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In the first-ever experiment of its kind, researchers have demonstrated that clean energy hydrogen can be produced from water splitting by using very small metal particles that are exposed to sunlight. In the article, "Outstanding activity of sub-nm Au clusters for photocatalytic hydrogen production," published in the journal Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, Alexander Orlov, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Materials Science & Engineering at Stony Brook University, and his colleagues from Stony Brook and Brookhaven National Laboratory, found that the use of gold particles smaller than one nanometer resulted in greater hydrogen production than other co-catalysts tested. Click headline to read more--
Environmental groups celebrated last fall when President Obama delayed the northern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that would pipe carbon-intensive tar sands crude from Canadian strip mines to refineries in Texas. Now that Obama is back in the White House for a second term, those same forces are banding together to encourage the president to kill the pipeline altogether. A new poll suggests that these groups have public opinion on their side. The polling outfit Zogby Analytics has just conducted a survey showing very strong support for renewable energy and minimal support for the Keystone pipeline among centrist voters. According to the poll, which was released by the National Wildlife Federation, independent voters say they would choose renewable energies like wind and solar over Keystone XL by a 4-1 margin. Only 12 percent chose Keystone as a priority. And among all voters surveyed across party lines, renewables received twice the support as fossil energies. Click headline to read more and access hot links--
Mobile device technology is changing the social and economic development landscape in East Africa. Mobile phones are powering revolutions in banking, in education, in healthcare, in the very way we relate to each other. Tablets and laptops will unleash their own disruptions as they propagate beyond the city center, following the mobile phone into everyone's lives. But before we are blinded by the hype, we need to ground ourselves in reality. There is still a digital divide in technology infrastructure. Not everyone has access to mobile phones, even less to tablets, and fewer to computers and the Internet. Also, the technologies we use today work well, but they could be so much better! Click headline to read more and access hot link to register to participate in the salon--
Fears are mounting across the energy industry that the Prime Minister's controversial plans to force companies to move customers on to the lowest available tariffs could cripple innovation across the industry, leading to the shelving of new green tariffs, electric car tariffs, and smart grid pilots. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey is this afternoon expected to use an appearance before the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee to reveal fresh details about how the government will make good on David Cameron's recent pledge to legislate "so that energy companies have to give the lowest tariff to their customers". The plan will be based on Ofgem's recent proposals to limit utilities to offering just four tariffs per meter type to customers, but is also expected to include an element of compulsion that will force utilities to move customers off "poor value dead tariffs" and on to the cheapest tariff available to them. "I am determined to ensure all consumers get a better deal on their energy bill and get the cheapest tariff they can," said Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey in a statement. Click headline to read more--
Bill Gates and Peter Thiel are funding it. Power companies are interested in it. Young bright minds are working on it. So what is it? That would be the next-generation of a technology called compressed air energy storage, which sucks up air, compresses it on demand, and stores it in tanks or underground caverns. When power is needed, the air is released. The technology might sound like some boring power infrastructure system — and it is. Basically. But air energy storage technology could also enable grid storage cheaply enough to help the solve the problem of adding variable clean power to the grid. Solar and wind power can only be generated at certain times of the day. If wind farms and solar projects were coupled with cheap energy storage like compressed air tech, it could make them a lot more economical. Click headline to read more and access hot links--
Helping to overcome the "Access in Africa" challenge, Bluwan, a provider of carrier-grade multi-gigabit wireless solutions, announced today that it has been selected by Somcable, Somaliland's largest integrated communications solutions provider, to deliver high capacity broadband access across the Horn of Africa, in a contract worth upwards of three million dollars. The solution will be delivered and integrated by Globecomm Systems, a leading global provider of managed network communication solutions, headquartered in New York. This system provides next generation last mile connectivity, leveraging Somcable's multi-million dollar investmentin its core fibre optic network. Bluwan's Fibre Through The Air (FTTA) Access solution capitalises on this substantial investment to deliver fibre-like capacity of up to 8 Gbps to wireless broadband end-users. Many emerging countries have been faced with a confusing plethora of technologies that all promise to increase internet connectivity and ease access to the knowledge economy. Bluwan is helping to overcome what has become known as the "access in Africa" challenge by simplifying connectivity options and reducing deployment costs with its flexible, high speed and high capacity wireless access solution. Click headline to read more--
A forthcoming trade mission between Britain’s Energy Coast businesses and Japan and South Korea shows the size of the opportunity opening up for Cumbria. That’s the view of the two men who have invested so much in the vision of Britain’s Energy Coast to deliver economic and social transformation for West Cumbria. As Britain’s Energy Coast’s outgoing acting chief executive, Tom Gilroy, 61, has done so much to get the West Cumbria Economic Blueprint to this stage – a key strategic document launched back in June. The delivery of the vision is now in the hands of 56-year-old Steve Szostak (pronounced Shostack) as the organisation’s newly-appointed chief executive. We meet up in Workington, both men around the same table, blueprint in the middle. The excitement about where BEC has come from, and where it is going, is palpable. Tom has done the job he set out to do, combining four previous organisations – BECWEC (formerly West Lakes Renaissance Urban Regeneration Company), West Cumbria Development Agency, West Cumbria Development Fund, and West Lakes Properties Limited into a single organisation – Britain’s Energy Coast. He has done this while maintaining the support of the three nuclear partners – Sellafield, Nuclear Management Partners, and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority – and the three local authorities – Cumbria, Copeland and Allerdale. He said: “It has simplified the situation for businesses and inward investors with one recognisable brand. “Before they were confused as to who did what, now they know who to go to. We are now a one-stop-shop.” Click headline to read more--
In the last 15 years, Nigeria has been participating in the ITU Telecom World event; however, the Country had its first National Pavilion in 2004 where ICT/ Telecom Stakeholders were Pavilion Partners, and in 2011ITU Telecom World in Geneva, Switzerland, Nigeria announced its Broadband Initiatives to the Global World. This year, because of Nigeria’s Broadband initiative; aimed at rapidly changing lives and approach to businesses through increased efficiency and attracting investment, the ITU Telecom World event is on a different note. The Nigerian Communications Commission took the campaign for Broadband investment to ITU Telecom World 2012, Dubai, UAE in order to attract investors in the Broadband deployment across the country. At the event, Omobola Johnson, Minister of Communication Technology, recommended basic connectivity, affordable access devices and service plans for greater inclusion of Nigerian women in the knowledge-based economy driven by ICTs just like their counterparts cross the globe. She made this recommendation at the Ministerial Roundtable discussion on “The Importance of Women in ICT” According to her, “reaching women through ICT demands basic connectivity, affordable access devices and service plans and encouraging adoption by making ICT relevant to women’s live through applications in health, literacy and economic empowerment.” Also, at the event, the indigenous computer manufacturing company, Zinox, got the attention of the government. Click headline to read more--
India may be on its way to becoming a major solar market, but that path is far from obstacle-free. Already reports are emerging about tales of growing pains, including component shortages, dust storms that impair solar projects and policy changes that threaten the use of renewable energy credits to bolster more solar development. A Bloomberg story, quoting an Indian government official, reported that roughly two-thirds of the planned 500 MW of solar thermal power projects will likely be delayed or shelved before they are due for completion in the first half of 2013. The assessment is a sober reminder that solar energy power plants are big construction projects that could be stalled by one of the many pieces that must come together to make them work. Securing permits and financing is typically a huge challenge even in places with policies and subsidies in place to promote solar energy development. California, for example, has seen delays and the demise of many solar energy projects. Historically, 30-40 percent of the proposed renewable energy projects (which would include not just solar but wind and others) have failed to become reality. Click headline to read more and access hot links--
The entire planet will be hurt by climate change, but a bleak new report by the World Bank says some of the poorest countries will feel its effects the most. “No nation will be immune to the impacts of climate change,” the report, “Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must Be Avoided,” says. “However, the distribution of impacts is likely to be inherently unequal and tilted against many of the world’s poorest regions, which have the least economic, institutional, scientific, and technical capacity to cope and adapt.” The World Bank warns that temperatures on Earth could rise more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) by 2100, bringing along with them some catastrophic consequences. Click headline to read more--
Out of the ashes of the Second World War emerged a Utopia vision -- rather than solve problems through military means, we could maintain the peace by investing across borders and promoting human rights. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is one of the main advocates of this Utopian vision along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This heady mix of human rights and commercial engagement was on display recently. The alchemy of this post-War Utopist order saw human rights activist Chen Guangcheng make his way to the United States. A recent U.S. Treasury-led award ceremony recognized the success of international infrastructure banks in advancing this vision. Given the broad support for international infrastructure banks, it was appropriately a bipartisan affair. Treasury Secretary Geithner explained why a bipartisan group got together to honor these Infrastructure Banks: 'Given the challenges facing the global economy today, our support for the Multilateral Development Banks has never been more important. Investments in these institutions are part of this Administration's strategy to strengthen economic growth.' Click headline to read more and access hot links--
Telvent is participating in a pioneer smart grid technology demonstration project in a rural area of Gotland, Sweden. The initiative is partly financed by the Swedish Energy Agency and is expected to conduct research and development in fields that will affect the quality of electricity supply, as well as market applications for integration of renewable sources. The project, which has a proposed budget of 25 million Euros ($32 million), is designed to show how new smart grid technologies can improve the electrical quality of large rural grids by utilizing large quantities of distributed power generation and advanced load management strategies. Håkan Gustavsson, project manager for Vattenfall, a partner on the project, says, “Gotland’s electrical grid already receives a large portion of its electricity from renewable sources. We are hopeful the project and expected results can be easily scaled up and used in other parts of Sweden, or internationally.” Click headline to read more--
By 2015, the worldwide market for cloud products and services is estimated to reach between € 50 bn and € 80 bn. Cloud computing is a factor for change thanks to an increased efficiency of computer infrastructure utilization and standardized offers leading to lower costs.
In order to "Unleash the Potential of Cloud Computing" Europe gears up to tackle a series of challenges and the EC Communication on Cloud computing released on September 27, 2012 identifies cutting through the jungle of standards as a one of the key actions to foster mass adoption thanks to a trusted environment.
To this end, ETSI is tasked to coordinate with partakers in the cloud standards ecosystems and devise standards roadmaps in support of EU critical policy in areas such as security, interoperability, data portability and reversibility. Click headline to read more and access hot links--
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Is there such a thing as too much wind power? The small city of Summerside, located on Canada's Prince Edward Island, is home to approximately 15,000 people and 21 MW of wind energy. However, sometimes the city does not need all that power and is forced to sell the excess to neighboring regions. A novel pilot program using electric heating and smart grid solutions aims to keep the wind power - and its associated benefits - within the city. In 2003, the city's municipal government worked on a strategic plan to make its community greener, and the city ultimately decided to build and own its own wind power project. Aptly named the Summerside Wind Farm, the 12 MW project was commissioned in 2009 and comprises four Vestas 390 3 MW wind turbines. Under the city's general fund, the taxpayers own the wind farm and sell the power to the municipal utility, Summerside Electric, which services about 7,000 customers and is contracted to buy all of the project's energy. In addition, Summerside Electric purchases another 9 MW of wind power from West Cape Energy, a company located on Prince Edward Island, for local use. Combined, both sources give the utility 50% wind integration. But there is a problem: Summerside Electric has a peak load of 23 MW, a minimum load of 11 MW and an average load of 18 MW. With a wind capacity of 21 MW, the utility often has to sell surplus wind power to entities outside the city’s borders. So why build and purchase so much wind energy in Summerside? Greg Gaudet, director of municipal services for the City of Summerside, explains that it makes more sense for the utility and community to have a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to power needs. “When we looked forward, we said we’re not going to have this excess forever. Our load and community are going to grow,” Gaudet tells Renew Grid. “We could’ve either built just enough for what we currently need - which, in my opinion, means we would have been starting out already behind - or we could build for the future and have a little excess now. That will lead to more opportunities.” Click headline to read more and access hot links--
A Missouri appeals court has upheld polices developed by state utility regulators to implement a voter-approved law that requires greater use of renewable fuels. The Missouri Public Service Commission wrote administrative rules for the law passed in 2008. The statute forces investor-owned utilities to use increasing amounts of renewable resources to produce electricity. The administrative rules were challenged by an industry group for investor-owned utilities, power companies and an organization for industrial energy consumers. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals' Western District rejected the legal challenge and upheld the administrative rules. Click headline to read more--
We have arrived at a historical moment of economic crisis where no exit appears visible. The limits of financialization and the “service” economy have been reached. The way forward is through a return to developing the real economy. However, we are also at the limits of globalization. Technological advances and their commercialization with new products, though necessary, will not solve the problem. Most countries plan to produce more engineers and PhDs in the sciences to innovate out of the morass. Yet, globally, we are already producing more people with high levels of education for which they will find no meaningful roles. In the US, many science postdocs can’t get tenure and seek out alternative opportunities. Others supplement adjunct salaries with poverty relief programs, while scores more abandon their chosen disciplines seeking alternative lines of work. China, which is producing vastly more technical specialists than the US, is finding it hard to generate jobs that match the skills and expertise that are being acquired. This problem will be compounded as universities around the world disgorge increasing numbers of highly trained specialists. Meanwhile, states with few natural resources and little manufacturing are pursuing austerity policies in an attempt to escape the present crisis. The result has often been a further deepening of economic problems. Energy-rich countries are temporarily in better financial shape, but not as good as assumed just a few years ago. Advances in extraction technologies for gas and oil mean energy prices will be lower than previously forecast. In short, we are moving towards energy price declines as reserves for oil and gas have risen over earlier forecasts, which will slow the growth of “green economy” jobs. Click headline to read more--
Pike Research is predicting a 40 percent increase in the global capacity of spinning reserves by 2020 due to the increasing complexity of the smart grid, diversity of power generation assets and more sophisticated control capabilities. Spinning reserves are power generation or storage assets that can come online quickly to serve as bridge power for the grid. Revenue from the market will more than double by 2022, Pike concludes. Natural gas and coal plants will still account for 93 percent of total spinning reserves capacity by 2022, but energy storage will grow to 7 percent of capacity in the same time frame, according to the research. "The traditional technologies that deliver spinning reserves, including all types of dispatchable power plants, are mature and well-understood," said Pike Research Analyst Anissa Dehamna. "However, energy storage technologies, including pumped storage and newer forms of energy storage, are playing a larger role in this market. As markets begin to differentiate between technologies, such as with pay-for-performance regulations, energy storage technologies will gain market share in the spinning reserves market." Click headline to read more--
Despite warnings from scientists and environmental groups that global warming will be unstoppable if carbon emissions do not peak within a few years, 59 countries, led by China and India, are planning to expand their coal-powered energy sources. A report by the World Resources Institute found that the global coal trade rebounded after a slight dip in 2008, rising by 13 percent in 2010. The trade has shifted substantially away from Europe and the U.S. toward China, which became a net importer of coal in 2009, and Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Germany, the U.K. and France remain in the top 10 of importers, with coal use rising 4 percent in Europe in 2011 as prices fell and plants slated to close raced to use their allotted running hours. Indonesia and Australia are the largest coal exporters. Australia plans to triple its capacity to mine, store and ship coal to almost 1 billion metric tons a year. Click headline to read more--
The GSMA today revealed that sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest-growing mobile market in the world, with a prodigious average annual growth rate of 44 per cent since 2000(1). Mobile connections have leapt to 475 million, compared to just 12.3 million fixed line connections, representing the highest proportion of mobile versus fixed line connections in the world. With necessary spectrum allocations and transparent regulation, the mobile industry could fuel the growth of 14.9 million new jobs in sub-Saharan Africa between 2015 and 2020. Based on research from Deloitte, the GSMA sub-Saharan Africa Mobile Observatory(2) provides a comprehensive evaluation of the region’s mobile industry and its socio-economic impact. “Mobile has already revolutionised African society and yet demand still continues to grow by almost 50 per cent a year,” said Tom Phillips, Chief Government and Regulatory Affairs Officer, GSMA. “To create an environment that supports and encourages this immense growth, it is imperative that governments work in partnership with mobile operators to enable the industry to thrive throughout the region, ultimately providing affordable options to connect its citizens.” The region has some of the highest levels of mobile internet usage globally. In Zimbabwe and Nigeria, mobile accounts for over half of all web traffic at 58.1 per cent and 57.9 per cent respectively, compared to a 10 per cent global average. 3G penetration levels are forecast to grow by 46 per cent through 2016 as the use of mobile-specific services develops. Click headline to read more--
As we look ahead to the next four years, President Obama and Congress have an opportunity to show their leadership on an issue that will greatly benefit all Americans: the preservation of our country’s natural heritage. Now is the time for our political leaders to take action to protect the natural resources that strengthen our economy, create jobs and make us more healthy and secure. Yesterday, voters across the country agreed that conservation is a worthwhile investment. Forty-six out of 57 state and local conservation funding measures passed, for an approval rate of 81%. That makes 2012 one of the most successful years for conservation ballots measures ever. These measures will generate over $1 billion for land and water protection. Federal and state governments should follow the lead of these voters and take the following actions now: Click headline to read more--
One of the more persistent myths in our political dialogue is that we must tradeoff environmental sustainability and economic growth. This is probably reinforced by a fact, pointed out to me recently by my Columbia faculty colleague, Michael Gerrard. Professor Gerrard noted that we have not had a major new piece of federal environmental legislation enacted in over two decades. The structure of U.S. environmental law is based on the assumption that economic development pollutes, and that the goal of environmental policy was to clean up or reduce pollution after it was created. The sustainability perspective is quite different. Sustainability management is the practice of economic production and consumption that minimizes environmental impact and maximizes resource conservation and reuse. As opposed to the political debate regarding environmental protection -- which claims there is a tradeoff between environmental protection and economic production -- the sustainability management framework demonstrates that continued economic prosperity is dependent on the health of the environment. Pollution is seen as a form of waste that should be eliminated by careful and sophisticated production processes. Click headline to read more--
Last month I reported on the exciting decision made at the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development to build a truly trans-sectoral project aimed at the worldwide eradication of malaria. The lack of proper communication systems in the areas affected by malaria – mainly Sub-Sahara – and the need for quick action are critical elements in the fight against malaria. These elements are the main reason there are still 750,000 deaths from malaria every year – mainly children. The disease is not preventable but if diagnosed within 24 hours it can be treated. The medicine itself costs 80 cents and the blood test needed to diagnose the disease also costs 80 cents, so these are no longer factors that prevent society from tackling the disease. What makes the Broadband Commission an ideal platform to address this issue is the fact that broadband technology can be a catalyst in solving the communication problem, and that the Commission takes a holistic approach towards broadband as a facility to solve problems in relation to healthcare, the environment, energy saving, education and the digital economy. Current efforts towards the UN Millennium Development Goals have been fragmented and silo-based, which stops the upscaling of projects, while many of the issues the Broadband Commission is advocating can be addressed by effective broadband policies. Click headline to read more--
Google reported sales of more than $4 billion in Britain last year. It paid less than $10 million in taxes. Some tax collectors, lawmakers and competitors of Google in Europe say this is unfair. As governments throughout the region seek to close gaping holes in their budgets, they are taking aim at United States multinational companies, especially Internet giants like Google and Amazon.com, which pay little or no taxes in Europe, despite generating billions of dollars in revenue on the Continent. “Why on earth do you manipulate your accounts so that you get away with not paying corporation tax in the U.K.?” Margaret Hodge, a member of Parliament, asked representatives of Google, Amazon and Starbucks last week, during a heated committee hearing in London. In France, tax collectors have gone further. Amazon says it has received a bill from France for taxes and penalties related to the “allocation of income between foreign jurisdictions” from 2006 through 2010. Other companies, including Google, are also reportedly in the French authorities’ sights. “Even if the Internet is a zone of freedom, it shouldn’t be a lawless zone,” Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a spokeswoman for the French government, said last week. “Fiscal rules should be able to be applied to those activities as well.” Google, Amazon, Starbucks and other American companies facing tax scrutiny say they are doing nothing wrong. They use complex accounting strategies to exploit national differences across Europe in corporate tax rates, which range from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent, and loopholes that can reduce their effective European tax levies to almost nothing. Click headline to read more--
Gary in Sales is today's worst offender, again. He's clocked up 2.3 kilowatt hours (kWh) this time, a personal worst. He never switches off his PC before he leaves work, and keeps a personal kettle. More surprising is that Sue in marketing is not far behind him at 2.1kWh. But then she been known to leave her electric hair tweezers charging overnight. Could this be the office gossip of the near future? Conversations like this are already happening amongst Prof Nick Jennings's team at Southampton University, where he is testing out his smart energy software. His students have signed up as guinea pigs. Their workstation areas, equipped with power-hungry gear, are rigged up to a central database which then displays a league of shame on a monitor. The team is working on software to help people cut their energy use without having to spend too much time working out how to do it. Firms including British Gas already offer software allowing consumers to monitor and control their central heating from afar. The intention is to take this to the next level with a system that can analyse the energy use of every device in a home and suggest ways to use them more efficiently - or simply to replace them with better, cheaper-to-run equipment. Click headline to read more--
Was it just me or did President Obama sound unprepared for a question on climate change at his press conference on Wednesday? Considering climate change is a top national issue, I was expecting a much stronger response from the President. Here's a breakdown of the three things he flubbed and my perspective on how to tune up the President's message on the issue. Click headline to read more and access hot links--
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