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Rolling two-hour power blackouts will sweep across the city under an emergency plan drawn up by ActewAGL, reported The Canberra Times (23/5/2007, p.1). The company had a hit list of suburbs that would be the first to be cut off.

Not enough power: "If there’s not enough power to go around, there’s not enough power to go around," the chief executive of ActewACL, John Mackay, said yesterday. "Canberra has never in its history faced power shortages as a result of not enough electricity … [but] it can happen. It happens all over the world." ActewAGL was also reconsidering building a gas-fired power station at Hume. The general manager of networks with ActewAGL, Michael Charlton, said the rolling electricity blackouts could be introduced this summer, but not before.

Emergency help: CharIton said if power blackouts were activated in Canberra, emergency services would be on stand-by to help the elderly and infirm cope without electricity in the summer heat. Hospitals would be the last to have their power cut.

Drought problems: Water levels in Snowy storages were about 8 per cent of active capacity, according to Snowy Hydro. That’s the lowest level since the scheme opened in 1973. The drought has also hit Australia’s coal-fired power stations, which provide base-load power to the ACT. They need water to make steam to generate clectricity. Power stations in NSW, Queensland and Victoria have been affected by the drought. CharIton said it would be NEMMCO’s call to cut power. ActewAGL would simply follow orders. Charlton said he "sincerely hoped" the plan never had to be activated.

Voluntary cuts an option: One way around the blackouts was if Canberrans could reduce their power use voluntarily. People might be asked to turn off their air-conditioning and lights in summer, including at work, he said. Mackay said with electricity supply dwindling, ActewAGL was taking a fresh look at the long-running proposal for a gas-fired power station for the ACT. "That is front of mind for us, I’m working on it at the moment." He said a gas-fired power station could be built at Hume "in the forsecable future".

The Canberra Times, 23/5/2007, p. 1

Californian Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has rejected BHP Billiton’s proposal to build a gas terminal off the coast of picturesque, starstudded Malibu to supply the state with Australian gas, according to Nigel Wilson and David Nason in The Australian (21/5/2007, p1).

Environmental concerns dog application: The $1 billion project had already been undermined by environmental concerns. But it could have been approved by Schwarzenegger, who in 2004 was personally lobbied by the Prime Minister and BHP chairman Don Argus.

Stars campaign: His decision was a triumph for the hardcore group of Malibu celebrities, led by former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan and including Australian expatriate Olivia Newton-John, who campaigned against the project. Their numbers included Cindy Crawford, Daryl Harmah, Tea Leora, Jane Seymour, Dick Van Dyke, Cher, Jamic Lee Curtis, Danny DeVito, Tom Hanks, Martin Sheen and Charlize Theron.

Media focus on 14-storey, 295m-long LNG terminal: And their star power helped galvanise media coverage for a grassroots opposition movement and increased the pressure on Californian authorities to reject the BHP plan, which involved a 14-storey, 295m-long LNG terminal 22km off the Malibu coast.

Australian LNG export plans stall: Halting Cabrillo Port puts a question mark over the timetable for Australian liquefied natural gas to be imported directly into the US, which is rapidly running short of gas. BHP hoped to ship the LNG in supertankers from gas fields off the West Australian coast, convert it back to gas at the offshore terminal and pipe it to the Californian mainland.

The Australian, 21/5/2007, p1.

Source: Erisk Net

Environmentalists fight back: BHP Cabrillo Port LNG terminal in US assailed as “part of a globalised assault taking place on our earth”
Under US federal law, the Governor’s rejection was final, meaning BHP cannot receive the necessary federal permit in California. But Arnold Schwarzenegger left open the door for other applicants, including Woodside, saying LNG must play a role in meeting California’s energy needs, reported The Australian (21/5/2007, p.4).

Schwarzenegger backs LNG: Releasing his decision, he said California needed to diversify fuel sources for consumers with cleaner alternatives such as LNG. Despite a huge lobbying exercise by BHP Billiton in California, estimated to have cost more than $US2 million ($2.4 million), the project continually ran into opposition, culminating in the California Coastal Commission and State Lands Commission both turning the proposal down last month, mainly because it failed to meet emissions standards.

BHP plan tarred as "globalised assault": At one protest rally, Hollywood actor Brosnan described Cabrillo Port as “part of a globalised assault taking place on our earth”. A petition signed by Newton-John said: “This floating LNG terminal will emit more than 200 tons of smog-producing pollutants per year in an area long known for high occurrences of asthma in both children and adults.”

Woodside says its case is different: Woodside has proposed a terminal off the coast of California that would sink to the ocean floor when not in use. A Woodside spokesman said on 20 May its concept did not have the emissions issues that had affected Cabrillo Port and the project was progressing through the US regulatory authorities.

The Australian, 21/5/2007, p.4

Source: Erisk Net

The fact that Rizhao is a small, ordinary Chinese city with per capita incomes even lower than in most other cities in the region makes the story even more remarkable. The achievement was the result of an unusual convergence of three key factors: a government policy that encourages solar energy use and financially supports research and development, local solar panel industries that seized the opportunity and improved their products, and the strong political will of the city’s leadership to adopt it.

As is the case in industrial countries that promote solar power, the Shandong provincial government provided subsidies. Instead of funding the end users, however, the government funded the research and development activities of the solar water heater industry.

Mayor Li Zhaoqian explained: "It is not realistic to subsidize end users as we don’t have sufficient financial capacity." Instead, the provincial government invested in the industry to achieve technological breakthroughs, which increased efficiency and lowered the unit cost.

The cost of a solar water heater was brought down to the same level as an electric one: about $190, which is about 4-5 percent of the annual income of an average household in town and about 8-10 percent of a rural household’s income. Also, the panels could be simply attached to the exterior of a building. Using a solar water heater for 15 years costs about 15,000 Yuan less than running a conventional electric heater, which equates to saving $120 per year.

A combination of regulations and public education spurred the broad adoption of solar heaters. The city mandates all new buildings to incorporate solar panels, and it oversees the construction process to ensure proper installation. To raise awareness, the city held open seminars and ran public advertising on television. Government buildings and the homes of city leaders were the first to have the panels installed. Some government bodies and businesses provided free installation for employees, although the users pay for repairs and replacement.

After 15 years of effort, it seems the merit of using a solar heater has become common sense in Rizhao, and "you don’t need to persuade people anymore to make the choice," according to Wang Shuguang, a government official.

Widespread use of solar energy reduced the use of coal and help improve the environmental quality of Rizhao, which has consistently been listed in the top 10 cities for air quality in China. In 2006, the State Environmental Protection Agency designated Rizhao as the Environmental Protection Model City.

Rizhao’s leaders believe that an enhanced environment will in turn help the city’s social, economic, and cultural development in the long run, and they see solar energy as a starting point to trigger this positive cycle. Some recent statistics show Rizhao is on track. The city is attracting a rapidly increasing amount of foreign direct investment, and according to city officials, environment is one of the key factors bringing these investors to Rizhao.

The travel industry in the city is also booming. In the last two years, the number of visitors increased by 48 and 30 percent respectively. Since 2002, the city has successfully hosted a series of domestic and international water sports events, including the International Sailing Federation’s Grade W 470 World Sailing Championship.

The favorable environmental profile of Rizhao is changing its cultural profile as well, by attracting high-profile universities and professors to the city. Peking University, the most prestigious one in China, is building a residential complex in Rizhao, for example. More than 300 professors have bought their second or retirement homes in the city, working and living in this new complex at least part of the year. Qufu Normal University and Shandong Institute of Athletics have also chosen Rizhao for new campuses.

Xuemei Bai is a Scientist in the Urban Systems Program for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organization in Australia. This article was adapted from an article that first appeared in the recently released report State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future, and was reprinted with permission from the Worldwatch Institute.