The twentieth century way of life has been made available, largely due to the miracle of cheap energy. The price of energy has been at record lows for the past century and a half.As oil becomes increasingly scarce, it is becoming obvious to everyone, that the rapid economic and industrial growth we have enjoyed for that time is not sustainable.Now, the hunt is on. For renewable sources of energy, for alternative sources of energy, for a way of life that is less dependent on cheap energy.Â
The project will include up to four individual solar plants generating on average the same amount of energy as a coal-fired power station.
Currently the largest operating plant is in California in the United States.
The Government’s Solar Flagships program hopes to create three times as much energy as that project.
Tenders for the project will be called later this year.
I had been a keen environmentalist for some time, starting up a sustainable-living blog in 2004. Now though, I turned my attention to solar energy.
Investigations led me to the first solar-powered rickshaws operating in India. Always keen to seek out original challenges, I meandered onto the idea of taking one on a long distance journey. To my dismay, the rickshaw was not suitable for covering such distance.
But the idea of undertaking an adventure to demonstrate solar around the world had taken root. If I couldn’t do it on a rickshaw I would do it in another environmentally-friendly way: by bicycle.
I began to read about new flexible nanosolar panels, which would be ideal to power my technology in places far from a plug. In my research, I eventually found G24 Innovations, a Cardiff-based company specialising in dye-sensitised flexible thin-film solar technology. I gave them a call. “Of course we can make solar panniers. We can attach the panels to almost any fabric.” Really? Could I have a solar dress too?
Sadly, the dress was deemed impractical but I convinced my friends Iain and Jamie to accompany me on this solar-powered journey. Today, starting in London on EU Solar Day, we set off for a 12,000-mile tour of solar power around the world.
We are taking a satellite tracking device which, along with other communications equipment, will be powered using solar panels on our bike panniers. The independence of the solar kit will help us document the entire route – from Libyan sandstorms to ancient Iranian cities, 4000-metre passes in Kyrgyzstan to the lowest point of Death Valley – precisely and second by second.
Our route has been chosen to take us through North Africa and the Middle East in order to visit a concentrated solar plant and profile the work of the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), a project to supply huge amounts of green energy from the Sahara. We’ll go past the Quidam basin, where the world’s biggest PV solar power station is being built, across the pacific by cargo ship (we are hoping to be carried by Nippon who have just launched the first solar-assisted freighter) and on to America’s solar heartland, the Nevada desert.
I hope the trip will demonstrate the potential of solar power in the run up to the Copenhagen climate summit this December. Follow us in real-time on The Solar Cycle Diaries, and wish us good luck with the weather.
The Australian Greens say Foreign Minister Stephen Smith’s accidental tabling of a document that reveals disturbing negations between Australia and China needs to be scrutinised.
“The document reveals amendments to Australia’s existing nuclear cooperation with China. These are so significant it’s doubly important that they are carefully scrutinised as part the usual Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) process,” said Greens nuclear spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam.
“The Committee, of which I am a member, should apply the same conditions to this China Agreement as it did on the Australia-Russia uranium agreement. Australia needs to be absolutely certain that materials sent to nuclear weapons states will not be used in nuclear weapons,” he said.
Australia’s nuclear safeguards agreement with China is focused primarily on supply of uranium in uranium ore concentrates. The new negotiations, which began in January, are intended to provide a mechanism to account in China for an enormous amount of Australian uranium planned to be extracted from copper and other concentrates arising from the Olympic Dam expansion.
The document exposes the fact that what BHP plans to do at Roxby – under the EIS publicly released on 1 May – will not be legal unless the treaty is amended because safeguards regimes would not exist over Australian Obligated Nuclear Materials (AONM). BHP’s expansion is entirely dependent upon being able to export 2/3rds concentrated copper to China.
“The accidental tabling of this material begs the question as to why these negotiations are conducted in secrecy. If there was more transparency and accountability in bilateral treaty negotiations, maybe they would save the Minister from further embarrassment,” said Senator Ludlam.
We need to introduce simple arithmetic into our discussions of energy.
We need to understand how much energy our chosen lifestyles consume, we need to decide where we want that energy to come from, and we need to get on with building energy systems of sufficient size to match our desired consumption.
Our failure to talk straight about the numbers is allowing people to persist in wishful thinking, inspired by inane sayings such as “every little bit helps.”
Assuming we are serious about getting off fossil fuels, the scale of building required should not be underestimated. Small actions alone will not deliver a solution.
Let’s express energy consumption and energy production using simple personal units, namely kilowatt-hours. One kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the energy used by leaving a 40-watt bulb on for 24 hours. The chemical energy in the food we eat to stay alive amounts to about 3 kWh per day. Taking one hot bath uses about 5 kWh of heat. Driving an average European car 100 kilometers (roughly 62 miles) uses 80 kWh of fuel. With a few of these numbers in mind, we can start to evaluate some of the recommendations that people make about energy.
Algae-based technologies could provide a key tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants and other carbon intensive industrial processes.
Driven by escalating global climate change concerns and the rising cost of petroleumbased energy, companies are now starting to examine using certain forms of algae to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, generate renewable transportation fuels, and produce feed for fish and livestock.
Using an intricate photosynthetic process, trendsetters have developed biodiesel and ethanol from an unlikely source – algae – that, given optimal conditions, can double its volume overnight. Up to 50 percent of an alga’s body weight is comprised of oil, whereas oil-palm trees – currently the largest producer of oil to make biofuels – yield just about 20 percent of their weight in oil.
Soy produces some 50 gallons of oil per acre per year; canola, 150 gallons; and palm, 650 gallons. But algae are expected to produce 10,000 gallons per acre per year, and eventually even more.
Algae are the fastest-growing plants in the world. But if it were easy to extract the fuel,
most of the world’s biodiesel would already be made from microalgae grown on nonagricultural
land, close to coal-fired power plants. It’s critical to understand how to select the right algae species, create an optimal photobiological formula for each species, and build a cost-effective photobioreactor that can precisely deliver the formula to each individual algae cell, no matter the size of the facility, or its geographical location.
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The document states the contents are potentially sensitive to Australia’s relationship with other countries and should not be made public.
The Opposition’s Foreign Affairs spokeswoman, Julie Bishop, says the release is highly embarrassing.
“This is a shocking breach of security that will undermine Australia’s international reputation,” she said.
“This puts at risk the Australian Government’s ability to conduct sensitive and confidential negotiations with neighbouring countries.
“The release of this confidential information is a shocking breach of security.”
The Greens say they are disturbed by revelations the Federal Government is considering exporting more uranium to China.
The Greens’ nuclear spokesman, Senator Scott Ludlam, says the negotiations should be done publicly.
“The Australian Parliament and the Australian people should be told when negotiations over sales of uranium to nuclear weapons states are occurring,” he said.
“It shouldn’t be happening behind our backs.”
A spokeswoman for Mr Smith says the document should not have been tabled but the Foreign Minister has and does accept responsibility for this error.
The Minister’s office says the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is in the process of contacting the affected countries to tell them of the accidental release.
The Trade Minister, Simon Crean, says he does not expect any countries to express concern but concedes it is not helpful.
“I don’t think it’s a good thing that you table something that says shouldn’t be tabled,” he said.
“I don’t think, on the trade front, it is embarrassing for us. I don’t expect any comment or concern and if there are, then I’m sure we can deal with it.”