Power goes on at SA's first wind farm
South Africa's first alternative energy initiative to produce electricity from wind power has been switched on. Established below Moedmaag Hill,a few kilometres from Darling in the Western Cape, the R75 million Darling Wind Farm Project is the first grid connected, independent energy power-generating facility developed in South Africa, reports FIN24.com.
"The country has the potential to generate electricity from wind in excess of its current total national power consumption and without the harmful effects of fossil fuel and nuclear-powered generation plants," CEO of Darling Wind Power Hermann Oelsner told FIN24.com. The project is a private-public partnership between the Department of Minerals and Energy, the Central Energy Fund and the Darling Independent Power Producers. The Danish government's International Development Assistance funded part of the project.
The facility consists of four German-designed wind turbines. The structures are 50m high with the blades spanning 31m. Each turbine will produce 1.3MW of electricity bringing the total output of the wind farm to 5.2MW. The project is referred to as the National Demonstration Project and will be used as an example for future public private partnerships in the establishment of alternative electricity generation.
www.sagoodnews.co.zaConserve Water Through Food Efficiency, Report Says By Ben Block
In addition to wasting food and water, discarded food produces large amounts of the greenhouse gas methane. As food prices escalate and water scarcity extends worldwide, the best solution to both issues would be a global reduction in wasted food, a new international report says.
Inefficient harvesting, transportation, storage, and packaging ruin 50 percent of food, according to the report, which was released last week by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Water Management Institute. Add up how much food consumers simply throw away, especially in developed nations, and a whole lot of water is being wasted as well.
If government, industry, and civil society worked together to improve efficiency, wasted food could be cut in half by 2025, the report says. Water conservation recommendations included advanced technologies to capture more rainwater for agriculture, incentives for consumers to waste less food, and benchmark standards for industry to reduce water use in the entire food chain.
The water experts decided to target the food sector because agriculture requires 80 percent of the world's water resources. With populations set to grow in the coming years, and as developing nations eat more meat and dairy, water demand is expected to also surge. "It's likely we'll need two times the water by 2050 than what we need today. The challenge is to reduce the amount of water we need today," said David Molden, research director at Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute, in a press conference.
In the developing world, wasted food is mostly attributed to harsh climate conditions and crop-eating pests or organisms. Agricultural productivity could double, the report says, if farmers adopt existing water conservation technologies, such as small dams that supply rainwater run-off during times of drought.
Post-harvest food losses, which in Africa range from 25 to 50 percent, can be reduced through proper storage and transfer facilities, the report states. In addition to investments in silos, "processing of the products, to add value and keep freshness," would better preserve food resources, says Virginia-based Millennium Institute president Hans Herren, who is a World Food Prize laureate, when commenting on the report.
The report called for businesses to minimize wasted water during food processing and transportation by setting benchmark standards. Industry should also create labels that state how much water each product requires, said Molden, a report lead author. "If industry can demand a banana has a certain shape or a tomato has a certain color, why not say something about how much water it takes for farmers to produce those crops?" he said.
As the world suffers a burgeoning food crisis-grain prices rose 80 percent between 2005 and 2008-more attention is being dedicated to food waste. Waste in the developed world is particularly high. According to a 2001 study by the University of Arizona, Americans were throwing away three times as much food then as they were 20 years prior. A study released this month by the U.K. government said more food is being wasted there, too, costing the country 10 billion pounds ($19.6 billion) each year.
The international water report estimates that households in developed nations are wasting as much as a quarter of their food. "Very few people know about the water consumption related to the food that they eat," said Jan Lundqvist, a researcher with the Stockholm International Water Institute. "With increasing competition, increasing prices, it's now a very auspicious moment to try to push this type of message."
But Anders Berntell, the Stockholm International Water Institute's executive director, suggested that a public relations campaign may not suffice. "If a family can afford to throw away 25 percent of the food they eat, maybe the price is too low," he said.
www.worldwatch.orgWater saving device cuts losses for Cape’s poor
In an effort to reduce water losses and wastage, the City of Cape Town has started installing water management devices in high water consumption areas that offer real benefits for the city’s poorer citizens. Sipho Mosai, the City’s Director of Water and Sanitation, says, “This project was initiated because of the increased demand for water as a result of an increase in population, more development spurred by a burgeoning economy, climatic changes adversely affecting rainfall levels and substantial water loss through leaks.”
The water management device is a meter which replaces the existing meter and it is programmed to dispense a pre-agreed amount of water each day. This amount can be set to just the free 6Kl (200 litres/day) that indigent households qualify for or to any amount the householder can afford to pay.
Mosai says that high water consumption properties are often occupied by poor families and the high consumption is frequently caused by leaks.
Over the past year, since the programme started, the City of Cape Town has installed 7 500 water management devices in Atlantis, Brown’s Farm, Constantia, Delft, Gugulethu, Lost City, Ocean View, Parklands, Samora Machel, Table View and Westbank. The City’s target is to have 20 000 devices installed by mid-2009.
“We are currently seeing an average saving of up to 5 000 litres of water per household per month,” says Mosai.
The water management device differs from the conventional meter in that once the agreed-upon daily allocation has been used, the flow stops until the next morning.
This encourages consumers to analyse and monitor their water usage and to avoid unnecessary wastage. If only a portion of the daily allocation is used, the remainder is carried over to the next day.
“If one has an allocation of 450 litres a day and only 300 litres is used, then 150 litres will be carried over to the next day and so on. However, at the end of the month, any unused allocation cannot be carried over to the next month,” explains Mosai.
The water management devices are installed free of charge in households that are dependant on grants or can prove that they are indigent. When a resident agrees to have the device installed the City will repair all internal leaks before the meter is set to allocate the daily amount.
Should the resident be registered indigent and, for six consecutive months, continue to pay for monthly water use, plus an agreed amount to reduce arrears, then they can apply to have their water and sanitation debts written off.
”As a further incentive for people registered on our indigency database, the City will write off any arrears caused by water leaks if they remain within their quota and pay for any extra water use for a sustained period of 6 months.
“So far we have written off R55 million under this scheme,” says Mosai.
The City has also proposed that all new developments and all high domestic water users have their existing meters replaced by the water management device, thereby saving the money that would have been lost through leaks.
For more information, contact the City’s Water Use Management Offices on (021) 761 0989.
www.sagoodnews.co.zaCape tackles climate change through the sun
The Western Cape is leading the way in tackling climate change and energy efficiency with their launch of the country’s first solar water geyser project.
Speaking at the launch held in Riversdale last month, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said, "The use of solar energy, which is a renewable energy source, will assist us in reducing the load of pressure on the national electricity grid.”
The first 60 of 240 Eskom-accredited solar geysers were installed in the KwaNokuthula community in Riversdale with more to follow in areas such as Nyanga, Elsies Rivier and Atlantis.
The Western Cape government aims to install 1 000 solar geysers in order to help save 500MW per day.
Sonjica added however that the project was not only a response to the current energy crisis but a sustainable long term investment for South Africa.
Western Cape MEC for Environmental Affairs and Economic Development Tasneem Essop says that the project will tackle three emergencies faced by the Western Cape and the rest of the world; namely climate change, energy saving and poverty.
“The launch of this solar water geyser legacy project is an attempt by the Provincial Government of the Western Cape to bring renewable energy into our poorer areas,” she told Engineering News.
“We have conducted research on climate change and we know that the parts of our community that will be hardest hit by climate change are the poor.”
Earlier this year Eskom announced their solar powered water heater incentive programme. The programme is aimed at urging consumers to move towards renewable sources of energy, through a cost-incentive programme.
Eskom has compiled a list of solar water heater suppliers. The accredited suppliers offer solar water heating solutions at discount prices.
For more information visit Eskom’s Demand Side Management website .
www.sagoodnews.co.zaSoweto gets new park in just 24 hours
It is barely 8am on a crisp autumn Friday morning and the staff of Johannesburg City Parks are hard at work on day two of the 24-hour Diepkloof Xtreme Park Makeover.
Only ten hours remain before City Parks unveils what is their most ambitious project yet: the 24-hour rollout of a multipurpose park, complete with a playground, soccer field, water features, splash pool, landscaped lawns, walkways and an amphitheatre with a big screen TV.
“We are going to make it,” says a confident MD of Joburg City Parks Luther Williamson, who will be accompanied by Mayor of Johannesburg Amos Masondo for the ceremonial unveiling of the Park scheduled for 6pm on Friday evening.
The project’s supporters include the City of Joburg, the World Conservation Union and Highveld 94.7fm who broadcast their breakfast show live from the park.
Williamson was inspired to launch the XtremePark project after watching the American TV Series Extreme Makeover. He does however believe that his XtremePark Makeover can give the US TV Series a run for its money. “They spend seven days on a house. We’ve only got 24 hours to complete a two-hectare park!”
Over 200 people are at work on the site at any given time on this R4.6 million project that would normally take 4 months to complete.
The planning of the project began three months ago, explains Williamson. An internal team at City Parks calculated the details of what would need to go into a 24-hour project of this scale. “We’ve gone as far as calculating how many seconds it takes to lay instant grass or how many seconds it takes to lay paving,” he adds.
The Diepkloof Xtreme Park is situated on what used to be a derelict piece of land that was overrun with illegal dumping and litter. The project is part of the City commitment to ‘green’ Soweto and redefine open spaces in the area. City Parks has engaged with the community in the roll out of the park with contractors being hired from the area.
As the countdown draws nearer, there is no doubt that the current latent sense of urgency will become more overt and drive the project to completion. But for now the site is a hub of festivity as visitors, media, government and City Parks officials mingle against the backdrop of the constant hum of construction and hard work.
The Mayor will officially unveil the 24-hour Diepkloof Xtreme Park at 6pm on Friday 9 May. Visitors are welcome. The park is situated on Immink Road, Diepkloof Zone 2, Soweto.
www.sagoodnews.co.zaMaking food systems work for people and planet
With food hitting the headlines like never before, the International Institute for Environment and Development has launched a web-based publication that describes how to rethink food production and distribution for environmental and social gain.
Towards Food Sovereignty is an online book with linked video and audio files, whose first three chapters are now freely available at IIED's website.
"Rising food prices and fears that biofuel production will reduce the availability of food are forcing this issue onto the international agenda," says the book's author Dr Michel Pimbert, who is the director of IIED’s Sustainable Agriculture, Biodiversity and Livelihoods programme.
"It is now time to look long and hard at what is wrong with the global food system and to find ways to make it work better, especially for poor and marginalised communities."
That in essence is the aim of the food sovereignty movement, through which communities and citizens worldwide are striving to reclaim control of what food they produce, how they produce it and for whom, and what they consume.
Earlier this month, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) published the results of three years of research. It concluded that agriculture must change radically to protect the environment and ensure that poor people have enough food to eat.
Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Programme said during the intergovernmental meeting that endorse the report that: "Agriculture is not just about putting things in the ground and then harvesting them…it is increasingly about the social and environmental variables that will in large part determine the future capacity of agriculture to provide for eight or nine billion people in a manner that is sustainable."
Pimbert's book describes the ecological basis of food and agriculture, the social and environmental costs of modern food systems, and the policy reversals needed to democratise food systems.
Using a novel approach that includes video and audio clips of farmers, indigenous peoples and consumers all working to promote food sovereignty, it highlights the importance of locally controlled food systems to sustain both people and nature.
"Local food systems vary greatly and are the foundation for livelihoods, cultures and wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people, mostly in developing nations," says Pimbert. "But governments, international corporations and other elites either marginalise or directly threaten these diverse systems and the ecologies they depend on."
"The food system can be made fair and sustainable, but to achieve that we need national and international policies that promote food sovereignty. And we need stronger federations of local organisations so that food providers and other citizens can reclaim their own definitions of food, agriculture and human well being," adds Pimbert.
The full book will be published later this year. After describing the food sovereignty concept and the growing movement behind it, the book critically examines the transformations needed to regenerate a network of diverse local food systems based on democratic control, equity, social justice and ecological sustainability.
Download the bookFor more information, or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Mike Shanahan
Press Officer
International Institute for Environment and Development
Email: mike.shanahan@iied.org
Tel: +44 (0)20 7872 7256
Fax: +44 (0)20 7388 2826
www.iied.orgDesert state channels oil wealth into world's first sustainable city
Lord Foster designs car-free, solar-powered project for 50,000 people
In an expanse of grey rock and dust in one of the harshest environments on earth, the United Arab Emirates is about to build what is being described as the world's first sustainable city, designed by British architect Lord Foster.
The site is far from promising. Miles from a polluted sea, a fierce sun raises temperatures to 50C (120F) in the summer, and there is no fresh water, no soil and no animals. But tens of billions of petro-dollars will be poured into these seven square kilometres of desert on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi.
Called Masdar - "the source" in Arabic - the walled city is intended to house 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses. It will have no cars and be self-sufficient in renewable energy, the majority of which will be solar energy.
The formal unveiling of the desert eco-city will be made today at a summit on future energy sources in Abu Dhabi, attended by the UK business secretary, John Hutton, and Prince Andrew.
"It's extremely ambitious," said Gerard Evenden, senior partner in Lord Foster's architecture practice in London, which has had a team working on the design for nine months. "We were invited to design a zero-carbon city. In this harsh place we needed to look back at history and see how ancient settlements had adapted to their environments." The buildings will huddle together as in a casbah, and will be cooled by wind towers which will collect the desert's breezes and flush out hot air. No building will be more than five storeys high; the city is to be oriented north-east to south-west to give the optimum balance of sunlight and shade.
It will feel closer to many cities built in the age of the cart and horse. Most roads will only be 3 metres (10ft) wide and just 70 metres long to develop a micro-climate and keep the air moving; roofs will allow in air and keep the sun out in the summer. No one will be more than 200 metres from public transport, and streets will give on to colonnaded squares and fountains.
"We are definitely not imposing a standard international architecture in Masdar. We are aiming to find a balance of light and heat," said Evenden. "It's only really hot for three months of the year, but at other times it's humid."
It is every architect's dream to build a new city and Foster's team say they started from scratch. The idea has been to reduce the amount of energy needed to build it and to live there, and then to let solar energy take over.
"We will start with a large solar power station which will provide the energy to construct the city. Some 80% of all the roof space will be used to generate solar power, and because we expect technology to improve as we are building it, we hope we will later be able to remove the power plant. We could 'borrow' energy from outside, but we are trying to prove it can all be generated in the confines of the site," said Evenden.
The architects are also planning some hi-tech gadgetry. The 50,000 inhabitants, and everyone who works there, will move around on one of three levels. A light railway will whizz people to and from Masdar to Abu Dhabi's forest of glass and steel towers; a second level is reserved for pedestrians; and a third for "personalised rapid transport pods," described by Evenden as "little vehicles like driverless personal taxis which run on tracks or magnetic discs in the road. It's a tried technology. They are in production in Holland, and used to move containers around in Rotterdam port," he said.
No clues have been given about the city's cost, how it will be socially organised and who will live there, but money is clearly no object. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates, is vying with neighbour Dubai to be the most dazzling Gulf city and the environment is seen as the new card in the deck.
With at least $1trillion (£500bn) invested abroad and sitting on nearly 100bn barrels of oil, Abu Dhabi is the richest city in the world. Its 420,000 inhabitants are theoretically worth about $17m each, and they are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions per capita than any other population in the world.
This week Abu Dhabi is expected to announce a $500m deal to manufacture thin-film solar panels to make Masdar a centre of the global solar energy manufacturing industry.
"This will be the global capital of the renewable energy revolution. It's the first oil producing nation to have taken such a significant step towards sustainable living," said Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, director of WWF's One Planet Living initiative, which aims to develop sustainable communities. But critics said Masdar is a fig leaf for the rest of the Gulf, heartland of the world's fossil fuel extraction.
"The numbers must be put into perspective. They are spending welcome billions of dollars on renewables but trillions are still going into climate-changing oil economies. The future is the sun and renewables but there is no time to wait for this revolution," said Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth.
How will it work? Zero carbon 100% of energy supplied by renewables - photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, wind, waste-to-energy and other technologies
Zero waste 99% diversion of waste from landfill, reuse of waste, composting
Sustainable transport Zero emissions from transport in the city
Building As much as possible using recycled or certified materials
Water Per capita consumption to be 50% less than average. All waste water to be reused. Drinking water to be desalinated with solar energy
Equity and fair trade Fair wages for all workers who are employed to build the city
www.guardian.co.ukUpcoming Events JUNE 2008BWEA - UK Offshore Wind 2008
4 June 2008 - QEII Centre in Westminster, UK: Key issues affecting the development of offshore wind energy in the UK.
29 June - 5 July 2008 - Hohhot, Gchina: Joint Meeting of the International Grassland Congress and the International Rangeland Congress. The Congress will focus on discussing scientific and technological aspects of Grassland/Rangeland management, and on the challenges involved to overcome major limitations for implementing sustainable development.
7-9 July 2008 - Brussels, Belgium: Attend this topical conference, the sixth in a highly successful series, to hear leading industry and government specialists review the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in depth.
9 July 2008 - St David's Hotel, Cardiff, Wales: The conference will address key issues affecting the development of renewable energy in Wales with particular emphasis being placed on the creation of a more efficient planning system to better reflect the urgency for action on climate change and energy security in Wales.
14-18 July 2008 - Sacramento, CA, USA: Join waterpower professionals from around the world for a week of informative hydropower-focused meetings, workshops, tours, an extensive program, and other activities, including an exhibition of service and product providers.
15-17 July 2008 - San Francisco, USA: Trade event in the United States serving the complete solar energy supply chain. Intersolar focuses on the areas of photovoltaics, solar thermal technology and solar architecture.
Presentation for Seminar
