better generation

 

 

If some world leaders had the commitment of Evans Wadongo, a 23 year old solar entrepreneur from Kenya, then it would herald a new age for renewable energy. In 2004, while at a university for agriculture and technology, Wadongo was experimenting with some rudimentary LED (light-emitting diode) Christmas lights. He then thought why not adapt them for use in rural homes to provide lighting after the sun has gone down. That is how the idea for the "MwangaBora" was conceived.

 

The fight against climate change and the push for renewables is a battle on many fronts. Much is made of the breakthroughs in technology, which seem to be the preserve of those that can not only afford to acquire them, but also understand and maintain them. All too often, developing nations and, more specifically, their communities are unable to tap into the abundant resources available. Moreover, the technical support and expertise that we take for granted in the developing world is scarce. That is why the Barefoot College challenges these preconceptions.

 

 

The US engineering giant has announced plans to build a new manufacturing plant in the UK. This comes after the government announced a £60 million port development fund. GE is spending £110 million on its first British plant and, overall, there will be €340 million worth of investment in the European wind industry over the next ten years. In addition, GE hopes to create 1,900 clean energy jobs and develop a new site on the UK mainland.

The government launched a competition yesterday for the £60 million fund to upgrade port facilities, which would support the highly anticipated planned new offshore wind farms.  Blyth in the North East is home to the Renewable Energy test facility. Magued Eldaief, Managing Director of of GE Energy UK, said, “These GE investments will position us to help develop Europe's vast, untapped offshore wind resources, while also creating invaluable new jobs for both GE and our suppliers in the UK.”

GE plan to develop the 4 MW turbine range for use in the offshore wind farms. This is the largest turbine in their portfolio and utilises Direct Drive Technology that should increase its reliability in extreme conditions, as well as replace gearboxes. As a result, GE hopes to boost its position in the competitive offshore wind market in Europe. €105 million will be spent over the next six years on wind energy operations in Germany alone. There is expanded research being carried out in Sweden and Norway and it is indicative of the industry into which big names, such as Siemens and Mitsubishi, are all delving.

 

Global expenditure in renewable energy should rise from $90 billion to $150 billion. However, a further increase of a third is needed in order to ensure global greenhouse gas emissions reach a peak and avoid critical levels of climate change. Bloomberg New Energy Finance has estimated that $500 billion will be needed by 2030, whereas current policies show that investment will reach only $200 billion.

Experts claim that at current trends, 22% of the world’s installed power generation will be met by renewables through 2020 and 31% by 2030. However, 40% by 2030 is needed to avoid the dangerous climate change levels. High amounts of investment have already come from China, as well as increases in project financing in The Americas and Europe.

“These findings confirm that, in spite of ongoing economic malaise, investment in renewable energy should continue to grow, driven heavily by existing government targets," says Guy Turner, director of carbon market research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The required level of investment could still be achieved, if the price of carbon was increased progressively.

The Royal Academy of Engineering has, in its Generating Future report, outlined the energy systems that will be fit for meeting the carbon emissions targets for 2050. As a result, the entire infrastructure of our energy supply will need a complete revamp, even with a considerable decrease in energy demand across all sectors.

Four possible scenarios have been drawn up to meet 2050 targets:

1.    Level demand with fossil fuels used principally for transport.
It is estimated that 80 new nuclear or Carbon-Capture-Storage (CCS) equipped power plants will be needed, along with a mix of renewable energy technologies. This is in order to meet the expected rise in electricity demand from 42GW to 127GW. Moreover, fossil fuels will need to be replaced for low grade heating.

 

Advertising regulatory bodies, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP), have updated the codes of practice of the advertising industry. It is a move to stop advertisers exaggerating the environmental credentials of their products.

The updates are aimed more at the broadcasting code, as the radio and non-broadcast parts have been covered already. As of 1st September 2010, any green claims made by advertisers will need a “high level of substantiation”. The government itself has already been warned by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) for using the infamous IPCC report on the melting of the Himalayan glaciers to support its drive to curb carbon emissions.

The Enivronment Agency has identified 26,000 locations along rivers in England and Wales that could be used for hydro-electric purposes. Rivers such as the Severn, Aire and Neath have been highlighted as strong areas. Additionally, there has been an increase in applications for small-scale hydro-electric plants in the last year, from 10 per year to 80 per year, with more increases expected as a result of the Feed-in Tariffs from the Clean Energy Cashback scheme to be introduced in April.

However, hydro-electric installations may be to the detriment of some local environments. For example, fish migration is one such sensitive issue because of the delicate balance of the ecosystems involved. Moreover, some locations have practical constraints, such as lack of access to the local electricity grid. On the other hand, there is potential to generate electricity, as well as improve the environment through sensitively designed installations in many other areas. Furthermore, if installed properly, hydro-lectric installations provide a clean form of energy storage that can combat the problem of intermittency of renewable energy supply.

E.on, the energy provider, has teamed up with Self Energy UK to produce the Energy Performance Guarantee (EPG) service, which promises “no gain, no fee”. The service is similar to the government’s recently launched Pay As You Save scheme that offers homeowners loans to cover the high upfront costs associated with renewable energy. Consequently, the loans are paid back over time through savings made from having lower energy bills.
An energy use strategy is used to produce “guaranteed” energy savings that will be greater than the cost of implementation.  As a result, cost savings may be appreciated while paying back the initial investment. If there are no cost savings then the business does not have to payback. Additionally, companies will be able to observe their energy usage with the Business Energy Manager Monitor, which will be supplied for free with downloadable software.

The EPG service is in preparation for the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme that will be launched next month. Also known as the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, it sets out to reduce the carbon emissions of larger “low energy-intensive” organisations, estimated at about 5,000 in the UK, which accounts for about 25% of the business sector. This would be achieved mainly through a mandatory carbon trading scheme that aims to achieve a 60% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.the scheme will apply to companies in the public and private sector, working in tandem with the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), so that emissions counted in the EU ETS will not be included in the CRC.

 

 

China and India complete the list of big economies to endorse the Copenhagen Accord and add to the list of over 100 countries that formally support the agreement. The Accord states that global temperature rises are limited to 2 degrees and for climate funding to be increased to developing countries. In general, developed countries have given their emissions targets for 2020, while developing countries have given climate change action plans. However, Russia is still the last remaining major greenhouse gas emitter that has not endorsed the Copenhagen Accord.

Professor Daniel Nocera, a scientist at the world renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), claims to have found a way to produce energy with sunlight and water. It involves splitting water with sunlight using a cobalt-based catalyst, into oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen may then be used in fuel cells for electricity generation. As a result, it is a way of storing solar energy to use when there is no sun.

“Almost all the solar energy is stored in water splitting,” says Nocera, whose company Sun Catalytix secured $4 million of funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). ARPA-E has $400 million available for risky but potentially transformational energy research. Sun Catalytix is one of five companies awarded funding under the “direct solar fuel” category. Moreover, Kocera claims the technology can work under ambient conditions, even using impure puddle water.

 

However, as with most bold claims of a revolutionary new technology, there remain some yet unanswered questions. Nocera claims the technology will be cheap but there is no indication of concrete prices. Details of a fully working model are still yet to be shown and sceptics will point to the fact that the process of water splitting has been around for many decades, but the problem has always been to make it safe enough for home usage. Therefore, like the Bloom Box, it remains to be seen whether this technology can live up to the ambitious claims of its maker.