In for the Kill: Revenge Film Supports Electric Cars

“Revenge of the Electric Car” has its Australian Premiere in Brisbane this month, after getting rave reviews  elsewhere. Five years ago, the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” took the auto industry by storm. Now the sequel, “Revenge of the Electric Car”, is being embraced by the industry,  as the new film follows four companies’ executives and the development of their electric cars. Read More

‘Revenge of the Electric Car’ goes corporate

Richard Cassels of Climate Leadership brings us news from Brisbane of an upcoming free community screening of the new documentary “Revenge of the Electric Car” hosted by Local Power and QUT Science and Engineering Faculty at 7pm on Monday 13 February  in Z-411 at Gardens Point.

The new documentary is by the director of popular 2006 doco “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Just released on DVD in the US, “Revenge” will tell the stories behind the development on recent Electric Vehicles (EVs) from major manufacturers like the Nissan LEAF, GM Volt, Tesla as well as a small US EV conversion company.

Interest in EVs is growing and several models are being released in Australia in 2012.   Local Power believes that EVs, powered by our rooftop Solar PVs, will form a large part of a 100% renewable energy transport system.

It’s quite likely that this screening of Revenge of the Electric Car will be the Australian Premiere of this movie!

If you feel that an Electric Vehicle (EV) could be part of your future, or you’re just curious about them, we would be delighted if you could join us for this special screening of this outstanding new 90 minute documentary.

Spaces are limited so please RSVP below to ensure we can fit everyone in.  As this is a free screening, the RSVP does not guarantee you a seat.  Attendance on the night will be “first in, best dressed”.

Local Power will be accepting donations on the night to help defray the costs for this special screening.

Local Power is passionate about Solar Power and has been delivering PV Solar to Brisbane households, community buildings and business for over 4 years.

We believe that along with more walking, cycling and better public transport options, EVs powered by renewable energy, including our own rooftop solar, are an important part of our future sustainable transport needs.

For more information or to book, contact: www.localpower.net.au

Two reviews on the “Revenge“  film follow.

By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY:

Five years ago, the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car” took the auto industry by storm. Now comes the sequel, “Revenge of the Electric Car”, and it is being embraced by the industry. The new film follows four companies’ executives and the development of their electric cars. They include General Motors’ Bob Lutz and the Chevrolet Volt; Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn and the electric Leaf; Tesla’s Elon Musk and the creation of the electric roadster; and a start-up firm headed by Greg Abbott in Culver City, Calif.

Who Killed and Revenge, the original and sequel, are polar opposites, yet done by the same true believer, director Chris Paine. The contrast:

The first movie had a fresh, brash, anti-corporate theme, with protesters being dragged away and automakers who clammed up about what came across as a conspiracy to bury a promising technology. The new movie opening today is actually a salute to the efforts by automakers to create electric cars. Several of them sponsored screenings leading up to today’s release. It takes viewers into the boardrooms and humanizes the executives who came across as greedy robber-barons the first time.

The first movie seemed brazen and unpolished, guerrilla filmmaking at its best. This new effort is slick and beautifully photographed, the product of what seems like a much-larger budget.

The first film was a personal crusade, rich with rebels who are true believers in the electric-car cause. The second is dispassionate with an unemotional narration and style that will remind you of the journalism practiced on PBS’ Frontline.

Still, Revenge is a must-see movie for anyone interested in cars. With automakers now quaking in fear that they know how badly Paine could make them look, they grant him full access. Yet given the Occupy Wall Street protests and backlash against corporations, the new film seems out of touch with the anger of the times.

Source: www.content.usatoday.com

The last movie about the electric car asked who killed it. Apparently it’s back from the dead.

You can’t help but notice that despite all the conspiracy theories, electric cars are in the news, in the reviews and soon to be in the showrooms. But they’re still considered something of an oddity. And there’s still debate about their future.

This film follows four people who could be said to each hold a compass point in the debate. GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz is signature Detroit industry. Elon Musk is the dot-com whizzkid who wants to show Detroit how it should be done – with his Tesla brand. Nissan-Renault boss Carlos Ghosn wants to put an affordable electric in every household. “Gadget” Abbott is a home inventor and one of the multitude who are converting cars to electric.

Filming for Chris Paine’s follow-up movie started very soon after he finished Who Killed The Electric Car, but a great deal of the footage – including the carmakers’ strategy and planning meetings – was under embargo until this year. That date alone suggests the automotive industry thinks we’re in a change phase.

But we still have to wait for the movie theatre industry to catch up. At the moment you’ve only been able to see the doco in selected screenings as it does the festival rounds.

Source: www.carsguide.com.au

Ecologically, it’s a Green Label for GM Cars

In an industry first, General Motors’ Chevy brand has created a green label for its cars and will roll out the sticker bearing environmental data this month starting with the 2012 Chevy Sonic. The Ecologic sticker is the first voluntary and third-party certified label of its kind for autos, although environmental product labelling is becoming more prevalent in the US for building materials. Read More

By Leslie Guevarra in Green Biz.com (26 January 2012):

In an industry first, General Motors’ Chevy brand has created a green label for its cars and will roll out the sticker bearing environmental data February starting with the 2012 Chevy Sonic.

The Ecologic label will be affixed to the driver’s side rear window of Sonic sedans and hatchbacks in the U.S. market by the end of February, GM and Chevy announced today. The automaker also said it will place Ecologic stickers on all cars under the Chevrolet nameplate for the 2013 model year.

“We’ve taken an environment leadership role (with the Chevy Volt electric car) and we thought this was the next evolutionary step,” said Chevy Brand Marketing Manager Bill Devine.

“From a sustainability point of view what this signals, I think, is that we’re trying to provide consumers with relevant information that we know they’re very interested in,” said Mike Robinson, General Motor’s vice president of sustainability and regulatory affairs.

Devine and Robinson talked to me this morning about the auto company’s latest green initiative, which it undertook with the Two Tomorrows group as the validator of environmental claims.

The Ecologic sticker is the first voluntary and third-party certified label of its kind for autos, although environmental product labeling is becoming more prevalent in the U.S. for building materials.

Federal regulators, which require car companies to disclose fuel consumption data and other vehicle information on new cars sold in the United States, revamped their labeling last year to make it even more explicit. And in California and New York, new cars also must display a global warming scorecard.

Supplementing the mandated information, the sticker devised by Chevy tells prospective buyers about the environmental measures taken at manufacturing and assembly facilites, fuel-saving technology in the car, and the percentage by weight of material in the car that can be recycled.

The idea is to convey what Chevy has done to ease the environmental impacts of its cars during its lifecycle — or “before the road, on the road and after the road,” as Devine put it.

Although the sticker is about 7 by 14 inches, there’s not enough room to display other key environmental information about the cars, Devine said, so Chevy is launching a microsite that will provide further details: www.chevrolet.com/ecologic.

The site is expected to have expanded green data on the Sonics by the end of February and for now lays out why Chevy developed the label.

GM uses recycled content in car parts and interiors, but that info, as yet, isn’t included. Robinson said the Ecologic label will develop further as the firm collects and verifies more environmental data and refines how to communicate the information. “We view this as we view the larger sustainability efforts in the company, this is a journey, it never ends and it will evolve over time,” he said. “This is not a static, once-and-done type of thing.”

The company focused on Sonic for the green sticker in part because it is still a new addition in the Chevy line, and because it is the only car of its class made in the U.S. — a factor that resonates among car shoppers who want to buy American and makes it easier for the company to track the attributes included on the Ecologic label.

The initiative is part of a broader effort by GM to reduce the environmental impacts of its operations and products, curb energy consumption and carbon emissions, and save money.

GM’s green commitments include a goal to achieve zero-waste-to-landfill status at its facilities worldwide and a pledge to invest some $40 million projects that will reduce the company’s carbon emissions by 8 million metric tons.

The company also is increasing its public profile in emergency environmental efforts. GM made news when it promised to recycle the booms used to clean up the BP oil spill for making parts for the Volt. Then GM captured headlines again when the project turned out to be more successful than expected, diverting more than 212,000 pounds of waste from landfill.

The announcement of the Ecologic label came on the eve the Washington Auto Show and follows two earlier green developments by the company this month — the release of its latest sustainability report and plans for a special California edition of the Volt that will qualify for a $1,500 state rebate and a carpool lane sticker.

Asked if there are further projects in the offing, Robinson said: “You can expect a pretty consistent drumbeat of things coming from GM on the sustainability front.”

Leslie Guevarra is an editor at GreenBiz.com.

She has been a reporter and editor online and in print, an associate producer and public affairs program host on television, and a podcaster.

Source: www.greenbiz.com

How Smart are Energy Meters in UK Homes?

The Ministry says customers will save in two ways. First, by seeing their energy usage they should be able to alter it to lower their bills. Second, accurate billing will save us a lot of time and money dealing with customers who have a wrongly estimated bill. In a competitive energy market this should be passed on in the form of lower bills. But not everyone is happy about the introduction of smart energy meters for UK Homes. Read More

Julian Knight   in The Independent  (29 January 2012):

Eleven billion pounds, millions of households and a decade to finish the job. No it’s not high speed rail two but the roll-out of smart energy meters in every home across the UK.

The meters will allow consumers to see precisely how much energy they are using minute by minute and end the much disliked practice of estimated billing. Seeing how much energy is being using and its cost is meant to prompt us to go easier on the gas and electric. Do your bit to save the planet and cut your bills at the same time, that’s the big idea.

But the scheme, which has already started to a limited extent – over half a million homes have had the meters installed in the past year according to our research – is under fire, with a leading consumer group calling for at least a major rethink or for it to be strangled at birth.

Meanwhile, a recent Public Accounts Committee report sounded alarm over the high costs and uncertain benefits of a scheme likely to disrupt the lives of millions.

“This scheme is a recipe for expensive chaos,” says Richard Lloyd, the executive director of consumer group Which?. “We will have representatives of energy firms – which are less trusted than even the banks – visiting every home in the land to rip out the existing meter to install a smart one. Apart from the practical and security difficulties who will pay for this? The answer: the consumer.”

But, according to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), costs won’t be passed on to the consumer because of competition between providers, a point echoed by Elliot Grady, from British Gas.

“Customers will save in two ways. First, by seeing their energy usage they should be able to alter it to lower their bills. Second, accurate billing will save us a lot of time and money dealing with customers who have a wrongly estimated bill. In a competitive energy market this should be passed on in the form of lower bills.”

However, with Ofgem, the energy regulator, currently investigating providers for potential price fixing and criticism over higher bills, can consumers really rely on competition to fix it for them? “The officials at DECC must be the only people in the country who believe the market is in any way competitive,” says Mr Lloyd.

He also has serious doubts over the theory that smart meters will even lead to reduced energy usage.

“Remember that the people who have been trailed are the most interested in the area of energy saving and are bound to react proactively to the information they get from the smart meter readers,” says Mr Lloyd. “However, who is to say that most households will not either ignore the information or perhaps just make usage cuts for a couple of weeks and then return to their old ways?

“And will providers not increase per unit pricing if they find that usage falls? It could be £11bn wasted.”

Yet providers say that the evidence supports the idea that smart meters change behaviour: “Of the customers we’ve surveyed that have smart meters installed, 80 per cent say it has changed the way they use energy, and 64 per cent said it prompts them to make energy efficiency measures,” Mr Grady says. Official estimates put bill savings through smart metering at between 5 and 10 per cent.

Likewise, First Utility, a smaller provider which since it was founded in 2008 by Mark Daeche, has specialised in smart meter technology says 56 per cent of its customers have changed how they use energy after installation and, crucially, the technology can be built upon.

“By providing the right tools, such as an online portal where customers can see in more detail when they are using energy, it can empower them to make changes and therefore reduce their costs,” says Jonathan McGregor, First Utility’s head of marketing. “The UK’s energy infrastructure is badly outdated – many people have meters which have not been changed for decades and updates are needed. A lot of the anger regarding the cost of the roll-out is arguably because consumers don’t feel they are getting a good deal from the Big Six firms here in the UK,” Mr McGregor adds.

There are also gathering concerns that utility firms will use installations to push other products and services while in consumers’ homes. Last year, The Independent on Sunday highlighted how British Gas was advertising for installers partly paid through sales commission. To date only a few providers have signed up to the Which? “Don’t sell just install” code of conduct.

Above and beyond this, the consumer group says customers with smart meters have reported being unable to switch between providers: “They are being told that the provider they wish to move too cannot effectively read their meter remotely, therefore they can’t switch.

“This sort of technological hitch has to be sorted quickly if the scheme isn’t going to fall into disrepute as it has in Australia, where the state government of Victoria has halted the scheme.”

Case Study

Claire Stone, Shopworker from Aberdare, Mid Glamorgan

Ms Stone had a smart meter installed by First Utility last July

“It’s a great aid. I am able to keep an eye on what I am using and spending, plus which household items cost more,” she says.

Claire also likes that smart metering means an end to estimated bills. “I’d always find myself overpaying and having to go back to the energy companies for a refund time and again.” She even uses the smart meter as an educational tool for eight-year old Joseph: “I have been showing him how much power we’re using and the need to turn things off at the wall rather than leave it on standby.”

Claire has noticed a small reduction in bills but is concerned about how the costs of installation will be passed on: “I have been lucky with First Utility but you can imagine the providers will pass on the cost to customers and if usage falls the unit price will no doubt rise .”

Source:  www.independent.co.uk

Four Degrees of Separation:  Mapping the Good, the Bad & the Ugly

A global average temperature rise of 4 degC could have a severe impact on Singapore, including flooding, coastal land loss and heat-related deaths. That is according to a new map launched by the Hadley Centre of the United Kingdom’s Met Office, one of the leading centres for climate prediction. The map shows the potential impact of climate change in South-east Asia. Read More

By Jessica Cheam in The Straits Times (31 January 2012):

A global average temperature rise of 4 degC could have a severe impact on Singapore, including flooding, coastal land loss and heat-related deaths.

That is according to a new map launched here yesterday by the Hadley Centre of the United Kingdom’s Met Office, one of the leading centres for climate prediction. The map shows the potential impact of climate change in South-east Asia.

Under the scenario, global average sea levels could rise by up to 80cm by the end of the century, translating to a local sea-level rise of about 65cm.

‘For a small country with a high population density and surrounded by sea, this could have implications for flooding, coastal land loss and salt water intrusion of groundwater aquifers,’ said the centre.

Water supplies could also be affected, as parts of South-east Asia could see droughts occurring more than twice as frequently, it found.

Singapore’s unique geography makes rising temperatures a further health concern, as they could lead to an ‘urban heat island’ effect, which makes a built-up area significantly warmer than its surroundings. Increased temperatures are a major factor in heat-related mortalities, the Hadley Centre said.

Singapore could also be affected by more haze pollution, as higher temperatures would increase the risk of forest fires across Indonesia.

Presenting the map to reporters at the Hilton Hotel yesterday, Dr Chris Gordon, the centre’s head of science partnerships, said this scenario was considered ‘moderate’. In a worse scenario, temperatures could go up by 6 deg C, he said.

The objective of the map is ‘an attempt to bring climate change home to people, to help people relate to it in different areas of the world’.

In preparing the map, the Hadley Centre used its in-house climate model, which was run as many as 34 times on scenarios developed by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The map predicts that a 4 deg C temperature rise would have a negative impact on Indonesia’s fishing industry, and could lead to a drop in rice production in Thailand, and more cyclones in the Philippines.

Dr Gordon said the timescale for this depends on the rate of increase of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

‘If we carry on at the rate we are now, it could happen perhaps by the 2060s… if action is taken, it could be delayed,’ he said.

Dr Gordon added that the Hadley Centre was collaborating with Singapore’s Meteorological Services Division on climate data and research.

The interactive map is now on Google Earth, and can be accessed at www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-change/guide/impacts/high-end

Source: www.eco-business.com

Ken Hickson has the Last Word on Communication and Leadership:

Challenges Mount in the Unpredictable World of Social Media

This all started because Adrian Monck, Managing Director, Head of Communications at the World Economic Forum sent me an email with some comments from a forum at the Davos meeting.

In it he reported that:  Social networking and communications tools such as Facebook and Twitter are putting new pressures on business and government leaders and the deficit in global leadership is impeding agreement on pressing global issues such as climate change.

It got me thinking about all the businesses, groups and individuals I know which are doing their best. But we need to do a better job of “shouting from the rooftops”. Don’t be shy. Communicate effectively. Step up to the plate or platform. Speak up. Lead. Read More

Ken Hickson has the Last Word on Communication and Leadership:

Challenges Mount in the Unpredictable World of Social Media

This all started because Adrian Monck, Managing Director, Head of Communications at the World Economic Forum sent me an email with some comments from a forum at the Davos meeting.

In it he reported that:  Social networking and communications tools such as Facebook and Twitter are putting new pressures on business and government leaders and the deficit in global leadership is impeding agreement on pressing global issues such as climate change.

It got me thinking about all the businesses, groups and individuals I know which are doing their best. But we need to do a better job of “shouting from the rooftops”. Don’t be shy. Communicate effectively. Step up to the plate or platform. Speak up. Lead.

Technology and social media are significantly changing the way leaders in business and government make decisions, global opinion-shapers told participants in a session predicting scenarios for 2012 at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.

Some well-known journalists and commentators had their w say:

“The days of the one-way conversation are over whether you are the prime minister or the CEO,” said New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas L. Friedman. “We are all in a two-way conversation. The challenge for political and corporate leaders is to understand the power of what can be generated from below. The sweet spot for innovation is moving down. The sweet spot in policy and politics is moving down.”

Gideon Rachman, Associate Editor and Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator at the Financial Times, agreed. “Both democratic and authoritarian governments are struggling with this.” But he warned against exaggerating the impact of social media. “You wonder how they managed to storm the gates of the Bastille without Twitter,” he remarked.

Also creating governance challenges in the new hyperconnected world is the lack of global leadership, argued Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics and International Business at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business of New York University.

“This doesn’t look like a G20 world; it looks like a G-Zero world. There is disagreement. There is no leadership. In a world where we have the rise of many powers, the US cannot impose its will.”

On important global issues from climate change to dealing with the impact of the global recession, disagreements have prevented the shaping of effective solutions, reckoned Roubini.

Leaders too are hampered in their decision-making by the mounting complexity of problems and the fast pace of developments. In addition, politicians often have to think about getting re-elected as soon as they take office. There is no time to think, Robert J. Shiller, Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at Yale University, observed. “You can’t be a leader unless you have time to think and develop yourself.”

In Asia, including the large, fast-growing economies of China and India, political leaders have also had to cope with the pressures from the emergence of social media and the “two-way conversations” with their people.

Asian leaders are listening and responding, noted Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. “It’s about how you respond to the wake-up calls,” Mahbubani explained.

“Things are happening in Asia under the radar screen because of the quiet and unpretentious nature of the leadership. Within the Asian cultural fabric, there is awareness that the role of government is important. People are not trying to overthrow their government. They want to get better government.”

And what do I think about all this? And does it matter?

Yes, as those who know me well and those who hear me sounding off occasionally can confirm.

Leadership is important. Effective communication is essential.

Nowhere is this more important than in the whole global space of climate change action and awareness. Many have tried and given up.

Many are still going strong in spite of insults, rejections, threats, lack of funds and diversion of Government support.

We cannot afford to be demoralised or disheartened when we hear that the very wealthy heads of mining companies in Australia listen to the likes of “Lord” Monckton when he tells then they must get control of media to win the battle for the minds of politicians and influential business people to advance the cause of those who deny that humans had anything to do with climate change.

We cannot afford not be impressed when global businesses like GE, Kraft, Walmart, Marks & Spencers make serious and genuine commitments to make their businesses more sustainable and acknowledge that they, their suppliers and customers must work towards a low carbon future with less reliance on fossil fuels.

We must acknowledge that what starts small and in one place, or one country, can lead to a movement. It can grow and take hold.

We see some great examples of sustainability in business being set in Asia by YTL and CDL. Give them credit. Give them encouragement. They are on the right track.

We cannot afford not to use all the media at our disposal – social media, new media, old media and face-to-face communication – to get key messages across and to get people on board.

We can all start some where. Energy efficiency in the home saves money too. Reducing waste. Using public transport. Designing and operating our buildings more efficiently.

Of course we need a revolution – in thinking and acting for the good of the planet and its people. That includes us.  Maybe we’ve been too polite and too quiet for too long.

We must make our voices heard. We must speak up for action on climate change. We must encourage a sense of urgency. We must get everyone on board the sustainability band wagon – at home, in the community, at schools, and in business and industry.

And we can no longer wait for others to do something about it.

Your country needs you. Your world needs you.

Source: www.weforum.org and www.abccarbon.com

Water Dragon Heralds Turning Point

Welcome to the Year of the Dragon – and a water dragon at that. According to those in the know, a water dragon personifies creativity at its best. In Chinese mythology, the appearance of a dragon marks a transition of power, or a turning point. So what can we expect for 2012? Maybe the mythical beast can turn on its  clean and green side. Energy, yes, as well as water. Two critical and connected resources which the world must manage more effectively for the sake of all. This issue looks at the troubles in the water for fish with the changing climate and China is cleaning up the air and atmosphere in a big way. We demonstrate once again our shine for solar and note its getting thinner and more efficient than ever. As 2012 is the year for London’s Olympics, they’ll be more sustainable than ever, while the European Investment Bank is also going green. More words from Grand Design’s Kevin McCloud on building better for living and the environment. Byron Bay is jumping on a new energy bandwagon, while New York shows that old buildings can also be energetically modified. The US is getting the message that it must get its climate/energy act together and awards are given out for sustainability innovations. Munich Re brings its extreme weather risks up to date and Singapore goes for green roofs for water management and energy efficiency. May it be a happy, healthy and hopeful year of the dragon. – Ken Hickson

Profile: Kevin McCloud

A strident supporter of sustainability, the Grand Designs presenter keenly encourages everyone to rethink the way they live: “It behoves us all – in fact, I think it’s an ethical prerogative – to minimise the use of highly processed materials, to recycle, to insulate and minimise the use of fossil fuels.”  He wants to reduce the level of CO2 generated by domestic dwellings, currently accounting for a staggering 27% of all man-made emissions in the UK. Now he’s putting his money where his mouth is as a developer.

Kevin McCloud is a one of a select number of experts assembled as sustainability ambassadors for this year’s London Olympics.

By Helen Brown in The Telegraph (8 December 2011):

“I love pebbledash” is not a sentence I expected to hear from Kevin McCloud. But, in Kevin’s Grand Design on Channel 4 – a bid to do for British housing what Jamie Oliver’s been doing for the British diet – we saw the presenter prowling around Swindon, soaking up the local architectural flavours to ensure that his new low-cost, low-carbon 42-home property development would blend into its commuter belt context. Acknowledging that his passion for the “sandcastle” qualities of pebbledash was unlikely to be shared by househunters, he took more design notes from a row of nearby railway workers’ terraces.

McCloud’s own Grand Design may have been more ordinary-looking than most of the high-concept projects he’s followed since the programme began back in 1999, but it was arguably more ambitious and certainly far more relevant to the average viewer. For while the (mostly wealthy) folk who slog and spend their way through the conversion of their fantasy ruined castle/beached oil tanker/acre of scenic bogland have only to please themselves and the planning authorities, McCloud was aiming to “put the happiness back into housing” for an integrated mix of private homeowners and social housing tenants. He was at pains to point out it was his own money he was risking and that, despite a decade of critiquing other people’s development dreams, he had never built anything himself.

The first episode of this two-part series took us back to the economic buoyancy of 2006, with an idealistic McCloud railing against Britain’s sprawl of identikit homes, which are the smallest in Europe, leak heat, lack a sense of place and force us to lead “very insular lives”. These homes are McCloud’s Turkey Twizzlers and he wants people to rise up against them. He planned to offer his own alternatives in three-bedroom, £160,000 eco-home portions.

Then came the recession: property prices went into meltdown and mortgages slipped beyond the reach of McCloud’s target market. Like so many of the Grand Designers over whom he’s furrowed his brow, he began to lose control of his vision. Having preached that “design is a process of resisting compromise”, he was forced to change sites, scale down, change architects, give the whole project over to social housing and aim to break even. At the end of episode one his utopian development had a slick of mud for a village green, builders shaking their heads over the “hempcrete” walls and neighbours who thought the place “looked like a barracks”. Those who follow property news will know that “The Triangle” has been finished, and to the satisfaction of at least some of those involved. But part one left McCloud looking as grey – and as full of hot air, cooled – as hempcrete.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

By Paul Barfoot For BBC Lifestyle

Near-miss singing career

Beneath the dulcet tones of Mr McCloud’s rather seductive TV-presenter voice lurks a bellowing musicality that came close to guiding him down an all-together different professional pathway. After school, Kevin contemplated heading to Italian shores to train as an operatic baritone. Advised by his teachers and parents to net an academic degree first, he joined the ranks of Cambridge University’s intellectual elite to read history of art and architecture, and never returned to his tuneful aspiration. “It just sort of petered out. I don’t think I’d have got hugely far as a singer and I would have found it hard,” declared Kevin modestly. Opera’s loss was a grand gain for architectural design.

Glowing past

Prior to his TV fame, Kevin ran a lighting, product design and manufacturing business by the name of McCloud Lighting. Although the enterprise is currently shelved, its creative legacy can be found in the carved rococo-style ceiling of the Food Halls in London’s iconic shopping emporium Harrods, and the bespoke lighting solutions in such landmark buildings as Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, Edinburgh Castle and London’s Savoy and Dorchester hotels – all of which carry the McCloud Lighting hallmark.

Space invader dad

Kevin credits his compulsion for craftsmanship, functionality and slick engineering to his late rocket scientist father, Donald. “He was a brilliant man. He used to do electronics for rockets and test systems for guided weapons and missiles. Lots of Official Secrets Act stuff. In 1969, I remember he turfed us all out of bed at 3am and turned the TV on so we could watch the first lunar landing live. He was fanatical about the truth of science and its power to change the world, and one of the gentlest human beings I have ever met,” announced Kevin, who is as passionate about developing solutions to change the architectural landscape on Earth as his father was about masterminding technology to revolutionise Space.

Eco warrior

Kevin is a strident supporter of sustainability, and keenly encourages everyone to rethink the way they live: “It behoves us all – in fact, I think it’s an ethical prerogative – to minimise the use of highly processed materials, to recycle, to insulate and minimise the use of fossil fuels to keep our buildings warm.” In 2009, and in conjunction with such partners as the WWF (a charity for which he is a patron), Kevin launched the ‘Great British Refurb’ – a campaign calling for homeowners to proactively embrace energy- and cost-saving habits in order to reduce the level of CO2 generated by domestic dwellings (which currently accounts for a staggering 27 percent of all man-made carbon dioxide in the UK).

Carbon-friendly Kevin

Mr McCloud doesn’t just talk-the-talk when it comes to eco living. His personal commitments to reducing his own carbon footprint includes energising his home with a biomass woodchip boiler, using his orange Brompton foldaway pushbike for short journeys, driving a Saab fuelled by locally-produced bio-ethanol fuel and converting his Land Rover to run on vegetable oil.

New-build pioneer

Outside the realm of ‘Grand Designs’, Kevin’s time is consumed with running Hab (happiness, architecture, beauty) – a residential development company that he established in 2007, which is committed to creating dynamic and environmentally friendly communities. Hab’s first major commission is the much-publicised ‘Triangle’ project, a 42-house development on a former caravan park in the Wiltshire town of Swindon scheduled for completion in late 2010. Built to ‘Code 4 Sustainable Homes’ standards and bucking the trend for ring-fenced developments, the initiative will transform the landscape of the area and will set a new quality benchmark in new-build practices in Britain.

Haunting move

When Kevin moved into his current family home, an idyllic 16th-century farmhouse set in the Somerset countryside, he was pretty alarmed to discover that he had a supernatural squatter. “There was a very cold room in the house with a thick, heavy atmosphere. People staying above the room would hear a loud banging. There would be three huge knocks on the door but there’d be no one there. Someone was murdered in the house in the last century and we think that was the cause. It’s all sorted out now,” explained Kevin, who wasted no time in calling a man of the cloth to perform an exorcism and rid his pad of spooky shenanigans.

Motor mad McCloud

In 2008, Kevin indulged his love of cars and awe of V8 engines as a guest on Jeremy Clarkson’s flagship motoring show, ‘Top Gear’. Not only did he cause a stir by taking Jezza to task on his unsympathetic views on green issues, but Kevin also left a lasting impression partaking in the show’s celebrated ‘Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car’ segment (which involves famous folk doing a high-speed lap of the ‘Top Gear’ track in a bid to win a respectable time ranking on the leaderboard). Kevin clocked his lap in 1.45.9 minutes (just .1 of a second short of the reigning champion, singer Jay Kay of the funk-pop band Jamiroquai) and was as proud as punch with his second place victory (which goes unrivalled as of April 2010).

Words of wisdom

According to Kevin, good design is “trend-free, timeless, useable, durable and elegant”. The most important budget factor when building your own home is to “spend the money on the bones, the stuff that is going to be there for ever, not the frippery like kitchens and bathrooms which can be replaced. Think of the architecture, glazing and core materials”. And when it comes to interiors, he is keen to stress the importance sidestepping fashion and the pitfall of trying to replicate the pages of glossy style magazines. “What makes houses interesting are people’s biographies – their taste and who they are. I’m fed up walking into houses and seeing chandeliers inside plastic bags and a wall with black flock wallpaper on it. Are they trying to say: ‘I’m fashionable?’ Because next week they’ll be out of date. These things work in fast cycles,” commented McCloud.

Stuff and nonsense

As a child, little Kevin longed to be shorter and less self-conscious. As an adult, big Kevin claims he has “hair in all the wrong places”, but has learned to live by the motto: “You’re here, get on with it”. His favourite piece of architecture in the world is the rebuilt facade of the library at Ephesus in Turkey, and although highly unfashionable, he has a fancy for polished mahogany furniture and drinking Cinzano mixed with tonic water. Mr McCloud is not particularly materialistic, but if his house were ablaze, the one item he would salvage is his 1967 Hofner President Bass guitar (it’s highly collectable and he likes it a lot).

Source: www.bbclifestyle.com

China Clearing the Air & Cutting Emissions

Beijing environmental authorities have started releasing more detailed air quality data that may better reflect how bad the Chinese capital’s air pollution is. But measurements from the first day were low compared with data US officials have been collecting for years. Meanwhile, seven provinces and cities in China are to set caps on their greenhouse gas emissions, the first time the Chinese government has called for these, having so far preferred softer “carbon intensity” targets.

Washington Post/Associated Press (21 January 2012):

Caving to public pressure, Beijing environmental authorities started releasing more detailed air quality data that may better reflect how bad the Chinese capital’s air pollution is. But one expert says measurements from the first day were low compared with data U.S. officials have been collecting for years.

The initial measurements were low on a day where you could see blue sky. After a week of smothering smog, the skies over the city were being cleared by a north wind.

The readings of PM2.5 — particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size or about 1/30th the average width of a human hair — were being posted on Beijing’s environmental monitoring center’s website. Such small particulates can penetrate deep into the lungs, so measuring them is considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other methods.

It is the first time Beijing has publicly revealed PM2.5 data and follows a clamor of calls by citizens on social networking sites tired of breathing in gray and yellow air. The U.S. Embassy measures PM2.5 from a device on its rooftop and releases the results, and some residents have even tested the air around their neighborhoods and posted the results online.

Beijing is releasing hourly readings of PM2.5 that are taken from one monitoring site about 4 miles (7 kilometers) west of Tiananmen Square, the monitoring center’s website said Saturday. It said the data was for research purposes and the public should only use it as a reference.

The reading at noon Saturday was 0.015 milligrams per cubic meter, which would be classed as “good” for a 24-hour exposure at that level, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. The U.S. Embassy reading taken from its site on the eastern edge of downtown Beijing said its noon reading was “moderate.” Its readings are posted on Twitter.

Steven Andrews, an environmental consultant who has studied Beijing’s pollution data since 2006, said he was “already a bit suspicious” of Beijing’s PM2.5 data. Within the 24-hour period to noon Saturday, Beijing reported seven hourly figures “at the very low level” of 0.003 milligrams per cubic meter.

“In all of 2010 and 2011, the U.S. Embassy reported values at or below that level only 18 times out of over 15,000 hourly values or about 0.1 percent of the time,” said Andrews. “PM2.5 concentrations vary by area so a direct comparison between sites isn’t possible, but the numbers being reported during some hours seem surpisingly low.”

The Beijing center had promised to release PM2.5 data by the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year on Monday. It has six sites that can test for PM2.5 and 27 that can test for the larger, coarser PM10 particles that are considered less hazardous. The center is expected to buy equipment and build more monitoring sites to enable PM2.5 testing.

Beijing wasn’t expected to include PM2.5 in its daily roundups of the air quality anytime soon. Those disclosures, for example “light” or “serious,” are based on the amount of PM10, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide in the air.

Beijing interprets air quality using less stringent standards than the U.S. Embassy, so often when the government says pollution is “light,” the embassy terms it “hazardous.”

“There has been tremendous amounts of attention in the Chinese media — whichever newspaper you pick up, whichever radio station you listen to, channel you watch — they are all talking about PM2.5 and how levels are so high,” said Andrews.

“What has been so powerful is that people are skeptical, and I think rightly skeptical,” about the government’s descriptions of data, he said.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Michael Marshall in New Scientist (17 January 2012):

Seven provinces and cities in China are to set caps on their greenhouse gas emissions, following a directive from central government. It’s the first time the Chinese government has called for any absolute caps on emissions, having so far preferred softer “carbon intensity” targets.

The move is a first step towards establishing carbon trading markets in China and further evidence of the country’s commitment to tackling climate change, says Felix Preston of Chatham House, a foreign-policy think tank based in London.

On 13 January China’s National Development and Reform Commission asked the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen, and the provinces of Hubei and Guangdong, to set “overall emissions control targets”.

The government hinted this move was coming last August, when it released a policy paper arguing that absolute caps were the only way to establish a working carbon market.

The new regional pilot projects are valuable steps towards a national carbon market, Preston says. For them to work, the cities and provinces will need to settle on stringent targets to keep the carbon price high, and collect reliable emissions data to ensure the targets are being met, he adds.

By allowing companies and institutions to trade emissions, carbon markets ensure that greenhouse gas emissions are cut in a cost-effective way. Europe has so far led the way in carbon markets after establishing its Emissions Trading Scheme in 2005. China would be a major new player.

A national Chinese carbon market would be a big step towards a global carbon market, says Preston, especially if the EU and Chinese markets could be linked.

Intensity cap

China has not yet set a national cap on its greenhouse gas emissions, citing the need to grow its economy. Instead it has set future limits on carbon intensity – the amount of greenhouse gases emitted per unit of GDP. Setting targets in this way allows emissions to grow while requiring industries to become more productive over time for a given level of emissions.

The current five-year plan, covering 2011 to 2015, requires the country to reduce the carbon dioxide emitted per unit of GDP by 17 per cent by 2015.

Preston says these intensity targets are fine when a country’s economy is growing rapidly, as is the case with China. But a fixed national cap would be better once China’s emissions peak, which could happen in the 2020s or 2030s. “A cap offers less uncertainty than an intensity target,” he says. “Over time it will make sense to have a fixed cap.”

Source: www.newscientist.com

Sense of Smell & Sounds of Silence at Sea

Rising human CO2 emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, interfering with their ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators. This from Professor Phillip Munday of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and Australia’s James Cook University .

Eureka Alert (20 January 2012):

Carbon dioxide is ‘driving fish crazy’

Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found.

Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes’ ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators, says Professor Phillip Munday of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

“For several years our team have been testing the performance of baby coral fishes in sea water containing higher levels of dissolved CO2 – and it is now pretty clear that they sustain significant disruption to their central nervous system, which is likely to impair their chances of survival,” Prof. Munday says.

In their latest paper, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Prof. Munday and colleagues report world-first evidence that high CO2 levels in sea water disrupts a key brain receptor in fish, causing marked changes in their behaviour and sensory ability.

“We’ve found that elevated CO2 in the oceans can directly interfere with fish neurotransmitter functions, which poses a direct and previously unknown threat to sea life,” Prof. Munday says.

Prof. Munday and his colleagues began by studying how baby clown and damsel fishes performed alongside their predators in CO2-enriched water. They found that, while the predators were somewhat affected, the baby fish suffered much higher rates of attrition.

“Our early work showed that the sense of smell of baby fish was harmed by higher CO2 in the water – meaning they found it harder to locate a reef to settle on or detect the warning smell of a predator fish. But we suspected there was much more to it than the loss of ability to smell.”

The team then examined whether fishes’ sense of hearing – used to locate and home in on reefs at night, and avoid them during the day – was affected. “The answer is, yes it was. They were confused and no longer avoided reef sounds during the day. Being attracted to reefs during daylight would make them easy meat for predators.”

Other work showed the fish also tended to lose their natural instinct to turn left or right – an important factor in schooling behaviour which also makes them more vulnerable, as lone fish are easily eaten by predators.

“All this led us to suspect it wasn’t simply damage to their individual senses that was going on – but rather, that higher levels of carbon dioxide were affecting their whole central nervous system.”

The team’s latest research shows that high CO2 directly stimulates a receptor in the fish brain called GABA-A, leading to a reversal in its normal function and over-excitement of certain nerve signals.

While most animals with brains have GABA-A receptors, the team considers the effects of elevated CO2 are likely to be most felt by those living in water, as they have lower blood CO2 levels normally. The main impact is likely to be felt by some crustaceans and by most fishes, especially those which use a lot of oxygen.

Prof. Munday said that around 2.3 billion tonnes of human CO2 emissions dissolve into the world’s oceans every year, causing changes in the chemical environment of the water in which fish and other species live.

“We’ve now established it isn’t simply the acidification of the oceans that is causing disruption – as is the case with shellfish and plankton with chalky skeletons – but the actual dissolved CO2 itself is damaging the fishes’ nervous systems.”

The work shows that fish with high oxygen consumption are likely to be most affected, suggesting the effects of high CO2 may impair some species worse than others – possibly including important species targeted by the world’s fishing industries.

The team’s latest paper “Near-future CO2 levels alter fish behaviour by interfering with neurotransmitter function” by Göran E. Nilsson, Danielle L. Dixson, Paolo Domenici, Mark I. McCormick, Christina Sørensen, Sue-Ann Watson, and Philip L. Munday appears in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Source: www.eurekalert.org

Super Thin Solar is Struggling In a Market Flush with Cheaper Panels

US-headquartered Dow Chemical will start supplying roofing tiles this year incorporating flexible PV technology and Solar Frontier’s super thin-film PV panels are being incorporated in a 100 MW Californian project. Solar is finally taking off in Singapore, with Phoenix Solar making its mark and property developer CDL, utilising solar in award-winning projects. Pictured are two of the largest solar roofs in Singapore, at Changi Airport (left) and Tampines Grande (right).

Sara Ver-Bruggen n Plastic Electronics Magazine (12 January 2012):

Flexible photovoltaic (PV) modules are thin and light – and what they lack in efficiency is being offset against constraints inherent in conventional crystalline PV modules. Suppliers of second generation, flexible, thinfilm modules and emerging organic solar cells are targeting the opportunities.

Thin-film PV technology has been undermined in recent months by crystalline silicon PV. China’s investment in PV manufacturing has driven down the prices of silicon PV modules.

This, coupled with generous government subsidy schemes around the world, means the market for PV is 80% crystalline silicon. The trend has countered much of the impetus that was previously driving the thin-film PV industry. Cell efficiencies are much lower and modules themselves are more expensive than crystalline silicon.

The result is that the solar industry is re-evaluating alternative PV technologies. New technologies cannot compete on cost alone. As we are seeing with OLED lighting, the differentiating factors of a new technology have to be demonstrated to those markets that will value them.

Thin-film

A substantial proportion of the BIPV rooftop market cannot be met by mainstream, rigid and glass-encased PV modules, because many roofs are not able to support their load.

In 2012 US-headquartered Dow Chemical will start supplying roofing tiles – or shingles as they are called in the US – incorporating Global Solar’s flexible PV technology.

The solar shingles can be fixed onto roofs like conventional shingles and easily connected to turn the roof into a solar array. These products are not new, but previous PV tiles, using amorphous silicon laminates, have had limited success, partly because efficiencies were too low.

Commercial buildings, particularly industrial sheds, are ideal. The metal elements used to construct the walls and roofs can be laminated with PV films or coatings in the factory. The approach is potentially more cost-effective than buying and installing the PV module separately.

Other OPV companies are also exploring BIPV. Heliatek, in Dresden, Germany, says its modules will go into production in a roll-to-roll process on low-cost foils by mid-2012.

This article appears in full in Volume 4, issue 3 of +Plastic Electronics magazine.

Source: www.plusplasticelectronics.com

By Andrew Burger in Clean Technica (18 January 2012):

Solar Frontier, a subsidiary of Japan’s Showa Shell Sekiyu KK, and France’s EDF Energies Nouvelles yesterday announced the largest deal to date in in the nascent market for thin-film CIGS (Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenium) solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.

Solar Frontier is to supply up to 150-megawatts -peak (MWp) of its thin-film CIGS panels to enXco, EDF Energies Novelles’ project development group, which is building the 100+ MW Catalina Solar Project in Kern County, California, according to a company news release. Solar Frontier delivered an initial 26 MWp of its CIGS panels for the Catalina project in 4Q 2011.

To be built in two phases, the first 60 MW of capacity is due on-line by year-end 2012. When the anticipated second phase of construction is completed by June, 2013, the Catalina Solar Project will have a capacity of 100+ MW, enough to supply some 35,000 homes with clean, renewable energy, offsetting some 74,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

Source: www.cleantechnica.com

Singapore’s leading developer, City Developments Limited, has once again raised the bar for green building with 7 & 9 Tampines Grande, an exceptional showcase of a sustainable green building – from design, to construction, maintenance, and use, winning the Sustainable Development Category in the FIABCI Prix d’Excellence Awards 2011.

CDL envisioned 7 & 9 Tampines Grande as a cutting-edge, new generation green office, designed with environment sustainability in mind. The 27,880 square meters development, housed within two 8-storey office blocks, embraces the largest and most extensive use of solar innovations in a commercial property in Singapore, generating 203,000 kWh of clean energy, installed by Phoenix Solar.

For the first time in Singapore, an innovative solar air-conditioning system has been incorporated into a building that generates sufficient air-conditioning for the Atrium – an estimated volume of 2,500 cubic meters. It is also the first commercial project in Singapore to ingeniously use Building Integrated Photovoltaic Panels as part of the building’s façade, innovatively engineered for aesthetic treatment.

An effective twin-strategy of utilizing passive low energy architectural design and energyefficient eco features has led to significant overall energy savings amounting to 2.7 million kWh per year and an overall reduction in CO2 emission by approximately 1,400 tonnes per year for the entire building.

In 2008, Tampines Grande was awarded the Green Mark Platinum (the highest rating given to green buildings in Singapore) by the Building and Construction Authority – Singapore’s governing body for the built environment. In 2009, it also become the first completed development in Singapore to achieve the LEED Gold Certification under the Core & Shell Category, established by the United States Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute.

As one of the solar test-bed projects under the Government’s Solar Capability Scheme, aimed at building up critical capabilities in Singapore’s solar eco-system, Tampines Grande has also helped to grow the industry’s green expertise and encouraged others to explore more sustainable technologies.

Phoenix Solar Pte Ltd Singapore was 1st runner-up in the ASEAN Energy Awards – Renewable Energy Competition (On-grid Category)

Phoenix Solar Pte Ltd installed the innovative 250kWp grid-tied system that generates clean energy at Changi Airport’s Budget Terminal becoming Southeast Asia’s first commercial airport with a solar PV power plant. The PV panels also contribute to a reduction in air conditioning load by shading the roof from direct sunshine.

Becoming Southeast Asia’s first commercial airport with a solar PV power plant–an innovative 250kWp grid-tied system that generates clean energy at Changi Airport’s Budget Terminal. The PV panels also contribute to a reduction in air-conditioning load by shading the roof from direct sunshine.

Source: www.phoenixsolar.sg and www.cdl.com.sg