SmartGen tackles the issue of intermittent wind by burning biogas
Jessica Shankleman, BusinessGreen, 02 Jun 2010
A new hybrid wind turbine system that uses a gas generator as backup for unreliable wind energy could solve one of the biggest challenges faced by wind farms, according to US start-up Hybrid Turbines.
The company's SmartGen system, which was launched yesterday, tackles the issue of intermittent wind by burning biogas or natural gas to spin wind turbine generators even when the wind is not blowing. The gas-powered system uses a ground-based turbo-compressor to compress air that then drives a turbo air motor directly connected to the generator.
Wind turbines typically operate about 30 per cent of the time as a result of intermittent or slow winds. Hybrid Turbines hopes its system will be incorporated into new wind turbine designs, as well as retrofitted to existing turbines, allowing them to potentially generate power at their rated capacity almost all the time.
"The 35GW of installed wind power capacity in America could be producing grid power around the clock," the company said.
If biogas is used to drive the generator, the turbine retains its renewable energy status, but even if natural gas is used, the electricity produced is still twice as environmentally clean as burning coal, Hybrid Turbines claimed.
The company is targetting both the onshore and offshore market. However, the design can currently only scale up to support 4MW turbines, meaning that it would not be suitable for many of the 5MW turbines expected to come on the market in the next decade.
The new gas-powered system mirrors that already used by a number of solar thermal projects where gas generators have been fitted to drive the turbines overnight or when weather conditions are cloudy.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Trina Solar, SERIS to develop high-efficiency solar cells
Posted on: Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:15:26 EDT
CHANGZHOU, Jun 02, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) --
Trina Solar (TSL.NYSE), a leading integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic (PV) products, announced on Tuesday its research agreement with the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) to develop an all-back-contact high-efficiency silicon wafer solar cell using Trina solar's monocrystalline wafers.
Trina Solar will engage SERIS to provide research and development services to develop a high efficiency crystalline solar cell by printing contacts on the cell's rear to increase front surface exposure to sunlight.
The company targets to realize up to 21.5 percent production efficiency and up to 23.5 percent laboratory test efficiency, with the project to be completed within three years starting from June. In exchange for the project's intellectual property rights, Trina Solar will cover the cost of the research project.
Huang Qiang, Trina Solar's vice president of technology said that the move would further increase the efficiency of the company's silicon solar cells, which is expected to be integrated into the production lines by 2013. (Edited by Gao Li, gaoli08@xinhua.org)
CHANGZHOU, Jun 02, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) --
Trina Solar (TSL.NYSE), a leading integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic (PV) products, announced on Tuesday its research agreement with the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) to develop an all-back-contact high-efficiency silicon wafer solar cell using Trina solar's monocrystalline wafers.
Trina Solar will engage SERIS to provide research and development services to develop a high efficiency crystalline solar cell by printing contacts on the cell's rear to increase front surface exposure to sunlight.
The company targets to realize up to 21.5 percent production efficiency and up to 23.5 percent laboratory test efficiency, with the project to be completed within three years starting from June. In exchange for the project's intellectual property rights, Trina Solar will cover the cost of the research project.
Huang Qiang, Trina Solar's vice president of technology said that the move would further increase the efficiency of the company's silicon solar cells, which is expected to be integrated into the production lines by 2013. (Edited by Gao Li, gaoli08@xinhua.org)
China May Start State-Guided Carbon Market by 2014
May 28, 2010, 7:30 AM EDT
By Ben Sills and Ewa Krukowska
May 28 (Bloomberg) -- China will likely set up a domestic market for trading carbon emissions by 2014 and hand companies “half-mandatory” targets for limiting their greenhouse gases, said a government official who oversees climate-change issues.
Authorities are drawing up rules for a market to be run by “associations” overseen by the government, Feng Shengbo, deputy director of the China Clean Development Mechanism Management Center, said in an interview.
“The government will not directly control the market but if the associations make misleading policy it’s for the government to guide them,” Feng said yesterday on the sidelines of a conference in Cologne, Germany.
China and India, which have captured the most investment in emissions-reducing projects overseen by the United Nations, are trying to set market mechanisms to encourage polluters to slow their growth of carbon-dioxide emissions even as both resist legally binding limits on the gases they release. Those plans contrast with market delays seen in several richer nations.
“Part of the reason they are doing that is to get a jump on the clean-energy economy of the 21st century,” Annie Petsonk, international counsel at the Environmental Defense Fund, said on a panel at the conference today. “If America does not get its act together on this, we will be left behind.”
U.S. lawmakers have yet to endorse President Obama’s offer of an emissions cut of 17 percent from 2005 levels. The U.S. climate bill is stalled in the Senate.
Industrialized Nations
Australia postponed legislation to set up a carbon market in April with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd saying he wanted to assess action taken by other nations. European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said this week that the European Union, which runs the world’s largest carbon market, will only increase its targets for cuts to heat-trapping emissions should other countries make progress.
China, the world’s biggest polluter, pledged to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide it emits for each unit of economic output by 40 percent to 45 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels in the run-up to last year’s Copenhagen climate summit. Chinese negotiators resisted a cap on the absolute amount of greenhouse gases the country emits, arguing that the U.S. and other wealthy nations should bear the brunt of emissions cuts.
“From the government point of view, an absolute reduction is not realistic for China at the current stage,” Feng said.
Chinese Targets
The government may set targets for Chinese companies to reduce the amount of carbon they emit for each yuan of profit, Feng said. To help them meet those targets they may be able to buy carbon-offset credits from projects, industries or even cities that reduce their own carbon intensity, he said.
“I don’t think they will be very hard targets,” Feng said. “But if they are too loose, we can change them.”
Only Chinese companies will be allowed to trade in the market during its initial phase, he added.
China will also block projects by companies in the steel, cement and coal industries that exceed targets for pollution, the State Council said this month. The government will suspend project approvals for industries set to miss their targets and close down projects that do not have approval by shutting off power and water supplies and asking banks to withhold credit.
India may let power companies start trading renewable- energy credits this year as it bids to encourage reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. The market may be worth as much as $16 billion within five years, Indian Bureau of Energy Efficiency Director-General Ajay Mathur said in January.
Feng declined to say how much China’s carbon market might be worth.
--Editors: Todd White, Randall Hackley
By Ben Sills and Ewa Krukowska
May 28 (Bloomberg) -- China will likely set up a domestic market for trading carbon emissions by 2014 and hand companies “half-mandatory” targets for limiting their greenhouse gases, said a government official who oversees climate-change issues.
Authorities are drawing up rules for a market to be run by “associations” overseen by the government, Feng Shengbo, deputy director of the China Clean Development Mechanism Management Center, said in an interview.
“The government will not directly control the market but if the associations make misleading policy it’s for the government to guide them,” Feng said yesterday on the sidelines of a conference in Cologne, Germany.
China and India, which have captured the most investment in emissions-reducing projects overseen by the United Nations, are trying to set market mechanisms to encourage polluters to slow their growth of carbon-dioxide emissions even as both resist legally binding limits on the gases they release. Those plans contrast with market delays seen in several richer nations.
“Part of the reason they are doing that is to get a jump on the clean-energy economy of the 21st century,” Annie Petsonk, international counsel at the Environmental Defense Fund, said on a panel at the conference today. “If America does not get its act together on this, we will be left behind.”
U.S. lawmakers have yet to endorse President Obama’s offer of an emissions cut of 17 percent from 2005 levels. The U.S. climate bill is stalled in the Senate.
Industrialized Nations
Australia postponed legislation to set up a carbon market in April with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd saying he wanted to assess action taken by other nations. European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said this week that the European Union, which runs the world’s largest carbon market, will only increase its targets for cuts to heat-trapping emissions should other countries make progress.
China, the world’s biggest polluter, pledged to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide it emits for each unit of economic output by 40 percent to 45 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels in the run-up to last year’s Copenhagen climate summit. Chinese negotiators resisted a cap on the absolute amount of greenhouse gases the country emits, arguing that the U.S. and other wealthy nations should bear the brunt of emissions cuts.
“From the government point of view, an absolute reduction is not realistic for China at the current stage,” Feng said.
Chinese Targets
The government may set targets for Chinese companies to reduce the amount of carbon they emit for each yuan of profit, Feng said. To help them meet those targets they may be able to buy carbon-offset credits from projects, industries or even cities that reduce their own carbon intensity, he said.
“I don’t think they will be very hard targets,” Feng said. “But if they are too loose, we can change them.”
Only Chinese companies will be allowed to trade in the market during its initial phase, he added.
China will also block projects by companies in the steel, cement and coal industries that exceed targets for pollution, the State Council said this month. The government will suspend project approvals for industries set to miss their targets and close down projects that do not have approval by shutting off power and water supplies and asking banks to withhold credit.
India may let power companies start trading renewable- energy credits this year as it bids to encourage reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. The market may be worth as much as $16 billion within five years, Indian Bureau of Energy Efficiency Director-General Ajay Mathur said in January.
Feng declined to say how much China’s carbon market might be worth.
--Editors: Todd White, Randall Hackley
Barclays Buys Carbon Trader Tricorona For $145 Mln
By Simon Kennedy
MarketWatch Pulse LONDON -- U.K. bank Barclays said Wednesday that it has agreed to buy carbon trading firm Tricorona for 1.13 billion Swedish kronor ($145 million), or 8 kronor per share. The offer represents a 40% premium to the closing price on Tuesday. Barclays said the acquisition of Tricorona, which specializes in the sourcing, development and trading of certified emission reductions, would position the bank as a leading global origination and trading house. The U.K. group added that the deal is expected to boost earnings within one year from completion and to have no material impact on its capital ratio.
Copyright © 2010 MarketWatch, Inc
MarketWatch Pulse LONDON -- U.K. bank Barclays said Wednesday that it has agreed to buy carbon trading firm Tricorona for 1.13 billion Swedish kronor ($145 million), or 8 kronor per share. The offer represents a 40% premium to the closing price on Tuesday. Barclays said the acquisition of Tricorona, which specializes in the sourcing, development and trading of certified emission reductions, would position the bank as a leading global origination and trading house. The U.K. group added that the deal is expected to boost earnings within one year from completion and to have no material impact on its capital ratio.
Copyright © 2010 MarketWatch, Inc
Eat less meat to save the planet - UN
The world needs to change to a more vegetarian diet to stand a chance of tackling climate change, according to a major new United Nations report.
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Published: 1:36PM BST 02 Jun 2010
The group of international scientists said the greatest cause of greenhouse gas emissions is food production and the use of fossil fuels.
But while the use of coal and oil could be gradually replaced by renewable energy sources like wind and solar, the world will always need to eat.
Eating mushrooms daily 'may cut breast cancer risk by two thirds'As the world population increases it is feared that the production of food will become the main cause of climate change and environmental degradation.
The International Panel of Sustainable Resource Management pointed out that agricultural production accounts for 70 per cent of global freshwater production, 38 per cent of land use and 19 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
The report, that will be presented to world governments, said the only way to feed the world while reducing climate change is to switch to more a more vegetarian diet.
"A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change," it read.
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, said ordinary consumers can help fight climate change by eating less meat.
"The Panel have reviewed all the available science and conclude that two broad areas are currently having a disproportionately high impact on people and the planet's life support systems—these are energy in the form of fossil fuels and agriculture, especially the raising of livestock for meat and dairy products," he said.
Mr Steiner said governments could encourage people to eat less meat by reforming the system of taxes and subsidies so vegetarian food is cheaper.
"Smart market mechanisms, more intelligent fiscal policies and creative policy-making are among the options for internalising the costs of unsustainable patterns. Some tough choices are signalled in this report, but it may prove even more challenging for everyone if the current paths continue into the coming decades," he added.
Lord Stern of Brentford, the author of the influential Stern Review that first argued for economic measures to fight climate change, also believes the world needs to eat less meat.
He has already warned that the price of meat and other "carbon intensive" goods will need to go up to fight climate change.
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Published: 1:36PM BST 02 Jun 2010
The group of international scientists said the greatest cause of greenhouse gas emissions is food production and the use of fossil fuels.
But while the use of coal and oil could be gradually replaced by renewable energy sources like wind and solar, the world will always need to eat.
Eating mushrooms daily 'may cut breast cancer risk by two thirds'As the world population increases it is feared that the production of food will become the main cause of climate change and environmental degradation.
The International Panel of Sustainable Resource Management pointed out that agricultural production accounts for 70 per cent of global freshwater production, 38 per cent of land use and 19 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
The report, that will be presented to world governments, said the only way to feed the world while reducing climate change is to switch to more a more vegetarian diet.
"A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change," it read.
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, said ordinary consumers can help fight climate change by eating less meat.
"The Panel have reviewed all the available science and conclude that two broad areas are currently having a disproportionately high impact on people and the planet's life support systems—these are energy in the form of fossil fuels and agriculture, especially the raising of livestock for meat and dairy products," he said.
Mr Steiner said governments could encourage people to eat less meat by reforming the system of taxes and subsidies so vegetarian food is cheaper.
"Smart market mechanisms, more intelligent fiscal policies and creative policy-making are among the options for internalising the costs of unsustainable patterns. Some tough choices are signalled in this report, but it may prove even more challenging for everyone if the current paths continue into the coming decades," he added.
Lord Stern of Brentford, the author of the influential Stern Review that first argued for economic measures to fight climate change, also believes the world needs to eat less meat.
He has already warned that the price of meat and other "carbon intensive" goods will need to go up to fight climate change.
Chris Huhne warns of £4bn black hole in nuclear power budget
Energy secretary blames predecessors for avoiding tough decisions in 'classic example of short-termism'
Patrick Wintour, political editor guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 June 2010 21.33 BST
Britain is facing a £4bn black hole in unavoidable nuclear decommissioning and waste costs, Chris Huhne, the energy and climate change secretary disclosed tonight.
The decommissioning costs over the next four years revealed by officials to Huhne are so serious that he has already flagged the crisis up to the cabinet.
The revelation places an unexpected burden on his department's £3bn annual budget ahead of difficult spending negotiations this summer. "As you can imagine, this is a fairly existential problem. The costs are such that my department is not so much the department of energy and climate change, as the department of nuclear legacy and bits of other things," Huhne told the Guardian.
The additional costs derive from slowly rising expenditure on nuclear decommissioning, and falling income due to the closure of ageing power plants, Huhne said.
Huhne disclosed that in current financial year the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's budget is expected to be in balance.From 2011-12, the deficit suddenly rises to £850m, in 2012-13 the gap increases further to £950m and then to £1.1bn in the two subsequent years.
The black hole is equivalent to wiping out one-sixth of the overall cuts in public spending identified by the Treasury with such fanfare last week.
But Huhne insisted: "I do not think it is possible for anyone responsibly to stand aside and say we are not going to deal with it. We just have to, but what we are effectively paying for here is decades of cheap nuclear electricity for which we have suddenly got a massive postdated bill."
The revelation will also hand further ammunition to those who say a new generation of nuclear power stations in Britain will end up being more expensive than the industry claims.
Huhne – a Liberal Democrat and nuclear sceptic – refused to make that argument directly, saying instead it just underlined the need to ensure that any new nuclear stations had watertight agreements that debar all public subsidy. In any case there are growing signs that the nuclear new-build timetable is slipping as costs rise.
Huhne, already in talks with the Treasury about the black hole, said it was very hard to avoid the expenditure: "There are genuine nuclear safety issues here that means it has to be paid for."
If the Treasury refuses to shoulder the full costs, Huhne's department would inevitably have to make cuts with possible implications for energy efficiency and climate change programmes.
Huhne revealed that as soon as he discovered the problem, he travelled to Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria and concluded: "There is no way of dealing with this, but by making sure this expenditure goes ahead."
Since the NDA was formed in 2004, the clean-up of legacy nuclear facilities has been paid for with a mix of funds – roughly half in direct government grants and half generated commercially by the NDA – and allocated in three-year cycles.
Huhne said: "My predecessors avoided taking tough decisions when they should have done and the result is that it is much more expensive to deal with than if we had dealt with it in a timely manner back in the 70s and 80s. A lot of it is spent fuel, and was not dealt with at the time. It is a classic example of short-termism. I cannot think of a better example of a failure to take a decision in the short run costing the taxpayer a hell of a lot more in the long run."
The Liberal Democrats oppose new stations, but have said they will abstain in any key Commons votes on the issue so long as their Conservative coalition partners ensure no new station enjoys any overt or hidden public subsidy.
Huhne said: "New build is clearly more efficient, there is less waste, and the decommissioning can and should be designed in, but … we need to make sure all the costs are properly dealt with."
Patrick Wintour, political editor guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 June 2010 21.33 BST
Britain is facing a £4bn black hole in unavoidable nuclear decommissioning and waste costs, Chris Huhne, the energy and climate change secretary disclosed tonight.
The decommissioning costs over the next four years revealed by officials to Huhne are so serious that he has already flagged the crisis up to the cabinet.
The revelation places an unexpected burden on his department's £3bn annual budget ahead of difficult spending negotiations this summer. "As you can imagine, this is a fairly existential problem. The costs are such that my department is not so much the department of energy and climate change, as the department of nuclear legacy and bits of other things," Huhne told the Guardian.
The additional costs derive from slowly rising expenditure on nuclear decommissioning, and falling income due to the closure of ageing power plants, Huhne said.
Huhne disclosed that in current financial year the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's budget is expected to be in balance.From 2011-12, the deficit suddenly rises to £850m, in 2012-13 the gap increases further to £950m and then to £1.1bn in the two subsequent years.
The black hole is equivalent to wiping out one-sixth of the overall cuts in public spending identified by the Treasury with such fanfare last week.
But Huhne insisted: "I do not think it is possible for anyone responsibly to stand aside and say we are not going to deal with it. We just have to, but what we are effectively paying for here is decades of cheap nuclear electricity for which we have suddenly got a massive postdated bill."
The revelation will also hand further ammunition to those who say a new generation of nuclear power stations in Britain will end up being more expensive than the industry claims.
Huhne – a Liberal Democrat and nuclear sceptic – refused to make that argument directly, saying instead it just underlined the need to ensure that any new nuclear stations had watertight agreements that debar all public subsidy. In any case there are growing signs that the nuclear new-build timetable is slipping as costs rise.
Huhne, already in talks with the Treasury about the black hole, said it was very hard to avoid the expenditure: "There are genuine nuclear safety issues here that means it has to be paid for."
If the Treasury refuses to shoulder the full costs, Huhne's department would inevitably have to make cuts with possible implications for energy efficiency and climate change programmes.
Huhne revealed that as soon as he discovered the problem, he travelled to Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria and concluded: "There is no way of dealing with this, but by making sure this expenditure goes ahead."
Since the NDA was formed in 2004, the clean-up of legacy nuclear facilities has been paid for with a mix of funds – roughly half in direct government grants and half generated commercially by the NDA – and allocated in three-year cycles.
Huhne said: "My predecessors avoided taking tough decisions when they should have done and the result is that it is much more expensive to deal with than if we had dealt with it in a timely manner back in the 70s and 80s. A lot of it is spent fuel, and was not dealt with at the time. It is a classic example of short-termism. I cannot think of a better example of a failure to take a decision in the short run costing the taxpayer a hell of a lot more in the long run."
The Liberal Democrats oppose new stations, but have said they will abstain in any key Commons votes on the issue so long as their Conservative coalition partners ensure no new station enjoys any overt or hidden public subsidy.
Huhne said: "New build is clearly more efficient, there is less waste, and the decommissioning can and should be designed in, but … we need to make sure all the costs are properly dealt with."
Thames Water opens first large-scale desalination plant in UK
The £250m equipment, which can supply up to 1 million people, will only be used at times of drought, says Thames Water
Juliette Jowit guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 June 2010 10.30 BST
The first large-scale desalination plant to turn seawater into drinking water for homes and businesses in the UK will open today in the latest sign of growing concern about water stress in the country's most populated regions.
Although the technology is more normally associated with parched places such as the Middle East and Australia, the south-east of England – where the plant is located – has less rainfall per person than Istanbul, Dallas or Sydney.
Thames Water has spent £250m building the plant and pipes, and has said that the equipment will only be turned on at times of drought, when it can supply up to 1 million people.
During a protracted planning case against the opposition of former London mayor Ken Livingstone, Thames Water claimed that London and the surrounding region faced "a high risk of sever water shortages" unless the plant was allowed to go ahead.
However opponents have claimed that the plant will use too much energy and the company should be doing more to stop leaking pipes and reduce the average water use of customers by installing more water meters and better promotions.
Concern that the company will start using the plant more often have also been fuelled by subtle changes in their literature: initially the plant would be used "during times of drought", but later that became "mainly during times of drought".
Elsewhere, water industry experts have speculated that Thames Water could in the long-term connect the desalination plant directly to the next-door Beckton sewage plant, in east London, to produce recycled water. The recycling process uses similar technology and is usually cheaper than desalting water, but has so far been too unpopular to be accepted by homes anywhere in the world except the Namibian capital Windhoek.
In a sign of the pressure Thames Water could face if it tried to increase use of the Beckton desalination plant, the Environment Agency's head of water, Ian Barker, yesterday said: "Although the Beckton desalination plant will help to provide London with secure water supplies during times of drought and peak demand, we all must do more to reduce water consumption. The Environment Agency believes that metering should be rolled out to households in water-stressed areas. The water industry must also continue to manage leakage from its network of pipes."
Since the Beckton plant was first proposed in 2004, Thames Water has made repeated attempts to reassure critics, including promising that 100% of the energy used by the desalination works – which by desalting the briny water in the Thames estuary rather than water from the deep seas will use considerably less energy than normal plants – will come from "renewable" biofuel, made from plants. Following concern about the energy required to grow some fuel crops, the company has also suggested that in future it will try to use waste cooking fat and oil from the capital's restaurants and homes.
The company, which in the last financial year made pre-tax profits of £435m on income of £1.6bn, has also said that although it has been ahead of its targets to fix leaking pipes, the disruption of speeding up the programme could bring the city to "gridlock", and that efficiency campaigns have led to reductions in water use but it does not believe that alone they will "provide the scale of savings needed".
In the midst of its planning struggle, the company also said it had considered other options to help the capital cope with rising population and the increasing risk of dry summers because of climate change. "While desalination uses more energy than conventional water treatment, the lack of alternative freshwater resources means that all the options had to be considered," it said in a statement. "Desalination actually uses less energy than some of the other schemes we examined."
The company has also said it has designed the systems to take water from the river and return the briny waste on the outgoing tide to minimise the risk to wildlife.
So far Britain's only desalination facilities have been limited to individual buildings, like the Millennium Dome, or small plants to top up agricultural or public supplies in Jersey and the Isles of Scilly. In recent years, Southern Water has also said it will look at building a coastal desalination plant near Brighton on the south coast of England.
Juliette Jowit guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 June 2010 10.30 BST
The first large-scale desalination plant to turn seawater into drinking water for homes and businesses in the UK will open today in the latest sign of growing concern about water stress in the country's most populated regions.
Although the technology is more normally associated with parched places such as the Middle East and Australia, the south-east of England – where the plant is located – has less rainfall per person than Istanbul, Dallas or Sydney.
Thames Water has spent £250m building the plant and pipes, and has said that the equipment will only be turned on at times of drought, when it can supply up to 1 million people.
During a protracted planning case against the opposition of former London mayor Ken Livingstone, Thames Water claimed that London and the surrounding region faced "a high risk of sever water shortages" unless the plant was allowed to go ahead.
However opponents have claimed that the plant will use too much energy and the company should be doing more to stop leaking pipes and reduce the average water use of customers by installing more water meters and better promotions.
Concern that the company will start using the plant more often have also been fuelled by subtle changes in their literature: initially the plant would be used "during times of drought", but later that became "mainly during times of drought".
Elsewhere, water industry experts have speculated that Thames Water could in the long-term connect the desalination plant directly to the next-door Beckton sewage plant, in east London, to produce recycled water. The recycling process uses similar technology and is usually cheaper than desalting water, but has so far been too unpopular to be accepted by homes anywhere in the world except the Namibian capital Windhoek.
In a sign of the pressure Thames Water could face if it tried to increase use of the Beckton desalination plant, the Environment Agency's head of water, Ian Barker, yesterday said: "Although the Beckton desalination plant will help to provide London with secure water supplies during times of drought and peak demand, we all must do more to reduce water consumption. The Environment Agency believes that metering should be rolled out to households in water-stressed areas. The water industry must also continue to manage leakage from its network of pipes."
Since the Beckton plant was first proposed in 2004, Thames Water has made repeated attempts to reassure critics, including promising that 100% of the energy used by the desalination works – which by desalting the briny water in the Thames estuary rather than water from the deep seas will use considerably less energy than normal plants – will come from "renewable" biofuel, made from plants. Following concern about the energy required to grow some fuel crops, the company has also suggested that in future it will try to use waste cooking fat and oil from the capital's restaurants and homes.
The company, which in the last financial year made pre-tax profits of £435m on income of £1.6bn, has also said that although it has been ahead of its targets to fix leaking pipes, the disruption of speeding up the programme could bring the city to "gridlock", and that efficiency campaigns have led to reductions in water use but it does not believe that alone they will "provide the scale of savings needed".
In the midst of its planning struggle, the company also said it had considered other options to help the capital cope with rising population and the increasing risk of dry summers because of climate change. "While desalination uses more energy than conventional water treatment, the lack of alternative freshwater resources means that all the options had to be considered," it said in a statement. "Desalination actually uses less energy than some of the other schemes we examined."
The company has also said it has designed the systems to take water from the river and return the briny waste on the outgoing tide to minimise the risk to wildlife.
So far Britain's only desalination facilities have been limited to individual buildings, like the Millennium Dome, or small plants to top up agricultural or public supplies in Jersey and the Isles of Scilly. In recent years, Southern Water has also said it will look at building a coastal desalination plant near Brighton on the south coast of England.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
