green economy blog

Since 1996 the inhabitants of rural areas of the country have seen their lives change, thanks to a kit of cells, batteries and lights, sold discounted rate. In the country over 80 million citizens are not met by the national grid. And now the government grants and tax incentives for those who want to invest in They've never seen so much light.

60% of the population of Bangladesh, all rural areas of the country still is not reached by the national network of electricity, the revolution has arrived yet here in the form of solar energy, clean and renewable. Also available to the poorest of the poor. All thanks to SHS (Solar Home System, Solar home), a project of Grameen Shakthi ethical bank, which specializes in promoting green energy.

This is a kit consisting of solar panels, batteries and a series of fluorescent lamps and LEDs, which has already changed the lives of over a million people. But can potentially have an impact on the lives of tens of millions of citizens. Numbers are not exaggerated: Bangladesh has 140 million citizens and, as mentioned, only 40% is reached by the national grid.

This means that 84 million people can take advantage of Shs to change their lives. SHS are different combinations at different prices. For the poorest, the simplest version costs $ 124, and is able to activate five bulbs for three hours. The money, however, should not be paid out all at once: the Grameen Shakthi (and other similar retailers) has established a system for which a payment is 10% advance and the remaining 90 repaid in 36 monthly installments. Three dollars a month. "The best investment I've ever done," said Sheikh Nizamuddin Al Jazeera.

Sheikh has a restaurant on the outskirts of Dhaka. "Before I was forced to keep open only when the sun was out, now I can lie down even after sunset. And withdrawals are doubled." The distribution efforts of the SHS are also promoted by the government which is unable to expand the national grid. In addition, the country, which produces almost all the electricity from fossil fuels, has set a target of 2020 to produce 10% of electricity from renewable sources.

Thus, combining the development of the SHS and green production, the government decided to introduce a tax exemption for 15 years on the import of components and products related to solar, as well as a host of other facilities for people from abroad wanted to invest in the sector.

A successful model, the Grameen explains: "There are many advantages, but the main one is that the Shs is cheaper than other fuels such as kerosene and diesel, and requires no maintenance. So you can provide hours of light for students, shopkeepers and housewives. And you can recharge cell phones, another tool that is changing the lives of these people. "

The electric car is to move a car that uses electricity stored in batteries or accumulators.

With the new government's handling Mountains fuel prices soared to more than 1.65 euros per liter.

The electric car becomes an opportunity no longer reserved only for the rich or to ecologists but also to ordinary people.

By Tieum512 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The electric car was among the first vehicles to be invented. The first models in fact date back to the '30s of the nineteenth century and in 1899 was the first electric car motor vehicle exceed 100 miles per hour.

Over the years, however, the market focused on vehicles with internal combustion engines used oil at the expense of the electric car. The year 2012 could be the turning point in the production of electric vehicles around the world. Many automobile manufacturers have introduced or are preparing to introduce new models of machines designed to meet the ecology and nature. Some examples are the iOn Peugeot, Mitsubishi iMiEV, and the Citroen C-Zero, among those who have yet to be made there, the Nissan Leaf, the Renault Kangoo and Fluence Ze Ze, the Smart Ed As you can see the most innovative countries for electric cars are France and Germany where there are already strong incentives for environmentally friendly cars.

The major advantages of the electric car are at their best in town, where high demands are not brilliant, but top speed, low noise and no emissions. Electric motors also have a lot more torque and acceleration from zero compared to a gasoline car. The latest models of electric car wink and also to the flagship sports cars. On our blog we have already spoken natura.blogspot.com-ecology of the Tesla electric car produced by mogul Elon Musk that relegates the concept of electric car only to a small car but the town rises to sports car with exceptional performance. A continuing problem, which reduces the spread of electric cars is that of the supply network.

It's very difficult to find a column for the supply of electricity, although it could be the business of green and ecological future, perhaps combining a photovoltaic system at the "distributor" of current. The heart of the electric car batteries or accumulators are surely. In this case, the innovation of technology is creating ever more efficient batteries that give a range of up to 600 or 800 miles, so very close to that of a conventional diesel tank.

By Gereon Meyer (Eigenes Werk) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 In fact the biggest problem relating to the ecology electric vehicles in the disposal of batteries. Some manufacturers (Toyota) achieved a battery life of 160,000 kilometers (almost the life of a car) at the end of the use of batteries, however, will be implemented a system recovery and efficient recycling of batteries that retrieves the batteries in an environmentally friendly and respectful of nature.

Electric cars give certain advantages for the air to the air we breathe, do not burn oxygen as the combustion engine. But above all do not produce emissions of CO, CO2, NOx, unburned hydrocarbons and particulate matter (at least in the work place, talk differently if the electricity is produced from hydrocarbons, see below) Electric vehicles have an overall more energy efficient than most internal combustion engines. A gasoline engine has an efficiency of 25-28%, a diesel is approaching 40%, while an electric motor AC induction has an efficiency of 90%. But if we consider that the electricity is generally produced from hydrocarbons, however, starting with the efficiency of the electric motor can be calculated as 50%. (Source Wikipedia)

So electric vehicles are still more 'efficient than internal combustion engines. The real challenge for the future will be to produce energy from renewable sources such as photovoltaic, hydro and wind power in order to bring more efficiency to the electric car that theoretically 90%.

According to a group of experts appointed by the Japanese government the cause of the accident Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power was due and lack of organization rather than in the event of earthquake and resulting tsunami realized on 11 March. The report, for now incomplete, was published yesterday. In 507 pages of this interim report (the conclusion will be ready in the second half of 2012) through interviews of 400 speakers show that the Japanese authorities had grossly underestimated the risk of a tsunami wave is unlikely that a belief could exceed six meters.

The wall of water that swept the coast of northeastern Japan on 11 March, after an earthquake measuring nine actually at some points exceeded 12 meters.

In the document, experts say: There has been a major problem on the nuclear disaster preparedness. The fact that the height of the tsunami exceeded expectations should not be an excuse for the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) with respect to the management of the accident, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986.

According to Professor Yotaro Hamatura, President of the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the government authorities: They refused to take responsibility, saying that the tsunami waves have exceeded all expectations. This incident has given us an important lesson: we must be prepared for the unimaginable.

That Prince Charles was an avid environmentalist was known for some time. Not for nothing, has installed solar panels and wood boilers in all its properties. But that could infect the mother was more difficult to imagine. Even Queen Elizabeth has decided to follow the green path traced by his son in the family. How? By giving its approval to the project to supply Windsor Castle and another 300 homes bordering on electricity generated by hydroelectric turbines placed two on the Thames.
 
The power plant project (cost £ 1.7 million) is far from an ad fashionable: the second turbine Archimedes, a monster 40-ton, was inaugurated a few days ago. The station, renamed Romney Weir, will also biosostenibile and respectful of the natural balance: have a special passage reserved for fish and eels so that they can continue to exploit the river for their important migratory routes. Apparently, the plant should be able to provide 300 kWh of electricity, ie half of the energy normally used in the castle (but not always lived and can be implemented in turn saving policies) thus fulfilling a tight supply agreement with the royal house.
 
"We are constantly looking for new ways to save money and provide energy to remain as environmentally friendly as possible in the future," said Deputy Treasurer of His Majesty, confirming that the excess electricity produced will be sold to the national network to be used homes in the county of Windsor.
 
Signing the facility the Southeast Power Engineering (Sepel) together with the British agency for the environment with funding from the Asset Management Summit. In fact, well-digging, it turns out another initiative of this kind: another hydroelectric power station in the Scottish estate of Balmoral. Even St. James's Palace and Kensington were somehow equipped with the most modern energy saving measures oriented. In short: the way of the Queen Elizabeth is silent but convintamene green.
 
Not enough jobs to Windsor Castle, the Queen gave their own in recent days further evidence of his sensitivity to these issues starting rigorously train to the royal Sandringham House, a country residence in Norfolk where he will spend the Christmas holidays,surrounded by some fifty unsuspecting travelers Nothern Connect the line.

It seems that finally we are experiencing serious bio-fuels (or biofuels) made from organic products that are not derived from food. The great problem FOR GREENECONOMY of biofuel such as biodiesel or bioethanol is in fact that is usually obtained from products that are normally used for human food or the raw material is grown on land taken away from food crops giving rise to serious ethical problems.

If biofuels are definitely An opportunity for ecology and nature conservation is also true that it may conflict with the human need for food. Real hope seems to come from algae In fact, Europe has recently launched a new research project (the EnAlgae) third-generation biofuels. Four years and 14 million euros to produce and distribute biofuels derived from algae.

Companies like http://greenfuels.co.uk/ are working on the development of algae cultivation in defined areas for the production of biofuels. While the U.S. Navy and the Danish company Maersk have developed a biofuel derived from algae for cargo ships and make a long journey 6,500 miles nautical testing in order to test the performance of biofuel in the travel business.

The main obstacle to the widespread use of these biofuels is still the cost but the research is trying to develop new methods to increase production and enter the market with a competitive price. The development potential of these biofuels is high also because the process of production of biofuel from algae is very similar to traditional technologies used for other biofuels already in use. In addition, algae can grow and reproduce in environments such as waste water unusable by humans or brackish water. Some scholars estimate between 1,000 and 20,000 liters of biofuel yield per hectare can, of course, also based on the species of seaweed cultivation. Some argue that the United States alone could produce enough algae to replace oil and agriculture still leave 180 million hectares of land for food. So the algae represent great promise for the greeneconomy and nature we will see if the search yield the desired outcome.

It opens today, November 28, 2011 in Durban, South Africa, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.

The central theme will be the reduction of greenhouse gases, it seems more and more tragically real correlation between greenhouse gases and climate change have also recently struck Italy with the latest floods.

The climate conference in Durban born, however, already among the controversies about the shortage of funds for the reduction of greenhouse gases, it seems that the U.S. has allocated for this fight much less than what they intended to save the banks. The economic downturn impacts heavily on the policy choices that affect the ecology and also in Durban, there is no mistake from the choices affect climate.

According to the Department of Energy in Washington, CLIMATE ALTERING gas emissions in the world have reached in 2010 an increase of 6%​​, totally unexpected, especially in the face of economic crisis, which theoretically should have as a "side effect" of reducing emissions. States such as China are as always very reluctant to change their habits in terms of ecology.

On 1 January 2013 will expire on the first period of the Kyoto Protocol. From that moment on, we do not know what principles will govern the issue of greenhouse gases that increase the greenhouse effect. Precisely why the Durban conference is called to respond, while the Pope was interested in the outcome of the conference.

The climate conference in Durban will end on December 9, 2011, hopefully with positive results for the ecology.

Ecology in the strict sense is the science that studies the ecosphere, ie the portion of Earth where life is present in aggregates called systemic "ecosystems."

From the 60 70, however, the environmental movement has used the term as synony

mous with environmental ecology, study of pollution and ecology in general the term is now commonly used to define a proper relationship that the man should have with naturearound him.

Ecology in the usual sense is therefore that spontaneous movement which tends to improve the environment through sustainable development of society.

Ecology has allowed specific technological innovations such as the diffusion of photovoltaics or wind energy to produce electricity that only twenty years ago were considered a luxury for a few hippies, or the management of waste by recycling and composting.
Today ecology faces new challenges as the attempt to implement the process or the struggle for Zero Waste no to nuclear power but must be capable of providing renewable energy and truly competitive.

In short, ecology is a battle to improve the relationship with the environment around us. An innovative process is made even more acute in this period of severe economic crisis.
Ecology can provide the ideas to create, as in the case of renewables, new jobs and developing a credible alternative.

In Italy he feels a strong need for ecology that responds to the specific development needs but respecting a territory fragile and too often abused. But ecology is not just a series of prohibitions, NO!
In this blog we want to propose an ecology POSITIVE that would give particular solutions to the huge problems that the world has before. We want to give a hint of optimism, because through the green economy, problems can be solved.
The green economy is a critical step for the development of the world economy that, henceforth, will no longer apart from ecology.

Produce clean energy, investing in a chain to popular action, to be able to sell freely on the market. This is the purpose of Retenergie, a cooperative founded in Cuneo in 2008 and today has nearly 400 members, following the appeal on the internet by Marco Mariano, at the time the owner of an agricultural producer of beans, to find people from involved in the construction of the first photovoltaic system to popular action. An initiative called "Adopt a kilowatt of clean energy," which quickly gathered a consensus so wide as to be able to build a photovoltaic system at Mondovi on the roof of an enterprise of waste and management of public parks, and unleashed a true their collective energy and action.

IN THREE REGIONS - In fact the cooperative Mariano in just three years has reached a capital of 450 thousand euros and already counts among its five owned photovoltaic systems connected to the network of Piedmont, Emilia Romagna and Lombardy for a total of one hundred kW of installed capacity. Not to mention the mini-hydropower: 170 000 kWh, which will accrue to between six months when the plants will go into business. "Our goal," says president Mark Retenergie Mariano, "is to be able to produce, by the end of 2012, at least 500 000 kWh. And, to make it more attractive to economic investment in the cooperative, to be able to become, within four years, suppliers of energy we produce.Without being forced, as we do now, to sell to the State and to lean on outside companies for the supply to households. And, to be able to close the circuit of clean energy, we need to find at least 6 000 potential customers and build, in these four years, an adequate number of facilities, including electrical and foltovoltaico, to satisfy them. "

DEMOCRATIC ENERGY - To form a virtuous circle, in the three years of the cooperative, almost 400 members, according to data reported on the site. Locally organized regional groups that meet every six months in a large popular assembly, distributed throughout the boot to find sites where you can develop power plants, and located mostly in northern and central Italy and abroad as a member Italian transplanted in Switzerland and two French sympathizers. All gathered in a heterogeneous society in which there are students, professionals, employees and university professors. Including, also a professor of mitigation of climate change at the Politecnico of Milan Stephen Caserini. "The cooperative system," says Caserini, "is a formula used to mobilize the necessary change in energy, imposed by the narrowness of the current system that relies on fossil fuels such as gas, coal and oil. Resources, "says the professor," not only highly polluting, but also destined to dry up over time. For this reason, it seemed like a good investment to rely on a cooperative and transparent as the one serious set up by Mariano, perfectly in line with the spirit of macropolicies economic energy savings. "

ALTERNATIVE ECONOMY - Several ways to become part of Retenergie. Subscriptions can be made directly on the site and joins the popular shareholder proposed by the cooperative. By direct participation, with a minimum membership fee of 550 euros for the investor untouchable for at least ten years, which enables those who do not have the chance to build a plant to become co-own the cooperative and those to divide the profits at year end. "Since January 2012," reveals Mariano, "also will open the way for social lending, re-evaluating the money we will be made available with a fixed interest rate of 3%." Or, with adhesion of 50 euros, which provides for this type of shareholders other than energy services including consulting for the energy certification of buildings and redevelopment.

CLEAN ENERGY ETHICS - To achieve the clean energy sector, however, the cooperative has also given the rules in a code of ethics drawn up by the same shareholders, all of which provide directions on how facilities should be made. Precise, not only for energy production but also for the preservation of the planet. "For example," says Mariano, "for what it regards as photovoltaic systems we are absolutely opposed to the ground because we believe that the land should be used for other purposes and not for energy. Moreover, there are so many roofs available and then we work on those, trying to rent them for twenty years. Sometimes, even managing to pay the surface rights, in exchange for the work we do on energy. Or, "Mariano concludes," for the hydroelectric power plants we intend to put on only manmade sites already, without any intervention on waterways providing new pipes. For this reason we only work on irrigation canals, aqueducts and artefacts existing only to support us where we are going to enforce our production facilities. "

Rome, Nov. 11 (TMNews) - The tidal exploitation of estuary of the River Thames and a system of flood protection are the focus of a major infrastructure project conceived and proposed by famed British architect Norman Foster for the restructuring of the air transport system, rail and sea in 'area of ​​London.

The project, costing £ 50 billion (58 billion) in 10-15 years, including an international airport from 150 million passengers a year, a railway station (under the air terminal) connected by 300,000 passengers a day high-speed access to London and major cities in Great Britain, a port and a road junction.

Also, a 5 km long barrier and 500 meters wide, which is supposed to control the flooding of the Thames and simultaneously optimize the production of a power plant that would produce electricity from tidal currents in the estuary. The plant, the cost of 5 billion pounds (5.8 billion), would be able to produce enough energy to meet the entire electricity demand of 76,000 households.

The optics of the plan is that of sustainable development: the airport and infrastructure are designed to relieve congestion in the urban area of ​​London, the electricity needs of the airport would be fully met by electricity generated by the tides without polluting emissions. Finally, the entire project will be developed within a strategy to minimize the environmental impact.

The project was developed by Foster + Partners in collaboration with Halcrow study for infrastructure and Volterra Partners to study the economic aspects. According to the designers, given the cost of 50 billion pounds, the project would bring economic benefits for about 150 billion pounds, with many jobs evaluated on the order of tens of thousands of jobs. TM News

The Passive House (Passivhaus in accordance with the original German term, passive house in English) is a home that provides thermal comfort without heating "conventional", ie boiler and radiators, or similar systems.

The house is called passive because the sum of the passive heat inputs of solar radiation transmitted through the windows and the heat generated internally by the building occupants and the appliances themselves are almost enough to offset losses envelope during the cold season. This type of construction is generally made ​​of wood structure, which is a natural insulator.

The energy needed to balance the heat of the building is typically provided with non-conventional systems (eg solar panels or heat pump to heat the air of the ventilation controlled energy recovery).

The conventional heating system can be eliminated if the energy needs of the house is very low, conventionally less than 15 kWh per square meter per year.

These benefits are achieved with very careful planning, especially in regard to the sun, with the adoption of high performance thermal insulation of external walls, roof and glass surfaces and through the adoption of controlled ventilation systems for energy recovery.

The passive house concept was born in May 1998 from the collaboration between Bo Adamson of Lund University in Sweden of the university, Dr. Wolfgang Feist and German.

Their concept was developed through a series of research projects funded in part by the German state Hessen. The first passive house in Germany was built in 1991 in Darmstadt-Kranichstein by Dr. Wolfgang Feist.

The energy requirements of 4 terraced houses amounted on average to 10 kWh/m2a and has remained stable for 15 years. The first German passive house multi-family is located in Freiburg (1999). Followed by a residential complex of 21 houses in Wiesbaden, 32 homes and 52 homes Hanover-Kronsberg in Stuttgart. Between the years 1999-2001 have been built through the Cepheus complex additional 221 locations in 14 'in 5 EU countries: Germany, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Austria).

All construction and measurements were controlled fully respected expectations. At this moment the most 'big passive construction (German) is located in Ulm and is called Energon (2002). The first passive house in the United States was built in 2006 in Bemidji, Minnesota for the "Deutsch-als-Fremdsprache Waldsee-Programm".

The project Waldsse been possible with the help of the German Environment Foundation and funded by several German companies. In Italy, the first public building in the ex post target passive house is designed by the architect in Bolzano. Tribus Michael in 2004. This adaptation of the former post office building in place for the offices of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano. The building has a volume of 20,000 m³ and the consumption is 7 kWh / m². Corresponds to less than one liter of fuel oil per square meter per year.

Under the name of saving energy are different techniques to reduce energy consumption necessary for the performance of various human activities.

The savings can be achieved either by changing the process so there is less waste and using technology to transform energy from one form to another more efficiently.

One of the most common examples is the replacement of incandescent bulbs with fluorescent ones, which emit light energy at different times the same amount of energy consumed first.

Even in the heating systems of buildings are more or less simple measures to save energy, such as 'use of thermostatic valves, the' use of thermostats and other more challenging, as the replacement of old fixtures, old boilers with condensing boilers , the wall insulation.

Energy savings you can have on the production of electricity using cogeneration systems to improve yields of the various processes, which consist of technologies to obtain, simultaneously, for example, electricity and heat, or are used in "cascade "the same energy flows to increasing entropy, for a variety or, finally, to carry out forms of energy recovery apparatus. Or using the energy dispersed by the movement of humans or cars, as has already been done in Holland, for example, pressure-sensitive floors that produce electricity, the subway stairs in places most frequented in the world. The effects of these policies must always be considered in relation to the Jevons Paradox.