Home Blog Page 359

Technology Roadmap: How2Guide for Bioenergy

PagesdeIEA_H2G_Bioenergy_2017_WEBBioenergy is the largest source of renewable energy today, providing heat and electricity, as well as transport fuels. Yet, more so than for other low‑carbon energy technologies, the complex and multi‑faceted supply chains of bioenergy projects call for careful consideration of sustainability issues and well-thought-out regulatory frameworks. These will enable continued bioenergy growth, while contributing to reduced GHG emissions and greater energy security while fostering the agricultural sector.

A concerted effort is needed to accelerate the development and deployment of bioenergy technologies globally. National and regional bioenergy roadmaps can play a key role in assisting decision makers identify pathways that are tailored to local resources and priority actions to overcome economic and non‑economic barriers. This How2Guide for Bioenergy was jointly developed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as a toolbox that can be used for both planning and implementing new bioenergy strategies, or to improve existing ones. You can find guide here.

Source: iea.org

There Is Constantly Fewer Water Resources, Better Management Is Necessary

- I-3While preparing for the interview with PhD Nebojša Veljković, we have performed several experiments and easily made sure that the litre of water is more expensive than the litre of petrol. Continuation of the conversation is well-known, and that is a fact that water makes 70 percent of the planet and of our body. Serbia is rich in water resources but it is still limited and we do not have it in abundance. In the last 3 decades, much geopolitical yeast in the world happen due to drought and energy sources. Rivers and their flows are actually extremely important for life and work of people, so much that 40 percent of people on the planet live in the basins of rivers and lakes which include two or more countries. Even 90 percent of people live in the countries which have river basins. Therefore, water management represents a complex web of activities and measurements which are not only technical but also envisage the harmonization of supply and demand, management of services and purpose and what is more important the management of the resource itself. PhD Nebojša Veljković is the Head of the Department for monitoring of water quality and sediment in the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency and he shared with us some scientific findings and knowledge in the field of water management in Serbia.

EP: Available water resources for human needs are not abundant. What is the real situation and can we expect water scarcity in Serbia also?

Nebojša Veljković: The public in our country and unfortunately experts keep forgetting that we already live in a catastrophic century with all the characteristics that you have mentioned. It seems that we do not notice that the litre of bottled water in restaurants is more expensive that the litre of petrol. The war in Syria is most probably the first conflict in the 21st century which can be brought in the connection with the climate change and drought, that is water scarcity. More than a million people, refugees and immigrants have entered Western Europe with future serious socio-economic and political consequences for the continent. In most of the analyses and reports, especially in our country, the ecological factors of Syrian crisis haven’t been highlighted. The region has suffered a long period of droughts in the years that preceded the rebellion and the civil war. After 2009 in southern Syria, farmers haven’t been able to cultivate and preserve crops and cattle fund due to droughts, so they migrated from rural to urban areas. Protests began in Dara in 2011 and spread out under the influence of Islamic extremism which was joined by a foreign political factor and that is how the catastrophe was created. It is important to understand that the drought here is in the background of the problem and that unpreparedness on the impact of climate change is the key explanation. The Syrian government was neglecting the investment in water management during the decades-long period, and the shortfall of yield in the agricultural production during the period of drought has caused the lack of basic livelihoods and thus enhanced the existing social tensions and political instability. The lesson from the Syrian conflict is clear – water scarcity crisis is always connected to the other associated factors. Serbia is located on the European continent and generally on the world map it is outside the zone of water scarcity. However, as far as we are concerned, certain parts of Serbia have the same symptoms of the disease called ‘water stress’, like certain parts of Italy, France and southern Spain which are already in chronic shortage of water. We witnessed the disruption of water supply in Užice in 2014 and a three-month ban of water use in Požarevac from October 2015 to January 2016. In both cases it happened because of the sensitivity to climate changes. In the first case it was due to the development of toxic cyanobacteria in the accumulation for water supply happen due to favourable warmer conditions for their growth. What happened in the second case was the deficit of supplemental feeding of the groundwater source which deteriorated in quality and it was a direct consequence of reduced flow in the Velika Morava. These are individual cases which will certainly be increased if all the projections of climate change are accomplished, and it is something that even hydro meteorological data and climate mathematical models for this century are indicating.

EP: Bearing in mind the existing data, what are the projections for the following period as far as the availability of the amount of waters in our country is concerned?

Nebojša Veljković: Serbia has plenty of water, and it can be found on the European list in the group of countries with ‘medium affluence’. The disadvantage of our water resources lays in the fact that the largest amounts of these waters, even 92 percent, are transit waters, which flow by the rivers from the territories of other countries or make an international border – the Danube, the Sava, the Drina, the Lim, the Tamiš, the Tisa, the Begej. The basin of the Južna Morava, the Zapadna Morava and the Velika Morava, which we administratively call central Serbia, annually collects water, in the form of rainfall, which flows through the Velika Morava. Just before its confluence into the Danube on Ljubičevski bridge it has 22 times less water than this big European river, to which ‘our’ waters are handed in and thus together go to the Black Sea.

To make things even worse, the analyses show that the average flow of the Velika Morava at Ljubičevski bridge has decreased for 18 percent in the period from 181 to 2010 compared to the period from 1951 to 1981. We have less and less of our water resources, since the demographic projections show that in Serbia will live the same number of the population in 2050 as in 1950. The higher number of population does not necessarily have to mean the greater consumption of resources, but the increase of consumption per capita is more critical and that is the factor which represents the greatest pressure on the environment. A good example would be the irrigation system in Serbia. Statistical studies show that only 17 percent of arable land is irrigated in Serbia, while Hungary and Slovenia irrigate 50 percent of arable land, and Greece 82 percent in comparison to the entire arable land equipped with the irrigation systems. Such a low level of the resource utilization has led me to do one free projection of the necessary amount of water for irrigation and I will present it in a meeting of experts. I have started with the assumption that we will increase the irrigated area to 50 percent by 2020, and to 80 percent by 2030 in those areas which are now equipped with the irrigation systems. This increase is entirely in accordance with the strategy on agricultural production development, but this approach also takes into account the consumption of water. The increase from the current 17 percent of irrigated area to 80 percent in 2030 will increase the amount of gripped water for the required irrigation for a billion of cubic meters of water per year compared to the current need. This is the amount of water which corresponds to the average annual flow of the Južna Morava in May. In other words, for the increase of agricultural production, we need one more Južna Morava. This is a good and simple illustrative example of balance sheet and projections of necessary amount of water and it opens up a crucial issue on which we have to give an answer in strategic documents. What is the amount of water which we have at our disposal for what kind of production and consumption and how much of it will be satisfactory and when?

EP: What can you tell us about the water quality in Serbia, the systems for treatment and the fact that water flows were cleaner during the 90’s when domestic industry was destroyed? Since you are the author of the method ‘Serbian Eater Quality Index’, could you present to us the data from the last 15 years?

Nebojša Veljković: Serbian Environmental Protection Agency has developed the indicator for Serbian Water Quality Index for the assessment of the surface water quality. The indicator is designed for reporting to the public, experts, political decision makers and it has been adopted by the relevant by-law. Serbian Water Quality Index is a composite indicator which is made up from 9 physical-chemical and one microbiological indicator of a quality with whose aggregation the quality of water obtains the index water quality ranging from 0 to 100. The quality of water is depending on the corresponding index points classified in five categories: excellent, very good, good, bad and very bad.

In our reports, which we regularly submit to the Government of Serbia every year, the results of the analysis for large basins and rivers are presented in details and they also contain the overview of the quality since 1998. The best quality has the basin of the Sava with the Drina and tributaries whose 90% is in the categories excellent, very good and good. Waters of Vojvodina have the poorest quality, which include the water flows and canals of Danube-Tisa-Danube and in this are 44 percent of samples are in the categories bad and very bad. The river Danube, thanks to a huge receiving capacity and the possibility of self-purification, shows solid quality, since only 4 percent of the sample is in the category bad and non in the category very bad. Method Serbian Water Quality Index is suitable for comparative studies ad modelling and in that sense I have performed one research which is the continuation of my dissertation and it represents pioneer work in the field of so-called separation of economic growth from the environmental impact.

finI would single out only the part which is related to your question from this voluminous work. Analysis of our watercourses quality as a recipients of municipal and industrial waste waters for the period from 1981 to 2010 shows three cycles clearly expressed. The first cycle, the 80’s with the trend of quality deterioration towards the 90’s; the second cycle shows the significant increase in quality up to 2000, and the third cycle after 2000 shows mild decline in quality. These three cycles are entirely in accordance with the industrial development of Serbia. The increase of industrial production scope follows the deterioration of receiving water quality and vice versa. This analysis can be supplemented with a comparative overview of the industrial development and coverage of the sewage system for the population with the treatment of waste waters. This comparative overview is given for Serbia and Finland and it presented the industrial growth in the last half of the century. The current level of population’s sewage system coverage is 60 percent and only 10 percent with the treatment systems which date back from the ‘golden’ 80’s and it indicates that in this comparative analyses we weren’t better than Finland even when we had larger scope of industrial production. From which funds will Serbia now finance the construction of the plant for wastewater treatment?

According to our by-law from 2016 which took into account the request of Water Framework Directive of the European Union, we are obliged to construct all the plants for wastewater treatment for settlements whose population is above 2,000 of equivalent inhabitants by 2040. Today, there are 26 communal plants for wastewater treatment in Serbia, and it is necessary to build around 200 for settlements which have from 2,000 to 5,000 equivalent inhabitants and around 100 settlements which have from 5,000 to 10,000 equivalent inhabitants. The total number of plants for settlements of all sizes is around 400. So, we need to build 300 plants by 2040 in settlements which have up to 10,000 inhabitants, and those are the poorest municipal centres. Can all these necessary capital investments be covered from user fees in those settlements? Now, certainly not, since all the public communal companies provide services above the economic price and that means that have operating losses. There are two ways for financing the construction and functioning of communal plants for wastewater treatment. The first one is the construction by using commercial loans at the expense of a local self-government with the state guarantee, where the final cost is shifted to the taxpayers. The other way is connected with the functioning of the built systems in which we have the increase of fee for the costs of the treatment incorporated into higher service fee, which represents direct cost of the consumers or it is shifted indirectly to tax payers, that is users through the subsidies of a local self-government. There is also the third way, which is now applied to some of the existing 26 plants for the treatment of wastewater; in this way the prices of the communal services do not increase because the plant is simply not operating. The terms of negotiation process for the accession to the EU within the Chapter 27, which are related to the environment, are very clear. Bulgaria and Romania have already been paying high penalties for failing to perform obligations.

EP: Statistics show that around 30 percent of water is lost in water utility systems. What can we do in this field in Serbia in order to improve business efficiency of water utility companies?

Nebojša Veljković: The indicator ‘water loses’ about which you are talking about reflects the reaction of society since it evaluates the efficiency of managing systems for water supply and it includes technical requirements which affect the condition of the pipelines, the price of water and the awareness of consumers about the importance of water as a resource. The characteristic of the present public drinking water supply is high losses, as you have mentioned around 30 percent and there is an increasing trend. In this way 230 million cubic meters of water are ‘lost’ annually, which corresponds to the equivalent of 45 MW of the installed hydro power plant which delivers electricity in order to engulf and deliver that amount of water. By reducing water loses in Serbian water utility systems only for one third, we would save the electricity which jointly produce HPP ‘Ovčar Banja’ and HPP ’Međuvršje’, that is 13MW of the installed power of these hydro power plants. Another indicator of resource efficiency of water utility systems in Serbia provides a special comparative picture. According to the previous ten-year statistics data the losses of water are increasing and at the same time the delivered amounts of drinking water from public water supply systems are decreasing. When you put the data on gripped amounts of water in ratio with the number of employees, you obtain the indicator which shows that one employee in German water supply produces 3 times more than his colleague in Serbian water supply. It is a measure of the business efficiency. It is enough to see clearly that the efficiency increase of the public communal companies in the field of water supply and sewage can be achieved only by improving the level of services, reconstruction and development of infrastructure which is not possible without the development of local economy and country as a whole.

Interview by: Vesna Vukajlović

China’s First Vertical Forest is Rising in Nanjing

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

Stefano Boeri Architetti is bringing the vertical forest concept popularized in Milan to Nanjing, China with the Nanjing Towers. The two green towers could provide the city with a breath of fresh air, producing around 132 pounds of oxygen every day as they absorb carbon dioxide. They’ll accomplish this air-cleaning feat with 1,100 flourishing trees from 23 local species and 2,500 cascading shrubs and plants.

The two towers at 656 feet and 354 feet tall will rise above the Nanjing Pukou District, which Stefano Boeri Architetti’s press release describes as an area that will likely lead modernization efforts in the south of China’s Jiangsu province and help develop a Yangtze River economic zone. Nanjing Yang Zi State-owned Investment Group Company Limited is promoting the towers and is listed by Stefano Boeri Architetti as an investor in the project.

The taller tower will hold offices, a museum, a green architecture school, and a rooftop club. The second tower will host a 247-room Hyatt hotel and rooftop swimming pool. A podium 65 feet high will include shops, restaurants, and a conference hall. Balconies on the buildings will allow inhabitants to get up close to the nature thriving on the building facades.

600 tall trees and 500 medium-sized trees will grow on the towers, and Stefano Boeri Architetti says the trees and cascading plants will help regenerate biodiversity in the area.

Not only will the green towers be the first in China, but in all of Asia. And they probably won’t be the last – the ambitious architecture firm aims to design vertical forests in Shanghai, Guizhou, Shijiazhuang, Liuzhou, and Chongqing. Stefano Boeri Architetti aims to continue to popularize the concept with a book edited by their China office and published by Tongji University Press, A Forest City. The book is scheduled to come out in April.

The Nanjing Towers are slated for completion in 2018.

Source: inhabitat.com

UK Can Still Meet Carbon Targets with Heathrow Expansion, Government Says

Photo-illustration: Pixabay
Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The addition of a third runway at Heathrow will not endanger the UK’s ability to meet its legally binding climate change targets, the government has claimed in a new Airports National Policy Statement released today.

The document, which acts as a public consultation on the controversial proposals to expand airport capacity at Heathrow, sets out the policy framework which could allow construction of a third runway to go ahead.

It claims that one new runway in the South East of England can be delivered within the carbon reduction obligations under the Climate Change Act, which mandates an 80 per cent cut in national emissions by 2050. “The government agrees with the Airports Commission’s assessment that a new runway is deliverable within the UK’s climate change obligations,” the report reads.

The government has said the development cannot go ahead unless it is proven it will not threaten its ability to meet national climate targets, but it does concede some increase in emissions may occur.

“Any increase in carbon emissions alone is not a reason to refuse development consent, unless the increase in carbon emissions resulting from the project is so significant that it would have a material impact on the ability of government to meet its carbon reduction targets, including carbon budgets,” the report notes.

The government also requires any development must show clear action to limit the carbon impact of the project, from using electric vehicle fleets to steps to lower emissions from airport buildings and more efficient runway taxiing patterns for planes.

However, many environmental campaigners remain deeply concerned about the project’s prospective impact, and say there is little indication from the government over how emissions from the additional runway will be mitigated.

“This National Policy Statement doesn’t contain any actual policy on climate change. The government claims a new runway can be delivered within climate goals, but without firm commitments and a credible plan this is merely wishful thinking,” James Beard, climate change specialist at WWF-UK, said in a statement. “If the government keeps ignoring the Heathrow carbon problem it runs the risk of breaching the Climate Change Act. The forthcoming Emissions Reduction Plan must set out how emissions from the new runway will be dealt with before the National Policy Statement is finalised.”

Air quality is also a major issue the airport’s expansion will have to address. The government insists Heathrow expansion must be deliverable within legal limits on air pollution set by the EU. However, in its revised modelling for Heathrow expansion it admits that although the project will not impact on air quality compliance there is a risk that expansion will delay compliance.

Andy McDonald, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, said there are still many unanswered questions over how the expansions plans comply with the UK’s environmental ambitions.

“Labour has consistently been pushing for a decision on runway expansion in the South East of England so after years of dither and delay, it is welcome that progress is finally being made,” he said in a statement. “However, there are still outstanding issues including how Heathrow expansion can be squared with meeting the UK’s climate change objectives and demonstrating that local noise and environmental impacts can be minimised.”

He continued: “This can be achieved, but only in the context of a coherent aviation strategy that works for the country not just London. It starts with confirming our membership of the European Aviation Safety Agency, as well as action on cleaner fuels and improving road and rail access to our international gateway airports.”

The consultation is open until May 25 2017, with a final decision on Heathrow expansion expected at the end of the year.

Source: businessgreen.com

EDF Banks Oklahoma Wind

Photo-illustration: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

Allianz and MUFG have together invested tax equity in EDF Renewable Energy’s 225MW Great Western wind farm in Oklahoma. The project is located in Ellis and Woodward Counties, about 200km northwest of Oklahoma City.

Allianz Capital Partners head of renewables David Jones said: “We are delighted to partner with MUFG and EDF RE on this project. “It is a valuable addition to our renewable energy portfolio, which now exceeds €3.5bn and offers a stable and uncorrelated return to Allianz.”

MUFG head of leasing and asset finance Lance Markowitz said: “The Great Western wind farm is a great example of three organizations coming together to help create an energy project that will provide clean, competitively priced and affordable power to Oklahoma residents for many years to come.”

Source: renews.biz

Building Giants Back 2050 Net Zero Goal for Buildings

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

Three major global businesses – the engineering firm Integral Group, property giant Lendlease and product manufacturer ROCKWOOL – were yesterday announced as sponsors for a green industry campaign to help buildings gain net zero emissions status by 2050.

The Advancing Net Zero project, launched in June 2016 by the World Green Building Council, aims to ensure every building around the world, both new and existing, operates at net zero emissions by the middle of the century.

It aims to encourage Green Building Councils around the world to adopt net zero certification schemes for their market, with pilot programmes up and running by 2018. So far, 11 Green Building Councils are participating, including the USA, India and Brazil. While the UK GBC supports the scheme, it is not an official member because it does not operate a certification scheme.

Terri Wills, chief executive of the World Green Building Council, said the new corporate recruits to the campaign are a signal of the mounting business demand for green buildings. “The support of major companies such as Integral Group, Lendlease and ROCKWOOL demonstrates the huge appetite amongst businesses to design, build, invest in and operate net zero buildings,” she said in a statement. “We’ve started to pave the path towards net zero and there’s no turning back until every building gets there before 2050.”

Lendlease, Integral Group and ROCKWOOL will provide financial support for the campaign and work alongside Green Building Councils to help develop the net zero certification schemes. Advancing Net Zero is also funded by the Blackstone Ranch Institute and has been supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and ClimateWorks Foundation.

Achieving net zero emissions in the building sector by 2050 is seen as a key sector goal for achieving the Paris goals of limiting global warming by two degrees. A report from the World GBC later this spring will set out exactly what action is needed from businesses, governments, Green Building Councils and other NGOs to achieve the net zero goal.

Source: businessgreen.com

Asia’s First Hybrid Electric Ferry Sets Sail

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

The first hybrid electric ferry in Asia has set sail in the Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung, in the first stage of a plan to clean up the city’s marine transport sector with electric ship technology.

Finnish electric shipmaker Visedo worked with Taiwan’s Ship and Ocean Industries R&D Center to retrofit the Cijin Island passenger ferry with an electric powertrain, to create Asia’s first hybrid electric ferry.

The new e-ferry, dubbed Ferry Happiness, began carrying passengers across the harbour to Cijin Island, a popular tourist destination in Taiwan, at the end of last month. Running on electric power for 50 per cent of the average journey, it will use half the amount of fuel normally used to carry its 15,000 daily passengers, and over the course of the year it is expected to save more than 25,000 litres of fuel every year.

The ferry will still run on diesel for half the time, but according to Visedo once fast-shore charging ability is installed the percentage of electric running time will be even higher.

If the revamped ferry is successful, the Kaohsiung City Government has plans to convert the rest of the region’s fleet to cut pollution and improve air quality in the city.

Asia is a key market for green ferries, with many people relying on daily ferry crossings to get to work but rising concern over the air quality impacts of diesel engines. In Hong Kong for example, passenger ferries make up the majority of the licensed vessels in Victoria Harbour, but air pollution kills more than 3,000 people in the city area each year.

The converted ferry presents a viable solution for city authorities to tackle air pollution without having to replace an existing fleet, Visedo chief executive Kimmo Rauma said in a statement. “Visedo has developed a cost-effective and efficient alternative, so rather than waiting until a vessel’s service life ends, harbour cities can swap noisy, dirty and expensive diesel for silent electric powertrains that are more efficient, can halve fuel costs and emit no fumes or oil pollution,” he explained.

Source: businessgreen.com

Railsponsible Becomes a Member of the 10YFP Sustainable Public Procurement Program Led by UNEP

Railsponsible, a non-profit business organisation formed by seven companies in the rail industry: Alstom, Bombardier Transportation, SNCF, Deutsche Bahn, Knorr Bremse, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) and SKF, becomes the 109th partner of the 10YFP Sustainable Public Procurement Program led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Railsponsible, represented by Olivier Baril, Alstom’s CPO and Railsponsible’ Chairman, officially received the membership certificate from Farid Yaker, Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) Programme Officer at UN Environment, on behalf of the Coordination Desk of the Programme, during a ceremony held at UN Environment premises in Paris.

At this occasion, Farid Yaker declared: “We are very proud to welcome Railsponsible into the 10YFP Sustainable Public Procurement Programme. We look forward to establishing a fruitful collaboration by giving Railsponsible access to a broad network of organisations and individuals working together to implement sustainable public procurement on the ground. We look forward to accompanying the initiative in the development of large scale SPP projects and activities together with a range of diverse and skilled 10YFP SPP partners.”

Olivier Baril said : “We are very pleased to join the UNEP Sustainable Public Procurement initiative which will allow us to share best practices with other industries, public organizations and academic institutes, so that together we are able to make sustainable procurement a reality everywhere.”

Source: alstom.com

Thanks to Climate Change, The World’s Storms Are Getting more Dangerouse

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

Removing the climate change page from the White House site won’t do anything to slow the damage to our planet, just as refusing to “believe” in science won’t help your home stay standing when dangerous, violent storms tear it from the Earth. And those storms are getting a lot worse, says new research from the University of Houston.

Efficiency is usually a good thing, but not when we’re talking about the energy running around in the world’s weather systems. Energy in the Earth’s atmosphere is described by a formula called the Lorenz energy cycle. The new study takes a long-term look at data from this cycle—35 years’ worth—to see how the energy has been affected by climate change. And the results aren’t good.

The efficiency of Earth’s “heat engine” is increasing, which means that previously stored energy is now running loose in the form of kinetic energy, which results in more atmospheric movement. In practical terms, this means that storms will be stormier, and much more destructive. And because the cycle usually has “positive trends,”—i.e., it’s hard to put that energy back in the bottle once its loose—it’s only going to get worse.

But these changes won’t be evenly distributed. The Southern Hemisphere will get the worst of the effects of these energy increases, which the researchers call “eddy energies.” Don’t think that folks in the top half of the world are going to get away with it, though. The climate is a complex system, but with more energy running loose, the effects will be simple to see: More dangerous storms, and more extreme weather in general. And it’ll happen whether or not you have your head buried in the sand.

Source: fastcoexist.com

Solar-Power System Could Provide Clean Drinking Water in Rural India for the First Time

Photo: Pixabay

A solar-powered purification system could slake the thirsts of rural India with clean drinking water for the first time. This would be no ordinary feat. Tens of millions of people in India lack access to potable water, and roughly 600,000 Indian children die every year from water- and sanitation-related diseases like diarrhea or pneumonia, according to UNICEF. In the country’s most far-flung regions, where 70 percent of India’s population lives, toxic bacteria routinely fouls at least half of the water supply. But while the Indian government has focused its efforts on treating surface water in rivers and streams, researchers from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland want to attack the source of contamination: sewage.

They’ve developed a system that uses sunlight to induce high-energy particles within a photocatalytic material, which uses light to generate a chemical reaction. These, in turn, activate molecules of oxygen, mobilizing them to destroy bacteria and other organic matter.

Because the materials require no power source, an off-grid system requires little more than attaching the photocatalyst to containers of contaminated water and angling them toward the sun until they’re safe to drink. If necessary, the system could be used in tandem with a filter to catch larger particles.

The researchers are now working with the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research to scale up the technologies they honed during a five-month pilot project.

“Working closely with our Indian partners, we aim to harness the sun’s energy to tackle a huge problem that affects many people around the world,” Neil Robertson, a professor from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Chemistry, said in a statement.

Source: inhabitat.com

GE to Help Increase Output and Efficiency of EPS’s Coal-Fired Power Plant in Serbia

TPP Nikola Tesla ABADEN, SWITZERLAND—February 2, 2017—GE’s Power Services (NYSE: GE) today announced that this year it will complete the modernization of Elektro Privreda Srbije’s (EPS) TPP Nikola Tesla, the largest coal-fired power plant in Serbia. GE’s steam turbine retrofit will help increase power output, reduce operational and maintenance costs and lower plant carbon footprint through less coal consumption.

“EPS’s TPP Nikola Tesla power plant provides a large portion of the power supply for the Serbian electricity system,” said Savo Bezmarevic, EPS production executive, Elektroprivreda Srbije JP. “We need our assets to operate at the highest availability, efficiency and reliability levels as possible, as it is crucial for Serbia to have a secure energy supply.”

The power plant features two, 210-megawatt (MW) LMZ steam turbines and four (A3-A6), 308-MW GE units. GE will provide a steam turbine full shaft line retrofit solution for high-pressure, intermediate-pressure and low-pressure turbine modules as well as a new turbine governing controller system. In addition to the controller, the project includes GE’s advanced 3-D blades, new rotors, rotary blades, stationary blades, inner and outer casings and other associated parts.

As part of the agreement, GE will commission a WT23S-106 generator unit—the largest ever installed in Serbia—at the TPP Nikola Tesla B2 site to help improve availability and reliability of the plant.

“EPS will continue with modernizations and revitalizations to secure a stable power supply, which is in line with the government’s strategy to bring a more modern and efficient electric power system to Serbia,” said Mr. Milorad Grcic, general manager, Elektroprivreda Srbije JP. “The steam turbine retrofit will give a new lifetime cycle after 250,000 operating hours and increase power output by 24 MW.”

The operating life of the steam turbine unit—an estimated 250,000 working hours—will be extended for an additional 100,000 operating hours, and the maintenance intervals between major overhauls will be extended to nearly 10 years.

The steam turbine retrofit is expected to start in May 2017, and the commissioning of the upgraded equipment is scheduled for October 2017.

“A recent GE analysis found that carbon dioxide emissions from the world’s fleet of coal and gas plants can be reduced by 10 percent when existing hardware and software solutions are fully applied,” said Pascal Schweitzer, general manager, GE’s Power Services in Europe. “We are proud to build on our long relationship with Elektroprivreda Srbije JP to provide them with new technology solutions to help them generate more efficient and cleaner power aligned with Serbian environmental targets.”

Coal-fired power generation provides electricity for about 40 percent of the world. It also accounts for nearly 75 percent of the electricity sector’s carbon emissions because many of the plants are older and inefficient including in Central and Eastern Europe. Electricity production in Serbia relies on coal by more than 70 percent, while the remaining approximately 30 percent is produced in large hydropower plants. Serbia has a large amount of coal reserves with 4 billion tonnes of proven lignite deposits. The coal mines in Serbia are owned and managed by subsidiaries of EPS.

Serbia has a significant potential for energy efficiency. Inefficient use of energy represents a major concern in the country. Consumption of primary energy per every unit of gross domestic product is significantly higher than that in the European Union (13 times higher than in Germany, 10 times higher than in France, five times than in Slovenia and almost twice that of Romania).

Source: ge.com

 

Ireland all Ears on Green Plans

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

Dublin has launched a public consultation on a new national planning framework that will include canvassing public attitudes to the further deployment of renewable energy.

The government is seeking views on the development of infrastructure in the country up to 2040.

A position paper on the framework said Ireland will “prioritize the development of infrastructure that can deliver national benefit – including renewable energies” in a move away from the “business as usual” approach.

It added that the country has some of the best wind, wave and tidal resources in Europe and said renewables will “continue to become more and more central” to national energy demands.

“This raises the issue of how we prioritize renewable energy projects at suitable locations across Ireland, balanced with the need to sustain the existing environment and amenity.

“In particular, some areas of the country are better suited to the generation of renewable energy and differing types of renewable energy infrastructure.”

The first consultation runs until 16 March.

Source: renews.biz

Deutsche Bank Vows to End New Coal Lending, in Line with Paris Agreement

Photo-illustration: Pixabay
Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The Paris Agreement and the global divestment campaign has secured one of its biggest victories to date, after banking giant Deutsche Bank announced it would halt investment in new coal projects in line with its commitment to the international climate change treaty.

In a short statement on its website under the heading ‘amended guidelines for coal financing’, the European banking giant said the company and its subsidiaries “will not grant new financing for greenfield thermal coal mining and new coal-fired power plant construction”.

It added that the bank will also “gradually reduce its existing exposure to the thermal coal mining sector”.

The bank said the reforms were directly linked to its support for the Paris Agreement, which in late 2015 committed all governments to the development of a net zero emission economy this century.

“By signing the Paris Pledge for Action alongside over 400 private and public organizations, the bank has welcomed the universal climate agreement made at the 2015 Climate Summit in Paris,” the statement read. “This emphasizes the bank’s commitment to protect the climate and to contribute to the overall targets set by the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.”

The move also follows a high profile 2014 campaign in Deutsche Bank’s native Germany, which led to the bank pulling out of a deal to invest in the expansion of the Abbott Point coal port in Australia.

The latest decision is part of a growing trend that has seen thousands of investors commit to divest their holdings in coal and other carbon intensive projects, following warnings they could be investing in a ‘carbon bubble’.

Some analysts have warned that if policymakers honour the commitments in the Paris Agreement demand for coal, oil and other carbon intensive fuels will fall sharply in the coming decades as rival clean technologies become increasingly dominant.

They argue that as a result many fossil fuel assets that promise long term returns are overvalued and could deliver diminishing returns in the future, with the most carbon intensive assets, such as coal, deemed the most at risk.

Decisions to halt new coal investments are also being driven by short term trends in the coal market, according to some analysts, with sluggish coal prices and tightening project pipelines meaning it makes little financial sense to invest in upstream and downstream assets in those markets that are easiest to access.

Source: businessgreen.com

Cities in Transition

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

The EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum (KSF) and the Green Digital Charter (GDC) jointly hosted the conference ‘Cities in transition – the role of digital in shaping our future cities’ on 25 January 2017. The event, held in the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Brussels, brought together over 100 participants, including civil servants, smart city experts, delegates from the EU institutions and partners and representatives from the private sector.

The opening plenary session, moderated by Dorthe Nielsen, EUROCITIES policy director, enabled local politicians to share their ‘smart city’ visions and expectations of the recently-established Urban Agenda partnership on digital transition. This session included an exchange of views between the cities of Eindhoven, represented by Mary-Ann Schreurs, deputy mayor for innovation; Milan, represented by Roberta Cocco, alderman on digital transformation; Oulu, represented by Eero Halonen, chairman of the economic development board; and Rome, represented by Flavia Marzano, alderman on smart city and innovation. The discussion enabled participants to better understand cities’ priorities in this new urban partnership, especially with regards to data management issues, including the opening of data, data privacy and security, standards and interoperability of systems within as well as between cities.

Eddy Hartog, head of unit for smart mobility and living at European Commission DG CNECT, described the future solutions that need to be developed – including a one-stop-shop for cities – in order to improve multilevel collaboration on urban policies within the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC).

Kaja Kallas (MEP, EST, ALDE) delivered a a keynote speech in plenary, during which she stressed the importance of the digital economy and energy efficiency in Europe’s development.

Source: greendigitalcharter.eu

Indian Point, Closest Nuclear Plant to New York City, Set to Retire by 2021

mainIn January 2017, Entergy Nuclear and the state of New York reached an agreement to retire the two nuclear reactors at the Indian Point Energy Center, located in Buchanan, New York, about 25 miles north of New York City. Indian Point is one of four nuclear power plants in New York state and accounts for about 12% of total electricity generated from all sources statewide. Under the agreement, Entergy will retire one reactor in April 2020 and the other in April 2021.

Entergy had been seeking a 20-year license renewal for both reactor units from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission since 2007. However, New York state challenged the renewals as a result of environmental and safety concerns because of the facility’s proximity to New York City. The announced closure dates could be postponed by four years given a mutual agreement between Entergy and the New York state government if electricity reliability in the region is significantly affected or if other emergency circumstances arise.

Indian Point operates two pressurized water reactor units, each with a licensed capacity of 1,072 megawatts (MW). These two units began commercial operation in 1974 and 1976. A third, smaller reactor opened in 1962 and was shut down in 1974 because the emergency core cooling system did not meet regulatory requirements. With a total capacity of 2,144 MW, Indian Point represents 40% of the state’s nuclear capacity and 5% of the state’s total installed electricity generating capacity.

Although Indian Point represents 5% of New York’s electricity generating capacity, the plant provides about 12% of the state’s total electricity generation. Nuclear plants tend to operate as baseload generators, providing more electricity throughout the day compared with other plants that are more likely to operate during times of high electricity demand or, in the case of some renewable generators, when their resources are available. Based on the latest annual data for the United States, an operating nuclear power plant typically has a capacity factor of about 90% versus 55% for combined-cycle natural gas and 30%–35% for wind, for example.

Natural gas-fired generation accounted for 41% of New York’s electricity generation in 2015. Over the past several years, combined-cycle natural gas plants have become more competitive as a form of baseload electricity generation. Relatively low natural gas prices and new infrastructure projects increased the amount of natural gas able to be delivered from production areas in Ohio and Pennsylvania to demand centers along the Atlantic Coast.

New York’s recently announced Clean Energy Standard seeks to add more capacity and generation from nonhydro renewable sources such as wind and solar photovoltaic. Although there are differences between the technologies that qualify for the Clean Energy Standard and those included in EIA’s category, nonhydro renewables accounted for about 5% of New York’s electricity generation in 2015. New York’s Clean Energy Standard requires that 50% of the state’s electricity generation comes from renewable sources (other than large hydro) by 2030.

Source: eia.gov

Making Freshwater from the Sun

170126CSPTechnologiesTo reduce the use of non-renewable groundwater and still meet growing water needs, the production of desalinated seawater in the MENA region is projected to be 13 times higher in 2040 compared to 2014. Traditionally, desalination has been powered by oil or natural gas, or is based on reverse osmosis, which requires significant quantities of electricity.

While the region is the world’s most important exporter of hydrocarbons, it is also endowed with another abundant resource thanks to significant levels of direct sunlight and large, open deserts close to urban centers. This combination has the potential to shift countries away from their reliance on fossil fuels to carbon-free energy sources such as concentrating solar power (CSP).

The basic principle of CSP is to reflect direct sunlight onto mirrors that are used to heat water, which can then be used to generate electricity. Unlike solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies, CSP can store heat energy for short periods of time. This enables CSP plants to produce electricity even when clouds block the sun or even after sundown. CSP also holds significant potential for supplying direct heat, which is useful for industrial purposes or water desalination.

In addition, both electricity and fresh water can be produced at the same time using higher temperature plants, such as with central receiver towers. In some cases it may be more economical to separate the two processes when the working temperature is relatively low, using CSP for electricity production and reverse osmosis for desalination.

But producing fresh water with CSP is not economically viable yet. It costs about three times more than when using natural gas, for example, which explains why there are no large-scale CSP desalination plants in operation.

IEA analysis also forecasts future cost reductions for membrane-based desalinisation technologies, meaning that electricity is likely to remain the best choice. Even with costs falling by 50% in the next 25 years, CSP remains about 60% more expensive than using traditional technologies.

The picture changes dramatically if fossil fuel and electricity subsidies are completely phased out. In this case, CSP desalination becomes cost competitive with natural gas-based desalination in the late 2020s. By 2040, it is only 30% more expensive than electricity-based reverse osmosis. As a result, CSP in global desalination capacity could reach 10% by 2040, according to World Energy Outlook 2016, providing the Middle East and North Africa with a clean, sustainable option for fresh and clean drinking water.

Source: iea.org

 

1...358359360...424Page 359 of 424