9:00am Thursday 20th October 2011

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A HYDROPOWER project on the River Avon at Pershore has gained the district council’s support and a £300,000 loan backed by the taxpayer.

Local landowner Charles Hudson’s proposal to build a water powered generator at Pershore weir has won over councillors at Wychavon where the executive board agreed to recommend a loan to help finance the project.

The £300,000 loan would be provided with an interest rate of 10 per cent a year, and with a life of 10 years.

Mr Hudson said: “Reducing our carbon footprint is a flag Wychavon wants to fly, plus the funding agreement would help provide an income for the Pershore Market Town initiative which needs £30,000 a year.

“Of course there will also be the chance for the council to buy green energy cheaper than it is available on the energy market.”

The hydropower project is estimated to cost £1 million to build and would generate enough power for more than 200 homes.

once finished, Mr Hudson intends to sell the electricity commercially, rather than to National Grid, and one potential customer could be Wychavon Leisure Centre which could use about 90 per cent of the power generated.

The design incorporates an ‘Archimedes screw’ style generator that would be located on the east bank and includes a ‘fish pass’ that could be used by canoeists and kayakers.

Wychavon officers have suggested the area might even be able to accommodate a much larger water leisure facility, or use funding available through the Olympic games to set up Pershore as “a vibrant water sport centre”.

Council leader Paul Middlebrough said: “It’s a fantastic idea and we’re keen to move forward, which is why we want to provide this loan of £300,000. It’s a commercial opportunity, and Mr Hudson is also putting his money into the project.”

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Taken from Pershore Hydropower scheme wins district council backing (From Evesham Journal) over at Alternative Fuels

By Tom Palmer – The LedgerPhoto by Scott Wheeler

A $200 million biomass plant is coming to Fort Meade.

The plant proposed by U.S. EcoGen of Florida will be located within a 1,148-acre tract west of U.S. 17 on the city’s north side.

News of the plant emerged Tuesday in connection with the Florida Public Service Commission’s approval of a 30-year contract between EcoGen and Progress Energy of Florida to supply 60 megawatts of electric power.

The two companies had been negotiating a contract since early 2010, according to a staff report that accompanied Tuesday’s recommendation.

“I’m excited about the jobs it will create,” said County Commissioner Melony Bell, who said Tuesday’s action came following months of confidential negotiations involving Polk economic development staff and Enterprise Florida.

She said it had taken several weeks to get the agreement on the PSC agenda.

Bell, who lives in Fort Meade, said in addition to the hundreds of construction jobs needed to build the plant and the 35 permanent jobs staffing the plant, the production of biomass to supply the plant will create an additional 50 to 60 jobs.

Bell said that will involve growing the crops that will be brought to the plant.

Biomass is a renewable power source in which plant material is burned to create energy. In this case, eucalyptus trees will be the main fuel source.

It is an alternative to fossil fuel sources such as coal and natural gas.

Bill Quinn, president and chief executive officer of U.S. Ecogen in Potomac, Md., the Florida venture’s parent corporation, said he hoped to break ground in the first quarter of next year.

He said that at the peak of construction, as many as 350 people will be employed.

“this is the first in a series of plants we want to develop in Florida and elsewhere in the Southeast,” he said.

Quinn, an engineer with more than 30 years of experience in the power industry, said the plant will be located on a 25-acre site surrounded by land where some of the trees that will be used in the plant will be grown.

He said the rest of the feedstock for the plant will come from land leased from local farmers.

Quinn said he plans to use local contractors as much as possible and plans to open an office in Fort Meade to provide information about the project.

In addition, he said he is working with officials at Polk State College and Fort Meade Middle-Senior High School on vocational training opportunities in renewable energy careers to develop skills that would qualify graduates to work in the plant after it opens.

Jobs at the plant will provide an average wage of $50,000 per year. Jobs in agriculture and trucking in support of the plant will provide average salaries of about $40,000 per year.

The land for the plant will be purchased from HackLake Forests LLC of Indianapolis, which owns about 4,000 acres of former phosphate land in the area that was sold by Mobil Chemical several years ago when Mobil liquidated its Polk County holdings.

Quinn said the current plan calls for opening the plant in early 2014.

In the meantime, he said he has to complete engineering and financing as well as securing a location to connect to the electrical grid.

U.S. EcoGen Polk was incorporated in March to do business in Florida as a foreign limited liability company registered in Delaware.

The plan had picked up quite a bit of local support going into Tuesday’s hearing.

There were support letters from Bell, from County Manager Jim Freeman and from Pat Steed, executive director of the Central Florida Regional planning Council,

Freeman said in his letter that a Central Florida Development Council analysis of the plant predicted an $11 million annual boost to the local economy.

Steed described the project as important for economic development in this part of Polk County as phosphate mining leaves.

In addition, the plant’s impact on local water supplies and other resources is less than phosphate mining, she said.

Rodney Carson, director of economic development at CFDC, called the project “a great win.”

“It’s going to take advantage of land that can’t be used for anything else,” he said. “it will also be a significant increase in the tax base for a rural community.”

Fort Meade City Manager Fred Hilliard said the plant’s benefits will be twofold.

It will more than double the city’s tax base, which dropped from $128.4 million to $93.4 million since 2008.

It will also provide jobs and bolster the local agricultural community by providing another crop it can sell to make its operations more sustainable in the long term.

“It’s a perfect storm for economic development for us,” he said, adding the property is next to Progress Energy’s Hines Energy Complex.

This is the latest biomass deal for Progress Energy.

In may, the energy company got approval from the Public Service Commission for plans for a deal with a proposed biomass plant in Citrus County that would generate 40 megawatts.

Progress Energy spokesman Tim Leljedal said contracts such as these reduce the need to build new power plants and helps to keep down the cost of supplying electricity to customers.

Progress Energy has about 89,600 customers in Polk County. In addition to southwest Polk County, the utility also serves eastern Polk from Frostproof to Davenport.

Related posts:

1. Green Investment Group Affiliate Acquires 3,200-Acre Paper Mill in Missoula, Montana
2. PSC approves $255 million biomass plant, with conditions
3. Gainesville biomass plant completes construction financing
4. American Renewables raises $500 million for biomass plant
5. Klamath County needs jobs badly; keep biomass plant moving forward

Taken from $200 Million Biomass Plant to Be Built in Fort Meade over at Alternative Fuels

Calcutta News.NetTuesday 4th October, 2011 Tweet

An unprecedented ozone hole has developed over the Arctic, scientists have warned following a long-running international study. In the study, published in the leading journal ‘Nature’, scientists say a hole in the ozone layer over the Arctic has developed for the first time on record, while an area five times the size of California is being affected by ozone loss. “We’ve never seen that kind of phenomenon in the Arctic before,” Michelle Santee, an atmospheric scientist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said. According to the study, conducted by scientists from 19 international institutions, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the hole in the ozone was caused by an unusually long period of low temperatures in the stratosphere. The stratosphere is a protective layer that shields the Earth’s surface from harmful radiation. In addition, man-made chemicals in the atmosphere contributed to the ozone loss, according to the report. “The same process that destroys the ozone layer in Antarctica – chlorine and other man-made compounds such as CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) – takes place here also,” Santee told CNN. “It’s just that it never occurred in the Arctic to the same degree.” Scientists have long maintained that human activity will have a devastating impact on the fragile ecosystems of the Arctic, which was recently opened up to maritime shipping traffic with the breakup of Arctic pack ice, allegedly due to global warming. Environmentalists have lobbied against marine traffic in the Northwest Passage, which links the Northern Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, arguing that emissions from ships and the threat of an oil spill should prohibit access to the region. Australia is currently the only populated region to be affected by an ozone hole and skin cancer rates in the country are significantly higher than elsewhere in the world due to the harmful UV rays from the sun. 

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Taken from Study reports ozone loss over Arctic, hole found for 1st time over at Alternative Fuels

the new AirForce 250CI plasma cutter with built-in air compressor features a new lightweight inverter design that is both lightweight and powerful. Built-in compressor for total portability and low system cost. Cuts mild steel up to 1/4in. thick using standard household current. new HP-25 torch is more comfortable, efficient and economical. U.S.A. Cutting Thickness (in.): up to 1/4, Volts: 115VAC, Amps: 20, Duty Cycle: 35% at 12 Amps, 110 Volts DC, Pilot Arc: yes, Plasma Gas Flow/Pressure: Preset with built-in compressor, Clamp Cable Length (ft.): 16.4, Power Cord (ft.): 7, Cart: no, Dimensions L x W x H (in.): 7 1/2 x 13 x 10

Hobart Airforce 500534 250ci Light Weight Plasma Cutter with Air Compressor

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• Use it for a more precise cut, thinner kerf, and less slag to clean up with faster cuts than oxy fuel
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Taken from Hobart Airforce 500534 250ci Light Weight Plasma Cutter with over at Alternative Fuels

20 September 2011 | By Stephen Harris

The UK’s first public hydrogen-vehicle refuelling station opened today at Honda’s manufacturing plant in Swindon.

The facility is designed to look and work like a conventional petrol station and provide similar refuelling times, delivering hydrogen from pre-filled cylinders so that vehicles can fill up one after the other.

Built and run by industrial gases company BOC (part of the Linde Group) with backing from Honda and forward Swindon, the station is intended to offer a strategic link halfway along the M4 between London and Swansea.

The partners also hope to address the belief held by many in the industry that consumers won’t buy hydrogen vehicles without an established refuelling network but fuel companies won’t build new facilities while there are no hydrogen cars are on the road.

Commenting on the new refuelling station, BOC UK managing director Mike Huggon said: ‘It demonstrates that we can build the infrastructure needed to establish a hydrogen-powered transport system.

‘But even with private and public support — as we have here in Swindon — we need government commitment to make this work across the country as a whole.

‘We can provide the tools but the government has to create the policy framework in which we can build the low-carbon infrastructure of tomorrow.’

Most major car manufacturers are developing hydrogen-vehicle technology, which is favoured for its lack of tailpipe emissions and longer range than that of existing battery-electric vehicles.

However, most industrial hydrogen is currently produced through the steam reformation of fossil fuels, which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

‘We are looking to more renewable technologies in the long term because that’s what customers want,’ BOC spokesman Simon Napper told the Engineer.

‘The issue at the moment is getting renewable production facilities up to commercial scale. there are only a few plants around the world that deliver at commercial quantities.

‘Linde has opened a commercial-scale plant in Leuna, Germany, based on electrolysis and one in Canada that works on hydro-electric power.’

Taken from UK’s first hydrogen refuelling station unveiled at Honda plant over at Alternative Fuels

Look abroad for best education practice

SIR – In the light of the dismal report published by Professor David Reynolds, the Welsh Government senior policy adviser, may I suggest that both he and the Education Minister, Leighton Andrews get out more (“Exam results prove that Wales is falling behind, says professor”, Aug 27).

As someone who has both visited and observed and taught lessons in schools in South-East Asia, India, Africa and the Middle East in the last 15 years, it is with alarm that I read his report but also with little surprise given what I have observed as a practising teacher throughout Wales. Only last week I was in awe of the standards at schools in Estonia, compared to those in Wales and the UK, a small country with half our population and yet with a ranking close to the top in the three Pisa areas.

To emulate these standards, there must first of all be much more emphasis on knowledge over skills; our pupils in Wales know very little compared to their counterparts overseas and can easily progress to university without having read a book. Secondly, choice must be limited, so that for example hairdressing isn’t offered as a choice in preference to learning a foreign language, whereas in Estonia again a pupil leaves school having mastered at least three languages fluently.

Thirdly, there must be a return to more traditional and effective teaching methods. whereas here teachers are exhorted by “agencies” to do cartwheels and headstands at the beginning and end of lessons to engage their pupils, in overseas schools they are challenged intellectually with text books. one science lesson I observed in Singapore for 15 year olds was more demanding than the equivalent A-level lesson here.

In the home, it behoves us all to put much greater value on education. Schools must exhort parents and their children to forsake the celebrity culture and wean them off time-wasting activities like Facebook and to encourage instead the reading of books. it is a sad reflection that whenever I visit a pupil’s home these days the plasma screen is visible but there isn’t a book to be seen, not even on the coffee table.

Yes, Mr Reynolds, nothing short of a revolution, a national movement, is required to invigorate our pupils and restore standards. it is there to be seen if you travel.

SIR – I hope there will be at least a full page response to your distinguished wind turbine advocates (“The debate about landscape versus wind power is important”, Aug 26).

The letters page cannot match up to the serious flaws in their argument, or cover important points they ignore. They give the impression of living a long way from the communities they’d like to be more accepting of this technology: yet Wales is a small country.

If they’d like to discover why some people, broadly in favour of renewables, are shocked when industrial turbines get going in local fields, we invite them to visit Gwyddgrug, Carmarthenshire.

Unfortunately, “civil conversation,” as suggested by the advocates, cannot cover the deep divisions caused by the subsidised promotion of this expensive, wasteful technology.

Conversation doesn’t alter the fact that when they are working, the noise of wind turbines frequently disturbs the sleep and equanimity of people living nearby.

The figure of 25% may be a reasonable output for this technology: conversation cannot alter the fact that this 25% can come anytime.

If the wind blows when the grid can’t use more power, companies are paid to turn the machines off and produce nothing.

Is there still a chance for proper political debate in Wales on this important matter? or has the government in Cardiff successfully pre-empted such debate by its refusal to re-consider Tan 8?

Gwyddgrug, Carmarthenshire

SIR – I am writing on behalf of the Save Swansea Coastguard campaign, urging your readers to support our petition to stop the closure of the Swansea Maritime Rescue Station, in order to keep the waters of the Bristol Channel safe.

As part of a review announced by the UK Government, the station is due to close by 2015.

The Swansea station safeguards many pleasure crafts and public water users from its position in the very centre of the Bristol Channel and also accounts for the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of cargo operating through the commercial ports of Swansea, Port Talbot, Barry, Cardiff, Newport, Gloucester, Bristol and Avonmouth.

In order to keep the station open and maintain the safety of our waters, an official Save Swansea Coastguard petition has been set up at www .saveswanseacoastguard.co.uk

We are urging members of the public spanning across South Wales and North Devon to sign the petition and help us to get to our target of 100,000 signatures to take to Downing Street on September 12.

This decision made by the Government is ill-judged – the facts speak for themselves as Swansea Coastguard saw to over 2,000 incidents in 2010 alone, making it the second busiest station in the UK.

We have seen an overwhelming response in the number of people wishing to support the cause. However, we desperately need more signatures so we would urge anyone who has yet to sign the petition to do so.

Campaign co-ordinator, Save Swansea Coastguard

SIR – a meeting has been organised concerning the proposed changes in services provided by Vale of Glamorgan Council from the Gardenhurst Resource Centre in Penarth.

This meeting will take place at the Kymin on Beach Road, Penarth, at 7pm on September 7.

There will be two aspects to the proceedings.

First, with other objectors we would like to collect information about the amount of consultation that took place, the answers that objectors were given, and what advice they were given about future possibilities.

Such information must be recorded for possible future action because there is such confusion about how people were told or not told.

Councillor Janice Birch was told in Vale Council scrutiny meetings that nothing would be changing at Gardenhurst until September, that only two people had objected to the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s decision about the house, and that all necessary bodies had been consulted.

Subsequently this was cast into doubt and Gardenhurst campaigner Sue Phillips has collected a great deal of useful evidence.

But we don’t want to spend too much time in regret and recrimination.

We want all ideas that people have about a replacement provision for older people to bring them to the meeting. we are looking for possible premises, possible providers and volunteers who are willing to give up time and effort to offering alternatives to the activities that took place in Gardenhurst and Rondel House. perhaps we may improve on those provisions.

We are looking for people who understand that a programme of regular activities, an expectation of friendly company, chat and perhaps a timetable of sociable meals together may make a tremendous difference to someone who may be alone for most of the week.

It is the best kind of measure to combat depression and provide well-being.

More fun in fact; indeed, as councillor Mark Wilson said at a recent Vale scrutiny meeting, more provision of a drop-in service is the way forward and this may reduce the likelihood of long-term residential care. By doing so, this could actually save the Vale Council money in the longer term.

If you are interested, please remember to come to the Kymin, Beach Road, Penarth, at 7pm on September 7 and have your say.

JANICE BIRCH AND MARK WILSON

Councillors, Vale of Glamorgan Council

S4C and the law

SIR – with reference to Barry Taylor’s letter (Aug 26), unless S4C specifically asked Jamie Bevan and Cymdeithas yr laith Gymraeg to engage in a criminal campaign on their behalf, they had every reason not to “support” him when the due process of the law was carried out in Cardiff Magistrates’ Court.

The opposite is more likely to be the case, as any organisation seeking public financing would likely be averse to being associated with those who choose to take the law into their own hands.

Pension comes last

SIR – as one of the 1.4 million people over 50 with no extra pension provision I’m not surprised at the figures (“more than a third of Britons are not saving for a pension”, Aug 22).

When a third of over 50s are looking for work and unable to obtain even minimum wage posts, it goes without saying that saving any money for retirement is not an option and along with many younger people in and out of low paid jobs there just isn’t any spare cash.

While the minimum wage is still taxed the Government is also being totally unrealistic in expecting any improvement in pension fund take ups.

SIR – having carefully packed our suitcases, we all know that when we arrive our belongings will be in some disarray; so I have been attempting for some time to find a company that markets or would consider producing (blow-up) airbags to fill the void in a suitcase to hold its contents in place.

I have tried all the well known suitcase manufacturers, packaging and inflatable product companies and but so far no one seems interested.

The bag would need to be approximately 75cm x 50cm (30” x 20”), easily inflated and deflated. Is there anyone out there who could advise?

Taken from Western Mail letters: Thursday, 1 September 2011 over at Alternative Fuels

Co-Founder and CEO Tom Hough told AutoblogGreen at the Plug-In 2011 Conference that the new system is even easier to use than it was. once a plug-in car has been upgraded with the charge receiver, the driver just needs to be close to the sending unit to get power. the discs can be a half-radius off and still charge. Hough told us that, “even the die-hards said plugging in was a pain the rear.” if you’re not sold on the convenience angle, then how about the idea that there is nothing mechanical to break with this system? in the old model, a part inside the rectangle moved back and forth to find the in-car receiver. it worked, but it wasn’t as elegant as the new device.

Link

Taken from Wireless Electric Car Charging over at Alternative Fuels

ZAWIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan rebels said on Monday they had seized a second strategic town near Tripoli within 24 hours, completing the encirclement of the capital in the boldest advances of their six-month uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.

In a barely audible telephone call to state television overnight, a defiant and apparently isolated Gaddafi called on his followers to fight rebels he referred to as “rats.”

Gaddafi's forces fired mortars and rockets at the coastal town of Zawiyah a day after rebels captured its centre in a thrust that severed the vital coastal highway from Tripoli to the Tunisian border, a potential turning point in the war.

Rebels said they captured the town of Garyan south of Tripoli on Monday. that could not be immediately verified, but if true it would cut off the other main route to the capital.

“Garyan is fully in the hands of the revolutionaries,” a rebel spokesman, Abdulrahman, said by telephone.

“Gaddafi has been isolated. he has been cut off from the outside world.”

A U.N. envoy arrived in neighbouring Tunisia, where sources say rebels and representatives of the government have been holed up on the island resort of Djerba for negotiations. the envoy, Abdel Elah al-Khatib, told Reuters he would meet “Libyan personalities residing in Tunisia” to discuss the conflict.

Talks could signal the endgame of a conflict that has drawn in the NATO alliance and emerged as one of the bloodiest confrontations in the wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world.

Rebels may still lack the manpower for an all-out assault on Tripoli, but are hoping their encirclement of the capital will bring down Gaddafi's government or inspire an uprising. In the past, however, they have frequently failed to hold gains, and a fightback by Gaddafi troops could yet break the siege.

Gaddafi's government denies talks with rebels are taking place. His spokesman dismissed reports of negotiations about the Libyan leader's future as part of a “media war” against him.

“The leader is here in Libya, fighting for the freedom of our nation. he will not leave Libya,” Moussa Ibrahim said.

A senior Gaddafi security official, Nasser al-Mabrouk Abdullah, arrived in Cairo with nine relatives, telling Egyptian officials he was on holiday. Rebels hoped that would signal more defections from a crumbling government.

SITUATION TRANSFORMED

After months of only incremental gains in their struggle against Gaddafi, rebel advances in the last two days have transformed the battle, beginning with the capture of the town of Zawiyah which cut Tripoli's main lifeline road west.

Reuters reporters in the town say Gaddafi's forces still hold an oil refinery and have sniper positions on rooftops, but the highway linking Tripoli to the Tunisian border is shut.

Nevertheless, a U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the advance in Zawiyah could not yet be seen as a “game changer,” stressing that the rebels did not have complete control of the town.

At a hospital, medics said six rebels had died and 26 were wounded. they also said firing by Gaddafi forces killed three civilians. one man was shot in the head and a 15-year-old girl died of shrapnel wounds.

A woman lay in the hospital unconscious with shrapnel wounds to her neck. her brother, who gave his name as Waleed, stood over her holding a drip, his T-shirt drenched in blood. he said Gaddafi's forces were “shooting at us indiscriminately.”

Zawiyah's residents have risen up twice in the past, only for their revolts to be crushed by Gaddafi loyalists. but this is the first time rebel fighters advancing from the mountains in the south have reached the town, incorporating it into a front that cuts off the vital coast road.

Gaddafi's green flag still flew at the coastal highway's border crossing with Tunisia on Monday, but the steady traffic that once supplied Gaddafi-held areas had slowed to a trickle. Passengers said the road was only open for about 70 kilometres, a third of the way to Tripoli.

The rebels' reported capture of Garyan would close the capital's other main supply line, a highway south over the mountains and into the desert. that route links Tripoli with Algeria and also can be used to reach the east.

Reuters reporters saw NATO war planes bombing Garyan on Sunday. Abdulrahman, the rebel spokesman, said fighters at Garyan had crushed a brigade that formed Gaddafi's main fighting force in the Western mountains, and had seized its weapons.

Gaddafi's officials in Tripoli did not respond to a request for an update on the military situation on Monday.

In the east of the country, rebel advances have been slower. Rebels were able to take journalists on Monday to the deserted oil port of Brega, the frontline for months. Since last week, rebels have held residential parts of the city, while Gaddafi's troops still hold the refinery, oil terminal and port.

Unexploded shells lay on streets, amid burnt out vehicles and the occasional dead sheep. Rebels said they feared Gaddafi's troops would destroy the oil terminal rather than give it up.

The rebel advances are a relief for NATO allies, especially France and Britain, which have been in the vanguard of a bombing campaign since March that they say will not end until Gaddafi leaves power. NATO ambassadors are due to meet on August 31 to discuss a 90-day extension of their operation in Libya.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron, said Britain was aware of reports of rebel progress. “We think the NATO operation is proving successful in eroding Gaddafi's ability to wage war against his own people,” the spokesman said.

Libyans fleeing south in their cars reported gunfire in a place called Harsha, between Tripoli and Zawiyah.

“I heard fighting there today on our way here,” said one man who declined to give his name. he also said rebels clashed with Gaddafi's security forces inside Tripoli on Sunday night.

“There is no gasoline, no electricity, food prices are up 300 percent. We just cannot live like this anymore,” he said.

Gaddafi's overnight speech was delivered over a poor-quality telephone and broadcast by state TV in audio only, giving the impression the leader was in a bunker or other remote hideout.

“Move forward, challenge, pick up your weapons, go to the fight for liberating Libya inch by inch from the traitors and from NATO,” the 68-year-old leader said. “The blood of martyrs is fuel for the battle…. the end of colonialism is near. the end of the rats (rebels) is near, as they flee…”

In Zawiyah, rebel fighter Khalid Al-Zawi said: “Gaddafi is crazy. He's capable of absolutely anything. That's one thing we have to keep in mind.”

(Additional reporting by Missy Ryan in Tripoli, Robert Birsel in Brega, Libya, Ulf Laessing in Ras Jdir, Tunisia, Tarek Amara in Tunis, Hamid Ould Ahmed and Christian Lowe in Algiers, Sami Aboudi in Cairo, and Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Jordan; Writing by Peter Graff)

Taken from Rebels say Tripoli encircled as Gaddafi stays defiant over at Alternative Fuels

Crisis is lurking on the world’s most valuable commodity: water. The answer, a former U.S. official says, is raising its price.

Peter Orszag, President Barack Obama’s former budget czar, tells the story in a Bloomberg View column by looking closely at China. That nation’s water goes mainly to its coal and hydroelectric power plants. as China’s Ministry of Water Resources says, “In 2010, coal-fired electricity in China used more than 30 trillion gallons of water, or about 20 percent of the country’s total consumption.” The problem with this is that water sources are limited. While China is using its available water for electricity, climates are changing and reducing the amount of available fresh water. The drought this year has reduced China’s normal rainfall by 40 to 60 percent, and the water that’s left is going to crops and people, not coal plants. this, in turn, has rattled global diesel markets as China has grasped for alternatives to coal energy by relying more on diesel powered generators. Disturbances in the water market ripple throughout the world economy.

To fix this, Orszag suggests a three-step process for China and the rest of the world to follow when thinking about the way we use our water.

First, China needs to do a better job blocking pollution and expanding awareness of the dangers of climate change. according to the World Bank, “about 90 percent of the aquifers underneath major cities in China are polluted. More than 300 million Chinese lack access to safe drinking water.” The first step to using water more efficiently is making sure the water we have is water we can use.

Second, China needs to allocate its water more productively. Currently, the water in China is not evenly divided between regions. Orszag explains that 80 percent of the country’s water supply is south of the Yangtze River, though only about half the population lives there. The rest live in the North China plain, which encompasses Shanghai, Beijing, and less than 15 percent of the nation’s water. with such an imbalance, the per-capita amount in the North evens out to only about one-quarter the level considered to be the minimum amount to live on. Plans are underway to balance this with a desalination plant in the Tianhin-Binhai development zone and a re-routing plan to channel more water from the South to the North, according to The Guardian.

Third, China and other nations need to raise their water prices. At a first glance, this seems impractical. Reactions from comments on Orszag’s article were primarily negative. they argued that water is not a commodity, but a natural right for each person, and therefore shouldn’t be marked with a price. Orszag, anticipating this, suggests giving everyone a set amount of free, fresh water for basic necessities. any water desired beyond that point would come with a tariff. this way, people will use water carefully, avoiding waste.

Orszag finds that this three-step strategy can be applied to almost any nation. The strategy could be used in the U.S. where water is heavily subsidized and in Europe where water pricing systems vary between countries that lack water and those that have an abundance.

“Just as we need to price carbon in order to avoid a climate crisis, we need to price water to avoid a water crisis,” Orszag writes.

Taken from Raising Prices Means Reducing Waste: Peter Orszag on Chinese Water over at Alternative Fuels

Soichiro Fukutake, of Japanese-based Sim Drive, showing one of he firm’s electric car prototypes.

Kiwis could be able to affordably convert their petrol-powered cars to electric vehicles, says a Japanese executive who is pushing his company’s electric vehicle prototype technology in New Zealand.

Soichiro Fukutake is the director of Japanese-based Sim Drive, a developer of electric car prototypes.

the company is promoting its protoypes worldwide, saying electric vehicles must be brought into widespread use to help the environment.

the technology is not expected to enter mass production for another two years.

Fukutake is speaking about the company’s vision at the Icehouse Ideas conference in Auckland today.

There are two ways the technology could be implemented: where the motor is located in the wheels and the battery in the trunk or under the car seats; and secondly where the motor is placed in the wheels and the battery in a frame under the floor.

Fukutake, who emigrated to New Zealand in 2009, has asked the Government to provide incentives to New Zealanders wanting to convert their cars to electric technology.

“It’s too expensive for many consumers to buy new electric vehicles so why not convert them?” he said.

Given New Zealand lacks an automobile manufacturing industry, Fukutake believed it would be better to train New Zealand mechanics on how to convert cars with an internal combustion engine to electric powered cars using Sim Drive technology.

He estimated a basic conversion would cost about NZ$6,000, plus leasing costs for the battery. Fukutake said a significant uptake of conversions would reduce New Zealand’s reliance on imported petrol, boost employment and benefit the environment. 

the company had also developed new electric steel car prototypes, with an average battery life of 330km.

of all the countries in the world, China was most interested in the technology, said Fukutake, and a Chinese Government department had undertaken to manufacture electric vehicles using the Sim Drive technology.

the technology was developed with the backing of 34 companies, who contributed NZ$30,000 each to the project, said Fukutake.

Critics’ concerns over the proposed technology include greater weight in the tyres, safety if a wheel breaks and water damage to motors, but Sim Drive believed those issues were resolvable.

– BusinessDay.co.nz

Taken from Electric car future envisaged over at Alternative Fuels