Posted by jumperhead on March 28th, 2008
Like a more cashed up version of this little piggy went to market, some electronics firms have been going WEEE, WEEE, WEEE all the way home. WEEE, rather than an expression of porcine delight, is in this case the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive, an instruction by the EC which means that electronic gizmo manufacturers must make sure the goods they sell are taken back and recycled.
So a lot of firms are interested in getting involved with WEEE - after all, most people have a PC right now and there’s a rich seam of recycling dollars to be had in getting rid of them when they pass on to the great desktop heaven in the sky.
One WEEE firm, Shore Recycling, has been snapped up by Viridor Waste Management Limited for £23 million this week.
According to Viridor, the buy is in line with Viridor’s parent company Pennon Group strategy of expanding its waste management activities.
Shore is headquartered in Perth, Scotland and has recycling facilities in Perth, Manchester and St Helen’s, while Viridor is also based in Scotland and northern England.
Posted by jumperhead on March 28th, 2008
A £24 million plan to cut London’s landfill? Ken Livingstone, I presume! Yes, the avuncular London mayor is spanking the cash on getting cockneys and other London residents to keep their tat out of the ground. And what’s more, if you want to be in Ken’s recycling gang, you’re going to have to enter his Dragons Den. So to speak.
Ken, alongside the London Development Agency (LDA), is on the hunts for some waste-to-energy brains, with a panel of ” waste, energy and financial experts to deliver innovative, efficient waste and recycling facilities appropriate for London including those which use waste to create renewable energy and increase the capital’s recycling reprocessing capacity, whilst reducing reliance on landfill, boosting the local economy and reducing the transport impacts of waste”, no less.
Think you want to offer your waste reduction plan? You’ll have to explain it in a Dragons Den style environment reminiscent of the famed BBC2 show where a series of mostly flakey would-be entrepreneurs are grilled and mocked by already-are entrepreneurs in an effort to get some cash.
Says the LDA:
Nearly 7 million tonnes of commercial and industrial waste is currently produced in London each year, which is nearly double the amount that London’s households produce. Less than half of the commercial and industrial waste is recycled and the remainder is primarily disposed of to landfill, where it breaks down to produce CO2 and methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The Mayor’s London Plan sets ambitious targets to recycle or compost 70 per cent of London’s commercial and industrial waste, and to manage 85 per cent of it in London by 2020 rather than sending it to landfill in the home counties.
And says our Ken:
“There are real opportunities in London to develop technologies that treat waste as a resource, rather than relying on outdated waste disposal methods which contribute to climate change. London’s businesses and boroughs are currently choosing to bury and burn the capital’s waste - dumping it in the home counties - whilst recycling rates lag behind the rest of the UK. This funding package of £24 million from the London Development Agency will accelerate the use of cleaner, greener recycling and treatment methods that are already being effectively used in Europe.”
Posted by jumperhead on March 28th, 2008
Like the ‘if a shark and a tiger were to have a fight, who would win?’ question, two mortal enemies - solar and coal - are locked in a life and death battle for the title the cheapest per watt energy. Who will win? Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets, pur-lease.
North Bridge Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners have already placed theirs, betting $12.4 million in venture capital funding on MIT start-up 1366 Technologies, whose aim in life is to make solar cheaper than carbon.
According to News.com, it’s aiming for $1 a watt by using existing tech to make solar cells more efficient.
Here’s how 1366 says it can manage it:
1366 Technologies produces new manufacturing processes to lower the cost of silicon solar cells.
Among others we have developed proprietary new cell architecture for multi-crystalline solar cells. We are currently in the process of implementing this architecture in our pilot plant.[…]
The revolutionary, new Light-Capturing Ribbon increases the efficiency of a solar module by reflecting light back onto the surface of the cell. This grooved ribbon replaces the traditional wires used to interconnect solar cells.
Just as standard interconnect wires, the Light-Capturing Ribbon is soldered to the silver busbar on top of the silicon cell and to the solder pads on the back of the next cell.
The grooved surface of the Ribbon steers incoming light back to the glass/air interface at a grazing angle, that allows the light to undergo virtually total internal reflection, directing it back to the cell surface.
Up to 80% of the photocurrent from light that strikes the ribbon is recovered—far better than the 5% recovered by a standard interconnect wire.
Posted by Greenbang on March 27th, 2008
Meet Dr Kate Rawles, a lecturer at the faculty of science and natural resources University of Cumbria.
In 2006, supported by a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship and leave from the University of Cumbria, she cycled 4500 miles from El Paso to Anchorage, following the spine of the Rockies and exploring North American attitudes to and beliefs about climate change along the way. The trip took three months and is now the basis of the Carbon Cycle, a slide show that uses the story of the bike ride to deliver a hard-hitting message about climate change and the urgent need to respond to it, in an engaging and ultimately up-beat way.
Greenbang caught up with her to find out why she thinks the climate change debate is going the wrong way.
Greenbang: What do you think is wrong with the debate on climate change?
Dr Kate: It hasn’t really got to grips with the fundamental problem, which is that Western, industrialised lifestyles are literally unsustainable. Climate change is just one symptom of this. WWF famously calculated that if everyone on earth were to enjoy the lifestyle of an average Western European, we would need three planet earths.
Not even the most optimistic believers in technology think that we can technofix this problem so that 6 billion people (let alone the projected 9 billion) can enjoy a western lifestyle without ecological meltdown. It follows that we urgently need to rethink what we currently mean by a ‘high standard of living’ and move away from materialistic versions of this to an understanding of quality of life that could be enjoyed by everyone, without causing environmental mayhem. This is about values, not just about technology.
Do you believe in climate change? If so - why?
Yes, most definitely. I believe in it because there is a truly astonishing - not to mention alarming - level of consensus across the international scientific community that climate change is happening, that it has a human cause and that it is very bad news, both for people and for millions of other species.
While climate change is on some people’s minds, others consider self-sufficiency and alternative energies to oil to be as important - do you agree?
I think they are related. According to the ‘peak oil’ analysis, as the main oil reserves are used up, oil becomes harder to extract and increasingly expensive. It therefore makes a lot of sense to preempt the impact of this by developing ways of meeting our needs and organising communities that are much, much less oil dependent. This is the starting point for many of the ‘transition towns’ or ‘transition initiatives’. At the same time, as we use the remaining oil, we contribute to climate change which, if unchecked, could threaten human societies across the world, and millions of other species as well. In both cases we are talking about greatly reducing our use of fossil fuels.
How do you think the problem of climate change needs to be tackled?
At all levels, individual, government, schools, businesses, universities, community groups……. consistently, thoroughly and urgently. Most analysts are saying that we need to see in the region of an 80% reduction in climate change related emissions across the industrialised world, in the next ten or at most fifteen years.
Where do you think businesses can do most good? And do you expect people to forget about improving their quality of life?
Businesses can often move faster than governments to make changes. They can take a leadership role in this area, cutting their own emissions and taking advantage of a rapidly growing market for low carbon products, ranging from light-bulbs to loft insulation, from cars to locally grown food. In terms of quality of life, I certainly don’t expect people to forget about it. On the contrary, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that, after a point, quality of life levels out even if people and societies get richer, and that we could actually have a higher quality of life with a much lower environmental impact if our understanding of quality of life was less materialistic. So it’s about rethinking what we really mean by quality of life - and having more of it, not less.
Are your thoughts opposed to current levels of consumption? What about economics?
Current levels of consumption in industrialised societies are too high - as the three planet earth analysis clearly shows. This presents a major problem for current economic thinking, which is premised on growth, and which requires us all to keep consuming more, not less. Clearly we can’t grow infinitely, and consume infinitely, on a finite planet. So developing sustainable economic systems is a key part of the challenge that faces us. At the end of the day, the economy is absolutely dependent on the environment, not the other way around. Without a healthy environment, including a functioning climate, in the end there will be no economy….
Anything else you’d like to add?
Climate change and other major enviornmental issues need to be tackled urgently. But this is not all doom and gloom and nor is it about hair shirts and going back to the caves. Climate change presents us with a much needed opportunity to question what is really important to us and what we really mean by quality of life. Moving away from excessive consumerism means we can celebrate a low carbon lifestyle, enjoying higher quality of life for a much lower environmental impact.
Posted by Greenbang on March 27th, 2008
This straight in from the office of Shai Agassi…
DONG Energy and California-based Project Better Place today announced a signed letter of intent aimed at reducing CO2 emissions from the Danish car fleet. Together with Project Better Place, DONG Energy will work on the further development of a project to give Danish consumers access to buying environmentally friendly electric vehicles (EVs) at attractive prices.
Within the next few years, Better Place Denmark is to introduce environmentally friendly, battery driven EVs to the streets of Denmark. Offering at least the same road-holding qualities as fuel-based cars, EVs produce zero emission of CO2 and other exhaust gases.
“With this project, we hope to contribute substantially to reducing CO2 emissions from Danish cars. At the same time, we will achieve a new way of storing the unstable electricity output from wind turbines, as EVs are typically charged during the night, when the exploitation of power generation is low. This provides optimum exploitation of our resources for the benefit of the environment,” says Anders Eldrup, CEO of DONG Energy.
“Together with DONG Energy, Project Better Place will ensure an environmentally clean and sustainable approach to energy and transportation,” says Shai Agassi, CEO and founder, Project Better Place. “Existing technology, combined with our unique business model and scaleable infrastructure will provide a financially viable solution to significantly decrease CO2 emissions.”
Through the Project Better Place and Renault-Nissan Alliance partnership announced last January, Renault will provide Better Place Denmark with the electric vehicles, thus achieving the objective of zero emissions while at the same time offering driving performances similar to a gasoline engine. Nissan, through its joint venture with NEC of Japan, has created an advanced lithium-ion battery pack that meets the requirements of the electric vehicle and will be mass-produced.
The initial contact between Project Better Place and DONG Energy was originated by Invest In Denmark. Today, both businesses are members of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a forum of leading business representatives, researchers and media persons from all parts of the world working on establishing a global agreement at the climate summit in Copenhagen and developing innovative solutions to climate challenges.
Posted by jumperhead on March 27th, 2008
In a recent visit to a national park, Greenbang was reminded not to pee on the plantlife. (Not that she was planning to, she hastens to add, she just stumbled across a sign bearing the prohibition against outdoor micturation). Dispose of your water carefully, the national park warned, perhaps wagging an imaginary finger as it did so.
But if you’re a pulp mill or manufacturer, getting rid of wastewater is more of a chore - you need to make it as clean as possible before returning it to the environment.
Which is probably why AqWise, a company which sells biological water filtration has notched up $3.6 million in a funding round, with capital from AHMSA Steel Israel Ltd, Elron Electronic Industries and Israel Clean Tech Ventures.
AqWise said it will use the proceeds to “grow its presence and market reach around the globe” as well as do more development work on its AGAR(R) (Attached Growth Airlift Reactor) fixed biofilm moving bed process.
Or for the layman, it’s a process that uses bacteria to filter the grim bits out of water.
Posted by jumperhead on March 27th, 2008
In Greenbang’s mind, fossil fuels is a bit like that ex that you put a call in to after several pints and a kebab. You know it’s got to come to an end some time but you can’t just leave it alone. Maybe it’ll work out now, you think. But that’s just Greenbang. Returning to the real world, a consortium of three US universities has got millions of dollars in funding to stoke the world’s love affair with fossil fuels once again, by developing new technologies to make them clean and green.
The consortium of 75 scientists and associated student researchers from the Universities of Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh and West Virginia got a $26 million research grant to look at new fossil fuels tech, in order to squeeze out more power more efficiently from them as well as reducing their impact on the environment.
The states in which these universities sit boast massive coal reserves, so developing making coal a green fuel star would help them to supply the US with a headache-free source of energy.
Carnegie Mellon Chemical Engineering Professor Andrew Gellman said:
“We need to develop improved turbine generators and new fuel cell technologies that use coal-derived synthetic fuels, along with new ways to capture and store greenhouse gases instead of releasing them into the atmosphere.”
In its coal-greening efforts, the universities will look at:
o Materials for energy technologies
o Process and dynamic systems modeling
o Catalyst and reactor development
o Carbon management
o Sensor systems and diagnostics
o Energy conversion devices
o Gas hydrates
o Ultradeep and unconventional oil and gas production technology.
Perhaps Greenbang would be more sensible with her money should she ever fall into absurd riches.
Posted by jumperhead on March 27th, 2008
Strangford Lough. To Greenbang, that name sounds like a retired Scottish laird, sitting in a crumbling castle as the highland winds whip past his 300 year old whisky collection. Either that or a shiny-toothed, hyperactive MTV USA presenter. Needless to say Greenbang’s imagination has got the better of her, and it’s actually the Northern Irish site of Marine Current Turbines’ first commercial scale tidal turbine renewable energy system.
The company said earlier this year that it planned to get the 1.2 MW system up and running by the end of this month and, The Independent has reported this week, it’s only gone and done it, by jove.
The system will soon be fitted to Strangford Lough’s grid and supply electricity for 1000 homes in the area.
The Indy describes the tidal system as “an 122ft- long contraption – looking like an upside-down windmill” and the first of its kind in the world.
Here’s a bit more about the device, named SeaGen, from Marine Current Turbines:
The method of installing the 1.2MW SeaGen device in Strangford Lough has been adapted to enable it to be deployed by a crane barge rather than a larger jack-up vessel. SeaGen will be installed by the crane barge Rambiz, operated by the Belgium company Scaldis, and overseen by MCT’s own inhouse engineering team in partnership with SeaRoc Ltd, a leading firm of marine engineering consultants. The exercise, which will take up to 14 days, is scheduled to start on March 23 when the Rambiz barge sails with SeaGen loaded on board from Belfast to Strangford Lough.
The additional fabrication engineering work on SeaGen has been carried out by Scottish firm Burntisland Fabrications Ltd and the final phase of the engineering assembly and mobilization activity will be undertaken by Harland & Wolff in Belfast before being collected by the Rambiz barge. Once installed and during the 12 week commissioning phase, a team of environmental scientists from Royal Haskoning, Queen’s University Belfast and St Andrew’s Sea Mammal Research Unit will be in Strangford Lough to closely monitor SeaGen’s operation and its interaction with marine life.[…]
At 1.2MW capacity, MCT’s SeaGen is the world’s largest tidal current device by a significant margin.
Posted by jumperhead on March 27th, 2008
So, how green is your office? No, don’t look to the cheese plants for support, we’re talking sustainability here. If you fancy getting a bit of a handle on the subject, you can check out this handy tool from Xerox.
Granted it only covers your photocopiers and printers, but it’s a start. The calculator lets you take a look at what you could cut from your energy and paper use, solid waste, water, air and greenhouse gas emissions if you sorted out your printing.
Go on, treat yourself.
Posted by jumperhead on March 27th, 2008
Meandering through the pages of Chinese news service Xinhua, Greenbang came across this invention: the electronic cigarette, the invention of which has been plaguing her ever since. After all, who sat down and thought: “you know, what the world needs is a cigarette, made of plastic, that you can recharge? I’ll be a millionaire with this baby!”
Luckily, Greenbang discovered something a bit more life-enhancing than the mechanical ciggie on her web perambulations. Xinhua also reveals that the Chinese government has been finding its wallet.
According to the paper, the Chinese Ministry of Finance will spend 78 percent more than planned on reducing emissions and boosting energy efficiency to make sure it meets environmental targets by the end of the decade.
Apparently, 27 billion yuan of special funds will be earmarked for the process, 7.5 million of which will be dedicated to ten energy saving schemes “including technological transformation in factories, substitutes for oil and the introduction of energy-efficient light bulbs”, 4 billion will go on shutting down dirty coal fired power stations and steel plants while another 5 billion will sort out polluted bodies of water.
