How would you fancy a nice neologism to go with your morning cuppa? You would? Alright then, how about: Green collar workers.
Yep, you can guess what this is all about - a term for those who do their nine to five in the green energy industry, brought to you courtesy of The Times among others.
Apparently, the august organ informs us, green collar workers are already almost as ubiquitous as faceless boybands.
Research by the American Solar Energy Society predicts that up to a quarter of US workers – more than 30m – will be employed in the renewable energy or energy-efficiency industries by 2030, and similar rises are likely in other developed countries. It expects solar and wind power and fuel cells to be the big growth areas. The European Union is setting new targets for the UK, significantly raising the percentage of energy needs to be met from renewable sources by 2020 from the current figure of 2%.
Biomass and bioenergy are also set to provide new jobs. The European Commission predicts that investment in bioenergy will create more than 800,000 full-time jobs across the EU by 2020. And the global solar power market grew more than 40% in 2007, with total capacity now sufficient to meet the annual electric needs of 3m European homes.
What do you do with something you don’t like? If in doubt, bury it (Greenbang is not advocating murder here) seems to be the thinking around Alberta way, with the oil-producing province announcing a trucking great carbon capture scheme.Details from The National Post:
The province, which accounts for about one-third of Canada’s total emissions, said it wants to cut its projected greenhouse-gas production in half, or by 200 megatonnes, by 2050. Despite production growth from the oilsands, the industry would slash its own emissions by 100 megatonnnes, representing half of Alberta’s total reduction, the plan says.Ed Stelmach, Alberta’s Premier, said the 2050 target is “realistic” because it will ensure environmental protection and continued economic growth.The target would send absolute emissions in the province to levels 14% below those of 2005, well short of federal-government reduction goals and those of the Kyoto Protocol.
The last time Greenbang attempted whale watching, she spent a lot of time watching her fellow passengers vomit and barely seconds watching whales.
Had Greenbang been on the Icelandic whalewatching vessel the Elding, she might not have been any better off on the hurling stakes but she would at least have had the pleasure of being on a hydrogen powered boat.
But in a few weeks, the Elding - Icelandic for “Lightning” - will be transformed into the world’s first hydrogen-equipped commercial vessel, the latest sign that Iceland is pushing hard to become the first nation to break free from the constraints of fossil fuel.[...]
When the crew spot whales at sea, they shut down the main engines to let people hear the mammals swim and blow water - an experience owner Vignir Sigursveinsson said had been marred in the past by the rumble of a diesel auxiliary engine below.
There’s a bit of spring cleaning over at Ballard Power Systems - the company is doing the enteprise equivalent of taking its old clothes down the charity shop and flogging off its fuel cell division to Daimler and Ford.The deal was approved by 97.8 percent of its shareholders and the deal will close on the 31st January.
“This transaction lowers Ballard’s risk profile by addressing the realities of the high cost and long timeline for automotive fuel cell commercialization,” said John Sheridan, Ballard’s President and CEO. “It enables us to concentrate on growth in fuel cell applications which provide clean energy solutions in commercial markets such as materials handling, backup power and residential cogeneration.”
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Greenbang had a dream last night she’d invented a new super efficient biofuel. She was very excited about the whole thing and thought she should rush online and tell you about what she’d discovered.
Then she realised it was a dream and was grossly disappointed. So here’s some real news instead: according to InfoWorld, research has found that implementing green tech could save the US government $275 million a year.
Granted, the research was done by the very companies who just happen to sell the products the Feds would need to save that kind of cash, but there you go. Here’s more:
The short of it: Were the Feds to upgrade all of their PCs, monitors, and servers to energy-efficient alternatives, and were they to adopt some power-saving technologies like virtualization, they could save taxpayers around $275 million in energy costs per year, according to the reports from HP and Intel. In the process, the sustainability move would ease the pressure on the nation’s overstrained power grid by one billion kWh per year.Breaking it down, HP and Intel assert in “Go Green Power Play” that the Feds could drive down their datacenter energy costs, estimated at around $479.5 million annually, by as much as 40 percent (that is, around $192 million) by employing various green technologies. Those include virtualization, consolidation, better cooling technology (specifically HP’s own Dynamic Smart Cooling and Thermal Mapping technologies), more energy-efficient IT systems (specifically Intel-powered machines from HP), and power-distribution efficiencies.
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.
Greenbang has to chastise Marquiss Wind Power a bit. It’s business, you see, is manufacturing roof-top wind turbines. Since noticing the company has attracted $1.3 million in funding, Greenbang has been troubled with the earworm “Up On The Roof”, most recently “re-imagined” by Robson and Jerome.Argh.But back to the matter in hand. The company has hoovered up the $1.3 million from Strategis Early Ventures and Velocity Venture Capital.
“Marquiss is well-positioned to offer a unique product at a time when the public and private sectors are focused on developing clean energy alternatives,” said Jack Crawford Jr., General Partner with Velocity Venture Capital, which led the Series A round. “With an experienced management team led by Paul Misso, this Sacramento-area company is leading the way in a multibillion market that is shifting from just centralized wind power generation – big wind farms — to distributed wind power generation solutions. The timing is ideal.”Tests of the turbines demonstrate excellent power production compared to other alternative energy sources, providing a quicker payback that can range from two years to seven years, depending on the purchaser’s existing utility rates. The wind power ties into utility grids and interacts seamlessly with customer’s existing power supply.“We are very pleased with the reception we have received from the investor community and businesses that want to embrace clean energy,” said Paul Misso, CEO of Marquiss Wind Power. “Our technology delivers real savings and allows businesses to meet their power needs while using less fossil fuel.”
When this old world starts getting me down and people are just to much for me to face…
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Just between me and you, if you hear the word biomethane, you think of windy-pops don’t you? Well, prepare to think of bottom burps a little more, as Greenbang regales you with tales of Pacific Gas and Energy’s need for a biomethane partner.According to cleantech.com, the utility is on the hunt for chum to help build a demonstration biomethanation plant.
PG&E said it’s hoping to encourage the development of pre-commercial biomethanation systems. Biomethanation is the process of converting biomass to biomethane.[...]That gas is captured from cow manure, but PG&E is looking for projects that go beyond cow pies and look at pipeline-quality gas derived from agricultural crops and wood wastes.”Generally, those items have been burned for generating electricity on demand, and we would like to explore available technologies for turning them into gas,” said Zerwer.
How are you doing with your new year’s resolutions? Most people have ditched them by now. One of Greenbang’s acquaintances always makes the resolution not to take heroin, as “it’s the one resolution I know I’ll keep”.Greenbang wishes she’d made the resolution to blog more about the United Arab Emirates, because if she had, she’d been going great guns right now.Here’s another snippet of green biz news from the gulf state, courtesy of Arabianbusiness.com. UAE, currently mooting a carbon capture scheme, could see itself on the receiving end of a bill for $2 or 3 billion.
The project could reduce carbon emissions from the UAE - which is among the highest greenhouse gas emitters per capita in the world - by around 10%, said Doug Macdonald, principal consultant in SNC-Lavalin’s chemicals and petroleum business. Engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin is close to completing a feasibility study on the project. The study has identified four to six projects with an approximate cost of $500 million each that could be quickly executed, Macdonald told the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) in the UAE capital. Reductions in the UAE’s carbon emissions would come to between six million and eight million tonnes per year, he added. That was from a total of around 76 million tonnes per year of present and planned emissions in the UAE, he said.
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