CLEAN & GREEN?

Sigatoga, Fiji

Discovery Channel`s Ecopolis covered an interesting research project in Australia to inject gasseous wastes from coal-fired power stations into deep underground fissures. Really, just putting the carbon back in the ground where it came from. Sounds like a pleasant alternative to pumping it into the atmosphere, if they can do it economically.

Most of New Zealand’s electricity generation is from renewable sources.　The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development says

We are already a world leader in renewable energy use for electricity generation.

About two-thirds of New Zealand’s electricity is generated from hydro. The exact amount is weather dependent so in dry years like 2008 the proportion will be lower than normal years. Still, the world average is only about 20% of electricity from hydro.

Hydro-electric power falls under the  renewables category. Hydro, like wind, is actually solar power of course because the sun evaporates water which falls on the hills as rain and snow which flows downstream and can pass through some turbines on the way.

Each year 500,000 million cubic metres of water fall onto New Zealand as rain or snow, enough to fill Lake Taupo from empty eight times over.

As long as the water cycle goes round we get power. Our sun won’t last forever, but it was around long before our species and probably will still be there long after, so that’s “renewable” enough for me.

Yet incredibly, there is now a northern hemisphere based movement to declassify hydro-electricity as “renewable” energy.

Hydro has all but disappeared from the renewable energy options usually cited by renewable energy advocates. Many environmentalists have long opposed hydroelectric power and do not consider it “green” or renewable. Much of the opposition is based on the water diversions required by traditional hydroelectric projects and the effects on land and wildlife. Fish killed as a result of passing hydro turbines has also led to a substantial amount of environmental concern. Because of this environmental opposition, some <US> states restrict the extent to which hydroelectric projects may qualify under renewable portfolio standards.

And guess what? In the United States hydro provides a mere 12% of total electricity. The United Kingdom is striving to reach a target of deriving 30% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.  And now we see the danger of letting lobbyists in the big countries drive the rules for the global green battle on their terms. Defining hydro-power as non-renewable is the sort of clap-trap eco-trade barrier that our trade negotiators need to become vigilant to.

A first step might be to quickly join forces with countries like Norway and Switzerland. These are not our traditional trade-negotiating allies given our historical emphasis on old-world market access for new-world agricultural goods. However, in the green world these countries share our interests in terms of small populations enjoying a very high proportion of renewably generated electricity. Even Canada enjoys about two thirds of its electricity from hydro – a level very similar to New Zealand. As a G8 member Canada could also be a useful ally to help ensure we are not squeezed out of the green race by big-country considerations.

Now, nobody likes a dam or a wind turbine or solar-panel farm in their back yard. It’s called the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome. But renewables are much easier on our collective future than an alternative like nuclear which is quietly and perilously accumulating stockpiles of deadly radioactive nasties. Generations ahead will be stuck with fearing these. A Green Brand New Zealand strategy will help set our priorities.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 16th, 2010 at 3:31 pm and is filed under 100% Pure New Zealand, Clean & Green, Energy, Kaitiakitanga. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.