Does Insulating Paint Work?

No, says this article and this.

Which is a shame because insulating solid walls (i.e. not cavity walls) can be very expensive (£10k + for external work). So it would be far simpler and cheaper to slap on a few coats of this insulating paint (aka thermal paint) and be done with it.

However, it seems that it's too good to be true. Hell, if it were true, I'm sure many governments would be making it mandatory to use it when re-decorating exterior walls. It would cut national carbon emissions enormously. Ah well.

And Now The Good News

In the post Rio +20 summit gloom it's difficult to remember that there is good news out there. I sense there is gathering momentum on a national and corporate front towards a greener future even as the international process falters.

Below are some examples:

South Korea

 

South Korea is the first country in the World to adopt a 'green' (or sustainable) growth strategy.

This trillion dollar economy is investing 2% of it's GDP annually (approx. $23 billion) into the program and has a stated aim of becoming a global leader amongst low carbon countries.

As with Japan, energy independence is essential to their future economy (They import 96% of their energy currently), so they are investing heavily in renewables. This will obviously reduce their carbon footprint.

They also want to create new drivers for economic growth by developing green, exportable technologies. Priorities are:high-efficiency photovoltaic (PV) cells, fuel cells, advanced nuclear power, green cars, smart grid, advanced carbon capture and storage (CCS), water treatment, rechargeable batteries, Light Emitting Diodes (LED), Green IT.

Finally they want to promote a green lifestyle through a green transport infrastructure, as well as sustainable land and water use.

To facilitate this change they have come up with a 5 year plan (2010-2015) and are already making good progress. Korean companies involved in green technologies are expanding, creating tens of thousands of extra jobs. Export income is projected to be $36 billion per annum by 2015.

If S.Korea continues to be successful in this venture, it could be a blue-print that other countries could adopt.

More here.

Saudi Arabia

Last month Saudi surprised everyone by announcing plans to install an enormous 54,000 MW of renewable-generating capacity during the next two decades. That's more than what the U.S. currently have from all their solar and wind combined!

This amounts to about a third of their energy needs, but their main aim is to develop a domestic renewable energy industry.

The sources will be solar PV, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), wind, geothermal and waste-to-energy.

There has been a lot of speculation about what this all means: Do the Saudis see a time when their oil production goes on the wane? Or maybe they want to cover the scenario where sky-high prices or alternative fuels make demand fall off the proverbial cliff?

Maybe. Or perhaps it's good business sense. Like the Koreans, they see a gigantic new market opening up and they want a piece of it.

More here.

Aruba

On a totally different, but no less important, scale, the tiny Caribbean island of Aruba has teamed up with the Carbon War Room to move the island towards 100% renewable energy.

If they get it right, and they have every chance of doing so with the Carbon War Room on-board, they could be a model for other island nations to follow.

Australia

Shortly before the Rio +20 summit, Australia announced the creation of the world's largest marine reserve. It will cover 3.1 million square km of the oceans surrounding Oz or more than a third of it's coastal waters.

Hopefully, where they lead, the rest of world will follow. Our oceans are essential to the health of the planet.

2nd Hottest May On Record

Miserable as it was in the UK, May 2012 was actually the second warmest, globally since records began in 1880. It was 0.66C above the 20th Century average.

The period January-May 2012 was 0.5C above average, making it the 11th highest such period on record. With an even chance of El Nino coming back this year, 2012 could end up in the top 10 warmest years. Here we go, yet again.

More here.

Rio+20: Epic Fail

So, the Rio+20 sustainable development summit ends with an agreement that the UK's deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, described as "insipid". Yep, that just about sums it up,

Beforehand, it was billed as an historic opportunity to put the world on a sustainable development path whilst ensuring everyone has access to enough food, water, and energy.

It's a fine idea. 7 billion humans on the planet have a massive impact on resources. It makes good economic sense to try to conserve those finite resources. To do otherwise risks price instability, job losses, failed national economies, and environmental collapse. You'd think it was a no-brainer really.

And yet, the final agreement was weak, with no commitments to speak of, no timescales, and nothing legally binding. All we got were empty words.

Why is this I wonder? Most of the politicians seem to understand we're heading for trouble and yet they give us this meaningless document.

Well, look at the mess European leaders are making of the Euro-zone crisis. If they can't even sort out a clear and present danger like that, what chance does a future crisis stand?

But it's more than our leaders' ineptitude that's the problem here. It's also narrow 'national interests' (e.g. not wanting to lose competitive edge), and influence from corporations (e.g. who don't want a slow-down in consumerism).

Forget the fact that business-as-usual will eventually undermine economic growth down the line, we want our profits now!

So there's the problem: Politicians are protecting what they know (a broken system) because they're afraid of what may replace it.

With that kind of approach, it's going to take a major crisis before the powers-that-be even consider changing to a sustainable system. By that time, it could be too late fix things.

Is It Wrong To Want My Kids To Have a Future?

An ex-rainforest

Climate sceptics find it convenient to classify people who are concerned about global warming as left-wing, tree-hugging, business-hating vegans. It kind of gives them something to really hate.

The truth is that, whilst the "tree huggers" may have brought climate change to the world's attention, they have now been joined by a vast army of ordinary people like myself, who are simply concerned for their kids' future.

Let's make this clear: If we continue with 'business-as-usual', there is a very real chance that the current generation of kids will be bringing up their own families in the near certain knowledge that the planet is doomed.

Overly dramatic? Not at all. Read Six Degrees by Mark Lynas (my review here), a summary of all the latest climate science, and you'll be in no doubt that, if we get to 2C above pre-industrial temperatures by 2050, we may be unable to stop it getting to 6C by 2100.

That would be disastrous for the planet. Not only would the natural environment fall apart, unable to adapt to the speed of change, but the world economy would collapse too.

Way before that, a growing world population and, more importantly, a growing middle-class, consuming at an unsustainable rate, will have massive inflationary effects for consumer products, energy, and food.

It will be a very difficult world to bring up a family in, and will only get worse. What a prospect.

We need to give our kids a chance.

Yes, it may mean some sacrifices here and there, but that's what parents do for their kids isn't it?

Japan Abandons Nuclear For Renewables

It's not a widely known fact but Japan is probably the most energy efficient country in the world.

This came about through necessity. Until quite recently Japan was completely dependant on imported fossil fuels and was badly hit by the oil price shocks in the early 70's. So the Japanese went all out for energy efficiency. And, to further reduce their exposure, they later built dozens of nuclear power stations (More background here).

Then came the Fukushima disaster.

The Japanese response was to shut down all 50 nuclear reactors. This was understandable, considering this is a country prone to natural disasters, but it left them with something of an energy gap to bridge. A big problem for what is one of the largest economies in the world.

So, after a period of consideration, the government have decided to embark on a huge rush for renewables (Solar, wind, geothermal and hydro) backed up by a new drive for energy efficiency.

If they get it right, it could advance the cause of clean energy enormously because the technology will inevitably be pushed forward and the final result could be a model for other industrialised nations.

More detail here.

What Is Carbon Capture And Storage?

Over the coming months you are likely to hear the words "carbon capture and storage" (CCS) more and more. It is potentially a game changer when it comes to the battle to avoid climate change, but what exactly is it?

In basic terms, it's technology that can be used to capture carbon dioxide at power stations etc. before it is emitted into the atmosphere, then store it somewhere safe.

It matters because it can potentially stop the whole carbon emissions problem at source. What's more, in theory, it throws oil, natural gas, and coal producers a lifeline, as there'd no longer be the urgency to replace their products with the cleaner alternatives.

However, it's early days yet. The tech could be years away from being ready to scale up and use across the world. The reason being that it is inefficient, and too expensive to be commercially viable at the moment.

This is why, a week or so ago, Norway opened up a new carbon capture and storage (CCS) test facility at Mongstad: To try to push the technology along. The facility has the capability of testing several CCS techniques at a time and should prove invaluable. It joins over 40 such test and demo sites around the world.

Carbon Capture

There are 3 broad methods for capturing: Post-combustion, where chemicals are used to strip out the CO2 from the emissions; pre-combustion, where the fossil fuel is oxidized, producing a 'syngas' for fuel whilst the CO2 is available for capture; and oxy-fuel combustion where the fuel is burned in oxygen instead of air, and CO2 can be removed from the flue gases.

Storage

There are also a number of ways the CO2 can be stored.

• The first way is to store it deep underground e.g. in old oil/gas fields, exploiting the geology to keep the gas where it is. 

• A second, more controversial way, is to store it by various means in the oceans. As far as I'm concerned, that's a non-starter. If you simply dissolve the CO2 into the water, it would add to the growing problem of acidification. Other methods just leave the problem for later generations to deal with.

• Then there's converting the CO2 into carbonates (various forms of limestone), so trapping the carbon 'forever'. This has been shown to be possible but whether it can work on an industrial scale remains to be seen.

• A couple of other promising ideas are to use the CO2 to feed algae that produce oil for plastics and even aviation fuel (Although I think this last one just moves the problem along to somewhere that doesn't use CCS).

I see CCS as something that could make a major contribution to cutting CO2 if fitted to all new coal and gas power stations, and retro-fitted to all existing ones, plus any other major emitters. However, it will take a major effort to bring the costs down to a level where this is feasible. Somehow I think the fossil-fuel industry will find a way, don't you?

Has Global Warming Stopped?

Whilst writing my review of Hot, Flat and Crowded, I had a quick look around for other reviews of the book. I managed to find this one from the right-wing Daily Telegraph.

Predictably it tows the paper's anti-green, climate sceptic line. But what really caught my attention was the reviewer claiming that "We have now experienced 10 years with no measurable 'global warming'". Oh really?!

It amazes me that people still repeat these sceptic claims parrot-fashion without giving any thought as to how easily they can be disproved.

This particular claim is based on 'cherry-picking' evidence i.e. chosing only data that fits the sceptic world-view and ignoring anything that undermines it. As the animated graph below demonstrates, sceptics simply select a small portion of the global temperature graph (in the above case: 2001 to 2010) that makes it appear that temperatures have not risen, completely ignoring not only the rest of the graph but the long-term trend.

Another case of sceptics trying to hide the incline.

Source: skepticalscience.com

More background here at skepticalscience.com.

What Is A Smart Meter?

Between 2014 and 2019 the UK will be rolling out smart meters to every home and small business around the nation. But what are smart maters, why are we switching, and have they anything to do with smart grids?

What Are They?

They are a new type of electric meter (There are equivalents for natural gas but it doesn't look like we'll be getting them in Britain) and will be replacing our existing meters. They have the ability to store our daily electric usage in great detail and communicate readings back to the energy companies automatically.

Why Are They Being Installed?

Initially the main benefits to the consumer will be to end estimated readings and the need for someone to read the meter, so bills will be more accurate (no more estimates) and you don't get bothered by men wanting to read your meter. The power companies will make savings from streamlining the meter reading process e.g. staff reductions.

Have They Got Anything To Do With Smart Grids?

Eventually the meters may become an important part of a smart grid, a kind of intelligent electrical grid.

Smart grids know what the demand and supply is in real time and can smooth out the spikes, thus reducing the need to build extra power stations that spend most of their lives idle.

They are also more reliable, with improved fault detection and 'self healing'; they are better at handling intermittent power sources like wind turbines and solar panels, meaning that they can make up a higher proportion of the total mix, and reduce our carbon emissions; more efficient (e.g. by actually managing the demand from our household appliances without us noticing); and many other features besides.

The bottom line is that smart grids can reduce our bills (by being more efficient), cut carbon emissions, be more reliable, and improve our energy security.

Smart meters are an integral part of that because they can be used to manage our appliances, inform the power companies of demand in real time, and when there's a local problem like a power cut.

Book Review: Hot, Flat and Crowded

Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman.
Published by Penguin Books. 438 pages. Hardback price £20.00

In the U.S., conservative politicians and much of the media, aided and abetted by the fossil fuel industries, push the myth that tackling the climate change problem means mass unemployment for Americans,compromised life-styles, and loss of competitiveness on the world's markets.

Pulitzer prize-winning author Friedman attempts to demonstrate that quite the opposite is possible for America. More than that, he considers the pursuit of clean energy to be a strategic and economic imperative for his nation.

This unashamedly flag-waving book is aimed squarely at Americans but is an interesting read for the rest of us too.

Friedman first sets out why the U.S. needs to step away from fossil fuels.

For example, he says the many billions Americans spend on fuel every year indirectly funds al qaeda terrorists and supports countries that suppress free speech.

He also says that clean energy is the next 'big thing': a rapidly growing market, already worth hundreds of billions a year, and the U.S. is uniquely positioned to grab a massive slice of it if only their politicians could see past their prejudices.

Why are the politicians important? Because they can provide the conditions for the USA to propel itself to the forefront of all clean technologies.

He then goes on to reveal how this can be done.

Friedman talks about "price signals" (Basically creating a stable environment where venture capitalists and entrepreneurs can have the confidence to invest in clean energy), legislation to raise energy efficiency standards, paying power companies to help the public reduce their energy usage (rather than increase it), and smart grids amongst other things.

He uses numerous examples of how these ideas work in the real world. Yes, even in the States themselves. It's a real eye-opener and makes you wonder why the U.S. isn't going for it. Oh, wait a minute, it's those politicians.

Friedman describes a political system that is dead-locked, where the only legislation that gets through is "the sum of all lobbies". So this book is as much a rally call to fellow Americans to break this dead-lock, to give his country a new sense of purpose, and save the World into the bargain.

A fascinating read. 8/10.