energy Archive

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  Al Gore spells out the challenge - by frog

  
  
  
  I’m not sure how many frogblog readers have spent any time over at WeCanSolveIt.com, as it is pretty American centric. Nevertheless, the debate over there mimics our own climate change dialogue here in NZ, where sceptics and outright deniers try and disparage the scientists and the science of climate change. (The very same science that [...] read more
  July 18, 2008 1:46 pm - 22 Comments
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  Turning off the lights - by frog

  
  
  
  A reader sent me a link to this picture: Ha. The blogger who took the photo, building7, says it was taken at around a quarter to midnight on Sunday night without a camera flash. The companies listed are the supporters of the Powersavers campaign – Meridian, Mercury, Contact, Genesis, TrustPower and Transpower. read more
  July 8, 2008 10:44 am - 9 Comments
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  Growing upwards not outwards - by frog

  
  
  
  Green Upgrader has an interesting analysis of the sustainability of vertical farms.  A vertical farm is kind of like a big tall building where each floor is a field or paddock rather than office space.  Check out this picture: Obviously by stacking your farm fields one on top of another you save space that might [...] read more
  June 18, 2008 6:38 am - 25 Comments
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  If only other threatened species got this coverage - by frog

  
  
  
  The Dom Post this morning: The beer fridge is under threat from energy experts extolling ways people can conserve dwindling power reserves to avoid blackouts. The poor old beer fridge. I’m all in favour of power saving, power crisis or not.  It’s one of those many sensible pragmatic solutions to climate change that doesn’t hurt [...] read more
  June 10, 2008 11:12 am - 4 Comments
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  A Sustainable Biofuel Consensus - by frog

  
  
  
  Could there be a growing international consensus on what constitutes a sustainable biofuel? I have had a fair bit to say about it here on frogblog and Jeanette has been doing battle in the deep recesses of the corridors of power to ensure that the new Biofuel Sales Obligation Bill (BSO) doesn’t encourage shonky biofuel. [...] read more
  April 22, 2008 2:42 pm - 13 Comments
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  Pollan asks ‘why bother?’ - by frog

  
  
  
  One of my current favourite political authors, Michael Pollan is on his way to New Zealand to promote his new book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. On Sunday he had an opinion piece in the New York Times where he asks that dark question that troubles many  environmentally aware people – why bother [...] read more
  April 22, 2008 9:06 am - 7 Comments
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  Oil touches US$ 117 a barrel - by frog

  
  
  
  Will we touch US$120 before the end of the month? Perhaps. But only because US inventories are low going into the summer driving season and because OPEC is sitting on its hands and the Nigerians and Iraqis are having a field day blowing up pipelines. Trevor29 rightly points out that we are way above the [...] read more
  April 19, 2008 6:58 pm - 21 Comments
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  Minister is often asked for medical advice - by frog

  
  
  
  From last weeks NZ Doctor magazine, this little gem: … the minister often receives queries from the public as to how best they can increase their energy levels.”Clearly they have the wrong idea what the Ministry of Energy is all about. We explain our role to these people, then direct them to their family doctors.” [...] read more
  April 19, 2008 6:10 pm - 1 Comment
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  What an odd title for an article - by frog

  
  
  
  The New Zealand Herald ran a story yesterday titled ‘Fifth of NZers polled say nuclear power viable‘.  Putting aside the fact that nuclear power is economically unviable in New Zealand, I would have thought the title could have more accurately read ‘77% prefer wind as the best energy source, 69% solar’.  I suppose at least [...] read more
  April 8, 2008 3:58 pm - 19 Comments
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  Online With George Monbiot - by frog

  
  
  
  I hopped along to another Arts Festival event this morning, where George Monbiot was beamed in from Wales via satellite rather than flying over for a one hour chat. How Green of him. Having waxed lyrical about Stiglitz’ support for Green policy last night, I simply fell off my lilly pad this morning when George [...] read more
  March 15, 2008 11:32 am - 23 Comments
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  Tapping the Source: The Power of the Oceans - by frog

  
  
  
  Big Gav, a regular contributor to The Oil Drum, posted this gem of an article on TOD yesterday and on Peak Energy today. (The Peak Energy version is the more readable link, IMHO) It is far too long to quote here, but an excellent primer for some of what’s happening out there. It’s just too [...] read more
  February 25, 2008 11:21 am - 7 Comments
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  Solar cell directly splits water for hydrogen - by frog

  
  
  
  Plants trees and algae do it. Even some bacteria and moss do it, but scientists have had a difficult time developing methods to turn sunlight into useful fuel. Now, Penn State researchers have a proof-of-concept device that can split water and produce recoverable hydrogen. “This is a proof-of-concept system that is very inefficient. But ultimately, [...] read more
  February 19, 2008 9:14 am - 5 Comments
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  Peak Coal: my feelings of F.U.D. - by frog

  
  
  
  I have always had feelings of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, (FUD) about the New Zealand Energy Strategy‘s rosy response to peak oil, forecasting a future rich in fossil fuels: Higher prices and other technologies will also prompt the extraction of liquid fossil fuels from sources such as gas, oil-rich shales and lignite. There are immense [...] read more
  February 18, 2008 11:46 am - 13 Comments
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  Wall Street joins battle against global warming - by frog

  
  
  
  This from the February 2008 Issue of New Scientist magazine: ENVIRONMENTALISTS have a new, unlikely ally in the fight against global warming. A document signed on Monday by three of Wall Street’s largest banks – Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley – requires anyone seeking money for new fossil-fuel power plants in the US to [...] read more
  February 15, 2008 12:34 pm - 11 Comments
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  Super cheap solar - by frog

  
  
  
  Nanosolar, a new solar energy company started with money from Google’s founders, has finally delivered on its promise to produce solar energy for less than $1 per watt. Technology announced several years ago, that avoids using expensive silicon and instead prints a semiconductor ink onto a thin film, has just started rolling off the production [...] read more
  December 21, 2007 10:18 am - 74 Comments
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  Oily food - by frog

  
  
  
  Pacific Ecologist Magazine’s latest issue covers the link between peak oil and food security. Around the world our farms are guzzling staggering amounts of oil through the use of machinery, transport, processing, chemicals and fertilizers. Caroline Lucas, Andy Jones and Colin Hines point out that our food system consumes roughly ten calories of fossil fuel [...] read more
  December 11, 2007 4:07 pm - 9 Comments
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  More on the price of oil - by frog

  
  
  
  The Minister of Finance might be standing by Treasury and the Reserve Bank’s farcical attempts to pick the future price of oil, but it seems the Associate Energy Minister does not believe the price of oil is retreating from its current US$90 a barrel price any time soon.  He’s using it as a justification to [...] read more
  December 3, 2007 3:41 pm - 7 Comments
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  Christchurch plans for peak oil and climate change - by frog

  
  
  
  While Michael Cullen and the central government dither on the possibility of peak oil, Environment Canterbury is taking it very seriously and making provisions for it in all future planning: “Our ever increasing dependence on energy coincides at a time when New Zealand (and Canterbury) is facing significant future uncertainty in the area of availability [...] read more
  November 20, 2007 3:39 pm - 7 Comments
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  Exponential growth - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  Now this is an interesting article about exponential growth. It points out the obvious problems with exponential growth in a finite world and the problems that we humans seem to have understanding what it means. He also has a handy rule of thumb – if you want to find the doubling time of something growing [...] read more
  February 7, 2007 2:48 pm - 12 Comments