EcoRadio

Category: Energy Matters

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. 

  • Toshiba launches next generation battery

    A newcomer in rechargeable batteries, Toshiba said the lithium-ion battery could be used in hybrid and electric cars by 2010, Mochida said.

    Battery innovations are expected to be key in making hybrid vehicles more widespread, because lighter and easier-to-recharge batteries will improve efficiency. They could also spark mass-produced plug-in hybrids and and even resurrect the idea of all-electric vehicles that use no fossil fuel.

    “This is a truly innovative battery,” said Toshiba Corporate Vice President Toshiharu Watanabe, emphasizing its potential “in the electronic vehicles markets as a new energy solution.”

    Most lithium-ion batteries in use now, such as those in laptop computers, require hours to recharge to full capacity, with the fastest ones requiring about half an hour.

    Toshiba also said its new battery, which is estimated to last 5,000 charges, is unlikely to rupture or catch fire, problems that have beset some lithium-ion batteries used in laptops.

    The Tokyo-based electronics maker expects global sales of the new fast-charging battery to reach nearly $900 million by fiscal 2015.

  • Australia lags Germany in solar

    The scheme would cost the federal Government $16.2 billion over the next 20 years if it were available to businesses and residents. It would cost less than half of that – $6.5 billion – if only householders were included.

    The feed-in tariff would allow people to recoup the costs of their investment in solar panels within 10 years.

    The report says an emissions trading scheme and mandatory renewable energy target were expected to be insufficient on their own to drive significant growth in the industry.

    Feed-in tariffs have sparked rapid growth in solar industries overseas. In Germany, which implemented a gross feed-in tariff in 2000, solar installations have grown on average by 72 per cent over the past five years, and the industry has generated about 42,600 jobs.

    The report predicts that some of the costs would be offset by a saving of $610 million by deferring new investments in electricity generation capacity.

    The take-up of solar energy would help to reduce electricity demanded from the grid during peak periods.

    Access Economics director Steve Brown said the research revealed there was potential for a strong solar photovoltaic industry in Australia, especially given Australia had the highest solar radiation levels in the world.

    “We’ve seen overseas that the uptake of solar does respond to policy settings,” Mr Brown said.

    He said it was up to policy-makers and the industry to balance the costs and benefits of the scheme.

    The solar industry and environmental groups have pushed strongly for a national feed-in tariff scheme, saying it would encourage the take-up of renewable energy and reduce greenhouse emissions.

    Earlier this month, a federal parliamentary committee recommended that a national scheme be developed in consultation with the states.

    It followed an agreement between Kevin Rudd and the states to consider options for a harmonised approach.

    Many jurisdictions have already pushed ahead with their own schemes.

    The ACT recently became the first Australian jurisdiction to announce the introduction of a gross feed-in tariff scheme. Householders and businesses that installed renewable energy systems, including solar panels or micro-wind turbines, would be paid for all the energy they produced at nearly four times the current cost of electricity.

    Victoria, Queensland and South Australia have also introduced feed-in tariff schemes, but people are paid only for the excess energy they feed back into the system.

    In South Australia and Queensland, the scheme is open to residents and small businesses, while Victoria’s scheme is open only to householders.


  • Iceland leads geothermal push

    One generation ago, Icelanders didn’t have the luxury of passively thinking about their energy use. The isolated island country imported all of its coal and oil for heat and electricity, putting it in a very vulnerable position. But now the country gets 99 percent of its electricity and 78 percent of its primary energy from hydro and geothermal resources. While many Icelanders have watched this dramatic evolution of the country’s energy landscape, there are just as many young citizens who have grown up not understanding Iceland’s formerly delicate position.

    “I’m not from the generation that grew up with anything else but [geothermal and hydro],” says the 31-year old Palsson. “It’s ubiquitous, it’s everywhere and we know about it. But I think we also take it for granted. Still, we are proud of what we have done.”

    Now Iceland has the opportunity to share that pride with other countries. And leaders in the industry are more than happy to share their knowledge.

    “We have much to offer in know-how and technological support,” says Iceland’s President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, speaking on the Inside Renewable Energy podcast. “It is important for us to continue to establish relationships with countries that are serious about geothermal. As a leader, Iceland can help in many areas.”

    This spirit of cooperation is part of the Icelandic culture, says Albert Albertsson, Deputy CEO of Hitaveita Sudurnesja, the owner and operator of two large geothermal plants in the country. If world leaders are going to get serious about combating climate change — a problem that is already visibly altering the weather and glacial landscape of the country — Icelanders believe it’s important to export the lessons they have learned over the last 70 years. (Image, right: The Strokkur geyser blows its top, illustrating Iceland’s very active geology.)

    “We work very openly. All our research and development is open to the international society — so in that way we contribute a lot to understand better how we can harness this extremely valuable resource,” says Albertsson.
    One important lesson to learn from Iceland, says President Grímsson, is to think about utilizing geothermal in multiple ways — not just for heat and electricity. The Icelandic government and geothermal businesses have worked very hard to use the resource to create as many value streams as possible.

    “We go beyond just energy. We use it to promote tourism, we use it for health and wellness, we use it for heavy industries and we also use it for educational purposes. This more interactive, holistic approach is much different than we see elsewhere,” says Grimsson.

    These additional value streams will be more important for Iceland as the country begins a potentially long, painful recession due to the global credit crunch. That makes a renewed focus on the domestic geothermal industry and an aggressive approach to exporting Icelandic knowledge that much more important, says Pálsson.

    “One of the things that keeps us positive is our access to energy — the fact that we can do so much with it and the fact that we know so much about it. I definitely believe that we should be exporting our knowledge all over the world,” he says.

    With the door closing on Iceland’s economy, perhaps geothermal energy will allow Icelanders to keep the window of opportunity open and keep the country moving during these tough times.

  • DOE defines forward plan for energy

    Population growth and increasing levels of per capita consumption will drive increasing global energy demand in the 21st century. While not preordained, this increase will be large even if the citizens of other countries do not achieve U.S. per capita levels of consumption. Important components of this increase will be in transportation, the fastest growing global energy consumer today (more than 90% of transportation is currently fueled by petroleum-derived fuels) and electrification, which increased dramatically in the 20th century and will increase in the 21st century as well. An important driver of this continued electrification will be the substitution of electricity for liquid transportation fuels.

    Today’s world is powered largely by fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) and this will continue well into the 21st century, given large reserves and devoted infrastructure. Nevertheless, fossil fuel resources are finite and their use will eventually have to be restricted. Cost increases and volatility, already occurring, are likely to limit fossil fuel use before resource restrictions become dominant and increasing geographic concentration of supplies in other countries raises serious national security concerns. In addition, the world’s current energy delivery infrastructure is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, terrorist attacks and other breakdowns and energy imports constitute a major drain on U.S. financial resources and allow other countries to exert undue influence on our foreign policy and freedom of action.

    Fossil fuel combustion releases CO2 into the atmosphere (unless captured and sequestered), which mixes globally with a long atmospheric lifetime. Most climate scientists believe that increasing CO2 concentrations alter earth’s energy balance with the sun, contributing to global warming.

    Nuclear power, a non-CO2 emitting energy source, has significant future potential, but its wqidespread deployment faces several critical issues: cost, power plant safety, radioactive waste storage and weapons nonproliferation.

    Globally, energy is not in short supply — e.g., the sun pours 6 million quads of radiation annually into our atmosphere (global energy use: 460 quads).

    There is considerable energy under our feet, in the form of hot water and rock heated by radioactive decay in the earth’s core. What is in short supply is inexpensive energy that people are willing to pay for.

    Renewable energy (solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, ocean) has significant potential for replacing our current fossil fuel based energy system. The transition will take time but we must quickly get on this path.

    Accepting the above, I would recommend the following elements for a national energy policy:

    • Using the bully pulpit, educate the public about energy realities and implications for energy, economic and environmental security.

    • Work with the Congress to establish energy efficiency as the cornerstone of national energy policy.

    • Work with the Congress to provide an economic environment that supports investments in energy efficiency, including appropriate performance standards and incentives. This includes setting a long-term, steadily increasing, predictable price on carbon emissions (in coordination with other countries) that will unleash innovation and create new jobs.

    • Consider setting a floor under oil prices, to insure that energy investments are not undermined by falling prices, and using resulting revenues to address equity and other needs.

    • Work with the Congress to find an acceptable answer to domestic radioactive waste storage, and with other nations to address nuclear power plant safety issues and establish an international regime for ensuring nonproliferation. This includes examination of non-traditional nuclear fuel cycles.

    • Establish a national policy for net metering, to allow individuals and companies to sell electricity to the grid and thus remove an important barrier to widespread deployment of renewable energy systems.

    • Provide incentives to encourage the manufacture and deployment of renewable energy systems that are sufficiently long for markets to develop adequately but are time-limited with a non-disruptive phaseout.

    • Aggressively support establishment of a smart national electrical grid, to enable more efficient use of electricity nationally, to facilitate the use of renewable electricity anywhere in the country, and to mitigate, with increased use of energy storage, the effects of solar and wind energy intermittency.

    • Support an aggressive effort on carbon capture and sequestration, to ascertain quickly its feasibility to allow continued use of our extensive coal resources.

    • Remove incentives for fossil fuels that are historical tax code legacies that distort energy markets and slow the transition to a new, renewables-based, energy system.

    I look forward to a stimulating debate, one which has been too long in coming.

  • Supermarkets control fuel prices

    “We were not prepared to see independents rubbed out,” he said.

    He said the association had lobbied the Federal Government to allow some flexibility for independent stations to lower, but not raise, their prices in the middle of the day, but the submissions were rejected.

    Since the supermarket chains had entered the petrol market, the rate of independent closures had doubled, he said.

    “We are reaching the stage where the supermarkets set the (petrol) prices. The future of discounted petrol is in the hands of two companies – and that’s frightening.”

    Consumer groups had mixed reactions to today’s decision, saying that while FuelWatch had encountered many “political icebergs”, motorists still deserved transparency on petrol prices.

    Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn said the organisation was “generally in support of measures that give price transparency, but (we are) also in support of things that increase competition”.

    Mr Zinn said there were plenty of arguments in support and against FuelWatch, but that the Western Australia scheme was proof a national scheme could lead to “consumer enhancements”.

    But Mr Bowden argued there had been no conclusive evidence that the WA FuelWatch-style scheme worked, as the west coast worked on a fornightly, not weekly, petrol price cycle.

    With petrol prices coming down – some tip they will reach $1 per litre by Christmas – Mr Zinn said the need for a FuelWatch-style scheme was not as pressing, but that it would likely reappear in another incarnation in the future.

    “The original plan was to introduce the scheme by Christmas – that’s obviously not going to happen now,” he said.

    “[But] petrol prices are down, so that gives us some wiggle room to get it right.”

    Meanwhile, the RACQ has called on the Federal Government to rein in oil companies’ stranglehold on wholesale petrol, a move supported by the SSA.

    Gary Fites, RACQ’s general manager of external relations, said the motoring body had long argued for independent retailers to enjoy greater access to alternative sources of wholesale petrol.

    “(This) is the key to a better deal (for) motorists,” Mr Fites said.

    “The four oil majors’ control of all but a handful of terminal facilities currently puts independent retailers at a real price disadvantage against the oil companies’ own sites and the major supermarket chains.”

    Mr Fites said the viability of independet fuel retailers was key to a “fair deal on fuel” for motorists.

    “The Government should now be actively investigating how it can encourage more competition at the wholesale level by removing impediments to other potential importers of refined fuels having access to terminal facilities.”

    Mr Fites said the FuelWatch model would not have worked in South-East Queensland, where prices “actually fell six days each week”.

    Source: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au

  • Top energy body calls for revolution

    In the WEO-2008 Reference Scenario, which assumes no new government policies, world primary energy demand grows by 1.6% per year on average between 2006 and 2030 – an increase of 45%. This is slower than projected last year, mainly due to the impact of the economic slowdown, prospects for higher energy prices and some new policy initiatives. Demand for oil rises from 85 million barrels per day now to 106 mb/d in 2030 – 10 mb/d less than projected last year. Demand for coal rises more than any other fuel in absolute terms, accounting for over a third of the increase in energy use. Modern renewables grow most rapidly, overtaking gas to become the second-largest source of electricity soon after 2010. China and India account for over half of incremental energy demand to 2030 while the Middle East emerges as a major new demand centre. The share of the world’s energy consumed in cities grows from two-thirds to almost three-quarters in 2030. Almost all of the increase in fossil-energy production occurs in non-OECD countries. These trends call for energy-supply investment of $26.3 trillion to 2030, or over $1 trillion/year. Yet the credit squeeze could delay spending, potentially setting up a supply-crunch that could choke economic recovery.

    “Current trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable – environmentally, economically and socially – they can and must be altered”, said Nobuo Tanaka. “Rising imports of oil and gas into OECD regions and developing Asia, together with the growing concentration of production in a small number of countries, would increase our susceptibility to supply disruptions and sharp price hikes. At the same time, greenhouse-gas emissions would be driven up inexorably, putting the world on track for an eventual global temperature increase of up to 6°C.”

    In addition to providing a comprehensive update of long-term energy projections to 2030, WEO-2008 takes a detailed look at the prospects for oil and gas production. Oil will remain the world’s main source of energy for many years to come, even under the most optimistic of assumptions about the development of alternative technology. But the sources of oil, the cost of producing it and the prices that consumers will have to pay for it are extremely uncertain. “One thing is certain”, stated Mr. Tanaka, “while market imbalances will feed volatility, the era of cheap oil is over”.

    “A sea change is underway in the upstream oil and gas industry with international oil companies facing dwindling opportunities to increase their reserves and production. In contrast, national companies are projected to account for about 80% of the increase of both oil and gas production to 2030”, said Mr. Tanaka. But it is far from certain that these companies will be willing to make this investment themselves or to attract sufficient capital to keep up the necessary pace of investment. Upstream investment has been rising rapidly in the last few years, but much of the increase is due to surging costs. Expanding production in the lowest-cost countries – most of them in OPEC – will be central to meeting the world’s oil needs at reasonable cost.

    The prospect of accelerating declines in production at individual oilfields is adding to these uncertainties. The findings of an unprecedented field-by-field analysis of the historical production trends of 800 oilfields indicate that decline rates are likely to rise significantly in the long term, from an average of 6.7% today to 8.6% in 2030. “Despite all the attention that is given to demand growth, decline rates are actually a far more important determinant of investment needs. Even if oil demand was to remain flat to 2030, 45 mb/d of gross capacity – roughly four times the current capacity of Saudi Arabia – would need to be built by 2030 just to offset the effect of oilfield decline”, Mr. Tanaka added.

    WEO-2008 also analyses policy options for tackling climate change after 2012, when a new global agreement – to be negotiated at the UN Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen next year – is due to take effect. This analysis assumes a hybrid policy approach, comprising a plausible combination of cap-and-trade systems, sectoral agreements and national measures. On current trends, energy-related CO2 emissions are set to increase by 45% between 2006 and 2030, reaching 41 Gt. Three-quarters of the increase arises in China, India and the Middle East, and 97% in non-OECD countries as a whole.

    Stabilising greenhouse gas concentration at 550 ppm of CO2-equivalent, which would limit the temperature increase to about 3°C, would require emissions to rise to no more than 33 Gt in 2030 and to fall in the longer term. The share of low-carbon energy – hydropower, nuclear, biomass, other renewables and fossil-fuel power plants equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) – in the world primary energy mix would need to expand from 19% in 2006 to 26% in 2030. This would call for $4.1 trillion more investment in energy-related infrastructure and equipment than in the Reference Scenario – equal to 0.2% of annual world GDP. Most of the increase is on the demand side, with $17 per person per year spent worldwide on more efficient cars, appliances and buildings. On the other hand, improved energy efficiency would deliver fuel-cost savings of over $7 trillion.

    The scale of the challenge in limiting greenhouse gas concentration to 450 ppm of CO2-eq, which would involve a temperature rise of about 2°C, is much greater. World energy-related CO2 emissions would need to drop sharply from 2020 onwards, reaching less than 26 Gt in 2030. “We would need concerted action from all major emitters. Our analysis shows that OECD countries alone cannot put the world onto a 450-ppm trajectory, even if they were to reduce their emissions to zero”, Mr. Tanaka warned. Achieving such an outcome would require even faster growth in the use of low-carbon energy – to account for 36% of global primary energy mix by 2030. In this case, global energy investment needs are $9.3 trillion (0.6% of annual world GDP) higher; fuel savings total $5.8 trillion.

    WEO-2008 demonstrates that measures to curb CO2 emissions will also improve energy security by reducing global fossil-fuel energy use. But the world’s major oil producers should not be alarmed. “Even in the 450 Policy Scenario, OPEC production will need to be 12 mb/d higher in 2030 than today.” Mr. Tanaka noted. “It is clear that the energy sector will have to play the central role in tackling climate change. The analysis set out in this Outlook will provide a solid basis for all countries seeking to negotiate a new global climate deal in Copenhagen.”