unanimously opposes the plan, it is being considered by the NSW Department of Planning as a project of state significance, which means the council’s opposition can be ignored.
AGL wants to expand its Camden gas project in the neighbouring municipality by building 12 gas extraction wells to collect coal-seam methane, five of which will be in the Campbelltown local government area.
The Pedal powered Hotel
The pedal-powered hotel
A green hotel in Copenhagen is claiming a world first by using guests on exercise bikes to generate electricit
Tom Robbins
- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 April 2010 13.36 BST
- Article history
Bright idea … an iPhone attached to the handlebars shows how much power is being fed into the hotel’s system
Forget solar panels and wind turbines, a hotel that bills itself as one of the “greenest” in the world has found a new source of renewable energy – its guests.
From next Monday, those staying at the 366-room Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers will be encouraged to head down to the gym to spend time on its new fleet of electricity-generating exercise bikes. The bikes have iPhones mounted on the handlebars which monitor how much power is being produced and fed into the mains supply of the hotel. Any guest producing 10 watt hours or more will be rewarded with a free meal.
The scheme is a pilot project that will run for a year, and if successful, could be rolled out to all 21 Crowne Plaza hotels in the UK.
“The electric bikes offer our guests the chance to get fit and help power the hotel at the same time,” said Allan Agerholm, the hotel’s general manager. “It will be interesting to see how many guests take part and how much electricity we generate.”
Reed says WA Lithium is world class
Reed says WA lithium is world class
Shares in Reed Resources Ltd rose after it said it had defined a world-class lithium resource at its Mt Marion project near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
Reed Resources shares were up six cents, or 8.51 per cent, at 76.5 cents at 1350 AEST, while shares in joint venture partner Mineral Resources Ltd had added 18 cents, or 2.31 per cent, to $7.96.
Reed Resources said in a statement on Wednesday that it had increased the resource at the project by 220 per cent to 128,000 tonnes of lithium oxide.
Faulty wind farms sinking into the sea
Faulty wind farms sinking into the sea
- From: The Times
- April 14, 2010
The Resolution, a purpose-built ship made for installing windmill rotors, is at a wind farm off the east coast of England. Source: Bloomberg
HUNDREDS of offshore wind turbines could be suffering from a design flaw that makes them sink into the sea.
Energy company engineers are urgently investigating the extent to which their offshore wind farms are affected, after flaws were discovered on a Dutch wind farm last year.
The problem could cost ₤50million ($83m), said Renewables UK, the industry body that represents wind farm developers. It says that almost all of the 336 offshore turbines that have been erected could be affected as these were built to European standards now in question.
The problem arises in the concrete used to fix the turbine to its steel foundation. Shell found that some of the turbines at Egmond aan Zee, its Dutch wind farm, had moved a few centimetres.
Keneally government bungles household solar scheme
Keneally government bungles household solar scheme Media release: 14 April 2010 Households with solar power are losing hundreds of dollars and beingforced to wait months because of flaws in the Keneally government’ssolar feed-in scheme, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye. Dr Kaye said: “The Keneally Government’s solar bonus scheme has beenheld up with delays over the installation Continue Reading →