Block’s Indicator of Sustainable Growth

by Ray Block

In 1990, General Motors was accused by people who love conspiracy theories of killing the electric car at the behest of the oil industry. GM was then intending to market the EV1 electric car, which was to be marketed in Southern California on a lease basis. At least, that’s the opinion of the 2006 documentary “Who killed the electric car.”

 GM wasn’t the only guilty party in the conspiracy according to the documentary. Others were the California Air Resources Board, which initially gave a mandate to the company for the car’s release and then later reversed its stand, the Bush Administration, the oil industry, and even consumers for not being more enthusiastic.

 

Conspiracies aside, these days with governments subsidising the development of the green car, greenhouse gas now realised as a danger to the planet, developing the green car with zero emissions is attracting a great deal of attention.. The fact that oil prices is likely to rise again to record levels, when the world recession now engulfing the US, UK, Europe and Japan ends around 2010, is another reason for taking quick action..

 

Another piece of the puzzle, oil will soon reach its peak supply, at least for regular oil, excluding Canadian tar sands which is going to be very expensive, and digging up the Arctic to find more oil, which is going to be devastating for planet survival.

 

Auto makers in Europe in 1998 promised to cut emissions from their cars over 10 years from 190 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre to 140. But by the end of 2007, emissions were still at 158g/km across Europe. The situation in America is a bit better, with California’s zero emission vehicle standard  (ZEV), which is to be adopted by 10 other US states from 2012.  So the goal of zero emissions is necessary, and cars which can do without gasoline would be a very positive step forward.           

 

The Bush Administration sneakily secured a US$25 bailout loan to the US auto companies in an omnibus bill, which with the tax credits to the renewable energy sector  were passed by Congress, with the $700 billion bank bailout. The loans are to be made available at a concession interest rate. Some of these funds are earmarked for green cars. There is also the $1.2 billion Hydrogen Fuel initiative in 2003, with emphasis on fuel cells.                                                                                                                       

 

But what kind of electric car? There are two candidates- the plug-in electric and the hydrogen fuel cell, with the latter another form of electric car. A number of auto companies are releasing concept cars of both plug-in electric and hydrogen.fuel cells. For example, GM is pinning hopes on the $40,000 Chevy Colt, to be released in two years, which is an electric plug-in Equinox 100, which is being loaned out to selected drivers getting everyday use in New York, Washington and California.

 

Honda is keen on its FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel-cell car with zero emissions, which has a back-up lithium-ion battery for supplemental power.  As reported by Associated Press (June 15 2008), the fuel cell draws on energy synthesized through an electro-chemical reaction between hydrogen gas in the fuel tank and oxygen in the air. The gas passes through membranes in the fuel cell, generating electricity to run the motor and produces water vapour as exhaust.  

 

The car has a range of about 450 km (270 miles) per tank. Only about 25 units will be released this year and about 200 within three years. It will be available only on a three year lease, with a price tag of $600 a month, which includes maintenance and collision coverage. The test car’s fuel efficiency is 3.11/100 km, which is outstanding. Tank holds 4.1 kg (8.8 lbs) hydrogen gas in pressurized tanks.

 

As the Green Chemistry blog points out, although hydrogen can be explosive under some conditions, it is considered safe in hydrogen cars, because a leak in the system would simply cause the hydrogen to become diluted by air, reaching concentrations that aren’t flammable.

 

Honda says the FCX Clarity is two times more energy efficient than a gas electric hybrid, and three times that of a standard gasoline powered car. The customer base is expected mainly in Los Angeles, and is already particularly popular with movie stars, some of whom have already ordered. There were 50,000 web based requests for leases, but the marketing program is to limit customers to those within areas where hydrogen filling stations are located. 

 

The US has only 61 hydrogen filling stations, of which about half are in California. The need for a network of filling stations until resolved will be a major impediment to their growing popularity. So far only California has more than 100 fuel cell hydrogen cars, light trucks and buses.

 

One item of good news is that American scientists have discovered a cheap source of producing hydrogen. The blog Hydrogen Cars and Vehicles, which had previously reported that Toronto researchers created hydrogen from biowaste at sewage treatment plants, by introducing dried sludge pellets. But the researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) have achieved a 75 per cent more efficient method of producing hydrogen than the traditional electrolysis of water.

 

“All of this was achieved through fundamental research on ‘microbial electrolysis cells,’ or MECs, that use a new ‘membrane free’ approach that costs less and is significantly more efficient than existing approaches.” Many types of biowaste could be used in this process, including food processing factory waste, woody waste and manure from farm animals. Biowaste is fed into this device and the output is clean water, electricity and hydrogen.

 

By comparison, all the hope had been on the plug-in electric car, provided there was a leap forward in battery design. While the battery in Toyota’s Prius hybrid is a nickel metal hybride, it was agreed by the industry that the battery of choice would be lithium-ion. Sounds fine, but this battery has a potential for instability. As Popular Mechanics’s Jennifer Bogo pointed out in the September 28 2008 issue: “as the lithium-ion battery ages, its negative electrode chemically reacts with the electrolyte, potentially touching off  a heat-generating thermal runaway event that could send the car up in flames.”

 

Even apart from the issue of instability, Toyota’s Prius hybrid plug-in electric to go sale in 2010 is limited to an EV-only range of about 16 km (10 miles). The car will be tested on North American fleets in about a year. The car’s range before recharging is very disappointing, and more research is needed to solve the battery’s problems. Popular Mechanics October 2 2008 issue interviewed Toyota’s Bill Reinert, national manager of the Advanced Technology Group.

 

“Current lithium-ion batteries still can’t tolerate large swings in the electric charge cycle. So before the gas in modern hybrids kicks in, and as drivers expect their plug-in cars to operate at higher speeds and longer distances in electric-only mode, battery life will be strained significantly. As a result, the li-ion packs grows larger, which adds expense and makes them hard to package in a small car. For example, at 6-ft 5-in long and 300 pounds, the battery in the Chevy Volt is downright huge”.

 

The eureka moment hasn’t come. The aim is to produce a $20,000 commuter or family car, which reduces demand for gasoline and has zero emissions. Neither the plug-in or hydrogen fuel-cell car can yet compete at the popular selling range. Both the plug-in and hydrogen.fuel-cell cars will appeal to some business leaders, entrepreneurs, along with the niche buyer and the entertainment crowd, who always must have the latest model.

 

But the race is on for the battery of choice, and it is one which will be won. There is too much investment at stake to lose out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

y Ray Block

Posted under Economies, Global Warming, Low Carbon Economy, Renewable Energies, World Inflation

by Ray Block

“My very strong belief is that we need to reorient our investments toward this transition to a clean energy economy. It will be the engine of growth for getting us out of the doldrums that we’ve gotten in right now.”

This was the start of a Reuters story October 9 2008) quoting Cathy Zoi, CEO of Al Gore’sAlliance for Climate Protection.

Zoi’s comments received prominent mention in the environmental media (www.enn.com)

The global financial crisis is so dire as to whether the financial system can be saved avoiding a meltdown, that energy solutions are being put on the backburner. But there is some hard reality in the environmental case.

As some prominent American enterprises have rightly foreseen that large scale renewable energies will become probably the largest single source of industrial growth in future years, now is the time to secure a prominent role, in what will become highly profitable industries.

Another way of looking at environmental costs can be gained from a report released this year. The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity (TEEB) is an interim report from a European Union commissioned study headed by Pavan Sukhdev, a senior executive of Deuthsche Bank, which was released on May 29 2008. Further reports will be released in 2009 and 2010. The study attempts to measure the economic costs of the loss in biodiversity and ecosystems. The interim report seeks to measure the loss of ecosystems in forest services.

“In the first years of the period 2000 to 2050, it is estimated that in the early years, we are losing forest ecosystem services with a value equivalent to around 28 billion euros each year, and the value increases over the period to 2050. Losses of the natural capital stock are felt not only in the year of the loss, as the reduction in the service flow continues over time.

“Taking these future losses into account, the net present value of services from forests ecosystems that we lose each year is estimated at between 1.3 trillion and 3.1 trillion euros, applying discount rates of respectively 4 per cent and 1 per cent. As indicated above, this is a conservative estimate: it is partial, excluding some ecosystem services, some negative feedback effects of these losses on GDP are not fully accounted for, and the values do not account for non-linearities and threshold effects in ecosystem functioning.”

So the international banking crisis is not the only game in town. There will be many more crises in the years to come. But the environmental loss cannot be disregarded. Our future life and that of our children is at stake.

Posted under World Inflation

by Ray Block

Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Prime Minister announced on September 19 2008 the formation of a Global Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Institute, to help facilitate the setting up of 20 at scale international CCS projects to be up and running by 2020. An initial $100 million has been allotted to the institute, with annual contributions of around the same amount.

 

While Greenpeace is dismissive of CCS initiatives calling them a “false hope” in its pamphlet of May 10 2008, saying the technology is largely unproven and will not be ready in time to save the climate, both WWF and the Climate Institute are more positive. The reality is that CCS is being proven up now and the demonstration stage will continue over the next 10 years. By 2020, CCS will be ready for installation of new power plants and retrofitting of older ones over the period through to 2030.

 

The essential point is that CCS is only one of a handful of solutions in carbon reduction. There will also be need for large scale exploitation of wind power, solar, biomass, hydropower, geothermal, even nuclear energy to maximise the opportunities.

 

Coal’s cheap costs by comparison with competitive technologies, before the application of a carbon emission tax has one overwhelming advantage. It is the preferred technology of providing baseload power generation, something solar and wind power cannot do. Geothermal also provides the ability for baseload power, but because of its location disadvantages, it would be more costly in transmission costs. 

 

The July 2008 G8 meeting of leading nations in Hokkaido, which Rudd attended as an observer, had called for CCS demonstration plants, and Australia wants to facilitate their quick development. Australia, as the world’s largest coal exporter has a lot at stake, being heavily dependent  on coal fired power for 80 per cent of the nation’s electricity.  

 

In a study of the world’s largest carbon emitters, the Centre for Global Development in Washington, says Australia, which ranks as the world’s eighth biggest carbon polluter, and in per capita terms is almost on a par with America in carbon pollution has a great deal to do to reduce carbon emissions.

 

There are three different types of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in development- post combustion, pre-combustion, and oxy-fuel combustion. Trials are proceeding around the world on all three technologies. In post-combustion, the CO2 is removed after coal is burned in conventional power plants. This is an expensive technology to deploy.

 

In pre-combustion, the coal is partially oxidised in a gasifier, the resulting syngas consisting of carbon monoxide and hydrogen is transformed into CO2 and H2. The CO2 can be captured relatively easily prior to the combustion of the H2, which can also be used for industrial processes or to fuel transportation.

 

In oxy-fuel combustion, coal is burned in an atmosphere of pure oxygen instead of air. This is the first time an oxyfuel boiler is being used in a power station. The resulting waste gas is almost pure CO2, and can be buried, preventing it from entering the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

 

However, the initial step of separating oxygen from air requires considerable energy, with the result that final electricity costs from such a system are likely to be high. After CO2 is captured, it must be transported to a suitable storage site, which is usually via pipeline.

 

Permanent storage for captured CO2 include gaseous storage in deep geological formations, including saline formations and exhausted gas fields, liquid storage in the ocean, and solid storage by reaction of CO2 with metal oxides to produce stable carbonates.

 

Geological storage, also known as geo-sequestration, involves injecting carbon dioxide directly into oilfields, gasfields, saline formations, coal seams which can’t be mined, and saline-filled basalt formations. Several pilot programs are testing the long term storage of CO2 in non-oil producing geological formations.

 

The International CCS technology survey issue 3 July 2008 lists over 70 demonstration sites. 14 of these are in Australia-seven CO2 capture and storage projects, four capture projects, and three others limited to storage only.

 

In China, there are five major projects to develop CCS.  Greengen was founded in 2005, with the managing partner China Huaneng Group, and six other coal and power generating companies. The first stage (2006-2009) is a 250MW integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant. This is to be eventually expanded to a 400 MW IGCC plant.

 

NZEC are the initials for the Near Zero Emissions Coal project involving 20 Chinese participants including universities, government, and industry, with funding from the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. In stage three, the intention is to construct and operate a demonstration plant by 2014-2015.

 

EU COACH  is a  demonstration of near zero emissions coal technology. The project has 20 Chinese partners and 12 EU partners. The intention is to eventually construct C02 capture in a IGCC post-combustion plant, with transport and storage in a mature oil and gas reservoir.

 

Yantai IGCC is a US$420 MW plant in Yantai, Shandong province, which has been included in China’s 10^th 5 year plan as a key element in developing and deploying CCS. The European Commission sees the project as an opportunity to promote European technology, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industry in Japan is also involved.

 

Japan-China enhanced oil recovery project signed by the two countries in May 2008 will be involved in a project to inject C02 emitted from a thermal power plant in China into an oil field. The start date is 2009.The intention is to capture annually from 1 to 3 million tons CO2 from the Harbin Thermal Power plant in Heilungkiang province and potentially other plants, and then transport it by pipeline about 100 km to China’s largest oil field-Daqing, for injecting and storing in the oil field.

 

Another international collaboration project is Australian-China Joint Coordination Group on clean coal technologies, which was announced in April 2008.

 

Japan has 18 CCS projects, including a joint venture in Australia, two in China, one in Vietnam, two in Malaysia, one in India, and one in Abu Dhabi.

 

In Europe, there are 26 CCS projects- five in Germany, two in France, 11 in the UK, two in Italy, four in Netherlands, and two in Norway.  

 

Perhaps the most interesting is the Sleipner project in the Norwegian oil zone of the North Sea, which was the first commercial scale project dedicated to geological CO2 storage in a saline formation.

 

Approximately 1 million metric tons is removed annually from the produced natural gas and injected under the sea at Sleipner. The project started in 1996, and over the lifetime of the project a total of 20 million tons CO2 is expected to be stored.

 

Other CCS projects are in Canada, the US and the Middle East.

 

The greatest level of progress has been in Europe, where there is common agreement that CCS is now a proven solution. This level of confidence has been reached through:

Ø      Large cooperative research programs, including international collaborations;

Ø      Amount of data and information acquired, shared knowledge;

Ø      Best practice manuals;

Ø      European demonstration projects and field laboratories;

Ø      Networks of research –CO2Net, CO2 GeoNet and national networks.

 

The next stage of cooperation is to:

Ø      Implement 10-12 large scale CCS demonstration projects Europe wide;

Ø      Prove beyond doubt that CO2 storage is both practical and safe, with zero tolerance for CO2 leakage;

Ø      Create the regulatory framework for storage;

Ø      Establish short and long term commercial incentives for commercial operation.

 

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Posted under World Inflation

by Ray Block

Wind energy is the fastest growing renewable energy technology in the world, and its generation quadrupled between 2000 and 2006. Current annual growth is around 30 per cent. The Economist (June 19 2008) says that world wind energy generating capacity will exceed 100 gigawatts (GW) this year.

The US Department of Energy in its Renewable Energy Data Book September 2008 said: “that after a decade of trailing Germany and Spain, the US re-established itself as the world leader in new wind energy. This resurgence is attributed to increasingly supportive policies, growing interest in renewable energy, and continued improvements in wind technology and performance.”

In 2007, Germany remained No1 in world wind capacity, with the US replacing Spain as No2. This year is seeing a complete change about, with the US emerging as No1. The American Wind Energy Association announced on September 4 2008 that US wind energy installations had reached 20.1 GW, with over 7.5 GW new wind capacity to be added this year. West Germany’s generating capacity installed is currently about 23 GW.

In the US, where renewable energy in 2007 represented 14.9 per cent of total energy consumption, (nuclear 8.3%, hydropower 2.4%, non-hydro renewables 4.2%), wind power generating capacity grew 45 per cent last year, with 5.24 megawatts (MW) new capacity installed. Wind power in 2007 represented just over 1 per cent of US electricity supply. Over the seven years 2000-2007, compound annual growth in US wind energy rose 30.7 per cent increasing 6.5 times over the seven year period.

In the DOE’s technical report “20%Wind Energy by 2030” July 2008, the department set out an agenda of how US wind energy could grow to the stage of having 20 per cent of total US energy consumption over the 24 years 2006 to 2030. This would require an installation rate of 16 GW, that is 16,000 MW every year after 2018. That is a very rapid rate of growth. It would involve increasing wind capacity from 16.8 GW in 2007 to more than 300 GW by 2030.

The US has more than 8,000 GW of available land based wind resources that the wind industry estimates can be captured economically. The US Energy Information Administration estimates that US electricity demand will grow by 39 per cent from 2005 to 2030, reaching 5.8 million GW by 2030. The 20 % wind scenario would require delivery of nearly 1.16 million GWh of wind energy in 2030.

Wind energy of this magnitude would allow the displacement of 18 per cent of US coal consumption by 2030, and about 50 per cent of electric utility natural gas consumption. There would be costs involved in wind energy growth, particularly in incremental transmission costs. The market cost of wind energy currently remains higher than that of conventional energy sources in many areas across the country.

As the DOE’s technical scenario suggest, the 20% wind scenario would involve higher initial capital costs to install wind capacity, and associated transmission infrastructure in many areas. But at the same time, it would open the door to lower ongoing energy costs, including maintenance costs.

The Department of Energy says that despite the considerable advances so far made in current turbine capacity, there would be need for considerable further advances, along with enhanced system reliability, and reducing capital costs. Today’s wind turbines currently being installed have three-bladed rotors with diameters of 70 to 80 metres, typically installed in arrays of 30 to 150 machines.

“Drag based devices and simple lift based designs have given way to experimentally designed and tested high lift rotors, many with full span pitch control. Blades that once had been made of sail or sheet metal progressed through wood to advanced fiberglass composites. The direct current alternator gave way to the grid synchronised induction generator, which has now been replaced by variable speed designs employing high speed solid state switches of advanced power electronics.

“Designs moved from mechanical cams and linkages that feathered or furled a machine to high speed digital controls. A 50 kW machine, considered large in 1980, is now dwarfed by the 1.5 to 2.5 MW machines being routinely installed today.”

In 2007, Texas consolidated its position as the leading wind state, followed by California, Minnesota, Iowa and Washington state. Along with Texas’s commitment to spend over the next four to five years US$ 4.93 billion on transmission lines for wind power delivering 18.46 GW of electricity to metropolitan areas of the state, there is a bonanza of new investment in wind power.

Billionaire T Boone Pickens (80 years young) who made his money from oil, but now convinced of Peak Oil, is on a crusade to end US reliance on foreign oil replacing it with renewable energies. Pickens’ current enthusiasm is wind power, his dream in the process of becoming reality is to create the world’s largest wind farm. Location is Nolan County, Texas, housing the largest number of wind turbines in the US. Pickens’ Pampa Wind Project is already spending $2 billion this year on turbines.

The overall plan, which will take four years to complete is to produce 4GW, enough to power one million homes at an all up investment of $10 billion. The wind farm, five times larger than the current largest wind farm, will have 2,700 turbines across 200,000 acres of the Texan panhandle.

Another massive wind farm, this time of 4 GW announced this year is a joint venture between Shell Oil and the largest Texan electricity utility,TXU, which is to be located in Briscoe County.

There remains one critical impediment to the exceptional rate of growth in wind power and solar. The House of Representatives has passed H.R. 6049, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008. This would extend the renewable production tax credits due to expire at the end of 2008. The wind and solar lobbies are saying that failure to extend the renewable energy tax credits will result in the loss of approximately 116,000 jobs-roughly 40,000 jobs in the solar industry and the remaining 76,000 in wind energy.

Whether the Senate passes the House Bill before Congress rises for the November elections is not known at this time of writing.

Posted under Economies, Global Warming, World Inflation

by Ray

It is easy to paint China as the chief culprit for the dramatic rise in world carbon emissions.

After all, China as the world’s most concentrated centre of manufacturing produces more than 500 million metric tons of steel a year. That is equal to 38 per cent of the world total. Chinese coal consumption.in 2007 totalled 2.9 billion short tons, equal to more than one third of the world total.

With sulphur bearing coal dust in the atmosphere and other greenhouse gas emissions, including the large residential use of coal, it is understandable that deaths in China from respiratory problems are around 400,000 a year.

Understandably, even if global warming wasn’t a fact of life, the Chinese have a vested interest in a rapid expansion of renewable energies.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s chief industrial planning agency in its latest five year plan 2006-2010 places critical importance on the medium and long term developments for renewable energy. The latest directive was released on September 4 2007.

NDRC sees the main renewable developments in hydro power, biomass, wind and solar developments. In 2008, the renewable energy proportion of total energy consumed in China was about 8 per cent, and this will rise to 10 per cent by 2010.The renewable target for 2020 is for 15 per cent.

The ambitious program is expected to cost around the equivalent of US$100 billion. The Chinese expansion in renewable energy will be getting closer to the renewable energy targets in the European Union, where the 2020 goal is for 20 per cent.

Biomass energy resources include mainly straw and other agricultural wastes, waste from forestry and forest product processing, animal manure, energy crops (eg biofuels), organic effluent from industry, municipal wastewater, municipal solid waste. Of about 900 million tons of waste from forestry and forest product processing available every year, nearly 300 million tons, or around 150 million tons coal equivalent (tce) can be used for fuel.

There are also large areas of marginal land to cultivate energy crops, including bagasse. Similarly, biogas and municipal sold waste are also biomass resources. Presently, China’s total biomass resource that can be potentially converted to energy is about 500 million tce.

By 2010, the five year plan expects installed capacity of biomass power to reach 5.5 GW, and this is to be increased to 30 GW by 2020. Similarly, installed capacity of power generation based on municipal solid waste will be 500 MW by 2010, and with a sixfold increase this will amount to 3 GW by 2020.

Biomass pellets will be another by product. The annual use of biomass pellet fuels in 2010 will reach 1 million tons, the annual use of biogas will reach 19 billion cubic metres, the use of non-food grain fuel bio-ethanol will be 2 million tons, and the annual use of bio-diesel will reach 200,000 tons.

By 2020, the annual use of biomass pellets as fuel will reach 50 million tons, the annual use of biogas will reach 44 billion cubic metres, the annual use of fuel bio-ethanol will reach 10 million tons, and the annual use of bio-diesel will reach 2 million tons.

In rural areas, the main emphasis will be put on household biogas digesters in small and medium sized towns, as well as livestock farms, and in cases of industrial organic effluent, larger scale biogas projects will supply gas in a more concentrated fashion. By 2010, about 40 million rural households will use biogas as their main fuel, while by 2020, 80 million households will do so.

By 2010, the installed grid connected wind capacity will be 5 GW. About thirty 100 MW- scale wind farms will be established, mainly in the eastern coastal areas and ‘Sanbei Region” (“Three Norths Region”), thereby building up of three 1 GW-scale wind farm bases in Jiangsu, Hebei and Inner Mongolia, respectively. In addition, one or two 100 MW-scale pilot offshore wind projects will be established.

By 2020, the installed grid connected wind capacity will be 30 GW. Rich wind energy resources in Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, and Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, and Jilin will be developed, establishing a backbone of major wind provinces, each with over 2 GW of capacity installed.

Six wind farm bases (Dabancheng in Xinjiang, Yumen in Gansu, the eastern coastal area around Jiangsu and Dhanghai, Huitengxile in Inner Mongolia, Zhangbei region of Hebei, and Baicheng in Jilin will be developed each with GW-level installed capacity. 1 GW offshore wind capacity will also be installed.

Over recent years, China has become the world’s third largest producer of solar PV (photovoltaics) after Japan and Germany, but until recently installed capacity in China itself was quite modest. This trend is being reversed. According to solarbuzz.com, the world solar pv market rose 62 per cent in 2007 to reach a new record of 2,826 MW of installed solar panels. Germany is world leader in installed solar capacity followed by Spain.

By 2010, the total capacity of solar PV power in China will be 300 MW, and this will rise to 1.8 GW by 2020. This total includes about 100 MW of solar PV to be installed to 1 million rural households.

China will aim to build large solar PV and solar thermal power stations. By 2010, the grid connected capacity will be 20 MW solar PV and 50 MW solar thermal. In 2020, this is expected to rise to 200 MW for grid connected solar PV power and 200 MW for solar thermal stations. In addition, there is a large potential for solar PV application in communications, meteorology, long distance pipelines, railways, highways etc. The application of solar PV technologies in these commercial areas will be 30 MW by 2010 and 100 MW by 2020.

China will actively promote the development of geothermal and tidal energies. In the regions of the Yangtze River and in coastal areas, geothermal technology will be used for space heating, air conditioning, and hot water supply. The target of annual geothermal energy utilization will be 4 million tce by 2010 and 12 million tce by 2020. The total capacity of tidal power generation will be 100 MW by 2020.

Hydropower, the other renewable energy has an economic potential capacity of 400 GW, with an annual power generation potential of 1750 TWh. These are distributed mainly in China’s western provinces, with 70 per cent located in the south west.

The devastating earthquake in Sichuan province has had a major impact on China’s natural gas production, as well as severely affecting the hydro power resources of the region. 27 power stations have been shut down, and 391 dams badly damaged. The Water Resources Ministry has pointed to major safety issues with reservoirs, hydro stations and lakes. 37,000 of China’s 87,000 dams are believed to be in a dangerous state.

renewable energies, global warming, carbon abatement, greenhouse gas, emissions trading

Posted under Carbon Abatement Scheme, Global Warming, Renewable Energies, World Inflation