Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is & Invest for Good!

As the saying goes: Put your money where your mouth is. That is exactly what is advocated by environmental champion Bill McKibben, as he calls for investors worldwide to divest from fossil fuel holdings. This demonstrates a strong commitment by investors to withhold support for the fossil fuel industry responsible for the much of the emissions of climate change causing greenhouse gas emissions.  Read more

Investors back away from fossil fuel assets and fracking

Long-term investors are divesting from fossil fuels and saying no to fracking. Is the writing on the wall for oil, coal and gas?

By Oliver Wagg in Guardian Professional (18 July 2013):

On his recent trip to Australia, climate activist Bill McKibben tried to persuade financiers to join his quest to rid the planet of fossil fuels.

Climate change disciple Bill McKibben, co-founder of environmental campaign group 350.org, underwent a baptism by fire on his June tour of Australia, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers and polluters per capita.

Having stepped off his plane from the US on to the set of the nation’s premier debate show, the ABC’s Q&A, McKibben spent the next day trying to convince Australia’s financiers to join his quest to rid the planet of polluting fossil fuels. Next stop – the Uniting Church of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory – to say a big thank you for being the first church in the world to divest their portfolio of fossil fuel holdings.

Just as tobacco, alcohol and munitions have been shunned by church investment funds as sin stocks for years, polluting fossil fuels are now being targeted because of their substantial contribution to environmental degradation. The Uniting Church says fossil fuel industries exacerbate the “climate change emergency” and cause great harm. Divestment is the solution and is considered more effective than lobbying state and federal governments for tougher regulations.

This month, one of the biggest and most influential US church groups, the 1.1 million member United Church of Christ (UCC) announced a plan to divest its fossil-fuel holdings, making it the first major US religious body to do so. While its Australian counterparts have deployed a negative screen, whereby holdings in fossil fuel companies are simply excluded, the UCC calls for shareholders to “engage with fossil fuel companies, intensively search for fossil fuel-free investment vehicles and identify ‘best in class’ fossil fuel companies”.

By June 2018, a plan would be prepared to divest UCC funds in any fossil-fuel company, except for those identified as “best in class” – meaning those that are top of the class for mitigating the environmental impact of extracting and burning of fossil fuels.

A similar best-in-class approach is employed by big institutional investors. One of Norway’s biggest insurers and pension funds, the €60bn Storebrand, announced in early July the exclusion of 13 coal and six oil companies with exposures to oil sands to reduce its exposure to secure long-term, stable returns.

“There is too much risk in fossil fuel in the long run – at some point that is going to affect the valuation of the companies,” says Storebrand’s head of sustainable investments, Christine Tørklep Meisingset. “We’re a long-term investor – we have to be there in 30, 40 or 50 years time to provide pensions, which is one of the reasons we have been working in the sustainable investment space.”

Meisingset says identifying a sustainable fossil fuel company is in reality challenging, although there are differences in their performance over a whole set of criteria. “That’s what we use our sustainability ratings for – to gradually increase the quality of what we own. In addition, we screen out the worst performers in the high risk industries – many of the worst performers [in the energy sector] are coal companies,” Meisingset says.

One of the main challenges for large institutional investors such as Storebrand is the requirement to track a reference or benchmark index means it is often locked into owning assets that might otherwise be seen as unsustainable. Storebrand does not offer ethical funds, since the same sustainability standards are applied to each and every company and sector. “This offers an unprecedented level of security for our clients. No matter which fund or portfolio their assets are invested in, the same high standards apply,” Meisingset says. But Storebrand does screen out tobacco and controversial armaments.

Climate change campaigners praise Storebrand’s move. “This appears to be the time when the moral case for action is joining with the sober thinking that in terms of dollars and cents it’s good business to pull money out from the fossil fuel industry,” says 350.org US managing director Phil Aroneanu. “A bet on fossil fuels is a bet against a sustainable future.”

350.org’s position is that if the world burns more than 565 gigatonnes of carbon it will not stay below the internationally agreed limit of 2C of warming from pre-industrial levels. This of course has dire consequences for large producers such as Australia, which has proven coal and gas resources that would eat up around a third of the entire world’s carbon budget. 350.org backs divestment of fossil fuel assets, but what is often overlooked is it asks for a phased sell-down rather than an overnight sale. Indeed, most divestment plans have little financial impact on the individual fossil-fuel companies. That cannot be said of their reputations.

In a similar vein to Storebrand, Dutch bank Rabobank announced the exclusion of “unconventional energy extraction projects” – typically involving shale gas and oil sands – from its loans portfolio because of the environmental and social implications. The bank, which specialises in financing agriculture and food businesses, has declared fracking of shale gas risks water and soil contamination by the chemicals injected into the shale rocks to extract the gas. Its restriction on loans applies also to farmers who decide to lease their land to energy companies for extraction operations.

Fossil fuel executives are angry at some of the statements made by both ethical and sustainable investors. As reported previously, the chair of the Australian Coal Association Dr Nikki Williams says claims about carbon bubbles and unburnable carbon by activists disregards many important factors. “So, if fund managers are looking to solid, long-term returns on their investments, then divesting from fossil fuel assets will not serve them well,” she says.

Yet even the largest Australian mining companies have already seen the writing on the wall. BHP Billiton has said capital expenditure will decline after 2014 as no new coal projects are planned in Australia beyond those that are already underway. Meanwhile, Rio Tinto has put about $3bn of Australian thermal coal assets up for sale. “This is not exactly a vote of confidence for the future growth of an industry,” UK researchers Carbon Tracker says.

Oliver Wagg is a freelance journalist specialising in sustainable business and investment, renewable energy and climate change science and policy

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Carbon Neutral Copenhagen & Clean Energy Capital Houston

As cities house an increasing proportion of human populations worldwide, their environmental footprint are set to increase accordingly. In anticipation of this, cities worldwide have moved towards greater sustainability, in energy and water use, emissions, and waste creation. Houston, Texas recently announced the purchase of over 140 megawatts of renewable energy over two years; while Copenhagen aims to be the first carbon-neutral capital city in the world. Read more

Houston becomes largest purchaser of renewable power in the US

By Nick Michell (18 July 2013):

Houston, Texas has announced the purchase of over 140 megawatts (MW) of renewable power over the next two years. The deal will make the city the largest municipal purchaser of renewable power in the United States, and in the top 10 overall, according to estimates by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

“Houston is already known as the energy capital of the world, but we are committed to becoming the alternative energy capital of the world as well,” said Mayor Annise Parker. “Purchasing green power reduces the environmental impacts of electricity use, decreases the cost of renewable power over time, and supports the development of new renewable generation.”

Houston’s purchase of green power will account for half of its annual electricity demand, using almost 623,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of green power per year, which is equivalent to the amount of kilowatt-hours needed to power over 55,000 homes each year.

The city has purchased renewable energy credits that are Green-E certified. Taking advantage of more cost effective and cost competitive REC (renewable energy certificates) prices, Houston has maintained a relatively flat power price while also increasing its percentage of renewable energy in its portfolio. The city has committed US$2 million for this 2-year agreement.

In addition to purchasing green power, Houston is also working to reduce its emissions. According to recent data published in the 2013 Carbon Disclosure Project report, the city’s emissions have realized a 26 percent decrease from the 2007 greenhouse gas emissions inventory.

Houston has committed and invested in many programmes that reduce cost, improve efficiencies, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Projects such as the municipal energy efficiency retrofit program, for example, which upgraded 6 million square feet of the city’s buildings to achieve 30 percent energy reductions, have helped Houston achieve and surpass its climate goals.

Source: www.cities-today.com

Copenhagen aims to be world’s first carbon neutral capital

CleanTechnica  (19 April 2013):

Copenhagen’s ambitious plan to be 100% carbon-neutral by the year 2025 continues to move forward. This plan, once achieved, will make Copenhagen the world’s first carbon-neutral capital. The City Council there, acting on the plan approved last August, will soon begin the first of several large-scale changes.

These changes include: replacing coal power with biomass, adding more wind and solar energy to the grid, improving energy efficiency, increasing bike use/improving infrastructure, and improving public/mass transportation systems.

Copenhagen, and more broadly Denmark, already possess substantial renewable energy infrastructure and capacity, and of course a strong cycling culture, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

With regards to cycling, 36% of all trips taken to work or school are currently via bike. These trips are taken over a 249-mile expanse of bicycle tracks. And during peak travel times, more than 20,000 cyclists, on average, enter the city every day. That’s all pretty impressive, but with some infrastructure improvements, those numbers could likely rise much higher.

By the year 2025, the city is aiming for 75% of all trips to be made either by foot, bicycle, or public transit. To achieve this goal, the city is implementing a variety of new infrastructure improvements/changes: “green wave” traffic signals set to the speed of oncoming bikes, 44 miles of new bicycle tracks (paved paths separated from cars and pedestrians by curbs), “angled footrests that enable cyclists to rest without dismounting at intersections,” improvements to existing tracks — making them wider, smoother, and better lit, and the creation of “bicycle superhighways.”

The first of these 26 planned bicycle superhighways opened just last year — an 11-mile link connecting Albertslund with Copenhagen. Two more are currently under construction, to be followed by a further 23 after that.

With regards to mass transit, the currently in construction “City Circle Line,” once completed, will put 85% of the city’s population within only 650 yards of a Metro station. That should provide a substantial boost to the Metro’s ridership once it’s completed in 2018, and help to take some cars off the road. And the city’s bus fleet is currently been converted to run on biogas. “The city projects that 20 percent to 30 percent of all cars and small trucks, and 30 percent to 40 percent of all heavy vehicles, will run on electricity, hydrogen, biogas, or bioethanol by 2025,” Yale Environment 360 notes.

With regards to renewable energy and energy efficiency, there is already substantial infrastructure in place. Wind power currently supplies about 30% of Denmark’s electricity. And there are “state-of-the-art facilities where waste heat from power plants is used to keep buildings warm via the world’s largest district heating network, or where waters from the city harbor are deployed to cool department stores, office buildings, hotels, and data centers.”

As a result of this infrastructure, Copenhagen has been able to reduce its emissions by 21% from 2005 to 2011. Currently, the city emits about 2 million tons of CO2 a year. “Earlier initiatives were on target to reduce emissions to 1.16 million tons by 2025. The new plan approved last year will slash CO2 emissions even further, to about 400,000 tons by 2025. More time will be needed to wean private cars from fossil fuels. So Copenhagen plans to add at least 100 wind turbines to the grid over the next dozen years, and wind electricity not used in the city will be exported to other parts of Denmark to offset Copenhagen’s remaining several hundred thousand tons of transportation emissions.”

“Copenhageners like the ambition, they like being part of the idea of going green for the whole city,” Copenhagen Lord Mayor Frank Jensen said in an interview with Yale Environment 360. “Our focus as a city, as citizens, is all about livability.”

Interesting to note, as the mayor mentions, is that many of the city residents themselves “are putting their own money into the low-carbon drive, half of the turbines in the harbor wind farm, known as Middelgrunden (pictured above), were funded by individual Copenhagen shareholders.”

That sort of personal monetary investment isn’t really present, to a large degree anyways, in many other regions, and will no doubt be very helpful in the fulfilling of Copenhagen’s ambitious plans.

It’s currently estimated that direct city investment in the 2025 Climate Plan will total “only” around $472 million, but with private funds factored in it could be as high as $4.78 billion, according to Copenhagen officials. “We can see that we have to invest a lot of money to reach the target,” Mayor Jensen told me. “But we can see also that we can create a lot of new jobs with that huge investment. Copenhagen can be a green laboratory for developing and testing new green solutions.”

“It’s a very ambitious plan,” he said. “But it’s also something we can do.”

Source: www.reneweconomy.com.au

Last word

Why David Fogarty Stopped Reporting On Climate Change for Reuters?

Has Reuters fallen off the climate bandwagon? Can this well-reputed source still be trusted to produce fair and independent coverage of climate change? David Fogarty, formerly climate change correspondent for Asia, said he left the international news organisation earlier this year after being told climate change “just wasn’t a big story for the present” and his role was abolished. “Debate on some story ideas generated endless bureaucracy by editors frightened to take a decision”, said David, “reflecting a different type of climate within Reuters – the climate of fear”.  Read more

Note from the Editor:

I met up with David Fogarty this month and he confirmed what he said about Reuters, which was reported on The Baron blogsite.

He had earlier told me by email: “In the best traditions of journalism, I set up my own media consultancy in Singapore – www.fallingapplesconsultants.com -  focusing on working with clients with a real green streak. An NGO in Indonesia is also looking at hiring me for specific projects. I recently signed a contract with UNEP for ad hoc editing and writing.”

We have carried some of David’s reports in our newsletter before  – you can do a search and find them simply by entering David Fogarty and abc carbon express – and he was also nominated and elected to the Global 100 Sustain Ability Leaders list last year. – Ken Hickson

Climate change: Reuters says ‘no change’ in editorial policy

The Baron (17 July 2013):

Reuters is committed to providing fair and independent coverage of climate change that complies fully with the Trust Principles, the company affirmed after a former specialist reporter said it had become harder to get climate change stories published by the agency.

A Reuters spokesperson provided the following statement: “Reuters is committed to providing fair and independent coverage of climate change that complies fully with the Trust Principles. Reuters has a number of staff dedicated to covering this story, including a team of specialist reporters at Point Carbon and a columnist. There has been no change in our editorial policy.”

Thomson Reuters Point Carbon provides news, analysis and consulting services for European and global power, gas and carbon markets. Its 55,000 clients include the world’s major energy companies, financial institutions, organisations and governments in more than 150 countries.

David Fogarty, formerly climate change correspondent for Asia, said in a letter to The Baron on Monday that he had left the organisation earlier this year after being told climate change “just wasn’t a big story for the present” and his role was abolished.

“Progressively, getting any climate change-themed story published got harder. It was a lottery. Some desk editors happily subbed and pushed the button. Others agonised and asked a million questions. Debate on some story ideas generated endless bureaucracy by editors frightened to take a decision, reflecting a different type of climate within Reuters – the climate of fear,” he wrote.

Climate change

Here’s what David Fogarty wrote and it appeared in full in the The Baron on Monday 15 July 2013. It was also provided as a link on the ABC (Australia) Environment portal:

The parlous state of Reuters’ climate and environment coverage is baffling and a massive disservice to paying clients [■ New regime brings change of climate at Reuters]. Climate change has become one of the stories of the century and a top economic, political and humanitarian focus for the globe.

Financial clients from banks, insurance firms, miners, agricultural giants to central banks and power generators want news on climate change impacts and policy. They want the best scientific analysis on future impacts on changes in weather patterns, sea level rise and impacts on crops – i.e., food security.

Climate change touches every facet of human life and every economy. It’s a massive business story. Yet some people seem to view it only as a debate between climate scientists and paid-for climate sceptics and oil-industry lobbyists trying to promote business as usual.

Reuters’ senior managers seem oblivious to the wider picture. Climate change reportage is vital to the public and Reuters’ clients, the very people editors should be doing everything to retain as revenues falter.

President Obama gets it. Just read his latest ■ climate action plan.

The scientific community gets it. Obama noted that 97 per cent of scientists agree that the planet is warming and humans are a driver of that change; and that scientific evidence, “accumulated and reviewed over decades” tells us that these changes will have profound impacts on all of humankind. The World Bank gets it, so does the IMF, IEA and the United Nations.

Obama doesn’t need to look far to see the threat from climate change. From deadly wildfires, massive storms such as Hurricane Sandy, to monster tornadoes and droughts and floods, the past couple of years has been a record-setter for the US for weather extremes. It’s the same picture in Australia and miners, farmers, city dwellers and insurers have all been hit. And then look at Europe, Pakistan and China.

From very early in 2012, I was repeatedly told that climate and environment stories were no longer a top priority for Reuters and I was asked to look at other areas. Being stubborn, and passionate about my climate change beat, I largely ignored the directive.

It was a strange repositioning of editorial focus for Asia, which has some of the world’s top polluters and some of the greatest environmental challenges taxing economies and governments.

In April last year, Paul Ingrassia (then deputy editor-in-chief) and I met and had a chat at a company function. He told me he was a climate change sceptic. Not a rabid sceptic, just someone who wanted to see more evidence mankind was changing the global climate.

Progressively, getting any climate change-themed story published got harder. It was a lottery. Some desk editors happily subbed and pushed the button. Others agonised and asked a million questions. Debate on some story ideas generated endless bureaucracy by editors frightened to take a decision, reflecting a different type of climate within Reuters – the climate of fear.

By mid-October, I was informed that climate change just wasn’t a big story for the present, but that it would be if there was a significant shift in global policy, such as the US introducing an emissions cap-and-trade system.

Very soon after that conversation I was told my climate change role was abolished. I was asked to take over the regional shipping role and that I had less than a week to decide.

I decided it was time to leave.

By far one of the most bizarre climate e-mail exchanges occurred on 30 October regarding Hurricane Sandy. I offered to kick-off a story from Asia leading on the storm’s impact on public opinion on climate change, given it occurred a week before presidential elections and was the type of storm climate scientists say we should expect as the planet warms. There was a huge amount of commentary to draw on from other media and commentators.

A senior Top News editor in Asia shot down the idea saying “climate change is one of those topics that can get people’s backs up”. Michael Stott, the Europe, Middle East and Africa regional editor in London, in turn, shot down that editor’s view and urged the story to be written, saying: “Many other media will follow this trail – it’s an obvious angle and one we should explore”.

Reuters in the US did the story, about 48 hours later than everyone else, despite reporters there itching to get a story out sooner.

Since I’ve left, I’ve lost count of the number of people who have asked me why Reuters’ climate change coverage has changed in tone and fallen in volume. That’s a good question for David Thomson, who is very keen to unlock value for his family’s acquisition of Reuters. He could do worse than restoring much needed resources to the climate and environment file to better serve clients and rebuild the Reuters brand. The Guardian and others have done well in this arena and capitalised on Reuters’ decision to abandon climate and environment reporting leadership.

One other thing. Climate change-linked issues can win Pulitzer Prizes. Just ask ■ InsideClimate News, three of whose reporters won a Pulitzer in April.

David Fogarty

New regime brings change of climate at Reuters

12 July 2013:

Winds of change are blowing through Reuters’ environmental coverage. One of its three regional environment correspondents “is no longer with the company” and the other two have been ordered to switch focus, people inside the agency say.

A perceptible shift in Reuters’ approach to the global climate change story has attracted international attention. Scientists and climatologists as well as non-governmental and international environment bodies have detected a move from the agency’s straight coverage towards scepticism on the view held by a vast majority of scientists that climate change is the result of human pollution of the atmosphere and environment. They see generally fewer stories on the issue. Some say they have been taken aback by Reuters’ new direction and are concerned that this could contribute to a change in government and public perceptions of climate change.

The three regional environment correspondents – one each reporting on the Americas, Asia, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa – typically covered climate policy, climate science, carbon markets and energy policies and impacts on energy firms, international climate negotiations, deforestation, and climate change impacts on agriculture.

The specialist correspondent for Asia was Singapore-based David Fogarty, who was transferred to more general news reporting before he left earlier this year after two decades with the company including four years on the Asia climate change beat. His opposite numbers in the other two regions are Alister Doyle, based in Oslo from where he has written about the environment for a decade, and Deborah Zabarenko, based in Washington from where she has reported on the environment and climate change since 2006.

Typical of the new focus of environment reporting – insiders say editors and sub-editors have also been steered in the new direction – was a story earlier this year headed Climate scientists struggle to explain warming slowdown. It reported that some experts were saying their trust in climate science had declined because of many uncertainties.

A blog posting on The Guardian website challenged the premise of the report and said warming was in fact speeding up. It asked Why is Reuters puzzled by global warming’s acceleration? The Guardian said: “We often hear from the media that the (surface air) warming has slowed or paused over the past 15 years. This isn’t a puzzle; climate scientists are well aware of several contributing factors, as a recent Reuters article… eventually discussed. The accelerated warming of the oceans is likely the main contributor.”

Criticism of the Reuters story was taken up across the blogosphere. Comments contributed to some of these postings said the writer of the story under whose byline it was issued should not be blamed for its tone as the edited version on the Reuters service may well have been substantially altered from the original.

Insiders say internal discussion over Reuters’ new direction came to a head two weeks ago in an “open disagreement” between the editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Michael Stott, and the new managing editor, Paul Ingrassia, who was moved to London from New York in April.

Ingrassia, who was recruited to Reuters in 2011 as deputy editor-in-chief, had been a long-time motor industry writer for The Wall Street Journal and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for his reporting of a management crisis at General Motors. He said in April that his new appointment to London put him at “the geographic centre” of the news operation.

The result of the reported row was Stott’s abrupt dismissal after a 25-year, high-profile career with Reuters. The two editors had differed previously about a global warming story that quoted climate scientists at the time of Hurricane Sandy in New York last October. Stott himself is saying nothing about the circumstances of his departure.

Source: www.thebaron.info

A land speed record has been set by an electric car, with a British Lord at the wheel. The US is finally getting its climate change response together at the same time as committing to help Africa go electric and clean. There’s a soccerball you can kick around and produce energy at the same time. A solar powered plane flies non-stop across the US – day and night! The sleepy, happy place of Bhutan is producing more clean energy from hydro than it needs so it’s exporting it. 40% is the anticipated growth of worldwide renewables in the next five years.  The world’s largest offshore wind farm, with a price tag of $A3 billion, opens off the coast of Scotland. An Australian, who co-founded US solar leasing firm Sungevity and a former campaigns manager for Greenpeace, is setting up a solar energy innovation hub in California. Lots of good news with a decided business ring to it. Not the tills ringing necessarily, but a ringing in the ears of business people. A wake up call or an alarm? Whatever it takes, it is happening. Of course, there’s is still some bad news. Like the Businessweek sustainability indicator that says 5 years is the average life expectancy lost to air pollution from coal burning in northern China. And Germany’s recent flooding has been the worst experienced and reaffirms Munich Re’s climate/extreme weather predictions. But further good business news with Ricoh winning an award for its Eco Action Day and BMW producing a genuine cradle to grave car. New York streets have sprouted with a solar charger for mobile phones and there’s a way to keep trucks running clean in their tracks. But the last word must be the move by the global motor racing industry to a more sustainable future. Take the foot of the brakes for that! – Ken Hickson

He has just set a new world speed record for an electric car – 328.6km/h – breaking a mark set by GE in 1974! His company has spent the past two years developing an electric racing car and he is acting as scientific adviser to the new Formula E racing championship. “This gives us the perfect way to showcase the performance of electric cars”, says the former UK Minister of Science and technology company founder, with a PhD in Robotics. Read More

By Leo Kelion, Technology Reporter, BBC (25 June 2013):

Drayson Racing Technologies has broken the world land speed record for a lightweight electric car.

Its Lola B12 69/EV vehicle hit a top speed of 204.2mph (328.6km/h) at a racetrack at RAF Elvington in Yorkshire.

Chief executive Lord Drayson, who was behind the wheel, said the achievement was designed to highlight electronic vehicle technology’s potential.

The previous 175mph record was set by Battery Box General Electric in 1974.

Drayson Racing is not the only electric vehicle-maker hoping to use motorsport to spur on adoption of the technology.

Last week Nissan unveiled the Zeod RC (Zero Emission On Demand Racing Car), which can switch between electric and petrol power.

The firm intends to enter the vehicle into next year’s Le Mans 24 race saying the competition would act as a “challenging test bed” for technologies that could eventually find their way into road cars.

Recycled chassis

Drayson Racing was founded in 2007 by self-declared “car nut” Paul Drayson, who was then a minister in the Labour government.

The firm, based in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, works with others to develop more sustainable automotive technologies and uses motorsport competitions as a means to focus its efforts.

The driver, Lord Drayson, was Minister of Science in the last Labour government

In order to qualify for an attempt on the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile’s (FIA) world electric land speed record it had to make its vehicle weigh less than 1,000kg (2,204lb) without the driver.

To do this it adapted a Le Mans Series car it had previously designed which originally had a bio-ethanol fuel engine and replaced the part with a lightweight 20 kilowatt hour battery offering 850 horsepower.

It also adapted the vehicle’s chassis, which is made out of recycled carbon fibre, to minimise air friction.

“What it, I hope, shows to people is just what the future potential of electric cars is,” Lord Drayson told the BBC shortly after his record-breaking time was confirmed.

“Obviously this is a very special racing car, but by setting this new world record here in Britain we say two things.

“One it is a pointer to the future – the technology that we developed for this car will filter down to the cars we use every day.

“And secondly it’s a message about how here in the UK we’re a world leader with this technology. We’ve led motorsport engineering, now we’re also leading with electric motorsport engineering.”

Lord Drayson and Eric Schmidt Google’s Eric Schmidt spent time with the Drayson Racing team ahead of its record-setting run

Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt spent two hours at the race track watching practice runs but was not able to stay for the record-setting drive.

“Google has a very active R&D programme with regard to electric vehicle technology so it’s great that one of the world’s leading technology companies came to our event today,” Lord Drayson added.

“It was lovely meeting him.”

Formula E

Drayson Racing’s attention will now switch to the launch of the FIA’s Formula E championship, which is due to begin in September next year.

London will host the first electric car race. Rome, Miami, Beijing and Rio de Janeiro are among the other seven locations.

A different vehicle – similar to a Formula One machine – is being developed for the firm by Singapore’s Spark and Surrey-based McLaren for the first year of the competition.

However, Drayson Racing plans to build its own machine for the 2015 competition using some of the same components used in its record breaking Lola B12 69/EV.

One analyst said such such efforts were an excellent way to promote electric cars, but questioned how many of the technologies being developed would actually find their way onto the road.

Nissan Zeod RD Nissan showed off its own “zero emission” racing car which it plans to compete with from 2014

“I think that any kind of competition-led design will have spin-offs – it might be that electric motors become more efficient,” said Paul Newton, auto analyst at IHS Global Insight.

“The problem is that making an electric car go faster is relatively straightforward.

“Making it go further and become more practical is infinitely more difficult, and that’s down to the basic physics of how batteries store energy and release it.”

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Lord Paul Grayson’s Car: Of Course the Former UK Minister of Defense Procurement Races Car

Random Celebrity Article

By Paula Wilson (3 June 2013):

It’s not enough that Lord Paul Drayson is well, a Lord.  No sirree.  Lord Paul Drayson, a former Cabinet minister in the United Kingdom, is now dead set on breaking the current top-speed record for an electric vehicle.  In fact, he wants to break the 200mph barrier.  Lord Drayson is not your average politician, however.  He earned a degree in Production Engineering from Aston University, and then went on to earn a PhD in Robotics.  Prior to his political career, he ran multiple companies, including PoderJect Pharmaceuticals, a vaccine company which he co-founded, and served as Managing Director of Justin de Blank LTD.  His political career began in 2005, when became the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister of Defence Procurement.  He went on to become the Minister of State for Defence Equipment and Support.  An avid amateur racer, he subsequently stepped down in order to participate in the American Le Mans Series.  (Though there may have been some insider intrigue, as well.)  Today, he is the President of the Motorsport Industry Association, and has raced in two Le Mans 24 Hours.  Blind in one eye, he has only recently been allowed to participate in the 24 Hour race.  He also owns Drayson Racing Technology, and it is with a car created by his technology and racing team, that he will attempt to cross the 200 mile per hour mark.

Lord Drayson’s car is the Drayson B12 69/E.  The car was designed and manufactured at his company’s headquarters in Oxfordshire, England.  The electric vehicle has a 30kWh battery surrounded by a carbon fiber cell.  In addition to the battery, there are four electric motors which are paired to power each rear wheel.  The combination produces 800hp, and the car can reach 100 mph in 5 seconds.  In order for his attempt to stand in the record books, Lord Drayson’s speed must reach at least 176 miles per hour (the current record is 175 mph) on average over the course of a mile.  The only thing that could cause a hiccup, is the fact that the runway on which he will be attempting to set the record, is only just over a mile and a half long.  Come June 25th, we’ll know if his engineering team’s work has paid off.

Source: www.celebritynetworth.com

In a BBC report last year (28 August 2012) Lord Drayson had this to say about the plans for the Formula E for electric cars:

But can motorsport help to make electric cars sexy? One man who thinks so is British businessman, part time racing driver and former government minister Lord (Paul) Drayson

His company, Drayson Racing Technologies, has spent the past two years developing an electric racing car, and he is acting as scientific adviser to the new championship.

“This gives us the perfect way to showcase the performance of electric cars”, he says.

Fast but silent

Yet the idea of electric motorsport has plenty of critics. They claim that electric cars lack something which motorsport fans yearn for – noise, and plenty of it.

But according to Lord Drayson, they’re missing the point.

“What we’re trying to do is create a new racing experience. It will be a different type of car, racing through the city streets, before new audiences, in places where we haven’t raced before.”

He believes that while older fans may lament the lack of a howling exhaust note, young people simply won’t notice.

Even the most sophisticated electric racing cars have some limitations

Chris Aylett, the chief executive of the Motorsport Industry Association agrees.

“It will be a very trendy, very modern, futuristic form of racing”, he says.

“We’re not talking about appealing to the grey market with these cars. We’re looking at the 15 year old today who will be tomorrow’s car buyer”.

This isn’t the first time that motorsport has attempted to embrace environmentally-friendly technologies.

This year’s Le Mans 24 hours was won by a diesel-electric hybrid, while Formula One cars have been using energy recovery systems for the past two years. Technically, that makes them hybrids too.

But the new series is certainly a radical venture. And in order to get around some of the limitations which affect even the most sophisticated electric cars, it has had to embrace some very radical ideas.

The batteries in the new cars are expected to run down relatively quickly. So when a driver comes into the pits, he won’t just change his tyres.

He’ll change the whole car – swapping it for a new, and fully charged machine.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

German re-insurance company Munich Re has presented a first estimate of the damage caused by this year’s floods in Central Europe. For Germany, disaster costs may be the highest ever recorded in the country’s history. Consistent with the Munich Re’s research into extreme weather events and climate change. Meanwhile, the force of water is being put to good use in in Bhutan, home to meditating monks and Himalayan nomads. The sleepy, happy kingdom has set its sights on becoming an unlikely energy powerhouse thanks to its abundant winding rivers. Read More

Munich Re reports:

Prof. Peter Höppe, Head of Munich Re’s Geo Risks Research unit, noted: “It is evident that days with weather conditions that lead to such flooding are becoming more frequent and that such weather systems tend to remain stationary for longer. With this higher persistence of weather patterns, the potential for heavy and long-lasting precipitation within a trough situation, for example, increases. The counterpart to this are stationary high-pressure systems which in summer increase the risk of heatwaves and periods of drought.”

“Debate in climate research is currently focusing on what the causes of such changes in weather patterns could be and what role climate change might play in this. But it is naturally not possible to explain single events on this basis”, Höppe added.

Munich Re has been one of the most vocal proponents of climate change and has been researching extreme weather events and the Climate change connection for many years. Here’s what was said in a Munich Re report in 2008:

Climate change is one of the greatest risks facing mankind. In recent years, the insurance industry – and Munich Re in particular – has been instrumental in ensuring that this message is received loud and clear by politicians, industry, and society as a whole. Now we are going one step further and are turning our knowledge into even more action – with the aid of an all-embracing strategic approach – in the areas of “risk management”, “product development”, and “capital market management”.

Over the past thirty years and more, we have put much effort into investigating climate change. Our high-quality data provides strong evidence that the effects of climate change are already to be seen and that adaptation measures need to be taken without delay.

Source: www.munichre.com

Reported by DW, Reuters, AFP ( 8 July 2013):

Insurer Munich Re: ‘German floods costliest natural disaster ever’

German re-insurance company Munich Re has presented a first estimate of the damage caused by this year’s floods in Central Europe. For Germany, disaster costs may be the highest ever recorded in the country’s history.

Recent floods in Central Europe might have caused economic losses to the tune of 12 billion euros ($15.4 billion), surpassing the costs of the previous flooding in Europe from 2002, German re-insurance company Munich Re said Tuesday.

For Germany, a final cost estimate had yet to be made, Peter Höppe, head of Munich Re’s Georisk Department, told German daily newspaper “Süddeutsche Zeitung.” But it was well possible that the floods were the most expensive natural disaster in German history, he said.

Munich Re, which is the world’s biggest reinsurer, also said that out of the total 12-billion-euros losses across Europe, about 3 billion euros were covered by insurance companies.

The figure is slightly lower than the 3.5 billion euros in damage claims facing insurance companies according to a recent estimate by Swiss reinsurer Swiss Re.

In the past two months, emergency workers, soldiers and volunteers desperately sought to shore up flood defenses along the Danube and Elbe rivers as the high waters moved downstream. Germany was among those countries worst hit by the floods.

Last week, German insurance trade lobby group GDV estimated that the country’s insurance companies could face damage claims of about 2 billion euros, slightly ahead of the 1.8-billion-euros cost seen in the Elbe floods about a decade ago.

Europe’s biggest insurer, Allianz, said it had penciled in claims of 500 million euros from the floods in Europe, before passing on some of the costs to reinsurers.

Re-insurance companies such as Munich Re and Swiss Re help the insurance industry to cover the cost of major damage claims like hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.

Source: www.dw.de

Agence France-Presse (10 July  2013):

Bhutan banks on ‘white gold’ hydropower

Home to meditating monks and Himalayan nomads, the sleepy kingdom of Bhutan has set its sights on becoming an unlikely energy powerhouse thanks to its abundant winding rivers.

Hydropower plants have already harnessed the country’s water flows to light up nearly every Bhutanese home, generating electricity that is sent to remote villages by cables strung through rugged mountain terrain.

It is a rapid transformation for the long isolated nation, where less than a quarter of households had electricity in 1999 — the same year Bhutan became the last country to introduce television.

But the kingdom now has much greater ambitions for renewable hydropower — already its biggest export — which it hopes will provide more than half of its gross domestic product by the end of the decade.

“It is the white gold for Bhutan today,” said Chhewang Rinzin, managing director of state-owned Druk Green Power Corporation, which runs the country’s hydropower sector.

Bhutan’s first megaproject, opened in the southwestern Chukha district in the 1980s, is now one of four major plants which between them have almost 1,500 megawatt capacity — at peak output roughly equivalent to a large nuclear power station, and only five percent of Bhutan’s hydropower potential.

Already going far beyond domestic needs in summer months, when monsoon rains fill up the rivers, most of the electric power is sold to India, Bhutan’s giant energy-hungry neighbour.

In cooperation with the Indian government, and funded by its grants and loans, the kingdom is now aiming to reach capacity of 10,000 megawatts by 2020 through the building of 10 new plants.

In contrast, politically deadlocked and once war-wracked Nepal has just 700 megawatts of installed capacity, despite being among the top potential hydropower producers in the world according to the World Bank.

“India we see as a market that cannot be satisfied,” Rinzin said of the demand for Bhutan’s natural resource, which is driving economic growth estimated by the Asian Development Bank at 8.6 percent this year.

While hydropower is hailed as the country’s ticket to self-sufficiency after years of depending on donors, there are reservations about the speed and scale of its development while other sectors of the economy lag behind.

One of the first new plants being built, the Punatsangchhu I project, is projected to cost about two billion dollars — more than Bhutan’s total gross domestic product. And there are nine more projects to complete.

“While no one disputes that harnessing hydropower energy is the way to go, there is concern that Bhutan is trying to do too much, too soon,” said an April editorial in the national Kuensel newspaper, titled “Drowning in hydropower”.

At the Chukha plant, colourful murals depicting the Buddha’s life-cycle contrast with the whirring machinery but hint at the country’s unique development model of pursuing “Gross National Happiness” (GNH).

Retaining Bhutan’s Buddhist cultural identity and protecting the environment are key parts of the GNH philosophy, which aims to balance the financial advancement of the nation with spiritual well-being.

The existing hydropower schemes are all “run of the river” sorts that depend on natural water supplies rather than large reservoirs, designed to cause less disruption to their surroundings.

But three reservoir dams have been proposed among the upcoming projects to ensure plentiful water in the rain-free and freezing winter months, when power output currently drops by about three-quarters.

Rinzin says Bhutan’s steep and sparsely-populated valleys will suffer much less impact than areas affected by big Indian or Chinese reservoirs — the number of households displaced is in the hundreds rather than thousands.

But Samir Mehta, South Asia programme director at US-based watchdog International Rivers, expressed concern at a lack of transparency around the proposals and their impact. “The level of public engagement is not known,” he said.

He warned that hydropower plants also face serious threats from climate change, given Bhutan’s susceptibility to floods from lakes formed high in the mountains by melting glaciers.

In the capital Thimphu, people have other concerns on their mind about hydropower’s rise, sometimes described as “jobless growth”.

Despite its dominance in Bhutan, Druk Green has a staff of only 1,800, expected to rise to no more than 6,000, in a country where unemployment is a growing worry among its youthful population of 736,000.

The construction phase is more labour-intensive, but only 10 to 15 percent of these jobs are going to the Bhutanese by Rinzin’s calculation, as most of the building work is carried out and overseen by Indians.

“It’s money in and money out,” said Tenzing Lamsang, editor of The Bhutanese newspaper. “Your own companies are not making the money that they should.”

The kingdom, which is holding its second parliamentary elections after shifting to democracy in 2008, is already hugely dependent on India for imports and soaring demand led it to run out of Indian rupee supplies last year.

Many think the flurry in hydropower development, and subsequent demand for costly imported equipment and machinery, exacerbated the crisis.

While he believes in hydropower’s long-term benefits for Bhutan, Lamsang says the financial and environmental concerns show that it should not be relied upon to the cost of other industries.

“The danger here is that we put all our eggs in one basket. If the basket does fall or something happens to the basket, then we’re in for a lot of trouble.”

www.globalpost.com

US President Barack Obama finally unveiled a climate action plan that includes measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, accelerate renewable energy permitted on public lands, and prepare American infrastructure for the impacts of climate change. If that was not enough, a week later the President announced a plan to boost access to electric power in the sub-Sahara Africa and unveiled the $7 billion initiative dubbed Power Africa including more than 10,000 megawatts of cleaner, more efficient electric generation capacity. Read More

President Obama acts on climate change by enforcing the law

President Obama announced today that he will fulfill his pledge to address climate change by regulating carbon emissions

By Dana Nuccitelli in Guardian (25 June 2013):

Obama Gives Major Speech On Climate Change

In his state of the union speech this February, President Obama vowed,

If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.

President Obama followed through on that promise today, unveiling a climate action plan that includes measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, accelerate renewable energy permitting on public lands, and prepare American infrastructure for the impacts of climate change.

The centerpiece of the plan is the announcement that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, in addition to the rules already in draft form that are set to regulate emissions from new power plants. The White House released a video to explain the importance of these steps in addressing climate change by decarbonizing the economy.

Republican House speaker John Boehner reacted to this news by calling the EPA regulations “absolutely crazy.” However, in reality they’re required by law.

Under the Bush Administration, the EPA refused to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The state of Massachusetts sued the EPA, and the case went all the way up to the US supreme court. In 2007, in a 5-4 decision with Justice Anthony Kennedy casting the deciding vote along with the four more liberal justices, the court ruled that if greenhouse gases were determined to endanger public health or welfare, the EPA would be required to regulate their emissions in accordance with the Clean Air Act.

The Bush EPA delayed the decision about the threat of greenhouse gas emissions until after he left office. After President Obama took office, the EPA issued its endangerment finding in 2009. Based on an evaluation of the best available scientific evidence like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and US national climate assessments, the EPA determined that greenhouse gas emissions clearly endanger public health and welfare via their impacts on climate change.

This finding meant that under the Clean Air Act, greenhouse gases meet the definition of “air pollutants,” and the EPA would have to regulate their emissions from mobile and stationary sources (vehicles and power plants). Vehicle emissions were regulated via new fuel efficiency standards requiring cars and light trucks to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The newly announced power plant emissions are the EPA’s enforcement of the Clean Air Act requirements for stationary sources.

On the one hand, with Congress refusing to implement any sort of climate legislation, regulating emissions from vehicles and power plants is the biggest single step President Obama can take to reduce American greenhouse gas emissions. He could have followed the Bush administration’s strategy and tried to delay these regulations, forcing environmental groups to sue to make the courts require that the EPA enforce the law.

On the other hand, that is really all the Obama administration is doing – enforcing the law. Any opposition complaints that this decision is “crazy” or bypassing Congress are factually and legally wrong.

In fact, if Republicans want to eliminate these regulations, all they need to do is pass climate legislation to supersede them. A growing number of conservatives support implementation of a carbon fee and dividend system, for example. At the moment the majority of Republicans in Congress seem to deny that climate change is human-caused and/or a problem, and oppose taking any steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

However, there are now only two options available to them – let the government regulate greenhouse gas emissions, or pass climate legislation. Philosophically, Republicans generally oppose government regulations and support free-market solutions like carbon pricing; however, it appears that congressional Republicans would rather force the Obama administration to regulate emissions and then accuse them of “killing jobs”, as Speaker Boehner already has.

On the contrary, studies have shown that EPA regulations generally have a modestly positive impact on the economy and jobs. A national study by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst also found that every dollar invested in clean energy creates two to three times as many jobs as putting that same dollar into coal, oil, and natural gas.

Ultimately the Obama administration deserves credit for implementing these greenhouse gas regulations in a timely manner rather than delaying as the previous administration did. His emphasis on the importance of decarbonizing the economy to address the threat of climate change in a comprehensive climate action plan is a major step towards addressing the threat of climate change. It’s also important to remember that these regulations are required by law, and if congressional Republicans don’t like them, they should propose a better solution of their own.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Obama Unveils Plan to Boost Electric Power in Sub-Saharan Africa

By Julianna Goldman & Margaret Talev in Bloomberg (1 July 2013):

President Barack Obama, putting his mark on U.S. aid to Africa, announced a plan to boost access to electric power in the sub-Sahara and said America stands to benefit if the continent reaches its full economic potential.

Obama unveiled the $7 billion initiative dubbed Power Africa at the University of Cape Town in a speech that his aides billed as the centerpiece of his three-country tour through Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania to promote trade and investment on the rapidly growing continent.

The president’s goal is to double access to electricity across six countries that the White House has singled out for promoting good governance — Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

“I’m calling for America to up our game when it comes to Africa,” he said. “There’s no question Africa’s on the move, but it’s not moving fast enough for the child still languishing in poverty in forgotten townships.”

American companies see growing opportunity in Africa. U.S. merchandise exports to the 49-country region were $21 billion in 2011, up 23 percent from 2010, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Imports from sub-Saharan Africa were worth $74 billion in 2011, up 14 percent from 2010. Most of that, about $60 billion, was crude oil.

Africa has 15 percent of the world’s population yet it accounts for only 3 percent of energy consumption, according to a 2011 report by the African Union and other organizations.

Recognizing Africa’s rapid growth — as well as domestic budget constraints — Obama said yesterday the U.S. is moving beyond the kind of direct financial assistance its provided in the past. Instead, he said he wanted to promote a new model that focuses on Africa’s “capacity to solve problems.”

Partnership Model

The power initiative follows the public-private partnership model and builds on his administration’s efforts to enhance food security, fight malaria and attempt to eradicate the spread of HIV/AIDs for Africa’s next generation, he said.

Power Africa’s $7 billion in government assistance will complement $9 billion in private funds to double access to power in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than two-thirds of the population is without electricity, according to the White House.

During the first, five-year phase, the project’s goal is to add more than 10,000 megawatts of cleaner, more efficient electric generation capacity and to expand electricity access to at least 20 million new households and commercial entities, according to the White House.

General Electric Co. (GE) is among the companies that have contributed to the $9 billion in private-sector funding for the program’s first phase. It has committed to help bring 5,000 megawatts of new energy to Tanzania and Ghana.

Increasing access to power will “plug Africa into the grid of the global economy,” Obama said.

Government Resources

Officials declined to put a price tag on the total effort and didn’t specify how much of the $7 billion in government resources Congress would need to appropriate for the initial phase. The sum isn’t all straight assistance and includes money from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Overseas Private Investment Corp., the Export-Import Bank and other agencies, they said.

“The program is welcome support to the continent where energy access and energy poverty remain significant concerns,” said Taryn Wilkins, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Cape Town. “Key to the success of the implementation of the program is the support of local governments and policy regulation. To date this has been fragmented and inconsistent and resulted in slower development of energy infrastructure programs.”

Obama’s Engagement

The announcement came amid criticism that Obama’s engagement with sub-Saharan Africa has lagged behind his predecessors, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, giving China an opportunity to tap the region’s resources.

Bush, who took U.S. spending on Africa to new levels, made a six-country visit in 2008 and a three-country stop in 2011 after he left the White House. His Africa legacy includes PEPFAR, a $15 billion commitment to prevent and treat AIDS infections, credited with saving or extending millions of lives.

Clinton signed the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a trade agreement with countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Obama may meet his Republican predecessor while in Dar es Salaam. Bush will be there at the same time for a summit to empower Africa’s first ladies, sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute. First lady Michelle Obama will join Laura Bush at the event.

Source: www.bloomberg.com

Businessweek, in its sustainability indicator, draws attention to some remarkable numbers. For example, 5 years is the average life expectancy lost to air pollution from coal burning in northern China. For the 500 million Chinese living north of the Huai River, that adds up to 2.5 billion years of life cut short. That’s not all. There’s some good numbers – like a 20% rise in Chinese clean-energy investments – and some bad. 1.32 million square miles, the current Arctic sea ice, the least in 33 years of satellite records. Read More

5 years  off your life!

By Tom Randall for Businessweek (10 July 2013):

Today’s sustainability indicator, 5 years, is the average life expectancy lost to air pollution from coal burning in northern China. For the 500 million Chinese living north of the Huai River, that adds up to 2.5 billion years of life cut short.

And there’s more…

•40%: anticipated growth of worldwide renewables in the next five years.

•8%: total electric generation capacity supplied by renewables by 2018.

•$29 billion: cost of a European proposal to increase automobile efficiency.

•$74 billion: amount that fuel bills would fall under the plan.

•757,969: U.S. marijuana arrests in 2011.

•534,704: all violent-crime arrests combined for the same period.

•6 tons: CO2 generated by 3 round-trip flights from Philadelphia to San Francisco.

•6.6 tons: C02 generated by an entire year of electricity in the average U.S. household.

•4: times you could fill the New Orleans Superdome with gas wasted in U.S. traffic jams.

•40 percent: proxy resolutions last year pertaining to environmental and social concerns.

•11%: global decline in clean energy investment last year amid falling subsidies.

•32%: decline in U.S. clean-energy investments last year amid falling subsidies.

•20%: rise in Chinese clean-energy investments during the same period.

•2.2 cents per kilowatt hour: wind-energy tax credit quietly extended in the fiscal-cliff deal.

•59 percent: decline in wind installations last year amid uncertainty about the extension.

•17: health ranking of the U.S. among 17 wealthy countries in a study of health outcomes.

•$2.7 trillion: U.S. annual spending on healthcare — more than any other nation.

•55.3 degrees Fahrenheit: average temperature for contiguous U.S. in 2012, a record.

•511,000 ounces: estimated 2013 shortfall in palladium amid record carmaker demand.

•48 million: Americans who get sick each year from contaminated foods.

•0.4 percent: food importers checked annually by FDA inspectors.

•43%: women in India who marry before their 18th birthday.

•74%: Americans who acknowledge “global warming is affecting weather” in the U.S.

•210: current measure of the UN’s World Food Price Index.

•210: the price threshold associated with a sharp rise in social unrest and food riots.

•50 percent: transport fuels replaceable by converting 17.5% of farm waste to biofuel.

•1.32 million square miles: current Arctic sea ice, the least in 33 years of satellite records.

•18 percent: decrease from the previous record-low Arctic ice, recorded in 2007.

•330: consecutive months that world temperatures have topped the 20th century average.

•626 million: people in India who still defecate in the open, contributing to superbugs.

•251 million: people who gained improved sanitation in the country from 1990 to 2010.

•67%: return from a portfolio of the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index since 2006.

•31%: return of the Leadership Index’s Global 500 peers during the same period.

•1,079: jobs created by the average U.S. wind farm.

•75%: world’s surface that had unusually hot summers each year over the last decade.

•33%: world’s surface with hot summers in the baseline years from 1951 to 1980.

•59%: proportion of emissions-reductions efforts that pay for themselves in 3 years.

•$10 billion: annual savings on U.S. electric bills from new lightbulb standards.

•30: large power plants it takes to produce electricity equivalent to the lightbulb savings.

http://www.businessweek.com/

Solar Impulse made history when its HB-SIA airplane touched down at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, completing an entire cross-country United States flight relying solely on solar energy. Meanwhile, President Obama kicked-off a soccer ball with a difference.  Invented by two Harvard University graduates, it can generate electrical power for lights and cell phones. And in Singapore, the Economic Development Board (EDB) announced the award of $12 million in grants to research projects aimed at coming up with innovative and more efficient ways to tap solar energy. Read More

Solar Impulse’s Solar-Powered Coast-To-Coast U.S. Flight Touched Down Safely This Weekend

Colleen Taylor in tech crunch (7 July 2013):

Solar Impulse made history this weekend when its HB-SIA airplane touched down late Saturday night in New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, completing an entire cross-country United States flight relying solely on energy from that big old star in the Earth’s backyard.

The Switzerland-based Solar Impulse organization, founded by Swiss scientist/pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, described the milestone thusly:

“For the first time a plane capable of flying day and night powered exclusively by solar energy has crossed the USA from the West to the East Coasts without using a single drop of fuel.”

The completion of a cross-country journey is a huge step for solar-powered flight, as it was just three years ago that a Solar Impulse airplane flew a straight 26 hours in what then seemed to be an impossible journey. But in many ways, sunshine still has a long way to go before it catches up to traditional jet fuel. The Solar Impulse aircraft, which is called the HB-SIA and weighs just over 3,500 pounds, attains an impressive altitude, but its pace is much slower than what we expect from typical air travel. The Los Angeles Times explained the pace like this:

“The aircraft, powered by about 11,000 solar cells, soars to 30,000 feet while poking along at a top speed of 45 mph. Most of the 11,000 solar cells are on the super-long wings that seem to stretch as far as a jumbo jet’s. It weighs about the size of a small car and soars with what is essentially the power of a small motorized scooter.

The Solar Impulse left San Francisco in early May and has made stopovers in Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Dulles.”

But the plan is to keep making the technology better, faster, and stronger. In fact, the Solar Impulse crew has a much bigger new journey on its horizon now that it is already working toward. The organization’s stated “ultimate goal” is to circumnavigate the entire earth. Its website says that its round-the-world trip is scheduled for 2015, and the aircraft for that mission, the HB-SIB, is currently under construction.

Source: www.techcrunch.com

By David Nakamura, Published: July 2 at 5:17 am

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA — President Obama, an avid hoops player, hit the pitch Tuesday — the soccer pitch, that is

It was actually during a tour at a power plant here that Obama and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete got a look at the “soccket ball” — a soccer ball that has an electric generator placed inside of it. Invented by two Harvard University graduates, the balls can generate electrical power for lights and cell phones after they are played with for a while.

Obama took the ball and tossed it in the air. Then he let it drop and kicked it back up to himself. Finally, to the delight of the photographers at the scene, he threw it in the air and headed it to himself.

He later handed the ball to Kikwete, who didn’t try to duplicate the feat. Obama asked aides how much power the balls generate and how much they cost. Finally he walked toward reporters, including members of the Tanzanian press, and explained how the device works.

“There is a mechanism inside so that the kinetic energy when you kick the ball creates a battery,” the president explained. “So now you can power this.”

He and an aide attached one end of a cable to the ball and the other end to a cell phone.

“You can play with this for two hours and now you’ve got half an hour’s worth of, an hour’s worth…” Obama began.

The woman interjected: “thirty minutes of play, several hours of battery.”

They held up the cell phone. Obama said his administration is distributing the balls across Africa as part of an initiative aimed at doubling access to electrical power on the continent.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com/

$12m EDB grant for solar power research

The Business Times  by Malminderjit Singh (26 June 2013):

THE Economic Development Board (EDB) yesterday announced the award of $12 million in grants to research projects aimed at coming up with innovative and more efficient ways to tap solar energy.

Five research teams will be given funding. Three of them are from the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore at the National University of Singapore and two are the Energy Research Institute @ NTU of the Nanyang Technological University and a Singapore-based private enterprise, SiPro Pte Ltd.

The Energy Innovation Programme Office (Eipo), through the Energy Innovation Research Programme, expects these teams to focus their research on two areas.

One is in finding ways to raise the efficiency of how solar power is tapped in sunny Singapore, including reducing the use of materials and implementing novel designs and test methods for photovoltaic materials, wafer cells, modules and systems. The other area is in the recycling of silicon wafers, cells and modules.

As poorly performing solar modules are taken out of commission from existing solar farms, ways need to be found to recycle these wafers, cells and modules.

The EDB, aware that the cost of generating solar power is falling, wants these research projects to make breakthroughs so that solar power can be adopted more widely here.

The agency notes that the cost of solar modules has come down by about half in the last couple of years alone, creating “grid parity” in regions receiving significant amounts of sunshine.

In a grid parity situation it is just as, if not more, economical to generate electricity using an alternative energy source – solar power in this case – than it is to buy it off an electricity grid. (The assessment of costs here encompasses the costs over the lifetime of the energy-generating system – initial outlay, running and maintenance costs, cost of fuel and of capital.)

The EDB hopes to see a continued focus on cost reduction throughout the entire value chain, from wafers to cells and modules, and, finally, entire power-generating systems, in order to achieve mass adoption of solar energy without the need for subsidies.

This is why the agency is on the lookout for improved design innovations that will create cost-effective silicon wafers, cells and modules, and for ways to recycle used silicon wafers, cells and modules, so that the industry as a whole raises its operational efficiency and environmental standards.

Yeoh Keat Chuan, the managing director of EDB and co-executive director of Eipo, said: “Declining costs of solar energy has led to escalating adoption of solar energy in many countries. The research projects selected for this competitive funding call reflect the growing sophistication in Singapore’s solar research ecosystem.”

He added that the funding will enable the clean-energy industry here to strengthen its value chain – from research through to innovation and commercialisation of new solutions scalable for global markets.

Source: www.timesdirectories.com

With the official opening on July 4 of the world’s largest offshore wind farm, Inch Cape Offshore joins a growing number of proposals to build wind capacity off the coast of Scotland. The UK is already number one for offshore wind capacity. A total of 213 wind turbines cover 150 square kilometres. This is also the same team behind the proposal to build what could replace the London Array as the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Read More

Bloomberg New Energy Finance & Climate Spectator (10 July 2013)

The UK joined ‘The Little Mermaid’ in celebrating the merits of being under – or, more accurately, in – the sea, with the official opening on July 4 of the world’s largest offshore wind farm. With a price tag of $A3 billion, the first 630MW phase of the London Array began operations in April and is jointly owned by DONG Energy, E.ON and Masdar.

The government is considering an application for phase two, which could bring capacity up to 870MW – enough to power 250,000 homes for the next 20-25 years.

Later that day and at the other end of the country, a joint venture between Spain’s Repsol and EDP Renewables submitted plans to the Scottish government for a 1GW wind farm off the Angus coastline.

Inch Cape Offshore joins a growing number of proposals to build wind capacity off the coast of Scotland. If approved, the 213 wind turbines would cover 150 square kilometres. This is also the same team behind the proposal to build what could replace the London Array as the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Comprising 1.5GW of capacity and 339 turbines, the £4.5 billion ($A7.3 billion) project was supported by Highland councillors in March and now needs approval from the Scottish government.

The country has the ambitious goal to generate renewable power equivalent to 100 per cent of its consumption by 2020 and lawmakers estimate that by then there will be 10GW of wind turbines in Scottish waters.

The UK is already number one for offshore wind capacity, with 3.3GW of installations – double the rest of the world combined. The government aims to cement this lead by offering offshore wind developers triple the market price for power they generate, it announced on June 27.

Offshore wind power plants may earn a ‘strike price’ of £155/MWh ($A251/MWh) from next year. This compares with £100 for onshore wind, £105 for biomass and £125 for large solar projects. The front-month power price in the UK has averaged £47.80/MWh over the last year. Eligible generators may choose between this option and the current Renewables Obligation scheme until March 2017.

The government estimates that this subsidy program will spur the construction of 8-16GW of offshore wind capacity. This technology – together with nuclear – is at the heart of its plan to replace aging power plants and to cut emissions. However, one stumbling block for developers may be that the new contracts will last only 15 years for most technologies, including offshore wind, rather than the 20 years of the current scheme.

The UK aims to obtain 30 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, compared with the current 12 per cent.

Elsewhere in the world, Statoil announced on July 3 it was delaying an offshore wind project in Maine because legislation supported by Governor Paul LePage has created uncertainty. The Norwegian energy company said that it may abandon the $US120 million pilot project after lawmakers approved a legislative amendment that would allow the University of Maine to submit a proposal for the project by September 1. Democrats have questioned LePage’s motives, given his opposition to wind power. Currently the US has no operational offshore wind capacity.

One state further south, the long-delayed Cape Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts is edging towards construction, its developer announcing on July 1 that it had signed a $US15 million contract with local firm Lawrence-Lynch for the project’s terrestrial cable work, starting next year.

In June, PensionDanmark said it would provide a $US200 million mezzanine loan for the $US2.6 billion project. The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, as lead bank, is expected to coordinate up to $US2 billion in debt and Siemens has said it will supply the turbines and may provide $US100 million in equity for the project. Having met considerable opposition from affluent local residents and a Native American tribe, Cape Wind is working to secure funding before the Investment Tax Credit expires at the end of the year. PensionDanmark has said that its investment is conditional on a final decision this year to construct the wind farm.

Globally, there will be 15.4GW of offshore wind capacity by 2015, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Europe will maintain its grip on the technology, with 76 per cent of the global total, together with the Middle East and Africa. This lead is due to favourable policies, technology and experience – all of the leading offshore wind equipment suppliers and engineering, procurement and construction contractors are European. Behind Europe in offshore wind technology and experience, Asia and Oceania is forecast to have installed a more modest 3.6GW by 2015, despite some supportive policies, with China, South Korea and Japan the main markets.

In the carbon markets last week, there was no need to see if it had to be third time lucky for backloading as the European Parliament on July 3 adopted an unexpectedly strong version of the proposal by 344 votes to 311. This was its second foray into the plenary after parliamentarians rejected the plan in April.

Supporters of auction curbs to prop up the ailing European emission trading system will have breathed a sigh of relief. But there are several more turns in the road before backloading reaches its destination: first, the Commission, Parliament and member states must iron out their differences but these trialogue negotiations are unlikely to begin until October – namely until Germany has gone to the polls on September 22, formed a government and announced its position on auction curbs.

What bodes well is that the Parliament rejected last week several compromise concessions that could have irked national governments – such as a move to earmark auction revenue for an industrial innovation fund.

If all goes to plan, the Commission could initiate auction curbs in just under a year. But this will depend on events in Berlin and how long it takes for the Commission itself to draft a new auctioning regulation. In the meantime, European carbon prices should be driven more by auction supply, energy fundamentals and equities. Over the next few months, however, summer holidays will reduce auction supply and traded volumes, making the illiquid market more sensitive to any demand increases thanks to hedging.

EU carbon

European Union carbon jumped last week after the bloc’s parliament passed a measure to delay temporarily the sale of some permits. European Union allowances (EUAs) for December 2013 gained 1.9 per cent over the week to close at €4.29/tonne on Friday, compared with €4.21/t at the end of the previous week.

EUAs dipped to as low as €3.25/t on Wednesday morning as traders nervously awaited the European Parliament’s vote on the carbon-market rescue proposal. A record 13.7Mt of front-year EUAs changed hands in the hour through noon London time. Prices surged above €4.60/t immediately after a majority of parliament voted in favour of the plan, known as backloading. They hit a weekly high of €4.88/t as the market opened on Thursday.

UN Certified Emission Reduction credits (CERs) for December 2013 gained 8 per cent last week to close at €0.54/t.

This article was originally published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Source: www.businessspectator.com.au