Copper brewhouse in a Trappist brewery

Brewery Waste & Biogas

In the brewery the waste is a collection of unavoidable losses of carbohydrate and protein rich materials, which would otherwise be sold as beer or byproduct and the large quantities of water used to maintain a hygienic operation.

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Why Concentrated Solar Power

Two of the widely used alternatives for collecting the suns energy are the concentrated solar power (CSP) plant where sunlight is focussed on a receiver in which a circulating working fluid is heated and used as the heating media for a conventional power station and the photo voltaic (PV) plant where sunlight is converted directly into electrical energy.

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If the black areas above were covered with PV panels, it would provide all the world’s energy needs.

The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) is convinced that the contribution of solar energy to the world’s energy needs is about to boom. It is already developing projects in India, Australia and in the South Western States of the US. Now it is co-operating with the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) to develop a Solar Park in the Northern Cape that would speed up South Africa’s uptake of renewable energy.

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A Hector’s Dolphin showing the characteristic round dorsal fin.

The Wine

It started with Gemma McGrath who had moved from a job on Whale Watch boats to a barmaid in the small Otago village of Bannockburn which is about as far away from the sea as one can get in New Zealand.

Missing the dolphins and concerned by the steady decrease in their numbers, she spoke of them so passionately and persistently that she eventually got a farmer in the area to donate 3 tons of Pinot Gris grapes.

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The funding

French development bank Agence Française de Développement (AFD) announced, at the end of September 2009, that it would be extending a €120-million credit facility to commercial banks in South Africa, to be used for smaller energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

South African banks Absa, Nedbank and the Industrial Development Corporation are to distribute the credit as loan capital for the projects of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

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Another renewable energy business that could get South Africa moving towards its goals is taking shape in Richards Bay in KwaZulu Natal.

The History

After South Africa speedily set up a renewable energy strategy the focus moved to ethanol and biodiesel with the involvement of large companies including SASOL.

First to falter was ethanol, where Ethanol Africa had actually started site works for its plant in Bothaville, when government got cold feet about using maize, the staple food of the poor of South Africa, to power cars.

Later the world food crisis lead to the Food for Fuel debate and an effective halt to the promotion of biofuels from agricultural production. There were also other smaller and less legitimate operations such as a franchise scheme based on low cost imported palm oil and even algal processing that turned out to have been “demonstrated” using scum from the farm dam!

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Dairy farm anaerobic lagoons without covers

The first large scale biogas plant linked to a beef feedlot, could make a more significant contribution to renewable energy in South Africa than the planned 3.8 MW of electricity, by advancing the technology in South Africa.

The Business

Independent power producer (IPP) Lesedi Biogas Project (LBP) is planning to build one of the world’s largest open-air feedlot manure-to-power plants, in Heidelberg, near Johannesburg, South Africa. Such plants use the anaerobic fermentation (bacterial fermentation of organic waste, with little or no oxygen present) to produce a methane rich gas which can be used to produce electricity or burn for heat.

The plant will be situated at the Karan Beef feedlot, which will supply the manure from its feedlot to the LBP. This would initially amount to 110,000 tons per year of manure, which would allow the production of 3,8 MW of base-load power reaching 6,2 MW of peak power.

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Massive untapped solar radiation advantage of Africa - click for numbers

This positive report on the opportunities for Renewable Energy in South Africa is a starting point for a series of posts that will report on developments in and linked to the use of Renewable Energy in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Where is Renewable Energy Going in South Africa?

An almost ten fold growth in revenue from renewable energy is predicted by business research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan’s. This emerges from their Southern African Renewable Energy Equipment Market analysis, which sees the current renewable industry in South Africa having revenues of only $28.4 million in 2008 but projects a growth to over $250 million by 2015.

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The small Australian town of Bundanoon is credited with having started the resistance to bottled water, that has now through an initiative by Thames Water, reached as far as Buckingham Palace.

What’s Driving This?

Ever since

• it became clear that the energy input to bottled water could be visualised as a bottle a quarter full of crude oil
• it was shown that the energy required to produce bottled water is 2000 times that to produce tap water
• Watkiss revealed that England imported 20,000 litres ( 5,500 gallons) of water from Australia but at the same time exported 20,000 litres of British water to Australia
• Australia suffered a drought that was so severe than it drove many farmers off the land

there was little doubt that things would start to happen.

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This post consists of a few lines and a link to what’s happened since some of my recent posts where there has been significant action. Each item is identified and linked by the date and title of the original post.

July 2009 - Sable Antelope - One Sold for $ 385 000 and Giant Species Rediscovered in Angola.

Three more Giant Sable Antelopes, have been sighted in Angola. This brings to six the number of this rare species, which was feared to have become extinct, that have been sited in the last few weeks.

July 2009 - Mauling of Baboon by “Fighting Dogs”, Reopens the Cape Peninsular Baboon Debate

Two men were attacked by Pit Bulls in Ocean View ,the same Township in Ocean View this week, prompting a warning from welfare group TEARS.

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The interior decorator tasked with the redecoration of the Obama’s private quarters in the White House has introduced chandeliers built around waste materials into his proposals. These chandeliers links rural development in South Africa to the White House.

Magpie Art Collective

Magpie, a socially conscious art collective, was founded in 1998 by designer Scott Hart and social entrepreneur Shane Petzer. It produces ornate light fittings, home décor and jewelry crafted from, among other things, recycled glass bottles, yoghurt containers, plastic, dog food cans, mosaic, bits of mirror, toys, charms and copper wire.

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A century ago the Seine, which flows from the north of France, through Paris to the English Channel, hosted a large flourishing population of Atlantic salmon. The salmon migrated from the sea to their freshwater birth place to reproduce from December to June every year.

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The Greatest Shoal on Earth, less prosaically known at the Sardine Run, has been an annual event along the east coast of South Africa for decades. What was simply a natural resource that provided an easily accessible protein source for local inhabitants and an income for fisherman has become a tourist event, classified with the Serengeti Migration and Iceland Atlantic Puffins as “Must See Nature Sites“.

The Sardines

The sardines, which are more correctly known as the Southern African Pilchard (Sardinops sagaxis), are the most fished species in South African waters, although not the most valuable industry. The pilchards are harvested on the Agulhas Bank, a broad, shallow part of the continental shelf which extends 250 kilometres (160 miles) south of Cape Agulhas, the southern most tip of Africa. The meeting of the warm Indian and cold Atlantic oceans fuels the nutrient cycle for marine life, resulting in one of the best fishing grounds in South Africa.

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Bringing production to the household has no economy of scale but inputs including labour and part of the feed are essentially free. The reduction in transport and packaging cost have financial and environmental benefits.

Eggs from the Eglu

The Eglu is based on a plastic, waterproof box, where the hens shelter and lay their eggs. The box is attached to an enclosed run which can be placed on a lawn allowing the chickens to scratch for insects and grass. The run has a door to allow the hens a free range in the garden when its safe.

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The destruction of 150 trees by a programme that has made real impacts on South Africa’s environment is regrettable but not really serious, until the underlying cause is questioned.

Removing Invasive Alien Plants

Water is a precious resource in short supply in South Africa. One of the activities directed at the problem is the Work for Water Programme, that works to remove alien invasive species which use large quantities of water unproductively.

Invasive alien plants (IAPs) are those introduced into countries from elsewhere, that then out-compete the indigenous species. They pose a direct threat to biological diversity, water security, the ecological functioning of natural systems and the productive use of land. They intensify the impact of fires and floods and increase soil erosion. IAPs can divert enormous amounts of water from more productive uses.

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Sable Antelope Bull in Kafue, Zambia

The Giant Sable Antelope has been positively sighted for the first time in decades, proving that it is not extinct, while a less threatened species was sold for almost half a million dollars.

The Sable Antelope

The Sable Antelope (Hippotragus niger) is an antelope found in the wooded savannah of East and Southern Africa. They stand from 120 to 140 centimetres (4 to 4½ foot) at the shoulder and weighing between 200 and 270 kilograms (440 and 600 pounds). Males are very distinctively black, with white underbelly, cheeks and chin. They have a shaggy mane and ringed horns which arch backward and are up to more than 1½ metres (5 feet). It is a majestic animal mainly as a result of its striking colour and massive  horns.

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Chacma Baboon photographed in the Kruger Park, South Africa.

The difficulties stemming from the proximity of the troops of Cape Peninsular baboons and Cape Town suburbs is in the news again, in a really disturbing way.

Previous posts looked at the possibility of residents paying an increased tax to allow the Cape Town municipality to manage baboons, that are causing problems in Cape Peninsular suburbs and at the somewhat lighter story on a baboon that fell through a roof into a bath.

However, the close proximity between the baboons and the community has turned ugly in a way contrary to what one would have expected.

The Latest Problem

(NOTE: a GOOGLE earth clip at the bottom of the post will help with the South African place names)

Two teenaged boys unleashed their dogs on a baboon in Main Road, Ocean View not far from his natal pack in Kommetjie on Tuesday 21 July. He stood little chance, as he was 20 years old, had few teeth and had lost the strength of his youth. He was badly mauled in the attack, and rushed to a veterinary clinic. The dogs were initially reported to be Pit-bull Terriers, but were actually a American Pit-bull and a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Both dogs have a predisposition to attack other dogs and are totally fearless and loyal to their owners.

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The Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system comprising over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching more than 3,000 kilometres (1,600 miles) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 square miles).

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A recent post described the Desert Rhubarb, which uses large leaves, that lie flat on the ground to funnel whatever rain falls to its roots effectively increasing the rainfall. There are many other adaptions in deserts - this post looks at five, found in the Namib desert.

Flying Water to the Nest

The Namaqua Sandgrouse (Pterocles namaqua) needs to spend much of its life in a highly organised quest for water and food. This can involve a daily round trip of more than 80 kilometres (50 miles). The daily activity starts just after sunrise when small flocks of Namaqua Sandgrouse from different areas congregate at favoured waterholes.

The Sandgrouse lays two to three eggs in a nest that is a mere scrape in the ground between tufts of grass. To get water to their newly hatched young, the male dips his breast feathers under the surface of the waterhole and allows them to absorb water like a sponge, absorbing up to 8 times their weight in water. With his cargo complete, he flies back to the chicks, and they drink the water directly from his breast feathers.

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Major United Kingdom supermarkets are offering precooked and peeled hard boiled eggs at a 50 % price premium over fresh eggs.

Assuming a reasonable turnover and the ability to process large numbers of eggs with efficient technology, these eggs would clearly reduce the farm to fork carbon footprint. However, more importantly the classic excuse of “I can’t even boil an egg” would need to change!

Image by inuyaki.com on Flickr under a Creative Commons license.