What Downton Abbey Can Teach Us About the Future of Energy

Aha, an actual plug for energy issues in a popular tv show!

As in the time Downton Abbey, when humans had to deal with technology and innovation they couldn’t quite comprehend at first, we may be in the midst of a similar sea change now. “Right now we’re in an energy transition from a fossil fuel based economy to a renewable economy,” Duncan says. “These kinds of transitions take decades, if not centuries to occur.” He points to the fact that even though fossil fuels were much better than wood, it still took a century for them to become dominant. “And the same thing is going to happen with renewables,” he says. “We’re still going to be depending on fossil fuels whether we like it or not, or whether it’s best of not, for decades into the future.”

The second season finale of Downton Abbey premieres Sunday night on PBS. Word is that electricity plays a big part in one of the episode’s key scenes.

ProSyn: Germany's Sunshine dream ends, Bjørn Lomborg

Mini-Editorial | A very curious article that is worth looking into. Germany cutting solar subsidies? Why? The article explains.

In light of the apprehension about nuclear energy following Japan’s meltdown, and now the unflattering situations of both Germany and the US (with its solar industry’s lingering dark cloud of bumbled Solyndra investments), the outlook for new energy developments seems to have taken a blow.

Lomborg concludes with stating governments must focus more on R&D before stressing production. Yet considering another recent Project Syndicate article, it must be pondered how these setbacks will influence public pressure (Political Will?) to request continued R&D in a time of global economic uncertainty.

COPENHAGEN – One of the world’s biggest green-energy public-policy experiments is coming to a bitter end in Germany, with important lessons for policymakers elsewhere.
Illustration by Newsart
Germany once prided itself on being the “photovoltaic world champion”, doling out generous subsidies – totaling more than $130 billion, according to research from Germany’s Ruhr University – to citizens to invest in solar energy. But now the German government is vowing to cut the subsidies sooner than planned, and to phase out support over the next five years. What went wrong?

There is a fundamental problem with subsidizing inefficient green technology: it is affordable only if it is done in tiny, tokenistic amounts. Using the government’s generous subsidies, Germans installed 7.5 gigawatts of photovoltaic (PV) capacity last year, more than double what the government had deemed “acceptable.” It is estimated that this increase alone will lead to a $260 hike in the average consumer’s annual power bill

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YE360: Can Smarter Growth Guide China’s Urban Building Boom?, David Biello

A country to watch develop in the 21st century, China’s impact on climate change, the global economy, and development in general will be historic.

Can Smarter Growth Guide
China’s Urban Building Boom?

The world has never seen anything like China’s dizzying urbanization boom, which has taken a heavy environmental toll. But efforts are now underway to start using principles of green design and smart growth to guide the nation’s future development.
by david biello

Coal money, generated by one of the world’s largest open-pit mines, has built a new Ordos, a municipality in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia. A modern city is rising there from the steppes, featuring monumental government buildings, an imposing museum, and row after row of apartment buildings and subdivisions, all designed to accommodate more than a million new residents. Spacious roads wait for cars to zoom between residential and commercial areas or feed into the highway that leads to the existing — and inhabited — old city, some 15 miles away. But cars and people remain sparse.

Ordos is emblematic of China’s urbanization boom, a construction frenzy unlike anything seen in the history of the planet. Today, half of the nation’s 1.35 billion people live in cities. From the outskirts of Shenyang in the cold northeast to the mountainous precincts of Kunming in the subtropical southwest, buildings are rising to accommodate the people now crowding into the 170 cities in China that host more than a million residents. Across the country, construction firms have built some 2 billion square meters of new apartments, offices, and skyscrapers annually in recent years. The national bird of China has become the construction crane.

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BRKTHRGH: New Data: Nuclear Down, Carbon Intensity Up in Japan Japan's nuclear power fleet has sat idle since a powerful earthquake struck the nation in March 2011, driving a sharp increase in fossil fuel imports and a spike in the nation's carbon intensity.

I will have to include this report in my upcoming case study about Japan’s nuclear energy situation…

While I don’t envy Japan’s position, I have faith that the people of Japan can provide a valuable lesson in what can happen and how to rebuild following such a disaster. Unfortunately, it seems they will be leading the way in showing the world with how to cope with energy situations that may become prevalent in the 21st century.

New Data: Nuclear Down, Carbon Intensity Up in Japan

Japan’s nuclear power fleet has sat idle since a powerful earthquake struck the nation in March 2011, driving a sharp increase in fossil fuel imports and a spike in the nation’s carbon intensity.

By Mark Caine and Jesse Jenkins

Japan’s nuclear power fleet has sat idle since a powerful earthquake struck the nation in March 2011, driving a sharp increase in fossil fuel imports and a spike in the nation’s carbon intensity, new data shows. Together, these changes have battered Japan’s trade balance, increased the carbon intensity of its energy supply, and raised important questions about its future CO2 emissions trajectory.

Japan’s 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster have exerted substantial impacts on the nation’s economy and energy system. Given Japan’s reliance on nuclear power, its lack of domestic fossil resources, the magnitude of the earthquake and tsunami, and the technical and political implications of a major nuclear crisis, these impacts were largely predictable.

But although it was clear early on that Japan’s triple disaster signalled major economic and technical changes in Japan, only recently has good data become available to shed light on the specifics of the changes underway.*

Two notable trends emerge from this data, both relating to Japanese energy supply. Together, these trends are exerting profound impacts on Japan’s trade balance, the carbon intensity of its energy supply, and its future CO2 emission trajectory.

Carbon Intensity Spikes as Nuclear Plants Idle

First, the carbon intensity of Japan’s energy mix has spiked following the shut-down of most of the nation’s nuclear power fleet, which previously provided about 30 percent of the nation’s electricity and anchored the nation’s low-carbon energy plans. Currently, just 4 of the nation’s 50 remaining nuclear reactors are online. To replace this lost generation, Japanese utilities have ramped up imports and use of coal, oil, and natural gas, while industrial consumers have been more reliant on diesel generators to guarantee reliable energy supply.

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ProSyn: The Public and Its Problems, Raghuram Rajan

I would venture to say this article hints at on of the challenges of humankind in general; it has applications from global finance to climate change…right down to why people don’t make important changes in their day-to-day lives.

…If the problem has not been experienced before, the public is not convinced of the potential costs of inaction. And, if action prevents the problem, the public never experiences the averted calamity, and voters therefore penalize political leaders for the immediate costs that the action entails. Even if politicians have perfect foresight of the disaster that awaits if nothing is done, they may have little ability to persuade voters, or less insightful party members, that the short-term costs must be paid.

Talk is cheap, and, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the status quo usually appears comfortable enough. So leaders’ ability to take corrective action increases only with time, as some of the costs of inaction are experienced.

Calamity can still be averted if the costs of inaction escalate steadily. The worst problems, however, are those with “inaction costs” that remain invisible for a long time, but increase suddenly and explosively. By the time the leader has the mandate to act, it may be too late.

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EPA&DoD: Installation Sustainability Agreement Signed

I would like to start a case study of DoD & EPA’s interactions. Here’s one reason why…

The Department of Defense (DoD) today announced Dorothy Robyn, deputy under secretary of defense for installations and environment, and Paul Anastas, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assistant administrator, signed an agreement that formalizes the partnership between the Defense Department and EPA to develop and implement technologies that will help create sustainable American military bases all over the world.

Under this memorandum of understanding (MOU), DoD and the EPA’s Office of Research and Development will collaborate in the development of innovative technologies to help create sustainable and resilient military bases across the country and overseas. The cutting-edge research of EPA and DoD scientists and engineers will be used to develop and demonstrate tools and technologies that will aid DoD in achieving its vision of sustainability.

(Source: )

SEI: Bangalore, the city as a living organism

The more awareness we have of how we function and operate, the better. Very interesting case study of Bangalore via Stockholm Environment Institute.

SEI project, presented at the Bangalore World Water Summit, maps ‘urban metabolism’ to support planning for sustainability.

Rapid population growth and economic activity in Indian cities have overwhelmed their ecological support base, leading to chronic shortages in electricity, water and road space while polluting the physical environment.

Aiming to better understand these dynamics – and help stakeholders grapple with them – SEI last year launched the project Urban Metabolic Mapping: Securing the Biophysical Foundation of Indian Cities, with Bangalore as the initial focus.

The idea, says project leader (and Bangalore native) Vishal Mehta, is to look at the city as a “living organism” to show how economic, social and demographic characteristics drive consumption.

“Much like a living organism consumes resources and produces waste, a city also consumes resources, its waste re-entering the natural ecosystem,” he says. “What are the limits to our natural resource base? What is the impact of the city’s water consumption and waste-water patterns on the future availability of safe and adequate water? How does a city’s extraction of water resources impact other communities in the larger river basin? These are central questions to assessing sustainable management of resources.”

BANGALORE GATED COMMUNITY / FLICKR-ED YOURDON

Bangalore as a case study
Bangalore has been one of India’s great success stories, Mehta notes, booming as a high-tech capital. But this boom has also brought a surge in population: a 3 million gain in the last 10 years, to 8.5 million – three times the previous two decades’ growth. The local utilities and infrastructure can’t keep up with the growing demand for resources and services, resulting in disruptions and unmet needs.

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reuters:

Reuters has learned that on February 1, Iran-based Naftiran Intertrade increased its holding in British oil giant BP Plc by 1.85 million shares. It now holds a stake worth more than $190 million.

In addition to the shareholding, the Iranian company’s ties to BP include the Rhum gas field in the North Sea, a venture that’s now suspended due to sanctions. It also has active projects like a gas field with BP in Azerbaijan, and an investment with Royal Dutch Shell in fuel distribution in Senegal.

Read more: Iranian oil trading firm has $190mil stake in BP

Ghana's MEST To Develop National Climate Change Policy Framework

Professor Sam Codjoe, Deputy Director of RIPS, said African institutions are being confronted with the challenge of mainstreaming the impact of climate change into their development planning and policy and there is the need to strengthen the national adaptation strategies and provide viable roadmaps for development investments.

Korea Times: Climate change, resource depletion trigger dramatic global change

It’s a good piece. I feel like stressing/emphasizing something, though: the planet will exist whether or not favorable conditions for human beings; this isn’t just a sort of altruistic adventure to save trees. The delusion is that our well being is separate from the planet’s. We have no capacity to sustain ourselves anywhere else but this planet, and our ability to do so, at present, is non-existant as per the trajectory we are on; so something is going to have to change.

It’s going to take more than switching lightbulbs, it’s going to take the changing of how things are done in very broad ways. Those who are benefiting most, or have the easiest time of living, as things are will likely be most averse to changing - if typical human nature holds sway. How we feed ourselves and produce our energy and in relation trade and commerce, all of it will be affected, one way or another.

He’s right, though, it is about awareness ultimately.

In order to save our planet, a few steps need to be taken by everyone, and the cumulative efforts will give us a more sustained planet to pass on the baton of life. The first place to start is by conserving energy resources available. This can be achieved if everyone turns off the fans, lights, televisions and every other electronic appliance whenever they are not in use. Conducting a regular servicing of household devices is also an essential part to utilize less energy, thereby reducing the menace of global warming. In addition, proper maintenance of cars and other motor devices is one of the most important steps to be taken in order to save this planet. Exhaust from vehicles has been known to be a major contributor to environmental pollution.

Considering the number of problems and challenges plaguing the world, the task of saving the planet is a duty we all have to accept. Think about taking a walk when it is not necessary to take the car. Doing this will be a boost to health, save some gas and ultimately save the planet. There are a whole lot of these small actions that can be taken by every individual. Every inhabitants of the planet should contribute their bit and these will accumulate into all the differences we need to save the planet.

In the meantime, the most significant of all changes is the modification of consciousness, which is important for the purpose of reaching out to fellow human beings. Forming resistance against this change will harm our resolution to tackle the modern challenges surrounding us. Moreover, as the world travels through the magnified forces of globalization, the age-long rational mode of consciousness will soon become a source of danger to all humanity. Without doubt, the future implications that are expected to arise from the surfacing of the empathetic consciousness will be profound and extensive. Therefore, the time to act is now. This is our planet. We have to save the Earth!