Developing Leaders for Sustainable Development

Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) is a global network of individuals and non-governmental organizations, committed to sustainable development. LEAD is an independent, not-for-profit organization, established in 1991 by The Rockefeller Foundation. The LEAD network is coordinated through an international secretariat based in the campus of Imperial College London.

In Pakistan, this organization has been successfully conducting a Leadership Development Program for the past many years and has established itself as one of the leader in the area itself. Through its Climate Change Program and Public Policy Program, the organization is aiming to strngthen the institutions working in the area of environment and sustainable development. For more information, please visit http://www.lead.org.pk/index2.htm.

How to buy a Green PC?

Probably not what we want to discuss... :)

PCs and information-technology equipment consume $8 billion in annual electricity costs each year in the United States. The price is even greater when you factor in carbon emissions caused by this power use, which contribute to global warming. With such high economic and environmental costs, energy efficiency has become unavoidably vital. In other words, it's time to take your PC green.

If you've been thinking about buying a PC that's less harmful to the environment, you're not alone. A recent survey found that more than half of PC buyers in nine countries were willing to spend more for green machines. The survey also found that consumers believe that tech manufacturers should be held more accountable for the impact of their products on the environment, a fact that PC makers are slowly accepting.

The perfect green computer does not exist yet—and may not for some time. But if you're shopping for a new PC and want to lessen its impact on the environment, there are ways to create a greener computing experience. Here's how.

Read more:

Go Small

Avoid Hazardous Materials

Look for the Energy Star

Pick a New PSU

Go Multicore

Set it for Savings

Recycle It

Courtesy: Jasmin Malik Chua ; http://computershopper.com/feature/how-to-buy-a-green-pc

Antarctica hit by climate change

In its landmark Fourth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared in 2007 that human influence on climate "has been detected in every continent except Antarctica". Now a paper inNature Geoscience says that our impact can be found even in the last wilderness1.
Didn't we already know that human activity was warming the Earth?

While some specific climate changes have been linked to human activity, especially in the Arctic, it has not yet been possible to conclusively demonstrate a link to actual surface temperature changes at both poles. When they made their statement on Antarctica, the IPCC cited "insufficient observational coverage to make an assessment".

"The scarcity of observations in the Antarctic makes it harder to identify and attribute temperature trends, but it does not make it impossible," says climatologist Nathan Gillett of Environment Canada, lead author of the new study.

Ref: http://www.enn.com/climate/article/38541

UN Secredtary General commutes to work on a Solar Taxi

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday touted his commitment to promoting alternative energy sources by commuting to work aboard a fully solar-powered taxi.

"I hope that this Solartaxi, one of the alternate sources of energy, can give some good messages to the people around the world that we need to be creative, we need to be practical," he told reporters as he arrived at UN headquarters.

"This is a fantastic experience. I hope I can enjoy another ride," he added, noting that he waved at passersby on New York streets from a Solartaxi during his 10-minute trip.

The green commute was part of Ban's efforts to raise awareness about climate change and to promote environmentally-friendly technologies.

The Solartaxi, the brainchild of 37-year-old Swiss engineer Louis Palmer, is currently in New York as part of a worldwide tour that included a stop in Bali, Indonesia, last December for the landmark climate change conference.

The journey, an initiative backed by Switzerland, is slated to wrap up in the Polish city of Poznan in early December to coincide with the next phase of international talks on steps needed to respond, mitigate and adapt to global warming to be held in the Polish city.

"This Poznan conference should serve as a very successful bridge to the Copenhagen meeting (on climate change) next year so that we will be able to agree on a globally accepted, a very efficient, balanced, effective and ratifiable treaty replacing the Kyoto Protocol by 2012," Ban said.

Palmer, the Solartaxi's driver and developer, said he was on a mission to show that solutions exist to tackle the effects of climate change.

Courtesy: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hemGhVxJ2Go-COdJkT8cG9NLVPTA

Image courtesy: http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/science_technology/Solar_taxi_lights_up_Big_Apple.html?siteSect=511&sid=9702019&cKey=1221234906000&ty=st

Global Warming Cartoons

Courtesy: http://content1.clipmarks.com/image_cache/earthshine/512/63BCFDDA-E52D-4E79-9EF1-1991C7F3E8BD.gif

SOLAR ENERGY IS THE WAY TO GO for UAE

Abu Dhabi: Solar energy is the way to go for the UAE, an expert on renewable energy has advised.

Ray Noble, Director of BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaics) and a former UK government advisor on renewable energy, was addressing developers and members from the construction industry at a seminar titled "Global warming and its solutions".

"The planet is a very clever thing. It can repair itself, provided you don't go too far," he said, pointing out the critical need to act now against global warming. Many people believe that the burning of fossil fuels causes global warming. Analysing this, together with the fact that over two billion people worldwide have no access to electricity, leads to the conclusion that fuel needs are in some way related to global warming, Noble explained, adding that the future is for renewable energy and gases, predominantly hydrogen.

While wind and marine energy are not the right answer for the UAE, solar energy is the ideal option, he said. "The UAE gets some of the highest amounts of light from the sun compared to anywhere in the world."

There are two ways of tapping into solar energy. By using Photovoltaic (PV) or solar cells to directly convert sunlight into electricity or by using solar energy to heat water and then to use the steam to generate electricity.

http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Environment/10241148.html

Friendship for a cause - can it materialize?

NEW DELHI: While bilateral relations between Pakistan and India may not be very cordial at the moment, businessmen across the border have found a new area for collaboration - alternate energy.

About 30 Pakistani companies sent representatives to Delhi during the Renewable Energy Expo 2008 that ended on Saturday to scout for new technology and expertise to skirt over chronic energy shortage in that country.

"We had 38 businessmen from Pakistan with various business interests," said Waqar Ahmed, managing director of Business Horizons, the trade promotion group that brought the Pakistani delegation to India.

Ahmed said Pakistani business houses were either looking at setting up of power plants to feed into the national grid, or set up captive plants for their own units.

Making the visit were some of Pakistan's top companies that included Sapphire group, which runs 13 textile weaving and spinning mills, travel company Sitara that also has subsidiaries in Canada and Uzbekistan, the Crescent Group with multiple business interests such as oil exploration, financial services and textiles, and Pakistan's second largest textiles group Gulistan.

Interestingly, the day the Delhi expo was inaugurated, leading Pakistani financial paper Business Recorder had published a two-page supplement on event.

Reports in the Pakistani media say the electricity shortfall was as high as 7,000 MW this summer after 24 power generating units stopped operations due a severe shortage of furnace oil.

Pakistan has a target to generate at least 9,700 MW through renewable energy by 2030, or about five percent of its installed capacity.

"The government has already issued 93 letters of intent to private companies for setting up wind power projects," said Ahmed.

The 93 projects will have a generation capacity of about 4,600 MW.

Sitara Chemicals Industries, which operates the largest chemicals complex in Pakistan, has ambitious plans that hinge on the ability to secure a reliable source of energy.

"We are already running a 80 MW plant, which supplies electricity to the complex and the state power board. We need to generate 50 MW at least, which may go up to 200 MW," Sitara Chemicals chief executive Muhammad Adrees told IANS.

The head of the Rs 140 crore company is keen to import Indian technology, as he felt "there was an affinity to the ground conditions in Pakistan".

Preliminary talks have been held with several companies, including Tata BP Solar. "We have not yet decided to set up a renewable energy power plant, but still exploring our options," said Adrees.

The Sitara group already has an Indian connection, having sourced two chemical plants from here. "Right now, we have 20 Indians working in our complex in connection with setting up these two plants," said Adrees.

It is still logistically a challenge to import equipment from India. "When we had to get our machinery from Delhi, it had to be routed through Mumbai to reach Karachi port. If we could have transported directly by road from Delhi, it would have saves costs," he said.

India has been ranked third on the Ernst and Young Renewable Energy attractiveness model. The country has an installed capacity of 12,600 MW, out of which about 8,700 MW is generated through wind power.

By 2011, it hopes to increase the total generation from renewable energy to 14,000 MW. As per government targets, renewable energy will account for 10 per cent of total power generation by 2012 and 20 per cent by 2020.

Reference: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Pakistan_looks_to_India_for_green_energy_know-how/articleshow/3407664.cms

The Saudi Arabia Of Solar Energy

The Saudi Arabia Of Solar Energy will be "Saudi Arabia" itself.

Very interesting read regarding the future potential of Solar Energy generation in (and transmission from) in Saudi Arabia...



In the wake of the first Gulf War, the U.S. Army assessed Saudi Arabia's solar energy resource potential in a classified effort to determine how oil fires had affected the region.

The results were clear and surprising. In addition to being a vast petroleum repository, the desert nation was also the heart of the most potentially productive region on the planet for harvesting power from the sun. In other words, Saudi Arabia was the Saudi Arabia of solar energy.

Sitting in the center of the so-called Sun Belt, the country is part of a vast, rainless region reaching from the western edge of North Africa to the eastern edge of Central Asia that boasts the best solar energy resources on Earth. With the cost of oil skyrocketing, this belt is attracting the attention of a growing number of European leaders, who are embracing an ambitious proposal to harvest this solar energy for their nations.

The irony is inescapable and the story a familiar one, as the developed world again turns to the less developed countries in hopes of powering their economies. More important, it highlights an unappreciated implication of a solar-powered economy: The end of the oil age will not necessarily bring an end to the ugly geopolitics, resource wars and national rivalries that oil created.

The Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation, or TREC, is the brainchild of a consortium led by the controversial Club of Rome and includes influential members like the German Aerospace Bureau and several universities in Europe and the Middle East.

TREC is spearheading a political initiative to build a so-called transmission supergrid by concentrating solar thermal power plants, wind turbines and long distance power lines to supply energy to Europe. The proposed power plants would simultaneously provide energy to seawater desalination plants in the Middle East and North Africa.



While the wild-eyed scheme might seem better suited for conspiracy theories than reality, it has attracted a growing number of impressive and powerful backers. In 2007, Prince El Hassan of Jordan, who has called for implementing the plan with an Apollo-like program, presented the plan during a European Union parliamentary session. Nicolas Sarkozy, the recently elected President of France, and U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown have both publicly endorsed the supergrid project in recent weeks.

In July, Sarkozy hosted the inaugural meeting of the "Union for the Mediterranean" in Paris. The Union, which seeks to promote relations between North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, considers TREC's solar energy proposal one of its top priorities. Meanwhile, the escalating conflict in Georgia, which has exposed the extent of Europe's energy insecurity, has undoubtedly increased the TREC plan's appeal.

While TREC's plan is nowhere near becoming a reality, it seems inevitable that, in one form or another, someone will try to capitalize on the vast solar energy resources available in the sun-soaked countries of the Sun Belt.

While it is technically possible to convert sunlight into electricity anywhere, it costs far less to do so in areas that receive the most powerful forms of sunlight--sunlight that loses the least amount of radiant energy while moving from space to earth. The Sun Belt receives the lion's share of this energy-rich sunlight.

While speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona, Spain, in July, Arnulf Jaeger-Walden, one of Europe's leading energy authorities, said that less than 0.4% of the solar energy that falls on the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East would satisfy all of Europe's energy needs.

The opportunity isn't lost on Sun Belt countries. In March, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Ali al-Nuaimi, said the country hopes to become as expert with solar energy as it is with oil. While Saudi Arabia has long toyed with solar power for small projects, such as a 1980s "Solar Village" program to develop the use of the technology in remote regions, its aspirations appear to be growing.

"For a country like Saudi Arabia ... one of the most important sources of energy to look at and to develop is solar energy," al-Nuaimi told the French oil newsletter Petrostrategies. "One of the research efforts that we are going to undertake is to see how we make Saudi Arabia a center for solar energy research, and hopefully over the next 30 to 50 years we will be a major megawatt exporter."

In Hassi R'mel, Algeria, 260 miles south of Algiers, construction has begun on a new power plant using a combination of solar and natural gas. The hope is to generate 150 megawatts of electricity by 2010, with 25 megawatts from a solar array stretching nearly 2 million square feet. The long-term goal is to export more than 6,000 megawatts of solar-generated power to Europe by 2020.

"Our potential in thermal solar power is four times the world's energy consumption, so you can have all the ambitions you want with that," Tewfik Hasni, managing director of New Energy Algeria, or NEAL, a company created by the Algerian government in 2002 to develop renewable energy, told the Associated Press last year.

This is why, barring a major technological breakthrough, the economics of solar energy may someday look much like the economics of fossil fuels. Energy security ultimately means more than access to energy; it means access to cheap energy. And like it or not, the Sun Belt has the cheapest solar energy in the world in vast quantities.

"In the same way we are an oil exporter," said Saudi Arabia's Ali al-Nuaimi, "we can also be an exporter of power."

By William Pentland (Forbes.com)
http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/08/21/saudi-arabia-solar-biz-energy-cx_wp_0822solar.html

Are you listening?

Excellent artwork...

Earth day with a twist :)

Bio-fuel or Food?

Here is a very interesting analysis by a senior columnist of daily DAWN:

"The rising world food prices seem to have forced the UK government to take a second look at its transport fuel policy which compels suppliers to provide 2.5 per cent of their sales as bio-fuel. The policy took effect last week. The proportion is to rise to five in 2010.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement last Tuesday, ahead of a meeting on food prices with industry leaders and development experts, that if a UK government review of the impact of biofuels now under way “shows that we need to change our approach, we will also push for change in EU biofuels targets”.

The review was launched in February and is due to deliver initial conclusions next month, with a full report by the end of June.

As food prices have risen environmental and social groups have intensified their campaigns, arguing that governments are diverting production away from food and animal feed. Until now, the government’s policy has been to support the increased use of biofuels.

Biofuels produced from crops such as corn and soya provide a small but fast-growing share of motor fuel, and had been expected to make an important contribution to meeting growing demand for fossil fuel.

Biofuels have strong political support in many countries. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, said last week: “Those rising global food prices have nothing to do [with] biofuels.”

Agriculture diplomats have expressed concern that governments are focusing on biofuels as the main reason for rising food prices. They argued that the use of agricultural land and crops for fuel is only part of a mix of problems including higher demand in Asia, climate change, declining growth in farming productivity and water scarcity.

The European Commission has been defending its 10 per cent biofuel mix target for motor fuels. Asked by reporters last Monday whether the EU was reconsidering its position on the biofuels target, a spokesman said: “The answer is very simple. No.”

Meanwhile, the world is still not very sure what is causing the international oil prices to shoot up so steeply over the last one year. The price has almost doubled in the 12 months from $60 to $120 a barrel. The producers claim that there has not been any disruption in supplies during this period. There has also been no significant increase in consumption in major consuming countries like the US, Europe, Japan and the UK.

China’s consumption is said to be rising at a breakneck rate. Chinese demand for oil is said to be accelerating ahead of the Olympics with crude oil imports up by almost a quarter to 4.07 million barrels a day in March, compared with the same month last year. For the first quarter, crude imports rose by 14 per cent compared with the same period last year. But then it has also been busy in Africa exploring new fields and developing them.

One would certainly find it hard to disagree with the argument that the declining dollar could have forced the exporters to push up the prices of their commodity to protect the purchasing parity of the currency they receive in exchange for their oil. But the increase in the price of oil is decidedly too high compared to the dollar’s decline.

So, there certainly appears to be a very generous speculative component in today’s oil prices. But who is fueling this speculation and why? Nobody has an answer.

Opec ministers have blamed rising oil prices on speculators and the weakness in the dollar at last week’s meeting of the International Energy Forum in Rome.

But in an effort to reassure the market, Opec’s secretary general highlighted the cartel’s plans to expand capacity. Right now, Opec has 120 projects worth $160 billion just to increase capacity by five million barrels a day to 2012. However, Opec is said to have no plans to meet before September, suggesting little prospect of any relief on supplies before then.

Developments in the dollar are likely to dominate oil price movements in the short-term and could even drag Brent crude as high as $125 per barrel this quarter. Nevertheless, with a recovery of the dollar and easing of oil market tightness in the pipeline, the Capital Economics (CE) a London based research firm expects prices to drop back to around $85 per barrel by the end of the year.

The three key drivers of the recent rise in oil prices (a falling dollar, tight fundamentals and speculative pressures) look set to ease and probably reverse in the second half of the year.

Another factor blamed for high oil prices is the inflow of capital from investors, partly as a hedge against general inflation. However, the argument for buying commodities to hedge against commodity-driven inflation is dangerously circular and it is only a matter of time, according to CE, before fundamental demand and supply conditions reassert themselves.

The demand for commodities such as industrial metals is expected to moderate on slower economic growth, while the supply response to high food prices has historically been quicker than in energy markets. The upshot is that as general inflationary pressures ease, speculative positions in oil should also be unwound, potentially leading to a very sharp correction.

The increases in world oil and food prices have devastated the economies of low and middle income oil importing countries. With soaring oil and food import bills and not much to export to pay for the costly oil and food, these countries are now looking at multilateral aid agencies for help. But there is said to be an upside as well to this steep increase in the world prices of these two essentials.

At $120 a barrel, oil exploration and development is said to have become not only an economically viable venture the world over but profitable as well for even those countries which are blessed with shallow fields. At these prices even the windmill driven energy and solar energy too are said to have become commercially economical for developing countries.

And those developing agricultural countries which so far had found it economically unprofitable to invest in food crops because of the heavy subsidies that the rich countries were giving to their farmers would now find it commercially viable to grow food commodities for home consumption as well as for export."

Reference: http://dawn.com/2008/04/28/ebr18.htm

Pakistan: Sugar mills to the rescue

ISLAMABAD: In order to meet the growing power requirements of the industry, government has decided to develop co-power generation plants on fast track basis. In this regard the government has exempted such power plants from the fulfilling of pre-qualification criteria, submission of feasibility study and obtaining of Letter of Intent (LOIs) from Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB).

According to the guidelines prepared by PPIB for facilitating the setting up of co generation power plants in the country on fast track basis, the sugar industry will be issued Letter of Support (LOS) by PPIB after the tariff determination by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA). The tariff will be levelised for 30 years and will be available for 60 MWs or above the capacity based on 28 percent net thermal efficiency.

According to the guidelines, the existing standardised power purchase Agreement (PPA) and Implementation Agreement (IA) will be modified to provide Power co-generation specific projects. The incentives available to the Independent Power Producers for power generation projects 2002 would also be available to the power co-generation units of sugar mills.

The power generated by the sugar industry will be purchased by the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) concerned at agreed/negotiated and competitive rates to be approved by NEPRA. Power Sale/Purchase Agreements, valid during the life of the power co-generation units will be signed with sugar mills on the lines of the agreements signed with IPPs. Bagasse and imported/local coal will be consumed as per requirement of the plant without any limitation of inter-changeability.

The sugar mills selected for power co-generation will be required to set up the plant on the fast track basis, not later than 36 months of issuance of Letter of Support (LOS). Power co-generation plants set up by sugar industry will not be treated as part of sugar industry but as a separate entity for tax purposes and the existing tariff rules and guidelines for the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) would be applicable for such power generation plants/units.

Government has announced guidelines for power co-generation plants to be set up by sugar industry that would be able to bridge the gap between supply and demand in the winter season by supplying power to national grid.

There are 83 sugar mills in the country having a potential to produce 3,000MW electricity to national grid in the coming years. Co-generation projects will be based on bagasse (sugarcane waste) during the cane-crushing season (November-February) as main fuel whereas from March to October on coal as the main fuel. Sugar industry will be able to supply power to national grid during winter season when the hydel generation is at its lowest ebb. Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) has sought tariff determination of 60MW and above co-generation power projects for delivery of electricity and submitted tariff petition to National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) in this regard.

PSMA has submitted a typical two part tariff structure with an energy tariff of Rs 3.368/Kwh for the energy actually dispatched and a capacity tariff of Rs 4.506/Kwh based on contract capacity or tested capacity for a period of ten years. PSMA has also sought an energy charge of Rs 3.368 /Kwh tariff and Rs 1.377/Kwh capacity tariff for year 11 to 30 years.

This means that the number of stakeholders in the power sector are soon to increase requiring new processes to resolve mutual conflicts and ensure smooth supply of electricity. Good news any way!

Source: Zafar Bhutta, Daily Times, March 25, 2008
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C03%5C25%5Cstory_25-3-2008_pg5_9

Suggestions by a Pakistani government officer

Farkhand Iqbal, a joint secretary with the Ministry of Textiles (and Electrical Engineer by eduation) has written a letter to Irshad Haqqani, one of the senior news columnists in Pakistan. He has contemplated that the suggestions being given to Pakistan government may not be able to alleviate the energy pains even in the next 3-5 years. Instead, he is proposing the following:

1. Engaging sugar mills for production of electricity
2. Metering all the premises of Power company employees (where a lot of energy remains unaccounted for)
3. Converting gas geysers into solar geysers on emergency basis

Urdu image (partial) is given below and you can read the complete post in Urdu language at: http://jang.com.pk/jang/apr2008-daily/24-04-2008/col1.htm

Opportunities amidst crisis - another example

As people run helter-skelter to get their hands on generators and inverters or Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) to cope with frequent power breakdowns and massive load-shedding, there has emerged a handy alternative to cater to their problems. Solar energy, which is being used selectively in the rural areas of the country, is an alternative that has the propensity to revolutionize the way the power-deprived citizens of the provincial capital deal with their electricity woes.

Here in Karachi, Azhar Ayub is the man trying to promote this fledging alternative by putting together solar-powered lights, fans, mobile chargers and several other products as per the needs of not only the people of Karachi but the entire country.

Sitting in his make-shift workshop in the SITE industrial area, Ayub prepares solar-powered systems, as per needs of his customers, by assembling imported Photovoltaic (PV) cells — or solar panels, — special batteries, Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), wind turbines and other equipment.

“Hundreds of people in the remote areas of Sindh and Balochistan are using solar lanterns, mini solar desalination plants for water purification and solar-wind hybrid systems to light their homes. The technology is quite expensive but it is environment-friendly and ideal for remote areas,” Ayub tells the The News.

Despite being a business graduate, Ayub claims that research and promotion of alternate energy is his passion.

He admits that the most important components of his solar-powered systems are the PVs (solar panels), which are imported either from Europe, the US, China or even India. He says however, that he personally designs and assembles the solar energy units at his workshop in accordance with local needs.

“Actually, the production of PV cells that convert sunlight into electricity requires an investment of billions of dollars and nobody in Pakistan is ready to make such huge investment. The technology is in the grip of oil giants and they are not allowing it to get cheaper,” he claims.

After the entrance of China and India into the field of production of solar panels, however, the cost has decreased to a large extent and now solar energy is coming into the reach of common people, Ayub says optimistically.

Elaborating on the products available at his workshop, Ayub tells The News that he has complete solar home systems through which several rooms can be lit up for up to 10 hours in addition to which one or two fans of 60 watts can also be powered.

Moreover, there are also solar garden lights and street lights, solar mobile chargers, water heaters and even solar water desalination plants that run using only sunlight, he adds.

“People come to me from the rural areas of Sindh like Badin, remote districts of Balochistan and NWFP for power solutions and I provide them equipment to light their homes as well as water desalination plants and even solar-wind hybrid systems” he claims.

Ayub argues that in countries such as Pakistan, the solution to power shortage lies in people generating their own electricity. “At least a person can afford solar-electricity to power at least two lights and two fans for his small house up to a period of 30 years without any worries.”

Ayub deplores that currently, no research is underway in Pakistan, even by the Alternate Energy Development Board (AEDB), to promote solar and wind energy in Pakistan as authorities and academicians as well as local industrialists lack awareness of alternate energy sources.

“In the name of research, our students prepare idiotic projects to get marks in exams; people write theses only to acquire a Ph.D. Research needs money, government patronage, facilities and resources, which are all lacking in Pakistan” he says.

Bitterly criticizing AEDB officials, he charges them with “doing business” instead of promoting alternate energy resources and cites various countries, including India, where government institutions not only ‘invent’ products but also and provide them to people on easy installments.

“Solar energy is an expensive technology but it is a one-time investment and also very user- and environment-friendly. In India, government institutions provide such products on lease so that people can afford them. In Pakistan, people are making money through them,” he explains.

On the other hand, Ayub openly admits even his failure in promoting windmills or wind turbines in Pakistan, saying that the best solution to power problems in Pakistan lies in a hybrid system that harnesses both solar and wind energies. Such a system, according to him, could cater to all the power needs of an average domestic household.

“Through a solar-wind hybrid system, all electrical appliances used in a domestic house, except air conditioners, can be powered,” he says, adding that a solar-wind electricity generating system was the best but also a bit expensive as an alternate to generators and UPSs.

According to him, although windmills produce a lot more electricity than solar panels, there were many technical problems associated with them. “Air remains stationary for four months — October to February — in Pakistan and in those months, wind turbines would fail to produce the required electricity.”

He says that a lot of research would have to be done in Pakistan to make wind energy a workable solution to local needs as, currently, locally-produced wind turbines were ineffective, useless and beyond the reach of even the wealthier segment of society.

Source:
THE NEWS Karachi,
Sunday, April 06, 2008
By M. Waqar Bhatti

Pakistan talking with Iran to alleviate its power crisis

Ambassador of Iran to Pakistan Masha Allah Shakeri on Thursday called on the Minister for Water and Power, Raja Pervez Ashraf. Both countries have agreed to expedite the process of importing 1,000MW power by Pakistan from Iran on fast track basis for early completion of the project. They also agreed to work out the possibilities of import of an additional 1,000MW power from Iran.

Iranian ambassador offered to supply power and gas and also wind turbines to Pakistan to promote alternative energy from Iran. apparently, Iran is also interested to work in the water sector of Pakistan. He said that joint investment companies may also be set up to boost economic ties in various other sectors. He also said Iran is also interested to invest in infrastructure development projects in Pakistan. He also suggested establishment of a joint investment company to look into the exchange of expertise to pave the way for investment opportunity in water and power sectors.

He offered sizeable investment in hydropower plants and expressed intention to finance power projects in Pakistan. The Pakistani minister lauded the Iranian offer and said Pakistan has already signed an agreement to purchase 25MW electricity from Mund (Iran) and recently signed another agreement for purchase of 125MW and 1,000MW power from Iran.

The government of Pakistan is looking for all options ranging from import to development of new energy resources amidst the current situation. Loading shedding in the major cities has started to increase above 5 hours a day as the mercury has started rising above 40 degrees Celsius and air-conditioning systems are being turned on by the consumers. The country is yet to see a mass awareness drive for conservation of energy as trumpeted by the new government about three weeks ago.

Coconut Oil powered flight: Richard Branson yet again!

The first commercial airliner to fly using biofuel took off only yesterday in what is being hailed as a breakthrough in the search for alternatives to oil. The Virgin Atlantic Jumbo jet flew from Heathrow to Amsterdam with one of its engines partly powered by a mixture of coconut oil and oil from babassu trees found in Brazilian rain forests. Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson said the flight proved the possibility of an alternative to fossil fuel and could lead to a cut in CO2 emissions. Virgin has always tried to do something out-of-the-box to make sure it hits the headlines.

Environmentalists dismissed the launch as a gimmick which would do little to halt climate change. They say biofuels push up food prices and hasten deforestation. But then all those who dismiss the claim forget the fact that the scientific community is trying its very best to produce biofuel from bacteria and other sources which do not affect the food supply of the world.

Sir Richard said that this pioneering flight will enable those who are serious about reducing carbon emissions develop the fuels of the future which will power aircrafts through sustained oils from sources such as algae. He himself admitted that coconut oil was ‘not the answer’ but the project would act as a catalyst to develop plant fuels which could eventually replace the kerosene used today.

Source: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=103576&in_page_id=34

Pakistan: Will energy saver bulbs have an impact?

According to a news report, the government of Pakistan plans to distribute 10 million low-consumption light bulbs to reduce the load on national grids.

Pakistan is currently producing around two-thirds of its power demand, with an overwhelming deficit of around 3,000-4,000 Megawatts. Domestic and industrial consumers have been hit hard by continual power cuts.

The state-run National Energy Conservation Centre (ENERCON) on Monday tasked the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) with arranging the delivery of energy-saving bulbs across the country, the daily newspaper Dawn reported this Tuesday.

PEPCO will assess the capacity of local manufacturers to fill the huge order, and in case of shortfall, it will approach the authorities to import the bulbs.

Pakistan's new coalition government that swore in last month had announced a 100-day relief package with an improvement in energy situation high on the agenda.

The bulbs commonly used in rural Pakistan are of 60 - 100 Watts rating. In cities, 40 Watt tubelights are utilized mostly but the trend towards 20 - 40 Watts energy saver bulbs is increasing. Average operating life of a standard light bulb is far less as compared to the energy saver bulbs though the capital cost is currently over 6-7 times lower. The new move by the government may decrease the impact of the crisis a bit but not solve it. A lot more needs to be done in terms of energy generation from renewable sources if Pakistan aims at getting out of the current crisis.

ALL ABOUT WIND: DANISH WIND INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION WEBSITE

If you are looking for the best tutorials on how wind energy works, try http://www.windpower.org/en/tour.htm.

You'll not regret the visit.

World's Largest Tidal Turbine installed

The world’s largest tidal turbine, weighing 1000 tonnes, has been installed in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough. The tidal turbine is rated at 1.2 megawatts, which is enough to power a thousand local homes. It was built by Marine Current Turbines, and it will be the first commercial tidal turbine to produce energy, when it begins operation later this year.

(www.talkgreen.ca)

Pakistan energy crisis and opportunities

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's electricity production was nearly 3,000 megawatts short of demand in March. The country made up the difference by turning off lights, and everything else, for several hours a day.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani after being sworn in March 25 put the "energy crisis" up with terrorism as a top issue to address during his first 100 days in office. But things will get worse before they get better, Gillani warned, with power outages increasing through June when air conditioners are turned on to beat the heat.

Pakistan is experiencing these shortages despite its miserly electricity use with per-capita consumption of 546-kilowatt hours per year, a fifth of the global average of 2,586-kilowatt hours, according to statistics from the seven-nation South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation.

The problem stems from the fact that Pakistan has failed to build new power plants to keep up with the demand for electricity.

As a result, the poor who are connected to the grid are going without during the nearly four hours of outages that are occurring per day this month. In wealthier neighbourhoods, however, the streets come alive with the sounds of generators.

The power outages have increased generator sales - and their price tags - but have also cooled sales of fans, air conditioners and other appliances with consumers asking why have such devices without the electricity to run them.

A graver concern for the economy is the outages' effects on the industrial sector, which is Pakistan's biggest consumer of electricity, and factories having to shut down during the outages. Police have also reported increased crime during the blackouts in bigger cities.

The blackouts have shed light on many problems, but just as many solutions are on offer.

Of Pakistan's 19,500 megawatts of production capacity, a little more than 60 per cent is from imported oil and domestic natural gas power plants. Hydropower generated from the country's two major dams accounts for about 30 per cent, and its one nuclear power plant produces less than five per cent.

Coal plant production is even less, but that could change if Pakistan exploits what has been estimated as the world's third-largest known coal reserves in the south-eastern part of the country.

"The answer lies in using local coal," Tahir Basharat Cheema with DG energy Management said in a recent televised debate about the energy crisis.

Cheema suggested the government's Water and Power Development Authority develop coal generation, adding Pakistan cannot "solely depend on the private sector, (which) wants everything developed" for them.


More nuclear plants and dams are other options often put forward while others tout solar and wind power.

Ejaz Ahmad, deputy director of the Pakistani branch of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), said a big part of the answer is blowing in the wind. "It is practical for cost reasons as well as environmental," he said.

With power needed immediately, wind farms look good because they are relatively fast to install whereas dams and nuclear power plants take five to six years to complete and thermal power plants a couple of years at least, he said.

The WWF erected three 500-watt windmills in a rural area of the southwestern province of Sindh. Each windmill cost about $1,000, including installation, and provides electricity to homes that never had it before.

"It's a small project to show wind works," Amad said.

Real small - the country would need at least six million more of those windmills to meet the electricity shortfalls it is experiencing in early April.

The windmills are in the region of Pakistan's coal reserves, which Amad warned would be a political as well as environmental disaster if they are mined.

"The winds blow to India, so the pollution would blow into India, and that would cause political problems," he said. Harvest that wind instead, he suggested.

Professor Irfan Younas with the Institute of Information Technology in Rawalpindi agreed wind should play a big part of solving Pakistan's energy shortages, adding that comprehensive wind maps have already been researched in the country.

"Karachi's energy problem could be answered with wind energy," he said of Pakistan's biggest city of about 15 million people on the southern coast, where there are consistent breezes all year.

Cost-effectiveness attracted Younas to both wind and solar energy, he said, but added that in the long-term, Pakistan should also build more nuclear plants and dams.

"There is money to be made, no doubt about it," he said. "We need people to come and invest in independent power producers here."

"We are at the point that people really need to act," he said.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Pakistan_searches_for_solution_to_power_shortages/articleshow/2929969.cms

UNDP Human Development Report: Focusing on environment

The United Nations Development Program has issued the Human Development Report 2007-2008 titled "Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world."

Climate change is the defining human development challenge of the 21st Century. Failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty. The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even though they have contributed least to the problem. Looking to the future, no country—however wealthy or powerful—will be immune to the impact of global warming.

The Human Development Report 2007/2008 shows that climate change is not just a future scenario. Increased exposure to droughts, floods and storms is already destroying opportunity and reinforcing inequality. Meanwhile, there is now overwhelming scientific evidence that the world is moving towards the point at which irreversible ecological catastrophe becomes unavoidable. Business-as-usual climate change points in a clear direction: unprecedented reversal in human development in our lifetime, and acute risks for our children and their grandchildren.

There is a window of opportunity for avoiding the most damaging climate change impacts, but that window is closing: the world has less than a decade to change course. Actions taken—or not taken—in the years ahead will have a profound bearing on the future course of human development. The world lacks neither the financial resources nor the technological capabilities to act. What is missing is a sense of urgency, human solidarity and collective interest.

As the Human Development Report 2007/2008 argues, climate change poses challenges at many levels. In a divided but ecologically interdependent world, it challenges all people to reflect upon how we manage the environment of the one thing that we share in common: planet Earth. It challenges us to reflect on social justice and human rights across countries and generations. It challenges political leaders and people in rich nations to acknowledge their historic responsibility for the problem, and to initiate deep and early cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Above all, it challenges the entire human community to undertake prompt and strong collective action based on shared values and a shared vision.

Source: http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/

Complete report can be downloaded at: http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr_20072008_en_complete.pdf

PAKISTAN: Five firms allowed to set up wind power plants

RAWALPINDI, Feb 9: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has issued licences to five independent power producers (IPPs) for initiating wind power projects in the country.

Official sources told Dawn that eight IPPs had completed feasibility studies on wind power plants for generating 50KW each. Licences for the three IPPs, Zephyr Power Ltd, Beacon Energy Ltd and Zorlu Enerji Ltd, were under process.

The companies granted licences were: New Park Energy Ltd, Tenaga Generasi Ltd, Green Power Ltd, Win Power Ltd and Milergo Pakistan Ltd.

The Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) issued a Letter of Intent (LOI) to 93 national and international investors, of which 92 were meant for 50MW wind power projects each and one for a 5MW wind project.

The AEDB has so far identified 50,000 acres of government land in Sindh for the projects on the basis of a survey carried out by the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD). Sources say that 23,646 acres of land (19,807 acres in Gharo and 3,839 acres in Jhimpir) have been allocated to 15 investors. About 10,330 acres of land is being provisionally allocated to seven more wind investors.

A PMD study has identified a wind corridor starting from Ketibunder to Gharo extending up to Jamshoro and covering an area of 45,000 sq km. It points out that about 9,000 sq km areas can be used for wind power farms and generate about 11,000MW.

The study indicates that contrary to the general impression, Sindh’s coastal areas have a greater wind power potential than Balochistan’s coast.

Using the measured wind data, the annual gross energy production by an 18MW wind farm consisting of thirty 600kW turbines will be 45 million kWh. Taking into account the wind turbine availability, net losses and wake effects in the wind farm, the net annual energy production is estimated at 31 million kWh per year corresponding to a capacity factor of 28 per cent, the study says.

The total investment will be Rs850 million and payback period will be seven to eight years. The capital cost of wind power projects ranges from Rs40 to Rs50 million per MW. This gives a cost of wind energy generation in the range of Rs2.50 to 3.00 per kWh, taking into consideration the fiscal benefits extended by the government.

The potential for the use of alternative energy sources has never been fully explored in the country. Wind power generation provides an excellent opportunity to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels and at the same time expand the power supply capacity to remote locations where grid expansion is impractical.

At present, oil accounts for approximately 45 per cent of the total commercial energy supply. The share of natural gas is 34 per cent, while that of hydel power remains roughly at 15 per cent.

By Amin Ahmad
http://www.dawn.com/2008/02/10/top11.htm

A list of all LoI holders in this sector can be found at http://www.energy.com.pk/LOI%20holders.htm

Tariff issue in renewable energy

PRODUCING electricity by using wind, solar, waste, micro-hydro and bio-gas technologies is becoming a major problem as investors have not utilised the Letters of Intent (LoI) issued to them by the Government of Pakistan

Private energy producers who had promised to invest $5 billion in these technologies are waiting for the tariff issue to be resolved..

Officials of the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) in the prime minister’s secretariat have informed higher authorities that no project was likely to be set up in the next two years.

The AEDB issued a total of 92 LoIs for generating 275MW of electricity including wind power. But tariffs and administrative issues pertaining to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) and the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) of Wapda have not been sorted out.

Nepra is believed to have refused to offer a tariff of more than 16 cents for each kilowatt but wind power investors were seeking more.

While Nepra is not prepared to give what investors describe as a ‘fair tariff’ for wind power and other sources of energy, bureaucratic hurdles, allegedly created by the NTDC, were also pushing the people to avoid putting up any project, say investors. As a result, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) is being asked to firm up its new projects to generate 8,800MW of nuclear energy by 2030.

However, the PAEC is also expressing its inability to deliver as China is taking time to provide 4-6 nuclear power plants as agreed between the two countries. China is stated to be under pressure from a 38-member nuclear supplier group acting on the directives of the United States.

According to the PAEC officials, Chashma-1 is generating 325MW of nuclear energy while Chashma-2 of the same capacity will be commissioned in 2011 as per schedule. The Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanup) of 137MW is over-age and is currently generating only 90MW nuclear energy.

“But the real disappointment of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) of wind, solar etc. is lack of co-operation from the government and its various agencies including Nepra and the NTDC”, a consultant of wind power, Mr Sultan Farooq told Dawn on telephone from Dubai.

He said there was no solution to the ongoing worsening power crisis, but to go for alternate options of hydro, wind solar etc., and that the government should facilitate the IPPs in this regard. He said a “fair tariff” was needed to be offered by Nepra. An AEDB official, who did not like to be quoted, said that his organisation was not the executing agency. It was there to facilitate the investors of renewable energy. He regretted that not a single project out of total of 92 LoIs issued, could be set up due to differences between Nepra and the NTDC and between both the organisations and the investors.

He said that feasibility studies for eight IPPs of the wind power were given to Nepra. The matter was then sent to the NTDC for determining the power purchase agreement. “And out of these eight, tariffs was awarded to four IPPs who then refused to accept that tariff as being low”, he said.

Responding to a question, he said that global demand for wind turbines is rapidly increasing and by the time tariff and power purchase agreements are finalised, these prices will further go up, forcing the IPPs not to take any decision. “It takes 18 to 24 months for the financial close of any project and this is not the way to attract investors in our part of the world”, the official regretted.

Nevertheless, he said that AEDB was engaged in providing electricity to remote villages. So far 1762 houses in 31 villages had been provided electricity in Sindh through solar and wind energy. The whole village of “Goth Omar Deen Arain”, has been provided with electricity, the official said. By March 2008, he said 100 more villages would be electrified in the province. The plan was also to electrify many villages in Balochistan for which additional funding has been sought from the federal government. The AEDB had been set up to promote environment-friendly alternative renewable energy resources, he added.

He was happy that one of the most important accomplishments of the AEDB had been the creation of awareness among decision makers on importance of the renewable energy. The official did not rule out effective international collaboration once the tariff issue was resolved.

Pakistan is blessed with abundant alternative/renewable energy resources, like solar, wind and water. In hydro-power sector, the potential of which identified is about 46,000 MW out of which only 6,595 MW has been utilised. Most of the hydro-power potential lies in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), Northern Areas (NA) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). However, he said, the potential in canal system and in small rivers and streams, if calculated, would be much more.

The vast irrigation system provides hundreds of sites for macro, mini and small hydro-power plants. Depending upon the head and flow of water, suitable turbines can be utilised to generate electricity.

He said the country has huge potential for small and mini-hydropower projects under 50 MW capacity , with score of sites identified. Small and micro-hydropower projects are suitable for local investments and individual projects could come on line in a short time to mitigate the serious electricity shortage problems. In addition, being a renewable energy resource, every one of these investments is a substitute for expensive imported oil.

The installed capacity of the hydropower stations in the country is about 6,595 MW and only about 15 per cent of the available hydro-power potential has been harnessed so far.

By Ihtasham ul Haque

http://dawn.com/2008/02/11/ebr15.htm

Enviro-political jokes :)

1. George W. Bush says that he is committed to fighting global warming. Yeah, well, he nipped that in the bud, didn't he? ... President Bush says he's really going to buckle down now and fight global warming. As a matter of fact, he announced today he's sending 20,000 troops to the sun" --David Letterman

2. "According to a new U.N. report, the global warming outlook is much worse than originally predicted. Which is pretty bad when they originally predicted it would destroy the planet." --Jay Leno

3. "President Bush has a plan. He says that if we need to, we can lower the temperature dramatically just by switching from Fahrenheit to Celsius" --Jimmy Kimmel, on fighting global warming

4. "Al Gore is coming out with a movie about global warming called 'An Inconvenient Truth.' It's described as a detailed scientific view of global warming. President Bush said he just saw a film about global warming, 'Ice Age 2; The Meltdown.' He said, 'It's so much better than that boring Al Gore movie.'" --Jay Leno

Telenor Pakistan launches solar-powered repeater site

Telenor Pakistan has launched another environmentally-friendly initiative by using solar energy to power one of its repeater sites.

Telenor Pakistan is the country's first mobile communications services provider to have started using solar energy to power a commercial site.

"We are first in the industry to have started using solar energy to power a commercial site. We aim to help reduce the load on the national power grid through innovative solutions and in longer term we mean to upscale this pilot project to other parts of the country after assessing its success", said Chief Technical Officer Telenor Pakistan Peter Anthony Dindial.

A repeater, as the name suggests, is a tool that picks up, amplifies and transmits the cell phone signals to and fro the nearest base station. Repeaters are used by mobile operators to increase network coverage in a confined area, either indoor or outdoor.

Solar-electricity hybrid system

The pilot site, which is in Buner, is a solar-electricity hybrid system that runs entirely on solar energy during the day and switches to electricity or battery power at night. Such Telenor Pakistan's use of alternate energy sources in its operations is of particular significance considering that the company has the fastest growing network in the country.

Innovative solution to connect the remote, unconnected population

"Such solutions are more eco-friendly and less of a burden logistically in difficult terrains, where mobile coverage might be needed the most, and constant generator refueling might be an issue. The industry must boldly experiment with alternate energy solutions in order to connect the remote, unconnected populations of Pakistan in a sustainable manner", said Dindial.

Reduced expenditures in the long-term

Although the solar panels used in the unit are imported, the batteries, cables and installation expertise are all local. The solution involves a one-time cost but requires low maintenance, thus also reducing capital and operational expenditure in the long-term.

Expand the use of solar energy

Telenor Pakistan plans to expand the use of solar energy to power other base stations in the country. Another area of focus for the company is to create and install other hybrid power combinations such as solar-genset, solar-electricity, and solar-wind to power its base stations across Pakistan.

Courtesy: http://press.telenor.com/PR/200801/1185782_5.html?cid=0128_news_pakistan_solar-based_basestation

UNDP Pakistan: Design, Supply and commissioning of Wind Masts

Islamabad: United Nation Development Program UNDP have embarked on project “Sustainable Development of Commercial Scale Wind Power Generation Project” referred to as Wind Energy Project (WEP). The project is being funded by Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented through Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), Government of Pakistan. WEP is creating enabling environment for the development of commercial scale wind power projects in Pakistan.

Bids have been invited in this regard for Desgin, Supply and Commissioning of Wind Masts. Last date of response is February 29, 2008.

Details can be seen at:
http://www.undp.org.pk/images/documents/DesignSupplyWindmasts.pdf

Wind energy project: AEDB contacts Denmark lab for data validation

ISLAMABAD: The Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) has contacted Rise National Laboratory of Denmark for data validation to identify wind energy generation potential in coastal areas of Pakistan, sources told Daily Times on Sunday.

Pakistan Meteorological Department has conducted a detailed wind power potential survey of the coastal areas of Pakistan to identify potential areas where economically feasible wind farms could be established. The National Laboratory of Denmark will validate the data confirming the opportunities of power generation through wind.

Dr Irfan Younis, Institute of Information Technology director at Arid University, told Daily Times that the country had potential of generating 50,000 MW power through wind on 1046 km long highway in Balochistan and wind was the best alternative source of generating energy when the country was facing a power deficit.

Dr Younis, who is also a research fellow in energy sector, said Pakistan would be facing acute shortage of gas by 2011. “At present the wind energy is being used for the electrification of remote villages in the southern coastal areas of Pakistan. So far more than 18 villages have been electrified using micro wind turbines. The gross wind power potential in Sindh is 43000 MW. However, the exploitable electric power generation potential of this area is estimated to be about 11000 MW,” he added.

The AEDB has issued Letter of Intents to 93 companies to generate 4650-megawatt wind power. Large wind turbines for power generation have not been installed in Pakistan so far, however, about 30 windmills for pumping water have been installed on experimental purposes in different parts of Sindh and Balochistan.

Source: Daily Times, Pakistan
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C01%5C07%5Cstory_7-1-2008_pg7_18

Pakistan to host 8th World Wind energy conference in December 2008

Pakistan shall be hosting the 8th World Wind Energy Conference from December 4 to December 6, 2008 in the port city of Karachi. Canada is hosting the 7th Conference in February 2008.

World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) is an international non-profit association embracing the wind sector worldwide, with members in 80 countries. WWEA works for the promotion and worldwide deployment of wind energy technology.


Reference: http://www.wwindea.org/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=197&Itemid=76

Changing laws is far more important than changing the light bulbs

The Climate campaigner Al Gore urged world policymakers to change laws “not just light bulbs” in tackling global warming, and a UN official said world market turmoil must not be allowed to delay action.

An annual meeting of world political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, this year has scheduled a record number of sessions and workshops on global warming. But a sharp downturn on markets and fears of recession have dominated discussion.

“If we get distracted by the aberrations that you see in the financial market right now it would clearly be very unfortunate,” said Rajendra Pachauri, head of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Gore, in a swipe at U.S. President George W. Bush’s environmental record, said the election of a new president in November could only bring an improvement.

“In addition to changing the light bulbs, it is far more important to change the laws and to change the treaty obligations that nations have,” Gore told delegates, in apparent reference to what he sees as the Bush administration’s reluctance to initiate legislation on environmental control.

Courtesy: ENN: http://www.enn.com/business/article/29925

Google Oil and Google Wind Power

This was'nt unexpected; Clean, greeen anergy is one of the big things that we shall see in the days to come

Google and HP have jumped onto the renewable energy bandwagon.

Google, the Internet company with a seemingly limitless source of revenue, plans to get into the business of finding limitless sources of energy.

The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., announced Tuesday that it intended to develop and help stimulate the creation of renewable energy technologies that are cheaper than coal-generated power.

Google said it would spend hundreds of millions of dollars, part of that to hire engineers and energy experts to investigate alternative energies like solar, geothermal and wind power. The effort is aimed at reducing Google’s own mounting energy costs to run its vast data centers, while also fighting climate change and helping to reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels.

“We see technologies we think can mature into very capable industries that can generate electricity cheaper than coal,” said Larry Page, a Google founder and president of products, “and we don’t see people talking about that as much as we would like.”

The company also said that Google.org, the philanthropic for-profit subsidiary that Google seeded in 2004 with three million shares of its stock, would invest in energy start-ups.

Google says its goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy — enough to power the city of San Francisco — more cheaply than coal-generated electricity. The company predicted that this can be accomplished in “years, not decades.”

Google is only the latest Fortune 500 company to embrace green technologies. Also Tuesday, Hewlett-Packard said it would install a one-megawatt solar electric power system at its manufacturing plant in San Diego, and buy 80 gigawatt-hours of wind energy in Ireland next year. H.P. said that together, the agreements would save it around $800,000 in energy costs.

You can follow the complete story at

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/technology/28google.html?hp

Happy Planet Index

New Economics Foundation, a London based independent think-and-do tank has developed a Happy Planet Index that combines environmental impact with well-being to measure the environmental efficiency with which countries provide long and happy lives.

You can get some of the details at http://www.happyplanetindex.org/index.htm and calculate your own index by answering a very simple questionnaire on the website.

Interestingly, the United States ranks 150th out of 178 countries. Europe is not placed much better; Austria being the best at 61st, Portugal at the bottom on 136th. The Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has been ranked first. Columbia is ranked second, Costa Rice third, Panama fifth, and Cuba sixth showing happier trends in these countries.

Pakistani professor among Nobel Peace Prize (2007) winners

WASHINGTON, Oct 13: Pakistani professor Adil Najam, now teaching at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, US, is amongst the team of scientists and experts in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore. The 2007 Peace Prize, announced in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday includes a gold medal and $1.5 million, is to be shared between Al Gore and the IPCC for enhancing the understanding of the science of climate change.

The IPCC is a panel of the world’s most eminent and leading scientists working on global warming and it produces its scientific assessment every 4-5 years.These assessments, especially the most recent one, have been influential in moving global climate policy, including changes in US and other country positions on the subject.

Prof Adil Najam has served as an expert on this prestigious panel for eight years, and as a Convening Lead Author for its most recent report. Along with other scientists on the panel he helped shape the findings of the IPCC, especially on issues related sustainable development and other developing country interests.

Dr Adil Najam holds a doctorate and two Masters degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a specialisation in negotiation from Harvard Law School, and an engineering degree from UET, Lahore.

He has taught at MIT, Boston University, University of Massachusetts and currently at Tufts University. He is author of more than a dozen books.

Courtesy: http://www.dawn.com/2007/10/14/nat5.htm

Funny :)

Wind power is very popular because it has a lot of "fans"

:-)

Pakistan: $510 million for renewable energy

aturday, October 06, 2007

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday signed an agreement with the Asian Development Bank for a $510 million multi-tranche loan for the development of renewable energy. The program is the first of its kind in Pakistan, and is one of the first to be developed under ADB’s evolving clean energy and efficiency initiative.

Pakistan’s energy supplies are highly dependent on oil imports, the cost of which accounts for a large share of the country’s total import bill. In addition, demand for power is outstripping supply. Electricity needs are projected to reach 162,590 megawatts (MW) by 2030, from 15,000 MW in 2005. While thermal power (coal, oil, and gas) is expected to meet much of the future demand, there is enormous scope for more environment-friendly options. Renewable energy accounts for only 180MW of Pakistan’s present power output.

The first project under the loan will finance a set of small to medium hydropower plants in Northwest Frontier Province and Punjab.The governments of NWFP and Punjab expect to borrow up to $180 million and $150 million respectively to fund renewable energy projects. Other provinces can request funding for renewable energy projects totalling $170 million.

The program will expand Pakistan’s power supply, especially in rural areas, to serve about 600,000 new domestic connections for 4.8 million people. It will also improve reliability and quality of supply.

Small to medium-sized hydropower plants offer the greatest renewable energy potential for Pakistan, while possibilities also exist in promoting greater use of wind, solar, and biomass power, said Peter Fedon, ADB’s Country Director for Pakistan. Investment in such renewable energy options would not only be beneficial to Pakistan’s energy security, but would boost social equity, lead to a cleaner environment, and make good economic sense. The loan and project agreements for the Renewable Energy Development Sector Investment Program was signed on Friday.

The loan will have a life of 10 years upto 2017. The Alternative Energy Development Board is the executing agency for the Renewable Energy Development Sector Investment Program at the federal level. At the provincial level, the program will be executed via special purpose implementing agencies such as Irrigation and Power Departments.

Power and energy, together with transport connectivity and water, are major constraints in Pakistan to achieving the kind of high economic growth that can benefit the poor. Under its clean energy and efficiency initiative, ADB is planning to expand energy efficiency operations in its developing member countries to $1 billion per year.

Courtesy: THE NEWS - October 18, 2007