Category: Climate business

Friday omnibus #37b

To keep things ticking over while I’m in Auckland for the Royal Society’s inaugural Science Book Prize presentation here are a few items that have caught my eye over the last few days:

  • The BBC reports on the end of the Catlin Arctic Ice Survey expedition, and prompts UK ice specialist Peter Wadhams to comment on the current state of the ice: “By 2013, we will see a much smaller area in summertime than now; and certainly by about 2020, I can imagine that only one area will remain in summer.” For this year, the Canadian Ice Service expects a summer minimum similar to the last two years.
  • However much I moan about NZ’s big emitters arguing for delay and inaction (there was a particularly specious piece by Catherine Beard of the Greenhouse Policy Coalition in the Herald yesterday), our politicians have it easy compared to lawmakers in Washington. The Guardian reports that coal and oil interests lobbying against emissions reductions have spent US$45 million in the first three months of this year.
  • Aficionados of conspiracy theories (Wishart, are you reading this?) will enjoy this review by Johann Hari of Voodoo Histories, a new book by David Aaronovitch: “[Aaronovitch] argues that we keep returning so obsessively to conspiracy theories because they are, paradoxically, reassuring. “Paranoia”, he writes, “is actually the sticking plaster we fix to an altogether more painful wound”: the knowledge that life is chaotic and random and nobody is in charge.”
  • New Scientist explores the deep roots of our understanding of the greenhouse effect by looking at the life of John Tyndall. Well worth a read.

A pillow of winds

WindturbineNot content with being one of NZ’s leading climate cranks, energy consultant Bryan Leyland also has views on wind power that are well out of the mainstream. Muriel Newman’s NZ Centre for Policy Research this week gives Bryan a chance to fulminate about the economics of wind energy:

I believe that, given the high cost and operational problems of wind power, no responsible Board of Directors of a state-owned or private company could — or should — agree to “investing” in windpower. There are better and cheaper alternatives.

Is that so? I thought it might be wise to check Bryan’s take on the business, and so I asked Fraser Clark, chief executive of the NZ Wind Energy Association to take a look at his article and give us an idea of what the real situation is. Here is his analysis…

Electricity generation technology and the way electricity systems are managed are continually evolving. Bryan Leyland’s recent think piece, which criticised wind energy as ‘foolish energy’, failed to consider many of the factors that are influencing the development of modern electricity systems.

Broader energy security concerns are driving the global shift to renewable electricity generation. Uncertainty regarding the supply and price of fossil fuels increases the attractiveness of wind energy as it has no fuel cost, no supply risk, and will not be affected by the introduction of a price on greenhouse gas emissions.

Leaving aside security concerns, which I have discussed elsewhere, many of Mr Leyland’s recent assertions about wind energy are irrelevant, alarmist and unsupported by other, more robust analysis.

Continue reading “A pillow of winds”

Blackleg miner

NZcoal.jpgSolid Energy, NZ’s state-owned coal mining company, is promoting an alternative to an economy wide emissions trading scheme. According to Carbon News, the approach is being “heavily peddled to policy makers and others in Wellington”, and it is seen to have “great simplistic appeal”. Carbon News has made the document, A Durable Climate Change Strategy for New Zealand, available here.

The essence of the scheme, once you plough through Solid Energy’s reasons for disliking the ETS as currently proposed, is that the government should plant lots of trees, funded by a $1/tonne carbon levy applied across the economy. Lots and lots of trees — a million hectares of new exotic and native forest planted over the next 20-30 years. Solid Energy claims that “Kiwiforest” would provide enough cheap carbon sequestration to allow the economy to grow without the need to impose steep carbon prices. An ETS would only be introduced when there was a truly global interlinked network of carbon markets.

Sounds attractive, on the face of it. Who could object to planting lots of trees? Certainly not me. Unfortunately, as a national emissions strategy it looks too simplistic to be realistic, and on Solid Energy’s numbers delivers emissions reductions that aren’t credible.

Continue reading “Blackleg miner”

Maybe, maybe not

WindturbineAlthough I emphasised the uncertainties of wind farms in the Waikato in my post a few weeks ago, it was dispiriting to read in the Waikato Times tonight that the massive wind farm Hauauru ma raki, proposed for the coastline south of Port Waikato, might never be built. The six-week Board of Enquiry hearing began this week. Contact Energy’s counsel explained that while the economics of the project looked unfavourable currently, Contact was seeking a ten-year lapse period for the project after consent was granted so that they have certainty that it can be built if and when it is needed. He emphasised that it was critically important to have consents that could be exercised when market conditions were favourable – meaning not just pricing but also such matters as security of electricity supply for the greater Auckland area if there are delays in upgrading the transmission grid.

It looks as if Contact is reluctant to spend as much effort on detailed engineering design for a farm which may not be built as the Board may require for a farm to which it is to give consent. The chairman said “There is huge tension between the flexibility you desire and the effects we need to consider.”

Hardly an auspicious beginning. We’ll keep watch on how things develop.

[GR adds: In related news, Mainpower has announced that it is to appeal the Mt Cass decision to the Emvironment Court. More, later.]

Some good news

WindturbineTwo items of good news from the US this week. Good because they confirm that the Obama Administration is serious about its intention to move to renewable sources for energy, and particularly good in the boost they give to wind generation.  

President Obama gave an unequivocal speech to a wind tower construction facility in Iowa on Wednesday.  He’s not buying the notion that climate change must be put to one side while the economic crisis is addressed (John Key take note):

Continue reading “Some good news”