How sparks flew in Eskom boardroom
Hogan tells how Bobby Godsell and Jacob Maroga tore into each other over disputed resignation
Feb 25, 2010 11:27 PM | By SIPHO MASONDO
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Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan was forced to walk out of a meeting with then Eskom chairman Bobby Godsell following a fierce altercation between him and ousted former chief executive Jacob Maroga.
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Hogan had to ask Maroga to leave a subsequent Eskom board meeting after he insisted on presiding despite a dispute over his status as chief executive.
These are some of the revelations contained in Hogan's responding affidavit filed at the Johannesburg High Court this week.
Maroga, who was fired in November, is suing the electricity utility and demanding reinstatement or R85-million for loss of income. He has accused the Eskom board and the minister of conspiring to fire him illegally, under the veil of a voluntary resignation.
In her court papers, Hogan refutes Maroga's claims and details dramatic events at the parastatal before and after his axing. The minister argued that, even if the court found that Maroga was unfairly dismissed, he should not be reinstated as chief executive.
A day after a heated Eskom board breakaway session - during which Maroga is said to have resigned - Hogan had a meeting with Godsell to discuss the matter. But as Godsell was describing the events leading to the resignation, Maroga walked into the room and handed the minister a letter.
"He said to me he had not resigned. A heated disagreement ensued between [Godsell] and [Maroga]. At that stage, I left the two gentlemen and proceeded to meet the rest of the board members," Hogan said.
An insistent Maroga, however, followed her into the board meeting.
"He then attempted to chair the meeting, which was plainly an inappropriate action on his part, whereupon he was politely asked by me to leave the meeting room."
Hogan also revealed that Maroga's troubles at Eskom began long before her May 2009 appointment as public enterprises minister and that, soon after taking office, she and her deputy, Enoch Godongwana, attempted to resolve the chief executive's differences with his management team.
In her papers, Hogan attaches a letter written by Eskom senior managers in July in which they accuse Maroga of failing to provide leadership at the troubled parastatal. The managers were angered by his decision to hire American consultants "without following due process". They warned of "continued haemorrhaging of Eskom's finances and some of its key staff" if Maroga were not axed.
"He appears unable to even make decisions in respect of simpler measures, for example, that all local travel is economy class, and other proposed operational savings, and these cannot be implemented as the entire proposal awaits Maroga's decisions for months," the managers said.
Hogan confirmed that, at the height of the crisis brought about by Maroga's refusal to vacate his office, despite the board's claim that he had resigned, President Jacob Zuma held separate meetings with both Eskom and Maroga.
According to Hogan, after Maroga's meeting with Zuma, the axed chief executive argued that he was still in charge at Eskom.
In a subsequent letter to Hogan, contained in her court papers, Maroga said: "I remain CEO and director of Eskom. The shareholder at the highest level [Zuma] has confirmed that any action regarding my status as chief executive and director of Eskom must be requested formally and granted by the shareholder. I have affirmed that no request has been formally lodged and none has been granted. I have been told all unauthorised action taken by the board of directors since October 28 2009 are rescinded. I am at work in my office at Megawatt Park. As a director, I will fully participate in all board activities."
Hogan pointed out that, in terms of the law, she is the "representative shareholder in Eskom" by virtue of being public enterprises minister. She said she approached Zuma about the letter and that the Presidency asked lawyer Yunis Shaik, brother of convicted fraudster Schabir, to mediate.
Maroga has alleged in court papers that Shaik attempted to force him to step down and, when he refused, Shaik became abusive.
"Who the f... do you think you are that you can hold the entire country to ransom?" Shaik said, according to Maroga.
"If I did not accept the termination of my contract he would ensure I never work for the government in any capacity again," Maroga said.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Home Automation
Schneider Electric Sponsors Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Build in Indiana to Provide Energy Efficiency Products, Donation
Employees from Peru, Ind., plant volunteer, supporting Schneider Electric’s community relations program in the United States and around the world
Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, announced today its sponsorship of this week’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build near the company’s Peru, Ind., facility. As Benefactor Sponsor, Schneider Electric will provide energy-efficient products, volunteer support from the local plant and a financial contribution to support the family receiving the custom-built home.
Today, Ty Pennington and the show’s design team will knock on the door of one lucky family in Indiana to notify it that it will receive a brand-new custom-built home. The family will then meet the Build team, sponsors and community that will be building its new home in just one week. The build will take place from Oct. 21 through 27 when the newly constructed house will be revealed to the homeowners, also known as the time for “Move that bus!”
“Schneider Electric has a long-standing commitment to both community involvement and sustainable development,” said Amy Huntington, president, Schneider Electric USA. “This sponsorship enables our company and employees from our facility in Peru to positively impact the lives of local residents by supporting this family in need.”
As part of its commitment to help people make the most of their energy, Schneider Electric will donate the following products, which will help reduce energy consumption and lower costs for the homeowner:
• Juno® Recessed LED Downlights, advanced LED technology resulting in brighter and whiter illumination, provide 50,000 hours of operation, resulting in more than 11 years of maintenance-free operation based on 12 hours of usage per day. Energy Star®-rated and environmentally friendly Juno LED fixtures save 85 percent in energy costs annually over traditional incandescent fixtures.
• Load Center and Circuit Breakers, including the Square D® 240V NQ lighting panelboard from Schneider Electric that is easier to get to a job site and install compared with similar products. This helps maximize a contractor’s ability to meet tight deadlines and keep a project on schedule. Square D QO® circuit breakers are easily recognized by the red Visi-Trip® Indicator, which makes it easy to spot a tripped circuit breaker. The Square D exclusive Qwik-Open® protection is standard on all 15A and 20A circuit breakers — trip reaction within 1/60th of a second. No other circuit breaker trips faster.
• Whole-house Surge Protection, namely the Surgebreaker® Plus whole-house surge protector, provides surge protection ratings of 80,000A, and whole-house protection for valuable appliances and home electronics with surge protection that addresses the electrical, telephone and TV systems.
In addition to product donations, Schneider Electric is making a cash donation to the family, bringing the company’s total donation to approximately $40,000. Throughout the build this week, employees from Schneider Electric’s facility in Peru will volunteer on-site. This facility, which manufactures panelboards for Schneider Electric, is a primary employer in the region.
Other business and community partners include: Hallmark Homes, Inc., Anderson University, Carter Lumber, BiltBest Windows, Reese Wholesale, ClimateMaster, J&N Stone, Modern Trailer Sales, Blakley’s Flooring, Madison Millwork and Ball State University.
For more information about this week’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build, visit www.hallmarkextreme.com, the Web site of the primary sponsor of this build, Hallmark Homes.
For more information on Schneider Electric's Square D lighting controls, visit www.squaredlightingcontrol.com.
As a global specialist in energy management with operations in more than 100 countries,
Schneider Electric offers integrated solutions across multiple market segments, including leadership positions in energy and infrastructure, industrial processes, building automation, and data centers/networks, as well as a broad presence in residential applications. Focused on making energy safe, reliable, efficient, productive and green, the company's 114,000 employees achieved sales of more than $25 billion in 2008, through an active commitment to help individuals and organizations “Make the most of their energy.”
Employees from Peru, Ind., plant volunteer, supporting Schneider Electric’s community relations program in the United States and around the world
Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, announced today its sponsorship of this week’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build near the company’s Peru, Ind., facility. As Benefactor Sponsor, Schneider Electric will provide energy-efficient products, volunteer support from the local plant and a financial contribution to support the family receiving the custom-built home.
Today, Ty Pennington and the show’s design team will knock on the door of one lucky family in Indiana to notify it that it will receive a brand-new custom-built home. The family will then meet the Build team, sponsors and community that will be building its new home in just one week. The build will take place from Oct. 21 through 27 when the newly constructed house will be revealed to the homeowners, also known as the time for “Move that bus!”
“Schneider Electric has a long-standing commitment to both community involvement and sustainable development,” said Amy Huntington, president, Schneider Electric USA. “This sponsorship enables our company and employees from our facility in Peru to positively impact the lives of local residents by supporting this family in need.”
As part of its commitment to help people make the most of their energy, Schneider Electric will donate the following products, which will help reduce energy consumption and lower costs for the homeowner:
• Juno® Recessed LED Downlights, advanced LED technology resulting in brighter and whiter illumination, provide 50,000 hours of operation, resulting in more than 11 years of maintenance-free operation based on 12 hours of usage per day. Energy Star®-rated and environmentally friendly Juno LED fixtures save 85 percent in energy costs annually over traditional incandescent fixtures.
• Load Center and Circuit Breakers, including the Square D® 240V NQ lighting panelboard from Schneider Electric that is easier to get to a job site and install compared with similar products. This helps maximize a contractor’s ability to meet tight deadlines and keep a project on schedule. Square D QO® circuit breakers are easily recognized by the red Visi-Trip® Indicator, which makes it easy to spot a tripped circuit breaker. The Square D exclusive Qwik-Open® protection is standard on all 15A and 20A circuit breakers — trip reaction within 1/60th of a second. No other circuit breaker trips faster.
• Whole-house Surge Protection, namely the Surgebreaker® Plus whole-house surge protector, provides surge protection ratings of 80,000A, and whole-house protection for valuable appliances and home electronics with surge protection that addresses the electrical, telephone and TV systems.
In addition to product donations, Schneider Electric is making a cash donation to the family, bringing the company’s total donation to approximately $40,000. Throughout the build this week, employees from Schneider Electric’s facility in Peru will volunteer on-site. This facility, which manufactures panelboards for Schneider Electric, is a primary employer in the region.
Other business and community partners include: Hallmark Homes, Inc., Anderson University, Carter Lumber, BiltBest Windows, Reese Wholesale, ClimateMaster, J&N Stone, Modern Trailer Sales, Blakley’s Flooring, Madison Millwork and Ball State University.
For more information about this week’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build, visit www.hallmarkextreme.com, the Web site of the primary sponsor of this build, Hallmark Homes.
For more information on Schneider Electric's Square D lighting controls, visit www.squaredlightingcontrol.com.
As a global specialist in energy management with operations in more than 100 countries,
Schneider Electric offers integrated solutions across multiple market segments, including leadership positions in energy and infrastructure, industrial processes, building automation, and data centers/networks, as well as a broad presence in residential applications. Focused on making energy safe, reliable, efficient, productive and green, the company's 114,000 employees achieved sales of more than $25 billion in 2008, through an active commitment to help individuals and organizations “Make the most of their energy.”
Monday, February 22, 2010
Lighting and Control
Waukesha, Racine, Madison to test energy efficient streetlights
Feb 19, 2010 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Laurel Walker
Feb. 19, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- WAUKESHA -- Anyone who's debated switching LED Christmas lights for the old strings, or who has bought a new refrigerator with bright white LED lights instead of the old soft-light appliance bulbs, will have a sense of what Waukesha is up to.
The city has $657,000 in federal stimulus money from the Department of Energy to spend on new streetlights that will trim its energy bill. But first, residents are invited to help with an experiment.
City crews have begun to install the first of 21 energy efficient streetlights of different types and manufacturers in the median of Moreland Blvd. from about Summit Ave. to Delafield St.
In this pilot program over the next three to six months, city workers will keep tabs on how easily the light poles are retrofitted with the new lights, how much energy is saved, how the light is distributed -- and what the public thinks of them.
Too bright? Too white? Do they spread enough light? People can comment on what they think by calling a city project engineer at (262) 524-3587 or e-mailing kjelacic@ci.waukesha.wi.us.
Fred Abadi, director of public works, said one of the first lights installed -- induction technology as opposed to LED -- already has been panned.
"The one installed last week was so terrible," he said. "We've already got complaints from people. It was so dark. There's not enough lighting."
More LED lights were installed Thursday afternoon. For the test, an energy efficient light will be installed in place of every other existing high pressure sodium light along a two-block stretch.
Eventually, the city will pick a preference and replace about 1,000 of its 1,400 streetlights -- the ones on metal poles that the city owns, Abadi said. Lights on wooden utility poles are owned by We Energies (NYSE:WEC) , though the city pays for the electricity they use.
Goal: Save $250,000
The city spends just more than $500,000 a year on electricity for street lights, project engineer Katie Jelacic said. It expects to save about half of that -- and help reduce carbon emissions in the process -- with the new lights.
The city doesn't have enough money to replace all of its lights, Abadi said. Jelacic added that another 700 ornamental lights won't be tampered with because of their decorative design and the inability to match fixtures.
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, about $37.2 million was awarded to certain Wisconsin cities, counties and the state for energy efficiency projects in recent months.
Waukesha County, for example, got $2.2 million, much of what will be used for a new maintenance building at Retzer Nature Center that will use geothermal technology, energy-efficient lights in parking lots and buildings and possible solar energy for the jail, said Dale Shaver, parks and land use director.
Racine, Madison projects
Like Waukesha, a few other cities plan to replace streetlights with more energy efficient fixtures.
Racine is using its $795,000 federal grant to replace 1,000 of its 3,600 sodium lights, all that it can afford, said Richard Jones, commissioner of public works
So far -- with about 600 lights replaced with LEDs -- so good, he said.
"The majority of people like the fact that it's white light," compared to the amber glow thrown off and outward by the high pressure sodium street lights, Jones said. More of the LED light shines down on the street, making it "night-sky friendly," he said.
Jones said Racine expects a 40% reduction in its electrical use with the change to LED lights, which will translate into significant budget savings. While the old lights have a three- to five-year lifespan, he said he expects the LEDs to last up to 20 years.
Madison is testing about a dozen LED lights from two manufacturers on a section of E. Washington Ave., where reconstruction was finished last fall. While the cost was paid from the project budget, Madison has earmarked about $100,000 of its $2.38 million federal energy block grant for replacing street lights next year, said Dan Dettmann, traffic operations engineer.
By then, he said, technology might improve and costs on the LED lights could be lower.
Abadi, Waukesha's public works director, said different manufacturers give different estimates of lifespan and savings on the LED lights.
"The problem with LED technology is there is no history on it," he said.
Waukesha is among those communities making that history by relighting its byways.
Newstex ID: KRTB-0130-42190678
Feb 19, 2010 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Laurel Walker
Feb. 19, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- WAUKESHA -- Anyone who's debated switching LED Christmas lights for the old strings, or who has bought a new refrigerator with bright white LED lights instead of the old soft-light appliance bulbs, will have a sense of what Waukesha is up to.
The city has $657,000 in federal stimulus money from the Department of Energy to spend on new streetlights that will trim its energy bill. But first, residents are invited to help with an experiment.
City crews have begun to install the first of 21 energy efficient streetlights of different types and manufacturers in the median of Moreland Blvd. from about Summit Ave. to Delafield St.
In this pilot program over the next three to six months, city workers will keep tabs on how easily the light poles are retrofitted with the new lights, how much energy is saved, how the light is distributed -- and what the public thinks of them.
Too bright? Too white? Do they spread enough light? People can comment on what they think by calling a city project engineer at (262) 524-3587 or e-mailing kjelacic@ci.waukesha.wi.us.
Fred Abadi, director of public works, said one of the first lights installed -- induction technology as opposed to LED -- already has been panned.
"The one installed last week was so terrible," he said. "We've already got complaints from people. It was so dark. There's not enough lighting."
More LED lights were installed Thursday afternoon. For the test, an energy efficient light will be installed in place of every other existing high pressure sodium light along a two-block stretch.
Eventually, the city will pick a preference and replace about 1,000 of its 1,400 streetlights -- the ones on metal poles that the city owns, Abadi said. Lights on wooden utility poles are owned by We Energies (NYSE:WEC) , though the city pays for the electricity they use.
Goal: Save $250,000
The city spends just more than $500,000 a year on electricity for street lights, project engineer Katie Jelacic said. It expects to save about half of that -- and help reduce carbon emissions in the process -- with the new lights.
The city doesn't have enough money to replace all of its lights, Abadi said. Jelacic added that another 700 ornamental lights won't be tampered with because of their decorative design and the inability to match fixtures.
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, about $37.2 million was awarded to certain Wisconsin cities, counties and the state for energy efficiency projects in recent months.
Waukesha County, for example, got $2.2 million, much of what will be used for a new maintenance building at Retzer Nature Center that will use geothermal technology, energy-efficient lights in parking lots and buildings and possible solar energy for the jail, said Dale Shaver, parks and land use director.
Racine, Madison projects
Like Waukesha, a few other cities plan to replace streetlights with more energy efficient fixtures.
Racine is using its $795,000 federal grant to replace 1,000 of its 3,600 sodium lights, all that it can afford, said Richard Jones, commissioner of public works
So far -- with about 600 lights replaced with LEDs -- so good, he said.
"The majority of people like the fact that it's white light," compared to the amber glow thrown off and outward by the high pressure sodium street lights, Jones said. More of the LED light shines down on the street, making it "night-sky friendly," he said.
Jones said Racine expects a 40% reduction in its electrical use with the change to LED lights, which will translate into significant budget savings. While the old lights have a three- to five-year lifespan, he said he expects the LEDs to last up to 20 years.
Madison is testing about a dozen LED lights from two manufacturers on a section of E. Washington Ave., where reconstruction was finished last fall. While the cost was paid from the project budget, Madison has earmarked about $100,000 of its $2.38 million federal energy block grant for replacing street lights next year, said Dan Dettmann, traffic operations engineer.
By then, he said, technology might improve and costs on the LED lights could be lower.
Abadi, Waukesha's public works director, said different manufacturers give different estimates of lifespan and savings on the LED lights.
"The problem with LED technology is there is no history on it," he said.
Waukesha is among those communities making that history by relighting its byways.
Newstex ID: KRTB-0130-42190678
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Energy Crisis and Green Buildings
Construction Management Degree
Guide to online construction management schools and degrees The Fixer-Upper Blog
The Fixer Upper is a blog which covers issues ranging from finance, energy, technology, home ownership and maintenance, and any other issue of importance to homeowners. In addition to the discourse we foster on this site, we also attempt to introduce you to other sites and blogs which are likely of interest to homeowners.
50 Excellent Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
With cable television, the internet, and more, architecture enthusiasts can find many sources in which to get their fix. However, watching a show or reading an article is not enough if you are truly devoted.
With the emergence of open course ware and other educational tools, why not take advantage? Below, we have gathered 50 excellent open courses for architecture enthusiasts that include videos, notes, assignments, and other fun tidbits.
Excellent Undergraduate MIT Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
A leader in both education and open courses, there are several options for architecture lovers.
1. Introduction to Building Technology : An excellent place to start, get a fundamental understanding of the physics related to buildings. The course also teaches the various issues that are combined to offer the building’s occupants a physical, functional and psychological well-being. Students will examine both independently and in the manner in which they interact and affect one another.
2. Introduction to Integrated Design : Students explore the basic questions of architecture through several short design exercises. Working with many different media, students discover the interrelationship of architecture and structures, sustainability, history and the visual arts. Both lectures and assignments are provided for the open course.
3. Architectural Design: Intentions : The open course introduces a full range of architectural issues through drawing exercises, analyses of precedents, and explored design methods. Students develop design skills by conceptualizing and representing architectural ideas and making judgments about building design. Click on projects to see some of the student’s completed works.
4. Architecture Studio: Building in Landscapes : This subject introduces the skills needed to build within a landscape establishing continuities between the built and natural world. Students learn to build appropriately through analysis of landscape and climate for a chosen site, and to conceptualize design decisions through drawings and models. There is also an image gallery with more.
5. Fundamentals of Energy in Buildings: A highlight of this class on energy in buildings is that it includes a complete set of assignments and class projects, along with a detailed set of readings called out in the calendar. Thermo-sciences are taught to students interested in architecture and building technology. Fundamentals in energy, ventilation, air conditioning, and comfort are introduced.
6. Architectural Construction and Computation : This architecture open course investigates the use of computers in architectural design and construction. It begins with a pre-prepared design computer model, which is used for testing and process investigation in construction. It then explores construction from all sides of the practice: detail design, structural design, and both legal and computational issues.
Excellent Graduate MIT Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
Is your love and knowledge of architecture unquenchable? Then give these graduate open courses a look.
7. Introduction to Design Inquiry : Explore the nature and exercise of design intelligence with this architecture open course. It aims to pursue research and open vistas on the teaching of design and professional design practices. Also included are a bibliography and class log.
8. Introduction to Urban Design and Development : Examine both the structure of cities and ways they can be changed with this open course. Its scope includes historical forces that have produced cities, models of urban analysis, contemporary theories of urban design, and implementation strategies. Core lectures and guest speakers are also included.
9. Urban Design : In the Urban Design Studio, the course focuses in on an area adjacent to Cambridgeport and the western end of the MIT campus. The goal is to discover the ways in which good urban form, an apt mix of activities, and effective institutional mechanisms might all be brought together. The full report and all seven chapters are available in the projects section.
10. Urban Design Politics : This is a seminar about the ways that urban design contributes to the distribution of political power and resources in cities. In this view, design is not some value-neutral aesthetic applied to efforts at urban development but is an integral part of the motives driving that development. Readings and assignments are both featured.
11. Special Problems in Architectural Design : This open course teaches architecture students to expect the unexpected. It focuses on representation tools used by architects during the design process and attempts to discuss the relationship they develop with the object of design. Exercises and submissions are also available for the viewing.
12. Theory of City Form : Theories about cities and the form that settlements should take are discussed in this open course. Attempts will be made at a distinction between descriptive and normative theory by examining examples of various theories of city form over time. Lecture notes and loads of readings are included.
Excellent Green Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
If your love for architecture has a green frame of mind, check out these open courses.
13. Sustainability in the Built Environment : Get an international education with this open architecture course from Hong Kong University. The course aims to develop understanding of sustainability in built environment for students in all disciplines. It focuses on raising the awareness of the built world’s connection to environmental issues, examining sustainable architecture and exploring the methods for reducing impact.
14. Sustainable Design and Technology Research Workshop : This workshop investigates the current state of sustainability in regards to architecture, from the level of the tectonic detail to the urban environment. Current research and case studies are investigated, and students propose their own solutions as part of the final project. Assignments and completed projects are featured.
15. Energy Efficiency in Building : Another open course from HKU, it introduces the basic concepts of energy efficiency in buildings, energy efficient technologies, and the common methods for building energy analysis. Students study the topics through readings, discussions, and project analysis. It is hoped that the knowledge and skills acquired could help generate innovative architectural designs and improve performance of building systems.
16. Nature and the Built Environment : This course explores the evolutionary roots of form and order in the built environment. While grounded in scientific evidence, a broad perspective of humanism is emphasized throughout, with discussions of how ideas animate societies and thereby give form to the things they make. Lectures, readings, and more are included.
17. Environment and Sustainable Development : The United Nations University offers this open course totaling 15 hours. Students examine policy responses to environmental problems caused by economic development with special attention to innovation. The central topic of the course is innovation for the environment, which is explored through a number of lectures and discussion meetings.
18. Soil-Based Hazardous Waste Management : Worried about the impact structures have on the environment? Then check out this open course from Utah State University. Students learn analysis and design emphasized through problems, examinations, and report writing.
19. Environmental Ethics : This open course is an introduction to the study of modern human interaction with other species and the environment. Students begin with a brief introduction to moral theory, then move to in-depth investigations of some of the main topics in contemporary environmental ethics. Architect enthusiasts wondering where to draw the ethics line will appreciate it.
20. Epidemiological Thinking For Non-Specialists : Similar to the above, this open course focuses on changing the ways architects, and other professionals, think. Special attention is given to social inequalities, changes over the life course, heterogeneous pathways, and controversies with implications for policy and practice. A syllabus, schedule, and assessments are available.
Excellent Lectures For Architecture Enthusiasts
Listen to these free architecture lessons on your iPod, jog, or next car trip to give your enthusiasm for architecture a boost.
21. Introduction to Computer Architecture : You don’t have to be a student of architecture in India to learn more. This one hour lecture from the IIT in Delhi is available for free at YouTube. Professor Anshul Kamar of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering shows how computers can be helpful to architects.
22. Sustainable Building Systems : This small lecture series is brought to architecture enthusiasts from Hong Kong University. Principles discusses include sustainability, green building, basic principles, and design issues. There are various video presentations totaling hours.
23. Information Architecture : Get a lecture on architecture form the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Professor Gary Marchionini lectures on the topic of Information Architecture. Related videos are also available.
24. CCA Architecture Lecture Series : Paul Lewis is head of a leading architecture firm in New York. Here, he speaks at the California College of Arts on design, limits, and more. A useful watch for those wanting to enter the field of architecture professionally.
25. European Graduate School : Greg Lynn is an American architect, thinker, philosopher and science-fiction writer discussing and lecturing about the future of architecture and many other topics. Get it all for free in eleven parts on YouTube.
26. This Land is Our Land Greening Architecture, Ethics, and Environment : Ian Ritchie is a UK-based architect, artist, environmentalist, and innovator in engineering, construction and materials. In a lecture presented by USC, he discusses his pioneering work and issues of sustainability. A discussion also follows.
27. Defending A Vision For Architecture : Any architect enthusiast knows the name Frank Gehry. This video lecture was taken in 1990 when a younger Gehry discusses his craft. He even discusses his own Venice Beach house using multiple slides.
28. Nice Building, Then What? : An older and wiser Frank Gehry discusses architecture. He also gives takes on the power of failure, recent buildings, and the “then what?” factor. Coming in at only 22 minutes, it is worth a look if you are an architecture enthusiast.
29. Architecture, Design, Art : Get strategies for survival in all three fields with this video from USC. Featured speakers include Teddy Cruz, Marjetica Potrcˇ, and Krzysztof Wodiczko. Practices are discussed, along with possible intersections.
30. Creativity at a Crossroads : Another USC lecture, this one focuses on the intersection of both art and architecture in China. Three of China’s most influential figures in these areas come together to talk about their work. A good watch for architecture enthusiasts who want an international point of view.
Excellent TED Lectures For Architecture Enthusiasts
A worldwide leader in educational lectures, see what these enthusiasts have to say about architecture.
31. 17 Words of Architectural Inspiration : Daniel Libeskind builds on very big ideas as a designer of breathtaking buildings. Here, he shares 17 words that underlie his vision for architecture including raw, risky, emotional, radical. An excellent lecture for offering inspiration for any bold creative pursuit.
32. Architecture That Repairs Itself? : TED Fellow Rachel Armstrong discusses her research on metabolic materials. Using Venice, Italy as an example, she demonstrates how the city can be saved. She proposes a not-quite-alive material that does its own repairs and sequesters carbon.
33. Cradle to Cradle Design : Architect William McDonough believes that green design can prevent environmental disaster — while also driving economic growth. His theory inspires what architecture would look like if buildings and products were designed with all children in all times in mind.
34. The Quirky World of Manspaces : Sam Martin is the senior editor at frog design and the editor-in-chief of “Design Mind” magazine. In his short lecture, he shares photos of a quirky world that is trending with the “manspace.” These spaces are designed with the man in mind and all they entail.
35. Architectural Inspiration : If you still haven’t had enough, click on this link. It contains over 20 other lectures on architecture by global experts. There are also online discussions to take part in.
Other Excellent Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
Other universities offer this open course ware in relation to architecture.
36. Architecture and Planning : MIT World brings this series of speakers on both topics. Over 40 entries deal with everything from the past of architecture to its future. There are also videos on innovation, business, public policy, and much more.
37. Architecture : Get loads of study tools for architecture enthusiasts from Columbia Interactive. Learning tools include Falling Water Interactive tours, the architecture of New York city, and even a guide to Columbia’s own architecture. There are also events, journals, and newsletters.
38. Introduction To Roman Architecture : Get a comprehensive overview of one of the most recognized architecture systems with this open course. A wide variety of Roman buildings are covered in the course and linked to the theme of Roman urbanism. Best of all, there are tons of video lectures from a leading Yale professor.
39. Planning and Zoning : This topic can be a breeze or a nightmare for architecture enthusiasts. Make it the former with the help of this open course from MSU. It covers the planning official, looking back to look forwards, and how zoning works.
40. Architecture : Get an introductory and short open course to the topic from the King Fahd University. It has a syllabus and instructor information. There are also engineering and other courses to choose from.
Excellent Miscellaneous Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
See how these open courses apply to architecture by giving them a look.
41. The City : Stop here for a course that explores what a city is, what shapes it, and how architecture can effect it. Learn how cities constantly being built and rebuilt shapes them. The open course includes journals, assignments, readings, and more.
42. Design Like You Give A Damn : Not exclusively for architects, but there is much to be found on these design talks from TED. They focus on mechanical, medical, and many other forms of design. Speakers are featured from across the globe.
43. Blender 3D Design : The software has many design applications, including for architecture enthusiasts. It explores basic mesh modeling, applying textures and materials to 3-D objects, lighting, animation, and rendering. The course provides a good basis for further independent study in architectural, engineering, and theatrical modeling and even game design.
44. Wildfire Management and Planning : Architect enthusiasts can learn both the causes and prevention of fires with this open course. Students see how the interactions of fire with its environment influence assessments of fire behavior. This course will also introduce mathematical fire models available to help predict fires.
45. CityScope: New Orleans : With both American and French influences, New Orleans is a city unlike any other. Until Hurricane Katrina hit. This open course explores what can and should be done to help the city recover.
46. Understanding Societies : Get a better look at architecture by learning more about the societies that build them. Sociology is the science of understanding social relationships, human behavior, and the society that we live in. Lecture notes, readings, and quizzes are offered.
47. Invention and Innovation: An Introduction : The Open University offers this 55 hour advanced open course. It provides an understanding of invention, design, innovation, and diffusion as ongoing processes with a range of factors affecting success at each stage. It can help any architecture enthusiast inspire all sorts of ideas.
48. Thinking About Architecture: In History and At Present : Get a look at both the past and future of architecture in this open course. It studies the interrelationship of theory, history, and practice as it relates to architecture and the architect. A calendar and readings are also included.
49. Exploring A Romano-African City : Did you know that Rome has architecture influences from Africa? In this open course, the city of Thugga is explored in video sequences. Students are taught to undertake activities identifying Roman and indigenous elements in the city.
50. Visual Communication Design : Enthusiasts of both architecture and design will appreciate this course. It is intended to teach how to design successful technical documents. Students also learn how to establish effective visual hierarchy by consistently using variables such as type size, type weight, and spacing.
True architecture enthusiasts can spend loads of hours on their passion with the help of the above 50 excellent open courses for architecture students. There are also many other related open courses at many universities, with dozens more at MIT alone.
Complete Listing of our Articles
•About This Site and The Fixer Upper Blog
•It’s Decision Time – Mortgage or Rent?
•Top 50 Construction Blogs
•The Nuts and Bolts of the Obama Bailout
•Top 20 Home Improvement iPhone Apps
•The Top 50 Blogs Shaping the Energy Debate
•100 Resources for Laid Off Employees and Job Hunters
•100 Awesome Business Blogs that are Better than an MBA
•Construction Management Masters Degree Online
•Top 100 Blogs for DIY Home Improvement
•Top 100 Blogs to Boost Your Sales Skills
•101 Ways to Improve Your Life When You Can’t Find a Job
•100 Incredible Lectures for Architects of the Future
•8 Painless Ways To Cut Your Electric Bill This Winter
•Top 25 Blogs for Baseball Fans
•Top 15 Trashspotting Blogs
•Construction Management Job Description
•Construction Management Training and Education
•Construction Management Salary and Earning Potential
•Construction Management Job Outlook
•Construction Management Online Programs
•Top 25 Geology Blogs
•Top 50 Travel Spots for Architecture Buffs
•50 Excellent Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
Find Construction Management Programs Near You!
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Guide to online construction management schools and degrees The Fixer-Upper Blog
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50 Excellent Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
With cable television, the internet, and more, architecture enthusiasts can find many sources in which to get their fix. However, watching a show or reading an article is not enough if you are truly devoted.
With the emergence of open course ware and other educational tools, why not take advantage? Below, we have gathered 50 excellent open courses for architecture enthusiasts that include videos, notes, assignments, and other fun tidbits.
Excellent Undergraduate MIT Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
A leader in both education and open courses, there are several options for architecture lovers.
1. Introduction to Building Technology : An excellent place to start, get a fundamental understanding of the physics related to buildings. The course also teaches the various issues that are combined to offer the building’s occupants a physical, functional and psychological well-being. Students will examine both independently and in the manner in which they interact and affect one another.
2. Introduction to Integrated Design : Students explore the basic questions of architecture through several short design exercises. Working with many different media, students discover the interrelationship of architecture and structures, sustainability, history and the visual arts. Both lectures and assignments are provided for the open course.
3. Architectural Design: Intentions : The open course introduces a full range of architectural issues through drawing exercises, analyses of precedents, and explored design methods. Students develop design skills by conceptualizing and representing architectural ideas and making judgments about building design. Click on projects to see some of the student’s completed works.
4. Architecture Studio: Building in Landscapes : This subject introduces the skills needed to build within a landscape establishing continuities between the built and natural world. Students learn to build appropriately through analysis of landscape and climate for a chosen site, and to conceptualize design decisions through drawings and models. There is also an image gallery with more.
5. Fundamentals of Energy in Buildings: A highlight of this class on energy in buildings is that it includes a complete set of assignments and class projects, along with a detailed set of readings called out in the calendar. Thermo-sciences are taught to students interested in architecture and building technology. Fundamentals in energy, ventilation, air conditioning, and comfort are introduced.
6. Architectural Construction and Computation : This architecture open course investigates the use of computers in architectural design and construction. It begins with a pre-prepared design computer model, which is used for testing and process investigation in construction. It then explores construction from all sides of the practice: detail design, structural design, and both legal and computational issues.
Excellent Graduate MIT Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
Is your love and knowledge of architecture unquenchable? Then give these graduate open courses a look.
7. Introduction to Design Inquiry : Explore the nature and exercise of design intelligence with this architecture open course. It aims to pursue research and open vistas on the teaching of design and professional design practices. Also included are a bibliography and class log.
8. Introduction to Urban Design and Development : Examine both the structure of cities and ways they can be changed with this open course. Its scope includes historical forces that have produced cities, models of urban analysis, contemporary theories of urban design, and implementation strategies. Core lectures and guest speakers are also included.
9. Urban Design : In the Urban Design Studio, the course focuses in on an area adjacent to Cambridgeport and the western end of the MIT campus. The goal is to discover the ways in which good urban form, an apt mix of activities, and effective institutional mechanisms might all be brought together. The full report and all seven chapters are available in the projects section.
10. Urban Design Politics : This is a seminar about the ways that urban design contributes to the distribution of political power and resources in cities. In this view, design is not some value-neutral aesthetic applied to efforts at urban development but is an integral part of the motives driving that development. Readings and assignments are both featured.
11. Special Problems in Architectural Design : This open course teaches architecture students to expect the unexpected. It focuses on representation tools used by architects during the design process and attempts to discuss the relationship they develop with the object of design. Exercises and submissions are also available for the viewing.
12. Theory of City Form : Theories about cities and the form that settlements should take are discussed in this open course. Attempts will be made at a distinction between descriptive and normative theory by examining examples of various theories of city form over time. Lecture notes and loads of readings are included.
Excellent Green Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
If your love for architecture has a green frame of mind, check out these open courses.
13. Sustainability in the Built Environment : Get an international education with this open architecture course from Hong Kong University. The course aims to develop understanding of sustainability in built environment for students in all disciplines. It focuses on raising the awareness of the built world’s connection to environmental issues, examining sustainable architecture and exploring the methods for reducing impact.
14. Sustainable Design and Technology Research Workshop : This workshop investigates the current state of sustainability in regards to architecture, from the level of the tectonic detail to the urban environment. Current research and case studies are investigated, and students propose their own solutions as part of the final project. Assignments and completed projects are featured.
15. Energy Efficiency in Building : Another open course from HKU, it introduces the basic concepts of energy efficiency in buildings, energy efficient technologies, and the common methods for building energy analysis. Students study the topics through readings, discussions, and project analysis. It is hoped that the knowledge and skills acquired could help generate innovative architectural designs and improve performance of building systems.
16. Nature and the Built Environment : This course explores the evolutionary roots of form and order in the built environment. While grounded in scientific evidence, a broad perspective of humanism is emphasized throughout, with discussions of how ideas animate societies and thereby give form to the things they make. Lectures, readings, and more are included.
17. Environment and Sustainable Development : The United Nations University offers this open course totaling 15 hours. Students examine policy responses to environmental problems caused by economic development with special attention to innovation. The central topic of the course is innovation for the environment, which is explored through a number of lectures and discussion meetings.
18. Soil-Based Hazardous Waste Management : Worried about the impact structures have on the environment? Then check out this open course from Utah State University. Students learn analysis and design emphasized through problems, examinations, and report writing.
19. Environmental Ethics : This open course is an introduction to the study of modern human interaction with other species and the environment. Students begin with a brief introduction to moral theory, then move to in-depth investigations of some of the main topics in contemporary environmental ethics. Architect enthusiasts wondering where to draw the ethics line will appreciate it.
20. Epidemiological Thinking For Non-Specialists : Similar to the above, this open course focuses on changing the ways architects, and other professionals, think. Special attention is given to social inequalities, changes over the life course, heterogeneous pathways, and controversies with implications for policy and practice. A syllabus, schedule, and assessments are available.
Excellent Lectures For Architecture Enthusiasts
Listen to these free architecture lessons on your iPod, jog, or next car trip to give your enthusiasm for architecture a boost.
21. Introduction to Computer Architecture : You don’t have to be a student of architecture in India to learn more. This one hour lecture from the IIT in Delhi is available for free at YouTube. Professor Anshul Kamar of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering shows how computers can be helpful to architects.
22. Sustainable Building Systems : This small lecture series is brought to architecture enthusiasts from Hong Kong University. Principles discusses include sustainability, green building, basic principles, and design issues. There are various video presentations totaling hours.
23. Information Architecture : Get a lecture on architecture form the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Professor Gary Marchionini lectures on the topic of Information Architecture. Related videos are also available.
24. CCA Architecture Lecture Series : Paul Lewis is head of a leading architecture firm in New York. Here, he speaks at the California College of Arts on design, limits, and more. A useful watch for those wanting to enter the field of architecture professionally.
25. European Graduate School : Greg Lynn is an American architect, thinker, philosopher and science-fiction writer discussing and lecturing about the future of architecture and many other topics. Get it all for free in eleven parts on YouTube.
26. This Land is Our Land Greening Architecture, Ethics, and Environment : Ian Ritchie is a UK-based architect, artist, environmentalist, and innovator in engineering, construction and materials. In a lecture presented by USC, he discusses his pioneering work and issues of sustainability. A discussion also follows.
27. Defending A Vision For Architecture : Any architect enthusiast knows the name Frank Gehry. This video lecture was taken in 1990 when a younger Gehry discusses his craft. He even discusses his own Venice Beach house using multiple slides.
28. Nice Building, Then What? : An older and wiser Frank Gehry discusses architecture. He also gives takes on the power of failure, recent buildings, and the “then what?” factor. Coming in at only 22 minutes, it is worth a look if you are an architecture enthusiast.
29. Architecture, Design, Art : Get strategies for survival in all three fields with this video from USC. Featured speakers include Teddy Cruz, Marjetica Potrcˇ, and Krzysztof Wodiczko. Practices are discussed, along with possible intersections.
30. Creativity at a Crossroads : Another USC lecture, this one focuses on the intersection of both art and architecture in China. Three of China’s most influential figures in these areas come together to talk about their work. A good watch for architecture enthusiasts who want an international point of view.
Excellent TED Lectures For Architecture Enthusiasts
A worldwide leader in educational lectures, see what these enthusiasts have to say about architecture.
31. 17 Words of Architectural Inspiration : Daniel Libeskind builds on very big ideas as a designer of breathtaking buildings. Here, he shares 17 words that underlie his vision for architecture including raw, risky, emotional, radical. An excellent lecture for offering inspiration for any bold creative pursuit.
32. Architecture That Repairs Itself? : TED Fellow Rachel Armstrong discusses her research on metabolic materials. Using Venice, Italy as an example, she demonstrates how the city can be saved. She proposes a not-quite-alive material that does its own repairs and sequesters carbon.
33. Cradle to Cradle Design : Architect William McDonough believes that green design can prevent environmental disaster — while also driving economic growth. His theory inspires what architecture would look like if buildings and products were designed with all children in all times in mind.
34. The Quirky World of Manspaces : Sam Martin is the senior editor at frog design and the editor-in-chief of “Design Mind” magazine. In his short lecture, he shares photos of a quirky world that is trending with the “manspace.” These spaces are designed with the man in mind and all they entail.
35. Architectural Inspiration : If you still haven’t had enough, click on this link. It contains over 20 other lectures on architecture by global experts. There are also online discussions to take part in.
Other Excellent Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
Other universities offer this open course ware in relation to architecture.
36. Architecture and Planning : MIT World brings this series of speakers on both topics. Over 40 entries deal with everything from the past of architecture to its future. There are also videos on innovation, business, public policy, and much more.
37. Architecture : Get loads of study tools for architecture enthusiasts from Columbia Interactive. Learning tools include Falling Water Interactive tours, the architecture of New York city, and even a guide to Columbia’s own architecture. There are also events, journals, and newsletters.
38. Introduction To Roman Architecture : Get a comprehensive overview of one of the most recognized architecture systems with this open course. A wide variety of Roman buildings are covered in the course and linked to the theme of Roman urbanism. Best of all, there are tons of video lectures from a leading Yale professor.
39. Planning and Zoning : This topic can be a breeze or a nightmare for architecture enthusiasts. Make it the former with the help of this open course from MSU. It covers the planning official, looking back to look forwards, and how zoning works.
40. Architecture : Get an introductory and short open course to the topic from the King Fahd University. It has a syllabus and instructor information. There are also engineering and other courses to choose from.
Excellent Miscellaneous Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
See how these open courses apply to architecture by giving them a look.
41. The City : Stop here for a course that explores what a city is, what shapes it, and how architecture can effect it. Learn how cities constantly being built and rebuilt shapes them. The open course includes journals, assignments, readings, and more.
42. Design Like You Give A Damn : Not exclusively for architects, but there is much to be found on these design talks from TED. They focus on mechanical, medical, and many other forms of design. Speakers are featured from across the globe.
43. Blender 3D Design : The software has many design applications, including for architecture enthusiasts. It explores basic mesh modeling, applying textures and materials to 3-D objects, lighting, animation, and rendering. The course provides a good basis for further independent study in architectural, engineering, and theatrical modeling and even game design.
44. Wildfire Management and Planning : Architect enthusiasts can learn both the causes and prevention of fires with this open course. Students see how the interactions of fire with its environment influence assessments of fire behavior. This course will also introduce mathematical fire models available to help predict fires.
45. CityScope: New Orleans : With both American and French influences, New Orleans is a city unlike any other. Until Hurricane Katrina hit. This open course explores what can and should be done to help the city recover.
46. Understanding Societies : Get a better look at architecture by learning more about the societies that build them. Sociology is the science of understanding social relationships, human behavior, and the society that we live in. Lecture notes, readings, and quizzes are offered.
47. Invention and Innovation: An Introduction : The Open University offers this 55 hour advanced open course. It provides an understanding of invention, design, innovation, and diffusion as ongoing processes with a range of factors affecting success at each stage. It can help any architecture enthusiast inspire all sorts of ideas.
48. Thinking About Architecture: In History and At Present : Get a look at both the past and future of architecture in this open course. It studies the interrelationship of theory, history, and practice as it relates to architecture and the architect. A calendar and readings are also included.
49. Exploring A Romano-African City : Did you know that Rome has architecture influences from Africa? In this open course, the city of Thugga is explored in video sequences. Students are taught to undertake activities identifying Roman and indigenous elements in the city.
50. Visual Communication Design : Enthusiasts of both architecture and design will appreciate this course. It is intended to teach how to design successful technical documents. Students also learn how to establish effective visual hierarchy by consistently using variables such as type size, type weight, and spacing.
True architecture enthusiasts can spend loads of hours on their passion with the help of the above 50 excellent open courses for architecture students. There are also many other related open courses at many universities, with dozens more at MIT alone.
Complete Listing of our Articles
•About This Site and The Fixer Upper Blog
•It’s Decision Time – Mortgage or Rent?
•Top 50 Construction Blogs
•The Nuts and Bolts of the Obama Bailout
•Top 20 Home Improvement iPhone Apps
•The Top 50 Blogs Shaping the Energy Debate
•100 Resources for Laid Off Employees and Job Hunters
•100 Awesome Business Blogs that are Better than an MBA
•Construction Management Masters Degree Online
•Top 100 Blogs for DIY Home Improvement
•Top 100 Blogs to Boost Your Sales Skills
•101 Ways to Improve Your Life When You Can’t Find a Job
•100 Incredible Lectures for Architects of the Future
•8 Painless Ways To Cut Your Electric Bill This Winter
•Top 25 Blogs for Baseball Fans
•Top 15 Trashspotting Blogs
•Construction Management Job Description
•Construction Management Training and Education
•Construction Management Salary and Earning Potential
•Construction Management Job Outlook
•Construction Management Online Programs
•Top 25 Geology Blogs
•Top 50 Travel Spots for Architecture Buffs
•50 Excellent Open Courses For Architecture Enthusiasts
Find Construction Management Programs Near You!
Didn't find the construction management degree program you were looking for? Search our database of 280+ schools to find the right construction management degree for you.
To Begin, Enter Your Zip Code:
- Select A Program - Engineering Management Construction Management All Subjects
Surgical Technician Schools | Phlebotomy Technician Schools | Radiography Schools | Construction Management Degree
Will there be a need for electricity in Africa in the Future?
The African Crises
Electricity! Who will be able to purchase it anyway?
>> White people will no longer be able to open hairdressers, advertising
>> agencies or bakeries in Zimbabwe under black empowerment regulations
>> hastily signed into law by president Robert Mugabe's side of the
>> government. Morgan Tsvangirai, Mr Mugabe's estranged prime minister,
>> described the new law as "null and void" because he had not been
>> consulted. But analysts say he will likely be unable to reverse it. The
>> Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Regulations force executives of
>> white-owned companies with assets of more than £320,000 to commit to
>> hand over 51 per cent of their shares to black Zimbabweans within 75 days
>> of 1 March – or face five years in jail. The executives cannot choose
>> their new shareholders: they must pick from a database set up by the
>> empowerment ministry, headed by former secret service operative Saviour
>> Kasukuwere, who has vast business interests of his own. "This says to
>> investors: Don't you dare come here," said political analyst John
>> Makumbe, of the University of Zimbabwe.
>>
>> The new regulations will affect several London-listed banks and mines:
>> Barclays Bank and Old Mutual have a significant presence in Zimbabwe. The
>> law also sets out an impressive list of traditionally lucrative smaller
>> sectors now reserved for black Zimbabweans. Among the "sectors reserved
>> against foreign investment" are hairdressers, beauty salons, employment
>> and advertising agencies and bakeries. Whites and foreigners will no
>> longer be allowed to open estate agencies or valet services, nor will
>> they be allowed to engage in the retail trade or grow cash crops. "This
>> comes down to loot and pillage," a Tsvangirai aide said. "It disqualifies
>> a lot of black-owned foreign companies, including ones from South Africa,
>> which shows it has nothing to do with black empowerment. They (Mr
>> Mugabe's Zanu PF party] just want things for free like the farms."
>> Mr Tsvangirai, the head of the former opposition Movement for Democratic
>> Change (MDC) party, met Mr Mugabe to register his disapproval of the new
>> law. The 84-year-old president made the astonishing claim that he "knew
>> nothing about it". The regulations were passed by the Zanu PF-dominated
>> parliament in 2007 but put on ice, leading many to believe they'd been
>> permanently shelved. They were quietly published last Friday, exactly a
>> decade since Mr Mugabe launched a violence-riddled land reform programme
>> that has turfed about 4,000 white farmers off their land and seen
>> Zimbabwe's agricultural production plummet. The first white farm
>> invasions were in February 2000. South African lawyer Willie Spies, who
>> has fought to protect white farmers from Mr Mugabe's land grab said: "The
>> new development calls for more drastic measures by the South African
>> government to assist its citizens affected by Mugabe's controversial
>> policies."
>>
>> Mr Tsvangirai said: "The regulations would have scared off foreign
>> investors, already jittery about Zimbabwe, as well as disenfranchising
>> citizens." Only this month the former opposition leader assured the World
>> Economic Forum in Davos that "confidence has returned" to Zimbabwe's
>> battered economy. Analysts said the regulations represented another slap
>> in the face for the premier from his rival, who has been bolstered by
>> South African president Jacob Zuma's recent taking of sides during
>> negotiations to revive a stalled unity deal signed in September 2008. Mr
>> Zuma told Mr Tsvangirai he should be "more flexible" in what looked like
>> a plea for the MDC leader to drop his demand that Mr Mugabe's central
>> bank governor and attorney general be replaced. Mr Mugabe insists he will
>> make no concessions until western sanctions on him and 200 close
>> associates are removed.
>>
>> I would point out to all South Africans and investors from anywhere that
>> it will eventually happen in South Africa. Mr Zuma our President
>> announced publicly that Julius Malema the ANC Youth leader will,
>> eventually be the president of South Africa. Such an idea is cause for
>> laughter but Zuma was deadly serious and dodged questions by the press on
>> that subject. Malema is just as much of an idiot as Mugabe. He demands
>> very loudly that the Reserve bank , all the mines and many other
>> companies be Nationalized. Sadly the South African electorate can be
>> relied on to elect such people.
Electricity! Who will be able to purchase it anyway?
>> White people will no longer be able to open hairdressers, advertising
>> agencies or bakeries in Zimbabwe under black empowerment regulations
>> hastily signed into law by president Robert Mugabe's side of the
>> government. Morgan Tsvangirai, Mr Mugabe's estranged prime minister,
>> described the new law as "null and void" because he had not been
>> consulted. But analysts say he will likely be unable to reverse it. The
>> Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Regulations force executives of
>> white-owned companies with assets of more than £320,000 to commit to
>> hand over 51 per cent of their shares to black Zimbabweans within 75 days
>> of 1 March – or face five years in jail. The executives cannot choose
>> their new shareholders: they must pick from a database set up by the
>> empowerment ministry, headed by former secret service operative Saviour
>> Kasukuwere, who has vast business interests of his own. "This says to
>> investors: Don't you dare come here," said political analyst John
>> Makumbe, of the University of Zimbabwe.
>>
>> The new regulations will affect several London-listed banks and mines:
>> Barclays Bank and Old Mutual have a significant presence in Zimbabwe. The
>> law also sets out an impressive list of traditionally lucrative smaller
>> sectors now reserved for black Zimbabweans. Among the "sectors reserved
>> against foreign investment" are hairdressers, beauty salons, employment
>> and advertising agencies and bakeries. Whites and foreigners will no
>> longer be allowed to open estate agencies or valet services, nor will
>> they be allowed to engage in the retail trade or grow cash crops. "This
>> comes down to loot and pillage," a Tsvangirai aide said. "It disqualifies
>> a lot of black-owned foreign companies, including ones from South Africa,
>> which shows it has nothing to do with black empowerment. They (Mr
>> Mugabe's Zanu PF party] just want things for free like the farms."
>> Mr Tsvangirai, the head of the former opposition Movement for Democratic
>> Change (MDC) party, met Mr Mugabe to register his disapproval of the new
>> law. The 84-year-old president made the astonishing claim that he "knew
>> nothing about it". The regulations were passed by the Zanu PF-dominated
>> parliament in 2007 but put on ice, leading many to believe they'd been
>> permanently shelved. They were quietly published last Friday, exactly a
>> decade since Mr Mugabe launched a violence-riddled land reform programme
>> that has turfed about 4,000 white farmers off their land and seen
>> Zimbabwe's agricultural production plummet. The first white farm
>> invasions were in February 2000. South African lawyer Willie Spies, who
>> has fought to protect white farmers from Mr Mugabe's land grab said: "The
>> new development calls for more drastic measures by the South African
>> government to assist its citizens affected by Mugabe's controversial
>> policies."
>>
>> Mr Tsvangirai said: "The regulations would have scared off foreign
>> investors, already jittery about Zimbabwe, as well as disenfranchising
>> citizens." Only this month the former opposition leader assured the World
>> Economic Forum in Davos that "confidence has returned" to Zimbabwe's
>> battered economy. Analysts said the regulations represented another slap
>> in the face for the premier from his rival, who has been bolstered by
>> South African president Jacob Zuma's recent taking of sides during
>> negotiations to revive a stalled unity deal signed in September 2008. Mr
>> Zuma told Mr Tsvangirai he should be "more flexible" in what looked like
>> a plea for the MDC leader to drop his demand that Mr Mugabe's central
>> bank governor and attorney general be replaced. Mr Mugabe insists he will
>> make no concessions until western sanctions on him and 200 close
>> associates are removed.
>>
>> I would point out to all South Africans and investors from anywhere that
>> it will eventually happen in South Africa. Mr Zuma our President
>> announced publicly that Julius Malema the ANC Youth leader will,
>> eventually be the president of South Africa. Such an idea is cause for
>> laughter but Zuma was deadly serious and dodged questions by the press on
>> that subject. Malema is just as much of an idiot as Mugabe. He demands
>> very loudly that the Reserve bank , all the mines and many other
>> companies be Nationalized. Sadly the South African electorate can be
>> relied on to elect such people.
Energy Crisis and Green Buildings
Feb 15, 2010
Energy efficiency - silent gun in clean technology arsenal
By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
US has cut a third of energy use through simple measures, visiting US expert says.
Energy efficiency is doing more to power the economy in the US than any other fuel mainstay including coal, says Alliance to Save Energy President Kateri Callahan.
Callahan is in Israel this week for the Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Conference as a guest of the Israel Energy Forum.
When policymakers look at the basket of renewable energies at their disposal, energy efficiency is the most potent for the least cost, Kateri told The Jerusalem Post in Tel Aviv on Sunday.
Without the energy efficiency measures implemented thus far, the US would use 50 percent more than it does now, she pointed out. “And the US is the biggest energy consumer in the world.”
Those savings were achieved through relatively straightforward regulations and incentives, not some complex process, Callahan said.
She pointed to appliance standards, building codes, and vehicle fuel economy standards as three methods which have proven effective in the US.
The next steps in the US include phasing out incandescent lighting in favor of energy efficient lightbulbs and increasing fuel economy standards even more to reduce usage by another 7%, she said. Carbon emissions will be reduced by 9%.
While 9% may not seem like much, it is actually equivalent to the total emissions of South Korea – the ninth largest emitter on the planet.
“Fifteen to 20% of utility bills go towards lighting,” she added.
Appliance standards dictate which appliances can be sold in the US as well as prohibit the sale of inefficient ones. The Energystar program, which tells the consumer if the product is efficient or not, has been in place in the US since the early 90s and has achieved tremendous success, according to Callahan. Appliances with Energystar certification are on average 30% more efficient than those not on the list, she added.
Similar appliance standards have existed in Israel for awhile and a new set to cover more appliances was passed recently.
One of the Alliance’s goals is to encourage net zero energy capable buildings to be the code requirement by 2030 in the US. This means buildings would produce as much of their own energy as possible – through solar panels, wind turbines, or other sources, she explained.
“Homes and buildings in the US use as much electricity as India and Japan’s economies combined,” she said, illustrating the importance of building codes.
While it is easy to demonstrate why energy efficiency is critical in the US, the average Israeli is unaware how critical it is here.
The Israel Electric Corporation quietly panics every time it gets too hot or too cold for fear of brownouts or blackouts. Electricity reserves are hovering at 2%. That basically means if more than one or two generators go down at a time, then the electricity goes out.
But the government is having a hard time conveying to the public the electricity crisis. Experts wryly say there’s no Lake Kinneret to demonstrate how low the safety margin is. Some even say the electricity crisis is worse than the water crisis as demand continues to rise by about 4% every year.
The Israeli government recently passed a decision to reduce demand by 20% by 2020. However, some of the crucial accompanying legislation still lags, like creating an energy efficiency fund from a portion of the electricity tariff. Electricity prices went down even though that’s not good for reducing demand partly because there is no law on the books to create such a fund. If it had existed, prices might have been lowered somewhat, but not by the 10% they will drop on Monday.
Callahan said the most effective way to sell energy efficiency is through economic benefits. The government and the utility companies have been very active in the US in encouraging efficiency through tax breaks, tax rebates and refunds, Callahan said.
“Out of the $80 billion the Obama administration has pledged towards clean technologies, $26 billion has been tagged for energy efficiency,” she said to highlight how serious the US viewed energy efficiency.
Energy efficiency also costs three times less to implement than any other energy cost, she added.
“In the US, efficiency costs 1 to 3 cents per kilowatt hour. Coal costs 10 cents per kilowatt hour,” she said.
Israel Energy Forum head Yael Cohen Paran said she thought coal in Israel was a bit cheaper, about 3-5 cents per kilowatt hour.
Callahan predicted that the next big push would be to examine smart development of cities and suburbs, taking into account energy efficiency. Right now in the US, NGOs and academics have begun to explore the notion of urban versus rural benefits but it is not yet mainstream.
Founded in 1977, the Alliance to Save Energy is a non-profit coalition of business, government, environmental and consumer leaders.
Energy efficiency - silent gun in clean technology arsenal
By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
US has cut a third of energy use through simple measures, visiting US expert says.
Energy efficiency is doing more to power the economy in the US than any other fuel mainstay including coal, says Alliance to Save Energy President Kateri Callahan.
Callahan is in Israel this week for the Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Conference as a guest of the Israel Energy Forum.
When policymakers look at the basket of renewable energies at their disposal, energy efficiency is the most potent for the least cost, Kateri told The Jerusalem Post in Tel Aviv on Sunday.
Without the energy efficiency measures implemented thus far, the US would use 50 percent more than it does now, she pointed out. “And the US is the biggest energy consumer in the world.”
Those savings were achieved through relatively straightforward regulations and incentives, not some complex process, Callahan said.
She pointed to appliance standards, building codes, and vehicle fuel economy standards as three methods which have proven effective in the US.
The next steps in the US include phasing out incandescent lighting in favor of energy efficient lightbulbs and increasing fuel economy standards even more to reduce usage by another 7%, she said. Carbon emissions will be reduced by 9%.
While 9% may not seem like much, it is actually equivalent to the total emissions of South Korea – the ninth largest emitter on the planet.
“Fifteen to 20% of utility bills go towards lighting,” she added.
Appliance standards dictate which appliances can be sold in the US as well as prohibit the sale of inefficient ones. The Energystar program, which tells the consumer if the product is efficient or not, has been in place in the US since the early 90s and has achieved tremendous success, according to Callahan. Appliances with Energystar certification are on average 30% more efficient than those not on the list, she added.
Similar appliance standards have existed in Israel for awhile and a new set to cover more appliances was passed recently.
One of the Alliance’s goals is to encourage net zero energy capable buildings to be the code requirement by 2030 in the US. This means buildings would produce as much of their own energy as possible – through solar panels, wind turbines, or other sources, she explained.
“Homes and buildings in the US use as much electricity as India and Japan’s economies combined,” she said, illustrating the importance of building codes.
While it is easy to demonstrate why energy efficiency is critical in the US, the average Israeli is unaware how critical it is here.
The Israel Electric Corporation quietly panics every time it gets too hot or too cold for fear of brownouts or blackouts. Electricity reserves are hovering at 2%. That basically means if more than one or two generators go down at a time, then the electricity goes out.
But the government is having a hard time conveying to the public the electricity crisis. Experts wryly say there’s no Lake Kinneret to demonstrate how low the safety margin is. Some even say the electricity crisis is worse than the water crisis as demand continues to rise by about 4% every year.
The Israeli government recently passed a decision to reduce demand by 20% by 2020. However, some of the crucial accompanying legislation still lags, like creating an energy efficiency fund from a portion of the electricity tariff. Electricity prices went down even though that’s not good for reducing demand partly because there is no law on the books to create such a fund. If it had existed, prices might have been lowered somewhat, but not by the 10% they will drop on Monday.
Callahan said the most effective way to sell energy efficiency is through economic benefits. The government and the utility companies have been very active in the US in encouraging efficiency through tax breaks, tax rebates and refunds, Callahan said.
“Out of the $80 billion the Obama administration has pledged towards clean technologies, $26 billion has been tagged for energy efficiency,” she said to highlight how serious the US viewed energy efficiency.
Energy efficiency also costs three times less to implement than any other energy cost, she added.
“In the US, efficiency costs 1 to 3 cents per kilowatt hour. Coal costs 10 cents per kilowatt hour,” she said.
Israel Energy Forum head Yael Cohen Paran said she thought coal in Israel was a bit cheaper, about 3-5 cents per kilowatt hour.
Callahan predicted that the next big push would be to examine smart development of cities and suburbs, taking into account energy efficiency. Right now in the US, NGOs and academics have begun to explore the notion of urban versus rural benefits but it is not yet mainstream.
Founded in 1977, the Alliance to Save Energy is a non-profit coalition of business, government, environmental and consumer leaders.
Monday, February 15, 2010
What Happens to lamps when they are recycled
http://www.lightnowblog.com/2010/02/what-happens-to-lamps-when-they-are-recycled/
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Green Energy
2. More green-energy stimulus aid sought
Feb 9, 2010 Columbus Dispatch
More green-energy stimulus aid sought
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 3:11 AM
By Mark Niquette
Federal stimulus dollars are helping Ohio companies make components for wind, solar and other energy production, but some "clean energy" advocates say that more assistance is needed to continue creating green manufacturing jobs.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is pushing to more than double the $2.3 billion in stimulus funding approved nationwide for the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit program.
Brown hosted a roundtable in Columbus yesterday with executives of seven Ohio companies that have received $125 million from the program. One, DuPont Co., is adding 80 workers as part of a $175 million expansion in Circleville to make a film called Tedlar used in solar panels.
The Democratic senator noted that China, Germany and other counties are investing billions of dollars in alternative-energy production, and he said Ohio and the United States cannot afford to fall behind.
"If we don't act we're going to replace our dependence on foreign oil with a dependence on other countries manufacturing solar panels and wind-turbine components and so many other very, very important components of our energy future," Brown said at the Ohio Manufacturers' Association.
A recent expansion at First Solar in Perrysburg probably would have occurred in Germany instead if not for $16.3 million from the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit program, said Matthew A. Dills, the company's director of human resources.
The tax-credit program drew about 500 applications nationwide, but only about 165 awards were made, Brown's office said. Details about how many applications from Ohio were unsuccessful were not available.
Brown will work to have the funding increased to about $5 billion as part of a new jobs bill being discussed, a spokeswoman said.
DuPont is getting $50.7 million in credits for the expansion at its Circleville plant and expects to increase its Tedlar lines, although it's difficult to say whether that would happen in Circleville, plant manager Tony Eichstadt said.
"There will be a lot of very tough competition to get that investment," Eichstadt said.
Critics say the stimulus has been ineffective while adding to the federal deficit, but Brown said the stimulus has helped create or preserve jobs and that other factors, including two wars, are more responsible for the deficit.
Separately yesterday, Gov. Ted Strickland announced that 18 Ohio projects will receive more than $11.8 million in energy-efficiency grants also funded with stimulus dollars through Ohio's $96 million State Energy Program.
Companies in targeted industries such as advanced energy applied for funding from the state program to make energy-efficient improvements in their manufacturing facilities.
The largest grant was $1.2 million to Timken Co. in Canton to install a new boiler and replace outdated gas burners to save energy and reduce emissions.
John Grabner, the president of Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Co. in Bedford Heights, Ohio, is another recipient of the tax credits. He said his company's business was increasing quickly because of demand for the fasteners it makes for wind turbines. The company, soon to run out of capacity, has bought new equipment and plans to double employment to 100 this year, Grabner said.
"Demand is exceeding our original expectations, so we have to figure how we're going to cope with that," he said. Grabner said that Cardinal has displaced suppliers of wind parts from Europe and Asia to the U.S. market.
Feb 9, 2010 Columbus Dispatch
More green-energy stimulus aid sought
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 3:11 AM
By Mark Niquette
Federal stimulus dollars are helping Ohio companies make components for wind, solar and other energy production, but some "clean energy" advocates say that more assistance is needed to continue creating green manufacturing jobs.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is pushing to more than double the $2.3 billion in stimulus funding approved nationwide for the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit program.
Brown hosted a roundtable in Columbus yesterday with executives of seven Ohio companies that have received $125 million from the program. One, DuPont Co., is adding 80 workers as part of a $175 million expansion in Circleville to make a film called Tedlar used in solar panels.
The Democratic senator noted that China, Germany and other counties are investing billions of dollars in alternative-energy production, and he said Ohio and the United States cannot afford to fall behind.
"If we don't act we're going to replace our dependence on foreign oil with a dependence on other countries manufacturing solar panels and wind-turbine components and so many other very, very important components of our energy future," Brown said at the Ohio Manufacturers' Association.
A recent expansion at First Solar in Perrysburg probably would have occurred in Germany instead if not for $16.3 million from the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit program, said Matthew A. Dills, the company's director of human resources.
The tax-credit program drew about 500 applications nationwide, but only about 165 awards were made, Brown's office said. Details about how many applications from Ohio were unsuccessful were not available.
Brown will work to have the funding increased to about $5 billion as part of a new jobs bill being discussed, a spokeswoman said.
DuPont is getting $50.7 million in credits for the expansion at its Circleville plant and expects to increase its Tedlar lines, although it's difficult to say whether that would happen in Circleville, plant manager Tony Eichstadt said.
"There will be a lot of very tough competition to get that investment," Eichstadt said.
Critics say the stimulus has been ineffective while adding to the federal deficit, but Brown said the stimulus has helped create or preserve jobs and that other factors, including two wars, are more responsible for the deficit.
Separately yesterday, Gov. Ted Strickland announced that 18 Ohio projects will receive more than $11.8 million in energy-efficiency grants also funded with stimulus dollars through Ohio's $96 million State Energy Program.
Companies in targeted industries such as advanced energy applied for funding from the state program to make energy-efficient improvements in their manufacturing facilities.
The largest grant was $1.2 million to Timken Co. in Canton to install a new boiler and replace outdated gas burners to save energy and reduce emissions.
John Grabner, the president of Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Co. in Bedford Heights, Ohio, is another recipient of the tax credits. He said his company's business was increasing quickly because of demand for the fasteners it makes for wind turbines. The company, soon to run out of capacity, has bought new equipment and plans to double employment to 100 this year, Grabner said.
"Demand is exceeding our original expectations, so we have to figure how we're going to cope with that," he said. Grabner said that Cardinal has displaced suppliers of wind parts from Europe and Asia to the U.S. market.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Carbon trading and efficiency
5. Australian Carbon Plan More Cost-Effective, New Energy Says
Feb 9, 2010 Business Week
Australian Carbon Plan More Cost-Effective, New Energy Says
By Ben Sharples
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Australia’s climate-change bill, which includes plans for a carbon trading system similar to one used in Europe, is more cost-effective than an alternative proposal from the opposition, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.
The Liberal-National opposition’s plan to create a fund to support emission reductions can’t guarantee a specific level of cuts and offers fewer incentives to abate carbon, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in an e-mailed statement today.
The Labor government’s bill for its plan was blocked in the Senate last year when the Liberal-National coalition teamed up with other parties to vote against the proposed laws. The opposition’s fund would invest as much as A$1.2 billion ($1.04 billion) annually in projects that lower emissions and improve the environment, Leader Tony Abbott, 52, said last week.
“The coalition’s latest proposals do not pass muster and risk taking the debate backwards not forwards,” Guy Turner, head of carbon market research for Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in the statement.
The plan by Australia’s Labor government will cost less than A$1.5 billion during the first four years, not A$40.6 billion estimated by the opposition, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said. The opposition’s proposal will cost A$3.2 billion during that period, Abbot said Feb. 2.
The government’s plan, reintroduced into parliament last week by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, aims to cut carbon output by 5 percent by 2020 through a cap-and-trade system. While Rudd has a majority in the nation’s lower house, he needs the backing of seven non-Labor senators in the upper house to enact legislation. Australia is scheduled to hold a federal election later this year.
Abbott said his plan would encourage households to use more renewable energy, with homes gaining additional rebates for installing solar panels. It will also use the fund for the sequestration of carbon in soil.
--Editors: Clyde Russell, Alex Devine.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at +61-3-9228-8732 +61-3-9228-8732 or bsharples@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 +65-6311-2423 or crussell7@bloomberg.net
Feb 9, 2010 Business Week
Australian Carbon Plan More Cost-Effective, New Energy Says
By Ben Sharples
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Australia’s climate-change bill, which includes plans for a carbon trading system similar to one used in Europe, is more cost-effective than an alternative proposal from the opposition, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.
The Liberal-National opposition’s plan to create a fund to support emission reductions can’t guarantee a specific level of cuts and offers fewer incentives to abate carbon, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in an e-mailed statement today.
The Labor government’s bill for its plan was blocked in the Senate last year when the Liberal-National coalition teamed up with other parties to vote against the proposed laws. The opposition’s fund would invest as much as A$1.2 billion ($1.04 billion) annually in projects that lower emissions and improve the environment, Leader Tony Abbott, 52, said last week.
“The coalition’s latest proposals do not pass muster and risk taking the debate backwards not forwards,” Guy Turner, head of carbon market research for Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in the statement.
The plan by Australia’s Labor government will cost less than A$1.5 billion during the first four years, not A$40.6 billion estimated by the opposition, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said. The opposition’s proposal will cost A$3.2 billion during that period, Abbot said Feb. 2.
The government’s plan, reintroduced into parliament last week by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, aims to cut carbon output by 5 percent by 2020 through a cap-and-trade system. While Rudd has a majority in the nation’s lower house, he needs the backing of seven non-Labor senators in the upper house to enact legislation. Australia is scheduled to hold a federal election later this year.
Abbott said his plan would encourage households to use more renewable energy, with homes gaining additional rebates for installing solar panels. It will also use the fund for the sequestration of carbon in soil.
--Editors: Clyde Russell, Alex Devine.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at +61-3-9228-8732 +61-3-9228-8732 or bsharples@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 +65-6311-2423 or crussell7@bloomberg.net
Monday, February 8, 2010
Green Energy
5. Backing down on climate change
Feb 5, 2010 Los Angeles Times
If changes in the public mood and the party alignment of the U.S. Senate have stalled healthcare legislation, they may have thrown the highly anticipated climate bill under a bus.
Even before Republican Scott Brown's stunning election to the Senate in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts last month, it was proving hard to corral moderate Democrats to support a bill capping greenhouse gas emissions. Now they're afraid to back anything that could be perceived as harmful to the economy. "Realistically, the cap-and-trade bills in the House and the Senate are going nowhere," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told the New York Times. That's a distressing comment coming from one of the three senators supposedly crafting a compromise climate bill that's capable of achieving a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
President Obama has backed down too. On Tuesday, he signaled that cap-and-trade could go the way of healthcare reform's "public option," saying it could be removed from the climate bill. That would eliminate the market mechanism for pricing greenhouse gas pollution and without setting such a carbon price, other measures under consideration, such as a national renewable energy standard, won't go far enough to significantly slow global warming.
Global emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases rise every year, and within decades are expected to hit a worrisome atmospheric concentration threshold of 450 parts per million. At that point, there's a high probability that average global temperatures will be at least 2 degrees Celsius higher than they were in 1850 (they're already 1 C higher). Our children would live in a world of mass migrations, wars and conflicts fueled by scarce water supplies, infrastructure destruction as rising sea levels swallow coastlines, extreme weather events, wildfires and increased poverty and disease. These are not the predictions of wild-eyed liberal pundits but of thousands of climate researchers around the world, along with organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the National Academies of Sciences.
It gets worse. No one really knows what would happen if average temperatures hit 5 C higher than 1850 a level we could easily reach within a century under a business-as-usual scenario but changes to the physical geography of the planet become probable: land masses would vanish; ecosystems would collapse. Human civilization would change, and not for the better.
This process can still be slowed at a moderate economic cost, but time is short delays make both fighting climate change and adapting to it dramatically more expensive, and eventually could make it impossible. It's foolish to say we can't afford to pass a climate bill during a recession. We can't afford not to.
Feb 5, 2010 Los Angeles Times
If changes in the public mood and the party alignment of the U.S. Senate have stalled healthcare legislation, they may have thrown the highly anticipated climate bill under a bus.
Even before Republican Scott Brown's stunning election to the Senate in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts last month, it was proving hard to corral moderate Democrats to support a bill capping greenhouse gas emissions. Now they're afraid to back anything that could be perceived as harmful to the economy. "Realistically, the cap-and-trade bills in the House and the Senate are going nowhere," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told the New York Times. That's a distressing comment coming from one of the three senators supposedly crafting a compromise climate bill that's capable of achieving a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
President Obama has backed down too. On Tuesday, he signaled that cap-and-trade could go the way of healthcare reform's "public option," saying it could be removed from the climate bill. That would eliminate the market mechanism for pricing greenhouse gas pollution and without setting such a carbon price, other measures under consideration, such as a national renewable energy standard, won't go far enough to significantly slow global warming.
Global emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases rise every year, and within decades are expected to hit a worrisome atmospheric concentration threshold of 450 parts per million. At that point, there's a high probability that average global temperatures will be at least 2 degrees Celsius higher than they were in 1850 (they're already 1 C higher). Our children would live in a world of mass migrations, wars and conflicts fueled by scarce water supplies, infrastructure destruction as rising sea levels swallow coastlines, extreme weather events, wildfires and increased poverty and disease. These are not the predictions of wild-eyed liberal pundits but of thousands of climate researchers around the world, along with organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the National Academies of Sciences.
It gets worse. No one really knows what would happen if average temperatures hit 5 C higher than 1850 a level we could easily reach within a century under a business-as-usual scenario but changes to the physical geography of the planet become probable: land masses would vanish; ecosystems would collapse. Human civilization would change, and not for the better.
This process can still be slowed at a moderate economic cost, but time is short delays make both fighting climate change and adapting to it dramatically more expensive, and eventually could make it impossible. It's foolish to say we can't afford to pass a climate bill during a recession. We can't afford not to.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Energy Crisis and Green Buildings
12. Panel Suggests 100 Ways Buildings Can Be Greener
Feb 2, 2010 New York Times
By Mireya Navarro
A panel of experts convened by the mayor and City Council issued more than 100 recommendations Monday on how to make New York City’s building codes more environmentally sound by imposing energy-saving requirements on construction and renovation work.
The measures, presented to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Council’s speaker, Christine C. Quinn, include rules for insulating glass skyscrapers and a plan that would place temperature controls in individual apartments, eliminating the winter ritual of opening windows to vent excess heat.
Many of the proposals would need to be approved by the City Council.
“A lot of these are incremental gains, but together they amount to a big gain,” said the panel’s chairman, Russell Unger, the executive director of the New York chapter of the United States Green Building Council, which certifies green design and construction. “By changing code, everybody can have lower utility bills.”
The recommendations are the city’s latest attempt to reduce the greenhouse gases produced by its buildings, which are estimated to be the source of about 75 percent of the city’s emissions over all. In December, the City Council passed legislation requiring owners of New York’s largest buildings to pay for energy audits, upgrade lighting and take other steps to reduce energy consumption.
But as with previous green proposals for buildings, many of the improvements suggested on Monday could substantially increase the costs of renovation or construction.
The panel of experts, including representatives of the building industry and from environmental groups, said at a briefing that the city must find ways to secure financing and offer other incentives to help developers and managers make the changes.
“In general, the industry supports the overall goal,” said Charlotte Matthews, vice president for sustainability at the Related Companies, a major New York developer that has a representative on the task force.
She noted that some measures would be less palatable than others, and that in difficult economic times “any change is a little unnerving.”
But she said a stiffer code regulating buildings’ energy use was essential in meeting the city’s long-term environmental demands and “ensuring that all New Yorkers have a healthy home, school and workplace.”
The panel’s wish list includes requiring all commercial and residential buildings that are four stories or taller to meet the nation’s latest energy standards. Other proposals call for such buildings to be more airtight and to have minimal insulation.
One proposal would impose higher efficiency standards for heating systems and ban inefficient boilers in the city’s largest buildings. Another would phase in individual apartment temperature controls over a 10-year period.
Ms. Quinn said about half of the measures would not involve significant expenditures. The real estate industry’s participation in the process should help address concerns about costs, she added.
“It’s kind of a new way of looking at how we do business with a green perspective,” she said.
In a statement, Mayor Bloomberg said the recommendations by the panel, which was convened 18 months ago, were critical to meeting the city’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2030.
Feb 2, 2010 New York Times
By Mireya Navarro
A panel of experts convened by the mayor and City Council issued more than 100 recommendations Monday on how to make New York City’s building codes more environmentally sound by imposing energy-saving requirements on construction and renovation work.
The measures, presented to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Council’s speaker, Christine C. Quinn, include rules for insulating glass skyscrapers and a plan that would place temperature controls in individual apartments, eliminating the winter ritual of opening windows to vent excess heat.
Many of the proposals would need to be approved by the City Council.
“A lot of these are incremental gains, but together they amount to a big gain,” said the panel’s chairman, Russell Unger, the executive director of the New York chapter of the United States Green Building Council, which certifies green design and construction. “By changing code, everybody can have lower utility bills.”
The recommendations are the city’s latest attempt to reduce the greenhouse gases produced by its buildings, which are estimated to be the source of about 75 percent of the city’s emissions over all. In December, the City Council passed legislation requiring owners of New York’s largest buildings to pay for energy audits, upgrade lighting and take other steps to reduce energy consumption.
But as with previous green proposals for buildings, many of the improvements suggested on Monday could substantially increase the costs of renovation or construction.
The panel of experts, including representatives of the building industry and from environmental groups, said at a briefing that the city must find ways to secure financing and offer other incentives to help developers and managers make the changes.
“In general, the industry supports the overall goal,” said Charlotte Matthews, vice president for sustainability at the Related Companies, a major New York developer that has a representative on the task force.
She noted that some measures would be less palatable than others, and that in difficult economic times “any change is a little unnerving.”
But she said a stiffer code regulating buildings’ energy use was essential in meeting the city’s long-term environmental demands and “ensuring that all New Yorkers have a healthy home, school and workplace.”
The panel’s wish list includes requiring all commercial and residential buildings that are four stories or taller to meet the nation’s latest energy standards. Other proposals call for such buildings to be more airtight and to have minimal insulation.
One proposal would impose higher efficiency standards for heating systems and ban inefficient boilers in the city’s largest buildings. Another would phase in individual apartment temperature controls over a 10-year period.
Ms. Quinn said about half of the measures would not involve significant expenditures. The real estate industry’s participation in the process should help address concerns about costs, she added.
“It’s kind of a new way of looking at how we do business with a green perspective,” she said.
In a statement, Mayor Bloomberg said the recommendations by the panel, which was convened 18 months ago, were critical to meeting the city’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2030.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Clean power. where is the US?
China Leading Global Race to Make Clean Energy
By KEITH BRADSHER
TIANJIN, China — China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year.
China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.
These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.
“Most of the energy equipment will carry a brass plate, ‘Made in China,’ ” said K. K. Chan, the chief executive of Nature Elements Capital, a private equity fund in Beijing that focuses on renewable energy.
President Obama, in his State of the Union speech last week, sounded an alarm that the United States was falling behind other countries, especially China, on energy. “I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders — and I know you don’t either,” he told Congress.
The United States and other countries are offering incentives to develop their own renewable energy industries, and Mr. Obama called for redoubling American efforts. Yet many Western and Chinese executives expect China to prevail in the energy-technology race.
Multinational corporations are responding to the rapid growth of China’s market by building big, state-of-the-art factories in China. Vestas of Denmark has just erected the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturing complex here in northeastern China, and transferred the technology to build the latest electronic controls and generators.
“You have to move fast with the market,” said Jens Tommerup, the president of Vestas China. “Nobody has ever seen such fast development in a wind market.”
Renewable energy industries here are adding jobs rapidly, reaching 1.12 million in 2008 and climbing by 100,000 a year, according to the government-backed Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.
Yet renewable energy may be doing more for China’s economy than for the environment. Total power generation in China is on track to pass the United States in 2012 — and most of the added capacity will still be from coal.
China intends for wind, solar and biomass energy to represent 8 percent of its electricity generation capacity by 2020. That compares with less than 4 percent now in China and the United States. Coal will still represent two-thirds of China’s capacity in 2020, and nuclear and hydropower most of the rest.
As China seeks to dominate energy-equipment exports, it has the advantage of being the world’s largest market for power equipment. The government spends heavily to upgrade the electricity grid, committing $45 billion in 2009 alone. State-owned banks provide generous financing.
China’s top leaders are intensely focused on energy policy: on Wednesday, the government announced the creation of a National Energy Commission composed of cabinet ministers as a “superministry” led by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao himself.
Regulators have set mandates for power generation companies to use more renewable energy. Generous subsidies for consumers to install their own solar panels or solar water heaters have produced flurries of activity on rooftops across China.
China’s biggest advantage may be its domestic demand for electricity, rising 15 percent a year. To meet demand in the coming decade, according to statistics from the International Energy Agency, China will need to add nearly nine times as much electricity generation capacity as the United States will.
So while Americans are used to thinking of themselves as having the world’s largest market in many industries, China’s market for power equipment dwarfs that of the United States, even though the American market is more mature. That means Chinese producers enjoy enormous efficiencies from large-scale production.
In the United States, power companies frequently face a choice between buying renewable energy equipment or continuing to operate fossil-fuel-fired power plants that have already been built and paid for. In China, power companies have to buy lots of new equipment anyway, and alternative energy, particularly wind and nuclear, is increasingly priced competitively.
Interest rates as low as 2 percent for bank loans — the result of a savings rate of 40 percent and a government policy of steering loans to renewable energy — have also made a big difference.
As in many other industries, China’s low labor costs are an advantage in energy. Although Chinese wages have risen sharply in the last five years, Vestas still pays assembly line workers here only $4,100 a year.
China’s commitment to renewable energy is expensive. Although costs are falling steeply through mass production, wind energy is still 20 to 40 percent more expensive than coal-fired power. Solar power is still at least twice as expensive as coal.
The Chinese government charges a renewable energy fee to all electricity users. The fee increases residential electricity bills by 0.25 percent to 0.4 percent. For industrial users of electricity, the fee doubled in November to roughly 0.8 percent of the electricity bill.
The fee revenue goes to companies that operate the electricity grid, to make up the cost difference between renewable energy and coal-fired power.
Renewable energy fees are not yet high enough to affect China’s competitiveness even in energy-intensive industries, said the chairman of a Chinese industrial company, who asked not to be identified because of the political sensitivity of electricity rates in China.
Grid operators are unhappy. They are reimbursed for the extra cost of buying renewable energy instead of coal-fired power, but not for the formidable cost of building power lines to wind turbines and other renewable energy producers, many of them in remote, windswept areas. Transmission losses are high for sending power over long distances to cities, and nearly a third of China’s wind turbines are not yet connected to the national grid.
Most of these turbines were built only in the last year, however, and grid construction has not caught up. Under legislation passed by the Chinese legislature on Dec. 26, a grid operator that does not connect a renewable energy operation to the grid must pay that operation twice the value of the electricity that cannot be distributed.
With prices tumbling, China’s wind and solar industries are increasingly looking to sell equipment abroad — and facing complaints by Western companies that they have unfair advantages. When a Chinese company reached a deal in November to supply turbines for a big wind farm in Texas, there were calls in Congress to halt federal spending on imported equipment.
“Every country, including the United States and in Europe, wants a low cost of renewable energy,” said Ma Lingjuan, deputy managing director of China’s renewable energy association. “Now China has reached that level, but it gets criticized by the rest of the world.”
By KEITH BRADSHER
TIANJIN, China — China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year.
China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.
These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.
“Most of the energy equipment will carry a brass plate, ‘Made in China,’ ” said K. K. Chan, the chief executive of Nature Elements Capital, a private equity fund in Beijing that focuses on renewable energy.
President Obama, in his State of the Union speech last week, sounded an alarm that the United States was falling behind other countries, especially China, on energy. “I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders — and I know you don’t either,” he told Congress.
The United States and other countries are offering incentives to develop their own renewable energy industries, and Mr. Obama called for redoubling American efforts. Yet many Western and Chinese executives expect China to prevail in the energy-technology race.
Multinational corporations are responding to the rapid growth of China’s market by building big, state-of-the-art factories in China. Vestas of Denmark has just erected the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturing complex here in northeastern China, and transferred the technology to build the latest electronic controls and generators.
“You have to move fast with the market,” said Jens Tommerup, the president of Vestas China. “Nobody has ever seen such fast development in a wind market.”
Renewable energy industries here are adding jobs rapidly, reaching 1.12 million in 2008 and climbing by 100,000 a year, according to the government-backed Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.
Yet renewable energy may be doing more for China’s economy than for the environment. Total power generation in China is on track to pass the United States in 2012 — and most of the added capacity will still be from coal.
China intends for wind, solar and biomass energy to represent 8 percent of its electricity generation capacity by 2020. That compares with less than 4 percent now in China and the United States. Coal will still represent two-thirds of China’s capacity in 2020, and nuclear and hydropower most of the rest.
As China seeks to dominate energy-equipment exports, it has the advantage of being the world’s largest market for power equipment. The government spends heavily to upgrade the electricity grid, committing $45 billion in 2009 alone. State-owned banks provide generous financing.
China’s top leaders are intensely focused on energy policy: on Wednesday, the government announced the creation of a National Energy Commission composed of cabinet ministers as a “superministry” led by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao himself.
Regulators have set mandates for power generation companies to use more renewable energy. Generous subsidies for consumers to install their own solar panels or solar water heaters have produced flurries of activity on rooftops across China.
China’s biggest advantage may be its domestic demand for electricity, rising 15 percent a year. To meet demand in the coming decade, according to statistics from the International Energy Agency, China will need to add nearly nine times as much electricity generation capacity as the United States will.
So while Americans are used to thinking of themselves as having the world’s largest market in many industries, China’s market for power equipment dwarfs that of the United States, even though the American market is more mature. That means Chinese producers enjoy enormous efficiencies from large-scale production.
In the United States, power companies frequently face a choice between buying renewable energy equipment or continuing to operate fossil-fuel-fired power plants that have already been built and paid for. In China, power companies have to buy lots of new equipment anyway, and alternative energy, particularly wind and nuclear, is increasingly priced competitively.
Interest rates as low as 2 percent for bank loans — the result of a savings rate of 40 percent and a government policy of steering loans to renewable energy — have also made a big difference.
As in many other industries, China’s low labor costs are an advantage in energy. Although Chinese wages have risen sharply in the last five years, Vestas still pays assembly line workers here only $4,100 a year.
China’s commitment to renewable energy is expensive. Although costs are falling steeply through mass production, wind energy is still 20 to 40 percent more expensive than coal-fired power. Solar power is still at least twice as expensive as coal.
The Chinese government charges a renewable energy fee to all electricity users. The fee increases residential electricity bills by 0.25 percent to 0.4 percent. For industrial users of electricity, the fee doubled in November to roughly 0.8 percent of the electricity bill.
The fee revenue goes to companies that operate the electricity grid, to make up the cost difference between renewable energy and coal-fired power.
Renewable energy fees are not yet high enough to affect China’s competitiveness even in energy-intensive industries, said the chairman of a Chinese industrial company, who asked not to be identified because of the political sensitivity of electricity rates in China.
Grid operators are unhappy. They are reimbursed for the extra cost of buying renewable energy instead of coal-fired power, but not for the formidable cost of building power lines to wind turbines and other renewable energy producers, many of them in remote, windswept areas. Transmission losses are high for sending power over long distances to cities, and nearly a third of China’s wind turbines are not yet connected to the national grid.
Most of these turbines were built only in the last year, however, and grid construction has not caught up. Under legislation passed by the Chinese legislature on Dec. 26, a grid operator that does not connect a renewable energy operation to the grid must pay that operation twice the value of the electricity that cannot be distributed.
With prices tumbling, China’s wind and solar industries are increasingly looking to sell equipment abroad — and facing complaints by Western companies that they have unfair advantages. When a Chinese company reached a deal in November to supply turbines for a big wind farm in Texas, there were calls in Congress to halt federal spending on imported equipment.
“Every country, including the United States and in Europe, wants a low cost of renewable energy,” said Ma Lingjuan, deputy managing director of China’s renewable energy association. “Now China has reached that level, but it gets criticized by the rest of the world.”
Energy management for consumers
Shopping Efficiently: Refrigerators
January 2010 – Because unplugging the refrigerator is hardly a practical way to reduce household energy consumption, a consumer's best option for saving money with this 24/7 appliance is to shop for the right model - and use it wisely.
Go With ENERGY STAR
If you're not sure whether to replace your refrigerator, first check the age on your current model. If it's from the 1970s, best get rid of it: you could save four times more energy by replacing it with an ENERGYSTAR model - nearly $200 a year.
The same goes for a 1980s model: replace it with an ENERGY STAR refrigerator and your utility bills should drop about $100 each year. And whatever you do, don't relegate the old one to the basement to hold overstock: refrigerators consume energy no matter where they're plugged in.
Tried and tested, ENERGYSTAR refrigerators are up to 20 percent more energy efficient than modern conventional models. You can even find out how much a particular ENERGYSTAR model will cost you per year by checking the yellow EnergyGuide label on the refrigerator. The guide also allows you to compare the energy use of similar models and estimate the annual savings.
Things to Look for
When shopping for a new model, consider a few features that make a huge difference to efficiency.
Top-mounted freezers use 10 – 25 percent less energy than bottom-mounted or side-by-side models; this can amount to hundreds of dollars over the lifetime of the fridge.
Also, think about skipping the ice-maker and door dispenser. Automatic ice-makers increase energy use by 14 – 20 percent; as an additional feature, they also raise the retail price by $75 – 250. Through-door ice dispensers often interfere with the door’s insulation and sometimes require their own additional cooling elements.
Use it Wisely
By following a few simple maintenance tips, you can reduce a refrigerator's energy use, no matter what the model.
1.Keep your refrigerator at 35 – 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Any colder, and you'll risk freezing the contents - a waste of food and energy.
2.Keep your fridge in a cool place, away from heat sources (oven, dishwasher, direct sunlight, etc.) that will force your fridge to work harder to keep its contents cool.
3.Check to make sure the seals around the door are airtight: a tight seal saves energy. If you can feel cold air around the edge, or if the door won't hold a piece of paper in place when it's closed, it's time to replace the seals.
Finally, keep the door closed! If you minimize the amount of time the refrigerator door is open, you reduce your utility costs, save money and keep your food fresh
January 2010 – Because unplugging the refrigerator is hardly a practical way to reduce household energy consumption, a consumer's best option for saving money with this 24/7 appliance is to shop for the right model - and use it wisely.
Go With ENERGY STAR
If you're not sure whether to replace your refrigerator, first check the age on your current model. If it's from the 1970s, best get rid of it: you could save four times more energy by replacing it with an ENERGYSTAR model - nearly $200 a year.
The same goes for a 1980s model: replace it with an ENERGY STAR refrigerator and your utility bills should drop about $100 each year. And whatever you do, don't relegate the old one to the basement to hold overstock: refrigerators consume energy no matter where they're plugged in.
Tried and tested, ENERGYSTAR refrigerators are up to 20 percent more energy efficient than modern conventional models. You can even find out how much a particular ENERGYSTAR model will cost you per year by checking the yellow EnergyGuide label on the refrigerator. The guide also allows you to compare the energy use of similar models and estimate the annual savings.
Things to Look for
When shopping for a new model, consider a few features that make a huge difference to efficiency.
Top-mounted freezers use 10 – 25 percent less energy than bottom-mounted or side-by-side models; this can amount to hundreds of dollars over the lifetime of the fridge.
Also, think about skipping the ice-maker and door dispenser. Automatic ice-makers increase energy use by 14 – 20 percent; as an additional feature, they also raise the retail price by $75 – 250. Through-door ice dispensers often interfere with the door’s insulation and sometimes require their own additional cooling elements.
Use it Wisely
By following a few simple maintenance tips, you can reduce a refrigerator's energy use, no matter what the model.
1.Keep your refrigerator at 35 – 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Any colder, and you'll risk freezing the contents - a waste of food and energy.
2.Keep your fridge in a cool place, away from heat sources (oven, dishwasher, direct sunlight, etc.) that will force your fridge to work harder to keep its contents cool.
3.Check to make sure the seals around the door are airtight: a tight seal saves energy. If you can feel cold air around the edge, or if the door won't hold a piece of paper in place when it's closed, it's time to replace the seals.
Finally, keep the door closed! If you minimize the amount of time the refrigerator door is open, you reduce your utility costs, save money and keep your food fresh
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