Sustainable Future

How to achieve our sustainable future ? A big question but one that needs to be asked at all levels of our society. This week I asked it of some new business owners in my Future Business workshop. We reviewed trends in areas such as population, climate, and energy - to be part of the future, business owners need to consider changes in the environment where their business operates and global environmental changes. And business owners will have an advantage if they understand the new values and expectations of their clients, suppliers, and their staff, especially in delivering more sustainable products and services. Our model for what makes a successful business is changing and developing. Rigid business structures are causing the demise of many businesses, while business owners that adapt to this new sustainable direction are positioned for the future.

And for the magic formula for success, there's no guaranteed recipe -but my tip is to look ahead, and to plan for a sustainable future.

Improve soil productivity with sequestered carbon

Today was a typically beautiful Aussie autumn day, and a trip to Somersby was an enjoyable outing, just one hour north of Sydney, to one of the many factories located in a bushland setting. So what about the sequestered carbon and the soil?

Best Energies Australia claims to have developed some key technologies for a slow pyrolysis process using organic waste as such as greenwaste, poultry litter, nut shells, wood waste or animal manure. The outputs are syngas for electric generation (primarily used on-site) and a biochar end product which both locks away carbon and can be used for soil productivity. We were shown visuals of crops grown using the char under test conditions and the results seem impressive. But more importantly, according to Adriana Downie, Technical Manager, is the potential for the biochar to sequester carbon for thousands of years.

According to Adriana, there is a business opportunity in these waste plants and several potential revenue streams, including income from waste management, energy production, sales of the biochar product, and possibly also income from the carbon offset market. Each plant would have its own mix of revenue streams, and this would depend on local parameters and the type of feedstock.

Best Energies already has a test plant at Somersby - today, it was producing biochar for a small order. There has been considerable media interest in this technology, and now it's time for a larger plant. Contact Best Energies for the financial models, but the reasons to do this may be more than financial. The extra bonus is about becoming a leader in developing a relatively low cost way to reduce our global carbon footprint, at the same time as managing our organic waste and improving our food supply for a growing global population.

My picture of the Pyrolysis plant at Somersby

Clear Nights + Sunny Days = Power

This month's speaker at the Sydney Group of the Alternative Technology Association was Geoff Smith, Professor of Applied Physics at the University of Technology (Institute of Nanotechnology)

Geoff presented a fascinating talk on what is currently being done in terms of heating and cooling, by new surface coatings and materials and by understanding the processes involved. He explained some of the science and he then offered some insights into the potential. According to Geoff: "using what the environment has to offer for cooling is the hidden gem in the renewables toolkit. Not only does it offer totally new paradigms for low or zero energy cooling of buildings ( a “must” for global warming adaptation), but opens the door to new concepts for generating 24/7 electric power at scales and costs which have the potential to undercut all current renewable and conventional approaches. Using the cool in the deep ocean or at height in the atmosphere are known examples; attractive but technically difficult and expensive. Making the most of our radiative links to outerspace and the atmosphere are however much easier. An example recipe: clear night skies plus clear sunny days , add materials knowhow and quite low cost infrastructure covering about 3 sq. km (1km radius) and you should be able to produce between 70 MW and 100 MW of power."

And he added that : "If the system is pressurized with CO2 it could work even better and in the process, sequester a few thousand tonnes of carbon. "

Seems to me that we should be looking all around us for the solutions we need - they may be closer than we think. Just take the time tonight to look up and ponder about that.

Pic ex Flickr Milky Way + Banyanda by Kasi Metcalfe

Reorient and Retool

Thomas L Friedman has this wonderful ability to ask meaningful questions, ones that relate to our shared existence on this planet. In an Opinion article published in the New York Times, he asks the question: "What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.”

So what are we doing about this? In the same article, he calls himself an optimist, and comments: "People are already using this economic slowdown to retool and reorient economies." By "people", he means the countries that are making huge investments in clean power. It's beginning to happen - but some "people" are lagging behind, and some investments are being used to try to kick start the same system that led us to this problem.

Australia has often been called "the lucky country" - in this next decade we need more than luck, we need to retool and reorient our economy. We have the wealth and the expertise, so what are we waiting for?

To Twit or not to Twit?

Yes, I too have now decided to test my twitter wings - see my twitter page

Future Directions -in 10 Minutes!

Tomorrow, Tues 24th, the NSW group of ANZSES re-commence their monthly meetings in Sydney. This year, I am assisting the group by coordinating a 10 minute speaking spot at beginning of each meeting called Future Directions. Each of these Future Directions mini-talks will be presented by someone driving a Renewable Energy business or researching a Clean Tech concept (and generally someone aged up to 35). The talks are primarily intended to voice the speaker's direction, their challenges, concerns, or to comment on policies that help or inhibit their work. Or it could include what is need to further grow their business or achieve the speaker's goals in their renewable industry or innovation area.
Our first Future Directions spot is by Yale Carden, of GeoExchange - who is very passionate about his direction, and that aligns very much with the new energy direction of the planet.

photo Yale Carden (2007)

Australian innovation -Smart Fridge manages power

Sydney Central group of ATA (Alternative Technology Association) is a collection of volunteers like myself and, once a month, we invite speakers to discuss their work or ideas. Last night, Sam West of the Intelligent Energy Team of CSIRO talked about the "Smart Fridge" which consists of an intelligent bolt-on controller that can be fitted to new or existing fridges, cool rooms and cold stores. This is able to modify the compressor’s running schedule to improve the quality of green power supplied from Renewables, such as wind and solar. Sam added that "the Smart Fridges effectively transform a wind farm or solar field into a reliable, predictable base-load generator."

That's the first part - now he and the CSIRO are seeking interest from those who could take this concept to the next level so that the "Smart Fridge" becomes another key element in enabling Renewables to generate more of our power, and that's the goal! For more details on Sam and his "Smart Fridge" click here.