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The Generator news service publishes articles on sustainable development, agriculture and energy as well as observations on current affairs. The news service is used on the weekly radio show, The Generator, as well as by a number of monthly and quarterly magazines. A podcast of the Generator news is also available.
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  • Wind drives back economic gloom

    From the American Wind Energy Association

    Washington, D.C. (April 13) –  Wind energy leaders in several categories maintained their #1 positions even as other leaders emerged in new categories, while 24 states saw new wind turbine and component manufacturing facilities opened, expanded or announced in 2008, according to the annual wind energy industry rankings report released today by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

    The new listings, based on 2008 year-end numbers, show Texas leading in wind capacity and largest wind farms installed, Minnesota and Iowa both generating over 7% of their electricity from wind, and Indiana as the state with the fastest growth in wind on a percentage basis.

    In company rankings, NextEra Energy Resources (formerly FPL Energy) continues to lead in wind farm ownership; GE Energy remained the wind turbine maker with the largest amount of new capacity installed, and Xcel Energy again leads investor-owned utilities in wind power.  Wind power’s recent growth has also accelerated investment in manufacturing: wind turbine and turbine component manufacturers announced, added or expanded more than 55 facilities in 2008 alone, spanning 24 states from Alabama to Wisconsin.  

    “The wind energy industry today generates not only clean energy for our economy, but also hope and opportunity for American workers and businesses,” said AWEA CEO Denise Bode.  “Whether it is building or maintaining a wind project, or producing wind turbine components, you’ll find people employed in wind power in nearly all 50 states today,” Bode said.

    “But we cannot rest on past achievements. We need the right policies in place for our industry to maintain its momentum. A national Renewable Electricity Standard, requiring utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025, is vital to provide the long-term, U.S.-wide commitment businesses need to invest tens of billions of dollars in clean energy installations and manufacturing facilities, and create hundreds of thousands of American jobs,” Bode said.

    Highlights from AWEA’s new report include:

    • Iowa, with 2,791 MW installed, surpassed California (2,517 MW) for the No. 2 position in wind power generating capacity.
    • The top five states in terms of capacity installed are: 
      • Texas, with 7,118 MW
      • Iowa, with 2,791 MW
      • California, with 2,517 MW
      • Minnesota , with 1,754 MW
      • Washington, with 1,447 MW
    • Oregon moved into the 1,000-MW club, which now counts seven states, including Texas, Iowa, California, Minnesota, Washington and Colorado.
    • Indiana ranked as the state with the fastest growth rate, expanding installations from zero to 131 MW, followed by Michigan (48%), Utah (21%), New Hampshire (17%) and Wisconsin (6%).
    • Two states – Minnesota and Iowa – now get over 7% of their electricity needs from wind.  Minnesota ranks first in this list (7.48%), followed closely by Iowa (7.1%).  The rest of the top five are Colorado, North Dakota, and New Mexico.
    • Ten new manufacturing facilities came online, 17 were expanded, and 30 were announced in 2008, according to AWEA estimates.  These investments and announcements span 24 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, Tennessee, Wisconsin, South Carolina, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Illinois, Alabama, Ohio, Indiana, Montana, Texas, Minnesota, Idaho, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Massachusetts.
    • Approximately 85,000 people are employed in the wind industry today—a 70% increase from 50,000 a year ago—and hold jobs in areas as varied as turbine component manufacturing, construction and installation of wind turbines, wind turbine operations and maintenance, legal and marketing services, and more.
    • NextEra Energy Resources remains atop the list of project owners, with 6,290 MW of wind power assets, roughly 25% of the total installed in the U.S.  The three companies that make up the next 25% are Iberdrola Renewables, MidAmerican Energy (including PacifiCorp), and Horizon-Energia de Portugal.
    • GE Energy turbines accounted for 43% of all new capacity installed in the U.S. in 2008.  The rest of the top five include Vestas, which accounted for 13%, Siemens and Suzlon at 9% each, and Gamesa at 7%.  Several new companies–Acciona, REPower, Fuhrlander, DeWind and AWE–entered the U.S. market in 2008.
    • The wind power generating fleet of over 25,300 MW in place as of December 31,2008 will generate an estimated 73 billion kWh in 2009, enough to serve the equivalent of close to 7 million average U.S. homes.  

     
    The full annual rankings report is available on the AWEA Web site at www.awea.org/publications/reports/AWEA-Annual-Wind-Report-2009.pdf; the new annual Outlook brochure is available at http://www.awea.org/pubs/documents/Outlook_2009.pdf; and a state-by-state listing of existing and proposed wind energy projects is available at http://www.awea.org/projects.

  • World’s major rivers under threat

    From the UK Guardian

    Some of the mightiest rivers on the planet, including the Ganges, the Niger, and the Yellow river in China, are drying up because of climate change, a study of global waterways warned yesterday.

    The study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado found that global warming has had a far more damaging impact on rivers than had been realised and that, overwhelmingly, those rivers in highly populated areas were the most severely affected. That could threaten food and water supply to millions of people living in some of the world’s poorest regions, the study warned.

    “In the subtropics this [decrease] is devastating, but the continent affected most is Africa,” said NCAR’s Kevin Trenberth. “The prospects generally are for rainfalls, when they do occur, to be heavier and with greater risk of flooding and with longer dry spells in between, so water management becomes much more difficult.”

    The scientists examined recorded data and computer models of flow in 925 rivers, constituting about 73% of the world’s supply of running water, from 1948-2004. It found that climate change had had an impact on about a third of the major rivers. More than twice as many rivers experienced diminished flow as a result of climate change than those that saw a rise in water levels.

    In addition, those rivers that did see a rise were in sparsely populated, high latitude areas near the Arctic Ocean where there is rapid melting of ice and snow.

    The authors said their study brought new clarity to an understanding of the long-term effects of climate change on waterways. “I think our study settles the question regarding long-term trends in global streamflow,” said Aiguo Dai, the lead author of the report.

    The greatest danger was posed to those dependent on the Niger in West Africa, the Ganges in South Asia and the Yellow river in China. The Colorado river in the US was also experiencing a drop in water levels.

    Other big rivers in Asia, such as the Brahmaputra in India and the Yangtze in China, remained stable or registered an increase in flow. But the scientists said they too could begin shrinking because of the gradual disappearance of the Himalayan glaciers.

    The only rivers that could gain strength from climate change were those that flow north of the 50th parallel. “Global warming raises temperature and precipitation there and it may not be a bad thing,” said Dai. “However, these are sparsely populated regions.”

    The study found that climate change, which had disrupted rain patterns and evaporation, had a far greater and more damaging effect on the world’s rivers than other human-made factors such as dams, and diverting water for irrigation. “For many of world’s large rivers the effects of the human activities on yearly streamflow are likely small compared with that of climate variations during 1948-2004,” the study said.

    It also had a knock-on effect because the rivers empty into the world’s oceans. As the rivers shrink, oceans were growing saltier. During the lifespan of the study, fresh water discharge into the Pacific ocean fell by about 6% – or roughly the annual volume of the Misssissippi.

  • Pollution scheme promotes driving

    Related story in The Land

    MOTORISTS will get a windfall of at least $150 million a year at the petrol pump under the “cent-for-cent” reduction of fuel taxes in the Government’s emissions trading scheme.

    But the annual petrol subsidy has angered green groups and industry, which say it will encourage motorists to drive more and increase emissions until at least 2025.

    In economic work done by the Australian Conservation Foundation, the environmental group found that by using price increases in diesel, which emits more carbon, as the baseline for cutting taxes on petrol, the Government will reduce the price of petrol more than it would normally cost without emissions trading.

    The ACF’s modelling shows that the subsidy to motorists using petrol will be $150 million a year based on a $20-a-tonne carbon price. That subsidy will increase as the price of carbon rises under a trading scheme.

    ACF economic adviser Simon O’Connor said yesterday the measure removed the price incentive for motorists to use their cars less and reduce emissions.

    A spokesman for Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen said the additional funding would be paid for with cash raised from the sale carbon permits in the emissions trading scheme and would not add to the budget deficit.

    The Government has also committed to making cuts to fuel taxes permanent, meaning if the cost of carbon later falls — making fuel cheaper to refine — it will not increase the tax to original levels.

    The ACF found an ally for its complaints yesterday in petrol company Caltex, which called for the fuel tax cut to be scrapped.

    Caltex also wants the transport sector to be removed from emissions trading altogether and replaced with voluntary “complementary measures”.

    Caltex’s government relations manager, Frank Topham, told a Senate committee hearing on climate change in Sydney that, by Caltex’s calculation, the fuel tax reduction measures meant emissions from cars would rise in the first 15 years of a trading scheme, rather than fall.

    “The price of petrol goes down so emissions will go up for the next few years,” the manager of government affairs for Caltex, Frank Topham, told a Senate committee investigating the scheme.

    Mr Topham called for private motorists and small vehicle users to be permanently excluded from the scheme.

    Caltex estimates emissions will continue to rise until 2025.

    But Caltex wants a delay to the scheme, scheduled to begin in July 2010, until the end of the global economic crisis and 100 per cent free permits until an international agreement of carbon is reached.

  • Plagues follow drought, fire and flood

    From The Land

    AS IF drought wasn’t enough, farmers are now struggling with burgeoning plagues – everything from mice and locusts to rabbits and feral pigs.

    But at least a shortage of mouse bait experienced in several Central West areas last week is now over.

    “We’re back on deck with bait,” said Central West Livestock Health and Pest Authority senior ranger, Lisa Thomas, Dubbo.

    Central, western and north-western areas from Dubbo to the Queensland border are experiencing pest problems, some in near plague proportions.

    Ms Thomas said mice populations were high right across the Central West and western regions.

    “They’re all the way up to Coonamble and north, and Nyngan people are having problems as well.”

  • Barnaby puts land rights ahead of land

    He also congratuled the landholders at Monday’s meeting in Rockhampton in forming an alliance to tackle the issue head-on and make all Queenslanders aware of what was at stake.

    “It’s extremely important that people understand what this is – it’s yet another incursion by the government into the private asset held by the individual, without payment,” Senator Joyce said.

    “People across Queensland, whether they’re from an urban environment or rural enviroment, must stop seeing this as some sort of environmental crusade and call it for what it is.

    “It is the government putting their hands on your asset and taking away the value of your asset without ever paying you for it.

    “If the State Government feels so strongly about regrowth then they’re welcome to put out a tender and see how much they can buy.

    “But if they don’t want to buy it, then it doesn’t mean that much to them, so stay away from it, because it’s called theft otherwise.

    “Freehold title is the storage of wealth – it is where people store the efforts and labours of not only their generation but most likely of the generations that went before them.

    “And when you take away the capacity for wealth to be stored in land, you completely undermine all the effort that went into the creation of that wealth as personified by the land.

    “Therefore you have taken away the fundamental building block of commerce – that is, what is the point of going to work if someone can steal the asset off you.

    “It’s not only a slap in the face for the person who owns the land, it’s a slap in the face for those who managed it before them.

    “It is the skin cancers on your face, it’s the callouses on your hands, it’s the marriage break-ups, and restless nights, not only of your generation but the generations who went before you.”

    Senator Joyce said rural Queensland shouldn’t waste its time trying to attract green preference, but agreed talking to Queensland’s rational urban constituents and engaging in a “philosophical battle” was a better move.

    “The Greens will always support the Labor Party – they proved at the last election that they’re quite happy to build Traveston Dam in their path of supporting the Labor party. They’re fraudulent in their own desires,” Senator Joyce said.

    “Rural Queensland needs to say to urban areas, ‘how would you feel, if by edict of the government, they said from now on you’re not allowed to use your second bedroom, and you can only use your kitchen with one eye closed’ or to say ‘as of tomorrow you can’t mow your lawn’.

    “People would say that’s outrageous because it takes away the intrinsic value that’s represented in your house, and so paying off that mortgatge is kind of pointless.

    “The State Government is putting incumberance after incumberance after caveat that waters down the meaning of what that asset is.”

  • Farmers freak as rural seats disappear

    As the commission begins eyeing off the next seat to go, The Nationals are urging rural voters, regardless of their politics, to voice their concerns about any possible reduction to the number of country MPs.

    The Nationals federal director, Brad Henderson, said the party’s executive in Canberra is finalising its own submission, due next Thursday, but will be making the case to retain regional seats which already cover huge expanses.

    “We don’t want to see the abolition of another rural seat,” Mr Henderson said.

    “If a seat must go, it should be from one of the metropolitan areas of Newcastle, Sydney or Wollongong.

    “There are many seats in those areas well under their quota, and they are also areas already well represented in parliament.

    “Country people deserve to be able to access a local member with some relative ease.

    “The bigger these electorates come, the more difficult it becomes for rural MPs to service their regions and for regional people to access their MPs.”

    The Nationals have been particularly critical of the current voting formula for some time, with policy debates on this issue at most annual conferences.

    Nationals MP for the newly defined seat of Parkes, Mark Coulton, represents much of the old Gwydir electorate which he fought hard to try and retain.

    He said it sounds as though his electorate will be getting bigger under the redistribution.

    He is nervous about the prospect of one less voice in country areas – “forget about the party it belongs to” – if the commission looks to scrap another rural seat.

    “Western NSW took the pain last time,” Mr Coulton said.

    “Country MPs are prepared to cover a fair bit of territory, but I already spend 30 to 40 hours a week just travelling to and from towns in my electorate along the Newell Highway.

    “We don’t need another situation where half of NSW is lumped into one seat, as was proposed last time.”

    * Written submissions must be lodged with the redistribution committee by 6pm next Friday to be considered.

    Mail to PO Box K406, Haymarket, NSW 1240 or email nsw.redistribution@aec.gov.au