Sunday, November 23, 2008

Beyond fossil fuels: a smart grid and renewable energy future.

It seems that everyone is quite used to calling for more renewables...in the UK this isn't likely to present problems for quite some time as our renewable energy generation is a couple of percent. Looking out a few years however, and we have some questions to answer about dealing with large a large portion of variable supply generating units. Bellow are a few videos that introduce the discussion on how we do this.

The Rocky Mountain Institute: Smart Garage, fleet meets grid.



University of California TV: The Future of the Grid



Research Channel: Bridges to the future Part 1: the smart grid.



Berkeley Lab: Saving Power at Peak Hours

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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Greenpeace Shut Down EON Coal Plant Construction in the Netherlands

Supported by the Rainbow Warrior, a hundred of our volunteer activists occupied the construction site of the new E.ON coal fired power plant in Rotterdam. They halted construction for 10 hours before they were all arrested by police. Special police cut their chains and neck locks and removed everyone from the site by the end of the day.



Later there where 100 arrests and the Rainbow Warrior was ceased.

One-hundred activists were taken away, scattered in police holding cells all over Rotterdam. Removed from a peaceful protest - a climate defenders camp - on the building site of the new Eon power station in Rotterdam. The night came; Rainbow Warrior and Beluga2 settled into it, at anchor. My telephone rang, it was the police. It rang again, the police were ordering me to come inside harbour. I was in a difficult position as I wanted to comply but had to refuse for two reasons: 1) it was now dark and dangerous to navigate, and 2) we were all very tired - following a long day of activity. It was safest to remain at anchor, the weather was good. The police threatened to ‘storm the vessel’ and the phone stopped ringing. It was quiet for an hour.

Two objects moved in the Maas Mond. I watched their trails indicate they had turned - they were headed our way. Two large police boats were approaching and Rainbow Warrior became lit up in the beam of a search light. I counted silhouettes behind the wheel-house windows as they passed down our side. Shouting. Someone was shouting from the police deck to remove the inflatables from the side of the Rainbow Warrior “or we will be forced to crush them” the voice screamed out. More shouting, “move it, move it”. A time limit was imposed. The shouter came on board, red in the face with rage. He brought eight heavily armed me with him.


More details on the story here.

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Action Against Agrofuels

On Thursday 16th October, activists frorm Action Against Agrofuel disrupted the European Biofuels Expo and Conference 2008, the largest agrofuels expo in Europe. A group of activists disguised as delegates entered the expo hall, climbed the wall and dropped banners on the main entrance, The aim of the protest was to highlight the link between agrofuels expansion and deforestation and world hunger. As well as making exascerbating climate change through rainforest destruction, population displacement and associated human right abuses. The expansion of agrofuels has a led to a major increase in the price of the world main staple foods such as maize, rice and wheat.



For futher information on the pitfalls of agrofuels take a look at the biofuelwatch website.

Also, check bellow for a warning from the IMF about the dangers of biofuels.



And check out this guy explaing that the biggest problem he is experiancing in aid work is the biofuel drive price escalation of grain prices.

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Monday, November 17, 2008

Online Coal Battle

So quite a few website seem to have joined the online coal battle against eon, all attempting to get www.nonewcoal.org.uk well up the google search rankings for the term 'eon'.



Also, we now have a groovy button advertising our participation in the EON Face Off (online). Why not save the logo to your desktop and then add it to your blog.



The list of supporting websites includes:



  1. Coal Action Network
  2. Climate Change Action
  3. Green Ladywell
  4. Stuarts Big Green Spot
  5. Punk Science
  6. Eon CSR Blog
  7. Suitably Desparing
  8. Head Herritage
  9. If Just Today Where to Be My Entire Life
  10. Wikipedia
  11. Rising Tide
  12. Lazy Environmentalist
  13. WISE Women
  14. A Daisy Through Concrete
  15. Bristling Badger
  16. Anglo Budhist Combine
  17. Green Pepper
  18. Green Pepper Blog
  19. Coventry Green Voice
  20. Greenpeace Coal Power Page (a couple of times)
  21. The Quite Road
  22. Johnny Rook's Climaticide Cronicles
  23. Dreamflesh
  24. Kimondo
  25. Stop Climate Chaos (news section)
  26. Philips Live Journal
  27. South Lakeland Action on Climate Change
  28. Goldfish Nation
  29. Its not web 2.0
  30. Adf and Ludy
  31. smashboredom livejournal
  32. 5 lobes and 2 fissures (a couple of times)
  33. Grahams Grumbles
  34. itsgettinghotinhere
  35. Silwood Green Club
  36. Poznan Climate Blog (Christian Aid)
  37. Scotland Against New Coal
  38. Dilated Choonz
  39. YANC
  40. Green Blog
  41. OneClimate.net
  42. Turnfront
  43. eon foff
  44. corporate watch
  45. NEF tripple crunch blog
  46. Satellite360
  47. Sunsmith Live Journal

And a new section, press coverage:

  1. The west moorland gazette.
  2. Huck Magazine

The best way to join in is simply to copy and paste this text (keeping the formating).

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Sunday, November 16, 2008

Carbon Capture and Storage: Hype or Hope? (video)

I`ve just about finished my reading on ccs. Complex stuff, this video bellow is part of googles Tech Talks and explains the basics well.

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Friendly fire?







Frank has been thinking about coal.

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Saturday, November 15, 2008

OXFAM run EON campaign

If you have a spare minute then please go over to Oxfam's website and send a quick email to EON's CEO.

It's great to see yet another group getting in on the action against eon. I have said a bit about the anti-coal movement in the UK during previous posts including a recent press release from the climate camp who forced eon to cancel the last of there recruitment fair attendences due to regular protest at 17 (!) universities around the country.

Greenpeace have occupied the site of another eon project in the Netherlands today.

Ohh, i just found Christian Aid also have an anti-eon campaign! Take part in that one here. (they are very popular, are they?)

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Exploiting vested interests.

I just found a fascinating article in the WSJ about the fact that electricity companies are considering a big buy of electric cars for there staff. Apparently electricity companies who stand to profit from growing electricity demand and greater stability--are considering giving the nascent industry a boost.

Utilities would take possession of vehicles when they debut, likely in 2010 or 2011 if development efforts stay on track for cars such as the Chevy Volt, Saturn Vue or Ford Escape.

"If we get enough of us together, we could put in a very large order and maybe a big down payment," says Dick Kelly, chief executive of Xcel Energy in Minneapolis.

"I would do it," says Gale Klappa, CEO of Wisconsin Energy, adding that his utility has about 3,000 vehicles in its fleet and replaces 20% each year.

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Thursday, November 13, 2008

EON GIVES UP ON GRADUATE RECRUITMENT

National wave of student protest forces energy giant to abandon recruitment tour.

Anti-coal protests at graduate careers fairs around the UK have forced E.ON to cancel the remainder of its recruitment tour. The energy company, which is planning to build a new coal power station at Kingsnorth, Kent [1], has seen at least seventeen of its careers events disrupted over the last few weeks [2].

This has been a co-ordinated national effort from students involved in People & Planet, the Coal Action Network, and the Camp for Climate Action [3]. Leaflets, banners, fancy dress, onversations with attendees and eye-catching stunts were used to embarrass EON and dissuade graduates from joining the company [4]. The Royal Bank of Scotland, one of EON's main financial backers, were also targeted at the fairs over their role in providing loans to build the proposed new power station [5].

These tactics have been a resounding success. On Tuesday morning, student activists arrived at Loughborough University Graduate Fair to find the E.ON stall empty. Yesterday in Birmingham there were similar scenes, with students dressed as elephants (because climate change is the "elephant in E.ON's boardroom") finding no target for their protest. Upon enquiry the organisers [6] informed Loughborough students that E.ON had cancelled their remaining graduate ecruitment events this year, due to the level of protest they had received.

While E.ON has thus far failed to comment on their decision to pull out of the graduate recruitment fairs, Jane Benson of the Camp for Climate Action said today:

"This is a great step for the campaign against a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth. E.ON know they can't defend their plans in the midst of a climate crisis, so rather than be embarrassed in front of potential employees they've chosen to run away."
This victory for campaigners comes just two weeks before a planned 48 hours of action against E.ON and new coal [7]. The two days of action (Friday 28th and Saturday 29th November) are being supported by the Camp for Climate Action, Rising Tide, Plane Stupid and Campaign against Climate Change. The new government Department for Energy and Climate Change is currently deliberating over whether to give the go-ahead for a new coal power station at Kingsnorth, and an announcement is expected soon.

Robert Jenkins from the People & Planet Associated Network for Direct Action (PANDA) said "E.ON think they are safe, because most people don't know they are the owners of Kingsnorth power station. These recruitment fairs have helped to out E.ON as the biggest climate criminal in the UK. After all, as they themselves boast, climate change lies at the heart of everything they do [8]. Everyone who cares about our future on this planet should join us for 48 hours of action against E.ON and new coal at the end of November."

[1] E.ON have applied for Government permission to build the first new UK coal-fired plant in thirty years at Kingsnorth in Kent. If built, this power station would produce the same amount of carbon dioxide as the world's 30 least polluting countries combined.

[2] Careers events at the following universities were targeted by student campaigners: Glasgow, Durham, Southampton, King's College London, Imperial, York, Sheffield, Aston, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds, Liverpool, Loughborough, Manchester, Nottingham and Oxford. See
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/412804.html for more details. This represents almost all of E.ON's planned 2008 recruitment events (see http://www.eon-uk.com/Careers/Graduates/807.aspx for the full list).

[3] See www.peopleandplanet.org, www.leaveitintheground.org.uk, and www.climatecamp.org.uk.

[4] Here are some of the tactics used by campaigners at a few of the events:

  • Leeds: Leafleted, talked to students, dropped an "E.ON:F.OFF" banner from a balcony inside the fair
  • Bristol: Attended two fairs with leaflets, stickers and a polar bear, until thrown out by security
  • Liverpool: Leaflets, conversations with graduates and a banner drop.
  • Glasgow: A team of Rebel Clowns invaded the fair.
  • Nottingham: A gang of grim reapers flyered the fair and congratulated E.ON staff on the death rate from climate change
  • Manchester: A "Flashmob" wearing bright yellow "Leave It In The Ground" T-shirts materialised at the fair, handed out hundreds of flyers and dumped coal all over E.ON's stall.
  • Kings College London: Flyered the fair and covered the backs of security guards in "No New Coal" stickers
  • Imperial: The fair was invaded and flyered, and E.ON were serenaded with a "soul power not coal power" song.
  • Cambridge: Invaded the fair with T-shirts and leaflets, and dropped "Make a Living - Not a Killing" banners outside.
  • Oxford: Flyered, presented E.ON with a "Best Greenwash" award and dumpedcoal on their stall.

In total, hundreds of activists were involved, and thousands of leaflets
were distributed to graduates.

[5] In 2008, the report, 'Cashing in on Coal', showed that in the preceding two years, BS-NatWest had been loaned an estimated $16 billion in 27 different loans to coal-related companies around the world, including taking part in loans worth $70 billion to E.ON at a time when it was announcing plans to construct 17 new coal and gas-fired power plants across Europe. see http://www.oyalbankofscotland.com/cioc/

[6] The Loughborough fair (and many of the others) were organised by
AIESEC http://www.aiesec.co.uk/.

[7] See http://www.e-onf-off.org.uk/ for more details

[8] The most prominent slogan on E.ON's recruitment stall was "Tackling climate change isn't something that's tacked onto our agenda. It's at the heart of our business". This was widely spoofed by activists at theevents, by the simple removal of the word "tackling"

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Google Bomb EON

Power company E-On is hoping to build the first new coal-fired power station in the UK for a generation on the site of its present station at Kingsnorth in Kent. At a time of climate crisis, it's an obscenity.

They've been the targets of all kinds of action, from last summer's Camp for Climate Action, to a series of smaller action on April 1st ('Fossil Fools Day').

One easy, comfy action can happen from this computer you're looking at. The tactic is called 'google-bombing'.

The more links to a site, the higher it climbs in google rankings. So, if enough people make the word 'EON' link to the No New Coal site, pretty soon it'll top the list of anyone searching for EON. (This tactic was succesfully used a few years ago to make 'swivel-eyed loons' link to UKIP).

Two weeks ago www.nonewcoal.org.uk wasn't in the top 50 sites when searching for Eon. As I write this it's already number 13.

So a simple online action can help us get our electronic placards in their face without getting out on the cold winter streets.

If you have a website, blog, myspace, bebo, forum account, etc then please place a link to http://www.nonewcoal.org.uk.

Ideally you write 'eon' and place a hyperlink to http://www.nonewcoal.org.uk from that text. Anyone can do this! Blog comments/forums are easiest. Good websites are most effective.

If you're wondering what else to write, you could copy this whole piece.

To get a top 10 google ranking probably wont be to hard but to pip eon to the top will require a lot of effort so tell your friends, consider putting this simple action in your newsletters, spread the word online...

Notes:

  • 1. It works best if you mention Eon several times in an article.
  • 2. If you are posting the link in a blog post then put Eon in the title and the tags.
  • 3.The more important the site the more kick nonewcoal.org.uk gets from the link.
  • 4. If you are really determined then consider setting up a fake site like the EON CSR blog that way you can link loads of times to nonewcoal.org.uk from a site that is very relevent!
  • http://eon-csr.blogspot.com/
  • 5. Why not take this is seriously as a real world action and forward it to people with green blogs/campaign groups etc.

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Monday, November 10, 2008

EON (EOA.DE) Plans New Coal In UK: We Plan To Stop Them

EON is going around trying to recruit students with the message:

"tackling climate change isnt something tacked onto our agenda it's at the heart of our business"


They are being met by a concerted campaign (Imperial College--video, Kings College, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham, and others have had careers fairs crashed)

I recently wrote about what eon are up against on 'itsgettinghotinhere'.

Now there is a shiny new website dedicated to the struggle. E-ON F-OFF.

It is also note worthy that the police have started putting out scare stories about the potential for a lone 'eco-extremist' to carry out some kind of terrotist attack. Needless to say this is worrying, such marginalisation and de-legitimization may be used to open a gap for even more ruthless policing than what we saw at the climate camp. But the breadth of support we enjoy makes such attempts extremely difficult to pull off. The times they are a chaning, and nothing, not even political policing can alter that fact.

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Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Mapping New Coal Across Britain

A great new tool brought to you by PIRC, maps of all coal development and all new developments in the UK.

Coal In the UK


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Tuesday, November 04, 2008

We need to talk about Kingsnorth…

We need to talk about Kingsnorth…
A debate on climate change and the future of energy


  • 13th November, 7pm
  • Sunlight Centre, 105 Richmond Road, Gillingham ME7 1LX

Refreshments provided

Join a ‘Question Time’ event featuring a panel of local people, policy makers and experts on coal, climate change, Kent and the energy debate.

This is your chance to ask questions and have your say on the local and global concerns surrounding plans for a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth.

The panel includes:

  • Teresa Murray Labour candidate for Rochester & Strood
  • Robin Webster Friends of Earth
  • Dr Mark Avery RSPB
  • Benedict Southworth World Development Movement
  • Andy Rogers Kingsnorth Climate Action Medway


To book a free place call 020 7820 4900 or email stopkingsnorth@wdm.org.uk

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Monday, November 03, 2008

Mori Poll on UK Attitudes to Energy: March 2007

MORI carried out a poll on UK attitudes to energy in March 2007. Although some things have changed in the interim i`m sure there are still some important insights for those of us concerned with energy policy.

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Sunday, November 02, 2008

CSR at EON

Just found an interesting blog on EON's CSR...possibly useful for when the PR wars start.

EON CSR

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