- "We are on the brink of a revolution: the demise of the fossil-fuel economy. A new deal must jolt us out of orthodox thinking."
Op-Ed Columnist - The Inflection Is Near? - NYTimes.com Thomas L. Friedman
Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.” [...]
“We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children,” said Joe Romm, a physicist and climate expert who writes the indispensable blog climateprogress.org. We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks — water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land — and not by generating renewable flows. [...]
We must have growth, but we must grow in a different way. For starters, economies need to transition to the concept of net-zero, whereby buildings, cars, factories and homes are designed not only to generate as much energy as they use but to be infinitely recyclable in as many parts as possible. [...]
Economist's View: "Obama’s Chance to Lead" Obama’s chance to lead the green recovery, by Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern, Commentary, Financial Times:
"We face two crises: a deep global financial crisis ... and an even deeper climate crisis... The scale of risk from climate change is altogether of a different and greater magnitude, as are the consequences of mismanaging or ignoring it. ... The investments necessary to convert our society to a low-carbon economy ... would drive growth over the next two or three decades. They would ensure that growth, with accompanying improvements in standards of living, was sustainable.
The path that we have been on is not. The economic crisis will leave the US and other economies greatly weakened and it will be imperative to increase efficiency. One area in which there is ample room for improvement is in the energy efficiency of businesses, consumers and the government. [...]"
Portugal's mission to harness energy
"By 2020, Pinho says, the country will produce more than 60 per cent of its electricity and 31 per cent of its energy (including electricity, heating and transport fuels) from renewable sources. This compares with a European Union electricity target of 20 per cent of energy. Plans announced by US president Barack Obama will see America producing 12 per cent of its power from clean energy sources at about the time Portugal reaches the 50 per cent mark, says Pinho. By next year, he says, Portugal will already emit less CO2 per capita than any other EU country."
"If you want to know why Denmark is the world's leader in wind power, start with a three-hour car trip from the capital Copenhagen -- mind the bicyclists -- to the small town of Lem on the far west coast of Jutland. [...]
[...] But technology, like the wind itself, is just one more part of the reason for Denmark's dominance. In the end, it happened because Denmark had the political and public will to decide that it wanted to be a leader -- and to follow through. Beginning in 1979, the government began a determined program of subsidies and loan guarantees to build up its nascent wind industry. Copenhagen covered 30% of investment costs, and guaranteed loans for large turbine exporters such as Vestas. It also mandated that utilities purchase wind energy at a preferential price -- thus guaranteeing investors a customer base. Energy taxes were channeled into research centers, where engineers crafted designs that would eventually produce cutting-edge giants like Vestas' 3-megawatt (MW) V90 turbine. (Read TIME's "Heroes of the Environment 2008.) As a result, wind turbines now dot Denmark, the country gets more than 19% of its electricity from the breeze (Spain and Portugal, the next highest countries, get about 10%) and Danish companies control a whopping one-third of the global wind market, earning billions in exports and creating a national champion from scratch. [...]
[...] Beyond wind, the country (pop. 5.5 million) is a world leader in energy efficiency, getting more GDP per watt than any other member of the E.U. Carbon emissions are down 13.3% from 1990 levels and total energy consumption has barely moved [o que tem acontecido no caso dos Açores?], even as Denmark's economy continued to grow at a healthy clip. [...]
[...] But the country's policies were actually born from a different emotion, one now in common currency: fear [quem tem medo nos Açores? Não a sua classe política]. When the 1973 oil crisis hit, 90% of Denmark's energy came from petroleum, almost all of it imported. Buffeted by the same supply shocks that hit the rest of the developed world, Denmark launched a rapid drive for energy conservation, [...]. Eventually the Mideast oil started flowing again, and the Danes themselves began enjoying the benefits of the petroleum and natural gas in their slice of the North Sea. It was enough to make them more than self-sufficient. But unlike most other countries, Denmark never forgot the lessons of 1973, and kept driving for greater energy efficiency and a more diversified energy supply. The Danish parliament raised taxes on energy to encourage conservation and established subsidies and standards to support more efficient buildings [...]
[...] Denmark's energy efficiency has vastly improved in other areas such as the use of combined heat and power, where power plants recycle the waste energy from their operations as heat, which can be distributed to homes and businesses. [...]
[...] "We're not special people here," he says.But there is something special in the way that Samso's residents -- and Danes as a whole -- have adapted to 21st-century realities about energy and the environment. [...]
Climate Progress » Blog Archive » An efficiency portfolio standard is as important as a renewable standard — and should come first
Você falou da geotermia? [para não haver dúvidas: eu gosto e valorizo muito a geotermia]
[...] What’s not to like about requiring that a certain percentage of our power come from clean, renewable energy? Well, for starters, it’s only half a solution, and it’s the expensive half at that. If we push renewable portfolio standards without also pushing even more aggressive efficiency portfolio standards (EEPS), we’ll end up chasing a goal that gets more difficult catch and more expensive to achieve with each passing year. As Stuart Hemphill, a VP at Southern California Edison noted in a recent article in the New York Times, without EEPS, RPS [renewables portfolio standard] targets grow as demand grows.
[...] But the economically achievable energy efficiency potential is universal, substantial, and cheap. [...]
[...] The advantages of an EEPs strategy can be seen by looking at how it would effect the energy bill at an individual home. As the EEPs took effect, the grid would become more efficient, and the homeowner would use less energy; meanwhile, as RPSs took effect, the cost of a unit of energy would go up. With an EEPs-based policy, although the homeowner would be paying more for each kW, she’d be using fewer kWs overall, keeping monthly costs for energy relatively stable. [...]
[...] An intelligently designed federal EEPS could be the vehicle to begin that process. [I would add that a McKinsey Global Institute report found that “Improving energy efficiency [could] offset some 85% of the projected incremental demand for electricity in 2030, largely negating the need for the incremental coal-fired power plants assumed in the government reference case” (see McKinsey).
outubro» Arquivo » Uma reflexão sobre a política energética
Você falou das medidas de direita que este governo [de Sócrates, obviamente] tomou - aquelas que a direita não foi capaz de tomar?
Num ano de eleições, é importante reflectir sobre o que foi feito nos sectores nevrálgicos que pautam a vida das sociedades modernas. É justo dizer que no sector da energia o balanço da acção deste governo é positivo mas ainda há muito a fazer como o demonstram alguns indicadores e há que corrigir alguns erros cometidos. [...]
[...] Por outro lado a aprovação pelo Governo da Estratégia Nacional da Energia em 2005 e do Plano Nacional de Acção para a Eficiência Energética (PNAEE) em 2008 dotaram o país de dois instrumentos essenciais para o futuro. A Estratégia Nacional definida é correcta e o seu resultado mais espectacular é a forte aposta nas energias renováveis e em particular na energia eólica. O lançamento do novo Plano Nacional para as barragens foi também uma iniciativa acertada num país que importa 85% da sua energia do exterior e onde o aproveitamento do potencial hidroeléctrico é apenas de 50%.
[...] No entanto, apesar de todo o esforço feito, os indicadores continuam a mostrar que a situação energética de Portugal é muito frágil e que há ainda muito a fazer. A factura energética do país alcançou os 6.5 mil milhões de euros em 2007 o que revela um aumento de 9.3% em relação a 2006.É demasiado elevada porque apesar dos preços altos do petróleo o país pode fazer muito mais em termos de racionalizar o uso da energia e aplicar as medidas de eficiência energética.
Mas isso não está a acontecer porque há uma deficiente política de informação das medidas tomadas ao público e há um fosso brutal entre a orientação politica consagrada nos documentos aprovados e a sua aplicação prática. Quem no país sabe do cheque eficiência que estimula os cidadãos que poupam electricidade ou o apoio ao isolamento térmico das moradias ou o apoio à substituição do automóvel por veículos mais eficientes? Enquanto os poderes públicos não fizerem uma revisão da sua estratégia de comunicação das medidas anunciadas e não revirem a sua estratégia de implementação prática mudando a forma de actuar de um Estado que é em geral inerte, burocrático e bloqueador, as mudanças essenciais ficam adiadas. Isso traduz-se em graves constrangimentos para o desenvolvimento do país: a importação de energia pesa hoje 15% na Balança Comercial e o peso da importação de energia no PIB é de 4% tendo duplicado nos últimos 10 anos. Estes indicadores afectam negativamente a competitividade do país e das empresas e há que mudar a situação. Sejamos claros: o caminho traçado é correcto mas precisamos de mais acção e de corrigir alguns erros. Por exemplo: porquê o sucesso na energia eólica e o insucesso na energia solar? Porquê que o modelo de sucesso na eólica não é estudado para promover o sucesso da energia solar térmica? [...]
Utilities Turn Their Customers Green, With Envy - NYTimes.com
Navarre's Stunning Clean Energy Success a Lesson for US Policymakers SolveClimate.com
Quais são os objectivos dos Açores, no campo das renováveis, para os próximos anos?[...] Navarre President Miguel Sanz Sesma explained the secrets of clean energy success. Navarre’s energy numbers are staggering: A full 65 percent of the region’s energy now comes from renewable sources. By 2010, it expects to reach 75 percent, and it has a goal of eventually hitting 100 percent. Obama’s goal of more than doubling the United States’ renewable energy use to 25 percent by 2025 pales in comparison, and Navarre's experience suggests support for efforts at the state level to advance renewable energy use might provide the biggest payoff. [...]
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