Tag Archives: green
Ed Davey Dismisses Fracking With Pledge To ‘Expand Renewables’
Last updated on 2 August 2013, 9:28 am UK energy and climate chief says government committed to clean energy, promising more support in energy bill By Nilima Choudhury UK government plans to invest in renewable energy will not be pushed off course by supporters of shale gas exploration, also known as fracking, Ed Davey has told RTCC. Britain’s energy and climate chief was talking after announcing a £66 million package to boost offshore wind in the UK, which the government says could “unlock £7 billion in the economy by 2020”. In the past 10 days the Sun Newspaper, former BP chief Tony Hayward and influential conservative columnist Tim Montgomerie have all called for Davey to scrap support for renewables in favour of shale gas, but he told RTCC the opposite was likely to happen. “We’re not changing our strategy except to even augment it so there’ll be more pro renewables. We have got the most ambitious renewable and low carbon energy strategy the country’s ever had,” he said. “And coupled with the energy bill to create the world’s first ever low carbon electricity market we couldn’t be clearer about our determination to expand renewables and low carbon.” Last month Prime Minister David Cameron opened the world’s largest offshore power generation project off the Kent coast, but generation remains small compared to the UK’s overall capacity of 80GW . Yesterday’s opening of the Lincs Offshore Wind farm saw UK onshore and offshore wind capacity pass the 10GW mark, according to trade body RenewableUK . The UK currently has an installed offshore wind capacity of over 3.3GW, with a further 1.3GW under construction. Costs Davey reiterated his ambition for the UK to be a “world leader” in the development of offshore wind, but acknowledges that the costs of offshore – currently higher than onshore or nuclear – have to be addressed. “We’ve been working with the industry to map out the potential for cost reductions and when we published the stuff on the strike prices [subsidies] recently we showed that if we get the cost reductions that we believe we can we could see 16GW of offshore wind by the end of this decade,” said Davey. “The potential for our industry is huge and actually being the leader gives a potential for exports and potential to learn how to innovate and how to get the cost benefits from large scale deployment. “I think it’s right that we are leading – the problems we’ve seen in the past has been that Britain has been a follower and as a result we’ve had to actually end up paying more because we’re depending on other suppliers and we’ve not had the industrial base development with the jobs that come to that.” “I think it’s great that under the coalition government we are making sure that we are not just a leader but remain a leader in the years ahead.” – See more at: http://www.rtcc.org/…h.LpDc9xun.dpuf Continue reading
Erste:Agriculture To Boost Romania’s Economic Growth
Friday, July 5, 2013 Austrian banking group Erste estimates indicate that agriculture could occupy the position of locomotive in 2013 for Romania’s economy. In case of a good harvest, experts estimate that Romania will register a higher advance from the initial forecast, Erste counting this year on an economic growth of 2.2 percent. The analysis shows that the estimate for Romania this year is 1.8 percent, but with a potential of speeding up to 2.2 percent, ‘in case of a good agricultural harvest, which seems likely, according to the director of capital markets research for CEE of Erste Group, Henning Esskuchen. The following year, the Romanian economy could grow by 2.3 percent. The international financial institutions, the European Commission, the IMF, and the Government have economic growth expectations for this year slightly more pessimistic than Erste forecast. The European Commission anticipates that Romania’s economy will grow by 1.6 percent this year, in line with IMF and Government estimates, and by 2.2 percent next year. IMF forecasts a growth of 2 percent for 2014. The World Bank expects an economic advance of 1.7 percent this year and 2.2 percent next year, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the most pessimistic, considering an advance of GDP of 1.4 percent this year and 2.2 percent next year. Romania has successfully completed two successive stand-by agreements with the IMF and the European Commission, conditional on austerity measures and reforms. The austerity measures have included layoffs and a 25 percent reduction in public sector wages, as well as a VAT increase. Public employees wages were subsequently recovered in two stages. The European Commissiona ceased in June the excessive deficit procedure for Romania, Hungary and other three countries, after assessing that the governments have lowered the budget deficit below the limit of 3 percent, and the Commission appreciated a downward trend in the coming years. Continue reading
Banking On Bamboo
Published on July 28th, 2013 | by Guest Contributor Banking On Bamboo This is Part 2 of a two-part (or perhaps three-part), multi-site series about Santa Clara University’s 2013 Solar Decathlon house, Radiant House . Read Part 1 here . By Brian Grau Our team of Santa Clara University students is out to prove that bamboo is more than just a snack for Pandas — it could be the future of the sustainable construction industry. Bamboo provides the bones of Radiant House, our entry into the 2013 Solar Decathlon, where 20 schools from around the world compete to design and build a fully solar-powered home. While bamboo is typically used as a decorative material, we’ve found a way to make bamboo part of the structure of the house. Several generations of SCU students have spent 10 years turning bamboo into structural elements. Bamboo can be found in Radiant House’s walls, floor, and ceiling. While the round shape of bamboo and its hollow culms, or stems, make the plant viable for forming “tiki hut-type structures” in tropical lands, it is not used for building much in other parts of the world, according to Project Manager Jake Gallau. Through a faculty member in SCU’s civil engineering department, though, we found a type of bamboo from Vietnam that makes the plant far more useful. “It’s a particular strain of bamboo, smaller – about an inch around instead of three inches – and with a solid, not hollow culm,” Gallau explained. Because bamboo is both elegant and highly sustainable, it is usually integrated in some way within most solar house entries. But Gallau said Radiant House is the first to fully use the plant’s potential as a construction material. “With the type of bamboo we’re using, we can square off a large piece and make one-inch rods that can be doweled together for a flat surface,” he explained. “It’s much less labor-intensive than chopping up chunks and gluing pieces together.” More images available on the Radiant House website or Facebook page. Continue reading
