energy standards for buildings jacked up in SA

The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) will soon be releasing SANS 204 to set new standards for energy efficiency in buildings. If implemented following the public comment period, this should raise the bar for reduced energy consumption from air conditioning and heating. It's not clear how this would be implemented, given the shortage of energy auditors, but SANS 204 and the forthcoming release of the Green Star building rating system by the Green Building Council of South Africa should create greater impetus for the establishment of an industry of consultants and contractors who understand energy efficiency.

schooling fine young greenies

German firm Schucco has developed a solar project at the Deutsche International Schule in Johannesburg. PV modules generating 3.48 kW, together with a solar water heating system, are expected to save the school 22,300 kWh of electricity a year, cutting emissions by 18,000 kg a year. That's great, but what I find hard to believe is the claim that the payback period for a similar system on an industrial scale would be less than a year. If that were true, we'd all be rushing out to install these systems. Do the Germans know something we don't?

microgeneration could rival nuclear power

One in five buildings in Britain could become mini power stations, with the right incentives in place, according to a new report commissioned by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Regulatory Reform (DBERR). A large-scale shift to microrenewable energy could save 30m tonnes of CO2, equivalent to 5% of all UK electricity. Such widespread microgeneration would need a feed-in tariff scheme so that homeowners could sell electricity to the grid, and there would need to be some combination of grants, subsidies and soft loans. But this investment by government would be partially offset by effectively outsourcing the project management costs and effort required for large-scale projects, by putting the initiative in the hands of individuals. This "distributed project" would reduce investment needed in more traditional generation facilities. On top of that, job creation would be more widespread.

another way to use biomass

Just to prove that biomass as a fuel isn't just about gathering sticks to cook supper on, Britain's largest power station has launched a project to replace 10% of the coal it uses with materials such as wood chips, sunflower husks or grasses. That's equivalent to 400 MW of power generation, or the output of 500 wind turbines. The station, Drax, produces 7% of Britain's electricity, and has tested injecting powdered biomass into coal-fired boilers.

Neil Crumpton, of Friends of the Earth, said using biomass in power stations or combined heat and power schemes was a better use of the resource than turning it into biofuels. "Co-firing with biomass is a reasonable way forward; it's a logical extension of what they're [Drax] already doing and I've got no qualms about it. If it helps build the sustainable biomass market in the UK, then all well and good."

the future is light

It's still a real challenge to find product suppliers who understand what products are suitable for solar energy. There's lots of general information on the internet, but what I need is local knowledge of what is available right here, in my city. I've been combing the local shops for LED lights. There are lots of LED downlighters, but even at Eagle Electric, one of Cape Town's biggest lighting suppliers, the shop assistants are clueless about how much light you get per watt of electricity consumed. I need to understand how many LED lights are needed for general lighting or for specific tasks, to replace traditional incandescent or new CFL lights, and this depends on the particular product. Not all LED lights are created equal.

So this morning I had an 'aha' moment when I read in the Cape Times 'Techno Times' supplement about LEDlighting, a Cape Town company that designs commercial LED installations and gives advice on energy-efficient lighting. If you need LEDs, Pierre van Helden is your man. The company doesn't have a retail outlet, but if you want to transform your house to reduce your carbon footprint, give him a call.

In the TechnoTimes reproduction of a Popular Mechanics article, Pierre suggests that LEDs will change the way we see lighting. Instead of an easy-to-replace central bulb in every room of the house, distributed lighting will become the norm, with fixtures embedded into furniture or other elements of the room. Since they can last up to 20 years, LEDs don't need to be easily accessible. Design options are more flexible, and clever design is more important for energy efficiency. We don't need uniformly bright light, but rather a lower level of ambient light with additional task-specific areas of light.

green giants

Forbes has "surveyed the clean energy landscape for new and recently completed projects in solar, wind, geothermal and wave energy that produced the most grid-connected electricity", producing a list and photos of the world's biggest clean energy projects.

storing heat underground

Some innovative green buildings use piles of rocks in the basement to store heat or coolness, to even out the night and day temperature fluctuations in buildings without air conditioning or fossil-fueled heating.

Now, tests have shown that it is feasible to store heat underground to do the same thing over several months instead of just days, using what amounts to sub-surface radiators. Paving on roads and parking lots do a wonderful job of storing the sun's heat. In summer, this unfortunately contributes to the urban heat island effect, but where pavement is necessary, the heat could be harvested in summer to keep ice off roads in winter, or to heat buildings.

In the UK, scientists found in a trial on a section of road that enough heat was captured in the summer of 2006 to keep the road above freezing for almost all of the following winter. On average, the heated surface was 3C warmer than the surrounding ground. And a trial at an Edinburgh supermarket car park suggested that the system could cut the store's carbon footprint by 70% and slash annual fuel bills by £26,000 for an initial investment of about £180,000.

wanna move some dirt?

Everyone knows about hybrid cars, but unless you are into heavy machinery, you probably haven't heard of the new hybrid Caterpillar D7E dozer. From next year we'll start seeing it on construction sites. A bit like a diesel-electric train, this Cat uses a diesel engine to generate electricity, which feeds electric drive and steering motors. It will be able to move 25 percent more material per gallon of fuel than the machine it replaces. Less fuel means less emissions, so this baby will help reduce the carbon impact of big construction projects.

financing the future

The energy issue dominating South African headlines and dinner table conversation is the electricity supply crisis and how Eskom is going to worm its way out of this one. But in homes where the dinner table is a few cartons covered with cloth, and you have to shout to be heard above the din of rain on a tin roof, and the dog just knocked over the pot that's catching the drips, the perspective is going to be ever so slightly different. Let's face it: if your dinner was cooked over paraffin or a few sticks of wood, you aren't going to be too concerned about whether pebble bed nuclear is a better option than coal with underground CO2 sequestration.

We're talking about survival, and intellectual debate doesn't feed the masses. Arguments about the need to focus on a reliable supply of electricity to maintain a healthy economy (to provide jobs for the poor) and about how the forthcoming increases in electricity tariffs will hit the poor hardest, ignore the inescapable fact that there are not now and never have been jobs for a shockingly large number of South Africans.

The unemployed and underemployed need a solution too; and don't tell them they need clean energy unless you can tell them how they are going to pay for it. The poor are masters at innovation and using resources efficiently - ask anyone who survives on a few bucks a day. It's not because they enjoy ill-health from living in smoke-filled hovels that they continue to do just that. Their crisis is chronic, and it's not new. They don't need motivation to adopt energy sources that will improve air quality and reduce time spent scrounging for cooking fuel, they just need the means.

Which brings me to my point. A post last week on WorldChanging talks about the possibilities for using microfinance to bring cleaner energy options to poor communities. Microfinance service providers have a reputation for exploiting vulnerable communities with exhorbitant interest rates and improper repayment procedures, but where poverty is widespread and microfinance is provided through a well-entrenched network, as in South Africa, it seems there may be a viable market-based approach to addressing energy needs for those with almost no resources.

MicroEnergy Credits Corporation (MEC) have developed a model that works with existing microfinance institutions to broker arrangements that promote clean energy using carbon finance.

Allderdice and Dailey [founders of MEC] have developed two credit instruments, Microfinance-originated Carbon Credits and Millennium Development Goal (MDG) credits. With the first, MFIs [microfinance institutions] can receive revenue when they lend for energy systems that create verified carbon emissions reductions, such as solar PV systems, improved cookstoves and biogas digesters. With the second, MFIs can receive MDG Credits when they lend for an intervention that enables an MDG household to meet all or part of an MDG. According to Allderdice, "There is no established market in MDG credits yet, but MEC is building the infrastructure to enable it."

The WorldChanging post talks about the benefit of this approach in rural, off-grid locations, but it would be equally appropriate to urban off-grid communities, of which there are many in developing countries. Urban squatter settlements are far more desperate, in many ways, than rural settlements, and upgrading these areas is a more promising option than state-supplied housing. If residents have a financial mechanism to provide their own energy more sustainably, even better.

power demand reduction efforts in SA

South Africa's Western Cape Province is set to deliver solar water heaters to reduce energy demand. Environment, Planning and Economic Development MEC Tasneem Essop, and Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica, have announced the launch of a solar water heater project that will roll out 1 000 geysers and establish a training academy to establish a pool of installation contractors.

Meanwhile the City of Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo has said the city would install 10 000 solar water heaters, distribute compact fluourescent light bulbs, instal geyser electricity controls, and use solar-powered traffic lights* to help reduce the city's peak power demand of 3 500 MW. Together, these initiatives are expected to reduce peak demand by 325 - 475 MW at a cost of R397 - R577 million. That's somewhere in the range of R1 - R2 million per megawatt saved. In contrast, the Medupi coal-fired power station being built in Limpopo Province will cost at least R15 million per megawatt of generating capacity - proving yet again that reducing power consumption is far more cost-effective than increasing supply.

*After testing locally-manufactured solar-powered LED street lights, manufacturing company Broadwing Technologies figures retrofitting street lights could save 1 MW for every 12 000 to 15 000 units. Johannesburg has more than 140 000 conventional high pressure sodium and older mercury vapour street lights that could be converted.