An employee walking along a thermal pipe at the Kamojang geothermal power plant near Garut, West Java, on March 18. State utility provider Perusahaan Listrik Negara is targeting an additional 135 megawatts of electricity from three new geothermal plants. (Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)
"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,.. etc.)
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)(Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)
“.. Nuclear Power Revealed
So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.
It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.
We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.
This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time. …”
Some 800 houses in Groningen are to be
fitted with aluminium chimneys which are better able to withstand earthquakes.
Tens of thousands of buildings in Groningen province have been affected by
subsidence caused by the land settling after gas has been extracted.
‘The
shaking of a house during an earthquake can loosen the chimney,’ a spokesman
for the centre for safe living CVW told Radio 1. ‘This can then fall, causing
more damage and possibly hitting bystanders.’
The new chimneys are made from
aluminium with a thin stone cladding to match the house, and are much lighter
than the traditional brick chimneys. ‘Those can weigh 600 or 700 kilos and are
much more likely to fall during a severe earthquake,’ the CVW said.
At the
beginning of this year the cabinet agreed to a substantial cut in gas
extraction over the next three years because of the earthquake risk. In
Loppersum, the epicenter of many of the quakes, production is being reduced by
80%.
A decision to further cut the gas supplies was made in June which will
cost the cabinet hundreds of millions of euros in lost revenue.
Chinese
prosecutors are to probe whether deadly blasts at a warehouse in Tianjin were
due to illegal storage of dangerous materials, state media say. The explosions
killed 112 people and injured hundreds.
State prosecutors
in China said on Sunday they had started an investigation to see whether owners
of the warehouse where the explosions occurred were guilty of violating laws on
the storage of hazardous chemicals.
Such a
large amount would be a clear violation of rules cited by state media that a
maximum of 10 tons of the chemical may be stored at any one time. Chinese laws
on hazmat storage also stipulate that such substances should not be kept closer
than 1 kilometer from residential areas and public structures.
The Chinese military is helping with cleanup operations
Sodium
cyanide can form a flammable gas upon contact with water, and members of the
public have questioned whether this fact had been taken into account by firefighters
responding to the accident. At least 21 firefighters were among those killed in
the warehouse fire and ensuing explosions, making the disaster the deadliest
for the Chinese fire brigade in more than six decades.
Eighty-five
of the 1,000 firefighters sent to combat the blaze remained unaccounted for on
Sunday, with 88 bodies of victims still unidentified.
In addition
to the 112 people confirmed dead, more than 700 people were hospitalized with
sometimes serious injuries. Many were hurt by glass shattered in the huge
fireballs that rose over the city on Wednesday night.
The explosions caused massive blast waves
Official
reassurances
In the face
of internet rumors to the contrary, authorities have sought to reassure the
public that the air in Tianjin remains safe to breathe, despite slightly raised
levels of some pollutants.
In a bid to
further dispel public mistrust, the Chinese premier Li Keqiang arrived in the
city on Sunday afternoon and came within a kilometer of the blast site without
wearing any form of protective clothing.
Li also
visited those injured and displaced by the disaster.
The
government has also shut down a total of 50 websites and 360 social media
accounts for "creating panic by publishing unverified information or
letting users spread groundless rumors," according to the Cyberspace
Administration of China.
The Tianjin
accident was one of the deadliest to occur in China in recent years. In June
2013, a fire at a poultry plant in the northeastern province of Jilin killed
121 people. In August 2014, 97 died in an explosion at a metal plant in eastern
Jiangsu province.
tj/sgb (AP, dpa, AFP)
An aerial
view of Tianjin Port, October 2012. (File photo/Xinhua)
A damaged
fire truck is seen at the site of the massive explosions in Tianjin
on August
13, 2015 (AFP Photo)
Tianjin
(China) (AFP) - A Chinese military team of nuclear and chemical experts began
work Thursday at the site of two massive explosions in the city of Tianjin,
state media said, as pressure grows for authorities to explain the cause of
blasts that left 50 dead.
The
detonation at a chemical warehouse in the major Chinese port city also injured
more than 700, according to official media, leaving a devastated landscape of
incinerated cars, toppled shipping containers and burnt-out buildings.
The
217-strong group of military specialists tested the air around the site for
toxic gases, with rescue teams ordered to wear protective clothing in the
vicinity due to the ongoing risk of leaking poisonous chemicals, the official Xinhua
news agency reported.
Enormous
explosions in Tianjin have killed
at least 50 people and injured more than
700,
state media report (AFP Photo)
Environmental
campaign group Greenpeace warned that substances from the site could be
dangerous, saying it was "critical" that the potential toxins in the
air were monitored closely.
Rescuers
were attempting to remove 700 tons of deadly sodium cyanide from the area late
Thursday, Communist Party newspaper the People's Daily reported.
Wen Wurui,
head of Tianjin's environment protection bureau, told a televised briefing that
harmful chemicals detected in the air were not at "excessively high"
levels.
A lack of
answers as to what caused the blast 24 hours on has reinforced questions about
standards in the country, where campaigners say lives are sacrificed on a lack
of respect for safety and poor implementation.
A panel of
officials at a Thursday press conference were peppered with questions about
what chemicals were in the tanks that exploded, but they refused to provide
details, and the briefing ended abruptly with officials rushing off stage.
"Clearly
there is no real culture of safety in the workplace in China," said
Geoffrey Crothall, spokesman for Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, which
promotes worker rights.
Zhang Yong,
the head of Binhai New District where the blasts occurred, told journalists
only that "before the explosion, locals saw the fire and reported
it".
Citing
rescue headquarters, the official Xinhua news agency said 50 people had been
killed, including at least 12 firefighters.
'I
thought it was an earthquake'
Damaged
cars and containers are seen
at the site of a series of explosions in
Tianjin, on August 13, 2015 (AFP Photo)
An AFP
reporter in Tianjin in the early hours of Thursday saw shattered glass up to
three kilometres (two miles) from the site of the blast, which unleashed a vast
fireball that dwarfed towers in the area, lit up the night sky and rained
debris on the city.
"When
I felt the explosion I thought it was an earthquake," resident Zhang
Zhaobo told AFP. "I ran to my father and I saw the sky was already red.
All the glass was broken, and I was really afraid."
The blast
site sits in a giant logistics hub more than twice the size of Hong Kong.
It hosts
auto plants, aircraft assembly lines, oil refineries and other service and
production facilities.
The
explosion was felt several kilometres away, even being picked up by a Japanese
weather satellite, and images showed walls of flame enveloping buildings and
rank after rank of gutted cars at an import facility.
Paramedics
rushed the injured on stretchers into city hospitals as doctors bandaged up
victims, many of them covered in blood.
At one city
hospital a doctor wept over a dead firefighter still in uniform, his skin
blackened from smoke, as he was wheeled past along with two other bodies.
Rescuers
are seen at the site of the massive
explosions in Tianjin on August 13, 2015
(AFP Photo)
Xinhua said
701 people were hospitalised, 71 of them in critical condition.
Mei Xiaoya,
10, and her mother were turned away from the first hospital they went to
because there were too many people, she told AFP.
"I'm
not afraid, it's just a scratch," she said pointing to the bandage on her
arm. "But mum was hurt badly, she couldn't open her eyes."
The blaze
that followed the blast was brought "under initial control" on
Thursday afternoon, Xinhua cited the public security ministry as saying, after
1,000 firefighters and 143 fire engines had been deployed to the site.
Xinhua
described the facility as a storage and distribution centre of containers of
dangerous goods, including chemicals.
Executives
from the storage centre's owner, Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International
Logistics, were taken into custody by police, it said. 'All-out efforts'
State broadcaster CCTV said that President Xi Jinping had urged "all-out efforts to rescue victims and extinguish the fire".
On Thursday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and the injuries to scores of people".
A man waits
in a wheelchair after receiving treatment at Gangkou hospital in
Tianjin,
following a series of explosions at a warehouse in the northern Chinese
city,
early on August 13, 2015 (AFP Photo/Benjamin Haas)
China has a
dismal industrial safety record as some factory and warehouse owners evade
regulations to save money and pay off corrupt officials to look the other way.
In 2013, a
pipeline explosion at state-owned oil refiner Sinopec's facility in the eastern
port of Qingdao killed 62 people and injured 136.
In July
this year, 15 people were killed and more than a dozen injured when an illegal
fireworks warehouse exploded in the northern province of Hebei, which
neighbours Tianjin.
And 146
were killed in an explosion at a car parts factory in Kunshan, near Shanghai,
in August last year.
Tianjin,
about 140 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of Beijing, is one of China's biggest
cities with a population of nearly 15 million people, according to 2013
figures.
Operators
restart the nuclear reactor at the Kyushu Electric Power Sendai
nuclear power
plant in Satsumasendai, on Japan's southern island of Kyushu on
August 11, 2015
(AFP Photo)
Japan on
Tuesday restarted its nuclear power programme after a shutdown triggered by the
2011 Fukushima crisis, as the government pushes to return to a cheaper energy
source despite widespread public opposition.
Utility
Kyushu Electric Power turned on a reactor at Sendai, about 1,000 kilometres
(620 miles) southwest of Tokyo, at 10:30 am (0130 GMT).
The
31-year-old reactor -- operating under tougher post-Fukushima safety rules --
was expected to reach full capacity around 11:00 pm Tuesday and would start
generating power by Friday.
People
stage a sit-in rally against the
restarting of the nuclear reactor outside
the Kyushu Electric Power Sendai
nuclear power plant in Satsumasendai
on August 11,
2015 (AFP Photo)
Commercial
operations would begin early next month, a company spokesman said.
The restart
comes more than four years after a quake-sparked tsunami swamped cooling
systems and triggered reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima plant, prompting the
shutdown of Japan's stable of 50 reactors and starting a pitched battle over
the future use of atomic power.
The
accident sent radiation over a wide area and forced tens of thousands from
their homes -- many of whom will likely never return -- in the worst nuclear
accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
Decommissioning
of the crippled Fukushima reactors is expected to take decades and compensation
expenses -- excluding the cost of the site's cleanup -- now top $57 billion.
Anti-nuclear
sentiment still runs high in Japan and television showed protesters scuffling
with police in front of the plant, which is on the southernmost main island of Kyushu.
Among the
200 protesters was Naoto Kan, prime minister at the time of Fukushima and now a
high-profile anti-nuclear activist. He said the failure of pro-atomic premier
Shinzo Abe to cancel the restart "cannot be forgiven".
The
resource-poor nation, which once relied on nuclear power for a quarter of its
electricity, restarted two reactors temporarily to feed its needs after
Fukushima. But they both went offline by September 2013, making Japan
completely nuclear-free for about two years.
'Safety
first'
The country
adopted stricter safety regulations to avoid a repeat of the accident,
including more backup prevention measures and higher tsunami-blocking walls in
some areas.
The restart
of a reactor at the Kyushu Electric Power Sendai nuclear power
plant ends a
two-year nuclear shutdown in the energy-hungry country that was
sparked by
public fears following the 2011 Fukushima crisis (AFP Photo/JIJI PRESS)
"It is
important to restart reactors one by one from the perspective of energy
security, the economy and measures against global warming, but safety always
comes first," Industry Minister Yoichi Miyazawa told reporters..
Yukio
Edano, a senior member of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan who
criticised Abe for taking a holiday near Mount Fuji on Tuesday, said the
restart was ill-advised and "trampled on the grave sacrifice seen in
Fukushima".
Strengthened
safety measures are key to Abe's bid to get some of about four dozen reactors
back up and running. The government wants nuclear power to generate up to 22
percent of Japan's electricity needs by 2030, a lower percentage than before
Fukushima.
Power
companies that own the reactors are also keen for more restarts after having to
import pricey fossil fuels.
Japan's
post-Fukushima energy bill skyrocketed as it scrambled to fill the gap left by
taking reactors offline, a problem worsened by a sharp weakening of the yen
which pushed up the cost of dollar-denominated energy imports.
Several
other reactors have been given a safety green light, but battle lines are drawn
in many local communities strongly opposed to restarts.
About 200
protesters gathered in front of the Sendai plant to protest against
the
restart, including Naoto Kan, prime minister at the time of the Fukushima
disaster (AFP Photo)
"Abe
is not listening to the voice of the people -- he is acting as if he has been
given a blank cheque," said Takashi Kato, professor emeritus at Tokyo's
Seikei University.
Officials
have stressed that any switched-on reactor would operate under much tighter
regulations than those that existed before Fukushima. Some will be
decommissioned for safety reasons.
"A
disaster like that at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant
will not occur" under the new rules, Nuclear Regulation Authority chairman
Shunichi Tanaka said in an interview with the Nikkei newspaper published at the
weekend.
But Tanaka
conceded there was "no such thing as absolute safety" and Japan's
people are sceptical as the country remains deeply scarred by the legacy of
Fukushima -- although no deaths have been directly attributed to the accident.
The
government was strongly criticised for its cosy ties with Fukushima operator
Tokyo Electric Power Co, which itself was accused of incompetence in dealing
with the 2011 crisis.
Last month
a judicial review panel decided that a trio of former TEPCO executives should
be indicted, paving the way for the first criminal trial linked to the
disaster.
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)(Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)
“...Japan
Let us talk for a moment about Japan, and then I'll close the day of messages. There are thousands of souls on my side of the veil and they're just fine, more than fine. We have spoken so often of what happens at the Wind of Birth. I told you, before they even came in, they saw the potential. I looked in their eyes. "You may not last long. You know that, don't you? You're coming into this planet and you may not be here very long. And the passing that you will have with your family will not be pleasant, if any ever are. Why would you come in anyway?" I want to tell you what they said. When a soul has the mind of God, it understands fully what generates peace and what generates energy shift. You can clearly see what generates what the planet needs the most when you are about to arrive. So they said, "We're going to be part of one of the biggest compassion events the planet has ever seen."One earthquake, one tsunami. All of those who left that day will change the earth forever. And it already has. It was the same for the last tsunami as well.
Every single one of them on my side of the veil is getting ready to come back. Many old souls were involved, and just for a moment, if they could give you any information, if they could talk to you right now, if they could speak your language and look into your eyes, they would thank you for your compassion for them and those who are left. And they would say, "Be with those family members who are still alive. Enter their hearts every day and give them peace and keep them from crying, because we're OK."
Nuclear Power Revealed
So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.
It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.
We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know. This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time.
So in closing, do you understand what you're seeing? You're seeing intelligent design, quantum energy and high consciousness. You are seeing changes in Human nature. You're seeing countries putting things together instead of separating. You are seeing those who don't want war and instead want peace, good schools for their children, safety in their streets and a say in their government. We told you it was going to happen this way. I want my partner to teach these things that I have said in his 3D lectures for awhile. Many won't be able to know these things otherwise. …”
Artist
nicknamed "Trejo" paints a mural honoring the wisdom of the elders in
the
Palmitas neighborhood of Pachuca, Mexico, as part of a giant mural across
the
shantytown's houses (AFP Photo/Omar Torres)
Pachuca
(Mexico) (AFP) - Palmitas, a hardscrabble neighborhood in the Mexican city of
Pachuca, used to have a reputation as a battleground where gangs fought deadly
turf wars.
But
recently the bloodshed on the hillside slum's narrow streets has fallen dramatically
and it has gained a far more welcome kind of attention.
General
view of the giant mural in Palmitas,
Pachuca, which contains still more
mini-murals that interact playfully with
the overall design (AFP Photo/Omar
Torres)
A Mexican
artists' collective called German Crew has painted a giant mural across the
shantytown's houses, working with residents to transform their crumbling walls
into a vibrant artwork.
Viewed at a
distance, the entire neighborhood now forms a bright, rainbow-colored wave that
has brought new pride for residents and opened new horizons for local youths.
Viewed up
close, the giant mural contains still more mini-murals that interact playfully
with the overall design.
The artists
repainted some 20,000 square meters (215,000 square feet) of gray walls across
more than 200 houses to create what the city government bills as the largest
mural in Mexico.
The project
was launched in 2012 with the goal of using art to repair the neighborhood's
tattered social fabric and reduce crime.
Funded by
the Mexican government, it cost $310,000 and employed 20 local painters.
"We
had to convince residents to let us repaint their houses," said Ana
Estefania Garcia, the head of city planning for Pachuca, a two-hour drive
northeast of Mexico City.
"First
the neighborhood was repainted in white, as if to say, 'We're starting from
scratch.' That was a shock for them."
The city
meanwhile cleaned the neighborhood's streets, removed the rusted-out remains of
junked cars and installed new streetlights and eight security cameras.
Partial
view of the giant mural in Palmitas, Pachuca, which contains still
\more
mini-murals that interact playfully with the overall design (AFP
Photo/Omar
Torres)
The
sprawling artwork was then painted across this new facade, relaunching the
tradition of the Mexican mural, brought to world fame by artists such as Diego
Rivera (1886-1957).
New
beginnings
City
officials credit the project with a dramatic drop in crime.
"Crime
has gone down by 35 percent since the project was launched in 2012," said
Garcia.
"Members
of rival gangs worked together on the project. They got to know each
other."
The gangs
still exist, but today they "eat, paint and get along," she said.
"They're
not best friends, but they know they can work together to take care of their
community."
That view
is echoed by Roberto Robles, a 36-year-old graffiti artist and member of German
Crew.
City
officials in Pachuca say a project to
paint the walls of houses with a mural
has reduced crime by 35 percent since its
launch in 2012 (AFP Photo/Omar
Torres)
"Art
makes a big difference. Colors change people's mood. Gray immerses them in
monotony," he said.
"One
boy told me that since we painted his house, he feels like going to school more
because he's happier."
Some are
skeptical, however, including the lone resident to resist the mural project.
"The
cameras are the main thing that reduced the violence. A thug stays a thug, no
matter what color the walls are," said Adante Lopez, who initially refused
to have his house repainted before finally giving in.
But the
mural has not been touched by graffiti or vandalism since its completion.
German Crew
is now working on more detailed individual paintings on the walls telling the
story of the neighborhood and its residents.
Indonesia holds 40 percent of the world's geothermal potential at sites such
as the Patuha Geothermal plant in Bandung. (JG Photo/Rezza Estily)
Jakarta.
Despite Indonesia already having several plants and government plans to develop
the geothermal industry, progress has been stalled by legal protocols and a
lack of funding, the World Bank says.
Indonesia’s
position on the Pacific Ring of Fire – the intersection of three tectonic
plates – means that the country is a hotbed of seismic activity. The Indonesian
Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry estimates that the country might have the
potential to generate almost 28 gigawatts of energy this way – 40 percent of
the world’s geothermal energy resources.
The recent
Indonesian Economic Quarterly published by the World Bank in July highlighted
geothermal energy production as an area of great potential. Despite a 2012
Finance Ministry fund to develop the geothermal energy sector and capital
seeding of more than $200 million, the sector has not expanded as expected.
Plans to
build 44 new plants and triple production capacity to 4000 MW were included in
the National Energy Policy last year. However, only 175 megawatts were added
between 2010 and 2014. The World Bank attributes this to several factors,
including a hesitancy to invest, and a feed-in tariff that has discouraged the
market.
Additionally,
the country’s legal framework protecting forest areas from mining activities
was only amended to allow geothermal mining in August 2014, toward the end of
then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s term.
The feed-in
tariff, a subsidy scheme between geothermal energy suppliers and government-run
electricity monopoly PLN, failed to be implemented as sellers and buyers were
not able to agree on a fixed price.
The high
level of upfront investment required for geothermal projects also means that
pricing needs to be able to cover the costs. The government-regulated returns
made by PLN, said the World Bank, were too low to cover the risks of geothermal
development.
Aside from
PLN, other major finance institutions such as the Asian Development Bank and
the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation are often reluctant to fund
geothermal projects from the get-go, preferring to invest once the project has
been proven to have at least 50 percent of its potential.
The World
Bank has recommended improvements to the tendering process for development,
including not allowing areas to be put to tender without certified proof of its
geological potential. The institution also suggests a tariff reform based on a
continuous review process, so that present tariff can be readjusted to future
rates.
With
electricity demand growing at almost 4.8 percent annually and 35 percent of the
country’s inhabitants living without electricity, according to the
International Energy Agency, geothermal power could be the solution, especially
as it is free from the price uncertainty associated with traditional fuels.
“Geothermal
power represents an energy source that is not subject to volatility as the
price remains flat. It will also free up other resources such as coal and oil
for export,” says Rahul Shah, chief financial officer at Sorik Merapi
Geothermal Power.
Geothermal
energy is widely understood to be a proven technology that is more
environmentally friendly, with fewer resultant greenhouse gas emissions.
Development in the industry means generating power is becoming easier and more
efficient.
“This
energy is replenished through natural means and therefore does not lead to
concerns of energy security for our future generations,” Shah said. He added
that with new developments in technology, geothermal plants were now able to
generate power at much lower temperatures than before.
Another
development in the sector is a technology known as Enhanced Geothermal Systems
(EGS), which artificially cracks hot rocks to release steam to power the
turbines without the need for a nearby water source.
Geothermal
plants are often located in forest areas and displace nearby inhabitants,
raising concerns over the land space needed as well as the impact on
biodiversity.
However,
with research and new technology, pinpointing potential geothermal spots can be
space-efficient, says Indra Sari Wardhani, climate and energy manager at WWF
Indonesia. She cites the plant in Salak as an example, saying that the
facility, which has a capacity of 330 MW, takes up around 175 hectares of land.
“When you
have determined the amount of capacity and the potential points, the area that
is used is not big,” she says.
The WWF
developed guidelines last year for sustainable development of the geothermal
sector in forest areas, highlighting environmental considerations such as
maintaining biodiversity and mitigating deforestation and social disruption.
Indra Sari
says geothermal energy is likely to be a huge part of Indonesia’s move toward
renewable sources of energy.
Dutch researchers have shown that
office air conditioning systems are often set to a 1960s formula based on men’s
thermal comfort rather than women’s, according to a report on TheConversation.com.
The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that if the
office thermostat is set for men, it will be too low for women, forcing them to
put on woollies in the height of summer.
This is because women are smaller and
generate less metabolic heat than men which means they will not feel
comfortable in office temperatures set for the opposite sex.
By the same logic,
if the thermostat is set for Europeans it will be too low for Asians, who
weigh, on average, 30% less, the paper states.
Maastricht University researchers
Boris Kingma and Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt say that energy consumption in
homes and offices accounts for some 30% of carbon dioxide emissions.
However, a
more realistic approach to the temperature needs of a building’s occupants will
lead to more efficiency in energy consumption and cut emissions, the
researchers say.
