Tuesday October 03, 2006

National Climate Change Strategy call for consultation

The Singapore government was calling for a public consultation on the National Climate Change Strategy. I managed to squeeze in my response around midnight on 30 Sep. Here's what I wrote :

Q7 Should Singapore want to stimulate demand for alternative energy such as solar and biofuels in Singapore, what policies should Singapore consider?

- Implement grid-tie regulations/legislation to allow homeowners to push solar-generated electricity back to the grid, which bypasses the need for expensive battery storage

- Implement a surcharge to electricity tariffs to fund development of alternative energy sources

- In addition to wind and solar, consider also all other options especially baseload-capable sources - eg nuclear, ocean tidal and ocean thermal, universal geothermal, etc, and educate the population about the pros and cons of each

- Let consumers "vote with their dollars", via indicating their choice of alternative energy source(s) they will support via their "alternative energy surcharge", and/or by allowing them to bid for alternative electricity sources when residential users are brought into the energy market

Q28 What new measures might be considered to promote cleaner energy and energy efficiency in the transport sector?

- Review LTA's 3% traffic growth rate, vehicle population cannot grow at 3% per annum forever

- Increase ERP rates until demand destruction is observed (traffic volume decreases and is kept down for a sustained period, not just initial few days)

- Adjust formula to make road tax increase even more (exponentially) for every 100 cc in engine displacement, force owners to consider carefully when upgrading cars

- Increase green vehicle rebate, eg Civic and Prius hybrids are in the budget range of 2.0L cars, adjust rebate till they are within the 1.6-1.8L budget range

- Consider a strategy to implement infrastructure for recharging of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, eg Cashcard-based overnight recharging stations in carparks

- Make engine idling for vehicles stopped for more than 2-3 min illegal, enforce similar to parking violations (hit errant drivers with 2 summons for both emissions and parking offences)

- Implement mandatory annual emissions inspections for diesel commercial vehicles, consider non-conformant vehicles as hazards and impound them until owners rectify emissions problems, business owners will think twice about failing these tests

- Let public spot vehicles with obvious smoky tailpipe emissions and report them immediately for enforcement action

- Encourage cycling : put up more bicycle stands at MRT stations, bus interchanges. Put up bicycle stands in common areas on each floor of HDB flats. Widen existing footpaths to accommodate bicycle traffic alongside pedestrians (cheaper and safer than dedicated bicycle lanes along roads)

- As suggested by investment bank CEO Matt Simmons, switch over movement of cargo and containers to electric railway lines, instead of diesel-burning trucks. Set up a cargo railway network between strategic nodes such as PSA, Jurong area, and Woodlands causeway.

Well, that's all I could think of at the time. What do you think?

See also :

1. Consultation on Singapore's National Climate Change Strategy
2. Singapore to join Kyoto Protocol

(2006-10-03 15:26:18 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

UK to be permanent net oil importer in 2007

peakoil.com -> cattlenetwork.com :

The U.K. is set to become a permanent net importer of crude oil and refined products in 2007 - three years earlier than the U.K.'s Department of Trade and Industry expects, according to the UK-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre.

Depletion rates of the U.K.'s oil and gas reserves in the North Sea are occurring faster than expected and production coming onstream in the next few years from new fields won't be enough to compensate, said ODAC director Douglas Low.

See also :

1. UK oil production continues to decline
2. North Sea gas drying up faster than hoped
3. British economic growth rate slumps to 12-year low

(2006-10-03 13:24:17 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Silicon vs. CIGS: With solar energy, the issue is material

peakoil.com -> news.com.com :

The booming solar industry is in the midst of an argument over which material will become dominant in the future for harvesting sunlight and turning it into electricity. Solar panels made from crystalline silicon currently account for more than 90% of the solar infrastructure today. Unfortunately, silicon panels remain relatively expensive to make. A two-year shortage of polysilicon, which may not ease until 2008, has severely limited growth and sales.

Panels that harvest energy with CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) cost far less to make and install, say backers. The material can be sprayed onto foil, plastic or glass or incorporated into cement and other building materials. Conceivably, the entire exterior of a house or building could become a solar generator. So if CIGS is so good, why isn't there more of it out there? Mind share. Silicon has become one of the most studied materials ever discovered, and advances in reducing processing time and manufacturing that were discovered in the semiconductor world rebound directly to silicon solar-cell manufacturers. Other alternatives - solar thermal energy, photovoltaic dyes - have failed to undercut it in functionality and cost.

Similar debates weighing promise against pragmatism have occurred in chipmaking. Gallium, indium and germanium have also been used to produce superfast semiconductors, but the higher costs associated with these materials have kept them toward the margins in the market.

See also :

1. Silicon hike hits solar energy
2. Companies put silicon knowledge to new use in solar-cell industry

(2006-10-03 13:11:36 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Montana to build coal-to-liquid fuel plant

peakoil.com -> biz.yahoo.com :

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer announced an agreement with a team of companies to build one of the nation's first coal-to-liquid fuel facilities. The Montana plant will use integrated gas combined cycle technology to gasify, rather than ignite the coal. The project calls for converting a portion of the synthetic gas into 22,000 barrels per day of diesel fuel, using the rest of the gas to generate about 300 megawatts of electricity. General Electric will provide the technology to convert the coal into synthetic gas and Rentech technology will be used to convert the synthetic gas into a liquid.

Schweitzer said the plant would be outfitted with technology to capture carbon dioxide so it can be stored underground. The gasifier will remove mercury, sulfur and particulate matter from the coal, he said.

- So they're doing CTL via CTG first, followed by GTL.

See also :

1. Coal-to-liquids
2. Follow-up to the Hirsch Report
3. GTL and LNG in Qatar

(2006-10-03 12:53:01 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Mitsubishi Heavy to offer smaller reactor to US utilities

peakoil.com -> greencarcongress.com :

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) will commercialize a compact 1,200 MWe advanced pressurized water nuclear reactor (APWR) for sale to US power companies in and after 2011.

In July, Mitsubishi formed a US-based subsidiary - MHI Nuclear Energy Systems - to market a 1,700 MWe reactor in the US. The 1,700 MWe US-APWR is based on the technology of the 1,538 MWe units planned for the Japan Atomic Power Company (Tsuruga 3/4) scheduled to go into operation in 2014 and 2015. Modification to the base technology for the US market include the world's highest level of thermal efficiency (39%), a 20% reduction in plant building volume, and greater economy via increased power generation.

Mitsubishi Heavy hopes its development of the two proprietary reactors will enable it to counter moves by rivals such as General Electric, Toshiba and Hitachi to tap emerging US demand for nuclear power plants.

See also :

1. Hitachi, GE plan to build nuclear plant in US
2. Toshiba plans to triple nuclear power sales

(2006-10-03 12:33:28 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Miners and utilities at odds over uranium price forecasts

peakoil.com -> stockinterview.com :

Nowhere was it more evident of battle lines being drawn between suppliers and end users in the nuclear fuel sector than at the Platts Second Annual Nuclear Fuel Strategies conference on September 26th. Since April, various utility consultants and fuel brokers have routinely contacted StockInterview to 'talk down' the uranium price. Frequent is the mantra about how speculators and hedge funds are driving the spot uranium price higher. But spot uranium and long-term contracts march higher each month.

Clearly Kundalkar's audience disagreed with his conclusions of a uranium price downturn, sometime in 2007. Had Kundalkar presented his thesis to a less savvy audience, he might have received something more than a polite applause when he stepped down. From the disgruntled audience, one long-time industry consultant asked Kundalkar point blank: Have you heard of peak oil?

(2006-10-03 12:25:08 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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