greenswitch – climate change and cleantech solutions

[hydrogen] US National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap [pdf] — first glance: looks interesting, many (fictional) numbers on how to move to the Hydrogen Economy but at the same time nothing definite. But at least it’s a move..

[solar] hard facts: photovoltaic payback survey, conducted by German Humboldt University in Berlin. Download pdf-file here.

Buy power at the corner store

Get a bag of potato chips, a snickers bars and umm, pre-load your power-card ..It sure would raise the awareness that it actually pays off to switch off the light when you’re not in the room..

The Globe and Mail: Breaking News A quick run to the corner store to pick up milk, bread and some energy? That’s the idea that Info Energy Inc. of Woodstock, Ont., is hoping to introduce to the province’s energy marketplace.

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A PowerCom meter is mounted to a wall or sits on a table and is plugged into a standard electrical outlet. The meter communicates with the outside meter through existing household wiring.

The transfer of power starts with the PowerCom smart card. Customers use it to buy power at variety stores in the area — similar to pay-as-you go cellular phone plans that let people buy air time at corner stores and self-serve kiosks. Customers return home and insert their card into their PowerCom in-home display unit, which deposits an energy credit encoded on the smart chip embedded in the card into the meter.

Albert Bartlett — Seventeen Laws Relating To Sustainability Seventeen Laws Relating to Sustainability

Is Canada running low on gas?

This could be another reason that Bush and Putin are suddenly such great friends: Bush wants Putin to support his Iraq war plans and the other wants to sell oil and natural gas. This German article has some interesting facts on Russia’s natural gas and oil production.

And the Russians are coming, already: Last year Russian oil company Lukoil bought the Getty company chain and with it 1.300 gas stations (their slogan: “Getty gas with class”) in the US. Right now, the US gets most of their natural gas from Canada — but this may change and Canada has to deal with another low budget competitor, an even larger one…the Russians…

NATIONAL POST Canada’s supplies of clean-burning natural gas are tight and getting harder to find. There are concerns that conventional gas production has peaked and could be headed for a permanent decline unless significant new discoveries are made or brought on stream.

Euro kids: “Forget about environmental issues”

A recent survey, conducted by the University of Bonn and credit card company EuroCard (Mastercard) — I wonder why these guys are interested in such surveys? sure, it’s also about fears and some still think you could buy yourself a piece of mind with a credit card — found out that only 26 percent of European kids between the ages of 10 and 17 believe ‘environment’ is an important issue; this came down from 30 percent in 1996.

So, what are European kids mostly afraid of: 1. death of parents; 2. wars; 3. environmental destruction. Interestingly enough, kids in the southern part of Europe are way more interested in environmental issues, it seems: 80 percent of Portugal’s kids are interested in environment issues as opposed to only 7 percent in Netherlands — but especially kids in Netherlands should do their homework. After all, global warming may let oceans rise and flood entire Netherlands…

But it’s encouraging that 72 percent of German kids take recycling as second nature..

Frankfurter Rundschau online Nur noch 26 Prozent der Jugendlichen sehen die Umwelt als sehr wichtiges Thema. 1996 waren es noch 30 Prozent. Parallel dazu sinkt die Angst vor Umweltzerstörung: Nur noch 20 Prozent (minus elf) haben große Angst davor. Allerdings folgt die Sorge um die Umwelt direkt nach der Angst vor dem Tod der Eltern und vor Krieg. Bei deutschen Jugendlichen nimmt die Furcht vor Umweltzerstörung Rang vier der größten Ängste ein (33 Prozent).

• English translation of source above using FreeTranslation.com

The One Million $$$ Idea

hmmm….mmmmm…so how about the OFF-SWITCH?

Company Offers $1,000,000 Prize For New Energy Invention Space Energy Access Systems, Inc. (SEAS), an energy company based Charlottesville, VA has just announced that it is offering a one million dollar “Z Prize” for an energy invention that would dramatically decrease the need for fossil fuels.

The prize is being offered to the inventor or inventors who provide a testable prototype of an invention that can serve to either replace current internal combustion energy systems or greatly increase their efficiency. The Z Prize is named after the so-called zero point energy field that many physicists claim is a vast field of energy that can be tapped from the space around an object.

Tidal energy for northernmost town of the world

Probably better than getting on solar power, they’ll probably have almost two months without any light..below the source, I’ve highlighted the most important points

CNN.com – Arctic town trying offbeat tidal energy – Nov. 6, 2002 Starting in late November or early December, however, a tidal current will start turning the blades of a windmill-like turbine standing on the seabed near Kvalsund at the Arctic tip of Norway

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Tidal power exploits the gravitational pull of the moon, and to a lesser extent the sun, on the oceans as the earth spins. The seas rise and fall in a cycle of 12 hours and 25 minutes and can cause sweeping currents along the seabed at the same time, like the ones seen off the north Norway coast.

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The Norwegian sub sea turbine will have a tiny capacity of 300 killowatts and is due to expand to 20 mills from 2004, giving enough power for perhaps 1,000 homes.

Hammerfest, with 11,000 inhabitants, calls itself the world’s northernmost town. Johansen reckons the project there has cost 50 million Norwegian crowns ($6.7 million) so far and will cost 100 million by completion in 2004.

Hydrogen fuel stations in Germany

Some PR yaddayadda below (from H2 Expo newsletter, click to subscribe) but there’s something happening in Germany. Well, now we only need the hydrogen cars on the streets…

Hydrogen under real-life conditions: 2 filling stations in Berlin

During Hydrogen Expo in Hamburg, Aral (now part of BP) announced the opening of the first H2 fueling station on public roads in Berlin, Germany. The station will be designed to offer its customers gasoline, diesel, natural gas and hydrogen. ((useless quote cut))

The H2 filling station is expected to truly live up to customer expectations: in addition to high-quality fuels the service range includes a car wash, shop and a snackbar. One of the objectives of the new station is to test different alternatives for providing hydrogen fuel: there will be onsite gaseous H2 production through electrolysis as well as liquid H2 delivery to the station. According to Aral, customer orientation is one of the crucial points. Therefore, in addition to the technical advancement, progress had to be made in increasing the attractivity and acceptance of the new car concept, Nierhauve emphasized.

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The H2 filling station is part of the Clean Energy Partnership (CEP). Together with Aral, the Berlin Transport Agency (BVG) is one of the partners. BVG recently opened a hydrogen fueling station for busses on its own site. At this station, vehicles can refuel with compressed gaseous and liquid H2.

Finally, help from above!

Now here are some more visionary approaches: Space-Based Power System. fascinating stuff. A giant sunscreen, “Cosmic Coppertone” — sounds like a spacey lifestyle drug! Again, we try fixing problems, without focusing on the roots: US (not the state, you and me, companies..), we need to conserve and change. Reminds me of this: In the late 60s NASA spent tons of money to develop that nifty pen you could also write with upside-down…cost loads..the Russians also thought about it, looked around and they found a cheap solution: They used an ordinary pencil!

Space-Based Power System Needed Civilization faces an urgent need to develop space-based power generation systems that would beam energy to the planet from satellites that would shine like “golden apples” in the night sky, a large team of scientists said today.

The researchers also recommend looking into deploying some cosmic Coppertone, giant sunscreens that would block solar energy and curb global warming. With energy demand expected to triple over the next 50 years while traditional energy production fuels global warming, the diverse group of scientists said creative but feasible technologies are needed to battle a growing “energy imbalance” that threatens global prosperity.

Among the remedies they suggest, in the Nov. 1 issue of the journal Science, are several space-based concepts. The overall analysis is designed to accomplish three goals:

- Develop pollution-free energy

- Trim the growth in energy demand

- Intervene in the global warming trend by “geoengineering” the planet

Here’s another important read (NY Times). Spotlight on Russia…

Controlling Iraq’s Oil: Not So Easy Russia is a case in point, with something to lose — and gain — at every juncture of an American war on Iraq. The immediate effect is likely to be a steep increase in oil prices, benefiting Russia’s oil-driven economy. Beyond that, Russia’s interests get more complicated.

Iraq still owes Russia from $7 billion to $10 billion for arms purchases during the war with Iran, and Russian oil companies, with their history of cooperation with Iraq, are poised to be major players in any revival of the Iraqi oil industry.

Lukoil, Russia’s biggest oil company, signed a 23-year deal with Iraq five years ago to rehabilitate the country’s southern oil fields, a deal potentially worth billions. At the same time, Russia is worried that an eventual increase in Iraqi oil production could drive prices down

this is a highly informative article on Iraq’s oil reserves, partnerships and vultures…following the link below..

Asia Times Eleven percent of the world´s reserves (second in the world after Saudi Arabia); 112 billion barrels of proven reserves; and at least 220 billion barrels of probable reserves. As Iraq is universally acknowledged to be the new promised land of oil, the name of the game in the industry is PSA.

PSA stands for “production share agreement”: Iran and Kuwait, for instance, don’t approve PSAs, they flatly refuse to share sovereignty over their natural wealth. Iraq is another matter entirely.

Because of the UN sanctions, and with its oil infrastructure in tatters, recent agreements approved by Saddam Hussein, with French conglomerate TotalFinaElf, for instance, had to be PSAs. But anyway, these are only agreements; TotalFinaElf boss Thierry Desmarest said not long ago that no contract had been formally signed yet.

Quake in Alaska shuts down major Oil Pipeline

filed under Dept. “Nature fights back”..

World Industry News A major earthquake struck central Alaska yesterday afternoon shutting down the Alyeska Pipeline and ripping giant cracks across the terrain. The 7.9 tremor was centered about 90 miles south of Fairbanks but was felt in Anchorage, 270 miles south.

The pipeline was hit in numerous locations by the quake, damaging its vertical support structures and triggering an alarm that caused its operator, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, to shut down the pipeline. The pipeline itself was not damaged appreciably and there was no oil spill, but several H-frames that hold the pipeline above the ground were affected, as were connecting shoes, which Left the pipeline suspended in several long segments without support.

Roundup disrupts hormones

In future postings I will post more GMO stuff. Are you interested in these issues, also on GMO issues in Europe and China? please drop me a note. I think it’s an important issue and I don’t read much in Canadian and US mainstream publications on the GMO debate. Percy Schmeiser here and there but usually only a couple of lines.

CropChoice.com News Two new studies indicate that Monsanto’s herbicide, Roundup, is a hormone-disruptor and is associated with birth defects in humans.

Farm families that applied pesticides to their crops in Minnesota were studied to see if their elevated exposure to pesticides caused birth defects in their children. The study found that two kinds of pesticides — fungicides and the herbicide Roundup — were linked to statistically significant increases in birth defects. Roundup was linked to a 3-fold increase in neurodevelopmental (attention deficit) disorders.

National Story – canada.com network Manitoba’s energy minister says if the Kyoto accord is not implemented, there could be more mosquitoes in the province.