Measuring China’s wind power potential

China’s wind power supply is increasing dramatically and a new report looks at what is needed to increase it even further

Full Story [The New York Times]

Youngsters influence families in climate change challenge

A climate change challenge on the B.C. coast has changed how kids view their impact on the environment.

Now, they can turn it around and change how their families’ perception too. The B.C. Sustainable Energy Association Climate Change Challenge was like an eco-marathon, where students had to complete 34 environmental tasks in 30 days.

Of the 550 students participating, two won first place by accomplishing all the given tasks. The prize was a new bicycle and helmet, awarded to two first prize winners: Alexander Mayrhofer from Nanaimo; and Lindsay Richards from Gabriola Island.

One of the tasks was abstaining from meat at least once a week, a task both winners found particularly challenging. Despite this, both students claim the month of living with the environment uppermost in mind has changed their daily lives for good.

This school year, teachers in B.C. can book a Climate Change Workshop in their classrooms. The B.C. Sustainable Energy Association uses a climate change game to illustrate how even the smallest everyday decisions can have a major impact.

The workshop may even inspire their students to have a 30 day challenge of their own. This year’s participants showed how much of a difference only a month can make: both in their own lives, and the lives of their friends and families.

The take-home lesson is what some parents may not necessarily have learned while they were in school. Namely, that doing your part for the environment can become an easy part of everyday life.

If that’s not a good lesson for kids, what is?

Wednesday Words

Grid | electric utility´s system for distributing power.

Smart grid | innovations to the energy network, such as the addition of electronics and “intelligence” to the generation, distribution and consumption of electricity

The Great Oil Sands Journey Part 4

Everyone wants a piece of the plump pump pie

Now you know how bitumen is separated from the sand and then upgraded and refined into a specific product. Once the oil is refined into, let’s say, gasoline – because it accounts for about 40 per cent of the crude oil volume processed by Canadian refiners – it is ready to be shipped via pipeline and sold on the market.

Wells to Wheels
Part four of a five-part series

Before we get into the details of how gasoline goes from your wheels to the wind in the form of emissions, we should quickly address another important topic relating to the marketing of oil products, like gasoline…the price.

The cost of gasoline is like Calgary’s weather. You don’t like it, wait five minutes. It tends to vary from day to day and city to city for a whole host of different reasons. The most dominant reason for local price changes is local competition among stations. ‘Joe Fuel’, owner of ‘Pass ‘n Gas’ fueling station has a lot of factors to consider when he sets his price. He has to find a price that is high enough to cover all his business operating costs, such as the wholesale cost of the gas and rent. Yet he also has to find a price that is low enough to attract customers.

Now, if ‘Joe Fuel’ sees that ‘John Juice’, owner of ‘Pump ‘n Ride’, from across the street has raised his price a little, Joe is probably going to adjust his price accordingly. It’s only fitting that the price of something as invisible as gas would be dictated by the invisible hand… think grandfather of capitalism, Adam Smith. Think back to grade nine social studies and laws of supply and demand. Something as simple as having a refinery break down can affect the supply and therefore the price shoots right up. Every year we see evidence of this as summer gas prices hit a peak when refineries close down temporarily for annual maintenance (decreasing supply) and everyone gets revved up to go on road trips (increasing demand).

If those factors aren’t enough, consider that wars can affect the supply of oil to Canada, and extreme weather conditions, like Hurricane Katrina, can affect both the supply of oil and gasoline.

“Ultimately, the full price you pay at the pump can be broken down into three components: 24.1 per cent goes to refining and marketing, which is all the stuff we just talked about, like operating costs and margins. 46.2 per cent is crude oil costs. Finally, the last component is as certain as death…taxes. The government also getst a piece of the pie…31.9 per cent to be exact.”

Next week: Wheels to Winds – Idling cars are the devil’s greenhouse

Google earth application maps carbon’s course

A Google earth application is helping scientists understand the behaviour of carbon dioxide emissions

Full Story [ScienceDaily]

Eco-friendly fireplaces pack sizzle

A new fireplace allows you to get warm while staying green

Full Story [Calgary Herald]

What’s it going to take?

If you build it – will the public come?

The Consumer Electronics Association conducted a study to determine consumer interest in energy-efficient technology. They found consumers are very interested – but only if there is a really good reason.

“Home Technologies and Energy Efficiency: A Look At Behaviors, Issues and Solutions” reveals consumers will tolerate an increase of 31 per cent in bills before taking action and independently investing in technology.

Slightly more than half said behavioral adjustments, combined with new technology, will reduce their home energy costs.  Consumers are interested in do-it-yourself solutions as much as professionally-installed ones.  Frequently, home improvement stores are the first places they turn when they feel like making a change.

They are also more likely than ever to take energy efficiency into consideration when making everyday purchasing decisions. Consumers have been shown to be aware of things like the Energy Star designation, and are using it to make smarter purchases.

Additionally, the study determined that while consumers need an incentive (i.e. increased utility bills), the demand for energy-efficient technology is on the rise overall. One-tenth of homes have had an energy audit.  Of those who had, 61% replaced their old electronics and appliances with more energy efficient ones.

With conventional energy becoming ever more costly, the CEA is certain that more and more consumers will be turned on to possibly investing in energy-efficient technology.

Sears Tower to undergo $350M green remodel

Chicago’s most iconic landmark is going green – and spending big bucks to get there. 

In an attempt to gain LEED status, the Sears Tower is undergoing $350 million renovations.  This remodeling effort will include green features such as solar panels, wind turbines and a roof garden.  The whole project will take approximately five years to complete.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification is awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council to buildings and communities with sustainable, eco-friendly design. Criteria include reduced CO2 emissions, water efficiency, improved indoor environment, sensitivity to resource use, and the impact of such use.

The plan for the Sears Tower should reduce its electricity use by 80 per cent and save 24 million gallons of water annually. Additionally, updates will be made to the restrooms, windows, elevators, lights, and mechanical systems – to make them all more efficient.

The hope is if an iconic building makes the effort to retrofit with green technology, others will follow. Corporate buildings are the world’s largest contributor to carbon emissions. The Sears Tower is using this as an opportunity to demonstrate their position as world leaders.

The renovations are not the only major change the Sears Tower has in store. The 110-story skyscraper was renamed the Willis Tower this summer, after London-based Willis Group Holdings, who will lease a large portion of the tower upon completion.

The Sears company has moved its headquarters to a suburban location, but remains in Chicago.

Athletes and Students Issue Challenge to Olympics

The Olympic motto may just be adding a fourth line: Faster, Higher, Stronger…Cleaner? 

Canadians are being invited to summon their Olympian ideals and join Project Blue Sky. The goal? One billion human-powered kilometers logged before the closing ceremonies of the Paralympic Games in March 2010.

It’s essentially an online carbon offset project. In conjunction with the Vancouver games, ordinary people alike are encouraged to join Canadian athletes in using Blue Sky’s widget. It logs distance walking, cycling, transit riding, hurdling – basically any travel that’s not driving or flying. 

The project was masterminded by Canadian Olympic Committee’s Athlete Council and Masters students at the Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver. After consulting Offsetters Clean Technology Inc. – official Carbon Offset Supplier of the Olympics for the website’s CO2 calculations – the company joined as a sponsor.

The website is billed as a “meeting place” for athletes and participants. Like other networking sites, registration is necessary but free. You can track your favourite participating athletes, share photos, and compete in the CO2 footprint event. Like golf, smaller numbers win. 

That said, you don’t have to visit the site every time you want to add a km or two. You don’t need to register in order to submit your own man-powered kilometers, and the widget can be moved to other social networking pages.

Membership does have its privileges, though. Athlete profile pages list their favourite movies, artists, and most importantly, why they were motivated to join the Blue Sky Project.

Pulp and Paper Biofuel

Lumber mills may soon be doing double duty.

It turns out wood chips and tree matter not useful for paper production might be useful in other ways. Specifically, they might be used in creating a biofuel – which could turn out to be an even better bet than corn-based ethanol.

Bio-butanol is a little harder to produce than ethanol. But it’s easier to transport, as it doesn’t corrode pipes. It can be used in an ordinary car engine, without the modifications required for ethanol. Its energy content is higher and is easier to combine with gasoline.

Perhaps best of all, it would not affect the food supply. It may, however, drive up the demand and cost for lumber and paper products, and therefore increase logging. Fine for loggers, bad for conservation.

The current model is to use existing paper mills to extract sugars from wood that otherwise goes to waste. These are then refined into biofuels. Mills in Sweden have been producing ethanol this way for a few years, but the Old Town Fuel & Fiber Mill in Maine believes bio-butanol is even better.

The government of Nova Scotia has allocated $20 million to the Minas Basin Pulp and Power Company Ltd. in Hantsport, to produce electricity from “forest byproducts,” and expand in order to produce biodiesel from plastics.

Even the federal government is offering a maximum of $1 billion to mills that use by-products to create energy, if they invest in improving their energy efficiency. Now that’s funding that does double duty.

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