Our Global Future in the 21st Century is based on "The Third Industrial Revolution" which finally connects our new ICT infrastructure with distributed energy sources that are both renewable and sustainable
The 2012 official World Tourism Day (WTD) celebrations will be held in Maspalomas, Gran Canaria, Spain (27 September 2012). Under the theme “Tourism and Sustainable Energy: Powering Sustainable Development”, WTD 2012 highlights the need to bring the tourism sector and energy stakeholders closer together to spur tourism’s contribution to sustainability.
“Tourism is at the forefront of many of the latest and most innovative sustainable energy initiatives,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai. “One only has to think of the investments being poured into renewable energy sources for aviation, or the energy technology solutions implemented in hotels around the world, to know that sustainable energy is a major priority for the sector.
Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) Malaysia has allayed market concerns over delays in the signing of the Renewable Energy Power Purchase Agreements (REPPAs) between successful feed-in tariff (FiT) applicants and Malaysia’s power utility company, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB).
SEDA Malaysia chief executive officer Badriyah Abdul Malek says the delays were caused by two issues: firstly, each applicant has unique circumstances, and there was considerable due process to follow; and secondly, TNB itself needed to change its approval process to empower its management staff with the authority to sign REPPAs.
SEDA Malaysia, in a statement to Green Prospects Asia, says TNB will soon be able to comply with the time frame to ink REPPAs – four weeks for installations of less than 1 MW and eight weeks for larger installations, having delegated signatory powers to its senior management.
SHET ( In Indonesian language : Sistem Hibrida Energi Terbarukan) is an integrated system that provides on-line performance control and monitoring of various harvesting modules for renewable energy developed in the vicinity of a sustainable bridge. The SHET algorithm is further designed to accommodate the future need for combining BHMS (Bridge Health Monitoring System) and establishing a complete engineering monitoring and assessment system for the bridge.
More than a quarter of all farmers have not just green fields but "green" barns too, thanks to a surge in the use of solar panels and wind turbines.
Renewable energy is promising to overtake rural tourism as a secondary income for the agricultural sector, with 200 megawatts of power – enough for 40,000 households – installed, according to joint research by the National Farmers' Union (NFU) and NatWest bank.
They found that one in six farmers will have solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in place by the middle of this year and one in five will be producing clean electricity by this date. If this trend continues, as much as 15% of all UK electricity from renewable sources come from the land by the end of this decade, they believe.
Jonathan Scurlock, chief renewable energy adviser to the NFU, said: "The NFU has been encouraging farmers and growers nationwide across all sectors to diversify into renewable energy for the past few years, but we are amazed at this level of uptake already.
There are three types of people in the world, the saying goes. Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened. When it comes to the Smart Grid, this observation applies to businesses and governmental entities too. States like California are making things happen through innovative policies, exemplified in two decisions just enacted in this past week that will influence the state’s three investor-owned utilities’ Smart Grid plans.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) ruled in favor of an expanded definition and standard calculation to develop the number of residential and small commercial customers who can participate in net metering. Net metering is a tariff that lets participants receive a credit on their bill for excess electricity generated by their solar equipment that is returned to the grid.
What does this mean for California’s investor-owned utilities (IOUs)? The amount of net metered solar that can be added to the grid more than doubles from 2.4 GW to 5.2 GW. That in turn increases pressure on utilities to upgrade their distribution grids for bi-directional power flows, which is one of the primary characteristics of a Smart Grid. This additional power from a clean but intermittent source of energy may spur increased utility focus and investment in solutions that help manage distributed energy resources (DER) and in DER assets like community-based energy storage.
Universal Service Fund, Intercarrier Compensation, Connect American Fund – big topics, technical topics, wonky topics, topics that most people avoid like the plague – but avoid at your own peril. USF, ICC and CAF are federal funding mechanisms that help build and maintain broadband to rural areas. Without federal funds many areas will not get broadband coverage, in fact some areas may lose coverage because between difficult terrain and low population density it is very difficult to make a business case to serve those areas.
Last week, the Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) participants and leaders met to talk about broadband adoption. USF/ICC/CAF came up several times – and I was lucky enough to have a video camera with me. (Serendipity for the following videos was great – actualy footage not as much – but I thought the content was worth the lower quality video.)
First Colleen Landkamer from USDA Rural Development mentioned USF during the keynote lunch…
Click headline to read more and watch the two videos--
Our current political economy is based on a fundamental mistake. It is based on the assumption that natural resources are unlimited, and that it is an endless sink. This false assumption creates artificial scarcity for potentially abundant cultural resources. This combination of quasi-abundance and quasi-scarcity destroys the biosphere and hampers the expansion of social innovation and a free culture.In a P2P-based society, this situation is reversed: the limits of natural resources are recognized, and the abundance of immaterial resources becomes the core operating principle.
When thinking about the commons, most people make a sharp division in their minds between natural resource commons (for water, air, land, forests, wildlife, etc.) and digital commons (free software, Wikipedia, Creative Commons-licensed content, social networking, etc.) It is assumed that these two universes are entirely separate and distinct, and have little to do with each other. But in fact, these two realms are starting to blur – and we should be more mindful of this convergence and the synergies that it is producing.
The reflexive division between digital and natural resource commons is understandable. One type of commons deals with rivalrous, finite resources that can be physically depleted, while the other manages non-rivalrous resources – information, creative works, research – that can’t really be “used up” because it is virtually costless to reproduce them digitally. Most natural resources can be over-exploited if there are too many users, so the challenge is how to manage access and usage. By contrast, the biggest challenge facing digital commoners is how to curate information and community participation in intelligent, respectful ways.
I’ve been thinking about distributed systemsa lot lately. While the last decent code I wrote was in Logo, it suddenly dawned on me that I deal with a particular type of distributed system every day: start-ups. Let’s examine a few of the similarities.
Modern web-scale applications like Google, Twitter, Netflix, LinkedIn, etc. are implemented as distributed systems as opposed to single monolithic codebases. This means that they are composed of tens or hundreds of services that communicate asynchronously with each other, ultimately delivering a response to the end-user.
Google.com is composed of more than 200 services, according to a talk by Jeff Dean in 2010. Some of these services are external facing, spell checker, instant search, etc., while others are only for internal consumption and not visible to users. Not to get too meta, but most of these individual services are in fact distributed systems themselves.
The Obama administration likes to promote renewable energy, and it likes to take a tough stance on trade with China. It may soon find that it can't do both.
Solar energy firms, in fact, say a recent Commerce Department trade ruling will eliminate thousands of the green jobs that President Barack Obama likes to talk about.
The department made a preliminary decision last month to impose a 31 percent tariff on solar panels imported from China. The punitive levy was sought by SolarWorld, a German company that makes solar panels in the U.S. and six other companies.
More than 700 other firms, organized as the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, opposed the tariff. The opponents, which include manufacturers, installers and others involved in the solar industry, argue that the tariff will make solar energy less affordable.
A center dedicated to clean energy research and education will be built at Eastern Illinois University starting this fall.
The Mattoon Journal-Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/JUBb3M) it will take about a year to complete the 4,300-square-foot Clean Energy Research and Education Facility. Bob Chesnut is director of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Eastern. He says the facility will give students and faculty a place to do renewable energy research.
Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone is the latest to go solar under the nation’s largest renewable energy campaign in western Riverside County.
Murrieta-based HelioPower, the region’s largest solar provider, is leading the charge to roll out the program for homeowners from San Jacinto to Corona and south into Temecula.
The Western Riverside County of Governments has established the HERO (Home Energy Renovation Opportunity) to assist homeowners in paying for a solar-powered system.
It will also help pay for other home improvement products with low-interest financing.
There is also no money down and payments are tied to homes' property taxes, which means residents are not required to continue paying if their homes are sold.
The program is available to homeowners in 17 cities and the unincorporated areas of western Riverside County.
More than 250 attendees representing over 100 tribes attended the 5th Annual Renewable Energy Projects in Indian Country Conference, hosted by Native Nation Events at the Talking Stick Resort on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation, May 21-22, in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Participants learned about opportunities in renewable energy and networked with potential resources. During the two-day event, presenters and panelists discussed creating sustainable economies through renewable energy projects—such as biomass, wind and solar projects; energy markets; the policy environment; and funding renewable energy projects in Indian Country.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced on May 18th that it is stepping up investments to improve energy efficiency and address climate change via new investment in projects worth up to €25 billion over the next three years, under the new phase of the Bank’s Sustainable Energy Initiative (SEI).
Both energy consumption and water loss in most water and wastewater systems worldwide could be reduced by at least 25% through cost-effective efficiency actions.
Using a combined water and energy efficiency approach, since 1997 the Alliance to Save Energy’s “Watergy” programme has achieved significant water, energy, and monetary savings in more than 100 municipalities in 15 developing countries, and is now being adopted in the United States.
The Alliance coined the term “Watergy” to describe the strong link between water and energy in water supply and wastewater treatment systems.
Its goal is to provide cost effective water and wastewater services while reducing energy consumption, water wastage and protecting the environment.
Watergy project activities include energy audits, automation of distribution systems, leak detection and loss reduction, pressure management, installation of metering and monitoring systems, and distribution system modeling for water and energy efficiency.
Renewable Energy Group (REG), a company focused on producing and marketing biodiesel, says it plans to build a B100 wholesale terminal at its biodiesel plant near Clovis, N.M.
The facility, which is almost halfway complete, will have an output of approximately 15 million gallons per year. REG is converting the site's liquid storage and truck load-out into a wholesale terminal for REG-9000 biodiesel sales via truck and rail.
Smart energy is "the range of efficient technological options available to providing electricity in a distributed fashion, either for local use or for grid support." It is the increasing shift to a modular and distributed systems-based approach to energy. Until recently, the focus has solely been on renewable energy, but with the emergence into the commercial marketplace of energy storage systems and advanced, efficient, conversion devices such as fuel cells, it is increasingly a systems-based network that is posting significant year-on-year growth. Pike Research's analysis indicates that the size of the smart energy market is now growing at such a pace that it represents, in 2011, over 10% of the global annual additional capacity forecast by the International Energy Agency.
A number of convergent market drivers are leading to expanded availability and increasing revenue opportunities across the smart energy continuum. Such drivers include the rising costs of maintaining the current energy system as well as regulatory and policy initiatives in many countries around the world. In the policy arena, the European Union is leading the way, but a number of other countries, including Australia and South Africa, are positioning themselves as early adopters of smart energy technologies.
Click headline to read more and access hot link to the report
When greentech investing was in sort of a bubble in 2007/2008, it wasn’t all that uncommon for a former web or computing entrepreneur to take on a crazy dream in the energy sector. But now, after the recession and a difficult year for greentech, it’s quite a bit less common. However that’s not stopping entrepreneur Russ Wilcox who is the former CEO and co-founder of display-maker E Ink, and according to Boston.com, has just joined next-gen nuclear startup Transatomic Power as its CEO.
Transatomic Power is a startup designing a new type of nuclear reactor that can run off of nuclear waste and also produce significantly less waste than the traditional lightwater nuclear reactor. Called the “Waste Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor” or “WAMSR,” the reactor uses liquid fuel and molten salt — in contrast to solid fuel rods — and also has a more safe way to power down the system than a traditional lightwater nuclear reactor.
Today Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vetoed several parts of a controversial forest bill that had been approved by Brazil’s Congress and promoted by powerful agricultural interests. Until today, it was unclear how President Rousseff would decide and she did not opt for a full veto, which is what environmentalists had pushed for. But in recent weeks millions of Brazilians protested the bill, both online and offline. Given today’s actions by President Rousseff, this is a situation and outcome comparable to the online campaign mounted against the controversial SOPA legislation in the U.S. that was also backed by powerful industry interests.
The proposed legislation in Brazil would have revised the country’s Forest Code, which regulates how much and what kind of land should be preserved as native habitat, and how much can be cleared away for farming and ranching. Deforestation in Brazil is a polemical issue. The Brazilian population followed the political debate closely. Spurred by NGOs, millions of people took to the internet and social media to ask for a veto and to share their indignation with others.
In mid-June, governments from around the world will converge on Rio de Janeiro for a major environmental conference that aspires to come to major new agreements for saving the planet's fast-declining ecosystems. Since the event comes 20 years after a landmark 1992 environmental conference, this one is called Rio+20.
Unfortunately, the conference is almost certain to be a bust because there are no signs that the world's governments are willing to entertain any significant new approaches to environmental protection, least of all ones that would genuinely protect the commons; it would be too economically disruptive and require shifts of power to the 99%. So the chief task of Rio+20 will be to create the appearance of change. Early indications suggest that the only green solutions to get any traction will be those that would help develop or expand markets for addressing environmental problems. In other words, a green rebranding for more of the same.
I have not gone as deep into finding how much of the total outlay in the 12th Five-Year Plan each ministry and department has proposed as how they are going to use ICT (information and communications technology) for efficiency and the larger good of the masses and good governance.
But I got a chance to look at the total outlay of the department of electronics and information technology (DIT) of the ministry of communications and information technology for the next five years—it is Rs. 81,378.45 crore.
The broad categories of the division of allocations of funds are: e-government, e-learning, e-security, e-industry, e-innovation, research and development, and e-inclusion.
Interestingly, e-inclusion, which is about how to reach and benefit the masses through the use of ICT tools, has been allocated just Rs. 160 crore in five years.
My purpose of reviewing the 12th Plan was to let all the stakeholders know what lies in it and act accordingly.
The government has been trying to water down key environmental regulations in Brussels despite trumpeting its commitment to green issues at home, leaked documents show.
The papers, seen by the Guardian, reveal British officials repeatedly trying to prevent the adoption of European Union rules on energy efficiency, curtailing the proposals and making them voluntary rather than mandatory in many cases. In addition, the UK has tried repeatedly to ensure that the EU does not adopt a new target for renewable energy generation.
They are significant because they indicate that Ed Davey, the energy secretary since February, has given his blessing to lobbying begun under his predecessor Chris Huhne. These government efforts have the backing of the UK's big six energy firms, according to other documents obtained under freedom of information rules.
The barrel-like oven transforming wood chips into electricity with a Ford auto engine hardly seems like battlefield equipment, but Army officials say it may save lives.
The pilot plant, built by Littleton-based Community Power Corp., is part of the "net zero" project that aims to make this base energy independent.
The base — whose 26,000 troops and their families make it Colorado's 14th-largest city — is ground zero for the Army's effort to reduce energy and water use and cut waste.
The only other base in the country given a complete net-zero mandate is Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas.
"What this program is about is security — economic security, environmental security and national security," said Vince Guthrie, Fort Carson's utilities program manager.
The base's goal is to cut energy demand 30 percent from 2003 levels by 2015 and to produce all the energy it uses in 2020, Guthrie said.
Across Fort Carson, solar panels are sprouting, with units already generating 3 megawatts, which is enough to power 800 homes on the base.
A "golden age of gas" spurred by a tripling of shale gas from fracking and other sources of unconventional gas by 2035 will stop renewable energy in its tracks if governments don't take action, the International Energy Agency has warned.
Gas is now relatively abundant in some regions, thanks to the massive expansion of hydraulic fracturing – fracking – for shale gas, and in some areas the price of the fuel has fallen. The result is a threat to renewable energy, which is by comparison more expensive, in part because the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are still not taken into account in the price of energy.
Fatih Birol, chief economist for the IEA, said the threat to renewables was plain: "Renewable energy may be the victim of cheap gas prices if governments do not stick to their renewable support schemes."
Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the IEA, told a conference in London: "Policy measures by governments for renewable energy have to be there for years to come, as it is not always as cost-effective as it could be."
The European Commission has issued a report against the large electricity companies operating in Spain, and criticies the halt in the development of clean energy, excessively compensated for by nuclear and hydraulic plants.
Brussels has reproached Spain for abandoning renewable energy projects.
The European Commission has been inspecting the Spanish electrical sector, which previously was considered to be a defender of the use of renewable energy.
However that seems to have come to a halt, and Brussels not only criticised the stoppage imposed by the Government in the expansion of clean energy, but also the costs being faced by consumers are too high for energy from nuclear and hydro-electric plants which have already been paid for.
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