Introduction
The first decade of the 21st Century has confirmed the warnings of the previous fifty years – the historical development path is not sustainable. Air, water, energy, soils, forests, fish… over exploitation enabled by new technology and emboldened by new economies has brought the world’s resources, ecosystems, and even the climate to the tipping point. The benefits of profligate energy use, new technology and economic growth are obvious, but the cost is degradation of social fabric and environmental viability.  But change is happening.  The Signs of Change Conference will show-case examples of fundamental change in a wide variety of contexts.

Invitation
You are invited to participate!  The Signs of Change Conference is for engineers, scientists, business people, council workers, educators, students, health workers, farmers, transition town members… anyone who wants to know about initiatives in sustainability.  Our perceptions and expectations of the future are shaped by our experiences.  If we see and hear about signs of change in a direction that is fruitful, restorative, respectful and sustainable, then it can become our reality.  This conference provides and opportunity to make connections, share ideas, and learn what others are doing.

The conference website link is as follows:

www.signsofchange.org.nz

Combined meeting with IET

Date and Time: Thursday 19 August 2010, 7.30pm

Venue: Room 3.407 School of Engineering, University of Auckland, 20 Symonds Street, Auckland.

Speakers: Philip Court and John Gorman

Abstract: Philip Court and John Gorman will speak about the advancement of their start-up, Greenstage Power, and the advantages of open source development software and methodology applied to the emerging smartgrid in New Zealand. With renewable energy becoming more viable and the Internet becoming increasingly pervasive, the two technologies converge with the SolarNetwork®, an open-source enterprise software platform commenced at the University of Auckland. Greenstage Power aims to leverage this open-source technology platform to provide a suit of energy and information services that the NZ smartgrid will consume, within an implicitly multi-stakeholder context. Inspiration for Greenstage Power comes from the open-source development approach to the problem of how electricity retailers, lines companies, SOEs, device manufacturers and electric vehicle providers can all participate and thrive in a marketplace that moves at the speed of the internet. Court and Gorman suggest that perhaps the most compelling aspect of open-source development is not that smartgrid technology will happen in NZ but that it is happening.

Philip Court is Managing Director of Greenstage Investments, and has been developing the GS750V, a high-performance electric racecar built with technology from the Tumanako open-source project. Philip has been a vocal proponent of electric vehicles not only for their superior performance and emissions but as a new component of grid stabilisation technology and as a catalyst for distributed generation.

John Gorman (ME Hons.) is a founder and director of SolarNetwork®, an enterprise-class open-source software platform focused on the capture, storage, visualization and analysis of real-time renewable energy data. SolarNetwork® won the Sharp Award for “Most Innovative Product or Service 2009” at the Sustainable Electricity Association of NZ conference that year,and serves as the foundation of Greenstage Power’s services.

Contact: John la Roche johnlaroche@xtra.co.nz

Date: Tuesday 27 July 2010

5.30 pm meet and greet. 6.00pm Stephan’s presentation

7.00pm go home or join a group of us for dinner in town for more chat.

Venue: Waikato University School of Business Conference Room MSB 1.01, Gate 7, Hillcrest Road, Hamilton. (Conference Room entrance at the bottom of the steps on the left hand side of the building.)

A rare Hamilton opportunity to hear the current real facts and the associated debate from New Zealand’s leading professional engineer in the field.

Speaker: Stephan Heubeck –

Stephan’s first career was as a German agricultural engineer and during his training he designed, developed and worked on farm power plants using cow muck as the fuel. Many of the properties around his family farm are still profiting from his innovations. For a long time the farmers were making more money from the sale of excess electricity generation than from the milk they were producing – so why not here in the Waikato?  Since settling in New Zealand Stephan has extended his interests into the full range of biofuels together with research work for NIWA. He is now in international demand and we are lucky to catch him following his work in Australia, Germany and Sweden.  He is an ideal person to clarify the media spin of national government and interest groups, to provide measurable facts related to the pressing questions on energy, the needs for carbon neutrality and especially the current status of biofuels and where they fit in the national and global energy mix.

Contact:

Norm Stannard Secretary ESRNZ Waikato Branch Ph: 07-8556579

Frank Scrimgeour Chairman ESRNZ Waikato Branch Ph: 07-8562889