Posts Tagged ‘Energy’
Letter to Engineering Insight Magazine
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. The negative effects particularly affect developing countries and are only beginning to be felt. They will increase greatly over coming decades unless we all accept our responsibilities and substantially reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
Read MoreSubmission on the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy Submission
Our colleagues over at the Sustainable Energy Forum Inc have prepared this submission and comment on the new National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy and have forwarded it to Government.
Read MorePumped Storage Planning – 1970s VS 2020
Pumped Storage Planning, 1970s vs 2020 By Dr Alastair Barnett Webinar 21 Oct 2020 Until the recent flurry of publicity about the Lake Onslow proposal, pumped hydropower storage had not been seriously considered in New Zealand since the 1970s. At that time the Tekapo canal was under construction to link the two main storage reservoirs (Lakes Tekapo and Pukaki) in the Upper Waitaki power development, and an obvious option was to design the canal to take pumped flow from Pukaki to Tekapo as well as gravity flow from Tekapo to Pukaki. The canal design was duly analysed, constructed and tested to have the required reverse flow capacity. Instead, the newly developed Maui gas field was utilised and the Huntly thermal power station continues in use, and the importation of coal means that our thermal emissions have actually increased. The disastrous outcomes of poor power planning have now been recognised, but the reaction seems to be one of panic, adopting the first scheme to come to mind while ignoring the alternatives, especially the final 10% of the Tekapo-Pukaki scheme.
Read MoreWhat Is Wrong With The New Zealand Electricity Market?
Dr Geoff Bertram spoke to an online meeting of Engineers for Social Responsibility on 19 August 2020. He reviewed the electricity reforms since 1986 and their effects, particularly on pricing, excess profits and anti-competitive practices. He noted the effects particularly on increasing poverty and inequality, specially child poverty and energy poverty. He suggested steps that could be taken to deal with these problems, but noted that invested interests would make implementation of any of them, very difficult to achieve.
Read MoreSubmission In Response To: Accelerating Renewable Energy And Energy Efficiency
Accelerating the use of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency are both very important steps that need to be taken, and we agree with many of the suggestions in the Discussion Document. However, given the extreme climate emergency we are currently now facing, with the strong possibility of catastrophic outcomes if it is not adequately addressed, these steps on their own are not nearly enough for New Zealand to contribute sufficiently towards holding global heating below the current internationally agreed limit of 1.5°C.
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Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is energy derived directly or indirectly from sunlight, wind, rain, tidal flows and ranges, waves, and thermal energy stored in the oceans, which are naturally replenished over fairly brief periods of time. Geothermal energy is also regarded as renewable because of the extremely large amounts of heat available from the earth’s core. Major sources of renewable energy include hydro power, wind power, solar power, geothermal power and bioenergy. Moving rapidly to greater reliance on renewable energy in place of fossil fuels has become critically important because of the urgent need to control global warming by reducing carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere.
Read MoreNew Zealand Energy Security And Climate Change
This paper sets out the case for taking early and effective action to improve New Zealand’s energy security, and doing so in a manner which minimises New Zealand’s future greenhouse gas emissions
Read MoreEnergy VS Climate – Defining The Problem
Steve Goldthorpe, Convener of The Sustainable Energy Forum Inc, spoke to the Auckland Branch of Engineers for Sustainability on 15 August. He pays particular attention to methane emissions, particularly those arising from fracking.
Read MoreFronting Up To Our Deteriorating World
A little group of us down in Otago were worried that we always seem to be fighting rear guard actions. We wanted to propose something a bit more proactive and searching. The result is this attached political appeal for people to use at candidates’ meetings etc pre-election. It is being developed further with the intention of using it as the basis for a petition to parliament.
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