Green Energy is critical

3. Dalai Lama urges world to act on climate change
Nov 30, 2009 Associated Press Online
By KRISTEN GELINEAU
SYDNEY, Nov. 30, 2009 (AP Online delivered by Newstex) -- The world's leaders must prioritize the issue of global warming above all else, the Dalai Lama said Monday, adding that he feels encouraged by next month's climate change summit in Copenhagen.
The revered Buddhist figure and Nobel Peace Prize winner, in Australia for a series of lectures on universal responsibility and the environment, said politicians must focus their energy on finding a solution to climate change.
"Sometimes their number one importance is national interest, national economic interest, then global (warming) issue is sometimes second," he said during a news conference. "That I think should change. The global issue, it should be number one."
The Dalai Lama plans to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his Nobel Peace Prize in Australia on Dec. 10. He will present seeds he has blessed to attendees of his talks as a symbol of individuals' responsibility to act on climate change.
The 74-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader said he couldn't predict what the outcome of the United Nations summit would be, but was heartened by the very fact that it is being held.
"I think it's very, very encouraging," he said.
The Dalai Lama's trip to Australia comes as the nation's leaders remain locked in a bitter debate over the fate of a contentious bill aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Last week, several top opposition party officials resigned over their leader's support for the legislation.
Australia is one of the world's worst carbon dioxide polluters per capita because of its heavy reliance on its abundant coal reserves. As the driest continent after Antarctica, it is also considered one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made climate change issues a priority of his leadership, and said he wants the legislation passed as an example to the world before the Copenhagen summit.
The government plan would institute a tax on industries' carbon emissions starting in 2011 and limit Australia's overall pollution. The government wants to slash Australia's emissions by up to 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020 if the U.N. can agree on tough global targets at Copenhagen.
Newstex ID: AP-0001-40073309

Electricity or the lack of it

Energy Management, Green Buildings, Going Green, Carbon Credits, Kilowatt hour rate per square metre, Solar energy, Wind energy, Instant water heaters, Occupancy sensors, Lighting control and automation systems, Intelligent buildings, Intelligent homes, Carbon Neutral buildings, Renewable energy, Rising electrical tariffs, cost of generation, damage to the environment, carbon emissions, Eco estates and so the list goes on and on, What does this all mean ????????

Essentially, what one can gather from this hype is that the world is nearing its end of generosity and that we have depleted the earths recourse's . We may be too late to prevent the inevitable, God bless the generation that is alive when the earth finally gives in.

Going Green

Personal Footprint
You can take steps to address your carbon emissions right now.
First you need to calculate the emissions you release from driving your car, your air travel, and the electricity you use in your home.
We'll then calculate how many carbon credits you need to offset your emissions. Our safe online payment process makes it easy for you to make a difference in just a few clicks.
You can also use the calculators to measure and offset flights, car trips and electricity associated with an event, such as a birthday or wedding celebration or honeymoon.
When you buy carbon credits through Climate Friendly, you're in effect putting renewable energy back into the power grid to replace the energy from fossil fuels that you have used.
Most of us do our best to address global warming by switching off lights and appliances, reducing our waste and walking or cycling more. But the global average emissions for an individual remains 5 tonnes a year, rising to 28 tonnes in countries such as the US and Australia.
Climate Friendly helps you to take immediate and meaningful action against global warming - contributing to an effective, long-term solution.
20 tips for energy saving
You don't need to be a Climate Friendly customer to reduce your carbon emissions. Here's 20 tips to get you started.
Buy renewable energy. Make the switch to save around 30% of your household greenhouse gas emissions a year.
Drive less. Cars contribute to a high percentage of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. Before getting into your car, think about walking, riding your bike or taking public transport instead. It's better for your health and the planet.
Turn off lights and switch your bulbs. Turning off the lights when you leave a room or office and switching to compact fluorescent bulbs can make a big difference to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And it saves you money in energy costs.
Insulate your home and body. Look for ways to keep warm in winter without heating. Insulate ceilings, walls and your hot water heater, and wear a coat instead of turning up the heat.
Open the window, turn off the air conditioning. Air-conditioning is a great contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. In summer, open your window, use a fan instead of air-conditioning, and always turn off air-conditioning when not at home.
Switch off standby. As much as 10% of your home's emissions may be from appliances like computers, televisions and other home entertainment devices left on standby. Try to always turn off appliances at the source.
Conserve water. Use less water when possible. Install a rainwater tank or even a grey water system that channels water from showers and baths to toilet and garden systems.
Fly less. Take international trips sparingly and make the most of local destinations. Do business remotely via conferencing units or online conferencing applications. This will mean fewer flights, less travel time and savings of up to 10 tonnes of emissions per international trip. If you need to fly, consider offsetting your flight emissions.
Use alternatives to electricity. Switching to solar hot water or gas heating can save as much as 3 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year.
Buy efficiency. When buying high energy-using equipment or appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers, try to choose the item with the best energy rating.
Dry washing outside. One t-shirt can send 4 kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere during its lifetime, mostly due to washing and drying. Whenever possible, use the power of the sun or a clothes horse instead of the dryer.
Choose a hybrid, biodiesel or fuel-efficient car. When buying your next car, make the move to a greener vehicle. It can save up to 3 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year.
Work from home. Even one day a month working from home can make a difference by reducing transport emissions. Ask your boss if you can work from home occasionally and skip the commute.
Pay bills online. Paying your bills online saves paper, transport energy and time.
Own just one refrigerator. Old, inefficient second refrigerators and freezers are huge energy users and often have other environmental issues such as leaking chemicals that damage the ozone layer. If you don't really need it, look into local buy-back schemes or dispose of old refrigerators and freezers properly to ensure ozone-depleting chemicals are not released into the atmosphere.
Eat lower on the food chain. Producing meat uses a lot of energy and water and often requires pesticides and other chemicals. In fact, producing meat generates about 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Eating less meat is good for you and the environment.
Buy local. Buy food and other products that are grown and produced locally to reduce emissions from transportation and to support your local community.
Green your event. If you are holding a conference, family reunion or wedding, do what you can to reduce the environmental impact by buying locally, choosing energy-efficient and environmentally aware venues, and offsetting remaining emissions.
Buy recycled and 'vintage'. Buying used or recycled goods avoids the energy used and emissions released in making a new product. Always try to recycle your waste and unwanted goods.
Check your tires. Inflating your car's tyres to their proper level means the car runs more efficiently, uses less energy and produces fewer harmful emissions

Energy Management

July newsletter
In the news today - Energy University - Supply Chain Simplification Project - Customer Care Centre - The Power of Business - What's on - General Comments and suggestions welcome, kindly email your response to the address below Email: belinda.aslett@za.schneider-electric.com Website: http://www.schneider-electric.co.za/ http://www.myenergyuniversity.com/
Schneider Electric launches Energy University to drive Energy Management Awareness and Education Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, today announced the debut of Energy University™ by Schneider Electric, a vendor-neutral, on-line educational community that provides the fundamentals needed to implement successful energy efficient solutions scaling various applications. The courses are designed to provide anyone involved in the decision-making, management, planning, design, or construction of a space impacted by energy, a level of expertise to address efficiency issues and apply safe, reliable and cost effective measures. Visit http://www.myenergyuniversity.com/
Supply Chain Simplification Project
Schneider Electric has launched a Supply Chain Simplification Project and in order to achieve these objectives the Clipsal Bloemfontein and Durban branch warehouses have been consolidated into the JHB warehouse, and George warehouse consolidated into the Port Elizabeth warehouse. All sales orders for these three regions have to be placed with our Customer Care Centre in Midrand, JHB. Direct access numbers for the Customer Care Centre Tel: 011 254 6550 Fax: 011 254 6700 / 6704 / 6712 The direct email address for the placing of New Clipsal Orders is ccc@za.schneider-electric.com
Customer Care Centre To continuously improve our customer service we have implemented the following: Self Help Tool: This gives our customers access to the Schneider Electric ERP system via the internet, and enables customers to check the status of their orders, stock availability, pricing as well as invoice and account information. For access rights and training, Pro-active information: Customers will receive an automatic notification if we cannot meet our first scheduled delivery date and will then be advised of the new delivery date. This tool will be available soon. Contact Mike Phillips, 011 254 6625 or mike-b.phillips@za.schneider-electric.com
The Power of Business - on Summit TV As Eskom confirms the 31.3% tariff increase and talks of Punitive Tariffs being implemented to those users who do not remain within a predefined energy usage limit, has caused industry and the public to sit up and take notice of their energy consumption. Watch as we unpack these issues and discuss the big challenges faced by various industries from building and retail to mining now forced to take active steps in order to save power. For weekly programme updates and vodcast of the interviews, visit http://www.schneider-electric.co.za/
What's on... Decorex show 6 - 10 August at Gallagher Convention Estate, Midrand JHB Clipsal national road shows during the month of August - October Wiser - new product launch end August
General Clipsal Durban branch has moved and from 3rd August their new contact details are: 270 Brickfield Road Overport Durban New telephone number: 031 268 1111 New fax number: 031 268 1140 Congratulations to the Clipsal Port Elizabeth branch for selling the most promo packs in the Clipsal Livingreen promotion and to Grant Christian nominated as the top salesman for the Livingreen promotion. Well done!

Energy

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.

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

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.