July 20, 2010
The airline industry is taking its first steps towards green energy.
British Airways has announced it is investing in a factory that will convert tonnes of household rubbish into enough jet fuel for all its flights from London City airport twice over.
Some 500,000 tonnes of waste generated by Londoners will be used by the UK facility each year to produce 16 million gallons of fuel.
Construction of the plant in east London will start within two years. It is set to produce fuel from 2014, creating up to 1,200 jobs.
BA said the plant would produce twice the amount of fuel needed to power all its flights from London City Airport.
It will be the first plant in Europe to produce jet fuel from waste matter.
It is estimated that the overall equivalent CO2 reduction as a result of the plant producing sustainable energy and fuel is approximately 550,000 tonnes per year.
The plant will be built by the US company Solena Group, with BA committing to buy all of its output.
The waste wil be fed into a high temperature “gasifier” to produce BioSynGas.
A chemical process called Fischer Tropsch is then used to convert the gas into biofuel.
Waste products from the process can be used to power the plant as well as supply 20MW of electricity to the national grid.
A solid waste product can be used as an aggregate in construction.
BA argues the plant will cut the amount of waste that is sent to landfill, reducing the amount of methane that is produced. Methane is thought to be a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
July 15, 2010
JR Ewing, the worlds most ruthless oil baron, is now promoting solar power. He has turned his back on black gold and starring in an advert for solar panels.
Almost 20 years after hanging up his trademark 10-gallon hat in the TV drama Dallas, actor Larry Hagman is reprising his most famous role in an advertisement for SolarWorld, a German-based manufacturer of solar panels.
In the ad, JR Ewing says the oil industry has become “too dirty”, prompting a search for another money making opportunity.
“In the past it was always about the oil. The oil was flowing and so was the money,” he says.
“But I’m still in the energy business. There’s always a better alternative,” he adds, gazing up at the roof of his California mansion covered in solar panels and flashing a grin of perfect sparkling teeth.
In real life Hagman, 78, is a keen green. In 2003 his mountaintop home near Santa Barbara, was fitted with the country’s largest residential solar power system in 2003, reportedly cutting the actor’s annual electricity bill from $37,000 (£24,000) to $13.
The panels on his 46 acre estate soak up so much sun that he is frequently able to sell power generated by them back to his local electricity company.
Hagman says he decided to film the 30-second advertisement after becoming angry at the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
“With all that oil gushing away in the Gulf I figured it was time to call for a new direction in where we’re getting our energy,” he told the New York Times.
“Since Sarah Palin is saying ‘Drill, baby, drill’ I’m saying ‘Shine, baby, shine’. It’s a lot cheaper and cleaner.”
June 30, 2010
A senior American energy official says the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico dramatically illustrates the need for investing in renewable sources of energy.
David Sandalow, a US assistant energy secretary, said yesterday that the oil spill is a “tragic situation” that “underscores the need for a transition to a clean energy economy.”
Sandalow was speaking during a meeting of international officials in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The oil-rich sheikdom is investing heavily in renewable energy projects.
This week’s meeting is meant to lay the groundwork for a clean energy summit to be held in Washington next month.
May 30, 2010
Japan should focus on developing geothermal energy, according to a prominent US environmentalist, who says that the volcanic island-nation could become the global leader in the field.
Speaking on Wednesday Lester Brown, president of the US-based Earth Policy Institute, told a news conference. “Japan could make geothermal energy the centre of its new energy economy just as the US or China will make wind the centre of theirs,”
“There are no leaders in the world today in this field. There is no industrial country in the world that now has a well established geothermal industry” Brown said at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.
Japan, located at the crossroads of four tectonic plates and on what is known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire” and dotted with volcanoes, is one of the world’s most quake-prone countries.
If Japan can launch full development of geothermal energy technology, “it would not only lower carbon emissions in Japan, but it would also give Japanese industry the potential for playing a leading role in developing the world’s geothermal energy resources.” he said.
Brown says demand for the technology will grow in other geothermal-rich countries located on tectonic faultlines such as Indonesia and the Philippines in Asia as well as Chile, Peru and Colombia in South America.
“This is an opportunity for Japan to move to the centre stage in an area where it is richly endowed,” he added.
Japan makes use of hot springs as a resource for tourism, but geothermal energy only accounts for 0.3 percent of its energy mix, and the country relies heavily on imports of oil and other resources.
Japan is currently world’s fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
May 27, 2010
The US government is committed to supporting Indonesia in developing renewable energy resources by providing both technological expertise and competitive financing scheme, says a minister.
“We stand ready to partner and create win-win opportunities to help both Indonesian government and companies not only achieve their energy efficiency targets but also create jobs,” visiting US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke told journalists yesterday during his two-day visit to Jakarta.
“We are eager to do more businesses in Indonesia because it’s a place, a country that has the potential to be one of the world’s leading producers and users of clean energy,” he said.
He said that in the list of global pressing challenges, energy was certainly at the top because it would shape the fate of the planet, its economies and nations.
He said that by mid-century, global energy use would double, theoretically needing two new 1,000 MW power plants every week for the next 30 years to meet the increasing energy demand.
“The new energy generation has to be clean to avoid catastrophic climate change. It should also be affordable to keep our economy growing,” he said.
He said the Obama administration had done more in mitigate climate change by investing more in clean energy than any other US president in history.
“It has allocated US$30 billion in clean energy investment and established top new efficiency standards for automobile, appliances and customer electronics,” he said, while praising Indonesia’s efforts in developing clean energy.
Indonesia, he said, had set greatly desirous energy efficiency targets in terms of reducing its greenhouse gas emission by 26 percent by 2020, even 41 percent reduction with foreign assistance, and would double its renewable energy from the current 7 percent to 15 percent by 2025.
