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Berlin goes for 100% renewable energy, in buying back the grid

The new municipal utility would work towards a 100 percent renewable supply of energy starting with distributed cogeneration units whose efficiencies are at least 80 percent. And as Germans always understand, the path to a greater share of renewable energy always requires energy conservation and efficiency, so the new utility would also focus on these goals

highly-recommendedBerlin to buy back grid and go 100 percent renewable, Renewables International 18 Dec12, The German capital has resolved to buy back its power supply. On Wednesday, the grand coalition that governs the city-state passed a resolution to buy back its grid and switch to renewables. Continue reading →

December 18, 2012 Posted by | Germany, renewable | Leave a comment

Brazil’s wind farms bring cheapest electricity prices

Wind farms set record low generation prices, SMH, December 16, 2012 Four energy developers agreed to sell power from 10 proposed wind farms in Brazil at the cheapest rates ever.

Enerfin Sociedad de Energia SA, Renova Energia SA, EGP- Serra Azul and Bioenergy Geradora de Energia Ltda. won contracts to sell electricity to distributors for an average price of 87.94 reais ($41) a megawatt-hour, Brazil’s national energy agency Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica said in an e-mail yesterday. (Australian wholesale prices are about $50 per megawatt-hour, including the $23 carbon tax per tonne.)

“This is definitely the cheapest wind energy in the world,” Maria Gabriela da Rocha Oliveira, a Sao Paulo-based analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in a telephone interview. It’s 12 per cent lower than the August 2011 auction that yielded an average price of 99.58 reais a megawatt-hour. That was the lowest price in the world for wind power then and the least expensive power in Brazil, beating natural gas and hydroelectricity…..  http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/wind-farms-set-record-low-generation-prices-20121216-2bh4z.html#ixzz2FLfka1Ga

December 17, 2012 Posted by | Brazil, business and costs, renewable | 1 Comment

World’s largest offshore wind farm fully operational by Spring 2013

wind-farm-oceanConstruction complete at world’s largest offshore wind farm REM, 14 December 2012 The 175th and final turbine has been installed at the London Array offshore wind farm marking the end of major construction activities, Dong Energy announced.

Turbine installation began in January 2012 and has been completed by MPI Discovery, A2SEA’s Sea Worker and Sea Jack. Now that all the turbines are in place and the majority now connected and supplying power to the national grid, the wind farm is on track to
be fully operational in Spring 2013.

DONG Energy, which holds a 50 percent stake in the project, said the wind farm has been generating energy since October 2012 when the first turbine began producing power. Continue reading →

December 15, 2012 Posted by | renewable, UK | Leave a comment

Connecticut’s Solar City creating jobs and reducing greenhouse gases

SolarCity announces expansion day after successful IPOREM, Renewable Energy magazine, 14 December 2012 Just a day after its successful IPO on the Nasdaq exchange, Elon Musk-backed SolarCity has announced the expansion of its operations center in the US state of Connecticut and plans to hire 15 additional employees.

solar_city-Connecticut

With Connecticut Governor Daniel P. Malloy and CEO Lyndon Rive in attendance for the grand opening of SolarCity’s Hartford operations center, the company – which has grown its Connecticut workforce from zero to 45 in the last year – announced that it is now seeking hires for an additional 15 open positions in the state. Open positions include electricians, installers, sales staff, auditors, and project managers.

SolarCity officials said the expansion is due in large part due to the efforts of the state, through programs at Connecticut Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority (CEFIA) and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) to promote, develop and invest in clean energy and energy efficiency projects Continue reading →

December 15, 2012 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Pathological consumption is destroying our Earth

The fatuity of the products is matched by the profundity of the impacts. Rare materials, complex electronics, the energy needed for manufacture and transport are extracted and refined and combined into compounds of utter pointlessness. When you take account of the fossil fuels whose use we commission in other countries, manufacturing and consumption are responsible for more than half of our carbon dioxide

 This is pathological consumption: a world-consuming epidemic of collective madness, rendered so normal by advertising and by the media that we scarcely notice what has happened to us.This boom has not happened by accident.

 When every conceivable want and need has been met (among those who have disposable money), growth depends on selling the utterly useless.

Father-Christmas-consumerTrashing the planet for a talking piggy bank http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/trashing-the-planet-for-a-talking-piggy-bank-20121212-2b9vh.html#ixzz2F4vYvlY2 December 13, 2012 George Monbiot There’s nothing they need, nothing they don’t own already, nothing they even want. So you buy them a solar-powered waving queen; a silver-plated ice cream tub-holder; a ”hilarious” inflatable Zimmer frame; a confection of plastic and electronics called Terry the Swearing Turtle; or – and somehow I find this significant – a Scratch Off World Map.

They seem amusing on the first day of Christmas, daft on the second, embarrassing on the third. By the 12th day of Christmas they’re in landfill. For 30 seconds of dubious entertainment, or a hedonic stimulus that lasts no longer than a nicotine hit, we commission the use of materials whose impacts will ramify for generations.

Researching her film The Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard discovered that, of the materials flowing through the consumer economy, only 1 per cent remain in use six months after sale. Even the goods we might have expected to hold on to are soon condemned to destruction through either planned obsolescence (wearing out or breaking quickly) or perceived obsolescence (becoming unfashionable).

But many of the products we buy, especially for Christmas, cannot become obsolescent. The term implies a loss of utility, but they had no utility in the first place. An electronic drum-machine T-shirt; a Darth Vader talking piggy bank; an ear-shaped iPhone case; an individual beer can chiller; an electronic wine breather; a sonic screwdriver remote control; bacon toothpaste; a dancing dog. No one is expected to use them, or even look at them, after Christmas day. They are designed to elicit thanks, perhaps a snigger or two, and then be thrown away. Continue reading →

December 14, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, ENERGY | Leave a comment

Solar power plants for Japan

Sojitz Sees Beyond Rare Earths to LNG, Solar in Non-Atomic Japan, Bloomberg by Yuriy Humber & Ichiro Suzuki – Dec 13, 2012  “….Another way for Sojitz to meet the changing energy needs of Japan will be via renewables.

Solar Power

Sojitz wants to build five solar power plants totaling about 100 megawatts, including on the northern isle of Hokkaido and in Kagoshima prefecture, western Japan, Sato said. The trader aims to register the projects with the government by the end of March, he said.

Japan introduced this year the world’s highest payment rate for renewable energy, known as a feed-in tariff, as a way to stimulate investments in solar, wind and biomass generation and ease reliance on nuclear power. The tariff rate will be revised from April.

“With a fixed feed-in tariff the economics set up has become very easy to understand,” Sato said.

The current low cost of raw materials for solar panels and Sojitz’s experience with three solar energy projects in Germany should help the trader set up an efficient business in Japan, Sato said. The company has since sold one of the projects, he said.

Sojitz commissioned a 24 megawatt solar plant in Mixdorf in July 2011 and completed a 3 megawatt station in Betzweiler in May 2010, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance data……http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-14/sojitz-sees-beyond-rare-earths-to-lng-solar-in-non-atomic-japan.html

December 14, 2012 Posted by | Japan, renewable | Leave a comment

Wind energy taking off in a big way, in China

China’s Wind Power Sector Set for Rapid Development after Year of Stagnancy Renewable Energy World, By Liu Yuanyuan,  December 11, 2012   BEIJING — China’s wind power sector, after stagnating for nearly a year, is expected to experience rapid development as local governments launch favorable policies. Continue reading →

December 14, 2012 Posted by | China, renewable | Leave a comment

North Korean propaganda film contains some disturbing truths

YouTubePROPAGANDA | FULL ENGLISH VERSION (2012)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NMr2VrhmFI&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6NMr2VrhmFI&has_verified=1 Published on 13 Jul 2012 Here is the formal statement I gave to Federal Police on 16 June 2012:

On a trip to visit family in Seoul in April, I was approached by a man and a woman who claimed to be North Korean defectors. They presented me with a DVD that recently came into their possession and asked me to translate it. They also asked me to post the completed film on the Internet so that it could reach a worldwide audience. I believed what I was told and an agreement was made to protect their identities (and mine).

Despite my concerns about what I was viewing when I returned home, I proceeded to translate and post the film on You Tube because of the film’s extraordinary content. I have now made public my belief that this film was never intended for a domestic audience in the DPRK. Instead, I believe that these people, who presented themselves as ‘defectors’ specifically targeted me because of my reputation as a translator and interpreter.

Furthermore, I now believe these people work for the DPRK. The fact that I have continued to translate and post the film in spite of this belief does not make me complicit in their intention to spread their ideology. I chose to keep posting this film because – regardless of who made it – I believe people should see it because of the issues it raises and I stand by my right to post it for people to share and discuss freely with each other.

Sabine

I have translated this film, laid in the English voice over and subtitles, and on legal advice have blurred the identity of the presenter and/or blacked out certain elements.

0:00 Introduction
6:54 Creating Ideas & Illusions
16:48 Fear
19:35 Religion
25:00 Beware the 1%
28:10 Emulating Psychosis
31:21 Rewriting History
41:15 The Birth of Propaganda
45:49 Cover Ups and Omissions
54:10 Complicity
58:05 Censorship
1:01:50 International Diplomacy
1:06:14 Television
1:08:11 Advertising
1:14:36 The Cult of Celebrity
1:22:34 Distraction
1:28:01 Terrorism
1:35:00 The Revolution Starts Now

Please share and discuss with as many people as you can, and if you have questions for me or want to discuss the content further, please do so below or go to: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Propagandafilm/427263763965283

December 13, 2012 Posted by | ENERGY | Leave a comment

USA could get 99.9% of its energy from renewable sources

renewable-energy-pictureRenewables Could Provide 99.9% Of Power By 2030
http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3509 by Energy Matters, 13 Dec 12, Scientists state a well-designed combination of wind energy, solar power, battery and fuel cell storage could almost always provide more electricity than required at a cost comparable to today’s electricity expenses.

Research carried out by the University of Delaware and Delaware Technical Community College determined renewables could economically fully power a utility scale electric grid 99.9 percent of the time by 2030 – and without government subsidies. Continue reading →

December 13, 2012 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

New solar fabric will light up your clothes

Japan researchers invent solar-cell fabric, Herald Sun,  From: AAP  December 12, 2012 CLOTHES that could literally light up your life were unveiled Tuesday by Japanese researchers who said their solar-cell fabric would eventually let wearers harvest energy on the go. Continue reading →

December 13, 2012 Posted by | decentralised, Japan | Leave a comment

Solar power enables vegetables to be grown in the Sahara

Cucumbers In The Sahara – Thanks To Solar Powerby Energy Matters, 10 Dec 12The first cucumbers produced in the Sahara desert using seawater and solar power were served up to participants at UN Climate Negotiations in Doha.

Cucumber may be a warm-season vegetable, but the Sahara desert is a rather extreme environment even for this sun loving plant as it is also quite thirsty.

The Sahara Forest Project has combined saltwater-cooled greenhouses, concentrated solar power (CSP), solar panels and desalination technologies to produce the crop from what is otherwise barren land. Salt created from the process is on-sold to third parties. Key to the project is not so much any individual technology, but how they work together….. http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3507

December 13, 2012 Posted by | AFRICA, renewable | Leave a comment

The Work and Spend trap – how we all fell for the consumerist con

One analysis at the University of Melbourne sought to discover the reasons why people are increasingly compelled to work more than 50 hours a week.

 The correct answer was consumerism. It was the “work-and-spend” trap, an endless cycle characterised by the desire for higher living standards, linked with greater levels of debt that can only be managed by working longer and harder.

consumer-societyA frenzy of consumerism   http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/blogs/work-in-progress/a-frenzy-of-consumerism-20121207-2ayut.html#ixzz2EgEa2wIK The Age, December 7, 2012 James Adonis There was something quite tragic about  There was something quite tragic about the Click Frenzy
frenzy, wasn’t there? The same could be said about the Black Friday stampedes in the US, It’s tasteless consumerism to the max, turning ordinary people into ravenous and mindless shoppers, with flow-on effects in the workplace.

But first, let’s go back to 1929. In an article written for Nation’s Business magazine, Charles Kettering – a director of General Motors Research – opined on the need for companies to keep consumers dissatisfied. The moment people are happy with what they have, “almost immediately hard times would be upon us”, he wrote.

And so it is that marketers persevere with advertising to convince us we’re not sexy enough, popular enough, smart enough, or (whatever) enough, unless we purchase what they’re selling. Continue reading →

December 10, 2012 Posted by | ENERGY, social effects | Leave a comment

Saudi Arabia, Qatar to become, well, the Saudi Arabia of solar power

solar-concentratedGulf riches could supercharge concentrated solar, REneweconomy,  By Giles Parkinson   10 December 2012 The concentrated solar power (CSP) sector is expected to finally spring to life – and begin its long-awaited journey down the cost curve – as the oil and gas-rich Gulf nations deploy their massive sovereign wealth in solar technologies.

At the climate change talks in Doha, both Saudi Arabia and the host country Qatar reinforced their intentions to invest tens of billions of dollars into large-scale CSP – which includes solar thermal and concentrated solar PV technologies. The biggest oil and gas exporters in the world want to become, well, the Saudi Arabia and Qatar of the solar industry too. Continue reading →

December 10, 2012 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, renewable, Saudi Arabia | 1 Comment

Huge solar energy installation in New York

sunBig New York install marks new era for renewable energy firm, Clean Energy Authority.com December 09, 2012  by Amanda H. Miller  While one of the largest rooftop solar installations in New York marks a shift in the state’s energy policy, it’s an even bigger milestone for the company that installed it.

The 1-megawatt solar installation that covers a rooftop the size of two football fields in Yonkers, New York, is Half Moon Ventures first solar installation ever.

The Illinois company decided a couple years ago to shift its course completely. It had been focused on utility-scale wind energy projects. “We decided strategically that it was time to exit that business,” said Half Moon CEO Michael Hastings.

Since then, the company has focused on developing smaller renewable energy projects for municipalities and corporations that are used to paying high rates for power. “The onsite generation market is markedly better than the utility-scale market,” Hastings said….. http://www.cleanenergyauthority.com/solar-energy-news/big-new-york-install-marks-new-era-120912

December 10, 2012 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Advance in solar clothing – solar fibre

Solar Fibre A Stepping Stone To True Solar Clothing by Energy Matters, 10 Dec 12 We’ve already seen clothing with embedded flexible solar panels, but soon the clothing itself may be the solar cell.

The solar vest and urban chic solar clothing‘s days may be numbered (some might say thankfully). Solar panels being woven onto fabric could become passé if a new silicon-based optical fiber with solar-cell capabilities works out.

An international team of chemists, physicists and engineers lead by Penn State’s Professor John Badding have created a fibre that can convert solar radiation into direct-current electricity.

The material, thinner than the width of a human hair, is created using high-pressure chemistry techniques to deposit layers of crystalline silicon semiconductor materials directly into tiny holes in optical fibers…… http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3506

December 10, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, decentralised | Leave a comment

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