Its a big green day down at the NZ Herald: Build no more fossil-fuel power stations, says Government.
The [NZ] Government has set a target of meeting 90 per cent of electricity demand from renewable sources like hydro, wind and geothermal steam. It is about 70 per cent now.
It will tell the three State-owned generators not to build any more fossil-fuel plants for everyday baseload purposes. Some might be needed as peaking or reserve capacity.
And it is considering legislating to extend the ban to private sector generators, in practice Contact Energy.
Given that our gas fields have already peaked and are in decline, none of that should be exceptional, but, as usual there are the "market wizards" who can't stand any constraints.
Major Electricity Users Group executive director Ralph Matthes said the market should be allowed to determine whether renewables were cheaper or not.
"It's pretty draconian. Not so much a strategy as a green wish list."
Draconian? He hasn't seen draconian yet. Draconian will be when we have to go to war with someone over dwindling energy supplies, or someone decides to go to war with us for ours. He also says
"no other developed country has banned thermal power stations, as most want a mixture of generation so supply is reliable.
He says the Government should be backing its emissions trading scheme, and letting the market decide if building a new power station is worth the cost."
Since most other developed countries have suicidal energy policies that is a net POSITIVE. (except the swedes who have an energy independence strategy for 2020) He still thinks that what we WANT in energy decisions is all that matters, and if we waste millions in malinvestment that also has an opportunity cost for sustainability, well that's OK too.
But the Government hasn't emptied that quiver yet. Govt eco-plan targets fridges
The household fridge is in the firing line as the Government pushes for cleaner, greener and more efficient energy use.
Financial incentives are being considered in a bid to put up to 450,000 old refrigerators into retirement.
[...] Refrigerators are being targeted because a 10-year-old fridge will use at least double the amount of electricity needed to run an equivalent new one.
New Zealand households on average have 1.8 fridges, with an average age of 16 years.
The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) says the average new fridge costs about $100 a year to run, but that cost rises the older the appliance gets as ageing seals and internal parts lose efficiency.
Nice try, and it may get some awareness going, but what about the embedded energy of the existing fridges? If it takes 10 year's worth of energy savings to build a new fridge, the net benefit doesn't kick in for another decade.
Now, refurbishing old fridges and replacing their inefficient compressors and motors would be a good deal, then getting us to use fewer fridges would be the best deal of all. After all, the sustainability mantra is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, there's nothing in there about Replace with a new one, let alone that being the first option.
And one more, when we were looking for a home in Auckland earlier this year, we saw plenty of big screen TV's and not one, not a solitary place on offer with a rainwater system or solar water heating; not one.
So there's a big of schadenfreude in seeing the last story today, Big-screen TVs may be outlawed
New Zealand may ban some of the largest plasma televisions from being imported into the country if they fail to meet energy performance standards.
The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority is investigating the energy performance of televisions, particularly those using plasma or LCD technology.
We have a big enough foreign debt as it is, if we are going to spend it on something, lets make that good German solar and PV systems and not ever bigger presentations of relentless TV crap.
Impressive
_really_ impressive. the first sensible wind-power idea i've come across yet. easily scalable yet runs in micro, yet has NO rare metal exposure whatsoever.
beats my rare-metal-dependent piezo-electric building/rooftop "fur" idea into a cocked hat, in terms of practicability and sheer economics .
Posted by: Saltation | October 15, 2007 at 10:05 AM
oops
one click link HERE
Posted by: Saltation | October 15, 2007 at 10:05 AM