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What’s So Bad About Big?
Matthew L. Wald, NY Times
“SMALL is beautiful,” wrote the economist E. F. Schumacher almost 35 years ago. In most areas of the economy, he reasoned, production had become too big and too centralized.
But he might have been wrong about the subject he knew most about: energy. When it comes to alternative ways of generating power, big may be better.
Wind, solar and other renewable-energy technologies that were once considered more appropriate for single homes or small communities are reaching levels of scale and centralizing that were formerly the province of coal- and gas-fired plants and nuclear reactors. In other words, green is going giant.
The companies that are building or dreaming up large projects argue that there are economies of scale to be gained.
(7 March 2007)
PG&E sees power in North Coast waves
Glenda Anderson, Santa Rosa Press-Democrat
Utility seeks approval to test waters as potential source of renewable energy
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The choppy waters off the coasts of Fort Bragg and Eureka are about to become a testing ground for harnessing wave energy under a new proposal by PG&E.
The energy generated from the ocean could someday give the North Coast a new identity as the hub of a renewable resource, even as its timber and fishing industries continue to decline.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on Tuesday asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approval to test the ocean’s energy-generating potential in an area of about 200 square miles off the Mendocino and Humboldt county coasts.
…A number of devices have been developed to capture wave energy. Some look like corks bobbing in the water. One is the shape of a snake and the size of a passenger train.
If PG&E’s permits are approved, it will still take about five years before the company actually begins testing, Lamberg said.
Wave generators already are being tested near the shores of New Jersey, Hawaii, Scotland, England and Australia. But they generate only about 4megawatts of power worldwide, Lamberg said.
“This is a very nascent technology,” he said.
(1 March 2007)
The article was pointed out by two of EB’s correspondents from Northern California: Jason Bradford and Shepherd Bliss. Shepherd writes:
The following article in the local daily here in Sonoma County reports on Pacific Gas and Electricity’s (PG&E) research into harnassing wave energy. Scotland and other countries already utilize wave energy. The North Coast of California and Hawai’i seem to be two of the geographical areas where this renewable energy source could be a good alternative to fossil fuels. Sleeper waves take a few people from the North Coast’s cliffs and beaches every year into the ocean’s substantial energy and Hawaii’s waves drown more people than anywhere else, so there is certainly considerable energy there.
Since PG&E named itself after the Pacific Ocean, it might as well start giving it more attention. Having been born on the Pacific Coast, having lived on it much of my life, and since it is the largest body of water on the Earth, it is time to understand that it is truly our Mother. We humans, after all, evolved from sea creatures with gills who eventually crawled to the land. Our future survival depends upon understanding where we came from. Go Pacific!
Analysis: Nile Basin energy future
Derek Sands, UPI
CAIRO — Plans to coordinate the energy resources of the Nile River basin countries are attracting international support, but some critics argue the plan’s reliance on large dams and electricity grids are inefficient and will distract from more effective energy alternatives.
Officials of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) met in Rwanda to celebrate Nile Day, and the group’s eighth anniversary, February 22, but some observers say the initiative should shift its focus from large hydroelectric projects to more diverse and small-scale energy development. ..
“In the run-up to building a large dam, alternative energy sources are rarely given a fair shake,” according to Lori Pottinger, who has written extensively on the Nile Basin Initiative, and is the Africa campaign’s director for the International Rivers Project, a group that promotes alternatives to large hydroelectric dam projects.
The 250 MW Bujangli Dam, planned for Uganda, is just one example of this trend, she said. “Not even counting their geothermal reserves, there is close to 400 MW of renewables and efficiency measures available now, with little pain.”
“Given that Uganda’s ongoing energy crisis is related to lower flows of the Nile out of Lake Victoria, it would be a wise plan for that government to diversify its supply. But instead, it is moving forward with another large dam, at huge cost,” Pottinger said. ..
(5 March 2007)
Green energy deals ‘mislead customers’
Martin Hickman, The Independant (UK)
Britain’s biggest energy companies have been investigated by the regulator Ofgem over the way they operate “green” schemes that offer the public the chance to be supplied with wind, wave and solar power.
Ofgem has told The Independent it is concerned that customers may be being misled about the actual impact of the so-called “green tariffs” on the generation of renewable energy. Instead of offering additional clean power, the companies have merely been selling green customers the renewables they are forced to buy by law anyway, often at a premium. ..
In fact they are only “repackaging” the renewable energy supply under the Government’s Renewable Obligations Order introduced in 2002. Even then they fail to meet these legal quotas, the campaigners complain. The result is that tens of thousands of customers are charged more for green tariffs, yet no extra green energy is produced as a result .
In a report, Virginia Graham, of the watchdog Energywatch, said: “Many green tariffs are not delivering the environmental benefits they claim to. As a result consumers may not be making the positive contribution they think they are. Many suppliers are doing little more than meeting legal requirements.” Of 12 green tariffs analysed by Energywatch, it deemed 10 to be disappointing. British Gas, for instance, has the largest green scheme with 80,000 customers but Energywatch concluded it was merely meeting the law. ..
(8 Mar 2007)
