2010 may well become known in the renewable and environmental community as the year of the solar battles. Battle is definitely brewing in California, with the main focus at the moment on Brightsource. Just before the new year, Senator Feinstein introduced a new bill that she hopes will help balance preservation of the Mojave desert with recreation and renewable energy development.

Reporting from the negotiation room

Today's NRC, a Dutch newspaper I like akin to the NYT, heavily criticized the Copenhagen meeting, and it was not alone. All major newspapers expressed dismay after the speeches held by Chinese prime-minister Wen Jiaboa and President Obama. I was not overly enthused by their speeches either. Both repeated mostly old statements, praised their own proposed steps forward, and accused the other of hampering global progress and signing of an effective Copenhagen treaty.

Last year’s oil price peak, along with the recent oil price increase amidst a severe economic slowdown, have fueled worries about the future availability of oil. Some argue that concerns about peak oil or the end of oil are greatly exaggerated. Lynch (NYT 8/24/09) goes as far to say that such concerns are the domain of fear-mongering environmentalists, or of those without a proper grasp of history and geology.

Alberta Tar Sands: Podcast 2

The Government View

The second in our series on Alberta Tar Sands. We travel to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to hear the government's view on tar sands. Weighing in is Barry Rodgers with the Alberta Dept. of Energy, Preston McEachern with Alberta Environmental Management, and the honorable Robert Renner, minister of the environment for Alberta.

Will shale gas indeed be the next big thing as suggested in today's (10/10/09) article in the NYT . The numbers in this article are correct. Shale gas estimates are indeed very high. The article does not discuss any potential negative environmental impacts. Water quality, for example, is heavily debated in Pennsylvania, which is one of the major shale gas states. I would applaud a move tomorrow to shale gas from coal, whilst going full throttle on renewable development. I worry about heavy investments in shale gas and liquid gas transport as that may halt or hinder a move to cleaner electricity.

Interesting article today in the New York Times about a (small) silver lining in the current economic and climate gloom. Emissions have gone down a bit because of the economic downturn, but more importantly China is making more rapid progress towards the reduction of its carbon dioxide emissions, mostly through nuclear energy and wind.

Mighty interesting, those developments in China. Think SE needs to visit soon....

Albertan Tar Sands: Podcast 1

In terms of oil, we are more dependent on Canada than on Saudi-Arabia. 20 % of our oil imports comes from Canada, and more than half of that is produced from the oil sands in the Albertan boreal forest. We are by far the largest consumer of oil sands and it is our increasing demand for oil that is driving the oil sands developments in Alberta.

Chicago tonight recently ran a report on Canadian oil sands created by Elizabeth Brackett whom we met in Canada last month. She interviewed me too, but I did not make it in. Too bad! Perhaps in the PBS version of this story to be broadcast later this month, but despite the lack of any Dutch accents, this is a nice piece.

A bit of controversy about the numbers. Environmental group interviewed mentions a factor of 3 over conventional oil. This is for extraction and upgrading only. In a wells-to-wheels analysis (so total emissions from production to car driving) it is around 10%.