Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Is Piezoelectricity a Feasible Solution?
Piezoelectricity is the charge that is generated in certain materials, mostly crystals, when they experience mechanical strain. This technology is already being used in a variety of common tools such as cigarette lighters and push-ignition barbecue grills. Piezoelectricity has the potential to provide us with a great source of green energy if it is properly utilized. As with many other renewable energy sources, scientists are diligently working to find the best possible ways to harvest piezoelectric energy.
Hydrogen South Africa (HYSA)
AfriWea are pleased to announce that the Honourable Deputy Minister of the South African Department of Science and Technology Mr. Derek Hanekom, will be the Guest of Honour at the Gala Dinner Tuesday evening 10 May 2011.
DST has a proud record of funding leading edge research, with a number of projects featured during the conference. This includes Hydrogen South Africa (HYSA) where the University of Western Cape have commissioned a Hydrogen Systems Program developing high temperature fuel cell technology, Optimal Energy with the SA electric vehicle, and Tshwane University of Technology where Retecza has developed a hydrogen powered bicycle for rural areas.
DST has a proud record of funding leading edge research, with a number of projects featured during the conference. This includes Hydrogen South Africa (HYSA) where the University of Western Cape have commissioned a Hydrogen Systems Program developing high temperature fuel cell technology, Optimal Energy with the SA electric vehicle, and Tshwane University of Technology where Retecza has developed a hydrogen powered bicycle for rural areas.
A NUCLEAR FREE AFRICAN CONTINENT IS POSSIBLE
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan has stopped the global renaissance of electricity generation from nuclear sources in its tracks.
Governments world-wide and in Africa are rethinking their nuclear power plans and with only one nuclear power station in Africa coming to the end of its economic life time:
A NUCLEAR FREE AFRICAN CONTINENT IS POSSIBLE
With most, if not all, African countries being desperately short of new electricity generation capacity wind power will become the most economic alternative to be implemented in the shortest possible time.
In reaction some turbine suppliers have experienced an immediate increase in their share values of up to 40%, which will soon be reflected positively also in their order books.
These signs leave no time for procrastination in implementing new wind power plants. Will the world and Africa in particular be soon in the same situation, similar to 2008, where delivery periods of turbines and components were in excess of three years and prices rising?
Governments world-wide and in Africa are rethinking their nuclear power plans and with only one nuclear power station in Africa coming to the end of its economic life time:
A NUCLEAR FREE AFRICAN CONTINENT IS POSSIBLE
With most, if not all, African countries being desperately short of new electricity generation capacity wind power will become the most economic alternative to be implemented in the shortest possible time.
In reaction some turbine suppliers have experienced an immediate increase in their share values of up to 40%, which will soon be reflected positively also in their order books.
These signs leave no time for procrastination in implementing new wind power plants. Will the world and Africa in particular be soon in the same situation, similar to 2008, where delivery periods of turbines and components were in excess of three years and prices rising?
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Kenya to be First in Africa with Solar-Powered Farm
Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) is looking to create a solar-powered facility that aims to have the first “green” farm in Africa using renewable energy.
The farm, set to come online in June, will use solar power to operate over 100 acres of land at Kari Muguga. The facility began trial tests with a new greenhouse technology acquired from the South Korean government and will coincide with the newly created Africa Carbon Exchange facility.
Alternative Energy Africa is trying to reduce its own carbon footprint in 2011. Ask about our electronic subscriptions and online marketing campaigns specially tailored for individual companies.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Role of Women in Clean Energy
Monday, April 4, 2011
Many institutions are focusing their efforts on women – particularly in Africa – as a driving force behind renewable energy.
In Gambia and Senegal, women have received training to use Mayon Turbo and Rocket stoves as part of a RE program geared specifically toward women. Barefoot College also began training grandmothers in developing countries to help further self-sufficiency and sustainability. Local environmentalists and Indian activist Bunker Roy has a training program for grandmothers in 23 African countries including Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda, just to name a few.
Another organization geared toward female involvement in the RE sector is Women for Green Growth who have taught women to dry cocoa beans via solar energy and biogas in cocoa rich areas like Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria.
And on April 6, top female leaders will gather in Abu Dhabi to discuss “The Role of Women in the Clean Energy Revolution” during the Clean Energy, Education, and Empowerment (C3E) Initiative. Masdar Institute has made this a priority as the world’s first graduate university focused on research and development of sustainable science and technology. Currently 37% of the academic facility’s student body is comprised of females.
A paper released by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, “The Role of Women in Sustainable Energy,” said: “Women are more and more adopting non-traditional work roles in the energy sector, due to the rising number of female-headed households globally and to the increasing access by women to science and technology education.” Although this paper was released in 2000, the premise is even more true 11 years later. In addition, many microfinancing systems have been incorporated into the sector specifically aimed at granting women loans.
The UNDP said that women make up over 50% of the global population, but constitute less than 20% of the global workforce.
Alternative Energy Africa is trying to reduce its own carbon footprint in 2011. Ask about our electronic subscriptions and online marketing campaigns specially tailored for individual companies.
Russia Sneaks Back into Tanzanian Uranium
Monday, April 4, 2011
Tanzania’s Mkuju uranium assets are back on the auction block with Russian firm JSC Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ) purchasing assets from Aussie firm Mantra Resources Ltd. The transaction, originally priced at $1.16 billion, will sell for $944 million with the deal expected to close in July.
The mining plant in southern Tanzania is expected to begin operating in Q4 2013. Minister for Energy and Minerals, William Ngeleja, told The EastAfrican that the Mkuju River Project is shaping up into a truly world-class venture and has the potential, in its first phase of development, to position Tanzania as the third, and perhaps even the second largest producer of uranium in Africa. Ngeleja said that the pre-feasibility study in March 2010 indicated that once developed the mine would produce 1,650 tons of uranium oxide a year. This figure would propel it to become the eighth largest producer in the world overtaking the US which produced 1,560 tons in 2009.
The Tanzanian government expects to reap $630 million as profit over the mine’s 15-year span.
Interestingly, in 2009 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev traveled throughout Africa promoting nuclear ambitions taking particular interest in Namibia’s vast uranium deposits. Yury Trutnev, Russia's Natural Resources Minister, said Moscow was interested in helping Namibia develop its nuclear industry. "Namibia very much needs to develop its energy sphere," he said. And in October 2010, Russian company Borodino signed a deal with the East African country to finance the construction of the $700 million Rumakali hydropower plant in October. This, of course, is in addition to Russia’s alliance with China over African ventures coincidentally enough in hydrocarbon and uranium-rich countries.
Alternative Energy Africa is trying to reduce its own carbon footprint in 2011. Ask about our electronic subscriptions and online marketing campaigns specially tailored for individual companies.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
AfDB creates $57m Africa renewable energy fund
By: Reuters
29th March 2011
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has established a $57-million fund for renewable enery projects across the continent, the bank's chief sector specialist said on Tuesday.
The Denmark-backed Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa joins two other similar green energy funds in the region worth $6-billion being run by the AfDB and twelve non-African donor countries.
"It is a clean investment... in only clean renewables," Youseff Arfaoui, the bank's chief renewable energy specialist, told Reuters on the sidelines of an African power conference in South Africa's commercial capital.
Arfaoui said the AfDB expected to take the loan to its board for approval in May. No recipient countries had been chosen yet as the fund was not expected to be in full operation before June, he added.
The Denmark-backed Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa joins two other similar green energy funds in the region worth $6-billion being run by the AfDB and twelve non-African donor countries.
"It is a clean investment... in only clean renewables," Youseff Arfaoui, the bank's chief renewable energy specialist, told Reuters on the sidelines of an African power conference in South Africa's commercial capital.
Arfaoui said the AfDB expected to take the loan to its board for approval in May. No recipient countries had been chosen yet as the fund was not expected to be in full operation before June, he added.
Edited by: Reuters
Tanzania Calls for Power Plant Bids
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Tanzania is looking to construct emergency power plants to supply 260 MW and has issued a tender for contractors.
"A tender has already been announced to seek a contractor that will meet the required standards and come up with affordable costs," President Jakaya Kikwete said in a month-end national address televised on April 1. The state-owned Tanzania Electric Supply Co. (Tanesco) will attempt to add the power to the national grid by July.
Most recently, the country’s VP Dr. Mohamed Gharib Bilal called on energy experts to help Tanzania meet its domestic energy demand. Please see Experts Challenged by Tanzania’s VP.
Africa's Future Lies in a Green Energy Grid
By Stephen Leahy*
UXBRIDGE, Canada, Dec 14, 2010 (IPS) - Development in Africa could falter as climate change grips the continent, increasing the length and severity of droughts and floods by altering precipitation patterns, among other impacts.
The region needs a major shift in its economic development policies and thinking towards decentralised, green economic development, experts now say.
"The world's big economies are largely living off financial transactions which are unconnected to development," warns Supachai Panitchpakdi, secretary-general of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
"Export growth does not automatically result in green economic growth, we must look at trade for development," said Panitchpakdi.
In a rejection of failed neoliberal economic policies, Panitchpakdi said strong national policies on investments, taxation, protection of local industries, including subsidies, and changes to less restrictive intellectual property regimes are what is needed to green economies in Africa and elsewhere.
"Green economic development underpins environmental protection, economic growth and development," he said.
The tentative global economic recovery this year is largely a jobless recovery because the current economic growth model is designed to make "people redundant", said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP).
"It favours large concentrated power grids, for example, which require very few people," Steiner told IPS.
A low-carbon economy is not for the rich countries, it is for the poorest because it is more resource-efficient, employs more people and brings development at a lower cost, he said, adding, "We have to grow the economies of Africa but only through green sustainable development, delinked from increasing resource use."
"After 50 years of development, 80 percent of Kenya's population had no access to electricity. Now, after a 2008 shift to renewable energy, more Kenyans have access to electricity than ever before," he noted.
Kenya's feed-in tariff, similar to Germany's, is expected to produce about 1300 MW of electricity generation capacity from biomass, geothermal, biogas, solar energy, wind, and small hydro this year. A feed-in tariff offers long-term contracts at a set price based on the cost for renewable energy generation.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53856
UXBRIDGE, Canada, Dec 14, 2010 (IPS) - Development in Africa could falter as climate change grips the continent, increasing the length and severity of droughts and floods by altering precipitation patterns, among other impacts.
The region needs a major shift in its economic development policies and thinking towards decentralised, green economic development, experts now say.
"The world's big economies are largely living off financial transactions which are unconnected to development," warns Supachai Panitchpakdi, secretary-general of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
"Export growth does not automatically result in green economic growth, we must look at trade for development," said Panitchpakdi.
In a rejection of failed neoliberal economic policies, Panitchpakdi said strong national policies on investments, taxation, protection of local industries, including subsidies, and changes to less restrictive intellectual property regimes are what is needed to green economies in Africa and elsewhere.
"Green economic development underpins environmental protection, economic growth and development," he said.
The tentative global economic recovery this year is largely a jobless recovery because the current economic growth model is designed to make "people redundant", said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP).
"It favours large concentrated power grids, for example, which require very few people," Steiner told IPS.
A low-carbon economy is not for the rich countries, it is for the poorest because it is more resource-efficient, employs more people and brings development at a lower cost, he said, adding, "We have to grow the economies of Africa but only through green sustainable development, delinked from increasing resource use."
"After 50 years of development, 80 percent of Kenya's population had no access to electricity. Now, after a 2008 shift to renewable energy, more Kenyans have access to electricity than ever before," he noted.
Kenya's feed-in tariff, similar to Germany's, is expected to produce about 1300 MW of electricity generation capacity from biomass, geothermal, biogas, solar energy, wind, and small hydro this year. A feed-in tariff offers long-term contracts at a set price based on the cost for renewable energy generation.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53856
Renewable Energy Deals Increase as Confidence Returns, PWC Says
The number of deals including biofuels and wind, solar and hydroelectric power climbed by two-thirds to 530 in 2010 from 319 the previous year, PWC said today. Photographer: Denis Doyle/Bloomberg
Renewable energy mergers and acquisition activity escalated last year as confidence returned to the market and sellers priced assets more realistically, the global accounting firm PwC said.
The number of deals including biofuels and wind, solar and hydroelectric power climbed by two-thirds to 530 in 2010 from 319 the previous year, PwC said today in an e-mailed report. At the same time, renewable energy deals were smaller, with total value falling to $33.4 billion from $48.8 billion.
“There’s relatively strong confidence coming back to the renewables market,” Ronan O’Regan, London-based director of renewables at PwC, said in a phone interview. “There was a clear gap in 2008 and 2009 between sellers’ expectations and buyers’ view of value, and people have become more realistic on value.”
While deal activity picked up, renewable energy shares slumped in 2010, with the Wilderhill New Energy Index declining 15 percent and the FTSE Renewable and Alternative Energy Index falling 8.4 percent as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average both rose.
Green energy investment seeing strong rise, says WEF
Wind power can compete with fossil fuel rivals without government subsidies, WEF says It added that more clean energy sources could now compete with fossil fuels.
Higher energy prices were also likely to increase demand for clean energy, WEF said
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12910298
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