Zero Carbon transportation: Very much affordable with an Electric car

Do you want a car that you can drive for free, that is part of our electrical grid and is 100% renewable? You may not think this is possible, but it is closer than you think. A couple of months ago, an affordable option came to the market: the electric car with a $200/month lease. You can make it fully renewable by using GreenChoice windpower from Austin Energy, or by installing 8 solar panels to be able to drive on the sun. It is more affordable than you think. In fact, you may even get paid.

Driving it

Fun! It is quiet. Very quiet. And in the eco-mode, your ride turns into a glide. When you do not use the eco-mode, your ride unleashes all the torque it has to get you going really fast. You can speed up quickly if need be (try sitting next to a charger or mustang at a stop light and see if you can beat them!). It is also really comfortable. The battery is at the bottom of the car which makes it very steady to drive. It is a new world of driving and I am sure that you will never want to go back to a car that uses gas once you have tried it and made the switch.

Range

There are several electric cars on the market. Most fully electric vehicles (EVs) come with a battery that will give you 70-80 miles range, so it is the perfect car for commutes and trips all over town, just not to go to Dallas or Houston from here. We did an analysis and it would work almost everyday of last year, except for about 5 days in town, and a couple weekends up to family further away. We use our Prius for those trips, but could easily rent a car as well.

Charging

Electric cars do not need gas so you can happily forgo on stopping at the gas station and leave $20-$120 dollars in your pocket each time you don’t stop. But they do need electricity. The average electric car is much more efficient. the MPG is 100+. So you need less energy to drive it. It takes about 3000 kWh to drive a Nissan Leaf for 12,000 miles. If you charge at home this will add less than 30% to your electricity bill (per average Austin household consumption of 11,000 kWh). I use my solar panels to make the electricity and I will earn back my investment within one year. Yes, you read that right, within one year fueling/charging a Nissan Leaf will be free. If you buy a fast charger (level 2) for your home, it will take 1.5 years to never have to pay for charging anymore. That is a deal! Talk about energy independence that is renewable and clean. Another option is to use the PlugInEverywhere card from Austin Energy and charge you car on the go for a flat fee of 5$ per month.

Bottom line: if you generate your own electricity, your electric car will drive for free after about 1.5 years. Yes, really.

Affordable car?

Of course you also need the car. Are they not very expensive Some new electric cars can be expensive, but the Nissan Leaf is affordable. It is even cheaper than a Prius since they lowered the price to ~$22,000. The lease can be as low as $200 per month. When you compare that to the gas savings from using your old car, you will not get the car for free for about 8 months. Let me do the numbers for you: the gas savings depend on your MPG and miles, but if you drive a 25 MGP car for 12,000 miles per year, your savings in gas will be $1,600 per year. So the gas savings pay for most of the lease. Your net lease payments would be less than $800 per year. That should be within range of just about anybody that drives a car. One hiccup, if you plan to lease it, there may be a downpayment, and you always have to pay tax and title.

Why is it important everybody?

The Electric car holds the promise of needing fewer investments in our infrastructure, we will use more electricity for cars, but the beauty is that it will give us lower prices. When you look at the image to the right, if we charge our cars at night when we park it in our garage, the existing infrastructure can be used more efficiently as it does not have to scale up and down so much. We will cut off the peak, which is most expensive. We can also use more wind energy here in Texas that is generated at night in the Panhandle. The wind electricity can use a hungry car. It will increase demand during the off peak night hours when the wind is blowing. There is already one utility in the northeast (the University of Delaware, the regional grid operator and an electric company) that is piloting a program where your car battery becomes a two-way system: during the afternoon it can take some of your electricity from your battery and pay you for it, and at night it can charge it. Estimates are that the value of this system can be over $1800 per year. That is how much it is worth to your utility not to have to build and use peak capacity. Read more about this project in the New York Times.

So car batteries have the potential to become part of the storage when we make excess renewable energy and use it when the system is peaking. Now that is a big promise that can soon become a reality here in Austin as well.

Talk about impact: a car that you can drive for free, that is part of our electrical grid and that is 100% renewable! I can’t believe you do not have one yet We love it!

People Power

There is one online platform for individuals to invest from $25 and up in solar projects in the US. It is Mosaic. I want to see many more projects with them, but also from other groups, for wind and solar. The beauty is: you can own part of the renewable energy revolution and get a decent dividend from it in return. The picture below is a snap shot of the people that put money in to build their latest solar project in New Jersey. It is a form of community solar. It creates a connection between you, the renewable energy and the project that is using the solar panels.

Now we need to see this happening in our own town: would you not want to own part of the solar panels on our community houses, churches, soccer clubs and many other community based buildings and build a social network of places, people and renewable energy that is being build right here right now? It will provide a solar option for people that do not have a good roof, or do not have a roof (like tenants). And yes, if you look at the map and you try really hard, you can see me waving at you!

p.s. for people that do not have their own solar panels yet, get some installed yourself first. The return on investment is much bigger: you will get your money’s worth back in about 4-6 years if you apply for the solar rebates from Austin Energy. After that, your electricity is free! And if you cannot afford the upfront cost, you can get a loan through Austin Energy as well. It is the best investment you will have ever made.

100% renewable = 100% possible

April 23rd, 2013 | Posted by Joep in Our Future | Renewables | Victory Scenario - (0 Comments)

A conference in San Francisco last week named ‘pathways to 100% renewable energy’ concluded the following:

- we need to look at things differently

- predictions underestimate the growth of renewables

- technology is not a barrier

- renewables make financial sense

- local action is key

- renewables are for everyone

- we need increased public awareness and acceptance to make the a 100% switch

Republished and edited from PV solar report

Please find a short summary of the conference conclusions below:

We need to look at things differently For example, why not switch to driving electric vehicles? Is it just because we’ve internalized and accepted the reality of gas-powered cars? Or, the power industry’s current reality isn’t the only one possible. It’s bound to change as renewables make more sense economically, climate change becomes harder to deny, and consumers gain more control of power generation. Some say the industry won’t be recognizable by 2050. You can buy enough solar panels to power your car for 25 years for the money you spend on gas in a year (using a Nissan Leaf and 12,000 miles). For your house it takes between 3-8 years to recoup your initial investment and then it is free for 17-22 years. When will you get your solar panels?

Predictions underestimate the growth of renewables There are many examples of fast growth in renewables, noted that we’re already exceeding conservative scenarios. Projections from the World Bank and others have generally been a decade off or a factor of 10 lower than actual outcomes. That’s right: we’re heading down the path to 100% renewables more quickly than predicted. Some areas have already reached 100%. Case in point: Rhein-Hunsrueck, Germany. Starting with energy efficiency and moving on to generating its own power, the region of 101,000 inhabitants now produces not 100% but 104% of its energy from renewable sources. The future is here.

Technology is not a barrier That’s not to say that technology isn’t important. Solar and wind forecasting will play a role in moving us to 100% renewables, as will demand-response technologies, storage, and microgrids. We already have viable means of storing energy, and they’re only getting better. But most storage is not yet on the grid, because the grid was built when it was thought energy couldn’t be stored — another example of how we need to change our thinking. And our thinking needs to include transportation and buildings. Going all electric would reduce global energy demand by 32%, and EVs can help support the grid by storing power and sending it back to the grid when it’s needed there. Buildings, representing 25% of global energy use, can be made more energy-efficient.

Renewables make financial sense Investors are catching on. For example, they’re beginning to understand solar as an asset class and are realizing it’s a great bet: It’s a proven technology, it harnesses an unlimited source of power, and the default rate on solar projects hovers around zero. Solar provides a hedge against volatile future power costs. And new business models are emerging to finance renewables as well as to lower their costs. That includes programs supported by the SunShot Initiative that help lower the soft costs of solar, which now account for about half the cost of solar systems in the US.

Local action is key Hundreds of communities are getting into the action with policies and targets to support renewables. Some are taking up community choice energy, which allows local governments to pool residential, business, and municipal electricity loads and to purchase or generate on their behalf. It provides rate stability and savings and allows more consumer choice and local control. Other communities are taking their own paths to renewables. Lancaster, California, for example, decided to become the solar capital of the world and is making progress toward that goal. This didn’t happen from the top down — it happened because the community decided it was important. With the will to make the change in place, it wasn’t hard or costly to implement policies to support the community’s goal, such as streamlining the permitting process.

Renewables are for everyone Greensburg, Kansas provides another great example of a community-driven move to renewables. In 2007, 95% of the town was destroyed by a tornado. The community decided to rebuild in a more sustainable way, and now Greensburg is living up to its name as a showcase for how a community can go green. The people of Greensburg built on their farming ancestors’ heritage of conserving resources, reframed to fit their modern situation. Indeed, conservatism at its heart is compatible with protecting our planet. If that’s not compelling enough, most conservatives care about public safety and national security. And for most people, conservative or liberal, the strongest argument for moving to renewables is the economics.

We need increased public awareness and acceptance to make the switch To conclude, as more regions move to renewables, more people will see the value of making the switch. That increased public awareness and acceptance will help overcome the real challenges, which are social and political. Renewable energy is holding the promise of a truly distributed and democratized energy future. And clean and climate neutral, of course.

Are you in? What can you do in your community to make the switch?

Victory Scenario: Portugal produced 70% of its electricity of Q1 with renewables

Portugal, like many other countries does not have fossil fuels. All needs to be imported. But they do have energy: they are wind battered from the ocean, they have a lot of sun and have a geography that is fit for hydro-power. Well they decided to switch in 2005. And how: the first quarter of this year, they produced 70% of all their electricity from mostly hydro and wind and some solar. It is making their economy more resilient in these tough times, the money is staying in the country, and as an added bonus: they can sell their carbon credits to the European market.

Good news from climateprogress (here)!

Portugal’s electricity network operator announced that renewable energy supplied 70 percent of total consumption in the first quarter of this year. This increase was largely due to favorable weather conditions resulting in increased wind and water flow, as well as lower demand. Portuguese citizens are using less energy and using sources that never run out for the vast majority of what they do use.

Hydropower supplied most: Hydroelectric power supplied 37 percent of total electricity — a 312 percent increase compared to last year.
Alto Lindoso (Image credit: Energias de Portugal)
Wind turbines broke a record: Wind energy represented 27 percent of the total share, which is 60 percent higher than last year. This is 37 percent above average and good for the highest amount generated by wind in Portugal, ever.
2.3 percent less energy used: Energy consumption has fallen every year since 2010 and is now at 2006 levels. Some of the drop this quarter was due to fewer working days and a warmer winter, but even controlling for those factors, there was still a drop of .4 percent.
Solar energy supplied .7 percent of total energy demand, which is not much.
Dropping the fossil fuel habit: Portugal’s electricity had 29 percent less coal and 44 percent less gas in it from 2012 figures. The country must import the fossil fuels it burns.
For sale: Portugal exported what would have been 6 percent of total electricity consumption to other countries. It will also be able to sell a chunk of its allotted carbon credits offered by the EU’s carbon trading system.

Portugal’s investment in modernizing its electricity grid in 2000 has come in handy. Like in many countries, power companies owned their own transmission lines. What the government did in 2000 was to buy all the lines, creating a publicly owned and traded company to operate them. This was used to create a smart grid that renewable energy producers could connect to (encouraged by government-organized auctions to build new wind and hydro plants). In 2010, the New York Times reported on Portugal’s renewable energy push that started in earnest in 2005.

Victory scenario: your solar panels are transforming the utility industry

Mr. Utility, disruptive change is here. This is your wake-up call. Your biggest customers, households, are beginning to self generate and store power in this decade. You will either have to change or you will be left with fewer customers, will have to charge your remaining customers more, and as they leave, go out of business. The reason: solar rooftop installations. More and more evidence keeps showing up to confirm this trend. Rooftop solar is becoming a ‘no-brainer’ and will have profound implications for the incumbent energy industry.

Below you will find a redraft of the blog “2013: The Year Solar Will Flare” that was published here.

Hear power providers and utilities talk

NRG Energy Inc. (NRG), the biggest power provider to U.S. utilities, has become a renegade in the $370 billion energy-distribution industry by providing electricity directly to consumers. Bypassing its utility clients, NRG is installing solar panels on rooftops of homes and businesses and in the future will offer natural gas-fired generators to customers to kick in when the sun goes down, Chief Executive Officer David Crane said in an interview. NRG is the first operator of traditional, large-scale power plants to branch into running mini-generation systems that run a single building. The endeavor strikes at the core business of utilities that have earned money from making and delivering electricity ever since Thomas Edison flipped the switch on the first investor-owned power plant in Manhattan in 1882. Consumers are realizing “they don’t need the power industry at all,” Crane, 54, said in an interview at this year’s MIT Energy Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “That is ultimately where big parts of the country go.” It is obviously a potential threat to us over the long term,” said Jim Rogers, chairman and chief executive officer of Duke Energy Corp. (DUK), the largest U.S. utility owner.

What is driving this change (apart from the sun!) ?

Recent technological and economic changes are expected to challenge and transform the electric utility industry. These changes (or “disruptive challenges”) arise due to a convergence of factors, including: falling costs of distributed generation and other distributed energy resources (DER); an enhanced focus on development of new DER technologies; increasing customer, regulatory, and political interest in demand- side management technologies (DSM); government programs to incentivize selected technologies; the declining price of natural gas; slowing economic growth trends; and rising electricity prices in certain areas of the country. Taken together, these factors are potential “game changers” to the U.S. electric utility industry, and are likely to dramatically impact customers, employees, investors, and the availability of capital to fund future investment. The timing of such transformative changes is unclear, but with the potential for technological innovation (e.g., solar photovoltaic or PV) becoming economically viable due to this confluence of forces, the industry and its stakeholders must proactively assess the impacts and alternatives available to address disruptive challenges in a timely manner.

While the pace of disruption cannot be predicted, the mere fact that we are seeing the beginning of customer disruption and that there is a large universe of companies pursuing this opportunity highlight the importance of proactive and timely planning to address these challenges early on so that uneconomic disruption does not proceed further. Ultimately, all stakeholders must embrace change in technology and business models in order to maintain a viable utility industry.

Solar becoming cheaper than traditional forms of electricity

The revolution in energy markets caused by the growing impact of rooftop solar PV is about to take a dramatic leap in scale. According to analysts from the global investment banking giant UBS, the arrival of socket parity – where the cost of installing solar is cheaper than grid-sourced supplies – is about to cause a boom in un-subsidised solar installation in Europe, and the energy market may never be quite the same again. Such forecasts have long been the province of environmentalists, climate activists, university researchers, and the occasional industry leader, such as David Crane, the head of NRG, the largest generator of electricity in the US. Now, the team of energy analysts from UBS, writing in response to plunging power prices in Europe, has issued a stunning report entitled “The unsubsidized solar revolution” – suggesting that investing in solar will become a “no brainer” for households in several European countries, and will have profound implications for the incumbent energy industry.

“Solar has turned from a heavily-subsidized marginal technology into a mainstream source of power generation,” the UBS analysts write. ” “Thanks to significant cost reductions and rising retail tariffs, households and commercial users are set to install solar systems to reduce electricity bills – without any subsidies.”

Your own utility and gas pump: on your roof. Paid for in less than 3 years.

This means we are getting to a market that does not rely on government programs or subsidies, it is carried by economic sense. Solar will become a necessity for new construction just as we want a bathroom and a heater. Your house will not have an electricity bill anymore. Hopeful messages that will only be reinforced by the sales of more and more electric cars. These too can be powered with your solar panels and require even fewer panels than your home. Say goodbye to paying at the pump. I mean, think of it, add up your utility bill and gas bills from the pump for a year. Then divide (in Austin at the moment) about $4,000 for low end users and $ 8,000 for high end users by this number. That is your return rate. I bet it is within 3 years. Hello sunshine.

Renewable energy self-sufficient states, can it be done?

March 14th, 2013 | Posted by Joep in Carbon Positive | Our Future | Renewables | Victory Scenario - (0 Comments)

Is renewable energy ready for the real deal? How do we match supply and demand? We all know about the intermittent character of wind, water and solar. The sun does not shine all the time; the wind doesn’t always blow. Here is a study from Stanford University that is looking to answer how a key, energy intensive region of the country, New York state could be run entirely on renewable energy. Can it be done? Yes.

The study can be looked up here. It is technical yes, but the answer is simple: it can be done quickly and affordably. A similar study has been done by the University of Delaware that includes a much more detailed and specific look at how a shift to renewables could replace, watt for watt, the current system in a large regional grid called the PJM Interconnection, representing 13 states and one fifth of the US grid. I tried to summarize a few key points from the New York State study with help from Peter Sinclair.

1. What are the main ingredients of a fully renewable energy economy?

The graph below shows you the current situation and how the pathways transition into the new energy future. You see some key ingredients. The biggest step is the missing loss of energy when we do not rely anymore on fossil fuels that we have to convert to electricity. That is a good bonus to have! The next path is being more efficient with the energy we use. Doing more with less. Wasting less by being smarter. You know, stuff you can do yourself, like changing a light bulb to a CFL. When you look at the black section, you almost see a perfect bell-that is about half of the trick, almost. The energy that we still need will be generated with an intricate mix of energy sources. It is all of them: solar, wind, hydro and geothermal. And yes, we need them all so they can dance and make it all work together.

2. So we are talking about all energy uses?

Yes, we can not just talk about electricity. It is about an all-purpose energy infrastructure for electricity, transportation, heating/cooling and industry. It needs to be a comprehensive energy strategy and it should focus on all the services we derive from the use of energy. So we are indeed talking about the full replacement of the use of coal, natural gas, nuclear, shale gas, tar sand and oil.

3. Can you show me what sources of renewable energy are part of the mix?

It is a colorful palet of energy sources which will vary wherever you are in the world. If we look at New York State (NYS’s) 2030 all-purpose end-use power would be provided by:

10% onshore wind (4020 5-MW turbines),
40% offshore wind (12,700 5-MW turbines),
10% concentrated solar (387 100-MW plants),
10% solar-PV plants (828 50-MW plants),
6% residential rooftop PV (~5 million 5-kW systems),
12% commercial/government rooftop PV (~500,000 100-kW systems),
5% geothermal (36 100-MW plants), 0.5% wave (1910 0.75-MW devices),
1% tidal (2600 1-MW turbines),
and 5.5% hydroelectric (6.6 1300-MW plants, - of which 89% exist).

Yes, your solar panels on your roof are part of this success as well! And all of this is existing technology.

4. And it pays for itself in dollars and even more in health and jobs

The conversion would reduce NYS’s end-use power demand ~37% and stabilize energy prices since fuel costs would be zero. It would create more jobs than lost because nearly all NYS energy would now be produced in- state. NYS air pollution mortality and its costs would decline by ~4000 (1200-7600) deaths/yr, and $33 (10-76) billion/yr (3% of 2010 NYS GDP), respectively, alone repaying the 271 GW installed power needed within ~17 y, before accounting for electricity sales. NYS’s own emission decreases would reduce 2050 U.S. climate costs by ~$3.2 billion/yr.

5. But, do we have space for all of this?

The answer is simple again: yes. If you look at the map below where the technologies from question 3 are plotted, you see that it would require space, but that there is plenty space left for biking, hiking and other outdoor activities that will let you breath in all the clean air.

6. And, how are we going to deal with challenge of matching the demand, at different times of the day, and the activities of nature?

An important concern that needs to be addressed in a clean-energy economy is whether electric power demand can be met with wind, water, and solar supply on a minute, daily, and seasonal basis. There are a nice array of methods that we can deploy to do just that:

(A) combining geographically-dispersed renewable resources as a bundled set of resources rather than separate resources and using hydroelectric or stored concentrated solar power to balance the remaining load;

(B) using demand-response management to shift times of demand to better match the availability of renewable power;

(C) over-sizing renewable peak generation capacity to minimize the times when available renewable power is less than demand and provide power to produce heat for air and water and hydrogen for transportation and heat when renewable power exceeds demand;

(D) integrating weather forecasts into system operation;

(E) storing energy in batteries or other storage media at the site of generation or use; and

(F) storing energy in electric-vehicle batteries for later extraction (vehicle-to-grid).

My conclusion is that if we focus our effort on getting this done, we can. We need to do two things: start investing in the conversion and stop investing in fossil fuel based infrastructure.

You can own the renewable energy revolution

How can you own a part of the renewable energy revolution? Can you put your money in wind farms or solar farms? The internet is democratizing the renewable energy sector and the first steps are visible in the US. Listen to Billy Parish why and how he created the first online platform to invest in solar projects in the U.S. He will be followed by many more people. Get ready for an energy future that we all own, is small scale, resilient, clean, abundant and carbon free.

From: mother nature network, march 11

Despite the overwhelming popularity of solar power, U.S. politics have been hostile to the budding industry. Established fossil fuel industries continue to enjoy generous government subsidies to the tune of about $10.4 billion per year* while renewable power gets a meager $1.7 billion (that’s solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and hydro put together)! In addition, the current Master Limited Partnership rules are written to provide tax-advantages for fossil fuel investors while prohibiting these same rules from applying to solar and wind, even though solar and wind industries have been shown to create far more longterm job opportunities per dollar invested.

Even with all these obstacles, banks still want to invest in solar projects. They see it as a business about to boom, but they are just not set up to finance small $100,000 installations. Mosaic attempts to fill this gap. Taking advantage of a new IRS ruling that finally allows crowd-based investing, Mosaic allows us little guys to actually invest in solar projects around the country — schools, community centers, housing projects — and receive a return on investment, all while making communities cleaner and more energy secure.

Some were skeptical about Mosaic, but in its initial offering of projects the company was able to raise $1.1 million in just a few days, funding 11 projects in California, Arizona and New Jersey. Parish says their success is simply about the numbers. 92% of Americans want solar power, yet currently only 0.1% of them have it. That is a big market with a lot of pent-up demand, and Mosaic is well situated to add a huge amount of liquidity to the U.S. market.

Last week Future360 had a skype interview with Mosaic founder Billy Parish, a young man who’s online crowdfunding platform may end up providing the key to unlock a solar revolution in the United States.

How it works… Mosaic connects small investors through an easy-to-use online platform. As the solar projects produce clean electricity they generate very reliable revenue by selling power to the solar customer. The projects earn revenue, and they investors are paid back with interest. It sounds like a no-brainer, but the feat of getting Mosaic off the ground should not be underestimated. It is one of the very first projects in the U.S. to actually test out the mechanism for crowd-based investing (as opposed to gifting platforms like Kickstarter).

The current slate of solar projects have already been funded but if you want to get in on the action, you can sign up to get notified for the next offering. It will be interesting to see just how fast solar will take off in the U.S. with a means of simply getting money where its wanted most — on our rooftops.

* Note this figure is very conservative. Other figures put U.S. subsidies at about $30 billion per year for Oil & Gas, based on the DBL Investors et al study, 2011 (which shows $447 billion for oil & gas during the 15 year period 1994-2005) and $24 billion per year for Coal based on a deeper analysis of Environmental Law Institute, 2009 study which identifies over 250 subsidy mechanisms (PDF).

Climate solutions: herding livestock

Herding livestock on 50% of the worlds pastures and areas where we are seeing desertification can help families in providing for themselves, restore water tables and rivers, increase organic matter in the soil, sequester carbon dioxide in the soil and prevent release of methane to an extent that will take the atmospheric CO2 below pre-industrial levels, hence save us from global warming. Really?

“Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert,” begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And it’s happening to about two-thirds of the world’s grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos. Savory has devoted his life to stopping it. He now believes — and his work so far shows — that a surprising factor can protect grasslands and even reclaim degraded land that was once desert.

It is all about how we manage our livestock. Our current way of animal husbandry is always in every case destructive, and contributes to climate change and desertification. Savory agrees that there is a right and wrong way, but makes a case that with the right practices, ruminants can become a powerful tool for healing damaged land and sequestering carbon. If you have not visited one of our local farmers that are providing our stores with grass-fed beef, go on a road trip. When the buffalo roamed the Great Plains, the top soil was about 6 foot deep and fertile; now we have reduced that to mere inches. Watch this video from Allan Savory titled “How to green the world’s deserts and reverse climate change”. It includes case studies of his hard learned approach (it took killing 40,000 elephants to see that he was wrong) and how it is transforming millions of acres on different continents around the world. This has to be part of our Victory Scenario.

Allan Savory works to promote holistic management in the grasslands of the world. Full bio »

Learn more

If you want to learn more about holisitc land management practices, here are a few points resources to get started:

Holistic Management Resource List (including scholarly citations, popular articles, and videos)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r1L5uMGs3AKFRYwOhBxamHkMNcA818qxmkbn3T4o6ig/pub

Research Paper Summaries Germane to Holistic Management
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XlQeLBDHnhXt_5_-jY1NIerQfQhls6CzS3Qx5_Um1kQ/pub

Land Restoration in Arid Regions with Holistic Management
http://planet-tech.com/blog/land-restoration-holistic-management

Land Restoration in the Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico, with Holistic Management
http://planet-tech.com/blog/las-pilas-ranch

Case Studies & Related
http://www.savoryinstitute.com/research-and-case-studies/
http://www.ecoresults.org/
http://www.managingwholes.com/
http://soilcarboncoalition.org/

Forward on Climate

February 23rd, 2013 | Posted by Joep in Inspiration | Our Future | People | Victory Scenario - (0 Comments)

You probably have all read about, saw news about or participated in the Forward on Climate rally last Sunday, February the 17th of 2013. We wanted to share the feeling and momentum of over 40,000 people joining together to move us towards an economy and society that is different from our current one so that they can tell their grandchildren ” we were about to really screw this planet up, but we took a turn, and I was part of it”. A turn to a brighter future with clean, affordable, local and renewable energy, with enough food and fresh water to provide for a decent living across the globe. The solution to our Climate Challenge has the potential to drive all of this. We’d better make it work. Will you join the movement? Will you take action today? Enjoy the video. We are all in.

More information about the rally can be found here. A slideshow of the event is available here

The Climate Protection Act and the Sustainable Energy Act

February 15th, 2013 | Posted by Joep in Our Future | Policy - (0 Comments)

In the last two years, the biggest extreme weather events cost American families and businesses $188 billion. As we pump more and more greenhouse gas pollution into the atmosphere, these disasters are only going to become more common. We must do something now to take action. And, thanks to a bill that was introduced today, United States Senators have the opportunity to take action: They must pass the Climate Protection Act and the Sustainable Energy Act. Controversy has already arisen, but it is hitting all the right buttons. Get ready for more renewable energy, a rebate for households, investment in the new energy economy based on public private partnerships and energy efficiency. Think of weatherization of 1,000,000 homes per year. Talk about scale! Let hope most of the components get some serious attention.

Taken together, the Climate Protection Act and Sustainable Energy Act are a comprehensive climate bill, led by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA). Most important, the package puts a price on carbon, which will make polluters pay for the damage they inflict on all of us while encouraging the transition to cleaner fuels. This $20 fee for each ton of carbon dioxide pollution will reduce emissions to 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. The bill would set a goal to slash heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 – in line with the Obama administration’s long-term emission reduction target.

It would set a $20 tax for each ton of carbon dioxide equivalent a polluter would emit beyond a set limit, which would rise 5.6 percent annually over a 10-year period. The bill that would tax carbon and methane emissions. These bills also bring in more than $1 trillion in new revenue over the next decade. The success of any pollution reduction program depends on how new revenue is spent, and these bills spend the money smartly. Broadly speaking, the money goes to three places: consumer protection, clean energy infrastructure, and deficit reduction. Each of these is important.

The tax would target upstream emissions from 2,869 of the country’s largest emitters, such as coal mines, oil refineries and natural gas processing points, or 85 percent of the economy. But it does not target power plants, which would continue to be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. The tax would also apply to foreign companies who export their fuels to the United States if their home countries do not have equivalent carbon measures.

A carbon fee is just like any other consumption tax in that it inordinately impacts low- and middle-income families. The Climate Protection Act and Sustainable Energy Act create a rebate program to make sure that these families are not harmed. Unlike other carbon tax proposals, sixty percent of the revenue would go to pay monthly rebates for citizens and legal U.S. residents who are bound to face higher electric bills as utilities pass on the tax to consumers. This is modeled after Alaska’s oil dividend, and will ensure that pollution reduction is not a regressive tax.

Other money generated by the tax would be used to invest in energy efficiency and cleaner technologies, such as weatherizing U.S. homes, tripling the current energy research at the U.S. Department of Energy and seeding a fund that would encourage public-private partnerships to develop renewable energy. To be more specific; it would go toward “weatherizing” 1 million homes each year to make them more energy-efficient, increasing renewable-energy supply by setting up new wind- and solar-power projects, and creating a fund to attract private investment for clean-energy development.

Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program, said he thinks businesses could come around to support the bill. He said the legislation could offer more predictable policy compared with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emissions rules. EPA has begun moving ahead with climate regulations, and advocates want a more aggressive effort on that front during Obama’s second term.

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Thursday that she plans to move a comprehensive climate bill through her committee and to the floor by this summer. Boxer called the bill, sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), “the gold standard” for climate legislation.

It is hard to find, but here is a copy of it. Have a read, lets hope it gets the attention and credit it deserves.

Supply chain management, energy efficiency and lowering energy costs: IKEA does it all

To prevent the worst of climate change we need to cut our emissions by about 80%. The best way to do that is to use energy sources that do not suffer from carbon pollution, being renewables, you all know that. Now for most of us citizens, most of our footprint originates from what we ask other people to do for us. Think of the groceries that you just bought, and oh yeah, your new smart phone. So, do you ask your retailers, and providers what they are doing to fight climate change? Some people do, and some businesses do too. An example of a company that is wanting to increase energy efficiency, reduce energy cost, use only renewable energy, and, make their suppliers do the same: IKEA. If we clean up every step in the supply chains in our economy like this, we will make huge inroads in curbing our emissions.

Workers are seen installing solar panels to the roof of an Ikea Group store.

Source: Bloomberg, 23 Janaury 2013

Ikea Group, the world’s biggest furniture retailer, will double its investment in renewable energy to $4 billion by 2020 as part of a drive to reduce costs and risk associated with volatile fossil fuels.

The additional spending on projects such as wind farms and solar parks will be needed to keep expenses down as the company maintains its pace of expansion, Chief Executive Officer and President Mikael Ohlsson said in an interview in Malmo, Sweden. “I foresee we’ll continue to increase our investments in renewable energy,” said Ohlsson, who is due to step down this year after 3 1/2 years at the helm. “Looking at how quickly we’re expanding and our value chain, we will most likely have to double the investments once more after 2015.”

Prices for wind turbines sank 23 percent in the three years to June, while solar panels have tumbled by more than half in two years, making projects cost-effective, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Ikea plans to get 100 percent of the energy consumed at its stores and by subcontractors from renewable sources by 2020. The Almhult, Sweden-based company owns 250,000 solar panels, mainly in the U.S., and invested in 126 wind turbines in northern Europe to cover 34 percent of its energy consumption.

Wind farms and solar parks

In October, Ikea said it planned to more than double spending on wind farms and solar parks to as much as $2 billion to have the company cover more than 70 percent of its energy consumption by renewable sources in 2015 and protect it from volatile fossil-fuel prices.

The retailer is expanding its product range for customers to live more sustainable lives themselves, focusing on waste handling and cutting energy and water use. “For now, we’re mainly focusing on the big parts of resource use at home,” Ohlsson said, adding that Ikea is testing some solar solutions for customers in the U.K., he said.

A typical roof of an IKEA store

IKEA is also doing its part in their stores, the goal for energy efficiency is to reduce its use by 25% in the coming years. Their biggest effort: using more and more energy efficient light bulbs. Sometimes energy efficiency is that simple and significant.

Your supply chain management

So the next time you are spending dollars somewhere, why not ask your retailer or provider whether they are using renewable energy (read Greenchoice in Austin), or ask them what recent projects they have implemented to be more energy efficient? My experience is that these questions usually turn into a positive conversation about the need and reasons. Most people are receptive to the message. It is time to grow our community and get connected in a new and renewable way.

Wind farm + storage battery = wind power when we need it

January 24th, 2013 | Posted by Joep in Alternative Fuels | Our Future | Renewables | Victory Scenario - (0 Comments)

Wind power only works when the wind is blowing. Some days wind farms produce more energy than can be used immediately, while other days the wind dies down to nothing. If only we had a way to store excess wind energy and discharge it whenever demand for electricity is highest – not just when wind turbine blades are turning. And now that can be done, and it is being done in Texas.

Artist impression of a wind farm and on-site storage facility.

The world’s largest wind energy storage system is set to be built in oil country, deep in the heart of Texas. North Carolina-based company Duke Energy has hired Xtreme Power to build a giant storage system at a wind farm in aptly-named Notrees, Texas. The current wind farm boasts an output of 153 megawatts, and the new system will store up to 36 megawatts in a dynamic battery. The systens has already been installed at four wind farms in Hawaii, utilizing 15 and 10 megawatt batteries.

The Notrees Wind Power Project was built in 2009. The storage system, which will turn the farm into a manageable power source, stands to add just about 1 cent to the cost of each kilowatt hour — a small price to pay for a continuous power source. The Xtreme system at Notrees Wind Power Project has just been completed.

A view of the battery system. It is one heck of a lead acid battery!

Duke Energy will work closely with the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to integrate the wind power and battery storage solution into the state’s independent power grid. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will advise the project team, collect data and help assess the potential for broader adoption of energy storage solutions throughout the industry. Results from the storage project at Duke Energy’s Notrees wind farm will be shared publically through the DOE’s Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse.

The round-trip efficiency is at approximately 90%, varying slightly by application. We lose some power, but gain more freedom to use it when we need it most. That is great news- just like the sun doesn’t shine on our solar panels all the time, the wind picks up and dies down as well. In Texas, most wind blows at night and most consumption happens during the day. Now we have an additional tool to balance that. Good progress!

In 2012 we became 120% self-sufficient with electricity

December 29th, 2012 | Posted by Joep in Carbon Positive | Conservation | Our Future | Victory Scenario - (6 Comments)

Last April we made the decision to invest in solar panels on our roof. We also stepped up our electricity savings efforts. And boy, did it pay off. With only 8 months of solar panel production, we have been able to make 20% more than we needed over the year so we are actually a net producer and we give back to the grid. We also curbed use by more than 40% compared to last year. We are using less energy every month as compared to last year. We are making more electricity every month than we are consuming, even over the summer in our AC-loaded Southern climate.

solar panels

We installed 12 solar panels that will give us over 4000 kWh of electricity per year. Thank you sun!

After having helped install solar panels in Europe at my father’s place (see some photo’s of my brother, dad and me here guiding you through all the installation steps), we decided to have them installed for us here in Austin. The main reason for this is the requirement from the city to use an approved installer to qualify for the rebates. The rebates are great, they pay for all the labor, so the work comes for free, and all work is up to code and done by certified electricians. That is a good thing. Of the remaining price tag, 30% is paid for by a federal tax incentive that you can claim on your 1040. Nice! We bought enough solar panels to match our use in 2011 which meant for us 12 solar panels of 255 watt peak each. That is less than most people in Austin would need. It generates about 4,000 kWh per year and the average household in Austin uses 11,000 kWh per year. You can see photo’s of our installed grid (including some overly optimistic marketing language) on our installers website. We will earn our investment back to the last penny in about 6 years and will be making money after that every time the sun is out. We will make even more electricity next year with all 12 months of production instead of the 8 we had last year. If you want solar panels and live in the Austin area, look at this action card with a detailed step by step plan.

cutting use

At the same time we have tried to curb our own use as well. Seeing the meters go up when you use electricity and go down when you don’t inspired us to look at our consumption. So we focused on our largest use: the cooling of our house over the summer. We decided not to replace the HVAC but to reduce its workload by installing attic insulation (fun to do yourself!) and installing solar screens on our windows (that we took of a month ago to let the winter sun warm our house and will put back on when it gets warm again). You can see the impact in the table below where the red line bends off downwards in month 7, July. Appliances and lighting are usually good second runners up on the use front. We had already changed most lights to CFLs, so we decided to focus on appliances. We replaced our clothes washer with an affordable but very water and energy efficient front loader (25% compared to the market average) and installed a solar clothes line so we do not have to run our dryer anymore (except for some towels). On top of that. we started to turn things off even more. We emptied out our fridge before our summer vacation so it would not run with nobody there to use it anyway (good excuse to clean it!). Another example is the use of power strips; our entire home office can be turned off by one switch. But we have also increased used in other places, especially in making more food and drinks at home. We boil our water in an electric kettle to bring water to the boil before using our natural gas stove, we make our own kombucha that starts with hot sweet tea , we make our own bread with seeds, rosemary, oregano, caraway etc., we have a blender/smoothie maker that we use to make delicious drinks, pickled cabbage (kimchi) and hummus. All solar powered, all made from scratch. It is a great way to celebrate the energy from the sun harvested from our solar panels. Our 2012 use is now less than 2,500 kWh, about 22% of the average use in Austin. Yeah!

2012 electricity use in our home. On the left axis you see the number of kilowatthours, kWh, that we use every day as an average per month, and the bottom axis shows you the months of the year. The green line is our solar production. The red line is our use in 2012 and the blue line our use in 2011. Can you see when we installed our attic insulation?

future

With solar panel prices coming down, and the rebate program here in Austin, there is no good reason not to have solar panels on your roof. If you qualify and can afford the upfront cost, you should get them. It is one of the few things that you can install in your house that actually makes you money. Yes it will take some years to recoup the investment, but it saves you money from day one and increases the value of your home when you want to sell it. You could go as far as to say it is free. Free , clean, renewable, abundant. Why don’t you put the sun to work here in a climate were we have so much of it and fight it all the time in the summer. The sun can be your friend! There is no reason your house can not be a net generator instead of a consumer. Estimates are that by 2030 25% of all homes in Europe will be energy self-sufficient. You can be part of this trend. The only thing you have to do is to call a couple of solar installers and be on your very own way.

We will probably buy an electric car sometime the next couple of years, with that we will add a few more solar panels and stay self-sufficient, even for our transportation needs, habits and lifestyle.

Majority of world’s largest companies shifting to clean energy

December 16th, 2012 | Posted by Joep in Our Future | Policy | Renewables | Victory Scenario - (0 Comments)

Despite climate and energy policy inching forward in Congress and at the UN climate change negotiations in Qatar, a new report from Calvert Investments, Ceres and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) shows that most of the world’s largest companies aren’t waiting on governments to embrace renewable energy and lower emissions.

The report, “Power Forward: Why the World’s Largest Companies are Investing in Renewable Energy,” shows that a majority of Fortune 100 companies have set a renewable energy commitment, a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction commitment or both. The trend is even stronger internationally, as more than two-thirds of Fortune’s Global 100 have set the same commitments. You can find a list of US companies without and with goals on page 15. A good list to know where or where not to put your money! Appendix A gives you an overview of their goals.

“The companies that are boldly setting either greenhouse gas or renewable energy goals and making progress on those commitments are demonstrating the business case and real leadership on climate change,” said Marty Spitzer, WWF’s Director of US Climate Policy. “And, in the process, these companies are changing the game — driving significant renewable energy investment globally and pressing for the right policy and market conditions that will allow companies to do even more.”

Through two dozen interviews with Fortune and Global 100 executives and analysis of public disclosures, the report finds that clean energy practices are becoming standard procedures for some of the largest and most profitable companies in the world, including AT&T, DuPont, General Motors, HP, Sprint, and Walmart. Just to give you one example; Walmart has a goal of 100% renewable energy. Among other key findings, the report shows that:

96 companies from the combined 173 companies in the Fortune 100 and Global 100 have set GHG reduction goals (56 percent).
Of those, 23 companies have set specific goals for renewable energy use (13 perce-nt), with others using renewable energy to meet their GHG goals.
Many companies are shifting from purchasing short-term, temporary Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to longer-term investment strategies like Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and on-site projects, indicating a long-term commitment to renewable energy and reaping the benefits of reduced price volatility.

“The world’s largest companies are expanding their use of renewable energy because it makes good business sense – they see the value in diversifying their energy supply, mitigating fuel cost risk, cutting their energy-related emissions, and, in some cases, providing a physical asset with real value for the enterprise,” said Calvert’s Senior Vice President for Sustainability Research and Policy, Bennett Freeman. “We strongly encourage all companies to set renewable energy targets and disclose these commitments, which we believe will help companies—and those who invest in them—address clear risks and seize concrete opportunities.”

Despite tremendous progress, some companies have yet to set goals, and those that have still face several challenges to accelerating their use of renewable energy. Companies identified the following key barriers: the fact that in some regions renewable energy is not yet at cost-parity with subsidized fossil-based energy; internal competition for capital; and inconsistent policies that send mixed signals to companies and investors in renewable energy projects, particularly instability in renewable energy incentives and policies that prevent companies from signing green power purchase agreements.

The report offers several recommendations for U.S. policymakers, including promoting tax credits or other incentives that level the cost playing field for renewable energy, particularly, extending the Production Tax Credit for wind energy this year; establishing Renewable Portfolio Standards in states that do not have them; removing policy hurdles in states that prevent companies from contracting to buy the cheapest renewable power available and building on-site renewable power generation; and market-based solutions that put a price on the pollution from conventional energy generation.

“When a majority of the world’s largest companies are investing in clean energy, you can truly see its value,” said Mindy Lubber, President of Ceres. “It speaks volumes that almost all of these companies set their renewable energy and greenhouse gas goals after the economic downturn, precisely because they understand the economic benefits of efficiency and renewable energy. We encourage lawmakers to support policies that help companies meet and strengthen their clean energy goals.”

The report was prepared by David Gardiner & Associates with the guidance of WWF, Ceres, and Calvert staff.

Ceres – WASHINGTON, DC Dec 10, 2012

Worlds largest Community Solar project sold out!

November 25th, 2012 | Posted by Joep in Carbon Positive | Our Future | Renewables | Victory Scenario - (0 Comments)

A 5 megawatt (MW) solar PV farm in the UK has become the first cooperatively owned project in the country – and the largest community solar farm in the world. The 30-acre solar park serves 1500 households and next door are wind turbines also owned by a community cooperative. In one of the most successful share offerings of its kind, Westmill Solar Cooperative purchased Westmill Solar Park. The offering, over-subscribed by 50%, sold out in six weeks to 1650 investors. It raised almost $9.6 million, supplemented by a loan from Investec Bank. The cooperative eventually intends to transfer that loan to a pension fund bond.

“It’s been a real team effort to have pulled this off in the face of shifting government policy and tight timescales,” says Adam Twine, founder and director of the cooperative. “Westmill represents the best of what low carbon investment and renewable energy can offer and hopefully will inspire others to realize that when we get together we can make change happen and can engage positively with the threat of climate change.” More than half of Westmill members live within 40 kilometers of the project. Planning for the community solar project began in summer 2010, and was constructed with financing from renewable energy company Blue Energy. It was connected to the grid in 2011, and the cooperative assumed ownership during an offering in June and July 2012. The farm benefits from UK feed-in tariffs introduced in 2011, which are guaranteed for the next 24 years.

“Solar power will become the world’s greatest energy source in our lifetime; heralding a new era of sustainable and ‘democratic’ energy supply,” says Philip Wolfe, chairman of the cooperative. “As the success of Westmill shows, solar energy enables ordinary people to produce clean power, not only on their rooftops, but at utility scale.”

You can check out website of Westmil solar co-op here. It has a realtime solar output monitor and much more!

Community solar projects are capturing interest in the US as well. Even though a state-wide effort in California to support the model was squelched in early September, it is likely that the issue will be re-introduced next year and examples of community solar financing models can be found inNew Mexico and Massachusetts.

The big question is: where is Texas in this list? Austin Energy is working on a community solar program, but details are scarce.

Source: SB

Texas keeps setting wind power records: a whopping 26% of all our electricity from wind

November 19th, 2012 | Posted by Joep in Carbon Positive | Our Future | Renewables | Victory Scenario - (0 Comments)

We are getting better at this: harvesting the wind to power Texas The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, (ERCOT), grid operator for most of the state, set a new wind record on Nov.10, 2012. Wind power output reached 8,521 megawatts (MW) at 10:21 a.m. This represented nearly 26 percent of system load at the time and surpassed the previous instantaneous record, set the evening of June 19, 2012, by more than 150 MW.

Think of it: 26%. Wow.

Now you can tell everybody during your thanksgiving dinner that wind is here, and it is providing clean power, creating local jobs and powering more and more of our economy with renewable energy. Texas is a leader in energy, Texas can be a leader in renewable energy.

A windfarm in West-Texas

To put things in perspective: one MW is enough electricity to power about 200 homes during hot summer days when electric use is highest and about 500 homes during periods of typical consumption. “We have surpassed previous wind power records several times this year,” said Kent Saathoff, ERCOT’s vice president of Grid Operations and System Planning. “While added capacity is one reason for this growth, experience and improved tools also are enabling ERCOT to integrate this resource into the grid more effectively than ever before.”

And it is coming from all over the state: nearly 7,000 MW of the new record included wind power from West Texas wind farms, followed by more than 1,100 MW from wind farms along the Texas Coast. So it is local and provides jobs and income for farmers and mechanics in economically depressed rural areas.

And it is getting even better soon: ERCOT has more than 10,000 MW of wind power capacity, with nearly 21,000 MW of additional wind generation under review. The completion of high-voltage transmission projects in Competitive Renewable Energy Zones by the end of 2013 will improve ERCOT’s ability to move wind power from West Texas to the metropolitan areas where demand on the grid is highest.

This is the scale that we want to see more of. Here in Texas, in the US and in the world. Thanks Texas for making this happen, it is the pathway to our future, and we are building it. Cheers!

Source: ERCOT

Because it is free

October 26th, 2012 | Posted by Joep in Carbon Positive | Our Future | Transportation | Victory Scenario - (0 Comments)

Some things are best explained in very simple words: why would we use solar energy for our homes and our cars? Pat and Dale Bulla answer that question for you: because it is free. Read their interview posted in “The Current, issue October 2012“.

Did you know that it takes less solar panels to drive your car than it takes to power you house? Anybody that has solar panels on their roof knows it is empowering to make your own electricity. It is even more empowering if you use it to drive your car!

Now solar panels are not cheap, think of the cost of replacing your AC, it is about the same. But did you know that Austin Energy picks up about 40% of the cost to install your solar panels? And that 30% of the remainder can be claimed as a deduction on your 1040 when you file with the IRS? And that you will save on your utility bills? Installing solar panels is one of the few things in your house that actually make you money. In Austin the payback is less than 8 years. Where else do you get 12.5% return on investment? Do yourself a favor, if you have the money in the bank and it is in a savings account rusting away, put the money on your roof and join the solar community. Because it is actually better than free, you will be saving money.

Energy Efficiency Feed-in Tariff can result in 40% electricity saving: Negawatts!

October 19th, 2012 | Posted by Joep in Efficiency | Our Future | Policy | Victory Scenario - (0 Comments)

We all know that using less electricity reduces our bills. But do you also know that most energy efficiency measures are also more cost effective for your utility company when they try to address demand and growth? And that investments in energy efficiency are many times cheaper then generating the electricity to begin with? A paper by the UK based think tank Green Alliance says current policies mostly focused on energy star rating and building codes will deliver a third of the energy efficiency potential which is estimated at a whopping 40%. It argues that instead of just supporting construction of expensive new electricity generation capacity, any energy policy should also reward lower cost energy efficiency savings and create markets for demand reduction – known as negawatts.

They are proposing to implement an Energy Efficiency Feed-in Tariff. They conclude that an electricity efficiency feed-in tariff (FiT) would provide the best option overall for the British electricity market. It best fits the structure of the decentralized electricity market because it allows for a market-based approach to energy saving, it targets the largest proportion of electricity users, provides the highest likelihood of encouraging innovation and is likely to enable new entrants to compete in the energy market. It would fill existing policy gaps and would also complement other efficiency policies already in place, such as product standards.

An electricity efficiency feed-in tariff (FiT) to pay projects that can demonstrate measured electricity savings on a per KWh basis. Projects that reduce demand would be given a revenue stream via the FiT. It can dramatically speed up the implementation of energy efficiency and bring potential savings in the future to here and now.

- The benefit of a liberalized electricity sector is that competitive pressure can be used to reduce the cost of energy to consumers. An electricity efficiency FiT is the only mechanism which directly aligns companies’ profits with maximizing electricity demand reduction and minimizing costs to consumers.
- A technology neutral FiT could enable the most cost effective measures to be implemented. In addition, a FiT designed to foster longer term savings could provide enhanced support for innovative energy savings measures or deep retrofits.
- By providing a fixed payment for each KWh saved, new efficiency providers would be enabled to enter the market. By offering a reliable finance mechanism and overcoming a major barrier to efficiency, an electricity efficiency FiT helps to unlock new sources of finance. Its simplicity would also appeal to local authorities, businesses, and industry, which could access FiT income directly.
- A FiT preserves competition in a liberal market: it makes supply compete with demand by forcing power generators to compete with companies which can demonstrate real energy savings. This incentivizes private sector innovation
- The tariff could vary according to a number of factors: by measure (giving more to innovative projects and technology); by user (giving more to hard to reach or fuel poor customers); or by depth of saving (paying more for projects that result in deep retrofit, such as replacing whole heating and cooling systems and lighting, rather than just lighting alone).

The UK environmental minister added “”Energy efficiency is the huge national opportunity we have ignored for too long. We need action across the whole economy, not just the electricity. However, improving the efficiency of the electricity sector is key.”" And he is right, energy efficiency should relate to energy, not just electricity. It is about all of our energy services, such as heating, transportation, manufacturing etc.etc.

The report can be downloaded here. It talks about examples here in the US where demand side initiatives have been implemented to delay transmission or distribution upgrades. Some have been so successful that the intended network upgrade never happened. That is the goal for large scale energy efficiency projects: reduce demand in such a way that new fossil fuel generation is not necessary anymore, where replacement of old technology can be done with higher numbers of smaller scale local renewables applications which will make the grid not only greener but also more resilient.

If you want to read a more popular article about negawatts, have a read here.

Can you imagine the US taxing its own oil industry to send money to poor countries?

October 13th, 2012 | Posted by Joep in Our Future | Policy | Victory Scenario - (0 Comments)

Norway just did. Norway is to double carbon tax on its North Sea oil industry and set up a £1bn [$1.6 billion] fund to help combat the damaging impacts of climate change in the developing world. … one of the most sensible climate programs yet by an oil-producing nation …Norway is showing us an example of charging the old energy economy to include the external cost of carbon pollution and investing that money into combating current climate change impact and investing it in reducing impact in the short and midterm future. That just makes too much sense to be implemented here in the States, right?

Norway is to double carbon tax on its North Sea oil industry and set up a £1bn fund to help combat the damaging impacts of climate change in the developing world. In one of the most radical climate programmes yet by an oil-producing nation, the Norwegian government has proposed increasing its carbon tax on offshore oil companies by £21 to £45 (Nkr410) per tonne of CO₂and a £5.50 (Nkr50) per tonne CO2 tax on its fishing industry. This will increase the budget for the Ministry of the Environment by more than 10%, all this in a period of recession. It will step up spending on:

- new projects to combat deforestation in developing countries to £44m, taking up its spending overall on forestry programmes to £327m. Previous forestry projects have involved Brazil, Indonesia and Ethiopia.
- The Oslo government is also to spend £69m on buying carbon credits in 2013, to help offset its emissions,
- enact new building regulations to make all new homes carbon-neutral by 2015 and
- more climate research and education
- increase efforts to heavily cut emissions from cars, switching to electric

The effect is that it reduces impact at home, but it also offset the impacts of its oil exports on the world’s climate come as it also proposes to expand oil exploration into the Barents Sea to the far north. That is the first oil producing nation defining their impact on the global climate as a global responsibility. The scale of these initiatives will pose a significant political challenge to other oil-producing nations, who are also investing in low-carbon technologies and cutting their own emissions, but not yet investing heavily in tackling the impacts of climate change on developing countries.

And the oil industry is doing just fine. Ranking third among the world’s oil exporters, with production peaking at 3m barrels of oil a day, Norway has 51 active oil and gas fields in the North Sea, and believes it has more than 7bn barrels of undiscovered reserves. Its oil and gas sector is the world’s richest: its employees earn $180,000 on average a year. With a population of 5 million, it is the third wealthiest country per capita in the world thanks to its oil and gas exports.

Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, said: “Norway is showing how you can use oil income to fund the transition out of oil”.

Is it perfect, no. Is it a huge step forward if all of the oil, gas and coal industry was treated like this? Oh YES. Side effects include 1) tropical rain-forest preservation, 2) carbon neutral homes with lower of no utility bill, 3) more renewable energy, 4) more efficient ways of transportation etc. etc. Oh, and there is more, their budget is balanced. Norway has a history of saving oil revenues of today for future generations. Go figure. Here is the press release from the Norwegian government.

Introducing: Jim Marston

October 8th, 2012 | Posted by Joep in Inspiration | Our Future | Policy - (1 Comments)

This coming Sunday, at noon, at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin 4700 Grover Austin, TX 78756, you will have the change to hear from a well vetted clean energy and climate change leader why Texas stands to benefit big from taking on our challenges from climate change. Not only from an environmental perspective, but in harmony with a blossoming local new energy economy.

Jim Marston, Vice President of Energy at the Environmental Defense Fund, will discuss why dealing with climate change is beneficial to the Texas economy. Given the severe drought, wildfires of 2011 and the northern movement of tropical diseases such as West Nile, we cannot afford to continue on our current path. Many of our state elected officials deny climate change and the effect of greenhouse gas emissions because it is inconvenient for their donors. It is crucial that we reverse this mindset now to prevent further effects and better leverage the tremendous opportunities we have for renewable energy, which will lead to lower carbon emissions in the Lone Star State.

Jim Marston is the founding director of the Texas office of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), located in Austin, where he has served since its beginning in 1988. Jim is the head of EDF’s national Energy Program and also serves as Regional Director of EDF’s Texas Office. His areas of expertise are Climate change, energy efficiency, smart grid, air quality, energy policy

Jim led the successful fight to stop TXU from building a dozen coal plants in Texas and ultimately negotiated a first-of-its-kind deal with private equity buyers involving more than a dozen commitments on climate change. He is also a leader of the Pecan Street, Inc., a partnership that includes Austin Energy, the University of Texas, the Chamber of Commerce, and several large high/clean tech companies aimed at making fundamental changes in the nation’s electricity grid. Jim also helped to design and to advocate for some of the most innovative state legislation in the country including the Texas Renewable Portfolio Standard that led to almost 10,000 MW’s of new wind energy in Texas and the first-in-the-nation “no regrets” global warming law.

Jim was EDF’s State Climate Initiatives director from 2002 until 2009. In that position, he helped direct EDF’s successes in states from the west coast to New England and Florida on a wide-range of legislation and regulations to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Among EDF’s most important state climate victories was the passage of the California Car Greenhouse Gas Standards in 2002 that ultimately lead to national greenhouse standards for automobiles in 2010 and the passage of AB32 in 2006, the first state legislation with a cap on statewide emissions of greenhouse gases.

Discussion following the presentation
FUU will host a discussion after the presentation at a different location – come and join us at Central Market! As a sponsor of this Forum, the Green Sanctuary Committee invites you to join us after the Forum presentation for further discussion of these issues facing our planet. We will meet at Central Market, 4001 North Lamar, approximately 30 minutes after the program or about 1:30.”

More information:http://austinuu.org/wp2011/community/public-forum/