GILES PARKINSON, - CleanTechnica
Stephan: Here is the story of an Australian community that is trying to do what was done in Germany and India (note the references). Why aren't we reading about American communities replicating this path?
A consortium of energy groups look to create ‘mini electricity” system relying on local renewable energy production and storage.
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Wildpoldsried
The search has begun for a suitable town to become Australia’s first ‘zero net energy town” – where electricity is generated locally from renewable sources, and stored and distributed on a localised mini grid.
The concept of zero net energy towns (ZNET) – where local communities generator enough of their electricity needs – and sometimes much more – is becoming common in Europe and elsewhere.
The Bavarian town of Wildpoldsried is often cited as a model of what can be achieved. It produces 460% of its own energy needs from a mixture of bio-gas, wood, solar, wind and hydro generation. A village in India achieved something similar this week.
Now, a consortium of green energy, community, and academic groups, with the support of local politicians and the NSW government – is seeking to replicate this model in Australia.
Project director Adam Blakester, from Starfish Initiatives, says the consortium of groups will create a blueprint and a business case for the concept. And find the right town to put the idea into practice.
‘The ZNET idea is to create a distributed “mini’ electricity and energy system for […]
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JEFFREY M. JONES, - The Gallup Organization
Stephan: Maybe one reason America has been slow to deal with carbon energy is that most Americans don't really see climate change as a big deal likely to affect them. Why don't they? Because the Murdoch operation, one of the largest communications empires in the world, some of the richest people in the world, and their political whores have, for at least a decade, been engaged in a deliberate misinformation campaign. Billions of dollars have been spent to see that the public is confused, and their profits protected. I consider this a crime against humanity. If we put a Black kid away for life for a bag of pot, what should be the punishment of a cabal that has put humanity, and all the other beings of Earth at potentially fatal risk?
Click through to see the several charts and graphs.
PRINCETON, NJ — The majority of Americans continue to believe that the effects of global warming are happening or will begin to happen during their lifetimes. At the same time, many fewer, currently 36%, believe global warming will pose a serious threat to their way of life during their lifetimes.
Trend: Expectations for Global Warming During Lifetime
The results are based on Gallup’s annual Environment poll, conducted March 6-9. Only about half of those who expect global warming to occur during their lifetimes, 51%, believe it will pose a serious threat to their way of life. This explains the gap between Americans’ perceptions that global warming is occurring and that it will be a threat.
Although the gap between the perceived occurrence and perceived threat of global warming remains wide, it is narrower than in the past. The percentage of Americans who believe global warming’s effects will happen during their lifetimes is the same now as it was in 1997, when Gallup first asked the question, and is among the lower readings over that 17-year span. During that same period, the percentage who believe global warming will threaten their way of life has increased from 25% to 36%.
Gallup’s 2008 survey marked the peak […]
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Stephan: I live on an island 55 miles long not far from a village of a little over 1,000 people. The South end of the island has about 26,000 people scattered across an area roughly 25 miles by eight miles, so population density is low. I go into these details to make a point illustrated by three stories of communities about the size of mine. Three communities that decided to rethink the entire issue of their electrical power system -- two have succeeded, and one is on the verge. My community could do this and, if you live in a situation somewhat similar to these three, so could yours. Increasingly I have come to think that the big problem for small communities is not technology, or even money, but the ability to think in new ways and to develop the political will to make that new paradigm a reality.
-- Stephan
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GUY CHAZAN, - Financial Times (U.K.)
Stephan: This is the latest on a story I first published in SR on 20 December 2011 (see the SR archives). This village and its surrounding area is much more like a typical American rural community -- like mine, for instance. This German community has gone from being consumers of energy coming from outside their area, to an energy source, and the sale of its excess energy is financing all manner of community improvements. Now, after three years, they are even freeing themselves from carbon energy to run vehicles, as this report describes. This could be the future if we have the political will to make it so.
The villagers of Wildpoldsried are celebrating a bumper harvest this year – not of wheat, or flax, a traditional crop in this part of southern Bavaria, but energy.
The village of 2,500 inhabitants has so many solar panels, wind turbines and biomass digesters that it generates three times the energy it consumes. The surplus is sold into Germany’s electricity grid, creating a big revenue stream for the locals.
The people of Wildpoldsried are ‘prosumers” – both producers and consumers of energy. It is a class that is growing fast in this part of the world, as Germany steams ahead with its Energiewende – its hugely ambitious switch away from polluting fossil fuels to renewable energy.
But the stunning success of places such as Wildpoldsried has created a dilemma for Germany’s electricity system. All that surplus energy can undermine the stability of the grid.
That is why Wildpoldsried is now the site of a unique experiment. It has become a testing ground for intelligent control systems designed to ensure that renewable energy does not put electricity networks at risk.
Interest in smart grids has grown as the world’s energy transition gathers pace. All over the world, countries are striving to achieve three often competing objectives – […]
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EMMA FITZPATRICK, - REneweconomy(Australia)
Stephan: This is an impoverished villaged in India. Their power needs are small by Western standards, but no less significant for the village.
A small Indian village in the northeast of the country, with the help of Greenpeace, is now meeting all of its own energy requirements with solar, after 30 years of apparent neglect from the government.
Dharnai village in the state of Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, now sources its power from a solar micro-grid. Bihar currently has at least 19,000 other villages, or 82 per cent of the population, which do not receive reliable power from the traditional grid-based system and still lack access to electricity.
The 100-kilowatt (kW) system in Dharnai powers the 450 homes of the 2,400 residents, 50 commercial operations, two schools, a training centre and a health care facility. A battery backup ensures power around the clock.
This includes 70 kW for electricity generation and 30 kW for 10 solar-powered water-pumping systems with three horsepower each. The system was built within three months and has been on a test-run since March.
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This village, which is 100 per cent solar powered, is a first for India. Greenpeace says it required a heterogeneous village for this project where agriculture was the main occupation also with basic social infrastructure like school, healthcare facility, an anganwadi (communal childcare centre), a commercial zone […]
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