Green Earth Africa

As the Earth warms and the world’s population grows, competition for dwindling supplies of fresh water will intensify. As the biggest industrial user of water, the energy sector can either fight to maintain its share, or learn to conserve.

The stakes are high. As Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, put it, “water is the new oil.”

For utilities especially, water is precious. They use it most of all to cool steam generators that may be driven by coal, natural gas, nuclear or even solar energy.

In 2008, at least one nuclear reactor, inAlabama, shut down briefly because water supplies dried up during the great Southeast drought that summer. Reactors in Western Europe shut down during the 2006 heat wave and were threatened by asharp drop in river levels again this year.

Most climate models predict that the drought-stricken Southwestern United States will grow even drier and hotter–like Texas–as global warming progresses. That will harm the energy sector along with agriculture, tourism and recreation, and many other kinds of industry.

“The competition between water and energy needs represents a critical business, security, and environmental issue, but it has not yet received the attention that it deserves,” said Diana Glassman, co-author of a report by the World Policy Institute and EBG Capital on “The Water-Energy Nexus.”

“Energy production consumes significant amounts of water, and vice versa. In a world where water scarcity is a major and growing challenge, water deserves a place on the energy agenda alongside cost, carbon and security considerations.”

The report notes that coal- and oil-fired power plants use twice as much water as natural gas-fired plants. Nuclear plants use three times as much.

Some of the biggest water hogs are oil extractors, according to the report. Mining the thick tar sands of Canada may require 20 times more water than conventional oil drilling. In parts of parched south and west Texas, natural gas fracking may be curtailed due to lack of water.

Renewable energy isn’t exempt from this problem. Although wind and solar photovoltaic plants use little or no water, water-cooled solar thermal plants use five times as much as gas-fired plants. (Some solar thermal producers, like BrightSource Energy, have switched to air cooling to save water at their desert sites, despite the loss of some generating efficiency.)

And biofuels fermented from soybeans or corn “can consume thousands of times more water than traditional oil drilling, primarily through irrigation,” according to the World Resources Institute.

The best solutions—because they carry so many benefits—are programs to conserve energy and water consumption. Water-related users in California account for about 19 percent of the state’s electricity consumption, so every gallon saved through drip irrigation or improved industrial processes saves energy. Similarly, every kilowatt-hour saved means less need to build or operate power plants that use precious water.

PG&E and other utilities are also installing new air or “dry” cooling systems on their power plants that save more than 90 percent of the water required by traditional “wet” cooling.

Last but not least, wind and solar photovoltaic plants will help out as they replace traditional fossil generation. A thousand megawatts of wind power can save 1.3 billion gallons of water annually, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Speyside combined heat and power plant to harness energy from distillery waste

Tidal energy could provide a quarter of the UK’s electricity, but renewable experts are lukewarm because they are overestimating the cost

Underwater 10 megawatt tidal stream project in the Sound of Islay between the Hebridean islands of Islay and Jura. Photograph: ScottishPower Renewables

UN’s climate change science body says renewables supply, particularly solar power, can meet global demand

A solar power plant in the Mojave desert. Photograph: AP

The stories of thoughtful citizens who are trying to make great green ideas a reality.

The gigantic waste hauling company Waste Management has been transforming itself into something of a jolly green giant, given its recycling operations, landfill gas recovery and sewage-to-biofuel ventures. In its latest move, company signed an agreement with the research firm Genomatica to develop processes for converting municipal landfill gas to basic chemical products that are in turn used to manufacture plastics and many other chemical products. It’s an important step forward for the green chemistry movement, which seeks to use renewable or non-toxic feedstocks in chemical manufacturing.

Chemicals from Syngas

Petroleum, natural gas, and gassified coal are conventional feedstocks forsyngas (synthetic gas), which can be burned as fuel or used to manufacture other products. Since biomass and waste materials can also be used to make syngas, there is a potential to shift away from fossil feedstocks and focus more on renewables. However, until now the process for converting syngas to other chemicals has been energy intensive and not widely applicable.

Energy Efficient Syngas from Landfills

Genomatica’s solution is an energy efficient, microbe-based process. It has proven successful on various renewable feedstocks including plain sugar. The company’s first product is “green” 1,4-butanediol, a chemical which is used to manufacture plastics. It is also the foundation for other chemical products. Now the challenge is to develop a microbe that is hardy enough to chew through gas produced from municipal solid waste.

New Life for Waste Gas

Municipal landfills aren’t the only places where renewable gas feedstocks can be harvested from waste. Over in New Zealand, a company called LanzaTech has developed a microbe-based process for converting waste gas from steel mills into ethanol. It sure makes a lot more sense to harvest chemical feedstocks from steel mills and landfills, rather than blowing up mountains or putting our coastal communities at risk.

Image: Landfill by D’Arcy Norman on flickr.com.

(Image: Ryan McVay/Getty)

Popeye was right all along: to generate energy all we need is sunlight and spinach.

Researchers have long attempted to mimic the way in which photosynthetic organisms use the energy from sunlight to break down water into oxygen and hydrogen, with the latter then reacting with carbon dioxide to produce sugars.

Now a team led by Hugh O’Neill at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee has combined light-harvesting proteins with compounds known as block copolymers and a platinum catalyst to produce a membrane that generates hydrogen from sunlight.

The team extracted light harvesting complex II (LHC-II) proteins from spinach. They then added them to a liquid containing the copolymers and sodium hexachloroplatinate, which is converted into platinum in the presence of sunlight and the proteins. 

The proteins interact with the copolymers, self-assembling to form layered sheets like those found naturally in photosynthetic membranes. When the team studied these sheets using a technique called small-angle neutron scattering analysis, in which a beam of neutrons is fired at the sample and the refracted radiation is measured to determine what elements are present, they found that the membranes were producing hydrogen. What’s more, they continued to do so for over 100 hours.

The protein molecules absorb sunlight and release electrons, transferring them to the nearby platinum molecules. The platinum then catalyses the reduction of protons to hydrogen gas, which is readily usable as fuel.

Schengchang, a new Chinese clean air company, recognized that China had become the largest CO2 emitter in the world by 2008. Because of its rapid development, China had become dependent on coal, which was detrimental for the environment and contributing to toxic air pollution.

To combat this problem, Shengchang, developed Biomass technology. Biomass, which significantly reduces carbon emissions, uses agricultural waste from farmers and is considered “clean fuel.” In fact, burning 10,000 pounds of biomass instead of coal reduces about 14,000 tons of CO2 per day. This both lessens air pollution and increases the income of farmers, who are paid in exchange for their waste. The company has developed six types of Biomass “briquettes” that are used for boilers and stoves.

Schenghang’s technological developments are both innovative and promising for the future of China’s environment.

Written by Megan Treacy on 15/11/10

Knowing what we know now about climate change, it’s clear that the tangled web of black asphalt roads that outlines our country is working against us.  Asphalt can absorbs tons of heat, often reaching temperatures of up to 140 degrees in the summer and the process by which it’s made isn’t environmentally friendly either, but there may be a way to turn that pavement into an energy resource.

Researchers at the University of Rhode Island have come up with four ways to harness the solar energy absorbed by pavement and put it to good use and they’re working on ways to implement them now.

The first, and the simplest, is is to wrap flexible solar PV cells around the top of Jersey barriers that divide highways.  Those cells would power streetlights and illuminate road signs.  Cells could also be embedded in the pavement between the barriers and rumble strip.

The second is to embed water-filled pipes under the asphalt and the heat from the sun would warm the water.  That water could be piped to bridges to melt ice and reduce the need for road salt and ice-clearing trucks.  It could also be piped to nearby buildings for hot water and heating needs or converted to steam to turn a turbine.

Because asphalt retains heat really well, the pipes would stay warm even after sunset.  Tests have shown the water can even get hotter than the asphalt.

The third use is to use a thermo-electric effect to generate energy.  By linking a hot and cold spot with two types of semiconductors, a small amount of electricity can be generated in the circuit.  Those thermo-electric materials could be embedded in the road (some in sunny parts and some in shady ones) and the energy produced could be used could to defrost roads.

The fourth use is the most complex and it involves getting rid of the asphalt completely and replacing it with huge electronic blocks that contain PV cells, LED lights and sensors.  The blocks would generate electricity, illuminate lanes and emit warnings when maintenance was needed.  The researchers say this technology already exists but is very expensive.  They see this technology coming to parking lots before roadways.

Brazil would not be the first nation to become rich from its resources – but its challenge is to compete economically without destroying its environment

The Itaipu hydroelectric dam stands along the Parana River in Foz do Iguacu, Brazil. Photograph: Adriano Machado/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Outside Dr Gilberto Cãmara’s office, there is a large and beautiful satellite map of Brazil. From the fractal elegance of the Amazon and its tributaries, to the ochre fields holding sugar, soy and cattle, to the twinkling mega-cities of São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro in the south, the map shows why he thinks Brazil can be the world’s first environmental superpower.

Cãmara leads Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). His startling claim, he explains in his easy English, rests on turning a piece of standard economic theory on its head. Nations develop their economies by moving up the value chain, away from churning out commodities and towards manufacturing, say the textbooks. Brazil has abundant natural resources, so the key to prosperity is to start making stuff, right? Wrong, he says, because of the “China effect“.

China mass manufactures at rock bottom prices, with the consequence that over the past two decades the cost of manufactured goods has fallen fast, while demand has pushed up cost of the commodities used to make the goods.

Camara has adopted the slogan: “Brazil – the natural knowledge economy“. He describes this as applying knowledge and technology to commodities to boost their value, and reels off examples: biofuels, in which Brazil leads world research thanks to its sugar cane ethanol and growing biodiesel production; renewable energy – 47% of the country’s energy is already green, a world record; and climate change – Brazil’s Amazon is vital to the planet’s health. Of course, it also has plenty of timber, beef, iron and aluminium, though he doesn’t boast about those.

“Brazil’s natural knowledge economy offers more opportunities for internal [national] research than our manufacturing industry,” he says. “There is no opportunity in, say cars, as VW designs those in Germany.” Camara also suggests the approach will allow Brazil to avoid the “resources curse“, reeling off Venezuela, Angola, Saudi Arabia and Sierra Leone as examples. Brazil wouldn’t be the first nation to get rich on its resources, but it aims to be the first to do without destroying its own economy or environment.

So what are the catches? Having just travelled through the Amazon and then to meet ministers and other senior officials in the capital Brasilia, as well as scientists and green campaigners, I can think of a few: the country’s jumbo oil discoveries, continuing deforestation, fast rising energy needs, a vast rich-poor divide and widespread local corruption and insecurity, not to mention whether they can find a way to get paid the premium needed to fund environmental responsibility.

First, let’s take the vast oil finds off the coast of Rio – 50bn barrels of it – which within a few years will make Brazil a global petro-power. That, Brazil’s special ambassador for climate change Sergio Serra told me, presents a “big challenge”.

“Our present policy is not to change the energy mix,” he said, which is currently dominated by hydroelectric power and biofuels. “But of course the temptation will be great, enormous.” An economy supercharged by petrol would not be very environmental.

Keeping to your greenhouse gas emissions pledges would be, on the other hand. And, gushing oil or not, environment minister Izabella Teixeira, says Brazil will meet its 2020 targets, which are pretty tough for an emerging country like Brazil. The key is stopping deforestation, particularly in the Amazon, and the latest figures suggest they are making fast progress. But populist changes proposed to the Forest Code laws protecting the forest, bolstered by Brazil’s chasm between rich and poor and allegations of a rich world conspiracy to keep Brazil poor, pose a serious threat.

Nonetheless, Teixeira is clear that the economic development of the Amazon region, and the infrastructure to achieve it, will forge ahead. This despite protests such as those that attracted Avatar director James Cameron to the Belo Monte dam site recently. “I cannot forget this region,” she tells me. “When we talk of hydropower, 66% of the potential is still in the Amazon. Can you imagine a country that has this not using this? Impossible.”

Maurio Zimmermann, the energy minister, shows an equally green conviction with a series of verbal punches: 50% of the fuel in Brazil’s cars is ethanol; the government auction to buy 2,400MW of wind power was oversubscribed by four times; Brazil is on target to be the second biggest uranium producer; carbon capture and storage experiments are underway.

He also mentions the 13 million Brazilians who have gained access to electricity for the first time in the last few years, with the final 300,000 switching on the lights next year. A tremendous achievement, and one he happily admits will drive up demand for power.

Another bold claim comes from the head of the country’s environmental protection agency, Ibama. Basking in the glow of the latest deforestation figures and Brazil’s resurgent economy, Américo Tunes says his agency’s enforcement work has broken the historic link between growth and consumption of the rainforest. “In the presence of political will and dedication, we can cut deforestation without damaging economic growth. It is absolutely not true that you cannot.”

But Brazil is vast – about four times bigger than western Europe – and local corruption is rife. An Ibama enforcement officer tells me that the masterminds behind major deforestation are often local politicians. The legal system can be sclerotic – just 0.3% of all the 250,000 fines imposed by Ibama have been paid. And the populist calls to tear up the land in the name of development have millions of eager listeners.

Brazil is at a major fork in the road on its journey to prosperity. One path is rough, with few signposts and has never been walked by any country: the route to growth without environmental and atmospheric vandalism. The other is well paved and lit, with an easy-to-follow map. It is called business as usual, though it may very well end in a sheer drop. Success is far from assured, but Brazil appears ready to take on the hard road and prove that “environmental superpower” is not an oxymoron.

• Damian Carrington’s travel expenses were paid for by the Brazilian government. They had no say in the content of this article