CHARLOTTE, N.C., Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Many companies in the United States want to "go green." It's good for the environment and great for business branding. But finding a smart, affordable way to make the leap, particularly when it comes to solar solutions, isn't always easy or practical. Many buildings have design limitations that make rooftop solar panels on buildings tricky to install. That's why EEPro, a leader in UL-certified solar modules and a provider of turnkey photovoltaic solar parks and farms, is now launching solar photovoltaic (PV) carports to companies nationwide.
"Solar carports are ideal for large commercial centers, as well as any business or residential community with outdoor parking," says Martin Koebler, CEO of EEPro. "Our solar PV carports tap the sun's energy and works the same way as photovoltaic rooftops on houses or buildings. The electricity produced from the carport's solar roof powers buildings or homes, and it's a technique that's being used in Germany, as well as with some American businesses and even an airport in Texas."
EEPro (http://www.eeprosolar.com) -- daughter company of Germany's EEPro GmbH (http://www.eepro-gmbh.de) -- established its first office in Charlotte, N.C., in September 2009. Since then, the company has been setting up solar parks, farms and, now, carports in North America. According to Koebler, solar carports produce both tangible and intangible benefits; specifically, they:
•Use solar energy to power housing complexes, office buildings, strip malls, chain stores, amusement parks, recreation areas, and more.
•Save on electricity costs.
•Lower CO2 emissions from coal-produced electricity.
•Reduce the gas consumption necessary to cool a vehicle's indoor heat.
•Provide protection from rain and snow.
•Support visionary design and building.
•Enable "green" branding, marketing and communications to clients/customers, employees, community leaders, government, etc.
•Generate a sense of pride on behalf of carport users.
"EEPro's solar carports offer a huge opportunity to capitalize on alternative energy and simultaneously enable the conservation of natural resources," Koebler says. "And while solar carports are ideal for large parking lots, they're super for a wide range of users, from business buildings to amusement parks, ski resorts, major transportation centers and even the country's largest mall. What's more, it's possible these very structures could become revenue generators, selling energy ports for plug-in hybrids and other vehicles."
For more information, visit: http://www.eeprosolar.com.
EEPro Solar Carport: http://www.ereleases.com/pic/EEProCarport.jpg
About EEPro
Launched by German company EEPro GmbH, EEPro was established to meet the growing need for the design and building of turnkey renewable energy projects, specifically photovoltaic solar parks, farms and carports, within the United States. EEPro manufactures its own UL-certified solar modules and has purchasing power for the components necessary to install complete systems at greatly reduced cost. The company advances sustainable solutions with simultaneous consideration for human beings, the environment and technology.
Contact:
Martin Koebler
CEO, EEPro
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Breeding Trees to Be Better Biofuel
Thanks to a gene mapping breakthrough, producing ethanol is going to be cheaper and easier in BC. Latest in Tyee's Cool Tech series.
By Christopher Pollon, Today, TheTyee.ca
UBC professor Carl Douglas: Poplar ideas.
Standing in an experimental poplar forest at the University of British Columbia's Totem Field test farm, the future of biofuel grows all around botanist Carl Douglas.
The 500 trees in this artificial grove are the progeny of just 20 parent black cottonwoods (also known as poplars) gathered from all over western North America by the B.C. Ministry of Forests more than a decade ago, for use in their pulp and paper plantation breeding programs.
But today, Douglas is finding new ways to work with the same old poplars. Armed with novel genomic tools, the Washington-born botany professor sees a future where trees are bred into the ideal feedstock for biofuel production -- fast-growing, cellulose-dense plantations created using traditional breeding techniques to fuel the demand for ethanol from non-food sources (see sidebar).
"It's probably 10 to 15 years before one will see a large-scale planting of optimized genotypes [traits for biofuel] on the landscape," says Douglas, who was part of an international team that sequenced the poplar genome in 2006 -- a first for a tree species. "Within a year, breeders could start incorporating the information we're generating here in their breeding programs."
Responding to the need for new biofuels
Douglas says wood is the ideal feedstock for a future ethanol industry in B.C: most of the province is forested, beetle-killed pine abounds, and fast-growing native black cottonwoods are already grown in plantations across their coastal B.C. range.
The immediate challenge is the high cost of producing ethanol from trees, compared to corn and wheat -- it is expensive to separate the cellulose (the part you want) from the lignin which gives wood its rigidity. Douglas' solution is to make it easier (and cheaper) to extract the fermentable sugars from the wood by breeding poplars to grow faster in high rotation plantations, denser in volume, and with more cellulose and less lignin.
The demand for such non-food sources of ethanol is being spurred by concerns about agricultural lands being displaced to produce fuel, and revelations that the environmental benefits of ethanol from corn have been overstated.
"Renewable fuel standards" are also stimulating demand: enacted by many governments around the world, such standards require that a certain percentage of biofuel must be blended with gasoline and diesel. In British Columbia, for instance, the BC Bioenergy Strategy of 2008 called for a provincial average of five per cent renewable content in gasoline by the end of 2010; diesel too must be blended with increasing quantities of biodiesel, up to five percent by 2012. The strategy also stated that B.C. biofuel production must meet 50 per cent or more of the province's renewable fuel requirements by 2020 -- but there are no legal teeth to ensure this latter target is met.
ABOUT ETHANOL
Ethanol is liquid alcohol created by fermenting converted starch or sugars found in certain plant-based materials, including grains, agricultural residue and trees. Fuel-grade ethanol is distilled and blended with gasoline -- most production-line cars use up to a 10 per cent concentration. Regular diesel vehicles can also burn certain proportions of processed animal and plant oils as "biodiesel," which can be blended with petroleum diesel.
The benefits of a 10 per cent ethanol blend in gasoline:
- Increases the combustion efficiency of the fuel;
- Reduces the amount of fossil fuel needed to drive;
-Reduces carbon monoxide emissions by 25-30 per cent;
-Reduces net carbon dioxide emissions by 6-10 per cent.
(Both above stats (CO and CO2 percentages) from the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association http://www.sentex.net/~crfa/ethaques.html)
Policy changes in the U.S. will also ramp up the supply of non-food sourced ethanol: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has increased the amount of renewables required in transportation fuel from 34 billion litres in 2008 to 136 billion in 2022. By that futuristic date, only 40 per cent of that ethanol can come from corn. Companies in B.C. and around the world are responding by developing new technologies to derive ethanol from non-food biomass, such as agricultural waste (for example, corn cobs instead of corn), consumer food waste, and trees. In B.C., this means there is a new shine on using up what is left of the beetle-killed lodge pole pine in the interior, and closer to Douglas' interest, growing poplar plantations optimized to meet future demand.
What is Dr. Douglas doing?
Poplars and other commercially-valuable trees have been cross-bred for decades to optimize certain traits, using the same methods historically employed by agricultural plant breeders (note that this is not the same as "genetic modification"). Parents are selected for certain traits and then crossed with each other; among the many progeny of this cross, trees with the desired traits (fast growth rate, wood quality, disease resistance) are selected in field trials for further evaluation. Eventually a small number of the best are selected for planting.
But the successful genomic sequencing of a single black cottonwood tree taken from the banks of Washington State's Nisqually River in 2006 -- which for the first time located and identified all 45,000 genes across its 19 chromosomes -- has created new tools for Douglas to work with.
Using the information from that single poplar genome, it is now much cheaper and faster to sequence genomes of other poplar individuals. At Totem Field, Douglas is doing just that, "resequencing" the genes that are actively involved in wood formation for each of the 20 individuals represented in his test forest, comparing them both to the original Nisqually genome and to each other. He is then able to identify the "gene variants" (also called "genotypes") in this population of trees at Totem Field that underlie the traits needed for optimal biofuel production.
"You can use these genetic markers in breeding and use that info to increase the value of the tree," he says.
The knowledge unleashed from the genome breakthrough has also made it easier to genetically modify poplars for biofuel production and a range of other uses (disease-resistant transgenic poplars are already grown in plantations in China today), but Douglas says this technology is not coming to B.C. any time soon.
"It seems unlikely to me that there's going to be public acceptance of large-scale transgenic tree plantations."
New sources, new production?
The use of B.C. trees as an ethanol feedstock took a leap forward in June, when Burnaby-based ethanol maker Lignol signed a deal with Danish enzyme manufacturer Novozymes to pioneer an ethanol-making process using wood and forestry waste. The companies say they will aim to produce ethanol from wood for $2/gallon -- a price competitive with gasoline and corn ethanol. Lignol did not return calls from The Tyee.
During the same month, major investment bank UBS mentioned Novozymes by name, as one of the biggest potential beneficiaries of the coming adoption and commercialization of second-generation biofuels. Other beneficiaries, they predict, will be the agricultural sector and big forestry companies like Weyerhaeuser.
For forest companies in B.C. and the Pacific northwest generally, biofuel is a promising potential revenue-stream at a time when a lot of traditional markets have dried up. Take the example of the aforementioned Weyerhaeuser, which has formed a joint venture with Chevron (called Catchlight Energy), which will see the forestry giant deliver feedstocks to Chevron, which in turn possesses the required capacity in product engineering, fuel manufacturing and distribution.
"There is a growing recognition by the [forest] industry that they've got to rely on more than one or two revenue streams to keep them going," says Michael Weedon, executive director of the BC Bioenergy Network. "They've got to look at this bioenergy piece as something that gives them some stability."
But it is still early days for so-called "second generation" biofuels. For the time being, most of the global ethanol supply -- nearly 74 billion litres produced in 2009 -- was made from corn, sugarcane, and wheat. This said, three large-scale "non-food" source production plants are expected to come into production this year in different corners of the world, and sustained high oil prices will only bring more.
"I don't think it will take 15 to 20 years [for wood to be a predominant feedstock], because energy pricing is already at a certain level now," says Weedon. "You start to have an energy revolution at anywhere above $100 a barrel of oil, and I'm a believer it will be higher than that in the not-too-distant future."
By Christopher Pollon, Today, TheTyee.ca
UBC professor Carl Douglas: Poplar ideas.
Standing in an experimental poplar forest at the University of British Columbia's Totem Field test farm, the future of biofuel grows all around botanist Carl Douglas.
The 500 trees in this artificial grove are the progeny of just 20 parent black cottonwoods (also known as poplars) gathered from all over western North America by the B.C. Ministry of Forests more than a decade ago, for use in their pulp and paper plantation breeding programs.
But today, Douglas is finding new ways to work with the same old poplars. Armed with novel genomic tools, the Washington-born botany professor sees a future where trees are bred into the ideal feedstock for biofuel production -- fast-growing, cellulose-dense plantations created using traditional breeding techniques to fuel the demand for ethanol from non-food sources (see sidebar).
"It's probably 10 to 15 years before one will see a large-scale planting of optimized genotypes [traits for biofuel] on the landscape," says Douglas, who was part of an international team that sequenced the poplar genome in 2006 -- a first for a tree species. "Within a year, breeders could start incorporating the information we're generating here in their breeding programs."
Responding to the need for new biofuels
Douglas says wood is the ideal feedstock for a future ethanol industry in B.C: most of the province is forested, beetle-killed pine abounds, and fast-growing native black cottonwoods are already grown in plantations across their coastal B.C. range.
The immediate challenge is the high cost of producing ethanol from trees, compared to corn and wheat -- it is expensive to separate the cellulose (the part you want) from the lignin which gives wood its rigidity. Douglas' solution is to make it easier (and cheaper) to extract the fermentable sugars from the wood by breeding poplars to grow faster in high rotation plantations, denser in volume, and with more cellulose and less lignin.
The demand for such non-food sources of ethanol is being spurred by concerns about agricultural lands being displaced to produce fuel, and revelations that the environmental benefits of ethanol from corn have been overstated.
"Renewable fuel standards" are also stimulating demand: enacted by many governments around the world, such standards require that a certain percentage of biofuel must be blended with gasoline and diesel. In British Columbia, for instance, the BC Bioenergy Strategy of 2008 called for a provincial average of five per cent renewable content in gasoline by the end of 2010; diesel too must be blended with increasing quantities of biodiesel, up to five percent by 2012. The strategy also stated that B.C. biofuel production must meet 50 per cent or more of the province's renewable fuel requirements by 2020 -- but there are no legal teeth to ensure this latter target is met.
ABOUT ETHANOL
Ethanol is liquid alcohol created by fermenting converted starch or sugars found in certain plant-based materials, including grains, agricultural residue and trees. Fuel-grade ethanol is distilled and blended with gasoline -- most production-line cars use up to a 10 per cent concentration. Regular diesel vehicles can also burn certain proportions of processed animal and plant oils as "biodiesel," which can be blended with petroleum diesel.
The benefits of a 10 per cent ethanol blend in gasoline:
- Increases the combustion efficiency of the fuel;
- Reduces the amount of fossil fuel needed to drive;
-Reduces carbon monoxide emissions by 25-30 per cent;
-Reduces net carbon dioxide emissions by 6-10 per cent.
(Both above stats (CO and CO2 percentages) from the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association http://www.sentex.net/~crfa/ethaques.html)
Policy changes in the U.S. will also ramp up the supply of non-food sourced ethanol: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has increased the amount of renewables required in transportation fuel from 34 billion litres in 2008 to 136 billion in 2022. By that futuristic date, only 40 per cent of that ethanol can come from corn. Companies in B.C. and around the world are responding by developing new technologies to derive ethanol from non-food biomass, such as agricultural waste (for example, corn cobs instead of corn), consumer food waste, and trees. In B.C., this means there is a new shine on using up what is left of the beetle-killed lodge pole pine in the interior, and closer to Douglas' interest, growing poplar plantations optimized to meet future demand.
What is Dr. Douglas doing?
Poplars and other commercially-valuable trees have been cross-bred for decades to optimize certain traits, using the same methods historically employed by agricultural plant breeders (note that this is not the same as "genetic modification"). Parents are selected for certain traits and then crossed with each other; among the many progeny of this cross, trees with the desired traits (fast growth rate, wood quality, disease resistance) are selected in field trials for further evaluation. Eventually a small number of the best are selected for planting.
But the successful genomic sequencing of a single black cottonwood tree taken from the banks of Washington State's Nisqually River in 2006 -- which for the first time located and identified all 45,000 genes across its 19 chromosomes -- has created new tools for Douglas to work with.
Using the information from that single poplar genome, it is now much cheaper and faster to sequence genomes of other poplar individuals. At Totem Field, Douglas is doing just that, "resequencing" the genes that are actively involved in wood formation for each of the 20 individuals represented in his test forest, comparing them both to the original Nisqually genome and to each other. He is then able to identify the "gene variants" (also called "genotypes") in this population of trees at Totem Field that underlie the traits needed for optimal biofuel production.
"You can use these genetic markers in breeding and use that info to increase the value of the tree," he says.
The knowledge unleashed from the genome breakthrough has also made it easier to genetically modify poplars for biofuel production and a range of other uses (disease-resistant transgenic poplars are already grown in plantations in China today), but Douglas says this technology is not coming to B.C. any time soon.
"It seems unlikely to me that there's going to be public acceptance of large-scale transgenic tree plantations."
New sources, new production?
The use of B.C. trees as an ethanol feedstock took a leap forward in June, when Burnaby-based ethanol maker Lignol signed a deal with Danish enzyme manufacturer Novozymes to pioneer an ethanol-making process using wood and forestry waste. The companies say they will aim to produce ethanol from wood for $2/gallon -- a price competitive with gasoline and corn ethanol. Lignol did not return calls from The Tyee.
During the same month, major investment bank UBS mentioned Novozymes by name, as one of the biggest potential beneficiaries of the coming adoption and commercialization of second-generation biofuels. Other beneficiaries, they predict, will be the agricultural sector and big forestry companies like Weyerhaeuser.
For forest companies in B.C. and the Pacific northwest generally, biofuel is a promising potential revenue-stream at a time when a lot of traditional markets have dried up. Take the example of the aforementioned Weyerhaeuser, which has formed a joint venture with Chevron (called Catchlight Energy), which will see the forestry giant deliver feedstocks to Chevron, which in turn possesses the required capacity in product engineering, fuel manufacturing and distribution.
"There is a growing recognition by the [forest] industry that they've got to rely on more than one or two revenue streams to keep them going," says Michael Weedon, executive director of the BC Bioenergy Network. "They've got to look at this bioenergy piece as something that gives them some stability."
But it is still early days for so-called "second generation" biofuels. For the time being, most of the global ethanol supply -- nearly 74 billion litres produced in 2009 -- was made from corn, sugarcane, and wheat. This said, three large-scale "non-food" source production plants are expected to come into production this year in different corners of the world, and sustained high oil prices will only bring more.
"I don't think it will take 15 to 20 years [for wood to be a predominant feedstock], because energy pricing is already at a certain level now," says Weedon. "You start to have an energy revolution at anywhere above $100 a barrel of oil, and I'm a believer it will be higher than that in the not-too-distant future."
Spanish Town Dreams of Nuclear Dump
By JONATHAN HOUSE And JOE ORTIZ
VILLAR DE CAÑAS, Spain— Mayor José María Saiz believes he has a shot at re-energizing this dying town in central Spain. On a site just beyond its old white houses, amid fields of barley and sunflowers, he envisions building Spain's first centralized depot for nuclear waste.
"When a once-in-a-life opportunity like this comes along, you grab it," says Mr. Saiz, 45, who is also the owner of a small farming-equipment manufacturer.
Fernando Moreles for The Wall Street Journal.
Spain's decadelong construction boom brought new houses, employment and prosperity to places like Villar de Cañas. Now, the country's fiscal meltdown—double-digit budget deficit, an unemployment rate of 20% and a troubled banking system—has quickly reversed all that, leaving the town's dwindling population of 450 with few prospects for growth.
Mr. Saiz's town is among eight finalists battling for the dubious privilege of storing waste from the country's eight nuclear reactors. Spain's Industry Ministry, which is set to name the winner in coming weeks, had expected to field applications from towns close to nuclear-power plants, a spokesman said.
Instead, all but three of the original 13 applications came from towns that had no local plant—but were drawn by a project that would bring €700 million ($910 million) in investment over 20 years, €7.8 million in annual direct payments and hundreds of jobs.
Town residents, in a twist on antinuclear protests, are rallying for nuclear waste. In May, Mr. Saiz led some 50 people from Villar de Cañas to Madrid to present supporting documents for the town's official bid, which boasted that 68% of its 357 registered voters supported hosting a nuclear-waste facility. In front of the Industry Ministry building, residents unfurled green and white banners to press their desire for an Almacén Temporal Centralizado: "Yes, we want the ATC in Villar de Cañas."
Villar de Cañas Mayor Saiz, center, on the proposed site for the nuclear-waste dump his town is hoping to attract.
.Resident Caridad Saez Olmo, a 70-year-old housewife, is in the minority when she says she has doubts about the proposed dump's safety. When she hung a banner from her balcony that read "We Don't Want ATC," a neighbor tore it down, she said. The mayor's office says that was because part of the banner was attached to the neighbor's house.
Others here have taken on the out-of-towners who have descended on this and other candidate towns, often bearing coffins that symbolize the "nuclear cemetery."
Nuria Saiz, the mayor's cousin and an advocate for the dump, says environmentalists from several groups tried to frighten them during a public information session in March, warning of possible accidents and deaths.
"This town is already dead!" Ms. Saiz says she told the meeting.
Villar de Cañas has seen its population dwindle from 2,000 inhabitants in the 1970s, as machines started replacing Spain's farmhands. While Spain's rural towns have generally been less hard-hit by the crisis than those along the coast or near big cities, where the country's recent building activity was most intense, the end of the building boom could represent an existential threat here.
During the second half of this decade, many newly prosperous offspring of Villar de Cañas started returning to build homes for retirement or vacations. Revenue from building permits and central government transfers surged. The local government paved dirt roads, put up housing for low-income families and built a swimming pool and playground. It put up new street lamps and restored the church's 250-year-old organ.
Five crews of five or six construction workers set up shop here. Many bought homes.
But now, budgeted 2010 revenue is down about 10% to €300,000 ($395,000) from 2009 and the regional government of the Castilla-La Mancha region is delaying payment for services the town provides on its behalf. Villar de Cañas has reined in investments and roadbuilding, canceled its summer-school program and started charging elderly residents for some of the at-home assistance program financed by the regional government.
Construction-equipment operator Miguel Millán, 47, who like most of the town's builders is unemployed, has pinned his hopes on the waste dump. "If we don't get it, I don't know what I'm going to do," he said.
Villar de Cañas has picked out a spot of agricultural land more than a mile outside town on which to erect the massive structure, which will be about 300 yards long, 85 yards wide and nearly 30 yards high. The first of its kind in Spain, it would store the country's nuclear waste for 60 years. After that, another use will have to be found for the spent fuel or another storage installation built.
Mr. Saiz said the waste dump facility alone would employ 120 people. But the project also includes plans to build two business parks, one for nuclear-energy companies and another for other types of companies. The new workers would need more services, which would create more jobs.
The facility would be most similar to one opened next to a nuclear power plant in Borssele, Netherlands, in 2003. Environmental group Greenpeace slowed construction of that facility with a legal challenge it launched in 1999 but eventually lost.
In Spain, Greenpeace says transporting waste to a centralized facility creates the possibility of accidents during transit. "We propose an urgent and progressive closure plan [of nuclear plants] to reduce the amount of nuclear waste to be managed, and we think the least-bad solution is the dry storage of waste in individual sites," said Greenpeace spokesman Carlos Bravo.
Said Mr. Saiz: "All the experts say there is no danger."
Villar de Cañas, like many of its co-competitors, faces powerful opposition in its bid from its regional government. Castilla-La Mancha President José María Barreda has said he doesn't want a waste dump in his region.
Catalonia President José Montilla has said the same, possibly tarnishing the credentials of Ascó, widely considered a front-runner in the process because it is located next to a nuclear plant and a train line.
Rafael Vidal, the 57-year-old mayor of Ascó and technical auditor at the nearby nuclear-power plant, said he was caught off guard by the opposition of the Catalonia regional chief. "The bidding criteria didn't say we needed approval of the regional governments," he said.
Mr. Vidal said the waste dump would give his town of 1,600 people the opportunity to continue developing its local nuclear industry, which could prove key if Spain follows through with current plans to decommission the Ascó power plant by 2025.
More than 1,000 people work every day at the plant, and tax revenue from the site accounts for 75% of the town's budget. "The only thing that's giving stability and creating employment in Southern Catalonia is the nuclear plant," said Mr. Vidal. "Thank goodness for that, no?"
Write to Jonathan House at jonathan.house@dowjones.com
VILLAR DE CAÑAS, Spain— Mayor José María Saiz believes he has a shot at re-energizing this dying town in central Spain. On a site just beyond its old white houses, amid fields of barley and sunflowers, he envisions building Spain's first centralized depot for nuclear waste.
"When a once-in-a-life opportunity like this comes along, you grab it," says Mr. Saiz, 45, who is also the owner of a small farming-equipment manufacturer.
Fernando Moreles for The Wall Street Journal.
Spain's decadelong construction boom brought new houses, employment and prosperity to places like Villar de Cañas. Now, the country's fiscal meltdown—double-digit budget deficit, an unemployment rate of 20% and a troubled banking system—has quickly reversed all that, leaving the town's dwindling population of 450 with few prospects for growth.
Mr. Saiz's town is among eight finalists battling for the dubious privilege of storing waste from the country's eight nuclear reactors. Spain's Industry Ministry, which is set to name the winner in coming weeks, had expected to field applications from towns close to nuclear-power plants, a spokesman said.
Instead, all but three of the original 13 applications came from towns that had no local plant—but were drawn by a project that would bring €700 million ($910 million) in investment over 20 years, €7.8 million in annual direct payments and hundreds of jobs.
Town residents, in a twist on antinuclear protests, are rallying for nuclear waste. In May, Mr. Saiz led some 50 people from Villar de Cañas to Madrid to present supporting documents for the town's official bid, which boasted that 68% of its 357 registered voters supported hosting a nuclear-waste facility. In front of the Industry Ministry building, residents unfurled green and white banners to press their desire for an Almacén Temporal Centralizado: "Yes, we want the ATC in Villar de Cañas."
Villar de Cañas Mayor Saiz, center, on the proposed site for the nuclear-waste dump his town is hoping to attract.
.Resident Caridad Saez Olmo, a 70-year-old housewife, is in the minority when she says she has doubts about the proposed dump's safety. When she hung a banner from her balcony that read "We Don't Want ATC," a neighbor tore it down, she said. The mayor's office says that was because part of the banner was attached to the neighbor's house.
Others here have taken on the out-of-towners who have descended on this and other candidate towns, often bearing coffins that symbolize the "nuclear cemetery."
Nuria Saiz, the mayor's cousin and an advocate for the dump, says environmentalists from several groups tried to frighten them during a public information session in March, warning of possible accidents and deaths.
"This town is already dead!" Ms. Saiz says she told the meeting.
Villar de Cañas has seen its population dwindle from 2,000 inhabitants in the 1970s, as machines started replacing Spain's farmhands. While Spain's rural towns have generally been less hard-hit by the crisis than those along the coast or near big cities, where the country's recent building activity was most intense, the end of the building boom could represent an existential threat here.
During the second half of this decade, many newly prosperous offspring of Villar de Cañas started returning to build homes for retirement or vacations. Revenue from building permits and central government transfers surged. The local government paved dirt roads, put up housing for low-income families and built a swimming pool and playground. It put up new street lamps and restored the church's 250-year-old organ.
Five crews of five or six construction workers set up shop here. Many bought homes.
But now, budgeted 2010 revenue is down about 10% to €300,000 ($395,000) from 2009 and the regional government of the Castilla-La Mancha region is delaying payment for services the town provides on its behalf. Villar de Cañas has reined in investments and roadbuilding, canceled its summer-school program and started charging elderly residents for some of the at-home assistance program financed by the regional government.
Construction-equipment operator Miguel Millán, 47, who like most of the town's builders is unemployed, has pinned his hopes on the waste dump. "If we don't get it, I don't know what I'm going to do," he said.
Villar de Cañas has picked out a spot of agricultural land more than a mile outside town on which to erect the massive structure, which will be about 300 yards long, 85 yards wide and nearly 30 yards high. The first of its kind in Spain, it would store the country's nuclear waste for 60 years. After that, another use will have to be found for the spent fuel or another storage installation built.
Mr. Saiz said the waste dump facility alone would employ 120 people. But the project also includes plans to build two business parks, one for nuclear-energy companies and another for other types of companies. The new workers would need more services, which would create more jobs.
The facility would be most similar to one opened next to a nuclear power plant in Borssele, Netherlands, in 2003. Environmental group Greenpeace slowed construction of that facility with a legal challenge it launched in 1999 but eventually lost.
In Spain, Greenpeace says transporting waste to a centralized facility creates the possibility of accidents during transit. "We propose an urgent and progressive closure plan [of nuclear plants] to reduce the amount of nuclear waste to be managed, and we think the least-bad solution is the dry storage of waste in individual sites," said Greenpeace spokesman Carlos Bravo.
Said Mr. Saiz: "All the experts say there is no danger."
Villar de Cañas, like many of its co-competitors, faces powerful opposition in its bid from its regional government. Castilla-La Mancha President José María Barreda has said he doesn't want a waste dump in his region.
Catalonia President José Montilla has said the same, possibly tarnishing the credentials of Ascó, widely considered a front-runner in the process because it is located next to a nuclear plant and a train line.
Rafael Vidal, the 57-year-old mayor of Ascó and technical auditor at the nearby nuclear-power plant, said he was caught off guard by the opposition of the Catalonia regional chief. "The bidding criteria didn't say we needed approval of the regional governments," he said.
Mr. Vidal said the waste dump would give his town of 1,600 people the opportunity to continue developing its local nuclear industry, which could prove key if Spain follows through with current plans to decommission the Ascó power plant by 2025.
More than 1,000 people work every day at the plant, and tax revenue from the site accounts for 75% of the town's budget. "The only thing that's giving stability and creating employment in Southern Catalonia is the nuclear plant," said Mr. Vidal. "Thank goodness for that, no?"
Write to Jonathan House at jonathan.house@dowjones.com
What's the most eco-friendly way to dry my laundry indoors?
If my clothes horse doesn't work, should I use a tumble dryer, a dehumidifier, or a radiator to dry my washing?
I live in Edinburgh in a modern flat with no room for a pulley for drying clothes. We used to do fine with a clothes horse, but since having a baby (and so having more laundry) we just can't get the clothes dry before they get that nasty smell of clothes that have dried too slowly. It is worse in summer, because we don't have the heating on – things take three days to dry. I see four options: which is the most environmentally friendly, or is there another option?
We could buy a brand new A-rated tumble dryer; we could buy a second-hand tumble dryer (probably not A-rated); we could get a dehumidifier; we could do what we have been resorting too lately – put the gas central heating on, drape the clothes over the radiators, and open the windows.
Elinor, by email
A fantastic response to what would appear to be a near-universal problem – how best to dry your clothes indoors. My initial reaction reading through the varied comments was that if this simply came down to a show of hands then it would be between the dehumidifier and a well-ventilated clothes horse. But there was plenty of subtlety in the range of proposed solutions that suggests we might never reach a consensus view on this troublesome issue.
BarryPinches, emmymancs and others were avowed supporters of the "dehumidifier under clothes horse" technique. Whereas leadballoon (thanks for putting in the time and effort to crunch the numbers) and budlia in Northern Australian concluded that using a fan to move the air around a clothes horse was a more efficient method.
There was a surprising amount of support, too, for the electric clothes horse, an innovation I must confess I knew nothing of. Gingercake, TheMumster, Campbelina and jmh51 all sang its praises.
The tumble drier clearly won the vote of the "life's too short" brigade, but Kezia10 perhaps put the best case forward for why our questioner Elinor should choose this route:
I understand this problem completely. Having lived for 2 years in a flat that was so poorly ventilated that one boiling kettle steamed up every window, and where in summer – with windows open – washing took a minimum of 3 days to dry, I sympathise! Ignore the unhelpful comments about opening windows or buying another clothes horse. It's not healthy for you or your baby to live in that atmosphere – I developed asthma as a result of our problem – so get a tumble drier!
There was wide agreement that Elinor was certainly considerably hampered by her circumstances without any facility to outdoor drying, or even a clothes horse on a pulley that can be lifted up into the otherwise unused room space near the ceiling. (MelonCauli also mentioned those cables you sometimes see stretching across baths in European hotels as an alternative drying option.)
There were surprisingly few spin enthusiasts populating the comments, I thought. Wingsonmyheels and stillstayingcool both argued that an extra spin cycle can reduce the drying time considerably by squeezing out an extra few drops of water from your washing. "Our chosen wash programme only spins at 1,100, so after it's done I spin again at 1,500," said wingsonmyheels. "Saves about 15 mins drying time in the tumble drier."
The most leftfield (but compellingly sensible) suggestion came from CJon who argued that we should rethink the entire clothing/laundry paradigm in which we currently exist:
Buy loads of pants, socks and tea shirts/vests- so that you can always have a clean supply, yet hoard the dirty ones until the weather is good to hang them out on the line. I have 40 pairs of socks, 50 pairs of pants and 14 white T shirts - and I find this more than enough to last two weeks (changing every day) which allows me to time the washing of dirty ones with the weather. Also since the clothes are only used once a day – they don't get too dirty and hence only need a slight wash, and I always have a full load which again saves money, water, detergent etc
It certainly beats samiyad's suggestion that we should wash our clothes less. Yes, this is certainly a sensible idea: there's no doubt that a cultural norm has developed (in the UK at least) that we must wash our clothes after just one day's use, but samiyad takes this a tad too far by admitting to having pairs of jeans "that go years between washes".
Moving beyond the specifics of Elinor's opening question, I was drawn to the eminently sensible points made by AnneDon, sparclear and RonanPt who all argued that Elinor's washing woes were not of her own making, but rather the result of some highly questionable building and planning practices. As AnneDon, a fellow Edinburgh resident, said:
I can't believe Edinburgh council gives planning permission for flats with no drying greens, internal bathrooms, and all the outdoor space given over to parking cars, then heckles us all about recycling! My flat is six years old, but is less eco-friendly than the old tenement I lived in before!
RonanPt suggested that urban dwellers "lobby for civic launderettes". As I was wandering around the remains of the Housesteads Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland the other day, I found myself wondering how the Romans might have laundered their clothes. I wasn't surprised to learn that they most likely relied on a civic launderette known as a fullonica. As ever, history invariably provides ample solutions to the problems we encounter today.
Finally, I sought the views of the Energy Saving Trust to see if it could provide an answer to Elinor's laundry headaches. Here's how it responded:
A tricky question, as we have no definitive answers, but here are some tips:
Invest in a high-rated tumble dryer – C, B or A and make sure it has an automatic drying sensor function so it doesn't over-dry clothes, but switches off when it senses the moisture level is low. All Energy Saving Trust Recommended tumble dryers meet these criteria.
Invest in a gas tumble dryer – they will require a registered Gas Safe installer to fit but will have a lower impact on the environment than an electric tumble dryer. Or a heat pump tumble dryer can use around 25% less energy than a standard dryer.
As much as possible, try using drying racks in sunny rooms so the tumble dryer doesn't have to be used.
Use a high spin setting on the washing machine to get rid of as much water as possible before it comes out – the increased energy used to spin is nothing compared to the energy needed to dry clothes in a tumble dryer so there will be a benefit.
On 22 July, Leo originally wrote:
I suspect that this is a question that has troubled the majority of readers at one time or other. I know that I have been round the houses myself a few times with this one and am still unsure if there is a definitively correct answer.
Given the possible variables at play - climate, size of room, internal humidity levels, type of heating system, access to outside space etc - what are your own experiences? I'll return soon to join the debate.
• Please send your own environment question to ask.leo.and.lucy@guardian.co.uk
I live in Edinburgh in a modern flat with no room for a pulley for drying clothes. We used to do fine with a clothes horse, but since having a baby (and so having more laundry) we just can't get the clothes dry before they get that nasty smell of clothes that have dried too slowly. It is worse in summer, because we don't have the heating on – things take three days to dry. I see four options: which is the most environmentally friendly, or is there another option?
We could buy a brand new A-rated tumble dryer; we could buy a second-hand tumble dryer (probably not A-rated); we could get a dehumidifier; we could do what we have been resorting too lately – put the gas central heating on, drape the clothes over the radiators, and open the windows.
Elinor, by email
A fantastic response to what would appear to be a near-universal problem – how best to dry your clothes indoors. My initial reaction reading through the varied comments was that if this simply came down to a show of hands then it would be between the dehumidifier and a well-ventilated clothes horse. But there was plenty of subtlety in the range of proposed solutions that suggests we might never reach a consensus view on this troublesome issue.
BarryPinches, emmymancs and others were avowed supporters of the "dehumidifier under clothes horse" technique. Whereas leadballoon (thanks for putting in the time and effort to crunch the numbers) and budlia in Northern Australian concluded that using a fan to move the air around a clothes horse was a more efficient method.
There was a surprising amount of support, too, for the electric clothes horse, an innovation I must confess I knew nothing of. Gingercake, TheMumster, Campbelina and jmh51 all sang its praises.
The tumble drier clearly won the vote of the "life's too short" brigade, but Kezia10 perhaps put the best case forward for why our questioner Elinor should choose this route:
I understand this problem completely. Having lived for 2 years in a flat that was so poorly ventilated that one boiling kettle steamed up every window, and where in summer – with windows open – washing took a minimum of 3 days to dry, I sympathise! Ignore the unhelpful comments about opening windows or buying another clothes horse. It's not healthy for you or your baby to live in that atmosphere – I developed asthma as a result of our problem – so get a tumble drier!
There was wide agreement that Elinor was certainly considerably hampered by her circumstances without any facility to outdoor drying, or even a clothes horse on a pulley that can be lifted up into the otherwise unused room space near the ceiling. (MelonCauli also mentioned those cables you sometimes see stretching across baths in European hotels as an alternative drying option.)
There were surprisingly few spin enthusiasts populating the comments, I thought. Wingsonmyheels and stillstayingcool both argued that an extra spin cycle can reduce the drying time considerably by squeezing out an extra few drops of water from your washing. "Our chosen wash programme only spins at 1,100, so after it's done I spin again at 1,500," said wingsonmyheels. "Saves about 15 mins drying time in the tumble drier."
The most leftfield (but compellingly sensible) suggestion came from CJon who argued that we should rethink the entire clothing/laundry paradigm in which we currently exist:
Buy loads of pants, socks and tea shirts/vests- so that you can always have a clean supply, yet hoard the dirty ones until the weather is good to hang them out on the line. I have 40 pairs of socks, 50 pairs of pants and 14 white T shirts - and I find this more than enough to last two weeks (changing every day) which allows me to time the washing of dirty ones with the weather. Also since the clothes are only used once a day – they don't get too dirty and hence only need a slight wash, and I always have a full load which again saves money, water, detergent etc
It certainly beats samiyad's suggestion that we should wash our clothes less. Yes, this is certainly a sensible idea: there's no doubt that a cultural norm has developed (in the UK at least) that we must wash our clothes after just one day's use, but samiyad takes this a tad too far by admitting to having pairs of jeans "that go years between washes".
Moving beyond the specifics of Elinor's opening question, I was drawn to the eminently sensible points made by AnneDon, sparclear and RonanPt who all argued that Elinor's washing woes were not of her own making, but rather the result of some highly questionable building and planning practices. As AnneDon, a fellow Edinburgh resident, said:
I can't believe Edinburgh council gives planning permission for flats with no drying greens, internal bathrooms, and all the outdoor space given over to parking cars, then heckles us all about recycling! My flat is six years old, but is less eco-friendly than the old tenement I lived in before!
RonanPt suggested that urban dwellers "lobby for civic launderettes". As I was wandering around the remains of the Housesteads Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland the other day, I found myself wondering how the Romans might have laundered their clothes. I wasn't surprised to learn that they most likely relied on a civic launderette known as a fullonica. As ever, history invariably provides ample solutions to the problems we encounter today.
Finally, I sought the views of the Energy Saving Trust to see if it could provide an answer to Elinor's laundry headaches. Here's how it responded:
A tricky question, as we have no definitive answers, but here are some tips:
Invest in a high-rated tumble dryer – C, B or A and make sure it has an automatic drying sensor function so it doesn't over-dry clothes, but switches off when it senses the moisture level is low. All Energy Saving Trust Recommended tumble dryers meet these criteria.
Invest in a gas tumble dryer – they will require a registered Gas Safe installer to fit but will have a lower impact on the environment than an electric tumble dryer. Or a heat pump tumble dryer can use around 25% less energy than a standard dryer.
As much as possible, try using drying racks in sunny rooms so the tumble dryer doesn't have to be used.
Use a high spin setting on the washing machine to get rid of as much water as possible before it comes out – the increased energy used to spin is nothing compared to the energy needed to dry clothes in a tumble dryer so there will be a benefit.
On 22 July, Leo originally wrote:
I suspect that this is a question that has troubled the majority of readers at one time or other. I know that I have been round the houses myself a few times with this one and am still unsure if there is a definitively correct answer.
Given the possible variables at play - climate, size of room, internal humidity levels, type of heating system, access to outside space etc - what are your own experiences? I'll return soon to join the debate.
• Please send your own environment question to ask.leo.and.lucy@guardian.co.uk
UK's largest coal-fired power plant could switch to biomass within 10 years
Drax will only go ahead if the government agrees to grant renewable subsidies to such converted coal plants
Tim Webb guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 3 August 2010 18.11 BST
Drax, Britain's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, could stop burning coal by the end of the decade.
Finance director Tony Quinlan said the company was looking to convert all six units of the coal-fired power station so they only burn biomass, such as wood chip, within the next 10 years.
"Drax is a viable business today as a coal plant," he told the Guardian. "But the opportunity to turn it into a renewable power company is an exciting one and makes sense for the UK's carbon targets and for our shareholders."
The company will only go ahead if the government agrees to grant renewable subsidies to such converted coal plants. Currently only purpose-built biomass plants receive extra payouts to cover their higher costs.
Drax hopes to convert the first unit – capable of generating 660MW of electricity – next year. It is thought that no coal plant of this size has been converted anywhere in the world. "It has not been done before because there hasn't been the need," Quinlan said.
If this proves successful and government subsidies make it economic to do so, two more Drax units could be converted to burning biomass by 2015, he added. The remainder of the 4GW plant – the UK's largest – would ditch coal entirely five years from that date. "If it [the demonstration unit] works then we will develop it as quickly as we can." Drax already does some co-firing – mixing biomass with coal to reduce carbon emissions – and Quinlan said that full conversion was the natural next step. Burning biomass is seen as "carbon neutral" as the material is regrown, allowing the carbon emitted during combustion to be reabsorbed.
The company also said that it could be forced to delay a £2bn programme to build three dedicated biomass plants as it looks to move away from coal-fired generation. The government has not told the company the level of subsidy which will be available when the plants are operational. Drax wants the government's energy review this autumn to provide some certainty before it goes ahead. Chief executive Dorothy Thompson said: "We believe the government is aware of the issue and we are hopeful they will review it."
The search for sustainable biomass
Some environmentalists question how sustainable biomass can be – because growing energy crops can result in rainforests being destroyed or can compete for land with food production.
Greenpeace energy campaigner Joss Garman said: "There's a serious question about whether it's sensible to use biomass in this way. While sustainable biomass is possible, the precious supplies available should be used in much smarter ways."
Drax has biomass supply contracts in place but refuses to divulge where the material will come from, citing commercial confidentiality. Material such as wood chip pellets will be imported from North America and Africa, while UK-sourced biomass like tree stumps and corn stubble will also be used. Drax insists that all of it will be sustainably sourced.
Burning coal is becoming increasingly expensive as a result of new legislation. Coal plants emit about twice as much carbon dioxide as gas plants and the government is pressing ahead with plans to force all new coal plants – and eventually existing ones – to fit expensive, experimental technology to capture the emissions.
The carbon price is also expected to increase, adding to coal plants' costs. New European legislation to limit nitrogen emissions will further restrict their operation.
Over the longer term, gas prices are expected to remain low because of a glut in global supplies as more liquefied natural gas projects come on stream and with the development of technology to exploit shale gas deposits. This is expected to depress Drax's profits as it must compete with gas plants which are cheaper to run. The company said that during the first three months of the year, margins for coal operators hit "historic lows". Thompson admitted: "We are cautious about the outlook [on fuel costs]."
The company announced that pre-tax profits for the first half of the year were up by almost a quarter to £184m.
Tim Webb guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 3 August 2010 18.11 BST
Drax, Britain's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, could stop burning coal by the end of the decade.
Finance director Tony Quinlan said the company was looking to convert all six units of the coal-fired power station so they only burn biomass, such as wood chip, within the next 10 years.
"Drax is a viable business today as a coal plant," he told the Guardian. "But the opportunity to turn it into a renewable power company is an exciting one and makes sense for the UK's carbon targets and for our shareholders."
The company will only go ahead if the government agrees to grant renewable subsidies to such converted coal plants. Currently only purpose-built biomass plants receive extra payouts to cover their higher costs.
Drax hopes to convert the first unit – capable of generating 660MW of electricity – next year. It is thought that no coal plant of this size has been converted anywhere in the world. "It has not been done before because there hasn't been the need," Quinlan said.
If this proves successful and government subsidies make it economic to do so, two more Drax units could be converted to burning biomass by 2015, he added. The remainder of the 4GW plant – the UK's largest – would ditch coal entirely five years from that date. "If it [the demonstration unit] works then we will develop it as quickly as we can." Drax already does some co-firing – mixing biomass with coal to reduce carbon emissions – and Quinlan said that full conversion was the natural next step. Burning biomass is seen as "carbon neutral" as the material is regrown, allowing the carbon emitted during combustion to be reabsorbed.
The company also said that it could be forced to delay a £2bn programme to build three dedicated biomass plants as it looks to move away from coal-fired generation. The government has not told the company the level of subsidy which will be available when the plants are operational. Drax wants the government's energy review this autumn to provide some certainty before it goes ahead. Chief executive Dorothy Thompson said: "We believe the government is aware of the issue and we are hopeful they will review it."
The search for sustainable biomass
Some environmentalists question how sustainable biomass can be – because growing energy crops can result in rainforests being destroyed or can compete for land with food production.
Greenpeace energy campaigner Joss Garman said: "There's a serious question about whether it's sensible to use biomass in this way. While sustainable biomass is possible, the precious supplies available should be used in much smarter ways."
Drax has biomass supply contracts in place but refuses to divulge where the material will come from, citing commercial confidentiality. Material such as wood chip pellets will be imported from North America and Africa, while UK-sourced biomass like tree stumps and corn stubble will also be used. Drax insists that all of it will be sustainably sourced.
Burning coal is becoming increasingly expensive as a result of new legislation. Coal plants emit about twice as much carbon dioxide as gas plants and the government is pressing ahead with plans to force all new coal plants – and eventually existing ones – to fit expensive, experimental technology to capture the emissions.
The carbon price is also expected to increase, adding to coal plants' costs. New European legislation to limit nitrogen emissions will further restrict their operation.
Over the longer term, gas prices are expected to remain low because of a glut in global supplies as more liquefied natural gas projects come on stream and with the development of technology to exploit shale gas deposits. This is expected to depress Drax's profits as it must compete with gas plants which are cheaper to run. The company said that during the first three months of the year, margins for coal operators hit "historic lows". Thompson admitted: "We are cautious about the outlook [on fuel costs]."
The company announced that pre-tax profits for the first half of the year were up by almost a quarter to £184m.
China overtakes US as world's biggest energy consumer
Increasingly affluent and energy-hungry nation reflects the dramatic increase in the wattage of China's economy
Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 3 August 2010 12.34 BST
Declarations of love do not get much more highly charged than the one Zhao Xiuxia received from her husband recently on an LED screen bigger than a football pitch.
"Dear wife, I adore you. You work so hard for our family. Let's struggle together for a better life," scrolled the giant letters on an electronic ceiling above one of Beijing's glitziest new shopping centres.
As well as being a message of devotion, the mobile phone text message – magnified by 5m pixels – highlights the dramatic increase in the wattage of China's economy.
The giant 250 metre-long screen at The Place retail centre is one of the most conspicuous symbols of an increasingly affluent and energy-hungry nation, which was said last week to have overtaken the United States as the biggest consumer of energy in the world.
According to the respected International Energy Agency, China's use of coal, oil, wind and other sources of power more than doubled in the past decade to reach the equivalent of 2.26bn tonnes of oil in 2009, creeping past the US total of 2.17bn tonnes.
This is a major turning point. Energy use is closely related to carbon dioxide emissions, economic expansion and the global balance of power. The US has been the world's biggest energy user since records began.
The Chinese government has challenged the figure, but the trend is unmistakable. While most developed nations suffered flat or negative economic – and energy – growth last year, China's GDP rose by 8.7%, putting it on course to soon overtake Japan as the world's second biggest economy, and its emissions – already the highest of any nation – increased 9%, while those of most industrialised nations fell.
The bulk of China's energy demand comes from industry and infrastructure, but individual consumption is also rising, albeit from a low base.
China has a great deal of ground to make up before it can provide its 1.3bn citizens with a lifestyle comparable to those in the US or Europe. But its people are plugging in more air conditioners, microwave ovens, TV sets and computers than ever before. They are also driving more vehicles. Last year, China surpassed the US as the country that sold the most new cars.
Cityscapes are being transformed. Several Beijing skyscrapers have transformed themselves into 30- and 40-storey LED screens in the wake of the ancient capital's Olympic makeover into a super-modern urban metropolis.
The Place, which boasts the biggest single screen display in Asia, is among the most eye-catching and energy intensive. Modelled on a still-bigger screen in Las Vegas and designed by Emmy-winning Hollywood designer Jeremy Railton, it intersperses custom-made films about the stars, undersea creatures and famous landscapes with personal messages, which can cost as little as 1 yuan for a single text message or 20,000 yuan (£1,850) for a dedicated marriage proposal video (more than one suitor has gone on his knees before his girlfriend, while the screen above shows photographs of the couple).
Such ostentation is the exception rather than the norm in China, where the average person's energy use is still only a quarter that in the US.
Zhao Xiuxia received her husband's giant love message while working as a waitress at a nearby juice bar – one of two jobs that together give her a 14-hour working day and a monthly income of just 3,000 yuan (£300) a month.
Along with her husband's salary, this allows the couple – who have recently migrated from a poor farming village in the Hebei countryside – to afford a computer, freezer, air conditioner and motorbike. Their parents have none of these commodities.
"My village is still very dark. We only turn on the road lamps once or twice a year at festival times," Zhao said, contrasting this with her current place of work. "When I first saw the giant screen at The Place, I was astonished. It was so big and beautiful."
This man-made beauty has an environmental cost. According to the management company, the screen consumes about 1,500 kW , around 150,000 times that of a 10-watt energy-saving bulb.
The government is trying to reduce the impact of this and similar expansions by promoting renewable energy, such as wind, solar and geothermal power.
Last week, the state media said China would spend about 5 trillion yuan on clean energy in the next decade and reduce its dependency on coal from 70% to 63% by 2015. Domestic scientists also claimed a breakthrough in the development of a new generation of nuclear power plants.
"They are doing everything they can to increase the supply of energy," said Paul French, coauthor of a book about China's growing impact on oil shipping routes. "They are building nuclear plants, making photovoltaic panels like you can't imagine. Same for wind, hydro and biomass ... The trend is that they will continue to consume more energy."
The impact on global markets is increasingly apparent. China's dependency on imported oil reached 50% for the first time last year and is forecast to rise to 75% by 2030. In recent years, it has also become a major importer of coal from Australia and its nuclear power plans have helped to push the price of uranium to unprecedented highs.
"When China sneezes, the whole world panics," said Wu Changhua, China director of The Climate Group. "There are contradictory attitudes about China's rise in international society. On one hand, people want China to boost the global economy. On the other, they hope China will not emit too much greenhouse gas. Decision-makers here have a clear idea that they want to pioneer a new path away from the current dangerous model of development. But it is unprecedented in human history for a nation to deal with this challenge, while coping with a huge population and relatively little land and resources."
The shift to a low-carbon economy is still a work in progress. Across the road from The Place, a new shopping mall is being constructed that aims to pioneer a shift to greener values. Parkview Green, a triangular structure of steel and glass with triple-glazed windows, claims to set a new standard for energy efficiency in Beijing.
A spokesman for the project said state-of-the-art technology, materials and design would save a fortune on heating and cooling.
"Our building can actually breathe," said Leo Hwang, the executive director of Parkview Green. "We need to understand what we get from the environment and what we need to give back. We need to try to find the balance. Some buildings consume a lot of energy and resources. We hope to use them better."
It remains to be seen whether the new shopping mall is any more successful in promoting greener, energy-efficient values than its neighbour, The Place.
• Additional reporting by Cui Zheng
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