Interesting interview with Jim Watson, former President of the Royal Society of NZ on Kathryn Ryan’s Nine to Noon programme this morning (podcast here, but only for a week). Watson, the founder scientist of Genesis Research & Development discusses the new Biojoule project being established at Taupo. A species of willow (not the cricket bat kind) will be grown and harvested to produce ethanol as a biofuel, and lignin, a biological chemical alternative to hydrocarbons from fossil fuel as a feedstock for plastics. Home grown technology in every sense of the word.
Category: Climate business
Howard’s carbon conversion
There’s an Australian federal election on the way, and – bless his cotton socks – John Howard has discovered there are votes in carbon policy. Over the last few days Howard has announced a national cap and trade programme for greenhouse gases as part of a new A$627 million climate change initiative, coupled with subsidies for solar hot water systems in schools, and an A$1,000 rebate for domestic installations. The carbon trading mechanism will not begin until 2011, covers only 55% of Australian emissions, and the administration has not announced how big the cap will be. Unsurprisingly, this has been criticised by environmental campaigners, as New Scientist reports:
Caroline Fitzpatrick, of Greenpeace Australia accuses Howard of yielding to pressure from another group – Australia’s powerful coal industry – by announcing what amounts to a delaying tactic in carbon trading, rather than an effective new carbon-reduction scheme.
No doubt NZ’s Greenhouse Policy Coalition will renew its calls for the government on this side of the Tasman to match Howard’s cautious approach. Meanwhile, the Australia Institute has released a paper (press release, full paper [both PDF]), that calculates Australia’s emissions budget for the 21st century based on a “contract and converge
Coming soon to a roof near you
Vector is to start trialling rooftop wind turbines imported from Scotland. The Swift turbines, manufactured by Renewable Devices in Edinburgh, are rated at 1.5kW and quiet enough for urban use. The first trial site is the Waitakere City Council building (Waitakere has a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050). In NZ conditions, it’s expected that the Swifts will deliver between 2,000 and 3,000 kWh per year – around a quarter of the average household’s electricity usage. I wonder how the Swifts might cope with a North Canterbury nor’wester?
Mummy, can I have one of these, please?
Great article in Wired on new battery technologies being developed for electric vehicles leads me to discover something I really, really want (but can’t afford): the new Lightning GT. A British-built electric supercar. 700hp through motors in each wheel, 0-60mph in about 4 seconds, 250 mile range, and thanks to Altairnano’s nanotech re-engineering of lithium batteries, a 10 minute recharge time. Snag? The £150,000 cost. Even with the NZ dollar soaring, that’s not far short of $400,000. And only two seats.
Kill possums and save the world
Possums eat trees. Trees take carbon from the air. Kill possums, tree growth increases, and more carbon’s sucked out of the atmosphere. The Department of Conservation’s been keen on this idea for some time, to the extent of claiming last year that $200 million spent on possum and goat control would sequester enough carbon to meet New Zealand’s complete Kyoto emissions overshoot. They’ve finally convinced the cabinet that this is worth pursuing: conservation minister Chris Carter announced yesterday [Scoop, Stuff] that DoC will tender for commercial investment in six carbon offset trials.
Details of the projects are still being developed but they are likely to be of two types. The first will set aside specific areas of conservation land for either replanting or natural regeneration of forests on land which was not in forest prior to 1989, thus making these measures Kyoto compliant. The second type of project, likely to be the largest of the two, will involve major pest control initiatives on conservation land to measure and assess increases in carbon storage, both through the removal of pests which may emit methane and through increased growth in shrubs and trees with the pests gone.
Interestingly, Carter notes:
“Companies have already been approaching DOC with multi-million dollar conservation and carbon storage proposals. The government’s decisions mean that all New Zealand companies are put on a level playing field in a tender process for the carbon storage opportunities conservation land offers.