Greenie Industry To Wear Prada?

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These days in UK, to be seen to be ‘green’ is the in thing. People appear to be manic in their wanting to be perceived as a greenie. Business and politicians and a myriad of shallow personality types like the footie wives are tripping over their glorious botoxed selves in an outbreak of greenie paranoia to be seen to be the first adopter of the Global Warming agenda.

Such is their lust to adopt greenie power, most may lose sight of what it is about. Attention Deficit Disorder appears to be rampant in the Burberry clad brigades. Like buying a puppy at Christmas, the green fad is the thing this spring and summer and god forbid that you are seen to not be a greenie supporter or wearing Alexander McQueen or Stella McCartney this season! Ask them about the impact on Africa and you are greeted with a blank staring face that you could swear thinks you are speaking martian. Also, political party manifestos are rapidly changed to ensure the camp followers tag onto and espouse the party’s greenie policy as #1 on the manifesto! How absurd.

In complete contrast, ask a true greenie the same question and you lose the will to live but you get 100% truth and heartfelt concern that comes from a life lived as a greenie. It counts.

Mr Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party most likely doesn’t give a toss about anything green. Instead he might find it a hinderance, preferring a mens only dinner party and trashing a pub or two with his Eton crony elite of the Bullingdon Club or as it is dubbed, “The Bollinger Club”. Blair and Brown couldn’t care either. What matters is the spin and what gets the votes in. So if it means running out the green carpet then so be it. After a year, who’ll care anyway?

And while all the pseudo greenies playact at being concerned about the depleted state of the earth, has anyone mentioned the plight of Africa and the urgent needs of its starving and HIV/AIDS inflicted populations? Nope, all of a sudden everyone will probably all have a club dinner to prepare for, school runs to do and Wimbledon 2008 seats to reserve! And don’t forget the polo match this Saturday and the summer break at St Jean Cap Ferrat.

Please forgive me if you sense that the bile level in me has risen along with my cynicism and the resulting vitriole offends you. Offence is not the intention. Highlighting the vagaries and the transient nature of popular and political opinion is the message I wish to convey. I want the message to stick. If Africa is to be allowed to look after itself, it needs to develop and therefore it needs political and industrial viewpoints to adapt and stick. Forever.

Africa must be allowed to use what resources are immediately available and work in tandem with green technologies when finances allow. There are people in Africa establishing entrepreneurial infrastructures that will help development of the continent. Africa can accomodate inland windfarms as well as offshore units. If the Airtricity developments are given the go ahead and output to the consumer is at a cheaper rate than current electricity charges, then the viability of it as a source of energy for the poor nations in Africa becomes so much more than a discussion point or a dream.

Going green is fast becoming the new global business. It is good that at long last new alternative energy industries have been stimulated. But where is the catch? There has to be one. Will it be the cost? It might be that wind energy has to be priced expensively to pay off any new development and offshore windfarm construction costs. Maybe not. What about the unseen price to be paid by marine life? What will the seas around UK be forced to pay?

It is known that the wind farms planned for construction off the east coast of England may not be green lighted. It depends on the results of research into the impact of marine life. However, if the alternative energy source gets the green light, it will create a $600m revenue stream for an Irish company. Not bad for being a green business.

Below is an extract from the COWRIE website’s reports about the impact an offshore windfarm may have on marine life:

Developers are required to collect bird data as part of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) they have to submit to gain planning consent for a windfarm. COWRIE put together a project that has given developers guidance on how best to conduct bird surveys so that the data collected is of the highest quality.

Underwater noise can be a particular problem for some marine animals, particularly whales, dolphins and seals. Underwater noise is generated when the foundations of the wind turbines are piled into the seabed, so a study is underway to assess the impact of the noise levels experienced during windfarm construction. The researchers have also monitored the noise and vibration generated when turbines are operating and generating electricity. The results of the study are being used to develop guidance for developers to ensure construction noise can be minimised.

Each offshore wind turbine has a cable connecting it to others. With many large windfarms due for construction there has been concern that the electromagnetic fields (EMF) generated by the additional cabling on the seabed can affect some fish species that are very sensitive to these fields. Two studies have been carried out to assess the possible effects on the most sensitive fish (mainly sharks, skates and rays). All the reports that have been completed for these studies can be found on this website

For ease of reference a portion from one of the study’s conclusion is copied here: “..it is very likely that many wind farms will be placed into European coastal waters in the very near future and it is our obligation to provide the necessary information on their possible impacts now.

This assessment provided further evidence that wind farm related noise has the potential to affect the physiology and behaviour of harbour porpoises and harbour seals at considerable distances. During ramming, the zone of audibility will most certainly extend well beyond 80 km (the upper limit of our transmission loss formula), perhaps hundreds of kilometres from the source. Behavioural responses are possible over many kilometres, perhaps up to ranges of 20 km. Masking might occur in harbour strong>seals at least up to 80 km and hearing loss is a concern – on the basis of a regulatory approach - at 1.8 km in porpoises and 400 m in seals.

Further, severe injuries in the immediate vicinity of ramming activities can not be ruled out. During operation, smaller turbines of 1.5 MW should have only minor influences, as the detection radii in both species are rather small. However, since operational noise of larger turbines can not be assessed reliably yet, these results are rather preliminary. It is very likely that larger turbines are noisier resulting in much larger zones of noise influence.

Cod and herring will be able to perceive piling noise at large distances, perhaps up to 80 km from the sound source. Dab and salmon might detect pile-driving pulses also at considerable distances from the source. However, since both species are predominantly sensitive for particle motion and not pressure, the detection radius can not be defined yet. Behavioural effects, like avoidance and flight reactions, alarm response, and changes of shoaling behaviour are possible due to piling noise. The spatial extension of the zone of responsiveness can not be calculated, as the available threshold levels vary greatly. The zone of potential masking might in some cases coincides with the zone of audibility. Also physical effects, like internal or external injuries or deafness (TTS/PTS) up to cases of mortality, may happen in the close vicinity to pile-driving.

Operational noise of wind turbines will be detectable up to a distance of app. 4 km for cod and herring, and probably up to 1 km for dab and salmon. Within this zone, also masking of intraspecific communication is possible. Behavioural and/or physiological (stress) effects are possible due to operational wind farm noise. However, they should be restricted to very close ranges”.

What follows below is an article from the Business 2.o magazine by the senior writer Paul Kahihla,

Problem no. 1: Global warming

Airtricity has plans to overthrow global warming’s biggest culprit - power plants - with a sea of wind turbines.
By Paul Kahihla, Business 2.0 Magazine senior writer Business 2.0 Magazine senior writer
January 26 2007: 2:42 PM EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) — The background: Carbon dioxide makes up nearly 80 percent of all greenhouse gases. More than a quarter of that CO2 comes from electrical power plants. That’s why replacing plants that run on fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas with renewable power sources, even nukes, has emerged as a major plank in the campaign against global warming.

The effort is heightened in Europe because the continent relies on fuel imports from Russia and the Middle East for 50 percent of its energy, and a recent projection shows that portion increasing to 70 percent by 2025.

The solution: Emission-free nuclear power is enjoying a renaissance in China and India, but worries about radioactive-waste storage and terrorist attacks have kept it in check elsewhere. That’s helped open the door for wind power - which is gaining momentum thanks to recent breakthroughs in turbine and transmission technology and because it’s 70 percent cheaper to generate than solar power.

In May, Dublin-based Airtricity, the world’s fastest-growing wind developer, announced plans for a European supergrid - a network of 2,000 offshore wind turbines in the North Atlantic.

The grid would initially supply 10,000 megawatts to 8 million homes. Ultimately, Airtricity envisions a wind grid stretching from Spain to Sweden, with an output equal to that of 30 nuclear reactors. The supergrid wouldn’t eliminate the CO2 thrown off by Europe’s power plants, but it would reduce it by 60 million tons per year - the equivalent of taking 15 million cars off the road.

The payoff: Founded just seven years ago, Airtricity is on track to bring in $657 million in annual revenue by 2010. The company currently operates 16 wind farms in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, and its five-year project timeline will ramp it up to a potential 7,000 megawatts in capacity, equal to the output of 14 U.S. coal plants.

If any of its grid projects get to completion, even if Airtricity is only a minority partner, Harvard Business School professor Richard Vietor says, the company will be catapulted into the ranks of the world’s top green-energy players. “There’s a fortune to be made here,” says Airtricity CEO Eddie O’Connor. Airtricity already has a team pushing plans for an even larger supergrid of 1 million megawatts to be based across the Great Plains states.

The opportunity: Airtricity estimates that the first stage of the European super-grid will cost more than $25 billion over 10 years, and the company is currently lobbying for government approvals. But there’s no shortage of opportunity for hundreds of other wind producers to start banding together, since scale is what’s needed most to lift wind out of the “alternative” market.

European governments are currently discussing whether to pour additional tens of billions of dollars annually into building green-energy infrastructure. Says Bo Normark, vice president of transmission technology supplier ABB, “Whether they’re Airtricity’s or not, projects based on this concept will be built by someone and will likely be in operation by 2012.”

In summary:

1. Don’t be an environmentalist or a ‘greenie’ for spring, summer or Xmas 2007. Being green is for life.

2. There is to much mania about the environment. Largely as a result of politicians wanting a new initiative to ram down our throats without fully comprehending the issues and impacts at stake. For the politician, its a case of whatever it takes to get me into ministerial office that matters.

3. Beware the political spin doctors. They are a foul breed and will sink lower than shark shit in the Pacific to get their political masters in power. They will exploit human tragedy to get what they want for their political bosses. They are shameless. They are filth.

4. Support the green cause.

5. Support Africa.

Greenie Industry To Wear Prada?