Green Options » tariffs

How Do Brits Like to Be Green?

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:16:43 +0000

How do Brits like to be green, and what green behaviors do they still avoid?

That’s what a new survey by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), and the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) is showing us by examining the environmental actions and preferences of 100,000 British people from 40,000 households.

The findings presented below are the first from a new annual household survey in Britain named Understanding Society. The environmental topics are one subset of the whole survey, which also examines the “working lives, relationships, health, finances, neighbourhoods, education, transport and more” of Brits.

What are the main findings thus far?

Read more of this story »

SAB Miller Uses Brewery Waste from Alrode Brewery in South Africa to Reduce Carbon Footprint

Dave Harcourt — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:30:07 +0000

SAB Miller, South African grown, second largest brewer in the world has introduced anaerobic digestion to treat the waste leaving its Alrode Brewery in Gauteng, South Africa. Anaerobic fermentation of organic material produces methane, which is used to reduce the consumption of fossil fuel based energy.

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.

Read more of this story »

Inspired Economist: Pick of the Week

Reenita Malhotra — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:20:01 +0000

This column highlights the top economic stories of the week.

While Detroit has benefited from Cash for Clunkers, foreign automakers have gained even more. Some critics of the program warned that because it let consumers buy domestic or foreign cars, Clunkers could end up spending more American tax dollars to help foreign companies than American ones. More on this story here.

With irresponsible banking practices taking the blame for bringing about the global economic crisis, there has been a surge of interest in Islamic finance.Now, a slew of academic courses are springing up to meet the demand of those wanting to break into an expanding market. According to ratings agency Moody’s, the global Islamic finance sector is worth $700 billion and has the potential to be worth $4 trillion. More on this story here.

n an effort to curb solid waste pollution, China banned the import of scrap polysilicon at the beginning of August, an effort supported by its current environmental laws according to its Environmental Protection Ministry. Scrap polysilicon is a low-grade form of silicon not pure enough to use in microchips. However, it can be used as a component of solar wafers, which contain a variety of types of silicon, including up to 30% scrap polysilicon. More on this story here.

Read more of this story »

China Bans Scrap Polysilicon

Lisa Wojnovich — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:27:54 +0000

In an effort to curb solid waste pollution, China banned the import of scrap polysilicon at the beginning of August, an effort supported by its current environmental laws according to its Environmental Protection Ministry. Scrap polysilicon is a low-grade form of silicon not pure enough to use in microchips. However, it can be used as a component of solar wafers, which contain a variety of types of silicon, including up to 30% scrap polysilicon.

Read more of this story »

Solar: Is the Czech Republic the Next Spain?

Jennifer Kho — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:00:33 +0000

Think of the Czech Republic and you’re more likely to think of beer, castles or Kafka than solar power. But the Eastern European country is one of the world’s fastest-growing markets, says Jenny Chase, a senior associate with London-based research firm New Energy Finance.

The country installed 50.8 megawatts of solar power last year, up dramatically from only 3 megawatts in 2007, she says. The bulk of that capacity — 31.5 megawatts — got installed in December, which represented more than fivefold growth from the 5.81 megawatts installed in November.

Read more of this story »

Electricity Emergency Response Plan - South African Industry’s Contribution

Dave Harcourt — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:20:25 +0000

A previous post, Rolling Blackouts to Benefit South Africa, hypothesised that the strong reaction to the rolling blackouts Eskom was forced to implement has resulted in urgent action which will in the medium term ensure South Africa has the energy systems it needs for its long term development.

In 2004 the three major users of electricity in South Africa were Industry (64.6%), Residential (17.4%) and Commerce (12.0%). It was therefore logical that once Eskom, with the “urging” of Government, faced the situation and took co-ordinated action it went to industry.

Discussions with industries and especially the large users in mining and manufacturing, were based on Eskom admitting that it was unable to guarantee supplies to industry, presenting a long term plan of action and requesting that industry manage itself to achieve an immediate 10% reduction in its consumption.

Industry supported the request although it lead to week long shut downs of a number of mines which were unable to immediately reduce their consumption without effecting the complete process.

This was termed Phase 1 of the National Emergency Response Plan and was mainly aimed at stabilising the system to avoid catastrophic shut downs that could result from instability induced by too small a margin between demand and supply.

Read more of this story »

Britain to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 80% of 1990 Levels by 2050

Amiel Blajchman — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:09:42 +0000

British energy and climate minister Ed Miliband said last week that he was in support of proposals calling for Britain to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent of 1990 levels by the year 2050 (contrasting the current target level of 60 percent).

The Minister plans on making the new target binding by amending its Climate Change Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament.

This new target is based on the government’s Committee on Climate Change, which recommended that Britain reduce its emissions by 80% of 1990 values, as part of Britain’s overall strategy to participate in the halving of global emissions by 2050. Government advisors believe that the new target will end up costing British taxpayers about £1100 per person or £24 billion a year.

“In tough economic times, some people will ask whether we should retreat from our climate change objectives,” he said. “In our view, it would be quite wrong to row back.”
Read more of this story »