We have recently been working on a site with a centralised steam system. It has two natural gas fired boilers supplying steam to a number of plant rooms, with the steam used to generate domestic hot water and heating hot water amongst other things. So how efficient is this system? And are there alternatives to steam that use less energy?

The short answer is that the steam system is very inefficient. It could be replaced with a decentralised system using a combination of hot water boilers and, where process steam is needed, small steam boilers. This would halve energy use.
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If you’ve ever thought about putting a wind turbine on your suburban house, but then started to research it, you’ll know that wind turbines don’t work too well in cities and the suburbs. Even if its windy, turbulence means that unless you can get your turbine very high - three times as high as anything within a few hundred meters (including your house), the turbine simply won’t generate much wind. I recently saw a study of 30 odd urban wind turbine installations in the UK which showed very poor performance.

It looks as though this problem may have been overcome with a radical new design. Humdinger, a US company, have come up with a wind generator that makes electricity from the vibrations of a belt flapping in the wind. Its a great sounding idea. From the looks of their website the product isn’t yet in commercial production - so don’t get too excited yet. But I like the thinking behind the idea - instead of trying to make something with blades and a rotary motion - make it linear, and in theory it may be more reliable and robust than a rotary device where there is lots of turbulence. www.humdingerwind.com
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Yesterday I attended the public consultation in Melbourne about accounting for and measuring voluntary greenhouse gas savings. The consultation was run by the Offsets Policy Team from the Department of Climate Change.  

It was good to be consulted and heard, and made me feel a little less disenfranchised by the CPRS.
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Starting today, public workshops are being held by the government to get public opionion and advice about how voluntary climate change action can be taken into account when setting emission caps for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).

Workshops are being held on the following dates:
Perth
11 June 2009 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Rydges Hotel Perth Corner Hay & King Street, Perth
Adelaide
12 June 2009 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Mercure Grosvenor Hotel 125 North Terrace, Adelaide
Brisbane
30 June 2009 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Chifley at Lennons 66 Queen Street Mall, Brisbane
Sydney
16 June 2009 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Wesley Conference Centre 220 Pitt Street, Sydney
Melbourne
24 June 2009 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Rydges on Swanston 701 Swanston Street Carlton, Melbourne
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In October last year CarbonetiX started an independent evaluation of LED lights as a substitute for fluorescent lighting. LEDs, standing for light-emitting diodes, have previously been commonly used for other purposes such as for low energy indicator lights on household equipment, but have not yet been widely used for general commercial lighting.

The evaluation is being undertaken by CarbonetiX in partnership with the Sustainability Fund, managed by Sustainability Victoria, and with the support of Frankston City Council. Eight months on and the trial is now nearing conclusion.
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