Australian
Thursday 3/12/2009 Page: 4
KEY business groups have urged the opposition to embrace a market-based scheme to tackle climate change and deliver industry the certainty it needs to invest in energy-saving measures.
Their stance will add pressure to the Coalition to pass Labor's emissions trading bills when they are returned to parliament in February. However, after the bills were defeated by the Senate yesterday, new leader Tony Abbott vowed he would not take an emissions trading scheme to the next election, saying Nobel Prize-winning economists thought they were "rubbish policy". "We won't have an ETS as part of our policy going to the next election and we won't be having a tax as part of our policy going to the next election," Mr Abbott said.
However, the Business Council of Australia yesterday urged the Coalition to rethink that position. BCA president Graham Bradley argued that "the best way for Australia to transition to a low-emissions economy is through a market-based emissions trading scheme". Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout said any departure from a market based scheme would impose higher costs on the community.
"The failure today of the Senate to pass the carbon pollution reduction scheme will prolong, if not compound, the uncertainty for business," Ms Ridout said. "While it is good to let tempers cool and allow time for clear thought, AiGroup expressed support for the amended bill and its failure to pass through the parliament leaves this important policy issue unresolved.
"Inherent in AiGroup's position is continuing support for a market-based approach to climate change as a means of reducing emissions at the lowest possible overall cost to the economy." However, other business groups, such as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Minerals Council of Australia welcomed the defeat of the scheme.
ACCI chief executive Peter Anderson said: "The rejection by the Senate of the CPRS legislation provides an opportunity to iron out remaining flaws in scheme design and timing." But Mr Anderson said industry should not take its foot off the pedal in investing in new energy-saving technologies.
Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Mitch Hooke said Labor's scheme failed to reduce emissions or protect Australia's export industries. Mr Hooke called for a phased auctioning of carbon permits, and a "measured" transition to a low-carbon economy that was in step with action by other countries.
Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association chief executive Belinda Robinson warned the states not to step in. "The failure of the domestic emissions trading scheme legislation to pass the Senate should not be used as an excuse by any jurisdiction to implement high-cost, uncoordinated, piecemeal measures,"she said. "We want to see a price on carbon, we want to see leadership at the national level and we want to see a policy approach.., that leads to the expansion of the natural gas industry."
Monday, 7 December 2009
Low emission tourism boost - Foreign visitors favouring carbon neutral
Northern Territory News
Wednesday 2/12/2009 Page: 26
FOREIGN holidaymakers are flocking to carbon-neutral tourism operators - with one company claiming 44% growth despite the global financial crisis. Way Outback Desert Safaris' operations manager Phil Taylor said next year's forward bookings already show a further 52% increase in business. "We cannot say that it is all because of carbon offsetting, but we can certainly say it is a strong influential factor in the decisions that the international clients are making," he said.
Mr Taylor said the operator signed up last year to the Outback Offsets program, which allows companies to purchase carbon credits from a green-friendly methane gas power plant in Darwin. "Like a lot of operators, we were sitting on the edge and saying 'is there a real advantage to doing it?'," he said.
Mr Taylor said after six months the customer surveys indicated people were choosing his company because it was carbon neutral. "I was in Europe 12 months ago and the big vibe in Germany and Holland was that people are thinking about this issue,' he said. "To not do it is a negative to our situation."
Tourism Minister Chris Burns yesterday invited tour companies to apply for grants from the $200,000 Environment Enhancement Fund. The grants will go towards infrastructure upgrades required by tourism businesses to become more green friendly. "Tourists are looking even more carefully these days about their carbon footprint," he said.
Wednesday 2/12/2009 Page: 26
FOREIGN holidaymakers are flocking to carbon-neutral tourism operators - with one company claiming 44% growth despite the global financial crisis. Way Outback Desert Safaris' operations manager Phil Taylor said next year's forward bookings already show a further 52% increase in business. "We cannot say that it is all because of carbon offsetting, but we can certainly say it is a strong influential factor in the decisions that the international clients are making," he said.
Mr Taylor said the operator signed up last year to the Outback Offsets program, which allows companies to purchase carbon credits from a green-friendly methane gas power plant in Darwin. "Like a lot of operators, we were sitting on the edge and saying 'is there a real advantage to doing it?'," he said.
Mr Taylor said after six months the customer surveys indicated people were choosing his company because it was carbon neutral. "I was in Europe 12 months ago and the big vibe in Germany and Holland was that people are thinking about this issue,' he said. "To not do it is a negative to our situation."
Tourism Minister Chris Burns yesterday invited tour companies to apply for grants from the $200,000 Environment Enhancement Fund. The grants will go towards infrastructure upgrades required by tourism businesses to become more green friendly. "Tourists are looking even more carefully these days about their carbon footprint," he said.
Llewellyn signals second Basslink power cable
Hobart Mercury
Wednesday 2/12/2009 Page: 19
A SECOND Basslink power cable could be built "in the medium term", says Energy Minister David Llewellyn. He said the potential for Tasmania to become a leader in renewable energy production necessitated consideration of a second cable to export power interstate. Hydro told a Government Business Enterprise hearing yesterday that it was in discussions with a wave power company on King Island and was watching international developments with offshore wind and tidal power technologies. "With the potential for more energy generation a second electricity link may be needed and it is clearly on the medium term agenda," Mr Llewellyn said.
Wednesday 2/12/2009 Page: 19
A SECOND Basslink power cable could be built "in the medium term", says Energy Minister David Llewellyn. He said the potential for Tasmania to become a leader in renewable energy production necessitated consideration of a second cable to export power interstate. Hydro told a Government Business Enterprise hearing yesterday that it was in discussions with a wave power company on King Island and was watching international developments with offshore wind and tidal power technologies. "With the potential for more energy generation a second electricity link may be needed and it is clearly on the medium term agenda," Mr Llewellyn said.
EDC to pay $123.8 million for 2 geothermal plants
www.philstar.com
December 02, 2009
MANILA, Philippines - Energy Development Corp. (EDC), the country's largest renewable energy company, will pay the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) $123.8 million for the purchase of two geothermal power plants. In a disclosure to Philippine Stock Exchange, EDC said the amount was actually a prepayment of all its deferred payments to PSALM for the 192.5-MW (MW) Palinpinon and 112.5-MW Tongonan geothermal power facilities.
EDC said it will pay through its wholly owned subsidiary, Green Core Geothermal Inc. (GCGI). GCGI has already formally notified PSALM of the prepayment on Dec. 29, 2009 of all deferred payments due, including principal and accrued interest. Under the asset purchase agreement (APA Group) with PSALM, GCGI has the option to prepay the deferred payment at anytime, subject to the delivery of a written notice of such intent at least 20 business days prior to any such prepayment.
The deferred payment arrangement of GCGI or the stable financing scheme with PSALM for the geothermal power facilities was supposed to be carried out in 14 payments within seven years. The first payment of GCGI should have been made in April next year. Since EDC was able to successfully raise funds to effect the full payment of the two power plants, it decided prepay the purchase amount.
EDC investors' relation manager Erudito Recio said they will finance the prepayment "from existing cash at hand consisting of funds raised via private placement and net cash flows from operations." Recio said the company found the prepayment move as beneficial. "Prepayment of the PSALM staple financing is financially beneficial for the company considering that the replacement funds are cheaper and denominate in Philippine peso," EDC said.
Last Oct. 23, the geothermal leader assumed operations of the two geothermal power plants after paying PSALM P3.9 billion, representing 40% of the purchase price and $7 million for the purchase orders, rental, option price, performance security deposit on land lease, and industrial all-risks insurance policy and comprehensive general liability.
EDC, through GCGI, acquired the two plants located in Leyte and Negros Oriental in an auction conducted by PSALM last Sept. 2 when it submitted the highest complying financial bid of $220 million. GCGI is a subsidiary of First Luzon Geothermal Energy Corp, which is wholly owned by EDC. The two plants boost EDC's current portfolio of geothermal power generation assets to 1,049 MW.
In Leyte, EDC operates the Unified Leyte plants consisting of the 125-MW Upper Mahiao, 232.5-MW Malitbog, 180-MW Mahanagdong and 51-MW Optimisation plants. In Mindanao, EDC runs the 106-MW Mindanao 1 and 2 plants. EDC's first fully owned power plant is the 49-MW Northern Negros geothermal plant in Negros Occidental. In addition, EDC acquired 60-percent equity in First Gen Hydro which operates the 100-MW Pantabangan and 12-MW Masiway hydroelectric plants in Nueva Ecija.
December 02, 2009
MANILA, Philippines - Energy Development Corp. (EDC), the country's largest renewable energy company, will pay the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) $123.8 million for the purchase of two geothermal power plants. In a disclosure to Philippine Stock Exchange, EDC said the amount was actually a prepayment of all its deferred payments to PSALM for the 192.5-MW (MW) Palinpinon and 112.5-MW Tongonan geothermal power facilities.
EDC said it will pay through its wholly owned subsidiary, Green Core Geothermal Inc. (GCGI). GCGI has already formally notified PSALM of the prepayment on Dec. 29, 2009 of all deferred payments due, including principal and accrued interest. Under the asset purchase agreement (APA Group) with PSALM, GCGI has the option to prepay the deferred payment at anytime, subject to the delivery of a written notice of such intent at least 20 business days prior to any such prepayment.
The deferred payment arrangement of GCGI or the stable financing scheme with PSALM for the geothermal power facilities was supposed to be carried out in 14 payments within seven years. The first payment of GCGI should have been made in April next year. Since EDC was able to successfully raise funds to effect the full payment of the two power plants, it decided prepay the purchase amount.
EDC investors' relation manager Erudito Recio said they will finance the prepayment "from existing cash at hand consisting of funds raised via private placement and net cash flows from operations." Recio said the company found the prepayment move as beneficial. "Prepayment of the PSALM staple financing is financially beneficial for the company considering that the replacement funds are cheaper and denominate in Philippine peso," EDC said.
Last Oct. 23, the geothermal leader assumed operations of the two geothermal power plants after paying PSALM P3.9 billion, representing 40% of the purchase price and $7 million for the purchase orders, rental, option price, performance security deposit on land lease, and industrial all-risks insurance policy and comprehensive general liability.
EDC, through GCGI, acquired the two plants located in Leyte and Negros Oriental in an auction conducted by PSALM last Sept. 2 when it submitted the highest complying financial bid of $220 million. GCGI is a subsidiary of First Luzon Geothermal Energy Corp, which is wholly owned by EDC. The two plants boost EDC's current portfolio of geothermal power generation assets to 1,049 MW.
In Leyte, EDC operates the Unified Leyte plants consisting of the 125-MW Upper Mahiao, 232.5-MW Malitbog, 180-MW Mahanagdong and 51-MW Optimisation plants. In Mindanao, EDC runs the 106-MW Mindanao 1 and 2 plants. EDC's first fully owned power plant is the 49-MW Northern Negros geothermal plant in Negros Occidental. In addition, EDC acquired 60-percent equity in First Gen Hydro which operates the 100-MW Pantabangan and 12-MW Masiway hydroelectric plants in Nueva Ecija.
Drilling work starts for wave hub
news.bbc.co.uk
30 November 2009
Engineers working on the wave hub energy project in west Cornwall have begun drilling into sand dunes at Hayle. The £42m scheme was given the go-ahead in July after funding was announced. Devices floating on the sea will transfer energy to a huge socket on the seabed 10 miles (16km) off Hayle. The two-week drilling operation will create a 200m duct for a cable that will come ashore and be linked to the national grid. The wave hub will be the world's largest test site for wave energy technology.
'World leader'
Guy Lavender, the project's recently appointed general manager who takes up his post in January, said: "This is a crucial part of our shoreside works and means we'll be ready to receive the cable connecting the wave hub to the shore when it is laid next summer. "We want south-west England to be a world leader in the development of marine renewables, an industry which could be worth £2bn a year to the UK by 2050. "With world leaders meeting in Copenhagen next week to discuss climate change the wave hub is a tangible example of a project that could have a global impact on reducing carbon emissions and our dependence on fossil fuels."
Funding for the the sea-powered electricity generator includes £20m from the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme, £12.5m from the Regional Development Agency (RDA) and £9.5m from the UK government. It is expected to be operational in 2011 and could create more than 1,800 jobs, the RDA said. When completed it will have an initial maximum capacity of 20 MWs, enough electricity to power about 7,000 homes but has been designed with the potential to scale up to 50 MWs.
30 November 2009
Engineers working on the wave hub energy project in west Cornwall have begun drilling into sand dunes at Hayle. The £42m scheme was given the go-ahead in July after funding was announced. Devices floating on the sea will transfer energy to a huge socket on the seabed 10 miles (16km) off Hayle. The two-week drilling operation will create a 200m duct for a cable that will come ashore and be linked to the national grid. The wave hub will be the world's largest test site for wave energy technology.
'World leader'
Guy Lavender, the project's recently appointed general manager who takes up his post in January, said: "This is a crucial part of our shoreside works and means we'll be ready to receive the cable connecting the wave hub to the shore when it is laid next summer. "We want south-west England to be a world leader in the development of marine renewables, an industry which could be worth £2bn a year to the UK by 2050. "With world leaders meeting in Copenhagen next week to discuss climate change the wave hub is a tangible example of a project that could have a global impact on reducing carbon emissions and our dependence on fossil fuels."
Funding for the the sea-powered electricity generator includes £20m from the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme, £12.5m from the Regional Development Agency (RDA) and £9.5m from the UK government. It is expected to be operational in 2011 and could create more than 1,800 jobs, the RDA said. When completed it will have an initial maximum capacity of 20 MWs, enough electricity to power about 7,000 homes but has been designed with the potential to scale up to 50 MWs.
Brothers, Cornell grads develop solar powered heating tubes
www.stargazette.com
11/30/2009
From the simple educational products they created in their basement more than a decade ago to their expansion into home heating, sunlight has always been part of the Farrell brothers' vision. Now the solar thermal products of Silicon Solar, the Ithaca-based company Cornell University graduates Adam and Matt Farrell founded, will be heating water for the 608-bed Wallkill Correctional Facility near New Paltz in the Hudson Valley. The installation of their company's solar thermal heating tubes, which will use sunlight to heat water for the prison, is a milestone for them, said Adam Farrell.
The brothers' heating tubes also are being installed in 10 Tompkins County locations, primarily residences, he said. "We wanted to show that solar thermal is economical, feasible for municipal use and practical," Adam said. Their company began in their Sidney home during their high school years, Adam said. They built small educational kits, some of which involved solar cells, which convert sunlight to electricity. "Our original mission was to provide affordable educational solutions to students, teachers and universities," he said.
Through the turn of the century, their college years and beyond, the business expanded as they created a Web site and began to craft solar-integrated products like solar lights, fountains, solar panels, solar energyed batteries and power supplies for small appliances, he said.
Then one sunny day, he saw steam coming off the deck of his house, Adam said. "We said, 'What about hot water?'" Adam said. Though initially reluctant, they ventured into solar thermal in 2005. While it was a steep learning curve that forced changes to their infrastructure, "solar thermal was an obtainable goal for us," he said. "We've really focused our company's resources on solar thermal in the last two years," he said.
Their heating pipes, made from two layers of borosilicate glass separated by a vacuum, contain a glycol-water solution with a low boiling point, Adam said. Sunlight heats the solution, the heating pipe transfers heat to a manifold, and the manifold heats water in a separate pipe for cooking, washing or space heating systems. "From a liability standpoint, it's a very safe system," he said.
In the Wallkill project, heated water will travel about 290 feet from their system to the prison water supply. Since some solar radiation is always hitting the Earth, the system is always working, Adam said. "Wind, cloudiness or rainy or snowy conditions do not affect the collectors," he said. "Only the intensity of the sun affects it." The pipes are made at their Bainbridge facility. The brothers moved their headquarters - - which includes marketing, sales and administration - - from Bainbridge to Ithaca in March.
The headquarters is located in offices on Catherwood Drive near the Pyramid Mall. Most of their staff went to Cornell, Adam said. "We're an information-based, tech-intensive industry," he said. "We're taking advantage of the area's brainpower. The people here are doing what they want to do. Our employees are all passionate about solar energy." As is Adam. "I like the sun, and I love solar technology," he said. "It's fascinating. The opportunities are endless, in terms of new ideas and technologies." "We're committed to building the Ithaca community," he said. "We want to make Ithaca the solar thermal capital of America."
11/30/2009
From the simple educational products they created in their basement more than a decade ago to their expansion into home heating, sunlight has always been part of the Farrell brothers' vision. Now the solar thermal products of Silicon Solar, the Ithaca-based company Cornell University graduates Adam and Matt Farrell founded, will be heating water for the 608-bed Wallkill Correctional Facility near New Paltz in the Hudson Valley. The installation of their company's solar thermal heating tubes, which will use sunlight to heat water for the prison, is a milestone for them, said Adam Farrell.
The brothers' heating tubes also are being installed in 10 Tompkins County locations, primarily residences, he said. "We wanted to show that solar thermal is economical, feasible for municipal use and practical," Adam said. Their company began in their Sidney home during their high school years, Adam said. They built small educational kits, some of which involved solar cells, which convert sunlight to electricity. "Our original mission was to provide affordable educational solutions to students, teachers and universities," he said.
Through the turn of the century, their college years and beyond, the business expanded as they created a Web site and began to craft solar-integrated products like solar lights, fountains, solar panels, solar energyed batteries and power supplies for small appliances, he said.
Then one sunny day, he saw steam coming off the deck of his house, Adam said. "We said, 'What about hot water?'" Adam said. Though initially reluctant, they ventured into solar thermal in 2005. While it was a steep learning curve that forced changes to their infrastructure, "solar thermal was an obtainable goal for us," he said. "We've really focused our company's resources on solar thermal in the last two years," he said.
Their heating pipes, made from two layers of borosilicate glass separated by a vacuum, contain a glycol-water solution with a low boiling point, Adam said. Sunlight heats the solution, the heating pipe transfers heat to a manifold, and the manifold heats water in a separate pipe for cooking, washing or space heating systems. "From a liability standpoint, it's a very safe system," he said.
In the Wallkill project, heated water will travel about 290 feet from their system to the prison water supply. Since some solar radiation is always hitting the Earth, the system is always working, Adam said. "Wind, cloudiness or rainy or snowy conditions do not affect the collectors," he said. "Only the intensity of the sun affects it." The pipes are made at their Bainbridge facility. The brothers moved their headquarters - - which includes marketing, sales and administration - - from Bainbridge to Ithaca in March.
The headquarters is located in offices on Catherwood Drive near the Pyramid Mall. Most of their staff went to Cornell, Adam said. "We're an information-based, tech-intensive industry," he said. "We're taking advantage of the area's brainpower. The people here are doing what they want to do. Our employees are all passionate about solar energy." As is Adam. "I like the sun, and I love solar technology," he said. "It's fascinating. The opportunities are endless, in terms of new ideas and technologies." "We're committed to building the Ithaca community," he said. "We want to make Ithaca the solar thermal capital of America."
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Business laments deal delay
Australian
Tuesday 1/12/2009 Page: 4
BUSINESS leaders were viewing the uncertainty surrounding the government's emissions trading scheme and the Coalition's possible alternative climate change policies with increasing alarm yesterday. The industry most affected by the introduction of any carbon price aluminium said the ETS deal negotiated between Malcolm Turnbull and the Rudd government was probably the best it was going to get. aluminium.org.au/" target="_blank">Australian Aluminium Council executive director Miles Prosser said: "This ETS deal addresses a lot of our concerns. We would rather see it go through because we can't see the circumstances emerging that would deliver a better outcome."
The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association, representing the LNG industry among others, was concerned that a policy vacuum would mean more piecemeal regulation. APPEA chief executive Belinda Robinson said: "We made real progress in the ETS negotiations.., above all else, we do not now want to see a return to a piecemeal uncoordinated approach to climate change through state and federal regulations."
Woodside Petroleum chief executive Don Voelte, an outspoken critic of earlier versions of the government scheme, wrote to the Opposition Leader yesterday saying passage of an amended ETS would provide the LNG industry with vital investment certainty. The Business Council of Australia said its views had not changed since a statement released last week "commending' the deal and saying it would "enable Australian businesses to plan for and make the required decisions about investments to transition Australia to a low-emissions economy".
The Energy Supply Association of Australia was concerned at the prospect of delay and the suggestion that the Coalition could favour reducing emissions through regulation. ESAA executive director Brad Page said: "We really need to see a final carbon policy sooner rather than later because large-scale investment is waiting for it." Mitch Hooke, chief executive of the Minerals Council of Australia, which has opposed the government's ETS model, said a deferral "gives us the opportunity to get the design right".
"We know we have to have a carbon price but we can look at partial auctioning under a better designed ETS, or at a carbon tax," he said. Clean Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren said his members strongly supported the passage of the CPRS. "Delaying the certainty of a carbon price simply delays investor certainty. The most important thing is to make a start on these investments." he said.
Tuesday 1/12/2009 Page: 4
BUSINESS leaders were viewing the uncertainty surrounding the government's emissions trading scheme and the Coalition's possible alternative climate change policies with increasing alarm yesterday. The industry most affected by the introduction of any carbon price aluminium said the ETS deal negotiated between Malcolm Turnbull and the Rudd government was probably the best it was going to get. aluminium.org.au/" target="_blank">Australian Aluminium Council executive director Miles Prosser said: "This ETS deal addresses a lot of our concerns. We would rather see it go through because we can't see the circumstances emerging that would deliver a better outcome."
The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association, representing the LNG industry among others, was concerned that a policy vacuum would mean more piecemeal regulation. APPEA chief executive Belinda Robinson said: "We made real progress in the ETS negotiations.., above all else, we do not now want to see a return to a piecemeal uncoordinated approach to climate change through state and federal regulations."
Woodside Petroleum chief executive Don Voelte, an outspoken critic of earlier versions of the government scheme, wrote to the Opposition Leader yesterday saying passage of an amended ETS would provide the LNG industry with vital investment certainty. The Business Council of Australia said its views had not changed since a statement released last week "commending' the deal and saying it would "enable Australian businesses to plan for and make the required decisions about investments to transition Australia to a low-emissions economy".
The Energy Supply Association of Australia was concerned at the prospect of delay and the suggestion that the Coalition could favour reducing emissions through regulation. ESAA executive director Brad Page said: "We really need to see a final carbon policy sooner rather than later because large-scale investment is waiting for it." Mitch Hooke, chief executive of the Minerals Council of Australia, which has opposed the government's ETS model, said a deferral "gives us the opportunity to get the design right".
"We know we have to have a carbon price but we can look at partial auctioning under a better designed ETS, or at a carbon tax," he said. Clean Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren said his members strongly supported the passage of the CPRS. "Delaying the certainty of a carbon price simply delays investor certainty. The most important thing is to make a start on these investments." he said.
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Stop wasting energy, there's money in it
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday 28/11/2009 Page: 7
Cutting energy waste maybe the only thing we can all agree on at the fag end of a divisive debate about the best way of tackling climate change in Australia. As it happens that is the most productive area we could possibly focus on, environmentally and economically. One proposal that may emerge from the carbon pollution reduction scheme now before Parliament is the creation of a prime ministerial task group to develop a broad-based market mechanism to promote energy efficiency in 2010. Ho hum, you say? No money in it? Wrong.
Energy efficiency is the fastest growing carbon abatement market of all, according to HSBC's recent Climate Annual Index Review. HSBC estimated that the global market for energy efficiency in 2009 was$US164 billion ($178 billion) and would grow to more than $US600 billion by2020.
Clean coal versus renewable energy versus nuclear gets all the headlines. But the International Energy Agency expects 63% of the world's emissions reductions by2030-needed to meet an inadequate 450 ppm carbon dioxide stabilisation target will come from energy efficiency. A 2007 Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics study estimated energy efficiency would directly account for 55% of Australia's carbon abatement by 2050.
This is what energy experts call plucking the low-hanging fruit. Last year McKinsey & Co ranked carbon abatement strategies from cheapest to dearest, and showed many energy-efficiency strategies have a negative cost-that is, they make you money. In the commercial property sector, for example, McKinsey & Co says we can save $130 for each tonne of carbon dioxide pollution avoided.
This puts into perspective the debate about whether Australia meets its international emissions reduction obligations at home or by importing carbon credits-for example, paying to leave rainforests standing in developing countries while continuing to burn coal here like there's no tomorrow. Energy efficiency strategies are the cheapest abatement of all.
At the household level, this means "50 ways to beat the new green tax", as touted by one newspaper this week during this week's parliamentary negotiations. Too right. Let's change our globes (didn't we already?), hang out our clothes and wash the dishes by hand - or at least fill the dishwasher before turning it on. Such steps seem obvious but are we really going to beat climate change by killing the standby switch? Rightly or wrongly, it feels trivial.
Technology won't do the hard work for its. Mark Lister, from the Alliance to Save Energy, says in almost all cases the energy efficiency dividend from use of better technology over the years has been taken up as increased consumption. Demand continues to grow at about 2% a year - higher than population growth. Though we have more efficient fridges than we did a decade ago, they are bigger and there's a spare beer or wine fridge out the back. Add in air conditioners and plasma TVs, McMansions and SUVs, and you get the idea. Things have got worse, not better, in housing and transport.
Meanwhile prodigious amounts of energy are wasted by business, which dwarf anything householders can come at. Rob Murray-Leach, chief executive of the Energy Efficiency Council, says Australia is well behind Europe and the US. Historically, low energy prices have made its sloppy in our energy use-although it gets complicated when you start trying to put figures around sloppy. At its lead and zinc smelter at Port Pirie, for example, the Belgian company, Nyrstar, last year found annual savings of $5.5 million after doing an assessment with the federal energy department.
Or take the Moomba gas plant in South Australia, where Murray-Leach says Santos found it could reduce energy use by a third - enough to power 100,000 homes. In commercial buildings, energy efficiency retrofits routinely achieve energy savings of 40-50%. The profits, often measured in payback periods counted in years, are real but are too small for most property investors to bother about.
The visiting TEA energy efficiency chief, Nigel Jollands, who recently called our commercial building standards "appalling", hopefully gave a wake-up call to an industry that pats itself on the back every time it announces a new green star rated office building but has been lax on maintaining and improving the existing stock. The potential savings in this sector are guaranteed.
One Sydney company, EP&T, which has partnerships with the likes of Westfield, Colonial, GPT, Macquarie and Investa, is launching a service in which it stumps up the money for retrofits and reaps a return from the savings. That's not to say energy efficiency is easy. It's the ultimate marathon, as constant technological improvement increases potential savings against "business as usual" - itself a moveable feast. Plus it's a marathon with obstacles. Worst of all, our national energy market encourages participants to increase energy use.
Then there are cultural issues, information and skills deficits and downright pig-headedness or what economists call "bounded rationality"- when people don't behave optimally, in this case refusing to save money. Another obstacle would be the pollution reduction scheme itself. Currently structured, it would increase energy prices a little, shortening pay back periods from efficiency improvements. But demand is stubbornly price-inelastic.
Worse, according to energy expert Richard Dennis from the Australia Institute, the scheme would create structural impediments to a fair allocation of the return from investment in energy efficiency. "Say a large commercial property owner spends a lot of money on energy efficiency. It's true that they capture the savings in electricity - their bill will fall - but it's their electricity generator who will make money from sale of spare permits."
What is needed (and what could be introduced next year) is a complementary mechanism to the planned scheme to create an economic incentive to pursue energy efficiency - particularly in the commercial and industrial sector, because the carbon trust is meant to promote voluntary energy reduction in the household sector.
Mark Lister says a full policy response to climate change - as proposed in the US under the Waxman-Markey emissions trading scheme would have three strands, a "white certificate" scheme to promote energy efficiency, alongside "green" certificates under the renewable energy target regime, and "black" pollution permits as outlined under the CPRS. That's for next year.
Saturday 28/11/2009 Page: 7
Cutting energy waste maybe the only thing we can all agree on at the fag end of a divisive debate about the best way of tackling climate change in Australia. As it happens that is the most productive area we could possibly focus on, environmentally and economically. One proposal that may emerge from the carbon pollution reduction scheme now before Parliament is the creation of a prime ministerial task group to develop a broad-based market mechanism to promote energy efficiency in 2010. Ho hum, you say? No money in it? Wrong.
Energy efficiency is the fastest growing carbon abatement market of all, according to HSBC's recent Climate Annual Index Review. HSBC estimated that the global market for energy efficiency in 2009 was$US164 billion ($178 billion) and would grow to more than $US600 billion by2020.
Clean coal versus renewable energy versus nuclear gets all the headlines. But the International Energy Agency expects 63% of the world's emissions reductions by2030-needed to meet an inadequate 450 ppm carbon dioxide stabilisation target will come from energy efficiency. A 2007 Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics study estimated energy efficiency would directly account for 55% of Australia's carbon abatement by 2050.
This is what energy experts call plucking the low-hanging fruit. Last year McKinsey & Co ranked carbon abatement strategies from cheapest to dearest, and showed many energy-efficiency strategies have a negative cost-that is, they make you money. In the commercial property sector, for example, McKinsey & Co says we can save $130 for each tonne of carbon dioxide pollution avoided.
This puts into perspective the debate about whether Australia meets its international emissions reduction obligations at home or by importing carbon credits-for example, paying to leave rainforests standing in developing countries while continuing to burn coal here like there's no tomorrow. Energy efficiency strategies are the cheapest abatement of all.
At the household level, this means "50 ways to beat the new green tax", as touted by one newspaper this week during this week's parliamentary negotiations. Too right. Let's change our globes (didn't we already?), hang out our clothes and wash the dishes by hand - or at least fill the dishwasher before turning it on. Such steps seem obvious but are we really going to beat climate change by killing the standby switch? Rightly or wrongly, it feels trivial.
Technology won't do the hard work for its. Mark Lister, from the Alliance to Save Energy, says in almost all cases the energy efficiency dividend from use of better technology over the years has been taken up as increased consumption. Demand continues to grow at about 2% a year - higher than population growth. Though we have more efficient fridges than we did a decade ago, they are bigger and there's a spare beer or wine fridge out the back. Add in air conditioners and plasma TVs, McMansions and SUVs, and you get the idea. Things have got worse, not better, in housing and transport.
Meanwhile prodigious amounts of energy are wasted by business, which dwarf anything householders can come at. Rob Murray-Leach, chief executive of the Energy Efficiency Council, says Australia is well behind Europe and the US. Historically, low energy prices have made its sloppy in our energy use-although it gets complicated when you start trying to put figures around sloppy. At its lead and zinc smelter at Port Pirie, for example, the Belgian company, Nyrstar, last year found annual savings of $5.5 million after doing an assessment with the federal energy department.
Or take the Moomba gas plant in South Australia, where Murray-Leach says Santos found it could reduce energy use by a third - enough to power 100,000 homes. In commercial buildings, energy efficiency retrofits routinely achieve energy savings of 40-50%. The profits, often measured in payback periods counted in years, are real but are too small for most property investors to bother about.
The visiting TEA energy efficiency chief, Nigel Jollands, who recently called our commercial building standards "appalling", hopefully gave a wake-up call to an industry that pats itself on the back every time it announces a new green star rated office building but has been lax on maintaining and improving the existing stock. The potential savings in this sector are guaranteed.
One Sydney company, EP&T, which has partnerships with the likes of Westfield, Colonial, GPT, Macquarie and Investa, is launching a service in which it stumps up the money for retrofits and reaps a return from the savings. That's not to say energy efficiency is easy. It's the ultimate marathon, as constant technological improvement increases potential savings against "business as usual" - itself a moveable feast. Plus it's a marathon with obstacles. Worst of all, our national energy market encourages participants to increase energy use.
Then there are cultural issues, information and skills deficits and downright pig-headedness or what economists call "bounded rationality"- when people don't behave optimally, in this case refusing to save money. Another obstacle would be the pollution reduction scheme itself. Currently structured, it would increase energy prices a little, shortening pay back periods from efficiency improvements. But demand is stubbornly price-inelastic.
Worse, according to energy expert Richard Dennis from the Australia Institute, the scheme would create structural impediments to a fair allocation of the return from investment in energy efficiency. "Say a large commercial property owner spends a lot of money on energy efficiency. It's true that they capture the savings in electricity - their bill will fall - but it's their electricity generator who will make money from sale of spare permits."
What is needed (and what could be introduced next year) is a complementary mechanism to the planned scheme to create an economic incentive to pursue energy efficiency - particularly in the commercial and industrial sector, because the carbon trust is meant to promote voluntary energy reduction in the household sector.
Mark Lister says a full policy response to climate change - as proposed in the US under the Waxman-Markey emissions trading scheme would have three strands, a "white certificate" scheme to promote energy efficiency, alongside "green" certificates under the renewable energy target regime, and "black" pollution permits as outlined under the CPRS. That's for next year.
Call to develop solar power station in WA
www.abc.net.au
Nov 28, 2009
The energy retailer Synergy Energy has called for expressions of interest to build a solar energy station in Western Australia. It is seeking projects up to 50 MWs in size to feed into the South West Interconnected System and provide power to households from Kalbarri to Albany. The Energy Minister Peter Collier says the expressions of interest can be for either direct or indirect solar energy.
Mr Collier says the government is committed to the national target of having 20 per cent of the state's electricity generated from renewable sources by 2020. He says solar energy will be vital to achieving this goal. Proponents will be encouraged to seek funding from the Federal Government's Solar Flagships program.
Nov 28, 2009
The energy retailer Synergy Energy has called for expressions of interest to build a solar energy station in Western Australia. It is seeking projects up to 50 MWs in size to feed into the South West Interconnected System and provide power to households from Kalbarri to Albany. The Energy Minister Peter Collier says the expressions of interest can be for either direct or indirect solar energy.
Mr Collier says the government is committed to the national target of having 20 per cent of the state's electricity generated from renewable sources by 2020. He says solar energy will be vital to achieving this goal. Proponents will be encouraged to seek funding from the Federal Government's Solar Flagships program.
Brumby urged to clear cloud over solar plant
www.smh.com.au
November 29, 2009
THE State Government is being pressured to step in to ensure Australia's largest solar energy power plant goes ahead at Mildura, with renewable-energy campaigners saying more than 1000 jobs are at stake. The Abbotsford-based company behind the plant, Solar Systems, was placed in receivership in September after failing to attract additional funding to build the $420 million plant. More than 100 workers owed $4 million in entitlements were made redundant. A public meeting to be held in Fitzroy on Thursday night will call on the Government to guarantee that the plant is built, or risk losing a further 950 potential jobs.
The ''Renewable is Do-able, Green Jobs for Victoria'' campaign was launched when Solar Systems went into receivership. The company needs $50 million to $100 million to make the Mildura solar plant operational. When it was launched, the Federal and State governments pledged $125 million in grants, only a fraction of which have been delivered. Solar Systems administrator Stephen Longley, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said a decision on whether the company would be sold or go into liquidation would be made tomorrow week at a second creditors' meeting.
''Save Solar Systems'' campaign spokesman Chris Breen said organisers wanted the Government to immediately intervene to guarantee that the company's Abbotsford factory would remain open, the redundant workers reinstated and the solar energy plant built. ''We want the Government to step in and do whatever it takes to make the Mildura solar energy plant happen,'' Mr Breen said. ''If Solar Systems folds, no other company in Australia currently has the technological capability to build the plant. If we don't get large-scale renewable energy there, then when and where will we get it?''
One sacked worker, Diamond Creek engineer David Turner, is relying on the Government to ensure the plant goes ahead so he can get his job back. ''We knew the company was trying to raise money but we didn't think the situation was so dire,'' he said. ''The point is the technology is here and we just need a bit more willpower to get it over the line.''
The collapse of Solar Systems, which has been blamed on the global financial crisis, is a significant blow for the renewable energy industry and has cast doubts on a $50 million State Government grant and a $75 million Commonwealth grant earmarked for the project. The State Government has handed over only $500,000 of its grant to Solar Systems, and none of the federal funding has been delivered.
A spokeswoman for Energy and Resources Minister Peter Batchelor said the Government was working closely with administrators to sell the business. ''Our $50 million was provided to build the solar energy station, not for the operation of the company, and the operational matters will be determined by the administration,'' she said. ''The Government is still keen to see a solar energy station built.''
The 154-MW solar plant was to have produced enough energy to power 45,000 homes, create 950 jobs and save an estimated 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas a year. Solar Systems planned to use photovoltaic solar cells to concentrate the sun's power by 500 times and feed the energy into the national power grid by 2013. A pilot plant to demonstrate the technology has been completed at Bridgewater, central Victoria, but construction has not begun on the main project.
The project ran into trouble in July when Hong Kong-based energy company China Light and Power (CLP Group) refused to provide additional funding unless another company stepped in to share the risks. CLP Group announced a month later that it would write off its $53 million investment in Solar Systems. Solar Systems investors who could face big losses include tennis great Ken Rosewall, millionaire playboy Adrian Valmorbida, and political and media identities John and Janet Calvert-Jones.
November 29, 2009
THE State Government is being pressured to step in to ensure Australia's largest solar energy power plant goes ahead at Mildura, with renewable-energy campaigners saying more than 1000 jobs are at stake. The Abbotsford-based company behind the plant, Solar Systems, was placed in receivership in September after failing to attract additional funding to build the $420 million plant. More than 100 workers owed $4 million in entitlements were made redundant. A public meeting to be held in Fitzroy on Thursday night will call on the Government to guarantee that the plant is built, or risk losing a further 950 potential jobs.
The ''Renewable is Do-able, Green Jobs for Victoria'' campaign was launched when Solar Systems went into receivership. The company needs $50 million to $100 million to make the Mildura solar plant operational. When it was launched, the Federal and State governments pledged $125 million in grants, only a fraction of which have been delivered. Solar Systems administrator Stephen Longley, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said a decision on whether the company would be sold or go into liquidation would be made tomorrow week at a second creditors' meeting.
''Save Solar Systems'' campaign spokesman Chris Breen said organisers wanted the Government to immediately intervene to guarantee that the company's Abbotsford factory would remain open, the redundant workers reinstated and the solar energy plant built. ''We want the Government to step in and do whatever it takes to make the Mildura solar energy plant happen,'' Mr Breen said. ''If Solar Systems folds, no other company in Australia currently has the technological capability to build the plant. If we don't get large-scale renewable energy there, then when and where will we get it?''
One sacked worker, Diamond Creek engineer David Turner, is relying on the Government to ensure the plant goes ahead so he can get his job back. ''We knew the company was trying to raise money but we didn't think the situation was so dire,'' he said. ''The point is the technology is here and we just need a bit more willpower to get it over the line.''
The collapse of Solar Systems, which has been blamed on the global financial crisis, is a significant blow for the renewable energy industry and has cast doubts on a $50 million State Government grant and a $75 million Commonwealth grant earmarked for the project. The State Government has handed over only $500,000 of its grant to Solar Systems, and none of the federal funding has been delivered.
A spokeswoman for Energy and Resources Minister Peter Batchelor said the Government was working closely with administrators to sell the business. ''Our $50 million was provided to build the solar energy station, not for the operation of the company, and the operational matters will be determined by the administration,'' she said. ''The Government is still keen to see a solar energy station built.''
The 154-MW solar plant was to have produced enough energy to power 45,000 homes, create 950 jobs and save an estimated 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas a year. Solar Systems planned to use photovoltaic solar cells to concentrate the sun's power by 500 times and feed the energy into the national power grid by 2013. A pilot plant to demonstrate the technology has been completed at Bridgewater, central Victoria, but construction has not begun on the main project.
The project ran into trouble in July when Hong Kong-based energy company China Light and Power (CLP Group) refused to provide additional funding unless another company stepped in to share the risks. CLP Group announced a month later that it would write off its $53 million investment in Solar Systems. Solar Systems investors who could face big losses include tennis great Ken Rosewall, millionaire playboy Adrian Valmorbida, and political and media identities John and Janet Calvert-Jones.
Duke Energy project to store wind energy
www.commodityonline.com
2009-11-27
NORTH CAROLINA, USA (Commodity Online): Duke Energy has received a $22 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to design, build and install large-scale batteries to store wind energy at one of its wind farms in Texas. The batteries at Duke Energy's Notrees Windpower Project in Ector and Winkler counties, Texas, will store excess wind energy and discharge it whenever demand for electricity is highest – not just when wind turbine blades are turning.
The prevailing technology used at wind and solar farms throughout the world allows electricity to be produced only when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. The intent of the Notrees grant is to demonstrate how energy storage can help overcome this issue, often referred to as "intermittency." Meeting demand for energy with stored renewable power instead of electricity from conventional generation sites that burn coal or natural gas may also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"Energy storage truly has the potential to serve as a 'game-changer' when it comes to renewable power," said Wouter van Kempen, president of Duke Energy Generation Services, a Duke Energy unit that owns and develops renewable energy assets. "Through this project, Duke Energy intends to show that renewables can play an even bigger role in our country's energy future."
This project represents one of the nation's first demonstrations of energy storage at a utility-scale windfarm. The 95 wind turbines in operation at Duke Energy's Notrees site can generate 151 MWs (MW) of clean, renewable electricity. In April 2009, Walmart began purchasing energy directly from the Notrees project to power up to 15% of its stores and facilities in Texas.
The total value of the 20-MW energy storage project at Duke Energy's Notrees site is $43.6 million. The DOE grant was made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, known informally as the federal stimulus program. Duke Energy and DOE must negotiate the terms and conditions of the grant before any funds are released.
In addition, Duke Energy will work with the Energy Reliability Council of Texas to understand the project's implications and establish requirements for its implementation. The Electric Power Research Institute will provide advisory services to Duke Energy throughout the development of this energy storage project.
2009-11-27
NORTH CAROLINA, USA (Commodity Online): Duke Energy has received a $22 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to design, build and install large-scale batteries to store wind energy at one of its wind farms in Texas. The batteries at Duke Energy's Notrees Windpower Project in Ector and Winkler counties, Texas, will store excess wind energy and discharge it whenever demand for electricity is highest – not just when wind turbine blades are turning.
The prevailing technology used at wind and solar farms throughout the world allows electricity to be produced only when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. The intent of the Notrees grant is to demonstrate how energy storage can help overcome this issue, often referred to as "intermittency." Meeting demand for energy with stored renewable power instead of electricity from conventional generation sites that burn coal or natural gas may also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"Energy storage truly has the potential to serve as a 'game-changer' when it comes to renewable power," said Wouter van Kempen, president of Duke Energy Generation Services, a Duke Energy unit that owns and develops renewable energy assets. "Through this project, Duke Energy intends to show that renewables can play an even bigger role in our country's energy future."
This project represents one of the nation's first demonstrations of energy storage at a utility-scale windfarm. The 95 wind turbines in operation at Duke Energy's Notrees site can generate 151 MWs (MW) of clean, renewable electricity. In April 2009, Walmart began purchasing energy directly from the Notrees project to power up to 15% of its stores and facilities in Texas.
The total value of the 20-MW energy storage project at Duke Energy's Notrees site is $43.6 million. The DOE grant was made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, known informally as the federal stimulus program. Duke Energy and DOE must negotiate the terms and conditions of the grant before any funds are released.
In addition, Duke Energy will work with the Energy Reliability Council of Texas to understand the project's implications and establish requirements for its implementation. The Electric Power Research Institute will provide advisory services to Duke Energy throughout the development of this energy storage project.
Can we trust the doom-laden eco-loonies on global warming?
www.pressandjournal.co.uk
27/11/2009
THERE are more than a few red faces among the climate scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) after computer hackers allegedly revealed the contents of e-mails that the scientists sent to each other on the internet. In fact, it is estimated that if their faces get much hotter, their noses will melt like the polar ice caps that they've been banging on about for so long.
One of the e-mails that caused the climatic scaremongers the most embarrassment was the one that reads: "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps for each series for the last 20 years and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline."
Professor Phil Jones, the university's CRU director, dismisses any notion that this e-mail suggests that there was any attempt to cover up the fact that, far from getting warmer, the Earth's temperature has actually been dropping for the last 10 years. He and others of a like mind would have us believe that it was just an unfortunate choice of words. Although, to the neutral observer, it is difficult to see how the words "trick" and "hide" could be quite as innocent as the good professor would have us believe.
The story caused barely a ripple in the British media. I caught one item on one of the TV channels that featured a climate scientist sitting on a beach with a lot of black and white shells. He explained, rather unconvincingly, I thought, that we have always had hot spells and cold spells and argued that the hot spells were getting more frequent while the cold spells weren't. As he spoke, he threw away the black shells, representing the cold spells, until he had only white shells left. As a piece of scientific mumbo-jumbo this was hard to beat.
I was more impressed by historic climatologist Tim Ball, who was interviewed on YouTube on the subject of those e-mails. He claimed that the exposure of the said files was confirmation of the collusion that has been going on between scientists who have a vested interest in promoting the global warming theory. He pointed out that a small group of 43 scientists have been publishing their doom-laden tomes and reviewing each other's work in a cosy "I'll scratch your back, if you scratch mine" set-up.
He revealed that one of the leading lights in the eco-loony campaign had suggested to another scientist who had managed to infiltrate their ranks that they bury the mediaeval warm period in order to give their global warming argument more bite. Tim Ball points out that Greenland was actually warmer 1,000 years ago when Vikings strutted their stuff. What seems to have upset him as much as anything else was the blatant contempt the e-mails showed for anyone who dared to question this cabal of scientists.
There are too many people making too much money out of this climate-change business, and too many politicians climbing on the global warming bandwagon in order to curry favour with the sandal-wearing beardies for anybody to dare to challenge this new religion. And it's not just the likes of Al Gore, who has picked up an Oscar for his documentary film An Inconvenient Truth, been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, and become rich by investing in windmills and such like, who are profiting from this message of doom.
A neighbour of mine used to sell ships, but he had the sense to get out of that business a few years ago when he saw the way the wind was blowing and now he's making money hand over fist flogging windmills all over Scotland. He has every reason to be grateful to Mr Gore for spreading his global-warming gospel, although some critics of Gore's award-winning propaganda piece have pointed out that he used graphs linking CO2 and temperature that have since been discredited scientifically.
The shots of drowned polar bears that plucked at the heartstrings of millions of schoolchildren who were exposed to the documentary have since been revealed to have been of bears that were killed in a storm. The latest survey on the polar bear population shows that their numbers are greater than they have been for years.
In his book Real Global Warming Disaster, Christopher Booker says: "The world's politicians are poised to impose on us far and away the most costly set of measures that any group of politicians has ever proposed in the history of the world – measures so destructive that even if half of them were implemented, they would take us back to the Dark Ages." If you think this is all a bit academic, consider how much your gas and electricity bills will increase by over the coming years in order to pay for all this so-called renewable energy.
Billions of pounds will have to be spent covering the countryside in those windmills, and then there's the wave power project to be paid for. Meanwhile, Scotland is sitting on 10% of all the coal reserves in Europe and will continue to sit on it while our leaders are still persuaded by the argument put forward by a bunch of scientists who are feathering their nests with the largesse handed over to them by the windmill manufacturers and their ilk.
But what do I know? So let's give the final word to Professor Richard Lindzen, a leading atmospheric scientist, who writes: "Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st-century's developed world went into a hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature of a few tenths of a degree and.., proceeded to contemplate a rollback of the industrial age."
Well, we might be contemplating such a rollback in this neck of the woods, but you can bet your life that China and India will be harbouring no such notions. Nor will any other country with a titter of wit.
27/11/2009
THERE are more than a few red faces among the climate scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) after computer hackers allegedly revealed the contents of e-mails that the scientists sent to each other on the internet. In fact, it is estimated that if their faces get much hotter, their noses will melt like the polar ice caps that they've been banging on about for so long.
One of the e-mails that caused the climatic scaremongers the most embarrassment was the one that reads: "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps for each series for the last 20 years and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline."
Professor Phil Jones, the university's CRU director, dismisses any notion that this e-mail suggests that there was any attempt to cover up the fact that, far from getting warmer, the Earth's temperature has actually been dropping for the last 10 years. He and others of a like mind would have us believe that it was just an unfortunate choice of words. Although, to the neutral observer, it is difficult to see how the words "trick" and "hide" could be quite as innocent as the good professor would have us believe.
The story caused barely a ripple in the British media. I caught one item on one of the TV channels that featured a climate scientist sitting on a beach with a lot of black and white shells. He explained, rather unconvincingly, I thought, that we have always had hot spells and cold spells and argued that the hot spells were getting more frequent while the cold spells weren't. As he spoke, he threw away the black shells, representing the cold spells, until he had only white shells left. As a piece of scientific mumbo-jumbo this was hard to beat.
I was more impressed by historic climatologist Tim Ball, who was interviewed on YouTube on the subject of those e-mails. He claimed that the exposure of the said files was confirmation of the collusion that has been going on between scientists who have a vested interest in promoting the global warming theory. He pointed out that a small group of 43 scientists have been publishing their doom-laden tomes and reviewing each other's work in a cosy "I'll scratch your back, if you scratch mine" set-up.
He revealed that one of the leading lights in the eco-loony campaign had suggested to another scientist who had managed to infiltrate their ranks that they bury the mediaeval warm period in order to give their global warming argument more bite. Tim Ball points out that Greenland was actually warmer 1,000 years ago when Vikings strutted their stuff. What seems to have upset him as much as anything else was the blatant contempt the e-mails showed for anyone who dared to question this cabal of scientists.
There are too many people making too much money out of this climate-change business, and too many politicians climbing on the global warming bandwagon in order to curry favour with the sandal-wearing beardies for anybody to dare to challenge this new religion. And it's not just the likes of Al Gore, who has picked up an Oscar for his documentary film An Inconvenient Truth, been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, and become rich by investing in windmills and such like, who are profiting from this message of doom.
A neighbour of mine used to sell ships, but he had the sense to get out of that business a few years ago when he saw the way the wind was blowing and now he's making money hand over fist flogging windmills all over Scotland. He has every reason to be grateful to Mr Gore for spreading his global-warming gospel, although some critics of Gore's award-winning propaganda piece have pointed out that he used graphs linking CO2 and temperature that have since been discredited scientifically.
The shots of drowned polar bears that plucked at the heartstrings of millions of schoolchildren who were exposed to the documentary have since been revealed to have been of bears that were killed in a storm. The latest survey on the polar bear population shows that their numbers are greater than they have been for years.
In his book Real Global Warming Disaster, Christopher Booker says: "The world's politicians are poised to impose on us far and away the most costly set of measures that any group of politicians has ever proposed in the history of the world – measures so destructive that even if half of them were implemented, they would take us back to the Dark Ages." If you think this is all a bit academic, consider how much your gas and electricity bills will increase by over the coming years in order to pay for all this so-called renewable energy.
Billions of pounds will have to be spent covering the countryside in those windmills, and then there's the wave power project to be paid for. Meanwhile, Scotland is sitting on 10% of all the coal reserves in Europe and will continue to sit on it while our leaders are still persuaded by the argument put forward by a bunch of scientists who are feathering their nests with the largesse handed over to them by the windmill manufacturers and their ilk.
But what do I know? So let's give the final word to Professor Richard Lindzen, a leading atmospheric scientist, who writes: "Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st-century's developed world went into a hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature of a few tenths of a degree and.., proceeded to contemplate a rollback of the industrial age."
Well, we might be contemplating such a rollback in this neck of the woods, but you can bet your life that China and India will be harbouring no such notions. Nor will any other country with a titter of wit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)