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<< back NEW ZEALAND ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT DIGEST September 8, 2004 ENERGY INDUSTRY € Bryan Leyland: Power planners play with chilling future The New Zealand Herald 03/09/2004. Before we can make definitive statements on how much generating capacity New Zealand requires, we need to know how much electricity we are using now and how demand will increase. Most of our power stations feed directly into the grid but there is an increasing number of “off-grid” generators that feed into the local distribution system. When our supply was centrally co-ordinated, all the off-grid stations had to report their generation every morning. More... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3588769&thesection=news&thesubsection=dialogue € New gas field big, but high risk, says NZOG The Dominion Post 31/08/2004. Offshore Taranaki gas prospecting area Mangatoa may hold 2000 petajoules of gas, more than half the original size of the dwindling Maui field, New Zealand Oil and Gas says. But the risk was high in trying to develop the prospect, NZOG general manager Gordon Ward said yesterday. It remained to be seen whether the flow rates would be good enough for commercial production. More... http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3019155a13,00.html € NZ’s Genesis set to syndicate NZ$675m loan for new plant Dow Jones 31/08/2004. The syndication of a NZ$675 million loan facility to New Zealand electricity generator Genesis Power Ltd. to help finance the construction of a new combined-cycle power station will begin shortly and take about a month to complete. “An information memorandum will be going out to a number of banks, three or four,” said Genesis’s general manager finance Mark Anderson Monday. The loan will fund the building of Genesis’s NZ$520 million E3P 385-megawatt high-efficiency thermal station at the company’s existing Huntly site in the upper central North Island. More... € Electricity Generation Up in June Quarter Scoop.co.nz 03/09/2004. Seasonally adjusted electricity generation rose 0.3% in the June 2004 quarter compared with the March 2004 quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand. In the June 2004 quarter, hydro and wind generation (6,277 gigawatt hours) was 24.0% higher than in the June 2003 quarter, while thermal generation (3,634 gigawatt hours) was 8.6% lower, for the same period. Hydro and wind generation supplied 63% of the electricity generated in the June 2004 quarter, compared with 56 percent in the June 2003 quarter. This lower contribution in the June 2003 quarter was due to low lake levels. Over the past 10 years, the average June quarterly contribution of hydro and wind generation to total electricity generation has been 64%. More… http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/BU0409/S00036.htm NUCLEAR ENERGY € Poll: Kiwis won’t have a bar of nukes - even to save power The National Business Review 03/09/2004. Newstalk ZB broadcaster Paul Holmes tried valiantly this week to bring some sanity to the debate over whether the country should consider nuclear power to help solve energy supply problems. He pointed out the limitations of all the mainstream non-nuclear energy generation options - environmental, supply and political - and then posed the question: isn’t it time we faced up to the reality that nuclear power is vastly improved and solves many of these problems? More... http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=10060&cid=18&cname=Opinion ENERGY EFFICIENCY € Power saving trials near Kurow The New Zealand Herald 02/09/2004. Energy efficiency trials on a dairy farm at Otekaieke, near Kurow - owned by an electricity company - have proved the effectiveness of two devices in saving power, says the company. Farm manager Jamie Asken and his wife Joanne say if all dairy sheds installed the equipment up to 17 per cent of power dairy farms took off the national grid could be saved. More... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3588607&thesection=news&thesubsection=general COAL MINING € Two environmentalists start hunger strike The Press 31/08/2004. Environmental activists angry about plans for the Cypress open-cast coalmine are staging a hunger strike in a West Coast tree. Fiona Gibson and Rob Cadmus have confined themselves to a small platform suspended from a tree beside the road to Stockton, about 40km north of Westport. They are protesting against state-owned Solid Energy’s bid to mine 105ha at Happy Valley. More... http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3019243a7693,00.html ALTERNATIVE FUELS € Fonterra Explores Alternative Fuel Scoop.co.nz 03/09/2004. While oil companies are prospecting off both sides of the North Island, dairy company Fonterra is working on a source of fuel available above ground. That fuel is ethanol, produced by Fonterra from the whey left behind during the manufacture of casein. Fonterra’s ethanol is used in everything from medicine to methylated spirits, now the company is looking to add motor cars to the list. For the last month, Fonterra Edgecumbe transport depot manager Darrell Paterson has been running his 1.8 litre Hyundai on a mixture of petrol containing 10% ethanol, and the brightly coloured vehicle has been attracting plenty of interest – both in the Bay of Plenty and beyond. More... http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/BU0409/S00032.htm CONSERVATION € Farmer fined for kiwi in freezer The Dominion Post 03/09/2004. A farmer caught with a stuffed kiwi in his freezer during a Conservation Department raid was fined $1000 in the Wairoa District Court yesterday. Phillip Anderton, a Wairoa farmer, had sparked the department’s investigation when he claimed that the stuffed bird had died because of 1080 poisoning. He now admits that this claim was not true. Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to taking and having in his possession absolutely protected wildlife, namely a kiwi. More... http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3022372a7693,00.html € Report outlines benefits of 1080 The Press 31/08/2004. There are no effective and affordable alternatives to 1080 in the war against Tb in cattle and deer herds, says a new report. Written by Wren Green and published by the Animal Health Board and the Department of Conservation, the report says that studies of native forests and bird populations had shown the widespread benefits of using 1080 to control mammal pests. Where there was no control, predators, including possums, were killing 95% of kiwi chicks annually, about 85 per cent of kokako chicks and high numbers of chicks and nestlings of other endangered birds, including kaka and mohua (yellowhead ). More... http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3019864a7693,00.html POLLUTION € Southland farm pollution ‘astounding’ The Southland Times 01/09/2004. A Southland dairy farmer had received the dubious honour of being one of the region’s worst polluters on record after being sentenced in the Environment Court last week, Environment Southland said. In his summing up of the case against Hubertus Marinus Antonius Johannes de Bruyn, Judge Jeff Smith described samples taken from a watercourse on de Bruyn’s property as akin to pure effluent rather than water, an Environment Southland statement said. The level of pollution was truly astounding, Judge Smith said. De Bruyn was convicted and fined $16,000, plus costs. More... http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3020914a7693,00.html € Polluters pay heavy price The New Zealand Herald 02/09/2004. A Taranaki farming couple have been fined and a regional council candidate fined and given community service on pollution charges. Rahotu dairy farmers Francis John Mullan and his wife Jennifer Ann, and Bruce Gordon Cudby, were sentenced in the Environment Court at New Plymouth on Tuesday for breaches of the Resource Management Act. The Mullans were fined $25,000 for dairy effluent discharges into a stream, and Cudby got 300 hours of community service and a $2500 fine. More... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfmstoryID=3588517&thesection=news&thesubsection=general € Rio suspends uranium mining in Australia Reuters 01/09/2004. Energy Australia Ltd said it had suspended uranium mining in Australia’s far north yesterday after a government investigation into contaminated drinking water cited human negligence. Operations at the Ranger mine, 250km east of Darwin, were first shut down in March after workers complained of gritty shower water that tasted salty. The mine later reopened, with ERA’s 68.4% owner Rio Tinto saying any health affects were temporary. A report released by Australian environmental watchdog Office of the Supervising Scientist found the incident occurred after a worker mistakenly connected a hose filtering uranium-laden water with one providing drinking and washing water for staff. More... http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3020069a6026,00.html RECYCLING € Recycling goes in circles The Central Leader 01/09/2004. Recycling pioneer Eric Jackson is exasperated with how little progress on waste management has been made since he taught it to Auckland schoolchildren in the 1970s. “It’s just crazy when there’s been so much done in the past and it gets to the stage where it’s a viable proposition and new politicians come in,” the Lynfield resident says.More... http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3020910a7693,00.html € Lots more recycling possible in Auckland Auckland City Harbour News 03/09/2004. Three-quarters of Auckland’s household trash could be recycled instead of becoming landfill waste. A recent Auckland City Council audit reveals 75% of the 78,000 tonnes of rubbish collected in the last year could be composted or recycled. The report, based on the research of 60 streets, says waste was 1000 tonnes more than the previous year, although recycling also increased by the same amount up to 36,000 tonnes. Council senior environmental policy analyst Jan Burbery says the Auckland region is in a “holding pattern” after the widespread changes in 2001. More... http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3023147a7693,00.html AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH € NZ research ‘will be set back 15 years’ The Dominion Post 02/09/2004. AgResearch’s decision to move out of Wallaceville will dismantle successful research teams and set New Zealand science back 15 years, a Parliamentary committee has been told. In a submission to the education and science select committee, Upper Hutt Chamber of Commerce executive director Sue Trueman said the decision would greatly damage the nation’s science and biosecurity sectors. “The loss of these scientists and the breakdown of these teams and the collapse of the research projects will put science back 15 years in New Zealand.” Ms Trueman’s submission was in support of a 7509-signature petition to keep the centre open. More... http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3021308a6160,00.html GLOBAL WARMING € Too late to stop global warming, says expert The Dominion Post 06/09/2004. Earth will continue to get hotter even if we reduce our output of greenhouse gases, says a top American climate-change expert. Susan Solomon is a senior scientist at the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and co-chairwoman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In New Zealand to speak at an international conference on atmospheric chemistry in Christchurch tonight, Dr Solomon said temperatures would continue to increase during the next 20 to 30 years, even if we immediately stopped emitting key greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. More... http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3024358a7693,00.html << back |