Prius c - small package, big savings!

Each year, my business takes a few more steps to further reduce the impact on the planet, within the budget and being mindful of wasting existing resources.

So this year, with a new vehicle becoming a necessary item for business use, I did some research on available options at this time in Australia.

I set out to find a vehicle to be used primarily for city driving with the occasional longer trip, carrying mostly one or two people.  The criteria was for a vehicle that was small, flexible with a hatch shape, extremely fuel efficient for city driving, comfortable for two, but small enough to claim the full range of available inner city parking spots.

As a passionate advocate of our need to reduce the use of oil, I am very aware that burning this valuable resource in transport is reducing its availability for much more important industries in the future, industries such as those producing medicines or food. And – I am also mindful that the cost of fuel is headed in one direction!

After researching available fuel efficient and fully electric options, I chose the Prius c, a petrol electric hybrid small hatch car manufactured by Toyota.  In the longer term, and most likely for the next vehicle purchase, a fully electric vehicle will be higher on the list – but the Prius c ticked all the boxes now.

This model of the Prius is new, just released in Australia this year, and, as I understand on limited supply.  Since taking delivery of mine (the I-tech model) less than a week ago, I have definitely been impressed with my car.

Firstly, before it even left the dealer’s showroom, the Prius c already had downloaded my phone address book, and it seems to have all electronics that we call essential, and certainly makes for a useful and safe driving experience. 

And it is a really clever little car – you start to see how this works after a few days of driving, in that it uses the energy normally wasted when we apply the brakes or slow down, to recharge the battery.   The car’s system works out when it uses battery or when it uses petrol, so I do not have to think about that, and the fuel use will be massively less than the previous car.

The finish is nice, with lots of sections everywhere for all the bits and pieces that are essential to me, especially when the car is also my outbound office.
 

First impressions – for the business person travelling around, mostly on their own, with need to carry standard amounts of displays or stock, the Prius c I-tech is one to add to your list, and definitely one that will reduce your business fuel costs and more importantly, your business carbon footprint.

Pic of my Prius c taken by Mary

Coal Power revisited

It's easy to dismiss coal fired power production, and to wave a verbal wand to remove it entirely from the planet - but it's not going to happen soon. And "soon" is what we need, so all solutions, including interim and transitional ones, must be on the table.

While we are refining and exploring new ways to power the world, there also needs to be fast and effective solutions for the existing coal fired power industry. Australia has coal - we use it, export it, and profit from it. So it is heartening to see that we also are exploring ways to reduce emissions, and leading this field is the work done by the CO2CRC team in Melbourne who recently reported a breakthrough in CO2 capture.

In late November, I also attended a talk on Capturing Carbon Emissions by USYD Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr Deanna D'Alessandro, who is pioneering a method to "sponge" carbon emissions, and this, and other initiatives need to be fast tracked.

Another Australian company, MBD Energy are also working on Carbon Capture, using algae for production of algae oil and algae meal.

We may reach a point one day, when the techniques being developed by researchers in the non-trendy areas are essential to removing the excess greenhouse gases STILL being emitted. I am not a fan of putting all eggs in one basket, so we need to encourage our talented people into a variety of areas - wind, solar, geothermal, marine, cogeneration, energy storage, and also into bioengineering and solutions for managing what we continue to do, and have done with coal.

At the same time, I would advocate for a level playing field, where subsidies on sunset industries are replaced by research grants to help them transition, and provide the continuity of supply that is essential for our societies.

A Six-Pack of Coal

This week, Science Alert includes a commentary by Kjell Aleklett called Economy and Climate on the path down from the Peak of Oil and Gas. In that article, Kjell, who is Professor in Physics, Uppsala Hydrocarbon Depletion Study Group, at Uppsala University, Sweden, writes.....

"Many are convinced that the future use of coal will determine the outcome for the world’s climate. If we study the world’s coal reserves we find that 80 per cent exists in only six nations; the USA, Russia, China, India, Australia and South Africa. The greatest proportion of the coal that is consumed globally is in these six nations. It is incorrect to assert that carbon dioxide emissions from coal are an international problem.
They are fundamentally a national problem. The international problem is that the rest of the world is affected by the emissions from these six nations."

Thought-provoking words for us Aussies surfing and sitting on our beaches, watching ships queue up to export tons of the stuff!

pic ex Flickr Happychopper's Photostream with comment "Newcastle - check the massive ships in the distance carrying coal... there were hundreds of them out there! "

All-Energy now in Australia

For nine years, Aderdeen in Scotland has hosted a major renewable energy exhibition and conference, called All-Energy. At the recent All-Energy ’09 event, some 380 companies exhibited and 5,500 people from all industry elements came from 60 countries.

In the past, I have attended similar overseas events and certainly, there’s a buzz that so far has been absent in Australia. That – hopefully - is about to change! Melbourne, with support from the Victorian Government, has now secured the first All-Energy Clean Energy Show in Australia for companies actively involved in the clean energy industry. And the bonus is that the exhibition and conference sessions are free for visitors from business, industry, government and the university sectors.

All-Energy 09 Australia will be held in Melbourne in October and is set to become Asia Pacific’s major clean and renewable energy exhibition and conference, with sponsors such as Abengoa Solar already on board. Coming just before the Government's call for tenders for the major Australian solar contract, it's well timed. So mark it in your diary for 7/8 October, and – click here to check it out.

Beautiful sea holds the power

Yesterday I attended a full day Alternative Energy forum in Sydney. One of the speakers was Dr Tim Finnigan from BioPower Systems. Tim is passionate about wave and tidal power from our coastal seas, and equally passionate about an unobstructed view across the water. His systems are designed around natural movements and are resident on the sea floor.

Tim spoke about the two 250KW pilot programs being developed off King and Flinders Islands, Tasmania, and about his vision of plants ranging from 40MW up to 100MW. Waves and tides are considerably more consistent than wind, so it's an interesting option to power coastal cities in countries where coastal conditions are favourable.

BioPower Systems is one of the companies exploring this option in Australia. Hopefully, in a not too distant future, Australia's beautiful and powerful beaches will be famous in one more way, the power generated from under the waves.

iMiEV for green business owners

Mitsubishi now has a plug-in electric car, the iMiEV, fully approved for Australian roads, and we may see these on Australian roads next year, according to an ABC News article. The initial comments from those interested reflected the concern about the energy use - mainly because our energy in Australia primarily comes from coal fired power stations. My point is that having a fully electric available to purchase at a dealer is something many of us want. We need transport in our businesses, but we want to move away from fossil fuels in our lifestyles.

Maybe the answer is simple - ensure that all charging of electric cars is done by renewable energy, then there is no problem, just a need for more power generated by truly renewable sources. So bring on the iMiEV's and where's my solar wind or wave power charging station?

Future Makers in Australia

Last night I attended the premiere of the Australian documentary film "The Future Makers", which displayed world leading renewable energy solutions, and was followed by a panel of some of those who were featured in the movie. These included Dr David Mills of Ausra and Dr Robert Dane who designed the Solar Sailor boat.

The movie also showed the hot rocks technology which is being developed in the Cooper Basin, wave power experiments where the waves action was being modelled on nature, and Dr Keith Lovegrove's thermochemical storage systems. It was a great little movie, and one I think that should be mandatory for all those who are trying to band aid the current power generation systems. The message in the movie was about re-thinking our power sources, and working together for this new future.

Speaking of Energy Entrepreneurs....

Last Friday, as part of a joint WADE and CSIRO conference group, I visited the CSIRO Energy Centre in Newcastle, Australia, which is the headquarters for both CSIRO Energy Technology and the Energy Transformed Flagship. The building is experimental with considerable innovation in energy design with creative ways to reduce heat and lighting requirements, as well generating electricity in a variety of ways including integrated solar panels of various types. The Centre also provides a great environment to support thinking and research projects, and foster innovation about energy and local power, ie decentralised energy and power generation.

We were only afforded a brief overview, however it was heartening to see work being done on solar thermal and photovoltaic projects, wind, energy efficiency, and cogeneration. One of the projects is a called the "virtual power station", where a range of renewable energy generators, such as solar panels, could be grouped with a storage device to become a single electricity supplier, able to take advantage of high demand pricing in the network. Not only does this approach make renewable energy more dependable, projects such as the "virtual power station" increase our energy security, acting more like an energy Internet.

It was also heartening to learn that some of the projects, such as the solar thermal tower, are moving to joint venture early stage commercial projects, and that's exactly what we need...more renewable energy entrepreneurs!!

Think, Plan and Go Commercial

If anyone wonders whether Australia makes a global impact on emissions then they should consider the following, which I obtained from the International Energy Agency’s web site . While these figures reflect the 2006 situation, it is sufficient to show that we as a nation are a major contributor to the emissions generated from coal.

Global Electricity Production from coal/peat (2006) in Twh
China ................. 2,301
United States ...... 2,128
India .................... 508
Germany .............. 302
Japan .................. 299
South Africa.......... 236
Australia ............ 199
Russia ................. 179
Korea .................. 153
United Kingdom ..... 152
Rest of the world. 1,298


We are definitely up there, at number 7 in terms of using coal, which is the oldest of the fossil fuels, and the one which is the most urgent to replace with low emission alternatives.

Last Saturday, I joined the "Walk Against Warming" in Sydney - but maybe we should have a "Think, Plan and Go Commercial against Warming". So I call upon our new energy entrepreneurs, to come up with your ideas to replace coal fired power generation at all levels, and hopefully more useful (if not more artistic!) than this effort which I found on my wanderings.

Intelligent Grid = Opportunities

Yesterday, I attended the launch of the Intelligent Grid Research Program (iGrid) at UTS in Sydney. This is a 3 year series of research projects and a collaboration between the CSIRO and several Australian Universities to investigate "smaller, greeener energy generators and advanced control systems".

The launch was a smorgasbord of ideas from industry, Energy providers, Universities, and CSIRO, and included two video conference keynotes - one from Nancy Ryan, California Public Utilities Commission, and the other from Associate Prof. Ho Hiang Kwee, Director A*Star Sinergy Centre, Singapore. While there was obviously a huge amount of expertise (virtual and in real time time space) in one room, it also became clear that no one person or entity had all the answers. And that the ideas would come out of initiatives such as these. But ideas must be turned into practical solutions, and that's the opportunity for business and industry.

Intelligent grid's of the future will provide the flexibility that we need to integrate local power generation and help us manage peak loads. Smart metering is a key to engaging users and to help modify energy patterns, and will provide important data for planning. Some of the seven identified projects will also address the regulatory barriers to the Intelligent grid -and this will underpin the next steps - a Grid that meets our needs in a world where smarter and smaller are an integral part of the solution. I see this as a hopeful and necessary part of future intelligent grids, where businesses, or individual homeowners are able to make intelligent choices about sourcing power from a range of suppliers of all levels and sizes.

Inaction or Bravery in Action?

Australia is changing direction, and a leader in that change is Professor Garnaut who has outlined that direction, and he warned about "taking small actions that create an appearance of action, but which do not solve the problem." It reminded me of the second World War - if those who opposed Hitler had not painted the "worst case" scenario, of a future Europe being ruled by a cruel dictator, then who would have bothered to rise to the challenge.

We too, in Australia, and across the world, also need to rise to our challenge and we need to know that there are many possible futures ahead. Our actions today will create those futures. We need to move out of our comfort zones, care for those who will be the most affected, and move with defiant steps to create a future of much lower emissions - and if this means a whole new set of values and way of life, then so be it! The world of 1945 was not the same as that pre-war, and our world too will change. The pain of the challenge will be our badge of honour - let's rise and follow the lead of men like Garnaut.

Picture Garnaut at ANU-1 by davesag ex Flickr

Location Location

Real Estate agents have always spruiked the mantra of "location location" when advising you where to buy premises or where to locate your business.  And one of the benefits of a particular location over another used to be the number of available parking places.  But as petrol prices make driving a much more expensive activity, location is going to be important for a different reason and that's access to good public transport.  Check out this video Australia Pumping Empty by ddrinkal