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Finding the energy for change

The alternative energy sector seems to be taking an increasing chunk of the news that appears on the wires each day, and a lot of the news is good.

Today I read that some clever US scientists have found a way to turn good old fructose (fruit sugar) into a high-density liquid fuel with low volatility that is suitable for transport applications.

In short, if they can scale up the process, it could mean that even more of our reliance on fossil fuels could be swapped for renewable resources that are extracted from hi-sugar crops.

It could be that, in the longer term, an apple a day becomes even more essential to your good health -- allowing us to burn less harmful and polluting oil while driving to work.

Of course there's little mention of the other more negative aspects of such "environmentally friendly" fuels.

Although this new process does apparently require less energy to create the magical 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) fuel, I note that in this story from Science Daily, there is mention of a few rather nasty chemicals being involved in the conversion process.

There are few "acid catalysts" or "low boiling point solvents" that don't have some form of environmental impact and the production process seems to rely heavily on these. Materials such as copper chromate and copper ruthenium also sound a little suss to me - but hey, I'm no chemist and perhaps all of these are recoverable and reusable.

What is important about this however, is that people are actually doing the research and coming up with worthwile advances in technology.

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According to this CNet story, the province of Ontario has announced that it's going to pour US$610 million into fostering this kind of "green" technology within its boundaries.

They're effectively wiping sales tax off CF bulbs, subsidising the price of energy-efficient appliances and trying to steer folks to go solar wherever possible.

They're also mandating that power companies must buy surplus energy from those folks who have solar panels or other generation facilities connected to the grid.

Such a move must surely make the installation of such systems more attractive to the average householder, while also creating a more distributed generation capability and lowering the consumption of fossil fuels for power generation.

So what's New Zealand doing?

Well sweet FA actually.

We've got a few piecemeal programmes to provide low-interest loans for solar water heating systems and better household insulation -- but for a country that prides itself on being clean and green we ought to be ashamed of ourselves.

The minister for climate change tells us that the government's policies will halve the country's deficit under the Kyoto protocol but I think that's just a delusion.

Want proof?

Well how about this story in today's NZ Herald.

As individuals, our energy consumption has jumped by 13% during the 8-year period from 1997 to 2005. Even worse, we're using *more* non-renewable energy than we used to so, despite the claims, the reality shows we're getting increasingly *less* green rather than moving towards carbon neutrality.

Here's a thought...

Perhaps we should appreciate that NZ's reputation as a "clean and green' nation is at risk. While other parts of the world are putting very serious effort and funding into reducing their reliance on fossil fuels, we seem to be paying lip-service to such matters by simply signing up to Kyoto and saying "see, we're doing our bit".

Maybe it's time to take a bold step and position NZ as a research and development] hub for alternative energy research.

Let's offer such companies a 5-year tax holiday and a raft of other benefits that would encourage startups and established players to do their work here.

In return, the NZ taxpayer would receive a 5% stake in the IP for any technology that came out of such work.

Given the size of the energy market, imagine how much even a single "win" could benefit the nation.

What's more, we'd be seen as a beacon of hope in a world with its throttle jammed and steering locked in the direction of global warming :-)

What do you think?

Are we doing enough to reverse our growing reliance on non-renewable energy sources?

Does it pee you off that the greenies bemoan our reliance on oil imports but also bitch about the "visual pollution" caused by environmentally friendly wind-generators?

Why aren't we pouring millions into developing and harnessing tidal power generation, given that we have such huge potential for such a scheme?

Why not mandate that power companies have to buy back power generated by individual (private) generation facilities (such as solar or wind) hooked up to the grid?

How do you rate the government's performance (1-10) on energy?

Have your say on this...

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