And the Darling Wind Farm is happening! :)

Van Schalkwyk clears final hurdle to Darling wind farm

Wind turbines a breeze for migrating birds

Good news for the birds!

G8 Gleneagles 2005: Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development

Maybe something good came from Gleneagles:

http://www.sustdev.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=672

Where is the line for Greenpeace?

Greenpeace is one of those organisations that has the ability to generate a tremendous amount of press. Unfortunately, this is normally through them doing something outrageous, such as delivering a truckload of waste to the Geneva HQ of HP. So is the press good or bad for the Clean/Green industry? A very difficult questions to unpack.

Without a doubt, without the "greenies" prmoting the benefits of the industry, we would probably still be many years behind where we are today. It is through them that a number of government consessions have been scored, as well as those with a green consious being spurred into action. Both these have lead to the creation of new opportunities. These have historically been consulting and research, but more recently, new manufacturing companies and projects in this space have been launched.

Yet, does a Machiavellian approach - the end justifies the means - allows us to let Greenpeace off the hoook when the break the law? I think not. My feeling is that they should be looking for more innovate ways to promote the industry, without overstepping the boundries of the law. However, in many instances I guess they would argue the law is wrong, and hence they can break it. But this leads down the path of fundamentalism, which is one we should all be wary of.

Wind could supply all our energy

It is fascinating to think that a single resource, wind, could theoretically supply 5x the US's current energy consumption.

Map Reveals Airstream Potential

Combine that thinking with the sun, wave, geothermal, etc resources, and there is MORE than enough energy available from Renewable Energy sources, yet we still burn coal and blow up atoms.

Reminds me of one of my favourite quotes: “You see, we should make use of the forces of nature and should obtain all our power in this way. Sunshine is a form of energy, wind and sea currents are manifestations of this energy. Do we make use of them? Oh no! We burn forests and coal, like tenants burning down our front door for heating. We live like wild settlers and not as though these resources belong to us.” Thomas A. Edison, 1916

Hmm, I am starting to like Toyota

It is fantstic that a massive manufacturer like Toyota is driving the change to cleaner cars throught heir hybrid technology. Seems they are going to be releasing a number of new cars, including the Camry, on their Hybrid system.

Toyota to build Camry hybrid in Kentucky

Also see: http://thoughtsoft.blogspot.com/

New coal power stations not too bad?

In the debate about "dirty" energy technologies, oneoften forgets that huge strides have been taken to clean up power technologies. This appleis to one fo the dirtiest of the lot, coal, as the following article illustrates:

Dirty Secret: Coal Plants Could Be Much Cleaner

The problem in South Africa is that we burn some of the dirtiest coal in the world. And most of the plans to bring on line new power stations involve de-mothballing old power stations that will not be using this cleaner tech. We can only hope thatin the medium term, ESKOM does start building cleaner power stations.

Greenpeace don't drive Land Rovers

Workers at Land Rover’s Solihull production plant were left choking on their early morning tea yesterday when 30 Greenpeace activists stormed the assembly line and began bolting themselves to half-built cars in a protest against “gas-guzzling” four-wheel drives.

Campaigners storm the citadel of the 4x4

China - the biggest threat to our climate?

China's Boom Is Bust for Global Environment, Study Warns

But China is also very pro Renewable ENeryg, and, if they have enugh foresight, they could lead the transition to Renewable Energy. If they could secure independance from fossil fuels, what a challenge that would be to the rest of the world.

Anybody anti-nuclear?

Here is a conference at which I hope someone will make a good presentation AGAINST nuclear energy and FOR renewables.

Nuclear Power Asia Pacific 2005

Glitchy Hybrids

Hmm, seems my favourite car has a software problem...

Prius hybrids dogged by software

Maybe Toyota should ahve a look at this comic strip as well...

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20050516.html

Is Nuclear a viable energy source?

There is no doubt that would is heading towards two crises:

1) Energy Security - there is not enough power
2) Climate Change - the weather is changing, and not for the good

There are many that propose that a rapid transition to Renewable Energy is required. However, the economic driving forces are not there, and it is not happening fast enough.

Could Nuclear Power be an intemediatory energy source. I would hate to see it used in the long term, but maybe it could facilitate the transition. It resolves the 2nd issue, but does it resolve the 1st? Nuclear power stations promote the idea of a centralised grid, the architecture of which ahs been shown to be lacking, and also opens the door for the most horific terrorist attach of all - blowing up a nuclear reactor.

See also this article:

Old Foes Soften to New Reactors

WiIl the US finally sign Kyoto?

Glad some mayors are putting the pressure on:

Rebuffing Bush, 132 Mayors Embrace Kyoto Rules

If the US could commit to international emissions reductions, well, that would be quite a thing.

Clean Diesel from Natural Gas

Seems the fellows over in Qatar, that tiny Arab state, are quite bright! Have developed a process to convert natural gas into a clean burning diesel. Sounds like a good product to me, a sort of a transitional fuel as we (hopefully) move to the Hydrogen Economy...

Natural Gas Diesel May Cut Smog

Someone should tell or South African fuel company Sasol this - htey have been turning coal into petrol for years, and here is something new for them to do!

Enter the Hybrid Generation!

This is a very interesting article on how solar energy is changing America: The New Power Generation

New Hybrid Cars

Seems Ford will be joining the party soon:

"Is Ford finally coming clean on Hybrids?"

Warming up to climate control tech

Seems that being energy efficient is happening for some...

Link here

How about a Fusion generator for Christmas?

Desktop nuclear fusion demonstrated
Fusion could be a nice new source of energy, but will they actually get it working on a practical scale?

Nuclear Alert!

Sometimes opening your mouth,, as in "High radiation levels near Pta" gets you into trouble with the president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, in "Mbeki blasts Earthlife". Earthlife can be found at this link.

Interesting that the president should be so concerned about publicity around this. Doesn't he want people to be afraid of nuclear waste? I would be. This story about the "Kid of Speed" should be enough to scare anyone. It is all about what Chernobyl is like now, a few years later on from when all those poor people were freid by radiation from when Chernobyl went into melt down.

Read

And be afraid...

Does creating RE use more energy than producing it?

Some peope have argued that the energy used to create a renewable energy resource is greater than the energy that resource actually produces.

For example, it might take more energy to create a wind turbine than the wind turbine would ever produce in its life.

An interesting thought, but not true, as the following articles illustrate:

Wind turbines have 35-fold environmental benefit
Ethanol produces more energy than it takes to produce, says U.S. analysis

Solar Water Heater Links

Here are some links to Solar Water Heaters:

http://www.solardome.co.za/
http://www.solarheat.co.za/about_us.asp
http://www.newenergy.co.za/products/apricus/index.html

The Saratoga Toyota Prius

Pan African Power Conference

So last week I was at the Pan African Power Conference in JHB. This was a fantastic time for me to network with bigwigs on behalf of my company, as well as unleash our secret marketing weapon - the Saratoga Toyota Prius! (Photo coming) Branded in our companies colours, with yours truly giving test drives, I was able to corner many an individual and introduce them to our company. Nobody who drove the car was unimpressed, and of course, after my little sales pitch, they were impressed even more. So, will some of them throw some money at us? We wait and see...

Of course, we have grand plans to take over the world and make it clean, or something along those lines. But we have to start small, so we are looking at a number of new thinkings, including launching a Clean Energy Portal (watch this space), enable trading of Carbon and Renewable Energy Certificates, as well as launch so management financing intiatives around Solar Water Heating.

The conference itself was not too exciting, although it was good for the reneable energy industry to present some alternatives to massive coal power station expansion. I believe we can get all our energy from natural sustainable sources - forget this coal, oil nuclear rubbish. Will hopefully get some cool links to such articles soon, and let the debate begin.

Frank Spencer

Renewable Energy World - Johannesburg

Exciting News - next week I will be at the Renewable Energy / Enviromental Efficiency conference up in Johannesburg.

It is a small part of a larger, African focus energy conference, but should be a good place to network and connect with a few key industry players, including the South African government's Department of Minerals and Energy - will be good to see what they are up to around renewable energy policy going forward. Also see what our dreaded parastal ESKOM is up to.

ESKOM has have plans to build Pebble bed nuclear reactors to supply future electricity requirements. And to think they actually few this as a CLEAN ENERGY? Can you believe that? Not sure how you call something that dangerous and that generates such polluting radioactive waste CLEAN!

Anyway, watch this space for exciting outcomes from the conference... ;)

www.cleanedge.com

This is one of my favourite sites for trends in the Clean Energy Space. Check out their latest trends report at Trends2005 where you can read about:

• Fuels from Biomass grow like a weed
• Energy Efficiency becomes Big Business
• Concentrating Solar Power Heats Up
• The Hydrogen Infrastructure begins to emerge
• Green Buildings constructs a solid foundation

Toyota Prius Test Drive

I test drove the new Toyota Prius the other day, and it is a great car. Amazing fuel consumption, enviromentally more friendly (I say "more: as it still uses petrol as it's fuel source).

Due to it's continuously variable transmission, it pulls away a bit like an aeroplane - constant thrust in your back. And the fun part is BRAKING. All that extra energy is fed through the electrical motor (noe operating as a generator) into the battery storage to be used again later by the motor when you want to ACCELERATE. No more energy wasted on the brake pads - and your brake pads should last, well, for ever.

Check it out at http://www.toyota.co.za/models/prius/default.aspx

This car has only just become available in South Africa, and is only available on Full Maintenance Lease for about ZAR5000 per month. Also, dont think of taking this enviromentally friendly car out into the real environment - you may only drive it on "paved" roads...

Grrrreetings

Heya! My name is Frank Spencer and I am passionate about many things - Clean Energy is one of them. I hope to keep track of exciting opportunities in the Renewable Energy space and post the to this blogger.