Posted by on December 18th, 2007
It appears you can have too much of a thing, as Greenbang can all too willingly attest. But we’re not talking chip butties here, it’s all about carbon: apparently, offsetting-hungry companies have eaten up all of the UK’s supplies.
The Observer tells it like this:
Britain is running out of renewable energy as a surge in demand from businesses has outstripped electricity by wind farms, hydropower and waste gas burning.
Interest in cutting carbon has far exceeded new supplies of zero-carbon power - creating a potential headache for companies which have pledged to become ‘carbon neutral’.
The issue has been seized on as evidence of the serious problem of new renewable energy schemes being held up by planners, even though the government is this week expected to announce measures aimed at delivering a huge expansion of offshore wind power, which is less constrained by planning problems.
Greenbang hopes this will spur more companies into making some real environmental headway instead of looking for easy, PR friendly wins. Pass the solar panels, someone?
Posted by on December 18th, 2007
It is a great disappointment to Greenbang that her B at GCSE for science didn’t allow her to impact the scientific landscape. Thankfully, other bees are already making a difference.
Let Greenbang explain: a group of smart cookies at a company called Tekion have worked out how to use the nastiness from ant bites and bee stings in a mini fuel cell that can be used to charge up gadgets like mobile phones. Says Canada.com:
Tekion’s recharger, which contains a miniature fuel cell that runs on formic acid - the same chemical emitted as venom by biting ants and bees - is about the size of a BlackBerry and should retail for under $100.
n fuel cells, formic acid gives more concentrated power than other fuels, allowing it to be integrated into small electronic devices such as the cellphone, which Huff described as the “Holy Grail” of devices to master. As cellphones add more and more functions such as cameras, video and MP3s, they require so much power that batteries are reaching their limits.
This adds to the pantheon of impressive tech used to charge gadgets, including solar and kinetic power, Greenbang presumes soon solar powered,self-recharging mobile bees can’t be far behind.
This category is brought to you in association with Tandberg
Posted by Greenbang on December 17th, 2007
Residents of New York are being targeted by the Sanitation Department’s bureau of waste prevention for not recycling enough of their waste. More extreme measures are gradually being introduced, including supplying, and enforcing the use of, clear plastic rubbish bags to make for easier routine inspection.
A few buildings with the worst offenders have been singled out and made public, but Greenbang feels awkward about even linking to that kind of information.
Posted by Greenbang on December 17th, 2007
Canada has been hit by a freak snowstorm, leading to some of the major highways and airports being closed. Is this down to climate change?
The Winnipeg Sun reports:
Environment Canada warned yesterday that the “hit and run” storm could drop up about 30 centimetres of snow in Ontario and as many as 60 centimetres in some areas in Quebec.
At Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, about 130 flights were cancelled by yesterday afternoon as snow fell on the area at a rapid rate of about four centimetres per hour.
“It’s a one day wonder here for Ontario, that’s the good news about it,” said Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips.
“In Montreal we’re seeing anywhere between 15 and 25 centimetres of snow today,” said Phillips, adding the city could get a total of 40 centimetres.
A flash of lightning followed by a clap of thunder sent afternoon shoppers running for cover through knee-high snow in downtown Montreal. Environment Canada meteorologist Rene Heroux said the unusual mix of snow and lightning is uncommon.
Posted by on December 17th, 2007
Greenbang is off to do a whip round and put in a few calls to assorted relatives, prompted by discussions over at Financial Times.
Apparently, the esteemed organ says that investment in green energy reached $74bn last year and is a good bet for smaller investors.
Nick Pople of Ludgate Environmental Fund says that pooled investments offer smaller investors, family offices and high net worth individuals the best opportunities.
“They may not have the in-house skills to look at and analyse all the companies, and by going for funds, they can increase their exposure [to various alternative energy and environmental technologies].”
Greenbang has made a mental note to ask her gran to swap the Christmas book token for few bob of green investment capital this year.
Posted by on December 17th, 2007
An interesting stat, (and less face it, stats don’t get much more interesting than this), courtesy of Newsweek: ten per of VC money going into China is spent on green tech, third behind IT and communications. Wow.
Newsweek sums up the environmental hero-environmental villain question nicely here:
If the current trajectory holds true, cleantech’s share of VC funds will only grow — to as much as 40 percent within the next investment cycle, reportedly. Within the first three quarters of 2007, eastern China landed a spot among the world’s top-10 regions in terms of cleantech investment. It is the only region to do so in the developing world—and next to Western Europe, the only one outside the U.S.
China’s expected to overtake the U.S. as the leading global emitter of greenhouse gases by the time the Olympics take place — a decade sooner than expected. And many 2007 goals for cleaning up pollution and promoting sustainable development have not been met.
Meanwhile, other developing nations are looking for a few greenbacks to help them get on with green tech. Take Uganda, for example, all the sun you need for solar, not enough cash to buy the panels. AP:
Uganda relies on hydropower for almost all of its electricity. But droughts in recent years have cut the supply, forcing people chop down trees for firewood. That’s why Mutagamba, the environment minister, is so interested in solar power.
“We’re still importing everything,” said Mutagamba, explaining why solar panels are so expensive in her country. “When there’s no electricity, then the people go and cut the forests.”
Posted by on December 17th, 2007
It looks like it’s going to be a very merry Christmas - a very merry Christmas for one start-up, after the lucky devils landed themselves a not-to-be-sniffed-at £300,000. Why, that’s almost enough to buy you a one bedroom flat in London!
The name is Nanoporous Solutions or n-psl for short, and the game is making green filtration tech.
Nebusiness.co.uk says:
As well as attracting interest from major filtration businesses, the technology could be used in other sectors reliant on air filtration, such brewing or dentistry. The firm will use the funding to develop and commercialise its new technology and aims to turn a profit by selling a significant proportion of its products overseas. [...]
N-psl, which is also working on products that could be used as aircraft cabin air purifiers and virus filters for face masks, was set up on the back of £400,000 investment.
Posted by on December 17th, 2007
Greenbang couldn’t let the day go by without touching on the environmental hair-pulling-out-fest that it Bali which has served to generate more in the way of press attention than confidence about a green future.
Greenbang will summarise. Two weeks of screaming and toys exiting prams at light speed have now culminated in an agreement to cut greenhouse gases. Now local politicians will have the joy of working out how to actually do that on their home turf. Cue more screaming and toys exiting prams.
The Guardian sums it up with more aplomb like this:
Governments hailed a deal on Saturday to start negotiations to adopt a new climate pact, but environmental groups said the agreement lacked teeth.
The deal binds the United States and China to greenhouse gas goals for the first time and a two-year agenda would lead to the adoption in Copenhagen in 2009 of a tougher, wider pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol after 2012.
“This is the defining moment for me and my mandate as secretary-general,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Reuters after the meeting in a luxury Indonesian beach resort.
Greenbang presumes commitments to a greener future don’t extend to using videoconferencing when there’s a luxury beach resort to be had.
This technology story is brought to you in association with Kyocera
Posted by Greenbang on December 14th, 2007
It’s lovely weather over in San Francisco today, but there have been few opportunities to go out and enjoy the sun.
This week has been packed with interviews, starting with a bulk-load of Ciscoitus, and moving onto some greener technology and venture capitalist firms.
Today it’s one of Greenbang’s favourite green companies of all - Tesla, the electric car company. If you haven’t heard of their sports cars (priced at around $100,000), you soon will - the company is about to launch a range of cars that mere mortals without fat wallets can afford.
Greenbang is praying for a testdrive - in which case, we’ve got the video camera.
Vantage Point is a venture capitalist company with fingers firmly wedged into the Tesla pie and other green companies. We’re off to see them today too.
Posted by on December 14th, 2007
What do you do when you’ve run out of oil? Turn to algae of course, silly. Oil behemoth Shell is doing exactly that according to The Times.
The idea is, apparently, to turn the pond muck into biofuel.
Shell… said that algae was potentially a promising source of biofuel because it grows rapidly, is rich in vegetable oil and can be cultivated in ponds of seawater, minimising the use of fertile land and fresh water.
“Algae have great potential as a sustainable feedstock for production of diesel-type fuels with a very small CO2 footprint,” Graeme Sweeney, Shell’s executive vice-president, future fuels and CO2, said. “This demonstration will be an important test of the technology and, critically, of commercial viability.”
On the subject of soon to be extinct fuels, Greenbang wonders what badly behavedd children will be threatened with instead of coal in their Christmas stocking? “Timmy, if you don’t eat your greens, Santa will leave some clean-burning hydrogen fuel in your Christmas stocking…”
