Guest Post – Subtle Signs of Energy tilt toward alternative fuels by Rebecca Jones

Our final post of 2011 is a guest post by Rebecca Jones. I want to say to Rebecca that I appreciate your work on this alternative energy article and know all of my readers will enjoy it. At the end of the article are some links to contact Rebecca.

Subtle Signs of Energy tilt towards alternative fuels
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has just released its report, ‘The International Energy Outlook 2011′, that makes projections for world energy consumption to the year 2035. The report makes sobering reading for people concerned with sustainable development and abatement of CO2 emissions. The total global energy use is to increase 53% between 2008 (the base data year) and 2035, rising from 505 quadrillion (that is a 1000 trillion) BTU to 770 quadrillion BTU. This growth is primarily from the growth in energy usage in China and India, as those economies continue their high growth rates. In all of the OECD countries, in comparison, energy usage will grow moderately from about 250 quadrillion BTU to about 300 quadrillion BTU. This comes as no surprise as the OECD countries already have high living standards and very low population growth. The sobering aspect of this report is that for the next 25 years, power production will continue to use coal and road transportation will continue to use liquid fuels, which means that the CO2 emissions will continue.
The report predicts that the share of coal fired power plants in energy production in 2035 will remain over 40% as it is today. Both China and India have large coal deposits. To be sure, the new power plants will apply pollution abatement measures like super-critical boilers, wet and dry scrubbing of flue gases and coal washing prior to firing in the boiler. These steps will help reduce only a part of the CO2 emissions and at enormous additional capital costs. The total energy related CO2 emissions are projected by the EIA to grow 43% from 30.2 billion tons in 2008 to 43.2 billion tons in 2035. This is only 10% lower than the projected growth in energy production.
A very similar concern is with liquid fuels, 82% of which is used for road transportation. Liquid fuels consumption will grow from 97.6 million barrels per day in 2008 to a projected 112.2 million barrels a day in 2035, representing 46% growth. This growth is of the same order of magnitude as the 53% growth in power production. Road transportation is the second biggest source of CO2 emissions, after power production.
The EIA projections, therefore, do not envision the world becoming significantly better at containing CO2 emissions in the next 25 years. Renewable energy sources like Solar and Wind account for about 7% of global energy production in 2008 and that share will only increase marginally by 2035, despite all the attention focused on this field. Nuclear power which accounts for about 13% in global energy production is beset by the post-Fukushima jitters and is unlikely to play the part some people hoped for.
The alternative fuels that are being attempted are shale gas, coal bed methane and coal to liquid conversion, oil sands in Canada and bio-fuels. Shale gas production by hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ has concerns about emissions and leakage into water streams and aquifers. Coal bed methane and coal to liquid technologies are still evolving. Oil sands projects in Canada are promising, but need very high investments and the extraction is in extreme climatic conditions. Growing crops like corn for bio-ethanol production caused food prices to increase worldwide. Oil Palm plantations in Indonesia were created by destroying forest cover. A new approach is to use only agricultural waste like corn stalks, wheat straw, wood industry wastes and sugarcane bagasse as raw material for bio-fuel production. Small steam digesters have been designed that can be set up at agricultural centers at comparatively low capital costs to produce bio-fuels. These bio-fuels can only be used to blend with petroleum based liquid fuels up to about 20%, but would still represent savings in fossil fuel usage and reduced emissions. The small capacity of individual plants would need infrastructure for pumping and piping the bio-fuel to central refining plants where they could be blended with petro-fuels.
A recent survey conducted in India by the Mercom Capital group reported low awareness of renewable energy or energy efficiency but a remarkably high 71% of the respondents willing to pay higher for renewable energy. This finding may represent the willingness to pay for reliable energy supply, rather than the nature of the energy being supplied.
In China, there are recent reports of increased awareness of environment issues in the stories of people forcing a chemical plant to shift operations and a polluting solar plant to shut down. These examples suggest the need for increased energy consumer education on environment issues so that the support for energy conservation and shift to cleaner fuels takes place in China and India where the major growth if fossil fuel usage will take place in the next 25 years.
The EIA report projects continued CO2 emissions, in more or less the same manner as we have done in the past. This is despite the much greater awareness of the dangers of global warming that has been created in the past few years.

About the author: Rebecca is a blogger and writer. She loves writing on technology and lifestyle. Beside this she has a bend towards eco friendly products. These days she is busy in writing on green design ideas.

email: rebeccajones1007@gmail.com
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As always, may God richly bless you now and throughout the coming year.

Guest post by Amanda Kidd

About the author: Amanda Kidd is a blogger who is very fond of gadgets. She enjoys hacking from
software modification point of view. She is always into buying new gadgets upcoming in the market and
currently planning to buy an android tablet. These days she is busy in writing on eco friendly gadgets and recycled materials. Please contact Amanda directly through these following links.

amandakidd@gmail.com
facebook.com/profile/amandakidd
twitter.com/amandakidd1

This is an excellent guest post from South Africa. Solar energy has enormous potential in several locations around our world. Hope you enjoy this post by Sandy through Phil Smulian.

South African solar energy landscape: sunshiny or sunburnt?
South African solar energy is on the up-and-up. Or it’s not delivering on its potential. It depends who you speak to. There is no doubt that the country has enormous promise. According to Dominic Goncalves, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan, land designated for the Upington Solar Park, in the Northern Cape, has the highest levels of solar radiation in the world. But instead of looking at ways to leverage its potential, the country still invests heavily in coal and is keen to explore nuclear alternatives.
Last year South Africa was granted a $3.8 billion loan from the World Bank to invest in energy production. Most of the money was destined for a coal plant – which had environmentalists in a tizz – but the nature of the loan specified that a certain amount had to be spent on renewable energy. The Upington Solar Park, which uses concentrated solar power, was one recipient. The other was the Sere Wind Farm near Koekenap on the West Coast.
Both projects were given another shot in the arm when, at the beginning of June 2010, Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba announced that the African Development Bank had approved a loan for the development of renewable energy. The $260 million from the World Bank and the $365 from the African Development Bank will help fund the projects, which are expected to cost in the region of$1.5 billion. But this obviously leaves quite a shortfall.
Private sector bailout
South Africa has an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which intends to see renewable energy provide 9% of the country’s energy needs by 2030. Apparently concentrated solar power (CSP) is expected to deliver only 2.4% of energy, photovoltaics (PV) 19.7% and wind 19.7%.
This is not how Siemens Concentrated Solar Power thinks it should pan out. Given that the company has a vested interest in CSP; it maintains that concentrated solar power is more stable than PV technology. Although a spokesperson conceded that CSP would have to be backed up by gas or coal, making hybrid plants the best solution.
The money for these plants – CSP or PV – will come, for the most part, from private companies, like Brightsource Energy. Brightsource Energy specialises in CSP technology. It has partnered with Alstom to work on solar power projects all over the world. Now they have turned their attention to South Africa. But, despite the enormous success of previous and current ventures, and backing from companies like Google, Brightsource Energy and Alstom can’t do it alone. They need buy-in from local companies.
International companies are eying South Africa as a potential candidate for solar energy investment. But unless local companies show confidence in the market, some element of doubt will remain.
It doesn’t help that despite paying lip-service to the need for renewable energy, the government is dragging its feet on important issues such as feed-in tariffs.
Interestingly, the fact that the country is behind in the solar energy race could act in its favour, as Goncalves says it will benefit from the trial and error of other projects. The primary benefits include cheaper, more effective technology and more efficient planning.
Having potential is one thing, meeting it is another. South Africa has the capability to meet a significant portion of its energy needs through solar power. All it needs to do is create an environment conducive to investment – local and foreign.

For more information, visit Phil’s South African client’s site at www.mediatorr.com or Phil’s green publication site at http://thegreenery.southerncrossroads.info &

As always, all the best to you and may God bless you. Tim

Since climbing on a rooftop is time consuming and not as productive as in years past, I assumed that others felt the same way. When aerial pictometry was first brought to my attention by Ashley Jackson, I thought it made good sense. Ashley subsequently offered to write the following article.

example 1 - aerial pictometry

Providing oblique angle images of properties throughout the United States, Pictometry offers the most advanced set of technologies that allow solar installation contractors to pre-qualify jobs right from their computer, show customers exactly what the job will entail, and save them time and money, while allowing contractors to work at a fast and accurate pace to satiate the rising demand of solar energy.

Additional information about Pictometry is available online at http://www.pictometryonline.com/ or by calling 866-389-4645. B e sure to let it be known that Ashley Jackson was instrumental in bringing you this information about aerial pictometry. Ashley sent me a second picture that is not displayed because of a technical difficulty. but was more detailed than the one shown. I haven’t asked her but I’m sure she would be glad to send it to you. Her contact e-mail is ashleyj@dittoepr.com.

I’ve practiced my physical therapy on this typing keyboard so I’ll bid you “adieu” till the next time. May God richly bless you and yours, Tim

Please feel free to leave a comment, suggestion or question by clicking on the “comments” link immediately following this post.

As promised, an installment of Ellen LaConte’s Garden Wisdom.

Ellen LaConte

Food for Thought: Five Signs That Backyard Gardening Might Soon Be a Survival Skill
1. Rising produce prices. The grass has ’riz and so has the price of most foods, which is particularly devastating just now when so many Americans are unemployed, underemployed, retired or retiring, or on declining or fixed incomes. In some American towns, and not just impoverished backwaters, as many as 30 percent of residents can’t afford to feed themselves and their families sufficiently, let alone nutritiously. Here in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina where I live, it’s 25 percent.
Across the country, one out of six of the elderly suffers from malnutrition and hunger. And the number of children served one or two of their heartiest, healthiest meals by their schools grows annually as the number of them living at poverty levels tops 20 percent. Thirty-seven million Americans rely on food banks that now routinely sport half-empty shelves and report near-empty bank accounts.
In some cases this round of price hikes on everything from cereal and steak to fresh veggies and bread—and even the flour that can usually be bought cheaply to make it— will be temporary. But over the long term, the systems that have provided most Americans with a diversity, quantity, and quality of foods envied by the rest of the world are not going to be as reliable as they were.
2. Peak oil. Even oil company CEOs agree that now or in the next two or three years the world will have passed the peak of cheap, easy oil. What difference does that make? For one thing, there is no replacement for oil that can do all that oil has done as cheaply and universally as oil has done it. Cheap, abundant food on the shelves of grocery and big box stores and food banks, on our tables, and in our bellies depends on cheap, abundant oil for fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, and to power farm machinery and transport food from fields to processors and packagers and then to purveyors and consumers, around the world.
Over the next decade or three, Americans can expect food to get progressively more expensive and some foods, especially fresh vegetables and fruits, to become less available in stores.
3. Peak soil and space. Arable land—land suited to farming—is at a premium everywhere in the world. Every year farmers lose thousands of acres of arable land to urban and suburban sprawl and more tons of topsoil than they produce of grain and other field crops to attrition. Half the Earth’s original trove of topsoil, like that which once permitted the American Midwest to feed the world, has been lost to wind and erosion. Millions of years in the making, it has been depleted and degraded by industrialized agriculture in only a couple of centuries.
China’s soils ride easterly winds across the Pacific to settle out on cars and rooftops in California. While the American Bread Basket’s soils are building deltas and dead zones at the mouth of the Mississippi. Adding insult to injury, soils that have been farmed using petroleum-based synthetics—toxic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides—and heavy equipment are themselves virtually dead and will not be able to produce as much as they have, with or without fossil-fuel inputs.
4. Climate instability. Bad—uncongenial—weather has devastated grain crops in the upper Midwest, Florida, Mexico, Russia, China, parts of Africa, and elsewhere. Many climate scientists believe we’ve passed the equivalent of the peak of friendly and familiar weather as we have the peak in easy, cheap oil and abundant healthy soil. And while increasing heat will bedevil harvests, intense cold, downpours, and flooding and drought will make farming an increasingly hellish occupation.
The transitional climate will be unpredictable from season to season and will produce more extremes of weather and weather disasters, which means farmers will not be able to assume much about growing seasons, rainfall patterns, and getting crops through to harvest. If the past is precedent, the transition from the climate we’ve been used to for 10,000 years to whatever’s next could take decades, centuries, or even millennia.
When a whole nation’s or region’s staple grain crops are lost, everything down the line from the crop itself becomes more expensive, from meat to every kind of processed food (i.e., the food Americans shop for as if supermarkets were actually where food comes from).
5. Persistent unemployment and economic instability. No pundits, talking-heads, or economic analysts deny there are rough economic times ahead. Even many of the cautious among them acknowledge that we may be looking at five or six years of high unemployment, and many of the lost jobs won’t be coming back. The less cautious, who have been watching this crisis build for decades—I count myself as one of these—predict the collapse of the whole fossil-fuel, funny-money, global economic system.
# # #
About the Author:
A memoirist, magazine and book editor, and freelance writer, Ellen LaConte has been published in numerous magazines and trade journals on subjects ranging from organic gardening and alternative technologies to the evolution of consciousness, democracy theory, and complex systems. After three decades of homesteading in Connecticut and Maine, she gardens now on a half-acre in the Yadkin River watershed of the Piedmont bioregion of North Carolina.

About the Book:
Life Rules: Why so much is going wrong everywhere at once and how Life teaches us to fix it (Green Horizon, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-4502-5918-7, $21.95, www.ellenlaconte.com) is available from major online booksellers and can be ordered by bookstores nationwide.

Till our next meeting, May God’s Light Shine Upon You and May His Love Comfort You, Tim

Feel free to leave a question, comment or suggestion by clicking on the “comments” link immediately following this post.

Welcome to a timely guest post by Ellen LaConte. I will follow up with another guest post by Ellen this Friday and hopefully share a picture from her, with you. It is a sidebar to this article, entitled “Five Signs That Backyard Gardening May Soon Be A Survival Skill”.

# # #
Getting Started in the Garden: Thirteen Tips for “Veggie Virgins” and Other Inexperienced Food Growers
Tips from Ellen LaConte, author of Life Rules: Why so much is going wrong everywhere at once and how Life teaches us to fix it
(Green Horizon, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-4502-5918-7, $21.95, www.ellenlaconte.com)
Don’t assume lack of space is a deal-breaker. Most of us don’t live on farms. Nor do we have spacious, magazine-worthy backyards. And in the case of city-dwellers, we may not have backyards of any type! That’s okay, says Ellen LaConte, who is something of an outside-the-box thinker when it comes to gardening in smaller or unconventional settings. (In fact, based on her own experiences, she has written articles on turning suburban outdoor spaces into “tiny homestead Edens.”)
In general, LaConte recommends that neighborhood gardening novices start with one of two easy options: the container garden or the raised-bed garden. (A quick Internet search will unearth a plethora of advice, instructions, and details about each.)
Make your bed…raised! A raised-bed garden is one that is built on top of your native soil—in other words, you don’t have to dig into your yard and can build it wherever you want. It can be enclosed by lumber, stone, brick, concrete, or even hay bales, and is filled with whatever type of soil you choose. Advantages include (but are certainly not limited to): improved accessibility (you don’t need to stoop as far to reach your plants), good drainage, fewer weeds, the ability to plant more densely, and improved soil quality. Also, raised-bed gardens heat up more quickly than the native soil, so you’ll be able to plant sooner and you’ll probably enjoy a higher produce yield.
Contain yourself! Did you know that almost any vegetable, and quite a few fruits (such as berries, limes, and melons), can be adapted to growing in a pot? It’s true! So even if you’ve got no yard at all, you can still cultivate a container garden on your balcony, patio, or windowsill. As with a raised-bed garden, container gardens are very accessible and offer you total control over soil quality. Keep in mind a few simple guidelines such as making sure that larger plants are in larger containers and that all have adequate drainage holes, and you’re good to garden!
Start small. If you bite off more produce than you can chew, you may become overwhelmed and leave your garden to the not-so-tender mercies of nature. If you’re a newbie, choose just a few easy-to-cultivate vegetables, fruits, and herbs, preferably ones that already feature prominently in your diet. You can let yourself gradually catch the gardening bug from there!
Don’t panic: You’ll find the time. Prospective gardeners may be excited by the idea of growing their own fruits and vegetables but daunted by the scope of the project ahead of them. If you’re wondering where you’re going to find the time to cultivate and harvest plants, take a deep breath. After the initial effort of planting and potting is over, your daily garden chores such as watering and weeding will usually be done in 15 to 30 minutes. And when you consider how much time most of us waste in front of the computer or TV, well…the task ahead of you might not be so difficult to fit in after all. (And it’ll certainly be more nourishing!)
“Grow” easy on yourself. The fact is, some types of produce are much hardier and easier to grow than others. Why make your first foray into gardening more difficult than it needs to be by trying to raise plants that are needy? Start with tried-and-true plants like basil, rosemary, blueberries, tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers, for example.
It’s as easy as one, two, TREE. When most people think “gardening,” trees don’t necessarily spring to mind. While it’s true that trees can take longer than tomato plants or berry bushes to yield fruit, the wait is usually well worth it. Consider planting cherry, apple, peach, etc. saplings in your yard. As they grow, these trees will be both beautiful and practical. And the yardless needn’t be left out—remember that fruits such as peaches, plums, figs, lemons, limes, etc. (often available in dwarf varieties) can be grown in pots.
Farm alongside your flowers. Many people whose patios or yards are livened up by colorful flowers have never given a second thought to raising produce. If you’re one of them, consider this: You already have the knowledge and skills to care for plants. So why not plant some tomatoes or cilantro along with those zinnias and pansies?
Grow your own “spice rack.” Many people don’t immediately think of herbs when they hear the word “gardening,” but the truth is that these little plants are generally easy to grow, don’t require much space (think window boxes and small pots), and can really spice up your meals! Plus, with a little advance planning, you can stock your shelf with dried herbs that will last the whole year round.
Practice pollution-free pest control. If you are able to grow and harvest your produce with no unwelcome critters taking a bite or two, consider yourself lucky! The fact is, it’s a good idea to have a pesticide plan in place…but you don’t have to risk polluting your yard or harming beneficial insects in the process. For example, hot pepper sprays, garlic, used dishwater, and even some varieties of plants naturally repel insects and animals alike.
Make it a group effort… Nobody ever said that gardening had to be a solitary activity! For example, you might grab a neighbor (or two or three) and share the hoeing, weeding, and watering chores. And when your labors bear fruit, you can share that as well. (Also, it’s worth noting that gardening doesn’t have to be an adults-only activity. It can be a great bonding experience for families, too—working outside is much healthier than playing a video game or watching TV, and your kids will learn quite a bit in the process.)
…or a community-wide one! If you like the idea of enlisting aid in your cultivation efforts but don’t have the desire or space to “host” a garden yourself, research to see if there are any community gardens in your area. They may charge a fee for participation and might feature plots that are collectively gardened or plots that are allotted to individuals. One thing’s for sure, though—you’ll be able to take advantage of the expertise of your fellow gardeners, and you’ll probably make some new friends in the process!
If you need some guidance, find a 4-H club… Maybe you didn’t leave your 4-H days behind with your adolescence after all! The fact is, 4-H offers programs to its members that focus on plant science. Your local club might be able to give you personalized advice on your fledgling gardening endeavor…and you might find a fulfilling volunteering or mentoring opportunity in the process!
…or hit up the hardware store. Most hardware stores with gardening centers have everything you need to get started—and that doesn’t just include plants and gardening implements (though those are available in spades—pun intended!). Ask employees for advice on everything from which plants grow well in shade to how often to fertilize, and you’ll go home with your questions answered.
…or make friends at a farmer’s market. Chances are, there’s one near you…and who better to ask for tips and tricks than your fellow citizens who have already learned to garden successfully? This is also a good venue at which to learn about community gardens and group efforts. And bonus: You might be able to set up a booth yourself sooner than you think!

About the Author:
A memoirist, magazine and book editor, and freelance writer, Ellen LaConte has been published in numerous magazines and trade journals on subjects ranging from organic gardening and alternative technologies to the evolution of consciousness, democracy theory, and complex systems. After three decades of homesteading in Connecticut and Maine, she gardens now on a half-acre in the Yadkin River watershed of the Piedmont bioregion of North Carolina.

About the Book:
Life Rules: Why so much is going wrong everywhere at once and how Life teaches us to fix it (Green Horizon, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-4502-5918-7, $21.95, www.ellenlaconte.com) is available from major online booksellers and can be ordered by bookstores nationwide.

I’ve been spending more time out of doors, getting my garden soil turned, starting seedlings and other preparation for the growing season. I hope this is as timely for you as it is for me. May you receive God’s blessing in abundance. Tim