The world’s largest working wave energy electricity generating device has been officially launched in Scotland.

Known as Oyster, the device, built by Aquamarine Power, is stationed at the European Marine Energy Center Billia Croo site near Stromness. At present, it is the world’s only wave energy device which is producing power to the grid.

Oyster produces electricity  by pumping high pressure water to its onshore hydro-electric turbine which feeds into the national grid to power homes in nearby Orkney and beyond.

Oyster is designed to capture the energy found in near-shore waves in water depths between 10 and 16 metres. There are minimal moving parts and all electrical components are onshore, making it robust enough to withstand the rigors of Scotland’s harsh seas.

At the launch, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond said that marine energy, such as that produced by Oyster, has the potential to meet up to 20 per cent of the UK’s energy demands and could provide as many as 12,500 jobs, contributing £2.5 billion ($au4.5 billion) to the UK economy by 2020.

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The Friends of the Earth have published a report on a study of various ways in which the world’s projected population of 9.16 billion in 2050 could be fed. The key finding was that feeding the world in 2050 is possible without the most intensive forms of animal and crop production and without a massive expansion of agricultural land.

The study focused on four possible dietary scenarios:

• Western High Meat - assuming that there is a global adoption of the current Western diet with an average intake of 3,000 kcal per day per person and with 44% of protein from animal products;
• Current Trend - assuming that current trends continue, calorie intake would increase to 2,700 kcal in the poorest regions and 3,600 kcal in the wealthiest regions but the world average would still be 3,000 kcal per person per day;
• Less Meat - assuming that the current trends of calorie intake continues but with 30% coming from animal protein everywhere;
• Fair Less Meat - providing the recommended healthy diet of 2,800 kcal per day with 20% from animal protein to everyone in the world.

The study found that providing a Western High Meat diet to 9.16 million people is "probably feasible" but only with intensive farming methods replacing subsistence farming and massive land use change.

Providing the Current Trend diet is feasible but would require either the adoption of intensive farming or massive land use change.

Providing the Less Meat diet is feasible using humane (free range) farming and without massive land use change.

Providing the Fair Less Meat diet is highly feasible with humane, or possibly even organic, farming mathods. There is already 20% more crop land than would be needed.

The study points out that the Fair Less Meat diet would not only provide good nutrition for those who have insufficient food (currently about a billion people) but would tackle the problem of obesity (also currently about a billion people).

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The International Energy Agency, which provides energy statistics and projections to 28 industrialised countries, has issued a report warning that every year of inaction in cutting carbon emissions will cost the world an additional $US500 billion.

The IEA estimates that in order to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees, non-fossil fuels will need to provide at least 32 percent of total energy and the share of new cars with internal combustion engines will have to fall to less than 40% by 2030.

The IEA says that to achieve this the world needs to spend a total of $US10,500 billion between 2010 and 2030 on energy efficiency and renewable energy. Each year of delay will increase that figure by $US500 billion.

The IEA estimates that world primary energy demand will rise by an average of 1.5 percent per year over the next two decades and that oil demand, excluding biofuels, will increase by 1 percent per annum to 105 million barrels per day by 2030 from 85 million barels per day in 2008.

While the IEA says that fossil fuel supplies are ample, the Guardian newspaper has quoted two "whistleblowers" who have questioned this claim.

One of the sources was quoted as saying "Many inside the organization believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90 million to 95 million barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further."

The paper quoted a second senior IEA source as saying that a key rule at the organisation was that it was "imperative not to anger the Americans" but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted. "We have [already] entered the ‘peak oil’ zone. I think that the situation is really bad," he added.

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For a period of five hours on Sunday (8 November, 2009), 53% of Spain’s electricity was produced by its wind turbines.

Spain began installing wind turbines in 1997 and, up to about five years ago, critics claimed that the country could never produce more than 14% of its power needs from wind.

Overall this year, Spain expects to produce 13% of its power from wind, 20% from nuclear, 10% from hydro and 2.5% from solar. The contribution of wind is expected to double by 2020 and Spain’s Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has suggested that the contribution of renewables may soon be suffient to begin phasing out nuclear power.

According to the Spanish Environment Ministry, tn 2007, Spain invested €991 million ($au1,590 million) in wind power and saved €1,000 million  ($au1,610 million) in fossil fuel costs.

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Offshore wind farm developers have announced plans for major development in the outer Forth and Tay areas off the coast of Scotland. The proposed sites have a combined capacity of 2,470 megawatts.

The plan comprises four individual projects locatied at least 10 kilometres from shore and in a total area covering approximately 475 square kilometres.

The plan requires major programmes of studies and surveys including; fisheries, shipping, birds, marine mammals and seabed conditions before approval will be granted by the Scottish Government.  The developers believe that this could be achieved as early as mid-2012 with construction beginning in 2014 and commissioning in 2018.

Agreements to permit development of a further six sites in Scottish waters and two sites outside territorial waters off the Scottish east coast are expected by the end of 2009. These have a potential capacity of a further 3,700 megawatts.

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The Japanese Government has selected a group of companies to work on the development of a Space Solar Power Station which would comprise an array of photovoltaic dishes several square kilometres in area located outside the Earth;s atmosphere and beaming energy to the ground using laser beams or microwaves.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which has had a team of some 130 scientists working on the idea since 1998, has now nominated a group of companies, including Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Fujitsu and Sharp, to develop the project.

The aim is to launch a satellite to test transmission of energy by microwave "within several years". A large photovoltaic structure with a capacity of 10 megawatts would be launched for testing from around 2020. This would be followed by a 250 megawatt prototype and a full-scale 1 gigawatt system by 2030.

The photovoltaic arrays would capture solar energy, which is at least five times stronger in space than on Earth, and beam it down to the ground through clusters of lasers or microwaves. The energy would be collected by parabolic antennae, likely to be located in restricted areas at sea or on dam reservoirs

JAXA believes that the space solar system could provide electricity at about 8 yen ($au0.10) per kilowatt-hour which is one sixth of it current cost in Japan.

(Source AFP)

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A British judge has ruled that deeply held environmental views are entitled to the same protection as religious convictions.

Until five years ago,  Tim Nicholson, a British quantity surveyor, "flew abroad on holiday and for work, drove fast cars and had no knowledge of or concern about carbon emissions". But after a trip to New Zealand, he decided that he could no longer  "continue to live in a way that would increase the already dangerous high levels of CO_²" and took a job as head of sustainability for Grainger plc, a large property management company.

Mr Nicholson said that his environmental beliefs led to frequent clashes with other managers and that the firm’s chief executive, Rupert Dickinson, treated his views with contempt. For example, on a business trip to Ireland, Mr Dickinson realised that he had left his Blackberry in London and ordered one of his staff to fly to London to fetch it.

On the other hand, Mr Nicholson no longer travels by plane. He said that "I have eco-renovated my home, I try to buy local produce, I compost my food waste, I encourage others to reduce their carbon emissions and I fear very much for the future of the human race, given the failure to reduce carbon emissions on a global scale."

He claimed that his environmantal beliefs eventually led to his being laid off by the company.

In an appeals court, Justice Richard Burton ruled thah Mr Nicholson’s views on the environment were so deeply held that they were entitled to the same protection as religious convictions, and ruled that an employment tribunal should hear his claim that he was sacked because of his beliefs.

Legal experts say that the ruling could usher in future damages claims over the way firms handle environmental concerns but some argue that it opened doors for an even wider category of deeply held beliefs, such as feminism or vegetarianism to be given the same status as religios convictions.

(Based on sources including The Guardian)

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Closing the hole in the ozone is seen as the world’s greatest environmantal restoration achievement but there’s a hitch …

Under the Montreal Protocol, chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) were phased out and replaced with the less damaging hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) as an interim measure. HCFCs have now become the standard working coolant in refrigerators, air conditioners and aerosol cans.

But HCFCs are still damaging to the ozone layers and, in the longer term, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) were promoted as the best alternative. From January 1, 2010, the world’s developed nations must cut HCFC consumption and production by 75 percent. It will then become illegal to import, produce or sell HCFC-22 (Freon) and HCFC-142b, the ubiquitous refrigerants, for use in new equipment.

The problem is that, whereas HFCs do not destroy the ozone layer, they can be thousands of times more harmful to Earth’s climate than carbon dioxide.

The underlying problem is that the characteristics which make a good refrigerant are the ability to trap heat and durability - exactly the same characteristics that make a powerful greenhouse gas.

Ironically, the best solution may well be to use CO2 as a refrigerant. CO2 can remove heat from the air. The process starts when a refrigerator’s compressor condenses CO2 into a liquid, raising its pressure and temperature. The CO2 is then transferred to a  a radiator on the back or bottom of the fridge where the heat is released. The CO2 then travels through an expansion valve, reducing the pressure and causing it to rapidly expand into vapor. As the CO2 evaporates it absorbs heat, cooling the air inside the refrigerator compartment.

The difficulty with CO2 is that it must be used at a much higher pressure than HFC refrigerants, and therefore requires stronger piping.

Coca-Cola began testing the use of CO2 as a refrigerant in vending machines and other retail refrigerators in China during the Olympics and PepsiCo is now testing these vending machines in Washington, D.C.

(Based on sources including Scientific American)

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