Is Access to Energy a Human Right?

By Jennifer Runyon, Managing Editor   |   November 24, 2010 

In a video highlighting a project the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) completed in Burundi, Bob Freling states that he believes access to energy is a human right. Do you agree?

New Hampshire, USA – Just imagine taking your sick son or daughter to the hospital after dark and having the doctor examine the child by candlelight. Or walking 10 miles to the hospital for treatment after being bitten by a rabid dog and discovering that the vaccination you need is located an additional 100 miles away in a facility that can stock it because it has refrigerators.

That was the situation at the Village Health Works clinic in Burundi, where the sick often lay suffering in the dark and frustrated doctors had to consider the cost of running the diesel generator before turning it on in order to supply oxygen to a dying patient. "All of those discussions that you never want to have as a doctor," said to Dr. Sri Shamsuner, a visiting physician from the University of California.

Then SELF stepped in.

The organization, with the help of partners, volunteers and supporters, installed a 10 kW solar array and battery bank to provide power to Village Health Works.  The clinic is now able to use electricity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, running its generators only when absolutely necessary.  Doctors and staff now utilize modern medical tools like EKG machines and ultrasound equipment.  They can also access the internet to help with diagnostics and learn about innovative treatments for disease.

The video below shows SELF's work in this country. When you watch it consider whether you believe that energy is a human right.  Then consider the billions of people in developing nations for whom energy is a luxury that they must live without.  Finally, consider that it's not really about the energy at all, but about the services that it provides.  "We're essentially using solar power as an enabling technology to kickstart improvements in health, education and economic well-being for whole villages," said Bob Freling, Executive Director of SELF.

And if this Thanksgiving holiday weekend in which Americans count their blessings with friends and family, inspires you to give thanks, you can go to SELF's website and thank them for their efforts.

Incidentally, the video also features Walt Ratterman who died in the earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010.  Ratterman was in Haiti to install solar panels on a health care facility in that country.  You can read tributes to Walt Ratterman here and here and listen to Stephen Lacey's podcast remembrance of him here.

 

Want more video on this topic?  Former RenewableEnergyWorld.com contributor Yotam Arial posted a video blog in which he shows how bringing solar energy to the 1.4 billion people who currently live in the dark is a business opportunity that should not be overlooked.  Watch it at Solar Energy Not Just for the Rich.

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Re: Stay Tuned for 7 Energy Saving Tips

On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 11:13 AM, Scott's Contracting <scottscontracting@gmail.com> wrote:

In the Following Days I will be posting 7 Energy Saving Tips for your Home or Business.

 How to Lower your Gas and Electric Bills for Immediate Savings !!!

Part 1-Get the Most Out-Put from Your HVAC System
will Post Tuesday AM. 


Scott's Contracting
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Stay Tuned for 7 Energy Saving Tips

In the Following Days I will be posting 7 Energy Saving Tips for your Home or Business.

 How to Lower your Gas and Electric Bills for Immediate Savings !!!

Part 1-Get the Most Out-Put from Your HVAC System
will Post Tuesday AM. 

--
Scott's Contracting
scottscontracting@gmail.com
http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com
http://scottscontracting.wordpress.com

The future is closer than you think for some forms of alternative energy

The future is closer than you think for some forms of alternative energy

By: Contributor

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Concentrated solar power and solar photovoltaic power combined and selective carbon capture sequestration technologies constitute key opportunities for the Middle East. What's Next for Alternative Energy?, examines the state of seven of the most significant alternative-energy technologies—advanced biofuels, electric vehicles (EVs), concentrated solar power (CSP), solar photovoltaic (PV), onshore wind, offshore wind, and clean coal through carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).

Onshore wind power will see steady adoption and continued growth. It is already cost competitive with conventional energy sources in prime sites, where it can deliver an LCOE of $0.09 or $0.10 per kilowatt-hour, and its cost will continue to fall. In contrast, offshore wind will likely struggle to move beyond purely subsidy-driven growth and will only grow in a few countries willing to continue heavy subsidies.

Several alternative-energy technologies are approaching inflection points in their development, and the day when they could have a profound impact on the global energy landscape could come far sooner than is commonly assumed, says a new report from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

The report titled What's Next for Alternative Energy?, examines the state of seven of the most significant alternative-energy technologies—advanced biofuels, electric vehicles (EVs), concentrated solar power (CSP), solar photovoltaic (PV), onshore wind, offshore wind, and clean coal through carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).

Among the report's key findings:

Advanced biofuels, CSP, and solar PV will see accelerating adoption and growth. They are on track to change the global energy mix far earlier than is often assumed. Their costs are falling rapidly, and they are on the path to becoming largely cost competitive with both CSP and solar PV Levelised Cost Of Energy (LCOE) potentially falling to less than $0.10 per kilowatt-hour by 2020.

Onshore wind power will see steady adoption and continued growth. It is already cost competitive with conventional energy sources in prime sites, where it can deliver an LCOE of $0.09 or $0.10 per kilowatt-hour, and its cost will continue to fall. In contrast, offshore wind will likely struggle to move beyond purely subsidy-driven growth and will only grow in a few countries willing to continue heavy subsidies.

Clean coal through CCS will have very slow adoption and won't be viable for the next decade or two for a number of reasons, including slow progress toward demonstrating large-scale viability and moving down the cost curve. Nevertheless, the CCS technology can be vital for cutting carbon emissions from conventional fuel power plants if and where its economics can be significantly improved by specific applications such as Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has highlighted several key findings of high relevance when defining and revisiting alternative energy strategies for the Middle East:

Solar CSP is moving quickly down the cost curve and by 2020 could become competitive with conventional generation sources, largely moving away from governmentally-driven growth. The cost for Solar PV is also declining rapidly and despite inherent challenges posed by its intermittent nature, the technology could also have a disruptive effect on the current status quo.

In the Middle East, solar technologies have the potential to supply a relevant share of local energy demand, once cost competitive. However, reaching nominal power parity in the region may take longer than other markets given the direct and cheap availability of fossil fuel, as well as the existence of power generation subsidies. The business case for the competitiveness of solar technologies and its position in the merit order should therefore be assessed considering conventional fuels market prices i.e. including an opportunity cost view: countries would need to remove any distortion from the economic benefit analysis.

Once cost competitive, significant land requirements in sites with high irradiation and availability of transmission networks will constitute major barriers for a large scale roll-out of solar technologies. This could create an opportunity for the Middle East to play a role as solar power exporter to adjacent regions, particularly to Europe. Although challenges are still numerous and many unresolved, projects such as the Desertec initiative are already paving the way for the existence of a future solar export market.

Developing both local and export solar markets will require a solid set of competencies in project development and potentially, where relevant, in technology R&D and industrialisation. The relatively small scale of national markets in the Middle East creates challenges to build strong centers of expertise, making regional cooperation a key area to investigate in order to develop competencies and disseminate best practices throughout the region.

Despite the general CCS limited disruption potential in the medium term, there are specific areas of opportunity that can be selectively targeted and developed. In particular, using captured CO2 for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) can boost the CCS value chain economics and exhibit viable business cases. This would depend on the proximity between large CO2 emission sources and adequately suitable oil fields, which may be the case in the region e.g. in Abu Dhabi, where the proceedings from incremental oil revenues and/or natural gas savings may make such projects quite viable.

CCS –EOR globally is expected to remain a niche market, given the limited opportunities with respect to CO2 availability (in large steady quantities) co-located with suitable oil reservoirs. But the unique advantages of the region, and in particular Abu Dhabi, would position it as a potential incubator for CCS-EOR technology development and roll-out. This should not be ignored by governments who need to ensure the proper playing field for such a development (policy, regulation, governance, etc).

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Is Climate Change Too Scary?

Doom and gloom doesn't motivate action on environmental problems, but is there hope for behavior change? David Biello reports

November 28, 2010

When it comes to persuasion, doom and gloom doesn't work. If that wasn't clear from the morass that is international climate change negotiations starting this week or the constant reports of extinction of plant and animal species worldwide, new research [pdf] from the University of California, Berkeley shows it's so.

The researchers canvassed 97 Berkeley students, and found that the 25 young men and 72 young women largely believed in a so-called "just world." That means they think the world is generally just, orderly and stable—despite appearances to the contrary.

Those students who then read warnings of the apocalyptic potential of climate change were more likely to be skeptical of man-made global warming than those who read an article focusing on potential solutions. Dire warnings actually spurred climate contrarianism.

Of course, apocalypse isn't the only way climate change gets presented. But understanding how to motivate actual behavior change is as important—if not more important—than breakthroughs in energy technology. It's shifting away from gadget lust, car envy and the disposable society that might actually reverse some of the gloomiest environmental trends.

And the key will not be making bad decisions scary. It's making good decisions easy. 

—David Biello

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Season of the lame ducks

Opinion: Season of the lame ducks

By Rick Holmes/MetroWest Daily News

Wicked Local Newton

Posted Nov 28, 2010 @ 12:00 PM

Newton —

Washington Democrats have good reasons to be bummed out. They lost the national debate, at least in the minds of many. Some House Dems lost their re-election bids. Many lost friends to the electoral battles.

Democrats have had to watch Republicans strut their new power. The GOP won't have a majority until January, but they still managed this week to stop an extension of unemployment benefits.

In the House, moving from the majority to the minority is a dizzying change in orientation. The more powerful you were in the majority, the harder it is to go from leader to opposition. And the members of the Massachusetts delegation have been especially powerful.

Rep. Barney Frank of Newton, for example, is about to hand over the House Financial Services Committee to the Republicans. He'll have to go from being the author of major changes in the nation's financial industry back to being a sidelines critic and parliamentary speed bump.

Rep. Richard Neal has been waging a campaign since last spring to get his fellow Democrats to win the Ways & Means Committee chairmanship long held by embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel. Now he's running for ranking minority member on the committee. It's still a powerful position, but it isn't the same as chairman.

Then there's Rep. Ed Markey, who has used his power as chairman of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee to shovel alternative energy subsidies to his district and insert himself into big stories like the BP oil spill. Among the Republicans jockeying to succeed him is Joe Barton, the Texas Republican who publicly apologized to BP for Obama administration efforts to make the company pay for the damage it did along the Gulf Coast.

Markey has special reasons to be frustrated. He labored for years to get enough support for his "cap and trade" bill to make it through the House, only to see it stalled in the Senate. The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Climate Change, which Markey chaired, will probably be dissolved by the next House speaker.

The Democrats put their game faces on and promise to persevere. Markey says he expects to continue working with Barton on Internet privacy issues. In a National Review story published Friday, Rep. Fred Upton, another GOP candidate to chair the Energy and Commerce Committee, named Markey as one of the Democrats he could work with on legislation.

Neal is still pushing his plan for the Bush tax cuts due to expire at the end of the year. He wants to continue the lower rates for families earning less than $500,000 a year — Obama and Pelosi set the bar at $250,000 — and rebrand the new taxes on upper-income earners the "war tax," reserved to pay off the debt accumulated to pay for the war in Iraq.

Whether attempts at bipartisanship hold any prospects of success is anyone's guess.

Boehner and other GOP leaders had been invited to the White House Thursday to meet with President Obama for the first time since the election, mostly just to break the ice, but Boehner asked the visit be postponed until Nov. 30. He may not be sure whether to strike a pose of cooperation or confrontation. Or maybe, with fire-breathing tea partiers threatening a primary challenge for Republicans caught fraternizing with the enemy, the speaker-in-waiting wasn't sure he wanted to be seen shaking hands with the president.

On the Democratic side, the danger is premature capitulation. The refrain from the conservative media — which includes much of the mainstream press — is that voters "sent a message" on Election Day, and that Obama and Democrats must hear that message and moderate their positions in response.

That kind of thinking leaves Rep. Jim McGovern scratching his head. He beat his opponent, tea party Republican Marty Lamb, by 17 points. The idea that he should change his positions so he can represent the people who voted against him rather than those who voted for him is just absurd.

McGovern said his Democratic colleagues don't regret voting for health care reform — which, post-election polls show, is still favored by more than half the voters. They mostly blame their election losses on the economy.

They are wrong, and they will be doubly wrong if they think they can just wait until the economy turns their party's fortunes around. Democrats lost their House majority because they let their legislative accomplishments — an impressive list by historical standards — be distorted and demagogued by their critics.

House Democrats must do more than obstruct the Republican agenda. They must offer clear, simple alternatives to GOP proposals, especially on Republican priorities like the deficit, and force Boehner and the gang to negotiate with them.

It's time for Democrats to stop feeling sorry for themselves. There's work to be done.

Rick Holmes, opinion editor of the MetroWest Daily News, blogs at Holmes & Co. He can be reached at rholmes@cnc.com.

Copyright 2010 Newton TAB. Some rights reserved

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Truth in Advertising: What Does 'Green' Really Mean?

By BRUCE KENNEDY Posted 7:00 AM 11/28/10 Energy, Technology, Green

See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/fGr6JB

What exactly does it mean when a company, service or product goes "green"? Sometimes a lot, sometimes very little. The term has invaded thousands of press releases, advertisements and product labels, rightfully winning it the top spot on at least one list of the most overused buzzwords last year.

That didn't make the term any less trendy this year: There's a dumpster-full of recent news stories regarding industries and corporations presenting "green solutions."

The Philadelphia Eagles just announced their football stadium will be adding solar panels and wind turbines to its exterior, in an effort to generate about 30% of the energy Lincoln Financial Field uses while saving tens of millions of dollars. Toy-maker Hasbro says it will stop using wire ties next year, while ensuring up to 75% of its packaging comes from recycled materials, as part of its "commitment to sustainability." The magazine Constructech, quoting government reports, says new federal codes will soon require greater energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings.

And at Denver International Airport, you can now park your car at what the CEO of Propark America calls the greenest parking lot in the world. According to the Denver Post, the new facility uses alternative energy sources not only for lighting and heating, but also to supply power to recharging stations for electric-powered vehicles.

Where Green is Really Gray

Of course, the term "green" implies environmental responsibility, the concept of using less energy and resources while creating less pollution and perhaps reducing your "carbon footprint" (another phrase on the overused list).

There can be a large gray area, however, when it comes to defining what a business really means by "green". A recent study by the environmental marketing and consulting firm TerraChoice found misleading information on 95% of consumer products that made claims to being green.

"There's this terminology now in marketing called greenwashing," says Dr. Bruce Hutton, professor of business ethics and legal studies at the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business. "Companies...using the concept of being green and environmentally friendly to sell products when, in fact, they might not be all that environmentally friendly."

Greenwashing doesn't have to involve outright lies. For example, a company may truthfully say that it uses organic, home-grown cotton. But if takes large amounts of water to process that cotton – and flies the material halfway around the world to process it – that company's claim of being "green" may ring hollow.

Greenwashing's Silver Lining

Dr. Hutton thinks greenwashing might have a silver lining. After all, it wouldn't be happening if consumers weren't already interested in preserving the environment. The greenwashers, he says, "wouldn't go to the trouble of trying to brand something, even if the branding is under false pretenses, if they didn't understand that there's a shift going on in the consumer movement."

And that shift appears to be growing rapidly. The 2010 TerraChoice study found 73% more "green" products in U.S. and Canadian markets, compared to last year.

Dr. Hutton also points to studies of how people chose between various products and brands. After looking at price, quality and availability, he says, consumers also consider a company's reputation on issues such as social responsibility -- including sustainability and the environment.

"The environmental issues that we face, with things like water, aren't trendy, " he says. "Those issues aren't arguable, so they're not going to go away. People are starting to care about this stuff. But they won't care about it forever if they think they're getting screwed. Sooner or later consumers figure out [if certain marketing is] some kind of a ploy, that's really not helping the environment and maybe costing them more money, and [those companies] will lose the trust of consumers on issues that are about the environment."

See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/fGr6JB

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