Thursday, September 15, 2011
Austin Energy's GreenChoice Program Now Green-e Certified
Austin Energy's GreenChoice green pricing program is now Green-e Energy certified. GreenChoice provides wind from around the state of Texas and landfill gas from Austin and San Antonio. The Green-e Energy certification requires Austin Energy to meet certain disclosure and truth-in-advertising requirements. The GreenChoice program will also undergo an annual verification audit to determine whether Austin Energy has purchased and/or generated enough quantity and type of renewable to meet its customer demand and marketing claims.
News Release - Green-e Energy Certifies Austin Energy's GreenChoice Program
Contact: Jeff Swenerton, CRS, 415-561-2119; Carol Harwell, Austin Energy, 512-322-6562
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Vaclav Smil's ?Energy Myths and Realities? - A review
Vaclav Smil, professor of Environment and Environmental Geography at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, has written a new book called ?Energy Myths and Realities.? In the book, he looks at a number of things he considers myths:
1. The future belongs to electric cars
2. Nuclear electricity will be too cheap too meter
3. Soft-energy illusions (local generation, etc.)
4. Running out: Peak oil and its meaning
5. Sequestration of carbon dioxide
6. Liquid fuels from plants
7. Electricity from wind
8. The pace of energy transitions
Smil is well-respected in the world of energy, so I think it is also worthwhile looking at what he has to say. I think that it is even worthwhile looking at what he has to say about peak oil, because it may give us some insights as to where our thinking needs to be refined, or better explained, if it is to be understood by the ?mainstream?.
I might note that Smil is not entirely in disagreement with peak oil. He says,
It is fairly probable that its [conventional crude oil?s] extraction will peak within the next two decades, and it is inevitable that its share of the world?s primary energy supply will continue to decline.
A major point he makes in the peak oil section is that he is not convinced that peak oil will have a terrible impact, even if the decline does occur in the near future?something that quite a number of Oil Drum readers would agree with.
Let?s look at a few things Vaclav Smil has to say:
Electric Cars
Smil points out that electric cars have been around a long time and are still expensive compared to internal combustion cars. But his major concern seems to be that the amount of additional electricity required would be more than could reasonably be added within a short time frame. And, given the limitations of renewables, there would probably need to be a big ramp-up in fossil fuel use, to accommodate the additional cars.
According to Smil:
An electric car whose size would correspond to today?s typical American vehicle (a composite of passenger cars, SUVs, vans, and light trucks) would translate to 3 MWh of electricity consumption.
In 2010, the United States had about 245 million passenger cars, SUVs, vans, and light trucks; hence, an all-electric fleet would call for a theoretical minimum of 750 TWh/year. . . The charging and recharging cycle of Li-ion batteries is about 85% efficient, and about 10% must be subtracted for self-discharge losses; consequently, the actual need to be close to 4 MWh/car, or about 980 TWh of electricity per year. This is a very conservative calculation, as the overall demand of a midsize electric vehicle would be more likely around 300 Wh/km or 6MW/year.
But even this conservative total would be equivalent to 25% of US electricity generation in 2008, and the country?s utilities needed fifteen years (1993-2008) to add this amount of new production. As this power for electric cars would have to come on top of the demand growth by households, services, and industries, it would be exceedingly optimistic to expect such an increment could be in place in less than twenty years.
He later goes to explain how much fuel would be needed for all this.
The average source-to-outlet efficiency of U. S. electricity generation is about 40 percent, and adding 10 percent for internal power plant consumption and transmission losses, this means that 11 MWh (nearly 40 GJ) of primary energy would be needed to generate electricity for a car with an average annual consumption of about 4 MWh.
This would translate to 2 MJ for every kilometer of travel, a performance equivalent to about 38 mpg (9.25L/100 km)?a rate much lower than that offered by scores of new pure gasoline-engine car models, and inferior to advanced hybrid designs or to DiesOtto designs. . .
He explains that there would be no CO2 savings in all of this, unless renewable sources were used for all of the additional energy required. He also notes that a European report by the European Federation for Transport and Environment called How to Avoid an Electric Shock offers analogical conclusions. A complete change to electric cars in the EU would increase European electricity consumption by 15%, and would not lower CO2.
Wind Power
Smil?s conclusion regarding wind is
Conversion of wind?s kinetic energy by large turbines by large turbines can become an important contributor to the overall electricity supply, but, except for relatively small regions, it cannot become the single largest source, even less so the dominant mode of generation.
One of the limits he sees on wind power is the quantity of roads needed to service all of the wind power sites. He says:
But even when assuming a large average turbine size of 2?3 MW, the access roads (which are required to carry heavy loads, as the total weight of foundations, tower, and turbine is more than 300 tons per unit) needed to build roughly 2 million turbines and new transmission lines to conduct their electricity would make a vastly larger land claim than the footprint of the towers; and a considerable energy demand would be created by keeping these roads, often in steep terrain, protected against erosion and open during inclement weather for servicing access.
He also sees wind intermittency as a limiting factor. He says that many studies have shown that these variations do not cause any unmanageable problems as long as the total power installed in wind turbines is no more than about 10% of the system?s overall output.
He quotes P. A. Ostergaard, in the 2008 Energy article ?Geographic Aggregation and Wind Power Output Variance in Denmark,? saying:
Drawing on the Danish experience, he finds, predictably, that demand and wind variations in different areas help even out fluctuations and reduce imbalances in systems with high reliance on wind power, and that exploiting these variations allows for reductions in reserve capacity in other modes of electricity generation. But, no less predictably, he also finds limits to what can be done: The average requirement for the reserve thermal capacity may drop, ?but the same is not generally the case with the maximum required condensing mode capacity. . . . There will simply be times with wind production in neither of the interconnected areas.?
He is also concerned about the high installation rates that would be required to reach high penetrations, and the fact that at this point we cannot be certain of average life spans of wind turbines and of their need for maintenance and replacement requirements, particularly in harsh and offshore environments.
Peak Oil and Its Meaning
In the chapter ?Running Out: Peak Oil and Its Meaning?, Smil starts by looking at individual peak oil predictions that turned out not to be exactly correct. He argues that contrary to the assumptions of Richard Duncan in his Olduvai Gorge theory, average per capita energy consumption did not peak in 1978. Instead, based on BP data for all types of energy and UN population figures, world per capita energy consumption was 10% higher in 2008 than in 1978. He also says,
but even a lower rate would not signify anything catastrophic; because of steadily falling energy intensity?the energy consumption per unit of economic product?of the global economy, it could be a sign of progress for the world to use less energy.
It would seem to me that this is one area where there is considerable additional work that needs to be done. Is oil a limiting factor on all other forms of energy use, or will efficiency and other changes lead to higher GDP relative to energy use? There is probably room for a range of views on this subject.
Smil also points out that the predictions of M. King Hubbert, Andrew Flower, Collin Campbell, Kenneth Deffeyes and others were not exactly right, partly because the estimates of ultimately recoverable oil were not correct and partly because the deterministic approaches being used were too simple. Smil says:
The fundamental problem with the notion of predicting a peak for oil extraction is that it rests on three simple assumptions?that recoverable oil resources are known with a high level of confidence, that they are fixed, and that their recovery is subsumed by a symmetrical production curve?which happen not to be true. These three claims mix incontestable facts and sensible arguments with indefensible assumptions, and they caricature complex processes and ignore realities that do not fit preconceived conclusions. There is, obviously, a finite amount of liquid oil in the earth?s crust, but estimates of this grand total remain uncertain.
He mentions Adam Brandt?s 2007 article ?Testing Hubbert? from Energy Policy. Smil says regarding Brandt?s article, ?the symmetrical model of oil extraction is just one of many possibilities, and we now have a rigorous quantitative proof that it is not either a dominant or a modal choice.?
He also mentions R. Nehring?s conclusion,
The task facing us now is not to continue to use an obsolete and irrelevant method [that is, Hubbert?s model] but to develop further understanding of recovery growth.
Smil also has sections on untapped resources and non-conventional oil reserves.
The point of all of Smil?s analysis is that the amount of oil available could very well be considerably more than what an analysis simply using a Hubbert curve would project. But I think an equally valid argument could be made in the other direction?the amount of oil that can actually be extracted may prove to be considerably less than what a Hubbert curve would project.
It seems to me that Hubbert curves are valuable as giving a first-order approximation to what may happen in the future. In that regard, Hubbert curves have been helpful in saying that the peak in conventional oil production is about now. Smil mostly agrees with this?he says that there is a high probability that conventional oil production will peak in the next 10 to 20 years.
But it seems to me that Smil is correct in saying that Hubbert curves really don?t tell us precisely what lies ahead. Smil lays out the favorable scenario, where untapped resources, nonconventional oil reserves, and higher percentages of oil recovery act to increase the total amount of oil available to society. But Smil never looks at what the real limiting factor is. It seems to me that this limiting factor is declining energy return from the oil that is extracted, and the impact that this has on the world economy and the ability to do reinvestment. After a certain point, net energy obtained is so low that it is not possible to justify the ever-higher energy investment required to maintain production.
If net energy is the limiting factor, one would also expect that Hubbert curves are, as Smil says, not very helpful in predicting what is likely to happen in the future. In the case of net energy being the limiting factor, the result could well be that the downslope is more severe than a Hubbert curve would suggest.
Perhaps we do need to back away from Hubbert curve as a primary way of estimating what will happen in the future. While that approach was valuable as a rough approximation in the past, now that we are approaching the down slope, maybe we need to be looking at other approaches, to give a more refined understanding of what limits we are really up against, and how these can be expected to affect the entire process. More refined approaches are also likely to give us more credibility with the non-peak oil community, who see Hubbert curves as discredited, and see analyses of demand as important as analyses of supply.
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1. The future belongs to electric cars
2. Nuclear electricity will be too cheap too meter
3. Soft-energy illusions (local generation, etc.)
4. Running out: Peak oil and its meaning
5. Sequestration of carbon dioxide
6. Liquid fuels from plants
7. Electricity from wind
8. The pace of energy transitions
Smil is well-respected in the world of energy, so I think it is also worthwhile looking at what he has to say. I think that it is even worthwhile looking at what he has to say about peak oil, because it may give us some insights as to where our thinking needs to be refined, or better explained, if it is to be understood by the ?mainstream?.
I might note that Smil is not entirely in disagreement with peak oil. He says,
It is fairly probable that its [conventional crude oil?s] extraction will peak within the next two decades, and it is inevitable that its share of the world?s primary energy supply will continue to decline.
A major point he makes in the peak oil section is that he is not convinced that peak oil will have a terrible impact, even if the decline does occur in the near future?something that quite a number of Oil Drum readers would agree with.
Let?s look at a few things Vaclav Smil has to say:
Electric Cars
Smil points out that electric cars have been around a long time and are still expensive compared to internal combustion cars. But his major concern seems to be that the amount of additional electricity required would be more than could reasonably be added within a short time frame. And, given the limitations of renewables, there would probably need to be a big ramp-up in fossil fuel use, to accommodate the additional cars.
According to Smil:
An electric car whose size would correspond to today?s typical American vehicle (a composite of passenger cars, SUVs, vans, and light trucks) would translate to 3 MWh of electricity consumption.
In 2010, the United States had about 245 million passenger cars, SUVs, vans, and light trucks; hence, an all-electric fleet would call for a theoretical minimum of 750 TWh/year. . . The charging and recharging cycle of Li-ion batteries is about 85% efficient, and about 10% must be subtracted for self-discharge losses; consequently, the actual need to be close to 4 MWh/car, or about 980 TWh of electricity per year. This is a very conservative calculation, as the overall demand of a midsize electric vehicle would be more likely around 300 Wh/km or 6MW/year.
But even this conservative total would be equivalent to 25% of US electricity generation in 2008, and the country?s utilities needed fifteen years (1993-2008) to add this amount of new production. As this power for electric cars would have to come on top of the demand growth by households, services, and industries, it would be exceedingly optimistic to expect such an increment could be in place in less than twenty years.
He later goes to explain how much fuel would be needed for all this.
The average source-to-outlet efficiency of U. S. electricity generation is about 40 percent, and adding 10 percent for internal power plant consumption and transmission losses, this means that 11 MWh (nearly 40 GJ) of primary energy would be needed to generate electricity for a car with an average annual consumption of about 4 MWh.
This would translate to 2 MJ for every kilometer of travel, a performance equivalent to about 38 mpg (9.25L/100 km)?a rate much lower than that offered by scores of new pure gasoline-engine car models, and inferior to advanced hybrid designs or to DiesOtto designs. . .
He explains that there would be no CO2 savings in all of this, unless renewable sources were used for all of the additional energy required. He also notes that a European report by the European Federation for Transport and Environment called How to Avoid an Electric Shock offers analogical conclusions. A complete change to electric cars in the EU would increase European electricity consumption by 15%, and would not lower CO2.
Wind Power
Smil?s conclusion regarding wind is
Conversion of wind?s kinetic energy by large turbines by large turbines can become an important contributor to the overall electricity supply, but, except for relatively small regions, it cannot become the single largest source, even less so the dominant mode of generation.
One of the limits he sees on wind power is the quantity of roads needed to service all of the wind power sites. He says:
But even when assuming a large average turbine size of 2?3 MW, the access roads (which are required to carry heavy loads, as the total weight of foundations, tower, and turbine is more than 300 tons per unit) needed to build roughly 2 million turbines and new transmission lines to conduct their electricity would make a vastly larger land claim than the footprint of the towers; and a considerable energy demand would be created by keeping these roads, often in steep terrain, protected against erosion and open during inclement weather for servicing access.
He also sees wind intermittency as a limiting factor. He says that many studies have shown that these variations do not cause any unmanageable problems as long as the total power installed in wind turbines is no more than about 10% of the system?s overall output.
He quotes P. A. Ostergaard, in the 2008 Energy article ?Geographic Aggregation and Wind Power Output Variance in Denmark,? saying:
Drawing on the Danish experience, he finds, predictably, that demand and wind variations in different areas help even out fluctuations and reduce imbalances in systems with high reliance on wind power, and that exploiting these variations allows for reductions in reserve capacity in other modes of electricity generation. But, no less predictably, he also finds limits to what can be done: The average requirement for the reserve thermal capacity may drop, ?but the same is not generally the case with the maximum required condensing mode capacity. . . . There will simply be times with wind production in neither of the interconnected areas.?
He is also concerned about the high installation rates that would be required to reach high penetrations, and the fact that at this point we cannot be certain of average life spans of wind turbines and of their need for maintenance and replacement requirements, particularly in harsh and offshore environments.
Peak Oil and Its Meaning
In the chapter ?Running Out: Peak Oil and Its Meaning?, Smil starts by looking at individual peak oil predictions that turned out not to be exactly correct. He argues that contrary to the assumptions of Richard Duncan in his Olduvai Gorge theory, average per capita energy consumption did not peak in 1978. Instead, based on BP data for all types of energy and UN population figures, world per capita energy consumption was 10% higher in 2008 than in 1978. He also says,
but even a lower rate would not signify anything catastrophic; because of steadily falling energy intensity?the energy consumption per unit of economic product?of the global economy, it could be a sign of progress for the world to use less energy.
It would seem to me that this is one area where there is considerable additional work that needs to be done. Is oil a limiting factor on all other forms of energy use, or will efficiency and other changes lead to higher GDP relative to energy use? There is probably room for a range of views on this subject.
Smil also points out that the predictions of M. King Hubbert, Andrew Flower, Collin Campbell, Kenneth Deffeyes and others were not exactly right, partly because the estimates of ultimately recoverable oil were not correct and partly because the deterministic approaches being used were too simple. Smil says:
The fundamental problem with the notion of predicting a peak for oil extraction is that it rests on three simple assumptions?that recoverable oil resources are known with a high level of confidence, that they are fixed, and that their recovery is subsumed by a symmetrical production curve?which happen not to be true. These three claims mix incontestable facts and sensible arguments with indefensible assumptions, and they caricature complex processes and ignore realities that do not fit preconceived conclusions. There is, obviously, a finite amount of liquid oil in the earth?s crust, but estimates of this grand total remain uncertain.
He mentions Adam Brandt?s 2007 article ?Testing Hubbert? from Energy Policy. Smil says regarding Brandt?s article, ?the symmetrical model of oil extraction is just one of many possibilities, and we now have a rigorous quantitative proof that it is not either a dominant or a modal choice.?
He also mentions R. Nehring?s conclusion,
The task facing us now is not to continue to use an obsolete and irrelevant method [that is, Hubbert?s model] but to develop further understanding of recovery growth.
Smil also has sections on untapped resources and non-conventional oil reserves.
The point of all of Smil?s analysis is that the amount of oil available could very well be considerably more than what an analysis simply using a Hubbert curve would project. But I think an equally valid argument could be made in the other direction?the amount of oil that can actually be extracted may prove to be considerably less than what a Hubbert curve would project.
It seems to me that Hubbert curves are valuable as giving a first-order approximation to what may happen in the future. In that regard, Hubbert curves have been helpful in saying that the peak in conventional oil production is about now. Smil mostly agrees with this?he says that there is a high probability that conventional oil production will peak in the next 10 to 20 years.
But it seems to me that Smil is correct in saying that Hubbert curves really don?t tell us precisely what lies ahead. Smil lays out the favorable scenario, where untapped resources, nonconventional oil reserves, and higher percentages of oil recovery act to increase the total amount of oil available to society. But Smil never looks at what the real limiting factor is. It seems to me that this limiting factor is declining energy return from the oil that is extracted, and the impact that this has on the world economy and the ability to do reinvestment. After a certain point, net energy obtained is so low that it is not possible to justify the ever-higher energy investment required to maintain production.
If net energy is the limiting factor, one would also expect that Hubbert curves are, as Smil says, not very helpful in predicting what is likely to happen in the future. In the case of net energy being the limiting factor, the result could well be that the downslope is more severe than a Hubbert curve would suggest.
Perhaps we do need to back away from Hubbert curve as a primary way of estimating what will happen in the future. While that approach was valuable as a rough approximation in the past, now that we are approaching the down slope, maybe we need to be looking at other approaches, to give a more refined understanding of what limits we are really up against, and how these can be expected to affect the entire process. More refined approaches are also likely to give us more credibility with the non-peak oil community, who see Hubbert curves as discredited, and see analyses of demand as important as analyses of supply.
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Solar Energy International Launches Free Introduction to Renewable Energy Online Course
Submitted on 01/24/11, 01:42 PM | Source AltEnergyMag.com
Introduction to Renewable Energy is Solar Energy International's NEW free online course for those who wish to learn the basics of renewable energy - including where it is found, how we can harvest it for use in our homes and how it can help ease pressures on the environment. You will not become an expert through this course, but you will get to know renewable energy in its many forms - helping you to decide whether solar, wind or other renewable technologies are right for you. If you've never taken an online course from SEI, this is a great preview into our online course structure and learning experience. We hope this will lower any inhibitions you may have in taking an online course by giving you this free opportunity to experience the SEI Online Campus. This free 10-lesson course includes education on conservation and efficiency, sustainable building, solar thermal, solar electricity, wind power, microhydro power, renewable energy for the developing world, and the economics of renewable energy.
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Public health in the era of peak oil (Canada)
Introduction by EB contributor Dr. Dan Bednarz
Donald Spady, MD, discusses the potential impacts of peak oil on the social determinants of health in Canada. These are the factors that are associated with keeping people healthy and are critical to maintaining personal health in a post-peak world. They also are integral to the infrastructure of both the health care system and the public health system.
There are at least three salient differences between Canada the United States. First, Canada is geographically large with a relatively small population of approximately 34 million. Approximately 21 million live in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, with 13 million spread across the vast geography of the eight other provinces and three territories. The entire province of New Brunswick, for example, is 28,000 square miles and has approximately 750,000 residents; in contrast, Massachusetts has 6.5 million residents on 7,800 square miles. The point is that health care systems must cover wide expanses.
Second, Canada has a national health plan; anyone who has seen Michael Moore?s ?Sicko? will recall the scenes from the health clinic in Windsor, Ontario ?across the river from Detroit- in which Moore asks Canadians how much their medical care will cost; they don?t know and find his question humorous. In 2006 Canada spent US $3,678 per capita on health care, while the U.S. spent $6,714, per-capita for health care.
Third, Canada is a relatively energy rich nation and an exporter to the US. These importance differences shape Canadians vulnerability to the health consequences of peak oil.
Excerpts from the Interview
Human life is impossible without energy. It can indeed be understood as a process of energy exchange between human beings and their environment. Oil today is the single most important energy resource for the lives and the way of life of Canadians.
However, oil is a finite resource, and there is an ongoing debate surrounding what has been termed ?peak oil? . Current discussions are not so much focused on whether peak oil will happen, but rather, on when it will happen, and what will be the scope and range of its effects.
Some U.S. researchers have begun to examine how this phenomenon affects health outcomes and to consider possible responses by the public health sector. Many of these researchers attended a conference entitled ?Peak Oil and Health? organized by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in March, 2009. Canadian public health circles have thus far been less engaged with these issues. To begin to clarify what is at stake specifically for Canadian public health with regards to peak oil, Fran�ois Gagnon from the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP) interviewed Dr. Donald W. Spady, a paediatrician/epidemiologist in the Departments of Pediatrics and Public Health Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, who is keenly interested in this issue and has been following these debates and engaging in conferences and webinars about them for the past few years.
---
Fran�ois Gagnon (NCCHPP) ? Why should public health professionals be concerned with peak oil?
Dr. Donald Spady (DS) ? Since there are no clear and easy sources of energy to replace oil, and adequate amounts of affordable energy are essential to Canadian life, peak oil could affect the health of Canadians in significant ways. It will affect many parts of the infrastructure of Canadian society that largely determine the health of the Canadian population. For public health professionals, peak oil is significant because it will affect what are commonly called the social, environmental and economic determinants of health. For example, it will significantly affect, and require some reorganization of, our economic, transportation, and food systems. It is also important to public health professionals because it will very likely affect how health services are organized (the use of products and services dependent on petroleum permeates our health care system), but I understand the mandate of the NCCHPP does not cover this area and thus I will not expand on this now.
---
NCCHPP ? Can you share your thoughts on the links between peak oil, the food system and health outcomes?
DS ? Petroleum is used in virtually all aspects of food production and transportation, therefore peak oil presents a significant threat to Canadian food security. While this could pose a problem as petroleum supplies diminish, the immediate problem in Canada is not food production, it is food security; i.e. finding and buying adequate amounts of affordable and nutritious food. Peak oil will likely affect every component of food security: accessibility, availability, adequacy, acceptability, and agency. It will do so mainly and initially through economic factors, but ultimately also through the consequences of the lack of fuel and fertilizers which will be secondary to an absolute lack of petroleum. Food security is a common problem in an economic downturn where unemployment is high, but it is always and specifically the case in more remote areas of the country and on native reserves, where food is expensive and choice is limited. As well, some segments of the population, such as the elderly or single parent families, are always more exposed
to food insecurity because they may lack the ability to find and purchase adequate amounts of nutritious food.
The 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey found that 9.2% of Canadian households were food insecure at some point in the previous year and 8.8% of the population lived in food insecure households in 2004. It was the poorer person, often on social assistance, worker's compensation or unemployment insurance, who was at greatest risk. Another group, at risk for many problems besides food insecurity, was the Aboriginal household living off the reserve. Lone-parent families, larger families, and families with young children were at particular risk. Housing costs can play a role in determining food security status in low-income households and living in rental housing posed a particular risk. Quite possibly rent trumps food; these days a mortgage or a high energy bill may do the same.
In Canada in 2008, food prices rose 7.3% over the year, as compared to a rise in the Consumer Price Index of only 1.2%. Reasons for these rises include: high oil costs, climate change and associated crop losses and decreased yield, more land and food crops being used for biofuel production, and market speculation. It is reasonable to expect that these factors will persist over the next decades.
Depending on where you live, food prices in Canada can vary by as much as six-fold for the same product, and it has been reported that between 14% and 40% of Canadians face a problem of no or limited access to desirable nutritious foods, even when money is adequate. Food costs and value are particular problems in remote areas of Canada, especially Northern Canada, the high Arctic and on First Nations Reserves, where the types of food are less varied and the food is often of lower quality. For all Canadians, a lack of food access and variety may become a significant issue as long distance transport becomes increasingly expensive or even absent.
Two other issues that may affect the Canadian food supply are long-distance foods and corn-based biofuels. Much of our food travels thousands of kilometres to reach our table. These ?long-distance? foods may be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than similar local foods, especially if foods are transported in large volumes, and thus long-distance foods should not be dismissed arbitrarily. Biofuels grown in North America are more problematic, with concerns about their energy benefits, their high fertilizer, fuel and water requirements, and their potential competition with food production contributing to concerns of food security. Other forms of biofuel, such as sugar cane and palm oil, are less 'food' based and have better energy characteristics; but, they also can have significant environmental impacts.
Full interview is here:
English: http://www.ncchpp.ca/67/New_Publications.ccnpps?id_article=541.
French: http://www.ccnpps.ca/88/Nouvelles_publications.ccnpps?id_article=542.
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Donald Spady, MD, discusses the potential impacts of peak oil on the social determinants of health in Canada. These are the factors that are associated with keeping people healthy and are critical to maintaining personal health in a post-peak world. They also are integral to the infrastructure of both the health care system and the public health system.
There are at least three salient differences between Canada the United States. First, Canada is geographically large with a relatively small population of approximately 34 million. Approximately 21 million live in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, with 13 million spread across the vast geography of the eight other provinces and three territories. The entire province of New Brunswick, for example, is 28,000 square miles and has approximately 750,000 residents; in contrast, Massachusetts has 6.5 million residents on 7,800 square miles. The point is that health care systems must cover wide expanses.
Second, Canada has a national health plan; anyone who has seen Michael Moore?s ?Sicko? will recall the scenes from the health clinic in Windsor, Ontario ?across the river from Detroit- in which Moore asks Canadians how much their medical care will cost; they don?t know and find his question humorous. In 2006 Canada spent US $3,678 per capita on health care, while the U.S. spent $6,714, per-capita for health care.
Third, Canada is a relatively energy rich nation and an exporter to the US. These importance differences shape Canadians vulnerability to the health consequences of peak oil.
Excerpts from the Interview
Human life is impossible without energy. It can indeed be understood as a process of energy exchange between human beings and their environment. Oil today is the single most important energy resource for the lives and the way of life of Canadians.
However, oil is a finite resource, and there is an ongoing debate surrounding what has been termed ?peak oil? . Current discussions are not so much focused on whether peak oil will happen, but rather, on when it will happen, and what will be the scope and range of its effects.
Some U.S. researchers have begun to examine how this phenomenon affects health outcomes and to consider possible responses by the public health sector. Many of these researchers attended a conference entitled ?Peak Oil and Health? organized by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in March, 2009. Canadian public health circles have thus far been less engaged with these issues. To begin to clarify what is at stake specifically for Canadian public health with regards to peak oil, Fran�ois Gagnon from the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP) interviewed Dr. Donald W. Spady, a paediatrician/epidemiologist in the Departments of Pediatrics and Public Health Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, who is keenly interested in this issue and has been following these debates and engaging in conferences and webinars about them for the past few years.
---
Fran�ois Gagnon (NCCHPP) ? Why should public health professionals be concerned with peak oil?
Dr. Donald Spady (DS) ? Since there are no clear and easy sources of energy to replace oil, and adequate amounts of affordable energy are essential to Canadian life, peak oil could affect the health of Canadians in significant ways. It will affect many parts of the infrastructure of Canadian society that largely determine the health of the Canadian population. For public health professionals, peak oil is significant because it will affect what are commonly called the social, environmental and economic determinants of health. For example, it will significantly affect, and require some reorganization of, our economic, transportation, and food systems. It is also important to public health professionals because it will very likely affect how health services are organized (the use of products and services dependent on petroleum permeates our health care system), but I understand the mandate of the NCCHPP does not cover this area and thus I will not expand on this now.
---
NCCHPP ? Can you share your thoughts on the links between peak oil, the food system and health outcomes?
DS ? Petroleum is used in virtually all aspects of food production and transportation, therefore peak oil presents a significant threat to Canadian food security. While this could pose a problem as petroleum supplies diminish, the immediate problem in Canada is not food production, it is food security; i.e. finding and buying adequate amounts of affordable and nutritious food. Peak oil will likely affect every component of food security: accessibility, availability, adequacy, acceptability, and agency. It will do so mainly and initially through economic factors, but ultimately also through the consequences of the lack of fuel and fertilizers which will be secondary to an absolute lack of petroleum. Food security is a common problem in an economic downturn where unemployment is high, but it is always and specifically the case in more remote areas of the country and on native reserves, where food is expensive and choice is limited. As well, some segments of the population, such as the elderly or single parent families, are always more exposed
to food insecurity because they may lack the ability to find and purchase adequate amounts of nutritious food.
The 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey found that 9.2% of Canadian households were food insecure at some point in the previous year and 8.8% of the population lived in food insecure households in 2004. It was the poorer person, often on social assistance, worker's compensation or unemployment insurance, who was at greatest risk. Another group, at risk for many problems besides food insecurity, was the Aboriginal household living off the reserve. Lone-parent families, larger families, and families with young children were at particular risk. Housing costs can play a role in determining food security status in low-income households and living in rental housing posed a particular risk. Quite possibly rent trumps food; these days a mortgage or a high energy bill may do the same.
In Canada in 2008, food prices rose 7.3% over the year, as compared to a rise in the Consumer Price Index of only 1.2%. Reasons for these rises include: high oil costs, climate change and associated crop losses and decreased yield, more land and food crops being used for biofuel production, and market speculation. It is reasonable to expect that these factors will persist over the next decades.
Depending on where you live, food prices in Canada can vary by as much as six-fold for the same product, and it has been reported that between 14% and 40% of Canadians face a problem of no or limited access to desirable nutritious foods, even when money is adequate. Food costs and value are particular problems in remote areas of Canada, especially Northern Canada, the high Arctic and on First Nations Reserves, where the types of food are less varied and the food is often of lower quality. For all Canadians, a lack of food access and variety may become a significant issue as long distance transport becomes increasingly expensive or even absent.
Two other issues that may affect the Canadian food supply are long-distance foods and corn-based biofuels. Much of our food travels thousands of kilometres to reach our table. These ?long-distance? foods may be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than similar local foods, especially if foods are transported in large volumes, and thus long-distance foods should not be dismissed arbitrarily. Biofuels grown in North America are more problematic, with concerns about their energy benefits, their high fertilizer, fuel and water requirements, and their potential competition with food production contributing to concerns of food security. Other forms of biofuel, such as sugar cane and palm oil, are less 'food' based and have better energy characteristics; but, they also can have significant environmental impacts.
Full interview is here:
English: http://www.ncchpp.ca/67/New_Publications.ccnpps?id_article=541.
French: http://www.ccnpps.ca/88/Nouvelles_publications.ccnpps?id_article=542.
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Department of Energy Offers First Conditional Commitment for a Loan Guarantee for Advanced Biofuels Plant
This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
January 20, 2011
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the offer of a conditional commitment to Diamond Green Diesel, LLC, the proposed joint venture between Valero Energy Corporation and Darling International Inc., for a $241 million loan guarantee. The loan guarantee will support the construction of a 137-million gallon per year renewable diesel facility in Norco, Louisiana, about 20 miles west of New Orleans. Valero Energy Corporation plans to direct the design, construction and operation of the project and market all of its output, while Darling International Inc. will supply feedstock to the project.
"Today's announcement reflects this administration's commitment to promoting the development of advanced biofuels," said Secretary Chu. "Strong biofuels projects like Diamond Green Diesel can help to diversify our transportation fuel supply while creating jobs and strengthening our economy."
"This announcement by the Department of Energy demonstrates the dedication of the Obama Administration to building a robust, domestic renewable fuels industry," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "Made-in-America biofuels will increase our energy security, economic security and environmental security?while creating jobs?and help build a brighter future for all Americans."
"This announcement is a great example of something we have been saying at EPA for a very long time?we can protect our health, preserve our environment and improve our economy at the same time," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "Clear environmental standards and strong government support have given these companies the certainty they need to invest in new technology and new jobs. It demonstrates the power of American innovators to create a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous future."
"Today's announcement of a $241 million loan guarantee to Diamond Green Diesel in Norco is good for Louisiana and good for our nation's future," Senator Mary Landrieu said. "Oil has paid tremendous dividends to our country. It helped us win World War II, it helped create an industrial revolution and it built the greatest middle class the world has ever seen. But, as we move to new technologies beyond oil, we must embrace the transition to clean renewable energy. Projects like Diamond Green Diesel are a step in the right direction, and I appreciate the commitment Secretary Chu and Administrator Jackson are making to this effort."
The company estimates that the project will create 700 jobs during peak construction and over 60 jobs during operation. The project will reduce greenhouse gases by more than 80% over conventional petroleum-based diesel and is expected to nearly triple the amount of renewable diesel produced in the United States. In addition, the facility will fulfill almost 14% of a national mandate to boost production for biomass-based diesel. Approximately 95% of the project components are expected to be produced in the United States.
The project will produce renewable diesel fuel primarily from animal fats, used cooking oil and other waste grease streams. The project will be the first application of its kind in the United States to use an innovative hydrotreating/isomerization process from Universal Oil Products (UOP), known as Ecofining&0099;, and a pretreatment process from Desmet Ballestra Group, which converts processed feedstock into high-quality diesel.
As part of the Department of Energy's comprehensive strategy to support the production of advanced biofuels, Secretary Chu also announced the launch of a new online collaboration tool and data resource focused on bioenergy. The "Bioenergy Knowledge Discovery Framework" allows researchers, policymakers and investors to share large data sets, as well as the latest bioenergy research. The Framework also facilitates collaborative production, integration and analysis of information. Registered users will be able to contribute data sets that can then be shared, expanding the body of knowledge, better informing this growing industry and eliminating "information silos." The Framework allows simultaneous geographic mapping of complex data sets such as biomass feedstock production, fueling stations and biorefineries on a national, state, and even county-level basis?providing the bioenergy industry an analytical tool for identifying new opportunities for research, supportive policies and project investment.
Through the Loan Programs Office, the Department of Energy has issued loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees to support 18 clean energy projects totaling over $17.5 billion. Together, these projects will produce over 37 million megawatt-hours, enough clean energy to power approximately 3.5 million homes. Additional DOE-supported projects include two of the world's largest solar thermal projects, two geothermal projects, the world's largest wind farm and the nation's first nuclear power plant in three decades. For more information, please visit the Loan Programs Office Web site.
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January 20, 2011
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the offer of a conditional commitment to Diamond Green Diesel, LLC, the proposed joint venture between Valero Energy Corporation and Darling International Inc., for a $241 million loan guarantee. The loan guarantee will support the construction of a 137-million gallon per year renewable diesel facility in Norco, Louisiana, about 20 miles west of New Orleans. Valero Energy Corporation plans to direct the design, construction and operation of the project and market all of its output, while Darling International Inc. will supply feedstock to the project.
"Today's announcement reflects this administration's commitment to promoting the development of advanced biofuels," said Secretary Chu. "Strong biofuels projects like Diamond Green Diesel can help to diversify our transportation fuel supply while creating jobs and strengthening our economy."
"This announcement by the Department of Energy demonstrates the dedication of the Obama Administration to building a robust, domestic renewable fuels industry," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "Made-in-America biofuels will increase our energy security, economic security and environmental security?while creating jobs?and help build a brighter future for all Americans."
"This announcement is a great example of something we have been saying at EPA for a very long time?we can protect our health, preserve our environment and improve our economy at the same time," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "Clear environmental standards and strong government support have given these companies the certainty they need to invest in new technology and new jobs. It demonstrates the power of American innovators to create a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous future."
"Today's announcement of a $241 million loan guarantee to Diamond Green Diesel in Norco is good for Louisiana and good for our nation's future," Senator Mary Landrieu said. "Oil has paid tremendous dividends to our country. It helped us win World War II, it helped create an industrial revolution and it built the greatest middle class the world has ever seen. But, as we move to new technologies beyond oil, we must embrace the transition to clean renewable energy. Projects like Diamond Green Diesel are a step in the right direction, and I appreciate the commitment Secretary Chu and Administrator Jackson are making to this effort."
The company estimates that the project will create 700 jobs during peak construction and over 60 jobs during operation. The project will reduce greenhouse gases by more than 80% over conventional petroleum-based diesel and is expected to nearly triple the amount of renewable diesel produced in the United States. In addition, the facility will fulfill almost 14% of a national mandate to boost production for biomass-based diesel. Approximately 95% of the project components are expected to be produced in the United States.
The project will produce renewable diesel fuel primarily from animal fats, used cooking oil and other waste grease streams. The project will be the first application of its kind in the United States to use an innovative hydrotreating/isomerization process from Universal Oil Products (UOP), known as Ecofining&0099;, and a pretreatment process from Desmet Ballestra Group, which converts processed feedstock into high-quality diesel.
As part of the Department of Energy's comprehensive strategy to support the production of advanced biofuels, Secretary Chu also announced the launch of a new online collaboration tool and data resource focused on bioenergy. The "Bioenergy Knowledge Discovery Framework" allows researchers, policymakers and investors to share large data sets, as well as the latest bioenergy research. The Framework also facilitates collaborative production, integration and analysis of information. Registered users will be able to contribute data sets that can then be shared, expanding the body of knowledge, better informing this growing industry and eliminating "information silos." The Framework allows simultaneous geographic mapping of complex data sets such as biomass feedstock production, fueling stations and biorefineries on a national, state, and even county-level basis?providing the bioenergy industry an analytical tool for identifying new opportunities for research, supportive policies and project investment.
Through the Loan Programs Office, the Department of Energy has issued loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees to support 18 clean energy projects totaling over $17.5 billion. Together, these projects will produce over 37 million megawatt-hours, enough clean energy to power approximately 3.5 million homes. Additional DOE-supported projects include two of the world's largest solar thermal projects, two geothermal projects, the world's largest wind farm and the nation's first nuclear power plant in three decades. For more information, please visit the Loan Programs Office Web site.
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eIQ Energy?s Parallel Solar Technology Chosen For 1.8 Megawatt Solar Power Install in Murrieta, CA
eIQ Energys Parallel Solar Technology Chosen For 1.8 Megawatt Solar Power Install in Murrieta, CA
Visit http://www.eiqenergy.com for further information
Six-figure up-front savings achieved by shifting array wiring away from traditional series-wired string architecture
Submitted on 01/25/11, 10:54 AM
SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 25, 2010 eIQ Energys Parallel Solar technology has been selected for a new 1.8 megawatt solar power installation at a Bee Safe Storage facility in Murrieta, Calif., creating significant up-front cost savings and ongoing energy harvest benefits. Installation will be completed by EcoOneEnergy of Escondido, Calif., using crystalline solar modules driving multiple inverters. An array of this size requires thousands of solar modules. Traditionally, they would have been connected in series-wired strings (each typically containing a dozen or two modules), with each string being wired to a combiner box and then routed to an inverter. By opting instead for the parallel wiring approach enabled by eIQ Energys vBoost DC-to-DC voltage optimizer, the need for cabling, combiner boxes, and other hardware is sharply reduced as is the amount of labor needed during installation. Hardware savings alone on the Bee Safe Storage project will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, more than offsetting the cost of the eIQ Energy vBoost, which are installed on each panel or group of panels. Over the lifetime of the installation, eIQ Energys Parallel Solar technology will also provide distributed MPPT, precision panel-level monitoring of performance, and Web-based access to operational data. The vBoost also eliminates power-sapping interactions between panels on the same string that have different output levels due to shading, soiling, aging, or other issues. The Parallel Solar approach was an obvious choice for this installation, said Eugene Wilkie, CEO of EcoOneEnergy. It freed up our designers to focus on what would provide the best power output, rather than having to worry about string architecture and voltage management. Were also saving a substantial amount on combiner boxes, cable and conduit, and the snap-together connection on the vBoost modules are a tremendous time-saver. As we approach the first anniversary of vBoosts entry into the market, were seeing Parallel Solar gaining increasing traction in the marketplace, noted eIQ Energy CEO Oliver Janssen. The Bee Safe Storage project is our largest to date, and an indicator of the interest were seeing in commercial-scale installations where the cost savings really add up. In addition to generating electricity, the trellis installation at Bee Safe Storage in Murrieta will provide valuable shading for a vehicle storage area located at the storage facility, stated Mike Delaney, CEO of Bee Safe Storage. About eIQ Energy eIQ Energy, Inc. uses unique power management technology to make solar energy more effective and affordable. The companys Parallel Solar technology, built around the vBoost converter module, reduces overall system costs and enables a true parallel architecture, benefiting system designers, installers and operators. eIQ Energy was founded in 2007 with the principal goal of improving the performance and the return on investment for clean energy sources such as photovoltaic systems. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., eIQ Energys executive team combines sophisticated knowledge of power supply design, semiconductors and energy management with broad entrepreneurial skills. For more information, please visit www.eiqenergy.com About EcoOneEnergy EcoOneEnergy, LLC is a renewable energy systems developer and integrator specialist focused on renewable energy projects (PV solar and wind) for power generation and the reduction of energy consumption in the industrial, commercial and educational markets. The company's target markets are the Southwest United States and Mexico. Projects range in size from commercial roof mount systems to utility size PV solar ground mount and wind farm systems, anywhere from 1MW to 1GW in size.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011
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