Artists rejuvenating the land with Land Art

River Fork Ranch Flood Plane Wall. (Source Watershed Sculpture)

It is early days, but turtles have already returned to this habitat since this land artwork by Daniel McCormick and Mary O’Brien was installed in Nevada, USA. The work is designed to improve the river habitat in a ranching (livestock) corridor. Just months before this moment, that same floodplain was deplete of a diverse wildlife and healthy ecosystem.

Artists Mary and Daniel - a duo who have been partners in life as well as artistic collaborators for the last 30 years - create living sculptures that not only draw inspiration from landscapes, but use their natural materials to rejuvenate the environment.

Read and see more at:
The artist duo whose land art is rejuvenation the environment. Artsy, March 30, 2018.
Watershed Sculpture: www.wateshedsculpture.com

"Lendlease fund sets 2025 net zero carbon target."

Melbourne Quarter buildings project (Source TheFifthEstate)

“Lendlease’s Australian Prime Property Fund Commercial (APPFC) will become net zero carbon by 2025, one of the tightest targets set in the property sector. The goal is being supported by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which has tipped $100 million in equity into the $4.5 billion commercial property fund.”

“The investment would help Lendlease meet the new industry benchmark for carbon targets while specifically helping the Melbourne Quarter development pursue a precinct-wide energy solution, including the integration of energy efficiency, renewables, storage and virtual network technologies across multiple buildings.”

There will also be a tenant engagement component. There is a trend towards smart data, tenant engagement and whole-of-building approaches, and part of the deal struck with CEFC was that learnings would be shared with the wider industry. CEFC finance is helping developers forge new standards in sustainability and building design across the built environment.

“The Lendlease-masterplanned Melbourne Quarter is targeting 6 Star Green Star ratings for all commercial buildings and will host one of the city’s largest solar installations. The first stage is set to be completed this year, and when all stages are completed will accommodate 13,000 workers and 3000 residents.”

Read more:
Lendlease fund sets 2025 net zero carbon target. TheFifthEstate, March 29, 2018.
Melbourne Quarter precinct the centrepiece of new CEFC and Lendlease sustainability plans. Clean Energy Finance Corporation, March 29, 2018.

"ACT claims top spot for rooftop solar annual increase in 2017"

Solar PV on homes and a school, Canberra, ACT.  Photo: Julie May

In 2017, the Australian Capital Territory took top place among Australian states and territories for the biggest annual increase in rooftop solar, up 57 percent. There was a 41 per cent increase in installed renewable energy capacity across all of Australia compared to 2016. Queensland led the way in installed capacity with 295 MW.

According to the Clean Energy Regulator’s Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme's data, more than 1057 MW was installed last year, mostly from rooftop solar. This equates to around 3.5 million solar panels being fixed to Australian rooftops, or more than 9500 installed every day.

There was also a preference for larger capacity systems in 2017 as reducing costs made these more attractive. The average home solar system capacity has doubled in the five years since 2012, from 3 to 6 KW.

"We are seeing a wide cross-section of Australians – households, community centres, schools, and small businesses – receiving incentives under the Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme."...”It looks like 2018 will be another good year for the solar industry.” said Mark Williamson, Executive General Manager of the Clean Energy Regulator.

Further reading: “ACT claims top position for rooftop solar uptake in 2017”, SERREE News Update, March 20, 2018.

Adidas is using ocean plastic to make sneakers

Source: Green Matters

Adidas sold 1 Million pairs of sneakers made from ocean plastic in 2017 and are moving the initiative to apparel. Within the next six years, Adidas wants all of their products to be created from plastic that would otherwise have been put into the ocean.

To create its recycled plastic products, Adidas works with Parley for the Oceans, an organisation that gathers plastic waste from beaches and the sea, cleans it, chips it down, and turns it into yarn for use in consumer products. Products are now packaged in paper instead of plastic bags and microbeads were eliminated from the manufacturing process.

Adidas hasn’t been the only shoe company exploring sustainable options. Nike has turned to Flyleather material, which is created from cowhide waste mixed in with synthetic fibers. It’s led to a decrease in leather being thrown away and 95 percent of the water used in manufacturing is recycled. Nike notes that the product still feels like premium leather despite using recycled material.

Further reading:
Adidas sold 1 Million pairs of sneakers made from ocean plastic in 2017. Green Matters, March 2018.
Adidas: Sustainability Materials: https://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/products/materials/

See also:

Some good developments with plastic recycling, production and cleanup.

Turning prawn shells into plastic.

Portable roll-out solar system transported in shipping containers

The Container Roll-Out Solar System (CROSS) a relocatable solar array (Source: SEEREE)

Canberra based company ECLIPS: Inventive Engineering has recently launched its Container Roll Out Solar System (CROSS), which is a factory assembled relocatable solar array. CROSS is freighted in standard 20ft and 40ft shipping containers, and can be rolled out using a forklift and setup onsite within minutes of being delivered. ECLIPS is able to export to the world.

It is suitable for small sites such as water bore pumps through to utility scale projects by large electricity providers. In a remote location, it is costly to keep a generator going due to the necessary regular replenishment of diesel. The system is more independent can be just solar PV or hybrid.

One of ECLIPS’ initial goals in developing the CROSS was to improve self-sufficiency of forward operating bases of deployed Defence Forces. The reduced fuel replenishment cycle means less convoys on the road, reducing the risk of vehicle accidents and exposure to improvised explosive devices or unplanned engagement with enemy forces.

CROSS has also appealed to a range of users from mining clients working in remote locations, to humanitarian aid agencies providing medical facilities in international locations, and even for energy suppliers requiring additional power generation at fringe of grid, or to replace infrastructure after natural disasters.

Read further at: ECLIPS’s Container Roll-Out Solar System (CROSS). SERREE (South East Region of Renewable Energy Excellence, 2018.

"How I learned to slash my power bill, with solar and storage"

Reposit phone app data (One Step off the Grid)

In the article linked below, Roger Rooney outlines his first year with solar panels, battery storage and Reposit battery management system at home in Canberra and how this has given a massive 81% savings on his power bill. His system is part of Canberra’s Virtual Power Plant (as is my system) and thus we earn Grid Credits of $1/kWh when power is taken from our batteries during peak demand times. This means, at times, we are sharing our stored power with others to help avoid blackouts.

His savings are substantial, as are mine and he states: “After 12 months, I am happy to report that my 25 panel solar array and medium sized battery set-up (together some better demand management) has meant my wife and I have cut our electricity bill down from $2,100 per annum to just under $32 average per month (~$384 per annum).”

Read his full story at: How I learned to slash my power bill, with solar and storage. By Roger Rooney, One Step off the Grid, March 14, 20018.
See also: My House and Graphs of my home energy use and costs updated in this blog. Julie May

"Volkswagen previews EV onslaught post-2020"

Production version of the I.D. Hatchback which complements the Golf (Source: CarAdvice)

“Volkswagen’s boss has given further details regarding its electrified vehicle rollout over the coming decade.

In an announcement today, Matthias Muller said Volkswagen will launch “practically one new electric model per month” from the year 2022.

Volkswagen has committed to bringing 16 all-electric models to market before 2022 – including the adapting of nine production facilities to facilitate the production of EVs by 2020 – before introducing around 300 new electrified (hybrids and EVs) vehicles by 2030…..”

Read further at: Volkswagen previews EV onslaught post-2020. CarAdvice, March 14, 2018.

N.B. “All major car manufacturers are releasing new electric models over the next few years and investing nearly $100 billion to support the shift to electric.” Rohan Lund, CEO NRMA (National Roads and Motorists’ Association, NSW, Australia), Open Road, March/April 2018, p 9.

City of Sydney encourages rooftop solar to avoid costly grid upgrades

 Source: RenewEconomy

The City of Sydney, Australia, is injecting funds into its electricity grid supplier, Ausgrid, to encourage the uptake of more rooftop solar in the city council area. Sydney will lift the money available to subsidise rooftop solar and other initiatives by 50 per cent. Ausgrid claims the costs of more solar will be vastly outweighed by avoiding expensive grid upgrades.

The grant program is available for rooftop solar installations, as well as LED lighting, variable heat pumps and smart building control systems. With many of the buildings being occupied during the day and not at night, most of the solar energy will be used and will help delay peak demand times.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the initiative would help the City of Sydney reach its targets to reduce emissions by 70 per cent and source half of the electricity supply in our area from renewables. “We’re covering as many of our own buildings with solar PV as we can, but we can’t control the buildings we don’t own. Initiatives like this encourage building owners across the city to invest in renewables and energy efficiency measures.”

The project could also realise a solution that would possibly increase the number of solar installations on apartment buildings and leased commercial properties. There are systems available that enable the sharing of solar energy with tenants. See: Queensland develops a simple energy efficiency investment program for commercial buildings and their tenants.

Further reading: City of Sydney buys into Ausgrid network’s push for more solar. RenewEconomy, March 8, 2018.

Canberra arboretum adds 30KW of solar + 82KWh of storage

Canberra National Arboretum - horticultural depot. (One Step off the Grid)

Canberra’s National Arboretum – a 250 hectare tourist centre that hosts 94 forests of rare, endangered and symbolic trees – has gone off diesel, after the installation 30KW of solar and 82KWh of battery storage. The arboretum’s horticultural depot is not connected to the grid and has been using a diesel generator. The system should be paid off within eight years via fuel savings alone.

The arborists and gardeners are now using clean, solar-powered electric chainsaws, hedge trimmers, lawn mowers and so on for their work, instead of fossil fuelled tools. There now are fully electric, lithium-ion battery powered and cordless alternatives to most power tools and lawn mowers, available to buy in Australia. With the solar panels installed, these arboretum tools are now powered by the sun and are emission-free.

Further reading: Canberra arboretum goes green-er, ditching diesel for solar and storage. One Step off the Grid, March 2, 2018.

How a German town reclaims its grid to have control of its power

Photograph: Lucas Schultze, getty Images

Wolfhagen, a town of 14,000 people in central Germany, originally leased its power grid to a large private company called E.ON. Energie. It still had its municipally owned electricity supplier, Stadtwerke, which was run by Martin Ruhl. When E.ON’s 20 year licence was approaching expiry, Ruhl thought Wolfhagen should reclaim the grid for itself - a process of remunicipalisation. He started negotiations in 2003.

The move to privatised utilities over the world, such as using E.O., has led to higher prices and/or worse services. Big energy companies such as E.ON. have been accused of overcharging the public. Wolfhagen was one of the first cases of remunicipalisation in Germany. The desire for more public ownership of services is growing worldwide. See: Reclaiming Public Services: How cities and services are turning back privatisation.

Ruhl negotiated with the multinational for three years and finally in 2006 a compromise was reached. His town had won control of its own grid, the Stadtwerke. The documentary An Inconvenient Truth was shown to the town’s people. Ruhl wanted the now-public Stadtwerke to go 100% renewable in electricity and heat by 2015 and eventually the people agreed.

At first this meant installing a lot of rooftop solar and a large wind farm. To raise the millions needed to build the wind farm, the town sold a quarter of the energy firm’s shares to locals in a citizens’ co-op. Other measures to achieve the goal included biomass, biogas and improving energy efficiency. In fact, 4 wind farms were built; 500 solar arrays installed on rooftops and a local solar park was built. The goal was achieved in 2015.

"Visit the Stadtwerke today and Rühl’s successor, Alexander Rohrssen, will list its achievements. A profit every year, which has not only paid off the bank loans but funds the town’s kindergartens. Generally cheaper electricity than most competitors, including E.ON. The number of staff has almost doubled and this still-small enterprise has won national prizes for its innovation on reducing energy use."

For further details see: How a small town reclaimed its grid and sparked a community revolution. The Guardian, March 1, 2018.

Some good developments with plastic recycling, production and cleanup

Seat made from recycled soft plastic

We all know what damage plastic waste is doing to the land and sea environment. However, the move away from environmentally damaging plastic has begun. Below are a few of the many developments.

1. In Australia, we can recycle most hard plastics in our recycling bins. As well as that, we can recycle clean soft plastics at participating supermarkets. You can find the recycling bins in discrete areas that are away from rubbish bins. This soft plastic is used to make seats like the one pictured above, school furniture and other useful items. It is called REDcycle, see: http://www.redcycle.net.au/ for details of what is (and is not) recyclable this way. N.B. biodegradable plastic are not recyclable. The recycled soft plastic goes to an Australian company, Repas, which is making Australian products.

Plant-based compostable plastic bags are sold at supermarkets.

2. In some Australian stores and supermarkets, you can now buy compostable plastic bags that are made from plant material, as shown above. The bags shown are only compostable in a commercial compost facility (Australian Standard 4736-2006) whereas those bags labelled home compostable (AS 5810-2010) are suitable to compost at home.

3. In Amsterdam, The Netherlands, there is supermarket chain that plans to have totally plastic-free aisles. In their first supermarket, the aisle has a range of biodegradable plastics made from plants, including hard plastic food containers. The other, non-plastic containers are the traditional ones of glass, metal and cardboard. See: Amsterdam now has the world’s first plastic-free supermarket aisle. Interesting Engineering, March 2, 2018.

4. Lego, in Denmark, is planning to make its plastic pieces from more sustainable materials. For a start, the toys will be made with a polyethylene produced with ethanol made from sugarcane. The polyethylene pieces will make up just 1% to 2% of the total amount of plastic elements produced by Lego but plans are afoot to improve that percentage. See: Lego goes green with sugarcane-based plastic. BBC News, March 2, 2018.

5. By choosing not to use plastic as much as possible and to recycle it, we can make a difference. See: Plastic bans worldwide will dent oil demand growth, says BP. The Guardian, February 21, 2018.

6. Meanwhile, waste plastic makes its way into rivers, lakes and the oceans. There have been several inventions to clean up plastic from waterways, such as:
This genius bucket sucks trash and oil right out of the sea. Huffington Post, May 13, 2016.
And The Ocean Cleanup with their North Sea prototype.

See also:
Turning prawn shells into plastic
Adidas is using ocean plastic to make sneakers