Jun 28, 2009
New York Times
A Funding Roadblock Ahead for Clean Energy
By KATE GALBRAITH
NEW YORK — A landmark climate bill that narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday would cap greenhouse gas emissions across the United States for the first time and also create a national target for renewable energy production.
Environmentalists and advocates of clean energy hailed the news in a flurry of statements. Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, called it a “dramatic breakthrough for America’s future.” Denise Bode, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association, described the renewable energy target as “a key first step in balancing our electric generation mix.”
The legislation, however, remains far from becoming law. The House passed the bill only narrowly — and it has been weakened since being introduced months ago — and the fight in the Senate may be even tougher.
In the meantime, there is also the pressing matter of financing renewable energy projects. Since the economic crisis began last autumn, the once red-hot activity by wind and solar developers has slowed sharply. The U.S. government’s stimulus package is supposed to help (although some portions of its aid for renewable energy have not yet been disbursed).
But many advocates of renewable energy are thinking longer term. What happens when the stimulus funding runs out, as it is scheduled to do for the industry’s projects in the next year or two?
“One of my big fears is that we will fall off a cliff,” the director of climate change and energy initiatives at Google, Dan W. Reicher, said in an interview in New York last week.
Lowell Ungar, the policy director for the Alliance to Save Energy, an efficiency advocacy group, echoed the sentiment. “The concern is that you spend billions of dollars building up this industry, training people and creating new jobs and new companies, and it all disappears,” he said.
Perhaps because of its relative newness and small size, the renewable energy industry has been hobbled by a history of uncertain funding.
In the United States, a tax credit to aid wind energy has threatened to expire about every year or two over the past decade, causing the industry to complain that long-term planning is impossible. Congress has repeatedly extended the credit on a short-term basis, but manufacturers of wind turbines have hesitated to establish plants in the United States for fear that the demand for their product might evaporate. (The three-year extension provided in the stimulus package has given a measure of stability, although it arrived — as per the definition of stimulus — just as private investors had pulled back.)
Solar energy in Spain is another classic example of roller-coaster funding. There, the government provided a strong feed-in tariff — a high payment to producers of renewable energy — and solar companies rushed into the country. Last autumn, however, the government decided that the explosive growth was costing too much and capped the amount of solar power that could qualify for the incentive.
“By having something that kind of shot out through the roof and fell back to earth, that shocked the system,” said Julie Blunden, the vice president for public policy and corporate communications at SunPower, a major solar manufacturer. “The boom and bust was very disruptive to building a base of business in Spain.”
Greece and the Canadian province of Ontario have also had yo-yo policies on encouraging solar power, Ms. Blunden said, though she added that both governments were trying to address the problem.
In the United States, the industry is planning for the period after the stimulus package, to avoid a falloff.
“There is already discussion in the market about ‘what comes next’ when the stimulus spending has run its course,” the head of the renewable energy group at the law firm Alston & Bird, Tom Amis, said in an e-mail message.
“Given the volatility of fossil fuel prices (natural gas, the key marginal price driver, has recently been at record lows), and the continued need for a long-term manufacturing increase to achieve the necessary economies of scale, there is a consensus in the industry that there needs to be a ‘second act.”’
Should the climate legislation passed in the House become law, it could lead to one type of solution. The cap-and-trade provisions would effectively raise the price of generating electricity using fossil fuels. This would help clean energy technologies — which are expensive relative to coal and natural gas — to become more competitive.
Because a cap-and-trade system, depending on its final structure, would also be likely to auction off some allowances to pollute, it would create a revenue stream that could be plowed back into energy efficiency and the renewable energy industry.
The auction provisions in the climate bill are weaker than many environmentalists had hoped, however. There would also be relatively few allowances auctioned off in the early years of the legislation, which would take effect in 2012 if passed — leaving a gap after the stimulus funds run out. Mr. Ungar of the Alliance to Save Energy suggests a mechanism that would let state governments borrow in advance against expected future revenues from the climate bill’s allowance provisions and use that money to maintain smooth funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Another solution, pushed by Mr. Reicher and others, would establish a government-backed clean energy bank, modeled on the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp.
Such a funding apparatus, which is under consideration in various forms in Congress, could be loosely affiliated with the Department of Energy and provide aid like loan guarantees and direct loans designed to help the small renewable energy industry to scale up. Such a bank could continue some of the renewable funding measures in the stimulus package. It would also extract clean energy policies from the bureaucracy of the Department of Energy, which has complicated the release of some stimulus funds.
To be sure, the ultimate hope is that the renewable energy industry can stand on its own, without permanently relying on the government for financing. As the stimulus provisions expire, the industry hopes that the banks will be back on their feet and able to finance projects. From the companies’ perspective, standing on their own would have the benefit of avoiding the risks and uncertainties that accompany sometimes-fickle government policy.
But as the industry works up to a meaningful scale from tiny and often experimental technologies, renewable energy developers will be happy to take the help.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Energy Management Green energy
Here is an example of a client who as part of there renovation installed solar geysers for the bedrooms, guest rooms and servants quarters. This renovation made it easy to position the geysers optimally and to get the thermal collectors in the best position possible.
The house presented us with a large surface area, ideal for Solar collection. North facing roof is ideal!
Large Double story house with high pitched roof means scaffolding has to be used. Collectors need to be properly positioned for maximum benifit.
Geysers are positioned above the collectors on the inside of the roof. This allow for the hot water created on the collector outside to rise naturally into the geyser, where it is stored for use within the house.
A vey neat and attaractive result is left on the renovated house, plust they are saving massive amounts on there energy usage
The house presented us with a large surface area, ideal for Solar collection. North facing roof is ideal!
Large Double story house with high pitched roof means scaffolding has to be used. Collectors need to be properly positioned for maximum benifit.
Geysers are positioned above the collectors on the inside of the roof. This allow for the hot water created on the collector outside to rise naturally into the geyser, where it is stored for use within the house.
A vey neat and attaractive result is left on the renovated house, plust they are saving massive amounts on there energy usage
Bonus: World’s Largest Landfill Gas Recuperation PlantPuente Hills in Whittier, Calif.
Producing power from the gas that seeps out of landfills is a better alternative than simply flaring it. (Though it’s debatable whether or not landfill gas constitutes a renewable resource, because yields of combustible gas from landfills decline between 2 and 15 percent per year after a landfill is capped and no more garbage is being added, according to Jeff Pierce, vice president of power plant development company SCS energy). Landfill gas is about half methane and half carbon dioxide and also contains water vapor, which makes it more difficult to handle than conventional natural gas.
The world’s largest landfill gas plant sits atop the Puente Hills landfill—the largest in the U.S.—which accepts trash from Los Angeles County. Pierce says that because this active landfill is still growing, production at the 20 year old Puente Hills landfill gas plant has not yet peaked, and averages about 50 megawatts.
Another 50-megawatt landfill gas plant sits atop another gigantic dump in Incheon, South Korea. Currently there are no plans for units larger than either the Puente Hills or Incheon facilities.
Producing power from the gas that seeps out of landfills is a better alternative than simply flaring it. (Though it’s debatable whether or not landfill gas constitutes a renewable resource, because yields of combustible gas from landfills decline between 2 and 15 percent per year after a landfill is capped and no more garbage is being added, according to Jeff Pierce, vice president of power plant development company SCS energy). Landfill gas is about half methane and half carbon dioxide and also contains water vapor, which makes it more difficult to handle than conventional natural gas.
The world’s largest landfill gas plant sits atop the Puente Hills landfill—the largest in the U.S.—which accepts trash from Los Angeles County. Pierce says that because this active landfill is still growing, production at the 20 year old Puente Hills landfill gas plant has not yet peaked, and averages about 50 megawatts.
Another 50-megawatt landfill gas plant sits atop another gigantic dump in Incheon, South Korea. Currently there are no plans for units larger than either the Puente Hills or Incheon facilities.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Lighting Control
Retrofitting standard metal halide hi-bay fixtures to fluorescent hi-bay fixtures can generate energy cost savings of about 50 percent. How does reducing the resulting energy consumption by another 30+ percent sound—made possible by switching to fluorescent?
While tapping what remains arguably the hottest lighting retrofit market, distributors should understand the full advantages of fluorescent over probe-start metal halide, such instant-on and re-strike, which enables the use of switching strategies typically not practical with HID light sources.
Example: An occupancy sensor installed in each fixture senses a lack of occupancy in the area, or a photosensor senses high light levels due to daylight contribution, and either switches off the fixture or its outboard lamp. This provides a choice of energy savings and, if desired, flexible selection of light levels.
An additional 30-80 percent energy savings using occupancy sensors and 10-30 percent savings using daylighting controls can be achieved in a hi-bay fluorescent upgrade, says John Ireland, OEM channel manager for Watt Stopper/Legrand.
Mike Connolly, market development manager for Lithonia Lighting - Industrial Products, says inboard/outboard switching—achieved by separating circuiting ballasts within the same fixture, enabling 0/50/100 percent and 0/33/66/100 percent lamp output/power—is an inexpensive way to gain the benefits of flexibility from the lighting system. “For example, in a gym, light levels can be lowered for school productions or other needs outside of athletics,” he says. “Multi-lamp fluorescent fixtures offer many light level possibilities for user control, daylight harvesting and other applications.”
Occupancy sensing is the predominant strategy, particularly in applications such as distribution centers, warehouses and bulk storage areas. “Any area of 50 percent or less usage levels will accelerate the project’s payback period—even with relatively modest electric rates of $0.07 per kWh,” says Connolly. To optimize lamp life, particularly when the fixtures have high switching activity—more than six on/off cycles per day—programmed-start ballasts and a minimum 15-minute sensor time delay are recommended.
Passive-infrared (PIR) technology is standard in occupancy sensors used in hi-bay applications. “Besides its low cost, most spaces in hi-bay applications are within the line of sight of the sensor, large motion is usually being detected, and little adjustment is required after installation,” says Tom Leonard, director, marketing and product management for Leviton Lighting Management Systems. In hi-bay applications, the sensor may have a lens that provides 360-degree coverage for open areas or a narrow linear coverage for warehouse aisles
While tapping what remains arguably the hottest lighting retrofit market, distributors should understand the full advantages of fluorescent over probe-start metal halide, such instant-on and re-strike, which enables the use of switching strategies typically not practical with HID light sources.
Example: An occupancy sensor installed in each fixture senses a lack of occupancy in the area, or a photosensor senses high light levels due to daylight contribution, and either switches off the fixture or its outboard lamp. This provides a choice of energy savings and, if desired, flexible selection of light levels.
An additional 30-80 percent energy savings using occupancy sensors and 10-30 percent savings using daylighting controls can be achieved in a hi-bay fluorescent upgrade, says John Ireland, OEM channel manager for Watt Stopper/Legrand.
Mike Connolly, market development manager for Lithonia Lighting - Industrial Products, says inboard/outboard switching—achieved by separating circuiting ballasts within the same fixture, enabling 0/50/100 percent and 0/33/66/100 percent lamp output/power—is an inexpensive way to gain the benefits of flexibility from the lighting system. “For example, in a gym, light levels can be lowered for school productions or other needs outside of athletics,” he says. “Multi-lamp fluorescent fixtures offer many light level possibilities for user control, daylight harvesting and other applications.”
Occupancy sensing is the predominant strategy, particularly in applications such as distribution centers, warehouses and bulk storage areas. “Any area of 50 percent or less usage levels will accelerate the project’s payback period—even with relatively modest electric rates of $0.07 per kWh,” says Connolly. To optimize lamp life, particularly when the fixtures have high switching activity—more than six on/off cycles per day—programmed-start ballasts and a minimum 15-minute sensor time delay are recommended.
Passive-infrared (PIR) technology is standard in occupancy sensors used in hi-bay applications. “Besides its low cost, most spaces in hi-bay applications are within the line of sight of the sensor, large motion is usually being detected, and little adjustment is required after installation,” says Tom Leonard, director, marketing and product management for Leviton Lighting Management Systems. In hi-bay applications, the sensor may have a lens that provides 360-degree coverage for open areas or a narrow linear coverage for warehouse aisles
Friday, May 8, 2009
Reduce Energy consumption
Priority Energy lights a regional award winning tennis complex
Date Announced: 05 May 2009
Hillcrest Racquet Club is one of the top tennis facilities in the North Eastern United States being awarded the club of the year 2008 by the USTA Middle States, operating in Reading, Pennsylvania. Hillcrest Racquet Club was looking to find a lighting solution to reduce their monthly demand for lighting while improving the light output for the tennis courts and the general area. The project has completed the first phase of the general area using the U-tube replacement, 4ft replacement, PAR 30 and the medium Incandescent replacement LED lights of Priority Energy. The second phase of the project will be to convert the court lighting from the 1,000W Metal Halides. The major concern of the tennis club was to ensure the best color of light as well as to have sufficient light output throughout the large 10 court facility. Priority Energy installation was to replace 4 fluorescent products with 3 of the 15W LED products achieving higher light output and the track lighting for the Pro Shop. "Hillcrest Racquet Club are thrilled with their new lights knowing that they have been one of the first sports facilities to have a higher quality light while reducing their huge monthly operational costs of their lighting which represent 80% of their electrical bill." said Paul Prior CEO of Priority Energy. Hillcrest Racquet Club have not only reduced their monthly electricity bill already by $500 per month but have also reduced their carbon footprint by 760 MT. "We expect that with the completion of phase 2, Hillcrest Racquet Club will see a 65% reduction in their electrical bill each month." added Mr. Prior.
ContactPriority Energy Toll Free 801 938-5296
E-mail: info@myprioritycorp.com
Web Site: www.myprioritycorp.com/priority_company_004.htm
Date Announced: 05 May 2009
Hillcrest Racquet Club is one of the top tennis facilities in the North Eastern United States being awarded the club of the year 2008 by the USTA Middle States, operating in Reading, Pennsylvania. Hillcrest Racquet Club was looking to find a lighting solution to reduce their monthly demand for lighting while improving the light output for the tennis courts and the general area. The project has completed the first phase of the general area using the U-tube replacement, 4ft replacement, PAR 30 and the medium Incandescent replacement LED lights of Priority Energy. The second phase of the project will be to convert the court lighting from the 1,000W Metal Halides. The major concern of the tennis club was to ensure the best color of light as well as to have sufficient light output throughout the large 10 court facility. Priority Energy installation was to replace 4 fluorescent products with 3 of the 15W LED products achieving higher light output and the track lighting for the Pro Shop. "Hillcrest Racquet Club are thrilled with their new lights knowing that they have been one of the first sports facilities to have a higher quality light while reducing their huge monthly operational costs of their lighting which represent 80% of their electrical bill." said Paul Prior CEO of Priority Energy. Hillcrest Racquet Club have not only reduced their monthly electricity bill already by $500 per month but have also reduced their carbon footprint by 760 MT. "We expect that with the completion of phase 2, Hillcrest Racquet Club will see a 65% reduction in their electrical bill each month." added Mr. Prior.
ContactPriority Energy Toll Free 801 938-5296
E-mail: info@myprioritycorp.com
Web Site: www.myprioritycorp.com/priority_company_004.htm
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Energy Crisis
Obama's goal for the hybrid cars will be a challenge
Apr 16, 2009
Omaha World Herald
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's campaign pledge to put 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015 is fraught with difficulties, from technical and engineering hurdles to the realities of the economy and the price of gasoline.
It took eight long years to get 1 million hybrids on the road in the United States, and even a White House task force says one of the leading new plug-in cars being developed is too expensive to gain popularity any time soon.
Obama's goal could help revitalize the struggling U.S. auto industry and begin shifting motorists away from the gas pump. But to many, it's overly optimistic.
President Barack Obama on a tour of the Edison Electric Vehicle Technical Center in Pomona, Calif., last month.
"The economics won't make sense for the majority of Americans in the next several years," said Brett Smith, who studies plug-in hybrids at the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Center for Automotive Research.
Plug-in hybrids allow motorists to drive a limited number of miles on battery power before the engine switches over to run on gasoline or other fuels. A driver can plug the car into a conventional wall outlet at night and be ready to go electric again in the morning.
The cars could dramatically reduce gasoline use because many commuters drive less than 40 miles a day.
Obama last month toured a California electric car facility where he announced $2.4 billion to develop advanced batteries and electric cars. The administration has said the vehicles would play a role in its goal to reduce dependence on foreign oil, cut greenhouse gas emissions and create "green" jobs.
"Even as our American automakers are undergoing some painful adjustments, they are also retooling and reimagining themselves into an industry that can compete and win," Obama said in Pomona, Calif.
During his campaign, Obama promised $4 billion in tax credits to automakers to revamp their plants to build plug-ins, and a $7,000 tax credit for consumers who buy early versions of the cars. He even pledged to convert the White House vehicle fleet to plug-ins within a year, as security permits, and require half the cars bought by the government to be plug-in or all-electric by 2012.
To automakers, battery makers and utilities, the pledge was akin to one made by President John F. Kennedy generations ago. "That's a 'Go to the moon' kind of goal," said Nancy Gioia, Ford's director of hybrid vehicle programs. She said it would demand "unparalleled collaboration" among the government, the industry and academia.
Automakers are already committed to plug-ins and electric vehicles. Toyota Motor Corp. will produce a few hundred plug-in Prius hybrids later this year as a test fleet, General Motors Corp. plans to release an extended range electric plug-in called the Chevrolet Volt in limited numbers in late 2010, and Nissan Motor Co. is planning to sell an all-electric car next year. Chrysler, Ford and Daimler are all developing plug-ins and electric cars.
But numerous questions remain about the cars. One of the biggest hurdles is whether their large lithium ion batteries are ready for mass production. Some analysts have pegged the cost of the batteries at $1,000 per kilowatt hour, which could add about $16,000 to the cost of a first-generation Volt and thousands of dollars to a plug-in Prius.
Lithium ion batteries have been used commonly in cell phones and laptop computers, but the auto industry needs to ensure that the batteries will remain long-lasting and safe. Automakers have partnered with utilities and universities to develop recharging stations and a common way of communicating between the vehicles and the electric grid.
None of the major automakers has made a firm commitment on the mass production of plug-ins — building 100,000 vehicles a year or more — that would be required to meet Obama's goal.
"It certainly is a difficult challenge to achieve that goal," said Tony Posawatz, GM's vehicle line director for the Volt. GM has not released production figures for the Volt, but Posawatz estimated it would be in the "tens of thousands" of vehicles by 2015.
"It's not readily obvious, based on the product plans that have been communicated, that the 2015 objective aligns with what is currently on the books," he said.
Conventional gas-electric hybrids account for less than 3 percent of the car market and it took about eight years to get 1 million hybrids on the road in the United States, according to automotive consulting firm R.L. Polk & Co.
Obama's own auto industry task force, which is trying to help GM and Chrysler emerge from the crisis that left them needing $17.4 billion in government loans, casts doubt on the Volt in a March 30 report. That report says that although the car "holds promise, it will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short term."
GM has not announced pricing for the Volt, but it's expected to cost between $30,000 and $40,000.
Current fuel prices also are an issue; $2-a-gallon gas gives consumers few incentives to spend thousands of dollars extra for a hybrid or even more for a plug-in. It would take years for the fuel savings to outweigh the price premium.
The industry also will need a smooth transition for plug-ins to take off. Any hiccups along the way could hurt the vehicles' image.
"They've got to be commercial-ready," said Tom Stricker, Toyota's director of technical and regulatory affairs. "You do risk having a negative response from the consumer if the technology doesn't meet their expectation in terms of durability, cost and performance."
Apr 16, 2009
Omaha World Herald
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's campaign pledge to put 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015 is fraught with difficulties, from technical and engineering hurdles to the realities of the economy and the price of gasoline.
It took eight long years to get 1 million hybrids on the road in the United States, and even a White House task force says one of the leading new plug-in cars being developed is too expensive to gain popularity any time soon.
Obama's goal could help revitalize the struggling U.S. auto industry and begin shifting motorists away from the gas pump. But to many, it's overly optimistic.
President Barack Obama on a tour of the Edison Electric Vehicle Technical Center in Pomona, Calif., last month.
"The economics won't make sense for the majority of Americans in the next several years," said Brett Smith, who studies plug-in hybrids at the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Center for Automotive Research.
Plug-in hybrids allow motorists to drive a limited number of miles on battery power before the engine switches over to run on gasoline or other fuels. A driver can plug the car into a conventional wall outlet at night and be ready to go electric again in the morning.
The cars could dramatically reduce gasoline use because many commuters drive less than 40 miles a day.
Obama last month toured a California electric car facility where he announced $2.4 billion to develop advanced batteries and electric cars. The administration has said the vehicles would play a role in its goal to reduce dependence on foreign oil, cut greenhouse gas emissions and create "green" jobs.
"Even as our American automakers are undergoing some painful adjustments, they are also retooling and reimagining themselves into an industry that can compete and win," Obama said in Pomona, Calif.
During his campaign, Obama promised $4 billion in tax credits to automakers to revamp their plants to build plug-ins, and a $7,000 tax credit for consumers who buy early versions of the cars. He even pledged to convert the White House vehicle fleet to plug-ins within a year, as security permits, and require half the cars bought by the government to be plug-in or all-electric by 2012.
To automakers, battery makers and utilities, the pledge was akin to one made by President John F. Kennedy generations ago. "That's a 'Go to the moon' kind of goal," said Nancy Gioia, Ford's director of hybrid vehicle programs. She said it would demand "unparalleled collaboration" among the government, the industry and academia.
Automakers are already committed to plug-ins and electric vehicles. Toyota Motor Corp. will produce a few hundred plug-in Prius hybrids later this year as a test fleet, General Motors Corp. plans to release an extended range electric plug-in called the Chevrolet Volt in limited numbers in late 2010, and Nissan Motor Co. is planning to sell an all-electric car next year. Chrysler, Ford and Daimler are all developing plug-ins and electric cars.
But numerous questions remain about the cars. One of the biggest hurdles is whether their large lithium ion batteries are ready for mass production. Some analysts have pegged the cost of the batteries at $1,000 per kilowatt hour, which could add about $16,000 to the cost of a first-generation Volt and thousands of dollars to a plug-in Prius.
Lithium ion batteries have been used commonly in cell phones and laptop computers, but the auto industry needs to ensure that the batteries will remain long-lasting and safe. Automakers have partnered with utilities and universities to develop recharging stations and a common way of communicating between the vehicles and the electric grid.
None of the major automakers has made a firm commitment on the mass production of plug-ins — building 100,000 vehicles a year or more — that would be required to meet Obama's goal.
"It certainly is a difficult challenge to achieve that goal," said Tony Posawatz, GM's vehicle line director for the Volt. GM has not released production figures for the Volt, but Posawatz estimated it would be in the "tens of thousands" of vehicles by 2015.
"It's not readily obvious, based on the product plans that have been communicated, that the 2015 objective aligns with what is currently on the books," he said.
Conventional gas-electric hybrids account for less than 3 percent of the car market and it took about eight years to get 1 million hybrids on the road in the United States, according to automotive consulting firm R.L. Polk & Co.
Obama's own auto industry task force, which is trying to help GM and Chrysler emerge from the crisis that left them needing $17.4 billion in government loans, casts doubt on the Volt in a March 30 report. That report says that although the car "holds promise, it will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short term."
GM has not announced pricing for the Volt, but it's expected to cost between $30,000 and $40,000.
Current fuel prices also are an issue; $2-a-gallon gas gives consumers few incentives to spend thousands of dollars extra for a hybrid or even more for a plug-in. It would take years for the fuel savings to outweigh the price premium.
The industry also will need a smooth transition for plug-ins to take off. Any hiccups along the way could hurt the vehicles' image.
"They've got to be commercial-ready," said Tom Stricker, Toyota's director of technical and regulatory affairs. "You do risk having a negative response from the consumer if the technology doesn't meet their expectation in terms of durability, cost and performance."
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Lighting control and energy management
'SA facing serious energy crisis' 03/04/2009 08:04 - (SA)
Pretoria - Urgent steps are needed to counter South Africa's low electricity reserve margin, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on Thursday.
Despite the success of the Earth Hour on Saturday, the minister urged South Africans to do more.
She said the government commended the Earth Hour initiative and hoped that it promoted awareness that the country was still facing a serious energy crisis.
"South Africa is one of the least energy efficient nations in the world and the least efficient in Africa", she said.
"We also hold the number 11 spot on the top 20 greenhouse gas emitters list and are responsible for 42% of Africa's emissions. Every kilowatt of electricity you use produces one kilogram of carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases."
Two years ago, the minister warned that South Africans needed to start saving 10% of their electricity usage every year for the next five years or the energy supply would be threatened.
In early 2008, periodic blackouts outraged all South Africans, yet by October of the same year only 0.4 percent had been saved.
'We are in trouble'
A healthy electricity reserve margin sat at 17 to 20%, an amount that ensured sudden changes in demand or supply and power-plant maintenance did not cause blackouts, but South Africa's reserve margin remained much lower than that.
"The recent lack of blackouts has led to the assumption that our energy situation has been resolved," Sonjica said.
"Unfortunately this is far from the truth. We are in trouble unless we all begin to take responsibility for our habits of energy wastage."
She said nations across the world were rising to the challenge of sustainable energy development and conservation.
Sonjica said energy sustainability had become an issue that no country, industry or individual could afford to ignore. - SAPA News 24
Wayne Felton.
Pretoria - Urgent steps are needed to counter South Africa's low electricity reserve margin, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on Thursday.
Despite the success of the Earth Hour on Saturday, the minister urged South Africans to do more.
She said the government commended the Earth Hour initiative and hoped that it promoted awareness that the country was still facing a serious energy crisis.
"South Africa is one of the least energy efficient nations in the world and the least efficient in Africa", she said.
"We also hold the number 11 spot on the top 20 greenhouse gas emitters list and are responsible for 42% of Africa's emissions. Every kilowatt of electricity you use produces one kilogram of carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases."
Two years ago, the minister warned that South Africans needed to start saving 10% of their electricity usage every year for the next five years or the energy supply would be threatened.
In early 2008, periodic blackouts outraged all South Africans, yet by October of the same year only 0.4 percent had been saved.
'We are in trouble'
A healthy electricity reserve margin sat at 17 to 20%, an amount that ensured sudden changes in demand or supply and power-plant maintenance did not cause blackouts, but South Africa's reserve margin remained much lower than that.
"The recent lack of blackouts has led to the assumption that our energy situation has been resolved," Sonjica said.
"Unfortunately this is far from the truth. We are in trouble unless we all begin to take responsibility for our habits of energy wastage."
She said nations across the world were rising to the challenge of sustainable energy development and conservation.
Sonjica said energy sustainability had become an issue that no country, industry or individual could afford to ignore. - SAPA News 24
Wayne Felton.
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