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Florida Power and Light Company Given Go Ahead For Solar Power Facilities

On the 15 July, the Florida Public Services Commission granted FPL permission to begin work on three major Solar Power plants across the state.

The first of these projects is ‘The Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center’, scheduled for construction at the company’s already existent ‘Martin Plant’ site. It is expected to be operational in 2010, and will produce a maximum 75W output. It will combine steam with solar thermal power in order to reduce the amount of natural gas used in the energy conversion process.

Second is ‘The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center’ which is due for completion and operation in 2009. It is named after the county in which it’s being developed, and boasts a 25MW photovoltaic maximum capacity. This figure, when reached, would make it the largest photovoltaic center in the world.

The final project in the trio is ‘The Space Coast Next Generation Solar Energy Center’, and is the product of a partnership between NASA and the FPL. It has a photovoltaic capacity of 10MW, and will reportedly serve the needs of more than 2500 people. It is expected to be operational in 2009, and is to be built on the same grounds as the ‘Kennedy Space Center’.

With the green light now given, it signifies another step towards a greater and more proficient level of sustainable energy in the US. FPL reports that - pending the successful completion of the three plants - the energy saved would amount to the prevention of 3.5m tons of various green house gases over the three power plant’s lifetimes. The Environmental Protection Agency calculate that this has the same effect as 25,000 cars being removed from the roads of the United States each year.

Along with ‘Solar Tres’ the European Union commissioned large scale Solar Thermal Power plant, the Florida plants contribute to a Trans-Atlantic development of sustainable energy sites. Add ‘Nevada Solar One’ - the replacement for ‘Solar One’ and ‘Two’, on which ‘Solar Tres’ was based - and the number of substantially funded solar powered facilities is growing.

And it is not just Europe and North America that has been affected: The Japanese Companies ‘Kansai Electrical Power’ and ‘Sharp Japan’ announced plans in June for two solar power plants to be built under the ‘Sakai City Waterfront Mega Solar Power Generation Plan’, and are expected to be operational in 2010. The two sites are reported to have a combined maximum power of 38,000KW, and will therefore become two of the largest solar powered sites in the world.

Three of the world’s biggest political players, then, are continuing their commitment to sustainable energy sources. Include ‘Kigali Solaire’, the largest solar power plant in Africa - opened in Rwanda in 2007 - plus a maximum capacity 400KW photovoltaic array in New South Wales, Austrialia, and it amounts to sustainable energy in four of the six world continents. Place on the tally the plans for a ’solar trough’ - one long set of parabolic solar panels - in Mexico, which would amount to a maximum 400MW output for the city Agua Prieta, and that makes five continents in six.

Perhaps, then, the FPL centers are simply bucking the trend.

Chris Wright is the Solar Power expert at EcoSwitch.com The environmental social network.

Green Olympics - London and the Environment in 2012

With talk of China’s high rates of pollution dominating headlines in the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it is important to remember that sport and the environment can go hand in hand.

In the last year, the Chinese capital has been the subject of much media scrutiny surrounding its environmental and emissions policy. In 2005, the European Space Agency declared that Beijing contained unnecessarily high levels of nitrogen dioxide, a bi-product of many industrial processes, including thermal power plants. It is poisonous to inhale, and since the revelation, the Chinese government have been accused of endangering sportsmen and spectators with the volume of air pollution that affects the capital.

For the environmentally conscious, it represents a serious concern. Historically, the designation of Olympic host has a symbolic resonance; it has been held by great cities, welcome to community spirit and accepted as representatives of an age old sporting tradition. That is not to deny that Beijing is a great city, but - for environmentalists - it has been difficult to reconcile the tradition and history of the city with a poor environmental and emissions policy.

Many spectators, then, will be watching closely. And they will also be looking to London in 2012, which will be subject to the same media scrutiny.

The Olympic Delivery Authority - the body who are in charge of developing the infrastructure for the London games - have so far acted carefully. David Higgins, the Chief Executive of the ODA, has officially stated that “Ensuring a sustainable approach to building the Games will help ensure London 2012 is remembered not only as two weeks of fantastic sporting action, but also as the greenest games to date”, championing the connection between the tradition of the event and the importance of a suitable environmental policy.

It is a positive statement, and one that is backed by the ‘Towards a One Planet Olympics’ initiative, which is the lynch-pin of the London games’ environmental policy, and was developed from the WWF/Bioregional’s ‘One Planet Living’, which lists ten main environmental initiatives that can be implemented throughout the world. These can be grouped into three key areas: carbon emission, sustainability, and culture and natural habitats.

The Committee for London 2012 has drawn these into five points: combating climate change, reducing waste, enhancing biodiversity, promoting inclusion, and improving healthy living. These tie in neatly with the original initiative, which targets - as some examples - ‘zero carbon’ and ‘zero waste’, sustainable transport and materials, and ‘health and happiness’.

In theory, then, the commitment is clear, and the aim is an all encompassing one; to be the first fully sustainable Olympic games. And - as the Beijing Olympics prepares to open - the London bid is already working towards that aim. The ODA announced in January of this year that it is already beating its target of recovering 90% of all demolition waste for recycling and reuse. It has also begun to create new habitats for any wildlife that might be found on Olympic sites, and is recycling complete buildings to be re-assembled away from original Olympic sites.

Certainly, 2012 is a long way away. Beijing comes first, and its environmental policy since the original bid has improved. When the London games come, it will have China as a blueprint, plus another four years of work towards sustainability. If it succeeds in its aim, it might be one of the world’s first large demonstrations of a link between tradition and a new ‘green-consciousness’. Something to look forward to.

Chris Wright is the Olympics expert at
www.EcoSwitch.com The environmental social network EcoSwitch

Parks Protect Amazon in Perul

Scientists at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology studying satellite date have found that only 1 to 2 percent of forest disturbance in the Peruvian Amazon occured in protected areas, which means that land-use and conservation policies have been successful. Protected areas are 18 times more effective at reducing deforestatio than unprotected areas.

Lead author Paulo Oliveira said, “We found that only 1 to 2 % of this disturbance in Peru happened in natural protected areas. However, there was substantial forest disturbance adjacent to areas set aside for legal logging operations. This leakage of human activity outside of logging concessions is a concern.”

Peru’s tropical forests are larger than France, which stretch 661,000 sq km and is second only to Brazil’s forest area. The Peruvian government has been conscientiously putting aside large areas as parks and reserves while allocating around 40,000 sq miles of forest for long-term commercial timber production by 2005. With deforestation rates of less than 1%, Peru has comparatively lower rates when compared to its neighbors.

Scientists used the Carnegie Landsat Analysis System (CLAS), a “satellite-based forest-damage detection system” that penetrates the rainforest canopy to reveal the impact of logging. The CLAS system can uncover forest changes at a resolution of less than 100 by 100 ft.

GP Asner said, “Our approach has improved over the past eight years, but relies on a core set of methods that have consistently worked. We spent years developing them in Brazil, then went to Peru and completed this study in only a year. We are now operating over Borneo. Our approach is proving a good way to monitor rain forest disturbance and deforestation anywhere in the world.”

Researchers found that Peru’s forest disturbance and deforestation rates between 1999 to 2005 were only 0.2% a year, with an average of 244 sq miles and 249 miles a year. More than 85% of the damaged forests were in Madre de Dios and near Pucallpa. 75% of the damage was found within 20km of roads. Even within those limits, forests set aside by the government were more than 4 times better protected than areas not designated for conservation.

The authors said, “Overall, only 2% of the forest disturbances and 1% the deforestation detected in the entire study area occurred within the boundaries of natural protected areas. Furthermore, territories occupied by indigenous communities contained 11% and 9% of the total forest disturbance and deforestation, respectively. These results clearly show that these two forms of land-use allocation can provide effective protection against forest damage.”

“The establishment of protected natural areas, the titling of native territories, and the sanctioning of selective logging activities, have combined with the Peruvian Amazon’s traditional conservation allies—its remoteness and a complex hydrological network—to ensure a moderate level of success in the conservation of its forest ecosystems. Economic development of the forest sector, which employed 279,000 people nationally in 2001 (24), is essential for the well-being of human populations, but poorly monitored logging concessions, along with the challenges of uncontrolled road access, may hinder efforts to maintain ecological function and diversity in Peruvian rainforests in the future,” the authors continued.

“Increased satellite monitoring of logging and other forest disturbances will thus be essential to conservation, management and resource policy development efforts in Peru and other rainforest nations,” they concluded.

“This is another study from the Carnegie group showing the world how tropical forests can be systematically monitored amazingly quickly and at a reasonable cost.” said Michael Wright of The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which helped support the research. “I foresee that CLAS-like satellite analysis systems will become the standards routinely used by local conservation agencies to track rain forest disturbances and deforestation in the future.”

The study was published in the on-line edition of Science Express this month.

L. S. Sya [please visit Deforestation Watch.]

Deforestation Watch was established to drive sustainability mainstream. Striving to be a center of green news, solutions and all things green, we also help corporations looking for green guidance.

Cuba to Plant 135 Million Trees

The UN Environment Program (UNEP) international tree planting campaign, “Plant for the Planet:Billion Tree Campaign”, aimed at recovering forests globally has begun garnering support. One nation that has embraced the concept is Cuba, which will plant 135 million trees this year to recover forests in the Caribbean country. National Forest Director Elias Linares Landa said that Cuba hopes to cover 12.6% of the total planned by all countries and the project will involve social organizations and children.

Linares explains, “Plant your tree is the name of the crusade which began this past June 21 and will end in mid December.”

“With this plan, we will compensate for some of the global deforestation that destroys three billion adult trees each year,” said Linares.

Linares said some 2.7 million hectares of land in Cuba was currently forested and that the country had its own forestry fund to develop and manage forests, wildlife and education programs.

The devastation of the forests begun in colonial times and continued under the Republic as more land was transformed for cultivation and cattle rearing. By the time of the Revolution in 1959, forests only covered 13.4% of the nation. The figure rose to 21.1% in 1997 and to 24.95%, with more than 2.7 million hectares of woodland in 2006.

Linares points out that such progress within four decades illustrates the government’s commitment to re-establishing the rich vegetation distinct to the island.

A comprehensive program of reforestation was established in 1959 and continues to be a priority.

“First of all,” Linares explained, “Our country is planting from 60-64,000 hectares of trees annually. Cuba, Uruguay, Chile and Costa Rica are among the few countries in Latin America seeing their forests expanding.”

El

Brazil Cerrado Being Destroyed

The cerrado, a wooded grassland that once spanned 204 million hectares, half the size of Europe, is quickly being changed into croplands to meet rising demand for soybeans, sugarcane, and cattle.

According to a Brazilian expert on the savannah ecosystem, the cerrado is now disappearing at a breakneck rate, twice that of the Amazon rainforest.

Dr Ricardo Machado, author of a study said, “The Cerrado was pretty much intact until the 60s, when most of the relevant economic activity was the cattle ranching. During the 70s, when new technologies and new varieties of plants (corn, soybean, rice, wheat, eucalyptus, and grasses for livestock) where introduced the Cerrado became an important region for the Brazilian agribusiness. More and more native areas were cleared to be converted for planted pastures (using African grasses) or croplands. The natural vegetation removed was converted to charcoal to be used by the steel industry.”

He estimates that the cerrado was 73% of its original area in 1985 and approximately 43% in 2004. He insists that the area occupied by pastures and croplands has increased since 2004, considering the rapid rise in Brazil’s agricultural production and land prices. Pegging the annual loss at 2.2 million hectares every year, or about 1.1% of the remaining cerrado, he compared this to Brazil’s Amazon rainforest loss of 10.7 million hectares between 2002 and 2006, 2.1 million hectares or about 0.5% a year.

Scientists has said deforestation of the rainforest have been fueled by conversion of the cerrado for large-scale soybean farms, sugar plantations and cattle pasture as small-scale farmers and land speculators dig deeper into forest areas. Road and infrastructure development have also spurred deforestation.

Philip Fearnside, a researcher at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon said, “Soybean farms cause some forest clearing directly. But they have a much greater impact on deforestation by consuming cleared land, savanna, and transitional forests, thereby pushing ranchers and slash-and-burn farmers ever deeper into the forest frontier. Soybean farming also provides a key economic and political impetus for new highways and infrastructure projects, which accelerate deforestation by other actors.”

William F. Laurance, president of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) concurs, commenting that “Soy farming is having a huge impact in the Amazon right now, for three reasons. First, industrial soy farmers are themselves clearing a lot of forest. Second, soy farmers are buying up large expanses of cleared land from slash-and-burn farmers and cattle ranchers, and the displaced farmers and ranchers often just move further out into the forest, maintaining a lot of pressure on frontier areas. Finally, the soy farmers are a very powerful political lobby that is pushing for major expansion of roads, highways, river-channelization projects, and other transportation that will criss-cross large expanses of the Amazon. This infrastructure is acting like Pandora’s box–it is opening up the frontier to spontaneous, unplanned colonization and exploitation by ranchers, farmers, hunters, and illegal gold miners.”

Dr. Daniel Nepstad of the Woods Hole Research Center expects land-clearing to accelerate and said, “We see soy prices going up partly because less soy is being grown in the U.S. as corn expands to meet the surging demand for the emerging ethanol industry. Similarly as sugar cane expands in southern Brazil, soy production is heading northward, encroaching on the Amazon.”

“The future of Cerrado is not good if the current trends persist,” said Machado.

Some, such as Alian

Five Good Reasons To Love A Recession, Home Depot Coupons Not Withstanding

What do you think of when you hear the word recession? Ruin? Breadlines? Layoffs? Used cars? Repossessed homes? A mountain of Home Depot coupons? Everyone fears a recession, but believe it or not, a recession does not mean the end of the world as you know it. In fact, economists view a recession as a normal part of the naturally ebbing and flowing U.S economy. In the same way bulls become bears and hot markets turn cool, capitalist economies occasionally slow down, pause, and take the time to breathe.

The best way to deal with recession? Smile, hoist half-filled cups of regular unleaded, and think of the ten good things about the looming bad times. Here are five reasons you just might grow to love a recession.

1. There are shorter lines at the pump.

When the economy does well, Americans become gas hogs, furiously jockeying for their turn at the pumps. With recession pushing gas prices to an all-time high, trips to the station will become the perfect avenues for a little R and R. While you fill up, you can check the oil, enjoy a power nap, munch on chips while organizing your Home Depot coupons - yes, you can do all these before you can catch a glimpse of the next customer from your rearview mirror.

2. You can spend more time with the family.

Recreation is costly, and becomes even more so during recessions. What’s the average American to do to cope with the hard times? Why, stay at home of course! You’ll have to toss out fast-food and overpriced restaurant meals out the window and say hello to leisurely home dinners prepared with the family’s help. You can put the husband to work cutting out Home Depot coupons while the kids wash the vegetables or set the table.

3. You exercise - whether you like it or not.

As gas prices rocket past the ceiling, expect alternative modes of transportation to gain more appeal. You’ll be itching to hoof it to the bus stop, walk to the station, or ride a bike - all in an effort to save dollars. Solitary walks can be quite lonely, however, so keep yourself entertained by going over the Home Depot coupons you’ve amassed. Who knows? You might feel like dropping by the store for power tools on your way to work.

4. You become motivated to start your own business.

Disney and Hewlett-Packard have one thing in common: both were built from scratch during economic downturns. Clearly, recession is a good time to start your own business and become your own boss. During recession, rent is cheap, competition is few and far between, and wages are down because most people have gotten laid off and have nothing better to do than stay home and accumulate Home Depot coupons.

5. You get more coupons.

Companies offer more coupons, Home Depot coupons for one, during recessions. Restaurants fill their tables during hard times through buy-one, get-one offers. With Home Depot coupons and grocery discounts, you can enjoy more for less. Not a bad stimulus to keep the hard-up going, not bad at all.

Recession’s scary, but if you face it with courage and good humor, the hard times won’t seem so bad. Think of it this way: poverty purifies the soul (or so monks would have you believe).

Recession or not, you’ll be saving money with Home Depot coupons and coupons for Office Depot. Visit DiscountSpies.com today.

Adieu PPDA

There was an end of a television era here yesterday as Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, affectionately known in this country as PPDA, made his final broadcast as anchorman on TF1’s prime time news slot.

Think of a news anchor in your own country, someone who has been around for donkeys years and at a certain time of the day when the small screen is flickering becomes almost part of the sitting room furniture.

PPDA has been something of a national institution in France for the past three decades and has quite simply been the face and voice of news, first on public television in 1976 and then from the mid 80s on the nation’s main private channel, TF1.

When you turned on the box to tune in at 8.00pm any weekday evening (holidays excepted of course) there he was in his own distinctive, laid back, gentle yet authoritative style, reading what you somehow just knew to be true - even if sometimes it wasn’t, such as the fake “exclusive” personal interview with Fidel Castro that had in fact simply been edited material lifted from a press conference.

But recent events have forced 60-year-old PPDA into earlier than expected retirement - at least from what’s considered to be the plum job in French television news. And from September he’ll be replaced by Laurence Ferrari, who’ll be making her return to TF1 after a couple of years honing her not inconsiderable skills on a rival channel.

Millions tuned in for PPDA’s last broadcast, which as usual he read with panache, switching from one report to another and then effortlessly and seamlessly arriving at his farewell.

There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation, no sudden change, no melodramatic difference in tone as PPDA simply quoted Shakespeare by saying there was a time when everyone had to move on and the inevitable could not be avoided.

He thanked viewers for their support throughout the years, his production team and even his (now) former employer TF1

“Thank you for these past two magnificent decades. It has been an honour to be here and to have been able to practise this magical profession,” he modestly said.

And then directly to the viewers, “I’m sure we’ll see each other soon.”

As the credits rolled, the clock went back over the decades to a time when PPDA still had a full head of hair.

There were clips of a much younger PPDA reporting live from Rwanda and more recently from New York after 9/11. Then a whole host of interview partners throughout the years including “spats” with former and current French presidents, Mitterrand, Chirac and Sarkozy. Interviews with other international figures past and present, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat and many, many more as television did what only television can by summing up a life or a career in less than 30 seconds.

His dignity made one particular viewer feel most humble.

Johnny Summerton is a Paris-based broadcaster, writer and journalist specialising in politics, sport and travel. For more on what’s making the headlines here in France, log on to his site at http://www.persiflagefrance.com

Sarkozy to Blame For Royal’s Break-in?

This is a political piece that by its very definition can only be filed under “Strange” on any website.

It concerns last year’s defeated candidate in the French presidential elections, S

Sarkozy’s “Astonishing” Olympic Announcement

So it’s official. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will be attending the opening of the Olympic games in Beijing,

After a “productive” 30-minute meeting with the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, Sarkozy’s office officially released the news on Wednesday that it had already leaked to the French media last Friday.

To many in France, the news will have come as much of a surprise as suddenly discovering that the Pope is Catholic.

Basically it was always on the cards right back in March when Sarkozy first started digging himself into something of a diplomatic hole by saying he was shocked by China’s security clampdown in Tibet and urging Beijing to re-open discussions with the exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

That of course opened a Pandora’s box of speculation and thus began for the next month a huge domestic debate in the media as to “whether he would/should” or “whether he wouldn’t/shouldn’t” attend the opening ceremony.

Sarkozy didn’t really help matters that much by staying silent and letting the rumours rumble along.

He remained tight-lipped in early April when his junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade, said in a newspaper interview that Sarkozy had set three indispensable “conditions” for Chinese authorities to meet before he would confirm his attendance.

Yade later backtracked, maintaining she had been misquoted. That led to (even more) speculation from some quarters that Sarkozy was playing a clever game of testing the political waters without actually getting his feet wet himself.

And then of course a few days later there was the disrupted passage of the Olympic flame through the streets of Paris, when demonstrators forced its journey to be cut short - right there in the glare of the world’s media. Not a peep was heard from Sarkozy’s office at the Elys

Coal And Forest Preservation

The recent conference on global deforestation held in Sydney co hosted by the Australian Ministers for Environment and Foreign Affairs drew a crowd of ministers, officials from all over the world and international development agencies. Preservation of natural forests was proven to be of particular interest, especially when it is largely believed that deforestation contributes about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Australian Government committed $200million to a global initiative on forests and climate and will be joined by the US and other countries.

Malcolm Turnball, Australian Minister for the Environment was quick to point out that Australia’s contribution will focus on “practical measures”, such as the promotion of better forest management, plantation of new forests and the use of remote-sensing technology to monitor the progress of deforestation in Indonesia, the Philippines and Pacific nations.

However, the truth remains that sustainable forest management in natural forests in the tropics is very often simply not as rewarding economically as the combination of rapid logging and conversion of the land to other uses.

At the recent high-level meeting, Turnbull estimated that for Indonesia alone halving its current rate of forest loss could be worth $3 billion a year in retained carbon value.

But the bottom line is someone has to pay for the carbon emission prevented all of it for this to become a reality, and who could or would?

The Stern report, strongly encourages reductions to happen as soon as possible, before costs becomes prohibitive.

The answer is that high greenhouse gas emitting industries could, with the proper incentives to do so. One possible example is the Australian coal-fired energy sector.

Current projections of coal consumption for power in Australia suggests that by 2030 about 50% more coal than is presently being used will be consumed. However, should the consumption of coal follow the trend needed for it to play its proportional part in reducing Australia’s level of greenhouse gas to 50 or 60% of current levels by 2050, then by 2030, to be on track, consumption would have to be down to about 75% of present levels.

If the coal industry was to begin buyin avoided deforestation credits from Indonesia, to offset the difference between its actual use of coal and the amount it would have to reduce to meet targets, it would need to buy about 60,000ha of avoided deforestation credit in the first year, and this would increase quickly to an impressive 1.4 million ha or so by 2030.

As the demand for offset carbon supplies grows, the price paid for that carbon may rise from $15 currently to $45 a tonne by 2030. Prices of electricity from coal would increase by about 3.8% in 2015, 8% in 2020 and 20% in 2030.

This increase in prices would be low compared to 40 - 100% price hikes for electricity that would be needed by nuclear power, one of Prime Minister John Howard’s favoured options.

Under the catalyst of emission targets, lower emission alternatives for power, in the form of natural gas and geo-thermal options, wind, solar and other technologies, would gain greater market share, and the coal industry might eventually crack the clean coal problem.

The avoided deforestation option should be seen as an interim strategy, buying natural forests in Indonesia time in the medium term while allowing Australia to address its emission issues.

From Indonesia’s point of view, reducing deforestation will by no means be a low-cost exercise.

For a country to be able to sell carbon from avoided deforestation, total levels of forest loss in the entire nation must come down. This would require a broad international undertaking to implement a viable global market for avoided deforestation, which probably means that a Kyoto-style international treaty will be required. Developed nations would also have to show their own commitment as potential buyers of the carbon credits. This would be in the form of serious measures that will require greenhouse gas emissions to begin falling in line with international target levels.

L. S. Sya [please visit Deforestation Watch.] Deforestation Watch was established to drive sustainability mainstream. Striving to be a center of green news, solutions and all things green, we also help corporations looking for green guidance.

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