Daily Archives: June 4, 2008

Data system for Australian ETS

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Data is the key to getting the emission trading system right in Australia. The discussions in Beyond Carbon 2008 was about managing the compliance issues around carbon. Data will play a major role in this.

According to ZDNet, the federal government has put out a tender to create a registry system.

The tenderer will have to supply and implement a registry — an
electronic database to store and manage these units — according to the
tender documents, as well as provide operational support and system
hosting.

This registry needs to connect to the international transaction log (ITL), which makes it compatible with other ETS’s around the world. It should also connect to the OSCAR (Online System for Comprehensive Activity Reporting) system which collects emissions data from large emitters and Federal and State government offices around the country. In fact, I have been trained and used the OSCAR system and its predecessar EDGAR to update emissions data for our organisation.

The first stage will be ready by the end of the year.

Green Airport in India

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The recently launched International airport in my hometown of Hyderabad is a green airport.

The airport is Asia’s first airport to register under USGBC LEED NC certification for silver rating, and is going to be the world’s first certified green building (Edit: May be for a airport).

The airport consumes 25% less energy than what a similar facility without the environment-friendly features would consume. According to the data provided by Central Power Distribution Company of Andhra Pradesh, the airport’s average electricity consumption per month is 55,43,470 units.

The notable features of the new airport which makes it energy efficient are reduced overall conductance for the walls and roof, high performance glass with low shading coefficient and optimum visual light transmittance, overhangs and vertical fins to reduce solar gains, efficient chillers, efficient lighting using T5 lamps, amply day lit common spaces with photo sensor-controlled electric lighting, economiser and primary and secondary chilled water pumping for increased energy-efficiency.
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“The energy consumption without the green features would have been around 23 million KWH per annum but with all the green building technology the actual consumption is estimated to be 17 million KWH,” said a spokesperson for the GMR group.
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The cost of green building has also come down over the years. “The cost of first green building in India, the green business centre in Hyderabad, which came up in 2003 was 18% more than the conventional buildings, but the gap now is just 5%-8% more than a conventional building,” said S Raghupathy, Sr Director & Head, Green Building Centre (GBC).

Interesting numbers all along. In view of the climate change action plan, efficiency standards will be implemented by the market in view of the incentives from clean tech. The extra capital expenditure of green buildings are also coming down to international standards.

India’s draft climate change action plan targets efficiency

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From the Indian Express

India has decided to stick to the safe path on dealing with climate change. In the much-awaited draft of its national action plan, there is no word on carbon cuts or caps on industry. Instead, it is “avoidance of emissions.” In the penultimate draft, there were caps specified for various sectors, including industry, which have been dropped — for now. The catchword for the action plan is “saving” or “efficiency” rather than capping.

The key points of the action plan:

• Setting up eight missions for “multi-pronged, long-term and integrated strategies” for achieving goals on climate change in areas that include solar, enhanced energy conservation, sustainable habitats, agriculture, water and sustaining Himalayan ecosystems, Green India project.

• The Green India project, which is already backed by a Rs 7,500-crore corpus, will aim at greening 6 million hectares over a period of 10 years.

• The water mission will aim to increase water use efficiency by 20 per cent through pricing and regulatory mechanisms. The agriculture mission would devise strategies on new developing new varieties of crops that would withstand extreme weather and variable moisture.

As the TOI suggests, the discussion on caps/standards or efficiency measures was also based on sending the right political signals to the international community.

GEs Solar Business – $1 Billion in 3 Years

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A solar bonanza for GE.

General Electric Co expects its nascent solar-energy business to hit the $US1 billion annual revenue mark over the next three years or so, the head of its energy arm said.
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The unit currently has over $US100 million in revenues…”If you think about the solar that’s on the market today, it’s six, seven times more expensive than wind,” Mr Krenicki said. “Solar requires material science breakthroughs, which is something that GE is good at.”
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The Fairfield, Connecticut-based conglomerate expects to apply lessons learned in quickly building its wind business — which is on track to hit the $US6 billion revenue mark this year –to solar, Mr Krenicki said.

“We’re not going to dabble in the solar business,” Mr Krenicki said. “We will put the pedal to the accelerator once it is very clear what our competitive advantage is.”