[Pil-pc-oceania] PPP: Bill's second andf final installment

[pacific-edge]

Hi Tamara...
I assume Bill's document below is written for discussion and is not a policy
document. A policy document would outline the problem or challenge, explore
options, then recommend action by government to be adopted as policy. Bill's
material isn't in that or a similar format.


MANBIOT'S IDEAS
Bill talks about tidal energy. There's interesting reading in George
Manbiot's most recent book, Heat, about tidal turbines and ideas for
distributing the energy through the national grid as DC, rather than AC,
electricity. 

Bill also seems to be thinking of scaling up photovoltaic systems to make
them economical, as does Manbiot who suggests that massive systems placed in
the Sahara Desert could supply energy to Europe.

Manbiot is a journalist, now with a university, and a recognised commentator
on energy systems and sustainability.


DIESENDORF'S BOOK A MUST FOR ENERGY MAVENS
To develop policy from ideas on energy, I strongly suggest reading Dr Mark
Diesendorf's recent book (the name of which escapes me as I write). Mark was
director of the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures and writes
authoritatively on energy options. His knowledge is detailed and up to date
and, compared to Bill's piece below (this is not a criticism of Bill's) it
is far more useable as a policy directions document. I recommend it.


PROMISING TECHNOLOGIES FROM ANU
It might be worth taking a look, too, at the ANU's new technology that
combines photovoltaics and solar thermal in a single device. It is currently
under development. 

The ANU has also developed a thin film silicon photovoltaic panel that could
reduce the cost of PV installations, though by how much I do not know. The
price of silicon has risen, due to increased demand, and the thin film
technology appears to hold promise.


WIND COOPS
Bill's comments on Danish wind energy cooperatives indicates that this is
something worth pursuing at the policy level. What would be required, first
of all, is an investigation of the potential for adapting the model to
Australian conditions. This would involve identifying the barriers and
opportunities potentially affecting that model here.

Also needed would be consideration of investment incentives such as taxation
and subsidies and how a market for energy from coop turbines could be
developed and managed. The potential for adapting the model to other
renewable energy systems might also be considered.


OTHER POTENTIALS 
Perhaps there's opportunity for farmers in places such as King and Flinders
islands, in Bass Strait, to host fields of turbines and derive income from
this. The energy would be transfered into the national grid via undersea
cable to Victoria. The turbine arrays could be designed to accommodate
farming uses around them - so that we could still enjoy those tasty King
Island soft cheeses (sorry food miles afficianados).

A further option might be to repurpose the oil platforms in Bass Strait and
along the Victorian coast. As oil production ceases due to field depletion,
would it be feasible to re-equip the platforms with turbines as wind farms
and, perhaps, as central control points of wave energy turbine fields
anchored in the surrounding seas. Again, energy would be transferred to the
mainland by undersea cable.

A policy would initially provide for the technological and economic
assessment of ideas such as these. If the energy return on investment is
likely to be positive, then policy would provide for R&D and prototyping as
further assessment.


GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
Any policy developed by a PPP or anyone else with an objective eye on our
future would boost the development of a geothermal energy industry in
Australia. 

This would include appropariate taxation and investment incentives designed
to channel substantial funds into the industry, incentives for exploration
for potential geothermal fields, support for R&D to gain greater
efficiencies and for new technologies (such knowledge may be replicable,
exportable and marketable overseas). This done, policy to start power
generation to supply the national grid could be hastened.


THE ENERGY INTERNET
Manbiot raises the notion of an energy Internet. Essentially, this
replicates the network structure of the communications Internet but, rather
than information, it switches energy flows back and forth.

The source of these flows are photovoltaic systems (and potentially other
energy sources?) producing small amounts of energy from rooftop panel arrays
in the cities. The networks would seek to supply local networks, but
networks would connect to neighbouring networks so that a production deficit
on one area would be countered by excess production flowing in from
neighbouring networks.

Policy development would look at economic structures that would turn these
rooftop systems into microenterprises and at incentives for the
technological development of more efficient systems. Again, investigation of
subsidies and taxation incentives to householders (or cooperatives of
apartment owners who cover their rooftops in PV arrays) would form a part of
policy.

In the 1990s, I was shown over an innovative rooftop solar thermal array on
a house in Hurstville installed for R&D purposes by Dr David Mills. This was
reported to be very efficient.


ENDING THE DRAIN
Unfortunatley, Mills is just one of the brain drain from Australia to the
Californian renewable energy industry.

Incentives to stop this drain of knowledge, experience and imagination would
clearly be a policy priority for any forward-looking party or advocacy
group. That would best be done by establishing a viable and growing
renewable industry in Australia, supported by a substantial scientific base
in our research institutions and a voluble public lobby for renewables.

If peak oil pans out as a worst case scenario, the we face a global
depression in which sustainability would be an early casualty. The
development of green technologies has a major role to play in an energy
deficient world. In this situation, energy policy becomes a priority focus
for government and all political parties.

These are just a few scattered, stream of consciousness ideas, so please
toss out the non-viable.

...Russ Grayson



On 9/8/07 6:55 PM, "tamara griffiths" <scarletwoman at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Please find Bill's second installment.
> This has been written in the last few weeks, for the purpose of PPP
> formation.
> 
> Kind regards,
> Tamara
> 
> Energy, Water, and Food
> 
> The forms of clean energy:
> 
> Wind power
> Wind farms have become fairly common in advanced Countries. In Denmark, one
> large windmill is built after issuing 800 or so shares, the number of
> households that can be provided with power from a village machine. These
> shares, and up to 10m” of solar panels providing hot water and electricity
> are purchased by middle-aged couples to ensure free energy in their
> retirement. Most connect to the grid, and buy or sell energy as they have
> the need, or have surplus energy. They provide for their old age.
> 
> Solar Devices
> Solar panels as hot water provided to insulated tanks, or as electrical
> generators, are becoming routine fixtures in modern societies; again,
> surplus electricity is sold to the local grid, and surplus heat is Œdumped‚
> into hot water systems.
> 
> Geothermal
> Deep drill-holes, sited over areas of volcanic heat or where the earths
> crust is thin, convert water into steam for use in the heating of buildings,
> or in powering steam turbines for electrical production.
> 
> The Hydro-electrical devices
> From very small to very large, the power of falling water to spin turbines
> has long been harvested, and supplements other energy systems.
> 
> But since ancient times, water has been used to compress and store air
> („isothermally-compressed‰). All water that falls carries some air bubbles,
> and these rise much more slowly than the water falls, so that they can be
> carried down and released in large storage rooms or plenums some 200 or more
> metres below ground.
> 
> A conical device called a trompe bleeds high levels of air into water, for
> escape and storage at depth in carefully plastered (sealed) rooms. From
> there, small diameter pipes leads compressed air to surface work shops, to
> farm storage tanks, and to households where compressed air operates small
> electric generators, refrigerators and cool rooms and the whole array of
> compressed-air tools (presses, vices, spray applicators, sand-blasters etc.
> etc.)
> 
> Given a modest stream and a trompe, or successive trompes, very large
> quantities of compressed air can be stored. In 1930, all cars, trams,
> trains, and cool rooms in Paris and Chicago, were supplied by miners with
> trompes, operated on compressed air. Light motor vehicles with 7 to 10 h.p.
> slide valve steam engines with a working pressure of 40 p.s.i., could travel
> 100 or more kilometres on 2 cubic feet of air at 1500 p.s.i. held in a
> drawn-steel cylinder below the seat.
> 
> The exhaust gas was very cold air, directed to a hamper in the boot for the
> preservation of cold meats, cold drinks, and the like. Unlike electricity,
> compressed air loses little in transport, and until the fossil fuels
> displaced it. It has no poisonous fumes or explosive potential.
> 
> As well, the trompes are well developed, and the uses of compressed air
> tools also very sophisticated. Many trompes can be built in one stream, and
> form many reservoirs of compressed air.
> 
> Tidal Energies
> The rise and fall of tides, the power tidal current delivers over
> „egg-beater‰ turbines are all little-developed sources of clean energy. In
> straits running east-west, the tidal flow is constantly to the west, and
> operates around the clock. Sub-sea „egg beaters‰ will provide constant
> energy for the generation of electricity or for the provision of compressed
> air.
> 
> 
> Powerful currents sweep by reefs and islands at the west end of straits
> (Bass Strait in Australia is one of many good examples). Only a very little
> of these energies is harvested to date, but „ducks‰, and compressed-air
> sausages for wave power are well developed, and it remains to tap the great
> power of confined currents for national energy grids.
> 
> Solar Energy
> From modest „caravan power‰ for light and computers to very large static
> arrays of solar collectors on roof areas or as parabolic arrays for steam
> turbine development, solar devices are numerous; widely used, but at a small
> scale of the potential.
> 
> Areas of mirrors in steerable arrays one to five km. square are needed to
> supply national grids and state energy systems. We need to break out of the
> small-scale installations that have previously made all clean power
> „uneconomic‰.
> 
> Clean power is essential for life, and is only uneconomic if money is valued
> above life! Just as every house can harvest enough clean rainwater to supply
> the needs of the occupants, so every roof can collect the energy needed to
> fuel the house and supplement a national grid. It simply remains to make
> water collection and energy collection a compulsory part of architecture; to
> develop climate control in building using the air from earth tunnels to cool
> or heat rooms, and „day-night‰ fans to heat or cool the fabric of buildings.
> 
> In civilised societies, it is already legislated that buildings should never
> be permitted western windows, nor can large unshaded areas of car parks be
> built. Both call for too much summer heat to be offset, needlessly. It is
> past-time to legislate for domestic and urban energy and water storage.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Water Supply
> In most countries, 80% of rainfall runs off or evaporates. Thus only 12% is
> available for agriculture or domestic needs. We must legislate for the
> construction of thousand of miles of swales on farms, as large contour
> ditches that fill in every heavy rain (>10mm/day). In 3 to 6 hours, such
> water soaks in, and is immune to evaporation or run-off! This water, over
> years and centuries, feeds tree roots, springs, and valley streams. Swales
> enable forests, and forests are both passive condenses of night air, and
> active cloud generators for rainfall. If we clear the ridges, 40% of
> orographic rain ceases. If we clear the plains, most condensation and clouds
> fail to form. Thus, swales precede forests. Forests precede precipitation.
> Again, clearing is a severely anti social act, and we must legislate for
> forestry, and survival. Every countryman in Australia has, all his life,
> used tank water from his roof. He suffers no adverse health effects, perhaps
> needing iodised salt to prevent goitre. It is long past time that architects
> and builders were required by law to build water self-sufficient houses, and
> energy self-sufficient houses.
> 
> All architecture students must learn the techniques of self-sufficient
> buildings.  It remains to allow 12 ˆ 14m” of garden (on roofs, or at ground
> level), and food, water, and energy are provided by buildings!  Such a
> society can last forever, in comfortable and clean surroundings. There is
> absolutely no reason to tolerate the vandalism of forest clearing, let alone
> support it by government subsidy. We face global death by neglect. It is not
> as though we do not have the skills to build to survive, we do!
> 
> Or, we could wood-chip our way to death, using present political parties as
> our bell-wethers, or guides to hell.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Tamara Griffiths
> 39 Wattle Tree Road
> Bunyip
> Victoria 3815
> 03 5629 5918
> 0407 45 7707
> scarletwoman at hotmail.com
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/boodicusducky/
> 
> "Be the change you want to see in the world." Gandhi
> 
> 'The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do
> nothing." Edmund Burke
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> From: pacific-edge <info at pacific-edge.info>
>> Reply-To: permacultue discussion
>> list<pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org>
>> To: pil <pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Pil-pc-oceania] School & Community Gardens Day @ Apollo Bay
>> Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:06:21 +1000
>> 
>> Good morning Fern from a fine, sunny, warm, blue-sky Spring-like morning in
>> Sydney.
>> 
>> Just a brief note to let you know your event below will shortly appear on
>> the website of the community garens network.
>> 
>> ...Russ
>> 
>> On 7/8/07 10:48 AM, "permaculture at apollobay.org.au"
>> <permaculture at apollobay.org.au> wrote:
>> 
>>> Please send this info through your networks:
>>> 
>>> SCHOOL & COMMUNITY GARDENS DAY
>>> 
>>> When: 22-08-2007
>>> from: 09:00 to 17:00
>>> 
>>> Where: Apollo Bay P-12 College, Penguilly Avenue, Apollo Bay,
>>> Victoria,AUSTRALIA
>>> 
>>> With: John Champagne, Phil Gall, Fern Rainbow, Virginia Solomon, Eltham
>>> College of Education's Colin Nightingale and Cultivating Community's
>> Andrew
>>> Wood, Heidi Sanghvi & Natasha Van Velzen
>>> 
>>> Fee: $80/ $120 (AUS)
>>> 
>>> Contact Name: Fern Rainbow
>>> Contact Email: permaculture at apollobay.org.au
>>> Contact Phone: 0425710380
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Learn about Permaculture design for the school & community garden, and
>>> conduct an actual site analysis and design on the day.
>>> 
>>> Watch and help out with the Gardenwealth Games demonstration and
>>> participate in Edible
>>> Classroom activities with Cultivating Community’s Andrew Wood, Heidi
>>> Sanghvi & Natasha Van Velzen.
>>> 
>>> Learn about teaching Permaculture in schools with Virginia Solomon and
>>> Colin Nightingale (Eltham College of Education).
>>> 
>>> Held at Apollo Bay P-12 College, the grade 5’s and the local community
>>> garden group will share with you their exciting plans for a school &
>>> community garden. Others will also share their school & community garden
>>> projects happening across Australia.
>>> 
>>> Tutors & speakers on the day will include: John Champagne, Phil Gall,
>>> Virginia Solomon, Colin Nightingale (Eltham College of Education),
>>> Cultivating Community's Andrew Wood, Heidi Sanghvi & Natasha Van Velzen
>> and
>>> more!
>>> 
>>> Tutors & speakers on the day:
>>> 
>>> VIRGINIA SOLOMON was a member of the Reference Group which developed the
>>> Accredited Permaculture Training Courses and has held several other
>>> positions in permaculture circles. She has a background in vocational
>>> training, landscape design and permaculture teaching/design as well as
>>> training trainers to expand this work. Colin Nightingale will join
>>> Virginia and outline Eltham College of Education's sustainability
>> program
>>> for Year 9 students that has run over the past 3 years and now has over
>> 500
>>> graduates of the Certificate I in Permaculture.
>>> 
>>> JOHN CHAMPAGNE, permaculture teacher, activist, ABC local radio
>> presenter,
>>> established Brogo Permaculture Gardens over 12 years. It now serves as
>> one
>>> of permaculture’s best examples of cool temperate design. John is
>> founding
>>> member of BEND [www.bend.org.au] and facilitated the design process of
>> the
>>> eco-neighbourhood in Bega.
>>> 
>>> PHIL GALL has been involved with environmental and sustainability
>> activism
>>> since the 1970s and an early pioneer of the permaculture movement. He is
>> a
>>> qualified Architect, Landscape Architect, teacher and permaculture
>>> designer. Phil was fortunate to work with PA Yeomans and has a deep
>>> understanding of the Keyline Planning System and swale construction. His
>>> bio is so long its difficult to condense! He currently works in the Bega
>>> Valley designing waste water treatment systems, ecological sustainable
>>> housing design, whole farm planning and environmental assessment to
>> comply
>>> with council regulations.
>>> 
>>> NATASHA VAN VELZEN & HEIDI SANGHVI are members of the Cultivating
>>> Community Edible Classroom Team. They have both been teaching and
>>> consulting in school garden programs for the past 5 years throughout
>>> Melbourne including the very successful 'Kings Patch' @ Kings Park
>> Primary
>>> School and Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Project at Collingwood
>>> College. Heidi has just returned from overseas with new inspiration to
>>> share and is teaching at Fitzroy Primary School's Multicultural Kitchen
>>> Garden. Tash is currently coordinating the Edible Classroom Pilot
>> Program
>>> that works closely with the students and wider school community of three
>>> Melbourne schools in designing, constructing and integrating their own
>>> Edible Classroom programs.
>>> 
>>> ANDREW WOODS is part of Cultivating Community Inc.’s “Edible Classroom”
>>> team too. He’s been working in community development, education,
>>> performing arts and permaculture for the last decade, and for
>> Cultivating
>>> community for the last five years. During that time he’s developed a
>> number
>>> of community garden projects in public housing estates in inner-city
>>> Melbourne, and primary school “Edible Classrooms” in schools across the
>>> city, including the innovative Parkhill Primary School project, which
>>> comprises a weekly round of garden classes, a lunchtime Garden Club, a
>>> regular community garden market, and monumental cooking!
>>> 
>>> FERN RAINBOW is an educator, project manager and natural therapist
>>> specialised in oriental remedial therapies. She has a design background,
>>> and acquired her permaculture design certificate in the late 90's. A
>> past
>>> president of Permaculture Melbourne Inc., she founded Otways & Coast
>>> Permaculture Group and the SW Vic. Permaculture Network, and has been
>>> living in the Otways & Coast bioregion for the past 6 years. Since 2004,
>>> she has organised and run a multitude of community based permaculture
>>> workshops & events in the Otways. She has also run her own specialist
>>> workshops at various festivals (National Fiddle Festival, Apollo Bay
>> Music
>>> Festival) and at schools & education centres.
>>> 
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> myhosting.com - Premium Microsoft® Windows® and Linux web and
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>>> 
>>> 
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