Posted
on 19 June 2009 - Waves around Australia
and hot rocks beneath it have the capacity
to power Australia into a clean energy future
and provide tens of thousands of new jobs,
according to new reports from WWF. “What
we are seeing here is the birth of new industries,"
said WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne.
Power to Change: Australia’s
Geothermal Future Power to Change: Australia’s
Wave Energy Future Waves around Australia
and hot rocks beneath it have the capacity
to power Australia into a clean energy future
and provide thousands of new jobs, according
to two new reports from WWF.
Power to Change: Australia’s
Wave Energy Future estimates the the wave
energy industry will create 3,210 jobs by
2020, including jobs in local manufacturing
and maintenance. By 2050 this figure is
expected to grow to 14,380 jobs.
The report was prepared
with the assistance of the Carnegie Corporation,
whose CETO wave energy demonstration plant
in Western Australia is regarded as a world
leader in harnessing the oceans to provide
clean, baseload renewable energy.
“Australia has the largest
and most consistent wave energy resource
globally and at least 35 per cent of our
current baseload power needs could be generated
from the Southern Ocean," said Carnegie
Corporation Managing Director Dr Michael
Ottaviano.
Meanwhile, Power to
Change: Australia’s Geothermal Future, a
report prepared in collaboration with the
Australian Geothermal Energy Association
(AGEA), predicted that more than 17,000
Australians could be employed in the geothermal
energy industry by 2050.
“When it comes to geothermal
energy, we truly are the lucky country,”
said Paul Toni, WWF Program Leader for Sustainable
Development. “The energy stored in hot rocks
near the Earth’s surface in Australia is
a thousand fold what we use each and ever
year.”
A key advantage of geothermal energy in
the shift to a low carbon economy is the
ability to take up some fo the employment
slack from declining fossil fuel industries.
“The geothermal energy
industry provides opportunities for workers
to move from industries like coal, oil and
gas into clean energy jobs, as much of the
technology and expertise is transferable
from one to the other,” said Susan Jeanes,
Chief Executive of AGEA
Both technologies are
expecting a boost from Australia’s so far
fitful moves to putting a price on carbon
emissions. They would also benefit from
a freeing up of the Renewable Energy Target
scheme to embrace more technologies.
“Renewable technologies
are the nuts and bolts of Australia’s clean
energy future,” said WWF-Australia CEO Greg
Bourne.
“What we are seeing
here is the birth of new industries that
will provide tens of thousands of jobs and
a technology and expertise that we can export
around the world, as well as renewable energy
to power Australia.”
+ More
A dram a day to keep
climate change at bay
Posted on 18 June 2009
- Scottish distillers, makers of iconic
Scotch whiskies, have agreed to ‘green’
their production processes.
Earlier this month, companies that make
up the Scotch Whisky Association unveiled
plans to cut their use of fossil fuels by
80 per cent by 2050 - the equivalent of
taking 235,000 cars off Scotland’s roads.
“The challenge is there
from climate change and we need to respond
to that,” said David Rae, managing director
of the North British Distillery Company
in Edinburgh, who also serves as chairman
of the Association’s operations committee.
“Our industry has been there for 500 years,
and we want it to be around for another
500 years.”
For example, the North
British Distillery Company already has established
an agreement with a local city council building
a new high school to provide heat for the
school.
The company has a 10-year
agreement to provide hot water from its
post-distillation process to the school,
supplying 1.5 megawatts of thermal energy,
and keeping students and staff warm during
the school year. The agreement will help
the school displace about 1,400 tons of
CO2 emission per year.
In addition, the North
British Distillery also is evaluating the
potential introduction of an anaerobic digestive
process, which will convert its post distillation
liquid stream into a renewable energy source.
This will in turn be used to generate the
distillery’s electricity energy requirements.
It is estimated that this process will displace
50,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year,
Rae said.
However, whisky connoisseurs
can rest easy – the taste and even labelling
of their favourite scotch whiskies will
not change.
Rae said that whisky
producers have agreed that at a brand level,
the ‘greening’ of whisky making in Scotland
will not become a competitive issue.
In the long-run, the
decision to adopt better environmental standards
stems from the Scotch whisky’s dependence
on Scotland’s clean environment, including
access to clean water and good cereals.
“We are an industry
that benefits directly from the environment
in which we operate,” Rae said.
WWF Scotland's Director,
Dr Richard Dixon, said he hoped the whisky
industry eventually would raise the environmental
targets in key areas, although he praised
the move.
"Scotch whisky
is world renowned and we welcome plans to
reduce the environmental footprint of each
and every dram,” Dixon said. “We particularly
welcome the fact that they have set themselves
targets to reduce their impact. Since the
whisky industry relies on Scotland's clean
environment for its main ingredients it
is important the industry takes steps to
reduce its potential impacts.”
The Association’s plan
translates to a fossil fuel saving annually
by 2050 of more than 1000,000 tonnes of
carbon dioxide. Other industry-wide reduction
targets include: a significant reduction
in the average weight of packaging used;
the elimination of sending waste from packaging
operations to landfill sites; a commitment
to source future whisky casks only from
sustainable oak forests; and to maintain
the highest standards of water use and discharge
management.
