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  • Absolute Political Cowardice

    From: GetUp! <info@getup.org.au>
    Date: Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 9:53 PM
    Subject: Absolute political cowardice

    **News: Kevin Rudd has betrayed his promise to take action on climate change. Click here to hold him to account.**

    Dear NEVILLE,

    “Absolute political cowardice… an absolute failure of leadership.”1 That’s what Kevin Rudd said just months ago about those who wanted to delay action on climate change. He was right.

    Yesterday Kevin Rudd betrayed his promise to act on climate change, deferring action until 2013: six years after he called climate change the moral challenge of our age.

    So what can we do about it? To start, we have to ensure this doesn’t go unnoticed – doesn’t go unanswered. Every Australian who took the Prime Minister at his word should see this video of his climate backflip. Together, GetUp members number 350,000. If we each forward this to five friends, we can reach millions.

    Click here to see the video

    www.getup.org.au/campaign/climateinaction

    The Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was a mess of a policy: a paltry 5% target, and what the Govenrment’s own advisor, Prof. Ross Garnaut, called “one of the worst examples of policy making we have seen on major issues in Australia.”2 But this is about far more than another policy delay.

    Time and again, Kevin Rudd has betrayed the support Australians gave him last election. And yesterday, he broke faith with us on “the great challenge of our time.”3 It is time to say enough. It is time to take a stand and declare a vote of no confidence in Kevin Rudd’s leadership on climate change:

    www.getup.org.au/campaign/climateinaction

    We could say a lot about this latest backflip, but Kevin Rudd himself perhaps said it best. Here’s what he said just months ago about delaying climate action:

    “….When you strip away all the political rhetoric, all the political excuses, there are two stark choices – action or inaction.”

    “…The resolve of the Australian Government is clear: we choose action, and we do so because Australia’s fundamental economic and environmental interests lie in action. Action now. Not action delayed.”

    “…the eighth excuse cannot be far away – which will be to wait until the next year or the year after until all the rest of the world has acted at which time Australia will act.

    “…What absolute political cowardice. What an absolute failure of leadership. What an absolute failure of logic.”4

    The Prime Minister said it right: what absolute cowardice. And as he said in that same speech:

    “It’s time to remove any polite veneer from this debate. The stakes are that high.”

    Right again: it’s time to remove the veneer and speak truth to power – and that’s what GetUp members do best. Please share this email and video with friends, and click below to join the vote of no confidence in Kevin Rudd’s climate decision:

    www.getup.org.au/campaign/climateinaction

    Together we are 350,000 voices and 350,000 votes that cannot be ignored. Let’s stand together to say ‘no more excuses, no more delays: it’s time to act on dangerous climate change.’

    Thanks,
    The GetUp Team

    PS – On refugees, on human rights and now on climate change, Kevin Rudd has broken faith with us. It is time to stand up with one voice and tell the Prime Minister he has lost our confidence. Click here to sign the declaration.

    –Sources–

    1The Hon. Kevin Rudd MP, Distinguished Speaker Series, the Lowy Institue, 06/11/ 2009.
    2Prof. Ross Garnaut, The 7.30 Report, ABC, broadcast: 12/10/2009, reporter: Kerry O’Brien.
    3The Hon. Kevin Rudd MP, Opening Remarks to the National Climate Change Summit, Parliament House, Canberra, 31/03/07
    4The Hon. Kevin Rudd MP, Distinguished Speaker Series, the Lowy Institue, 06/11/ 2009.

     

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  • US officials consider burning oil slick

    US officials consider burning oil slick

    Posted 25 minutes ago

    Officials say they may set fire to a vast oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico to prevent what could become one of the worst ecological disasters in US history.

    A BP oil rig exploded and sank last week and the equivalent of at least 1,000 barrels of oil are flowing from a leaking well each day.

    The oil slick is now approaching the ecologically fragile coast of Louisiana.

    US Coast Guard spokeswoman Connie Terrell says so far they are not having any luck sealing the leaks.

    “We have a remotely operated vehicle down there that is trying to pump some liquid in there, some hydraulic fluid and build pressure to close a hydraulic valve,” she said.

    “To date they haven’t been able to do that. We had a drill rig come on board and they’re planning to possibly drill a relief well.”

    – BBC

  • Peak Oil Predictions

     

    The difference between the recovery periods following previous oil shocks and the current one is that a significant proportion of today’s oil demand is in permanent decline. This particularly applies to developed countries where demand for oil is past its peak. In other words, this recession has triggered demand destruction, not demand suppression.

    It’s possible the day of “peak oil” has arrived – but not in the way everyone expected. Instead of peak oil, we’re looking at a peak in demand for oil. The oil age won’t end tomorrow, but the idea that it will go on for ever – with its attendant catastrophes and tragedies – is seriously in question.

    Against this backdrop, the economic case for investing in clean technology becomes as clear as the environmental case. The faster we introduce efficiency in the transport sector, making better cars that use less fuel, adopting cutting-edge hybrid technology and pushing vehicle electrification, the faster the oil industry of the last century will be replaced by the cleaner, safer and economically more sound industries of today.

  • Giant gravel batteries could make renewable energy more reliable

     

     

    Isentopic claims its gravel-based battery would be able to store equivalent amounts of energy but use less space and be cheaper to set up. Its system consists of two silos filled with a pulverised rock such as gravel. Electricity would be used to heat and pressurise argon gas that is then fed into one of the silos. By the time the gas leaves the chamber, it has cooled to ambient temperature but the gravel itself is heated to 500C.

     

    After leaving the silo, the argon is then fed into the second silo, where it expands back to normal atmospheric pressure. This process acts like a giant refrigerator, causing the gas (and rock) temperature inside the second chamber to drop to -160C. The electrical energy generated originally by the wind turbines originally is stored as a temperature difference between the two rock-filled silos. To release the energy, the cycle is reversed, and as the energy passes from hot to cold it powers a generator that makes electricity.

     

    Isentropic claims a round-trip energy efficiency of up to 80% and, because gravel is cheap, the cost of a system per kilowatt-hour of storage would be between $10 and $55.

     

    Howe says that the energy in the hot silo (which is insulated) can easily be stored for extended periods of time – by his calculations, a silo that stood 50m tall and was 50m in diameter would lose only half of its energy through its walls if left alone for three years.

     

    To demonstrate how much less infrastructure his system requires, Howe uses the example of the Bath County Pumped Storage hydro-electric dam in Virginia, US. This is the biggest energy-storage system in the world, with two reservoirs covering 820 surface acres can store up to 30 GWh storage capacity. An Isentropic gravel battery of the same capacity would occupy 1/300th of the area, according to Howe.

     

    John Loughhead, executive director of the UK Energy Research Centre, said that the novelty of the Isentropic system lay in using cheap materials as the heat store, thus making a normally expensive and mechanically complex process very simple. But he said demonstrators would need to be built to prove the idea actually functions. “The question is, does it work? From an engineering standpoint, the temperature differences they mention, +550C to -150C are initially credibility-stretching for a single-pass cycle, and the potential for gravel particles to pass through the engine and damage or clog the inevitable cooling and lubricating systems seems high.”

     

    Howe is in the process of designing a small pilot plant that could store 16MWh at full capacity – enough for the electrical needs of thousands of homes. That energy could be stored in two silos of gravel that are 7 metres tall and 7 metres in diameter. There is no reason why multiple units could not be connected together to store much more power, Howe says several gigawatt hours.

     

    Howe says he is in talks with what he refers to as “a large utility company” to sponsor the construction of a full-storage demonstrator system, something around the 100 kilowatt scale.

     

    Isentropic was selected recently by the government-sponsored Technology Strategy Board for a trade mission to meet Silicon Valley investors, one of around 20 of the Britain’s most promising clean technology startup companies.

     

    David Bott, director of innovation programmes at the Technology Strategy Board, one of the sponsors of the 2010 Clean and Cool trade mission said: “Isentropic have done something very exciting, by revisiting scientific theory and coming up with a new technology that answers the need to match the generation of electricity with its use. For instance, the system could enable the more efficient use of wind power, by storing the energy generated by a turbine until it is needed. We need ways to store the energy we generate when we have a surplus, so that it can be used when we need extra and this innovative new system could provide the answer.”

  • Women Solar Entrepreneurs Transforming Bangladesh

     

    “The solar home system plays a very effective role in bringing ‘green’ electricity to rural households. Better lighting facilitates children’s education and helps women to work and cook. It also enables women to take part in income-generating activities after dark.”

    — Dipal Barua, Bright Green Energy Foundation

    To realize this vision, the 55-year old Barua has recently founded the Bright Green Energy Foundation. It’s the latest step in an illustrious career working to bring sustainable development to the people of rural Bangladesh. Barua was one of the founding members of the Grameen Bank, the Nobel prize-winning, micro-finance and community development bank that was launched in his home village of Jobra in 1976.

    “I have devoted most of my life to finding sustainable, market-based solutions to the social and economic problems faced by rural people”, says Barua. “I came to realize that a lack of access to efficient energy sources was one of the major obstacles to their development. More than 70% of my country’s rural population has to depend on primitive energy sources. This limits people’s economic opportunities and damages their health.”

    In 1996, Barua founded Grameen Shakti, a non-profit organization with a mission to promote, develop, and supply renewable energy.

    As managing director, Barua built Grameen Shakti into one of the largest and fastest-growing renewable energy companies in the world. But, as he recalls, attempts to market photovoltaic solar home systems on affordable terms initially faced numerous obstacles. “No enabling environment existed for spreading renewable energy technologies in rural areas. People had no awareness, costs were high, technical knowledge was low, and there was no infrastructure.”

    “We had to create goodwill and gain the trust of the rural people. We trained our engineers to be ‘social engineers’ who went from door-to-door to demonstrate the effectiveness of renewable energy. We trained local youth as technicians to ensure that people would have efficient and free after-sales service right on their doorstep.”

    In a country where approximately 40% of the population lives on less than US$1.25 a day, the cost of even the most basic solar home system — 15,000 Bangladeshi Taka (US$217) — was daunting for many rural households. Barua remembers trying to convince potential customers to invest in solar power systems. “I told people that for the cost of the kerosene they were buying to light their homes, they could buy a solar home system that would last for 20 years or more.”

    Grameen Shakti received a huge boost in 2002 when low-interest loans from the World Bank and the Global Environment Fund enabled the organization to begin scaling-up its provision of micro-finance agreements. The most popular of a number of options to purchase a solar home system on preferential terms proved to be one with a down-payment of 15% and monthly repayments of the remainder over three years.

    By the end of 2009, more than 300,000 solar home systems had been installed, bringing electricity to more than two million people.

    “The solar home system plays a very effective role in bringing ‘green’ electricity to rural households. Better lighting facilitates children’s education and helps women to work and cook”, says Barua. “It also enables women to take part in income-generating activities after dark.”

    And, as Barua points out, the impact on incomes is not restricted to households. “Shops and small businesses have also installed solar home systems in order to stay open after sunset.”

    In recent years Grameen Shakti diversified, starting a biogas programme to provide cooking gas, electricity, and organic fertilizer, and an improved cooking stove programme to reduce indoor air pollution and the amount of wood needed for cooking fuel. By the end of 2009, more than 7,000 small biogas plants and 40,000 improved cooking stoves had been installed.

    Key to Grameen Shakti’s success was the deliberate drive to involve women in both the take-up of renewable energy, and the installation and servicing of the energy systems. As Barua remarks, “Women are the main victims of the energy crisis. They are the ones who suffer most from indoor air pollution, drudgery, and a lack of time because of the onerous tasks of wood-gathering and cooking. We believe that women should be transformed from passive victims into active forces of good to bring changes in their lives and the communities in which they live.”

    At over 40 technology centres based in rural areas, and managed mostly by female engineers, women undergo an initial 15-day course to learn how to assemble charge controllers and mobile phone chargers, and to install and maintain solar home systems. With further training, they are able to repair the systems. Over 1,000 women technicians have come through the programme, and they have been instrumental in the rapid take-up of the solar power systems.

    For Barua, the success of the women technicians programme is one of his most satisfying achievements. “When we started this programme, we were not sure whether we would be able to attract enough rural women or whether they would be able to operate independently. But we trained more than 1,000 women who have developed their self-confidence and now have the opportunity to earn an income of around US$150 a month. These young women from this most conservative of societies can leave home and operate independently as technicians – this was unimaginable only a few years ago.”

    In 2009 Dipal Barua won the Abu Dhabi government’s Zayed Future Energy Prize in recognition of his work to bring renewable energy technologies to rural people. Part of the prize was an award of US$1.5 million, and Barua has used this money to start the Bright Green Energy Foundation.

    He plans to build on Grameen Shakti’s success, and wants to train 100,000 women, so that they can establish their own renewable energy businesses. “My aim is to provide technical and financial assistance to rural women so they can become ‘green’ entrepreneurs.”

    Barua says the Foundation will take renewable energy technologies to the next level of development. “We envisage a future where every household and business in Bangladesh will have access to environmentally-friendly and pollution-free energy at an affordable cost.”

    He concludes, “If I succeed, Bangladesh will become the land of renewable energy technologies, as it is now the land of micro-credit – a source of inspiration for all. This would be a very positive demonstration of what renewable energy can do for disadvantaged people around the whole world.”

    Interview by Charles Arthur, UNIDO.  This article was originally published by MakingIt Magazine and was reprinted with permission.

  • Rudd must stop punishment of solar pensioners

    27 April 2010

    Rudd must stop punishment of solar pensioners

    Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown says he will move in the
    Senate to stop pensioners and small investors being penalised for
    selling solar power into the electricity grid.

    In New South Wales, pensioner Don Campbell, who invested
    $11,000 in solar panels has been told by the federal government his
    pension will be docked if he sells electricity into the grid.

    “Yet the Rudd government’s own proposal is to give $24
    billion to big corporate polluters who take action to reduce greenhouse
    gas emissions – it’s a double standard,” Senator Brown said.

    Senator Brown said the government should encourage
    everyone to invest in renewable energy and back state governments who
    set up “feed-in” laws to buy such electricity.  Better still, he should
    stop blocking the Greens’ proposal for national ‘feed-in’ laws as they
    have in Germany.

    Media contact: Erin Farley 0438 376 082

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