Water rights: the next carbon emissions?

According to those good folks at the Independent water is set to be the next commoditised resource.

The paper says:

The right to use water will soon follow in the footsteps of carbon emissions and become a commodity, like the right to pollute, that industry will have to pay for, executives have warned.”In the not too distant future, we will see a price on water just like there is now for carbon and carbon emissions,” said Ditlev Engel, chief executive of Vestas Wind Systems. “It will have to be factored in as a cost.”

While the idea of water rationing for businesses sounds like a right royal pain in the arse for most companies, it’s not exctly a million miles away at the moment - food companies are already cutting back and water firms are working out how to fight shortages. It looks like the writing could be on the wall already.

China’s plastic bag ban shuts factory

By Yan Yan - Greenbang China

While environmentalists and some people applaud China’s ban on plastic bags in its latest move to save resources, some people, like the plastic-bag producers or anyone making a living on plastic bags, may not be so happy. Here comes a case in point.

Huaqiang, China’s largest plastic bag manufacturer based in Henan Province, has closed since the state council announced its restriction on the production, sale and use of all plastic carrier bags, according to people.com.

“‘The factory stopped production in middle January and its 20,000 employees are awaiting their fate’, said Liu Henglie, director of commerce bureau of Suiping County, where the plant is.

All the machines in the factory will be sold although further details about the future of the factory and its workers remain unknown, according to the official.

The factory, belonging to the Guangzhou-based Nanqiang Plastic Industrial Ltd., is able to produce 250,000 tons of plastic bags at value of 2.2 billion yuan (about $305 million) per year.”

So the big question is, what will happen to that industry? And all those people?

Renault joins €100 million car recycling venture

The details are a bit light on this one, so Greenbang will just bring you what she can. Possibly with a cup of tea and a lemon slice, if she’s feeling generous.

A few press outlets are reporting that Renault is getting into bed with Sita, a division of waste company Suez, to create a car recycling venture, with the venture then taking over a majority stake in car-recycler Indra.

The whole thing is planned to cost around €100 million and the companies are hoping to cash in on European Union requirements that stipulate 95 percent of cars be recycled.

Ken Livingstone gives London businesses sustainable makeover

Ken Livingstone will have to go a long way to apologise to the world for his part in a series of adverts promoting cheese back in the heady brace and leg warmer wearing 1980s. Back then, he was pushing red leicester, trading on his Red Ken nickname. Now he’s more like Green Ken, with a truckload of eco-biz announcements exiting City Hall this week.

First off, the Mayor will be holding a meeting on zero carbon developments for London, off the back of the first such development called Gallions Park, and whether London can house a few more.

Then there’s more plans for cycle hire to take a little more off London’s carbon emissions and an extra £25 a day fee for Chelsea tractors coming into the capital.

And the proverbial cherry on the cake: a draft plan to get London’s businesses recycling 70 percent of its waste by 2020.

This strategy sets out measures so that London’s businesses can take responsibility for the waste they produce and take action to use resources productively and, with London’s waste industry, maximise the social, environmental and economic opportunities of reprocessing and managing waste within London.

The Mayor’s vision for how London manages its business waste in 2020 is that:
– there is a high level of recycling and composting, more waste is reused and less waste is produced
– advanced waste technologies are used for treating non-recyclable waste, particularly technologies that produce energy
– London’s waste is primarily managed in London, reducing the impact on surrounding regions
– high quality advice, support and recycling services are offered to all businesses consistently across London
– the contribution of London’s waste to climate change is minimised.

$24 million partnership for fuel cell buses

The buses of Greenbang’s youth were filled with crafty cigarette smoke, superannuated chewing gum and words etched into the windows that would make a sailor blush. For the little nippers of tomorrow, it will be all that and more: gum, smoke, obscenities and a hydrogen fuel cell.

Cal-start, a US transport tech firm, has won five contracts from the Federal Transit Administration, to get hydrogen-powered buses on the roads - it’s a $24 million project, split half each between Cal-start and the Administration.

Here’s the skinny on the fivesome:

* SunLine Transit Agency’s American Fuel Cell Bus - The focus of this direct path project, based at SunLine Transit Agency, internationally known for its hydrogen leadership, is to develop a purpose-built, next generation fuel cell bus. The bus features an upgraded 120-kilowatt fuel cell system from UTC, an advanced lithium-ion energy storage system, an advanced electric motive drive system from ISE Corp. that is lighter weight and lower cost, and an advanced New Flyer bus design using composite materials and modern electronics for weight reduction. SunLine will operate the bus in the nine cities of the Coachella Valley in California.

* AC Transit “HyRoad” - Based on considerable experience operating three advanced designed buses incorporating UTC Power fuel cell systems, AC Transit in the San Francisco Bay Area, a national leader in fuel cell bus design and operations, will push the limits of existing technology in this direct-path project. They will accelerate testing and identification of the weakest areas of fuel cell and hybrid systems, root cause analysis, fuel cell technology development, and component upgrades with more reliable and durable systems. Data collected from benchmarking current systems will lead to fuel cell and component upgrades roughly one year into the project.

* BAE Systems Compound Fuel Cell Hybrid Bus - The goal of this novel evolutionary path project is to trim capital cost and reduce operating costs by building on a highly efficient, commercial Orion hybrid bus design that balances a moderately-sized Hydrogenics fuel cell (15-25-kilowatt) as an auxiliary power unit (APU), BAE Systems’ advanced HybriDrive(r) Propulsion System, and advanced energy storage. Called “compound” because it links fuel cell, conventional engine and battery energy sources in one system, the bus targets doubling the fuel efficiency of a diesel bus in an affordable package. It will operate with San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) transit system for up to one year.

* US Hybrid Integrated Auxiliary Module (IAM) and Fuel Cell Bi-Directional Converter (BDC) - These two component projects from US Hybrid in Torrance, CA., will develop critical enabling systems for more reliable and lower-cost fuel cell bus operation. The Integrated Auxiliary Module (IAM) project will develop and demonstrate a single, low-cost, compact unit housing the 200 amp (A), 24 volt (V) DC-DC converter and dual 10 horsepower (hp) motor drives with CAN interface for auxiliary power needs aboard a fuel cell or hybrid fuel cell bus. The Fuel Cell Bi-directional DC-DC Power Converter (BDC) project will optimize and streamline the complex energy flow between multiple devices, such as fuel cells, batteries and electric drive system. By standardizing the 400A rated bi-directional DC-DC converter module design, the unit can reduce weight and costs, and increase efficiency of the fuel cell systems.

Solar energy for dark places?

Good news for seances, Bognor Regis and teenage parties: a new breakthrough means even areas with low light conditions can be used to generate solar-alike energy.A breakthrough by University of Johannesburg professor Vivian Alberts means that photovoltaic panels can generate electricity in areas that aren’t ever so sunny, according to Independent Online.

Due to the construction of the cells, comparatively high yields can be obtained even under partially shaded or overcast conditions. Alberts, interviewed in Germany this week, said plans to make the photovoltaic panels commercially available in South Africa were at an advanced stage and there would be a major announcement at the end of March about when they would go on sale.Alberts said agreements had been signed with major investors and they were in the process of finalising agreements with banks for the funding, which prevented him from giving further details on the sale dates.

In case you’re wondering what’s the cunning tech involved, it’s a layer of wafer-thin, semiconducting material, made from copper, indium, gallium, sulphur and selenium. And it’s cheap too - apparently, it’s backers believe it could be half the cost of any equivalent on the market.

Hydrogen to clean up fossil fuels

Take fossil fuels, strip out the carbon and replace it with clean-burning hydrogen. While Greenbang is wondering if that’s a little like taking Jeremy Beadle, putting a pair of shades on him and saying it’s now Bono, any effort to clean up fossil fuels can’t be a bad thing.

The Star gets down and dirty with the dusty tech, like this:

The company’s technology is called CarbonSaver – basically a low-temperature plasma reactor that uses low amounts of energy and, according to Wagner, doesn’t emit greenhouse gases. When natural gas flows through the CarbonSaver device it disassociates hydrogen and carbon from a portion of the gas. The carbon is removed in solid form as a kind of black dust. The hydrogen is injected back into the natural gas stream, representing between 15 and 20 per cent of its volume.

VCs: Just in green tech for the money?

If you’re a VC and you’re drawing up your New Year’s resolutions, then you might be adding ’spend more on green tech’ to your list. The folks over at Wired have a word of caution though:

“In 2008, you’re going to see a lot of (clean-tech) venture flameouts,” said Erik Straser, general partner at Mohr Davidow, which is heavily invested in clean tech. “Fundamentally the market drivers are very strong for these companies, but companies are going to have trouble in the market execution. And a lot of capital has gone into a lot of companies.”

But fear not, it’s not bleak news for green investment this bleak midwinter.

Still, venture capitalists are fundamentally optimistic about green technology. Much as VC-powered internet companies continue to challenge traditional media businesses, investors are hoping their clean-tech investments will topple another aging cash-rich industry: energy. Egged on by IPOs in the clean-energy industry, but particularly in solar power, a host of venture capitalists has raised clean-tech or green-tech funds.

Greenbang hasn’t felt this warm and fuzzy since she last watched It’s A Wonderful Life.

Norfolk residents encouraged to recycle vegetable oil

Cromer’s Christmas lights will be shining especially bright this year, meaning the Grinch of Greenbang present certainly won’t be visiting. Kudos to Norfolk County Council though for initiating a scheme that encourages residents to save any unused vegetable oil for one of the 18 recycling points. It will then be turned into biofuel.

EDP24 is the site where Norfolk REALLY matters

Tonnes of old cooking oil that would otherwise clog up plug-holes or be dumped will soon be used in Norfolk to generate enough electricity to power a town the size of Cromer.

Bah humbug…

But Norwich residents will not yet be able to recycle oil and will either have to drive to a rural drop-off point - and therefore undo the green objective - or find some other means of discarding oil.

The best laid plans, Norfolk.

If this was all collected and refined, the resulting biofuel could generate more than 13,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year, the equivalent to the annual average consumption of around 2,200 households.

More about that here:

Renewable energy advocates call for carbon-price tag

Here’s an article from our pals at the Matter Network…

Washington, DC — A diverse group including investment bankers, energy executives, government officials and clean energy advocates came together in agreement that the environmental cost of energy should be factored into its price, and that Congress must develop policies that move away from fossil fuels.

The money managers on Wall Street, self-described conservatives, a Bush Administration official and energy company BP spoke as one in declaring that fossil fuels have gotten a free ride in emitting greenhouse gases, and that the day of reckoning is long overdue.

Speaking at the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE)’s Phase II of Renewable Energy in America meeting on Thursday, Katrina Landis, the Vice President of BP Alternative Energy said she is “looking forward to a world with an industry wide carbon price.” Landis, whose employer is one of leading sellers of fossil fuels in the world, said she favored a cap and trade system of selling emission credits over a carbon tax.

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Greenbang tracks the explosion of the environmental industry, reporting on news of green innovation and thought leadership.

We blog on this rather than the environmental problems of the world because we are interested in the answers to climate change.