Smart street lighting

Now that Earth Hour has come and gone, and seen lukewarm participation by city-zens in this country, it is time for some introspection. Yes, we were not official party to the event but what prevented organizations like Bescom from switching off street lights for an hour? When load shedding is still being done, why not use the time to show solidarity with a global campaign?

Why street lights? Simply because they are used in most places most inefficiently. Most major cities, (like Dubai in the above picture) literally flood the streets with lights. Often there is no design or scientific study that goes into the system.

Street lights are termed as the biggest energy guzzlers in municipalities, using much higher wattage than mandated.

Do we need those glowing sodium vapour lamps everywhere? Or tube lights better? How about solar lighting?

There is much that can be done to save energy and costs and improve lighting on the streets. As shown by Vadodara Municipal Corporation that implemented Energy Conservation measures in Street Light Service and was recently awarded the national energy conservation award, 2008.

Some of the energy efficiency measures it adopted were no-cost measures and includes conversion of T12 FTL into T8 FTL, procurement of low watt loss ballast, conversion of HPMV into HPSV (Lamp selection based on lumen efficacy), design based lighting, time management, staggering/dimming of street lighting during off peak hours, installation of microprocessor Based Intelligent Street Light Controller with GSM technology for data transfer, etc.

For the last 5-6 years, around 7 lakh kilowatt hours have been saved every year, and in terms of money saved, around Rs 28 lakhs every year.

Adoption of these practices has meant reduction in maintenance cost, low lifecycle cost, besides environmental protection.

The service of energy auditors could be employed for these activities. Any reason for not implementing any of the above measures?

Turn off the mains today

There is an excitement building up as the Earth Hour 2009 approaches. More people aware. More people talking AND planning action this time. And for a change, this does not involve celebrities or reality shows!

As one billion citizens of Planet Earth switch off the power for an hour, it will mean so many gigawatts of power saved, and hence the many tons of carbon emissions put off for an hour.

How did this happen? Through a combination of media coverage and social norms.

We have known since some time about what is happening to our climate and planet. But even the educated among us have not bothered to act, whether it be in the way we use power at work and homes or in the way we travel. We have chosen to believe that governments have to do something about it, not us. We have chosen to believe that our individual actions are no big deal, ‘when my neighbour does not change’!

Why? Is it because we believe we are safe? Or that we don’t care for the next generations? Is it a question of our priorities – today over tomorrow? Or is it because we can’t see the result of our actions immediately – good or bad?

In his book, Fostering Sustainable Behaviour: Community-based Social Marketing, Canadian environmental psychologist Doug McKenzie-Mohr talks of people’s inaction during energy-conservation campaigns and traces it to various reasons like wanting to see clear immediate indications that what they're doing matters. This is unfortunately not going to happen.

There is need to move from scaring to showing the way how individuals can reduce their personal footprint. Experts believe why this has also failed is because of ‘single action bias’ where most prefer to do one thing instead of the more familiar ‘10 things to do’ to reduce your carbon print! This is where social norms play a big role. Humans love to conform. It makes us feel secure to stay in line.
Wesley Schultz, a California-based environmental psychologist who specializes in social norms, used "normative messaging" to try to get people to lower their home energy use. Simply giving households regular feedback on how they were doing relative to the rest of the group, along with a little social approval or disapproval of their consumption, was enough to get virtually everyone to cut down on their energy use.

The peer grading did the job! The comfort that one is not alone comes as a booster to take action on something as ‘elitist’ as climate change.
Social psychologists are trying to pressure governments and policymakers to stop thinking about financial incentives and information campaigns and start thinking about norms.

Now imagine, what can be achieved if earthlings fixed an Earth Hour every month, on their own. (Not thanks to Bescoms!) Or even better, if all of us would simply learn to switch off all devices when not in use. Or look at ways we can cut our energy use, without ‘sacrificing’ comforts! Or take a bus when available. Or walk a little a bit more to the stores instead of driivng. How many Earth Hours can we cook up? Innumerable.

As we struggle to bring down emissions, collective inidvidual actions can have a cascading effect. Let us do our bit from today.

Happy Earth Hour with friends and family.

First game lost

Two essential ways to address a problem, one is look at symptoms and treat them and the other to look at the root cause and address that. So also in climate change. We can either look at ways in which to cut our emissions or seek ways to offset the change by geo-engineering the ecosystem.

The recent Indo-German experiment Lohafex sought to fertilise the ocean with iron oxides which could lead to increased algal growth which could then absorb the carbon dioxide. The verdict so far is one of failure.

In the experiment, researchers fertilized a 300 square kilometer patch of the ocean, which saw a burst of algal growth. For long-term sequestration to work, enough of that algae would have to sink to the bottom of the ocean.

However, within two weeks the algae were being eaten by copepods, which then were eaten by amphipods. The result being that far less carbon dioxide made its way to the sea floor than had been anticipated.

The next step would be to see how to keep the copepods away!! Which could well present yet another problem to which we respond with yet another experiment from the labs.

An unending quest as we struggle to understand the complex eco-biosystem that sustains life on earth.

Would it not be much easier to look at ways we can cut our emissions?

India joins Irena

India joined the International Renewable Energy Agency last week, becoming the largest energy consumer in the recently launched organization. "The fact that India, the world's most populated country after China, joined - it signals that large developing countries are taking this issue seriously," said Daphne Wysham, a fellow at the Washington, D.C-based Institute for Policy Studies. "The rest of the world should take notice."

Critics in the United States have questioned whether IRENA could in fact help India expand its renewable energy capacity. "Experience proves that such agencies almost always quickly become bureaucracies that are effective only at perpetuating themselves and that often become obstacles to progress," said Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, in an e-mail.

Rather than create an institution with permanent positions, Ebell said that ad-hoc international collaborations such as the Asia-Pacific Partnership have proven useful in exchanging clean energy technologies. Herman Scheer, a Social Democratic member of the German Parliament and chair of the World Council for Renewable Energy, has led IRENA's development since 1990.

IRENA's opponents in the United States have questioned the need for an additional bureaucratic institution when organizations within the United Nations and the International Energy Agency already focus on developing renewable energy.

Scheer responded that these organizations have not devoted sufficient resources or expertise to expanding renewable energy capacity, noting that a separate institution would ensure that clean energy receives additional support at a time when investments are growing.

Are we doing enough? Will joining such agencies help?

Good or bad?

And while on Nano, how about looking at the pros and cons. One, it is cheap, small, gives good mileage and good emission standards. It is a better alternative to the millions of Indians who commute by two-wheelers. It is affordable, safe transport!

So why are environmentalists dubbing it a nightmare? Simply because of the numbers. At least 25 percent of the 50 million who use two-wheelers are expected to shift. As disclosed by the company, the bookings are expected to exceed records and random lots will be resorted to, to allocate the cars. As more and more people buy the cars, the emissions will multiply, however low they are for a single car.

And then, imagine the traffic jams and the idling it will cause? And not to forget the demand on energy, i.e petrol.

News reports say Nano potentially could expand the country's auto market by 65 percent and spur a 20 percent increase in auto sales in its first year. Honda, Toyota and Fiat too are developing competitors to the Nano.

India is the world's fourth-largest overall producer of the greenhouse gas and its carbon emissions are expected to triple by 2020, according to the United Nations. A car like Nano will affect climate projections drastically, say experts.

Tata claims that the Nano is cleaner than the scooters it will replace and claims the car's catalytic converter cuts emissions by 80 percent. The Nano supposedly emits 30 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, well below the 160 g/km average of Europe's cars and far less than the 130 g/km standard the European Union will adopt in 2012. Even if half a million Nano's hit the road and each of them travels 5,000 miles a year, they will be responsible for less than 8 percent of India's annual CO2 emissions.

On the energy side, the International Energy Agency has said "alarming" growth in worldwide energy needs could, among other things, bring worldwide shortages. It said India's motor vehicle fuel consumption will triple by 2030.

What when the prices go up again as we said in our earlier post? Will a few more million cars on the roads spell trouble? Or do we look at the new Nano as the way out of the squeeze, small and efficient? As the rich west continues to opt for big SUVs, can it afford to point fingers at the new kid on the block?

Share your views.

The next big hump coming soon

Tata’s Nano couldn’t have timed it better. According to a report on oil prices, it is time to think small, especially when it comes to cars.

The new report from the McKinsey Global Institute, called Averting the Next Energy Crisis: The Demand Shock, that considers a global economic recovery in2010, warns of another oil-price shock between 2010 and 2013. Prices will rise above $100 a barrel.

The energy demand that has stagnated during the recession will pick up and while the supplies of coal and gas ‘appear to be plentiful enough’ to prevent long-term price inflation, McKinsey expects demand for oil to outpace supply.

Energy demand, it says, will grow by 2.3% per annum from 2010 to 2020 even if, as expected, energy consumption in the U.S. and Japan remains virtually flat. Especially in developing markets, where carbon dioxide emissions will also grow by 2 percent mostly thanks to the growth in air transport, steel and petrochemicals. Much of this will be from China and India.

Among the suggestions it makes are, removal of subsidies that keep oil prices low in places like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela; improving efficiency of cars and trucks, more flexi-fuel cars, etc.

Nano could be your answer?? Or better still, a truly effective public transport system?

Underplaying again

Leading scientists from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research say that the level of carbon budgets for the UK, recommended by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) last December were too weak to limit the temperature rise to 2C and stop dangerous climate change.
At the Copenhagen meet, Tyndall center scientists claimed that the Committee’s report was based on “naively” optimistic” assumptions and scenarios. The report recommends a 34% cut by 2020 but the scientists stress that a minimum reduction of 42% must be made through cuts in the UK, rather than buying offsets abroad.

The committee’s report is “inevitably and significantly compromised” because it focuses on limiting temperature rise to 2C above pre-industrial levels, which the EU defines as dangerous. The report claimed that GHGs would peak at 2016, while the Tyndall centre feels a realistic target is 2020. But this could be too late for the 2C target.

This comes in a week, which has seen Shell announce that it will pull out of renewable energy projects due to their weak economics, and the closure of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme by the government.

However, things seem to be going as planned on the UK’s first national emissions trading scheme - the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC). Details were announced this week. The Scheme that covers the non-energy intensive sector is expected to reduce over 4MtCO2 per year by 2020.

Under-estimation, under-valuation, non-action continue to play big roles as the earth seems headed to a dangerously tipping point from where there may be no coming back. Despite clinching evidence, why are we more keen on fudging figures and buying time than cutting down on our consumption or changing to alternatives?

What does it take to shake a lethargic world community into action – fast and unprecedented?

Pricing it right

EDF of France and E.ON of Germany, two of the most high-profile nuclear supporters, said attempts to reach 35% of electricity generated by renewables is not only unrealistic but also damaging to alternative schemes such as nuclear plants.

“The deployment of high levels of intermittent renewables for electricity generation will require the construction of additional carbon-emitting plant as back-up for when renewables are not available to meet demand,” EDF argued. “This is likely to be predominantly gas-fired and will therefore undermine efforts to reduce dependence on non-domestic fuel sources.”

“A 25% electricity target will provide the best platform for further decarbonisation of electricity generation in the period beyond 2020, through a combination of further renewables, new nuclear and coal and gas with carbon capture and storage.”

The energy demands require a mix of all sources. The question boils down to how to put renewables on an equal footing without appearing to handicap any. Let it to the market, or ensure that the price of all electricity includes all negative impacts through their entire life cycle? Be it wind, coal or nuclear. Will that be enough?

Dark streets

When landing in a flight over any city at night, ever wondered at the display of lighting on the roads? As you zoom in, you can see many of the streets almost empty of people. Should we be wasting so much electricity? Or can we incorporate some smart sensors that turn them on when required?

Street lighting accounts for 566,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere a year. In a recent policy paper, it has been suggested that reducing street lighting could be a significant help towards C02 savings. One of the add-ons is that urbanites can see the night sky in all its splendour!

More than 20 local councils in the UK have reduced street lighting. The savings to the council taxpayer can be significant. An estimated £122m is wasted each year on unnecessary street lighting in Britain. Powys saved £225,000 by cutting back on street lighting. Some of the lights they switched off have been reinstated after concerns from residents, but most have stayed off.

Are the dangers from dark streets bigger than the power crisis? What do you think?

A right, or a need?

IS water a right or a need?

That seems to have been the bone of contention at the just concluded 5th World Water Forum. Even as international delegates from more than 100 ministerial delegations agreed to non-binding measures to address pollution, floods, and disputes over water, this dispute over a definition prevented the declaration from being adopted in the official ministerial form.

The United States, Egypt, and Brazil objected to the former terminology, which was, in the end, not adopted in the official ministerial statement. Dissenting delegates from more than twenty countries, primarily in Latin America, released a counter-declaration following the official end of the forum saying that they recognize access to water and sanitation as a human right.

Nine of those countries--Benin, Bolivia. Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Venezuela--also signed a statement calling for future water forums to be organized within the framework of the United Nations.

Meanwhile the Istanbul Water Consensus, included the assertions that:
Access to good quality water and sanitation is a basic right for all human beings and plays an essential role in life and livelihoods, the preservation of the health of the population and the fight against poverty;
Water is a public good and should therefore be under public control, even when its services are delegated partly or totally to the private sector;
Sanitation is equally important as water supply and needs to be given due consideration on the political agenda of local, regional and national governments.

Share your thoughts with us. How should water be qualified? Should water be privatised, or only the services? (With the state in charge of the pricing and ownership) This could ensure efficiency and a control on prices.

Water, water nowhere

How does one celebrate a day dedicated to the most critical ingredient that sustains all life on earth? Tough question. The least is to acknowledge it, but how many of us realize the value of the glass of water we gulp thirstily?

Do we realize how the freshwater we drink has been around for millions of years, but is fast vanishing?

Future predictions suggest that demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion.

This year the focus of the Water Day was trans-boundary waters and the shared opportunities.
With population on the rise, water available on the fall, concerns over water conflicts are high but some reason for cheer comes from the UN website that says, ‘The total number of water-related interactions between nations are weighted towards cooperation. There have been 507 conflict-related events as opposed to 1,228 cooperative ones. This implies that violence over water is not a strategically rational, effective or economically viable option for countries. In the 20th century, only seven minor skirmishes took place between nations over shared water resources, while over 300 treaties were signed during the same period of time.

Organisation and institutions are doing some good work. For instance, WaterAid and Ecover launched last year a partnership to help 14,750 people in northern Hintalo Wajerat region of Ethiopia gain access to safe water and sanitation.

More and more areas of the world are becoming drought-prone, in turn driving the populations away. For agriculture, water scarcity holds out serious implications. As also for energy.

What are you doing to save water? May we know.

A thousand suns?

There is never a dearth of claims when it comes to some new, technology that will spin perpetual energy. Often they die within days after hitting the press. Many fail to make the leap from the lab to the field. What about fusion energy? Or ‘creating mini-suns’ in the labs?

The National Ignition Facility, or NIF, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 50 miles east of San Francisco works with 192 lasers and hydrogen pellets to create unlimited, clean energy.

The laser energy falling on a frozen hydrogen pellet which when heated and compressed, can produce massive energy that can help drive a turbine and create electricity for our homes. By providing very high temperatures, the conditions required for fusion of hydrogen atoms is created, which gives out energy in the process.

Last week the lab attempted and succeeded in the first step of firing all lasers at the same time, a feat. In 2-3 years they hope to aim the lasers at hydrogen pellets and get out more energy than expended by the lasers. That would be the test of the experiment.

If it succeeds, the next question is: how would the hydrogen pellets be prepared? Is this an energy intensive process? What about the cost? Will we be able to create laboratory amounts of laser-powered energy?

The water & energy dance

On water depends most of our energy procurement, food production, and hence indirectly health, peace and security. On wisely managing water resources depends a lot, especially as the population shows no signs of falling.

Already 2.5 billion face water scarcity. Already nations are in conflict over shrinking water resources. Like Sudan, where water shortages have been an underlying cause of the gruesome conflict in Darfur. Arid Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are currently embroiled in a dispute over water shortages, and countries in the Middle East and Central Asia are having trouble watering crops. In fact Saudi Arabia is looking to buy farmlands in the US!

Almost 30,000 people from 182 countries, including more than 100 ministerial delegations, are participating in the 5th World Water Forum, being held in Istanbul from March 16-22. The meet hopes to look into all aspects of water from disaster management and trans-boundary water cooperation to ensuring the right to sanitation and building a "corruption-resistant water sector”.

That is for the experts. Something in which all of us can participate is to observe an hour of darkness on March 28, 8.30 pm as part of Earth Hour.

Earth Hour is a worldwide event that encourages individuals to unite in the fight against global warming by turning off their lights and spending sixty minutes outside with friends and family. Started from Australia two years ago, this year’s event is aiming for 1 billion participants.

Organized by the World Wildlife Fund, this year’s Earth Hour is seeking to sign up 1,000 cities and one billion people to participate in the event. So far, they have signed up 1,189 cities across 80 countries. The ferries in Sydney, Australia will sound their horns at 8:30pm, Melbourne will host a pedal-powered concert, percussionists will play in Athens, and in San Francisco the Golden Gate bridge will go dark for one singular hour.

How about planning some social event in your neighbourhood this March 28? It would be the right time to socialize and do something for the planet. Let us hear the ideas.

Masala dosa as a green campaigner!

The picture above is about a less known way to go green. Eat veggies and reduce the burden on the planet. How??

Help the planet with a vegetarian diet, or one at least that radically reduces meat consumption. It can have massive climate change mitigation benefits, according to a study presented at the Copenhagen meet. An area the size of Russia and Canada combined could be freed from use as pasture or cropland used to grow animal feed, if people switched from current levels of meat consumption common in Europe and the United States to a diet based on plant-based protein.

If this transition of dietary norms was started in 2010 and completed by 2030, and that pasture and cropland was allowed to regrow as forest, it would soak up such large amounts of CO2 that, in combination with the resultant reduction of methane emissions due to the animals themselves, the costs of climate change mitigation would drop by 70% by 2050. Even if large numbers stopped eating meet and freed land from grazing pressure, it would reduce mitigation costs by 50 percent.

Meat processing industry is a big guzzler of energy and water. So makes sense to go vegan? What say?

Grim implications

Research presented at the Copenhagen Climate Congress touched upon six key issues around climate change.

The first issue was that things could be worser than presented in the IPCC report of 2007. This is mainly because of the enormously varying patterns in global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise, ocean and ice sheet dynamics and ocean acidification.

The second issue is related to social disruption. Even modest levels of climate changes can cause havoc in social life, especially in the poorer nations.

The third issue calls for rapid, sustained and effective measures to avoid “dangerous climate changes”. If weaker targets are set, adaptation will take longer than usual!

The fourth issue was concerted towards providing a safety net to the poor and vulnerable nations. It’s essential to provide a effective, well funded adaptation safety net.

Deciding upon taking corrective actions but not actually carrying them out is utterly inexcusable. Hence, the fifth issue was based on implementing the innumerable tools that must be vigorously and widely implemented to achieve the societal transformation required to decarbonize economies.

The sixth and the final issue was about meeting the societal challenges.

Interestingly, IPCC chairman R Pachauri spoke on the ethical side of climate change at the meet, saying ‘Why has the world been so concerned with human rights violation in Darfur, or some other place, when the same criteria don't apply to something like climate change? I mean, we are really causing human misery, and will be causing human misery of unimaginable proportions if we don't do something about the problems. And why is the world not focusing on it? That's what worries me.’

All these issues are not just the concern of the governmental organizations. It is up to each individual to make a difference to save our planet. Can you think of three ways in which you can make a difference? Let us know so we can talk about it here.

Plug the leakage

Amidst climate change warnings, hope keeps trickling in. Microsoft has set a goal for reducing its carbon emissions and has plans to support the development of software that can help address climate change issues. Microsoft hopes to reduce carbon emissions per unit of revenue by 30 percent of 2007 levels by 2012.

How it plans to do this is by measures like efficient energy use in buildings and operations, reducing air travel and increasing use of renewable energy. Last year, Microsoft saved US$90 million on travel costs by using its Unified Communications software.

On a $1 billion campus expansion, it plans to include environmentally friendly features. For example, they feature under-floor cooling systems, which save energy because they blow cool air from the ground up, rather than forcing cool air from the ceiling through warmer air that naturally rises.

We would like to know if your company is planning energy conservation or efficiency measures. Let us know so we can spread the word and others can emulate.

Unquenchable

By 2030, nearly half of the world’s people will be living in areas of acute water shortage. The world needs to act urgently to avoid a global water crisis due to increased population, rising living standards, dietary changes and more biofuels production, the United Nations warned last week.

The impact could be large for some countries, including China and India, and for some regions of large countries, such as the United States, the report says.

The report jointly produced by more than two dozen UN bodies and titled, "Water in a Changing World," made "clear that urgent action is needed if we are to avoid a global water crisis."

Needless to say, as water availability goes down, so will food production. Do we realize the enormity of the prediction?

The population growth rate means demand for fresh water is increasing by 64 billion cubic meters a year. Most of North Africa and the Middle East have already reached the limits of their water resources. Migration to cities, increasing consumption of meat, biofuels, etc are seen as some of the reasons of rising water use.

This is where the connection between energy and water comes in. Just as energy is a component of the water distribution and access, water plays a crucial role in the way most of our energy is generated. Just as 2,500 liters of water is needed to make 1 liter of biofuel, our thermal plants require a large quantity of water. It becomes important then to look at energy sources that require less water.

‘Water policies play a big role but in many countries water policies failed to make any impact because key decisions affecting water were made in other sectors of the economy.’ When giving permits for tech parks, is the concerned ministry taking into account the demand on water from these? NO. Isn’t it time these aspects are given their due importance?

Is it enough to go by demand side management or should we adopt a price-based management of water? That is a question worth pondering over.

As we have covered in this blog earlier, if we are to manage water better we need to inventories water usage in every sector. There are no such records as of now. Can we begin the process, at individual households to various sectors?

Trickle of energy

IBM will soon launch a water management system for utilities that it says will bring much-needed intelligence to the treatment and distribution of water and also save up on much energy.

The system, using sensors, will automatically collect all sorts of important data — like water quality, pump rates, and water use at meters — analyze these and then package it into easy-to-consume formats for water managers to evaluate and take quick decisions. The company is eyeing markets all across the globe.

IBM also said it had made a “major breakthrough” in its development of an energy-efficient membrane for water purification.

A 2008 JP Morgan study predicted that by 2025, major economies, including the U.S., Western Europe, China and India, will likely experience significant water problems as consumption outstrips. In the US west, like parts of California, water scarcity is already being felt and its repercussions on agricultural productivity predicted.

The fact that most big tech players are pitching for the water market is proof enough of the crisis waiting to explode as water scarcity becomes a widespread reality. Given the population which is set to touch 7 billion by 2012, and that average health standards prescribe 3500 calories per day per person and 247,000 gallons of water per year per person, we are already in a mismatch situation. There is room only for 5 billion.

Are we doing enough to conserve water? As one of our blog readers Sudhakar advises, can each one of us pledge to sow and nurture at least two saplings every year, and devote a small patch of the soil for water conservation? Can we look for 2-3 simple ways in which we can curb our water use?

Revving up the battery

If renewable energy is to play more than a token role in the overall energy supply, there is need for storage mechanisms which can store the energy when the sun is overhead or the wind blowing, and use this at a time when both are unavailable but demand is high. Example, night.

However the problem is that while batteries can store a large amount of energy per weight or volume, the charging and discharging process is slow. In ultracapacitors, it is the reverse.

Hence, a new battery material that recharges 100 times faster than the lithium-ion in your laptop as developed at MIT is news. The discovery could lead to cellphone-sized batteries that could be charged in 10 seconds.

The new battery material creates a "fast-lane" for ions to move around the lithium iron phosphate material. But it has its problems. Fast charging means running a large amount of current to the battery, which could reduce the battery's life through the heating.

However, the MIT data that considers 50 charge/recharge cycles shows no drop in capacity. Still, batteries yield lesser and lesser energy with time, an area where ultracapacitors have no such disadvantage. Nanotech based capacitors could solve the storage problem, it is hoped.

The problem with any energy device is that of commercial scaling and the associated cost. The MIT team is confrident in taking the new battery to market in 3 years.

Every new invention that helps optimizing energy availability have to be considered. But a question to be looked at is: is technology going to save the day? Or conservation and reduction of waste and consumption? Or both?

Too early in the day?

A biofuels researcher at Harvard has developed a synthetic ribosome — one of the fundamental building blocks for creating artificial life — which, initially, could have major implications for the creation of designer enzymes to make cheaper and more energy efficient cellulosic ethanol. Dr. George Church, co-founder of the next generation biofuels company LS9, spoke with reporters.

Meanwhile, the key messages arising from the EIA study on second generation biofuels are:

that technical barriers remain for 2nd-generation biofuel production;

production costs are uncertain and vary with the feedstock available;

there is no clear candidate for "best technology pathway" between the competing biochemical and thermo-chemical routes;

the development and monitoring of several large-scale demonstration projects is essential to provide accurate comparative data;

even at high oil prices, 2nd-generation biofuels will probably not become fully commercial nor enter the market for several years to come without significant additional government support;

considerably more investment in RD&D is needed to ensure that future production of the various biomass feedstocks can be undertaken sustainably and that the preferred conversion technologies are identified and proven; and that, once proven, there will be a steady transition from 1st- to 2nd-generation biofuels (with the exception of sugarcane ethanol that will continue to be produced sustainably in several countries).

Rising seas will claim 10 percent population

Amidst all the squabbles about climate change, the scientists meeting at Copenhagen this week have indicated that even at the lowest levels of projected sea level rise in the 21st century, could mean that 10% of the world's current population will be hit by rising seas.

At the Copenhagen Climate Congress scientists clarified some of the predictions made in the 2007 IPCC report regarding rising seas: Research presented shows that by 2100 sea level rise could be one meter or more at the upper end of the spectrum. At the lower end of the spectrum it looks unlikely that sea level rise will be less than half a meter. In the 2007 IPCC report sea level rise was projected to be in the range of 18-59cm.

More news will pour in this week. Meanwhile, this should set us all thinking, how do we minimise the damage?

Meanwhile, if you are an advocate of geo-engineering, chew on this latest news: The 1987 Montreal Protocol, that salvaged the ozone layer by banning ozone depleting gases, saw sulfuryl fluoride replacing methyl bromide as a fumigant.

But sulfuryl fluoride, believed to be a saviour of the environment, is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, say researchers at MIT. Fortunately, the amounts in the atmosphere are still tiny. The researchers will publish their findings in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

The whole imbroglio does underscore how tough it is to foresee the consequences of regulations and alternatives. The IPCC finding that some ozone depleting gases like methyl bromide could actually cause global cooling adds to the confusion!

Does it not smack of arrogance to believe we have the prescriptions in hand for all the problems, when the side-effects of our ‘engineering’ are not understood well?

Youth lead

There is interest and understanding among the youth about the acute crisis we are heading into in the field of energy. For instance, one of the finalists in Intel’s science talent search has figured out a way through his mathematical model to increase efficiency of cellulosic ethanol four times and reduce the price.

Cellulosic ethanol is made from the non-edible parts of corn, such as the stalk and leaves, or from non-corn sources such as certain kinds of grasses. The problem has been in making enough quantities of it as well as to make it economical.

“Right now it’s just big diseconomies of scale,” says Aditya Rajagopalan, 17, a student at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut. Rajagopalan – one of 40 finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search in Washington DC this week for the final judging rounds – hopes to change that.

By combining various enzymes in different quantities, his formulas show a way to reduce the use of high priced enzymes by 50 percent, while at the same time nearly doubling how much sugar is produced.

A good sign. But is enough being done to sustain interest of youth in crucial areas? Perhaps not.

Which is why the MacArthur Foundation recently committed $15 million to jump-start a two-year master’s in development practice (MDP) program at a dozen institutions across the globe. A generation of leaders to think in new bold and sustainable ways is what the aim of the programme is.

Columbia University will be the first to offer the degree, starting in the fall of 2009, and schools in various countries, including Ghana, Nigeria and China, may follow suit in the next few years.

The MDP movement plans to create an international classroom that cuts across disciplines—including public health, social science, physical science and management—as well as issues such as poverty, hunger, disease control and climate change. The program will link affiliated universities worldwide through real-time online lectures and discussion panels, plus six months of field training in developing countries.

A diet for cars

If the average fuel economy of all new cars on the world’s roads improved 50 percent by 2020, it could save more than 6 billion barrels of oil per year. The International Energy Agency, the UN Environment Program and others believe it can be achieved with existing technology and a few key policies. By 2050, they want to see fuel economy of the entire global fleet (not just new cars) improve by 50 percent.

The agencies have just launched a campaign — the Global Fuel Economy Initiative — at the Geneva Motor Show, and unveiled a roadmap for reaching their target. If implemented, the plan could create new opportunities for PHEV conversion startups, battery developers and electric car makers.

To start, the group is urging long-term, international standards for fuel economy or vehicle emissions as a way to encourage investment in fuel efficiency. Programs to promote tire replacement, fuel efficient driving and better vehicle maintenance and incentives along these lines could conceivably be a boon to PHEV conversion companies.

In India, consumers can soon (?) expect to see voluntary labels on vehicles on mileage details. This is expected to be mandatory by 2010. It is not sure whether the mandatory norms will make vehicles costlier. Emissions regulations is another thing and is not being taken up now because the BEE feels that the common man does not understand the climate concerns as much as where the rupee pinches (in the mileage).

The question then is: does enforcing fuel standards stop at mileage? Can the automobile manufacturers not be forced to comply with international standards in emission?

Staying power

Another question on climate change: How long, after we are done with fossil fuels, will the CO2 hang around?

Popular notion has been that the lifetime of CO2 typically say it lasts “a century or more” or “more than a hundred years”. Bad enough. But now, scientists at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, California are saying it will last much longer!

In an upcoming paper in Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences they say the gas and hence the warming will linger far into the future. University of Chicago oceanographer David Archer, who led the study, says in his new book The Long Thaw, “The lifetime of fossil fuel CO2 in the atmosphere is a few centuries, plus 25 percent that lasts essentially forever. The next time you fill your tank, reflect upon this”.

Perhaps this calls for another revision for what is the safe level of the gas if the planet is to have another chance, or rather, the race is to survive! We brought down the number from 550ppm to 450ppm to 350ppm to realize recently the way we are going, we just cannot prevent a 2-3 degree rise!

Now there are serious thoughts being given to how we tackle the problem, whose consequences can be seen very soon, within our lifetimes. Do we resort to geo-engineering, where we put in place sunshades and aerosols up there in the atmosphere?? Interfering with nature. Bad as it is, some see it as inevitable. Though no one knows for sure what damage we will add in the process!

Is it that difficult for us to cut down emissions? Yes, at least some think so.

Going by the choice of words used by Todd Stern, Obama’s top climate change negotiator, the US, whom the rest of the world was looking up to, may take its time. ‘We need to be very mindful of what the dictates of science are, and of the art of the possible,” he said. About the Bali targets – a 25% to 40% cut by industrialized nations by 2020 – he said that it is not possible to get that kind of number. ‘It’s not going to happen.’

So?? Are we going to sit around and be cooked up? A nice allegory in a recent article likened what we are doing to the planet, to a man who finds the cold too unbearable and sets his home on fire, for warmth!

Mercury rising

If you happen to be a prolific Net surfer, you probably will have sensed the heat picking up once again over climate change – whether it exists! Both sides claim the other is backed by a lobby that stands to gain from the argument, be it oil, biofuel, coal or solar.

But for anyone curious to know, the facts are out there. Provided visually by organizations like Nasa and others. Tales of shrinking Arctic ice are facts.

Take for instance the image produced by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado. The pink outline shows the earlier ice cover, a mere couple of years ago.

The NSIDC has just released a new report finding: "Arctic sea ice extent averaged for the month of February was 14.84 million square kilometers (5.73 million square miles). February extent was 800,000 square kilometers (309,000 square miles) less than the 1979 to 2000 average, and 140,000 square kilometers (54,000 square miles) less than for February 2008."

Already emissions are outside the envelope of possibilities considered by IPCC in its 2007 report. That is how fast and how determined the human race seems to be to consume itself out of existence.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Climate Change is the latest whose study shows temperatures are likely to step up by 5 deg by the end of the century.

In their recent global model simulatations, they have proof that ocean heat-uptake is slower than previously estimated, the ocean uptake of carbon is weaker, feedbacks from the land system as temperature rises are stronger, cumulative emissions of greenhouse gases over the century are higher, and offsetting cooling from aerosol emissions is lower.

And, rather than interacting additively, these different affects appear to interact multiplicatively, say the group.

Still have doubts? Why not do a simple experiment yourself? Check out agri yields, from your nearest farm land. Or the water availability. Not in the cities, which we know is simply decreasing due to multifold increase in numbers of people. But out there in the suburbs.

Chances are you will find a dip in both. What do you think are the reasons? Mismanagement? Perhaps. But what about the yields of grains? The Swaminathan Research Foundation has shown a fall. This is despite all modern inputs. Clearly a sign of rising temperatures.

What should we do? Let us hear from you.

Ra powers Eleanor!

A car that runs on solar power with batteries that can take on 200 miles on a cloudy day in one stretch is what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Solar Electric Vehicle Team is.
Called “Eleanor,” the solar car has a cruising speed of 55 miles per hour — on a sunny day. The car is set to compete in the World Solar Challenge race across Australia in October.

Even though there’s only room for one in the car, the ‘driver won’t be completely alone. The car, which is powered by about 20 square feet of monocrystalline silicon solar cells, is equipped with wireless monitors so the team’s lead and chase vehicles can keep an eye on the car’s performance in real time’.

The driver also gets to sit up this time around. Previous solar cars have been almost flat, to cut down on drag.

While on vehicles, India’s Reva went across the country in a 3500 km trek as part of the Indian Youth Climate Network. For more, read http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/03/03/solar-powered-revas-trek-across-india/

For more news on EVs, Indian car company Tata has revealed that it may launch its Indica Vista EV all-electric car in Europe by the end of the year, making it the first ‘mainstream’ company to bid for a slice of the continent’s potentially lucrative zero-emission vehicles market. According to Tata, the Indica will be capable of travelling 200km (125miles) on a full charge and accelerate from 0-60kph (0-38mph) in less than ten seconds, with a respectable top speed of 130kph (80mph).

Proof enough that eco-friendly vehicles are not a drag?

What's your water print?

According to a report released February 26 by the Pacific Institute and Ceres, industries and investors are not paying sufficient attention to their water uses and needs. This spans the range from tourism, beverage, agriculture, power and chipmakers, all of which are water intensive.

While carbon footprint seems to be picking up (as a fashion?) not much is being done about water. Considering that one of the most painful fallouts of climate change will be water scarcity, this is unfortunate.

The Pacific Institute notes how water inventories are an absolute must if we are to manage this most precious resource. Only then can reduction and conservation measures be implemented. Indirectly by managing well, associated energy costs can be reduced.

Of the 190 water-intensive companies interviewed, only 20% looked at real risks of water shortages, and only 10% looked at supply chain risks. Almost no companies disclosed water use or looked at climate change impacts to water use.

The report outlines specific actions for companies to practice responsible water management and increase disclosures regarding water use to shareholders.

The jean company Levi Strauss & Co. has been a leader in supply chain analysis and reduced the amount of water used to make jeans by insisting that laundries that pre-wash their jeans meet strict water conservation guidelines. Some others like Coca-Cola and Intel have begun to disclose the amount of water they use in financial reports.

It is up to the public to demand to know such details as the world gets ready to face a water-stressed tomorrow. A chip making unit, to set up which many of the cities in India made a bid, was expected to use up almost three times the water daily as used by an average city. If this detail had been available to the public, would it have allowed such a unit to be set up?

Not to say we do not need such units but there must be every effort to recycle and conserve water as also energy.

What, for instance, is your company’s water footprint?

Let us do our bit

Care to imagine the amount of waste we produce every month, and then every year? As consumption increases, so does waste. Imagine dumps and more dumps around the cities, growing every day.

According to the CES, IIsc round 3600 tonnes of solid waste is generated in Bangalore EVERY day. This is pretty much the same of most big cities.

Much of the biodegradable waste generated is high in organic content and with humidity content becomes difficult to incinerate. A better option would be biomethanation where bacteria degrade the waste to produce methane, or even simply composting the waste.

However, not much is done. Most of the waste is carried out of the cities to be dumped in the suburbs, or if they make it to the dumps, they are forgotten and end up polluting the soil and water. No real land-filling (covering the waste with soil) happens and the biodegradation takes a long time.

A far cry from recovering wealth from waste or reducing to zero waste! For example, 70 percent of San Francisco's waste stream is being diverted from landfills through a combination of strategies including waste avoidance, waste reduction, composting and recycling. The city's goal is to divert 75 percent by 2010, and to achieve zero waste by 2020.

The city's composting program (see picture) is the largest in the US, and began accepting food and yard waste in 1999. The majority of the compost created goes to area vineyards, and the rest to small farms and landscape suppliers.

What does it take to make our municipal authorities aware of the immense wealth in the waste?!

Recyclable materials are taken to the material recovery facility at Pier 96 where over 182,000 tons of material is processed each year. Of course, as we know and are t the receiving end, much of the recycled materials are shipped thousands of miles to the developing world where cheap labour sorts them out with bare hands!

While authorities wrangle over whose responsibility waste is, or which method or which contractor is best, there are simple things each one of us can do to help in the waste problem.

How about reducing the waste generated in our homes? All it requires is to make just adequate food. Next, segregate the waste and use the organic part in a small pit in the garden. This is something that can be done even inside. All you need is one small pot with a lid. Dump your wastes there and cover with a thin layer of soil. After few days the manure it yields could help the kitchen garden immensely.

Approximately we generate 2.5 kgs of waste per average household. Think of what a good idea it is to use this for a good purpose and save our countryside from swelling dumps.

Check out this interesting post at Treehugger.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/what-really-happens-at-a-landfill.php

The power broadband

Experts equate it to the powergrid’s equivalent of Internet broadband and China is aggressively pursuing leadership in this field. We refer to UHVDC or ultra high voltage direct current transmission of electricty across large distances.

When ready, China has plans to link its far flung west and east in a move to take power from renewable rich west to the power deficient east. Some see this as the technology that can eventually link Australia to Asia.

UHVDC is seen as best option to push large amounts of electricity across long distances with least loss. This will mean pumping above 800 kv along the lines and even beyond 10,000 MW soon, as planned in China. Losses can be as low as about 3% per 1000 km. High-voltage direct current transmission allows efficient use of energy sources remote from load centers.

To increase capacity of existing grid, reducing line cost (no need to support multiple phases and use of thin conductors), synchronise different AC systems, undersea cables, etc the HVDC is a good option.

However, HVDC would not be ideal for short distances and the inverters can be costly. Plus the technical difficulty in building DC ciruit breakers, are seen as some disadvantages.

There are two ways to view the situation. One, is to generate power where required using available resources. That is distributed decentralised generation. Two, generate where the resource is in plenty, be it wind or sun, and make it available where demand is most. That is where HVDC could play a big role.

What path should India opt for? Especially if we earnestly intend to increase the share of renewables.

Let us hear what the experts think on this.