Wa$ted! which first screened earlier this year on TV3, has won the EECA Energywise Supreme Award for 2007. The award celebrates innovation and achievement in the energy efficiency sector.
Each half-hour Wa$ted! programme features a different New Zealand household, and presents ways to cut daily power and fuel consumption as well as general waste.

Mike Underhill, the chief executive of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) said Wa$ted! is a unique and worthy winner of the EECA Energywise Supreme Award.
Wa$ted!, which is produced by Auckland based Fumes TV, was chosen for the award ahead of specialist energy projects which have generated millions of dollars worth of savings for big companies, and innovative ideas for new developments in energy efficiency.

“All the category winners have made a huge contribution to energy efficiency in New Zealand, and they are all to be commended. Where Wa$ted! stands out is that it moves energy efficiency into the mainstream, getting the message to more than three million viewers over the first series.”

The Award was presented by Energy Minister David Parker, who says Wa$ted! is a great way to help New Zealanders who may not have thought about energy efficiency before to see what they can do.
It's simple, it’s entertaining and it’s given the message to hundreds of thousands of households that anybody can save money – and the environment – by making smarter decisions about the energy they use,” David Parker says.
Mike Underhill says a big emphasis in EECA’s strategy for the next five years is on improving the energy efficiency of our homes.

“We know people are interested and want to make improvements, but don’t always know how. Wa$ted! has put practical ideas into people’s living rooms, week after week.”

Wa$ted!’s 10 week first season spawned a website, a school based activities programme, a book and a DVD. A second series is due to air early next year.

The Minister also congratulated the other Energywise Award category winners. The winners and finalists between them have saved 387,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of taking more than 26,000 cars off the road.
EECA’s Energywise Awards – now into their ninth year – celebrate innovation and achievement in the energy efficiency sectors.
Mike Underhill says there were a record 156 entries for the Energywise Awards this year, generally of a very high calibre.

“Both the volume and quality of entries shows that energy efficiency and renewable energy is now becoming mainstream and that bodes well for New Zealand’s future.”

The full list of winners is:

EECA Supreme Award: Fumes NZ Ltd – producers of the Wa$ted! TV series screened on TV3. Auckland.
The Judges say: “Huge potential to change behaviour across the board. Reaching into homes of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders in a unique way.”

Outstanding Contribution Award: Professor Philippa Howden-Chapman – research and advocacy on home insulation and health. Wellington. Sponsor: EnergySmart.
The Judges say: “Professor Howden-Chapman has shown through detailed and compelling research, that there are very convincing reasons to install energy efficiency measures into Kiwi homes to improve the health of our families. This is a paradigm shift in the reasoning for residential energy efficiency.”

Renewable Energy Award: Contact Energy – geothermal energy project for Tenon Wood plant. Taupo. Sponsor: NZ Clean Energy Centre.
The Judges say: “This project has overcome practical challenges through innovative use of technology and has added value to a major New Zealand export product by reducing costs and carbon footprint.”

Transport Award. Toll Rail – fuel savings on the South Island Coal route. Sponsor: Shell NZ.
The Judges say: “This initiative is significant for the enormous enthusiasm and buy-in from train drivers. Excellent use of New Zealand technology.” (the Tranzlog monitor)

Residential Award. Fumes NZ Ltd – Wa$ted! TV series. Auckland. Sponsor: Fujitsu General NZ.
The Judges say: “Huge potential to change behaviour across the board. Reaching into homes of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders in a unique way.”

Project Innovation Award. Fonterra – Whareroa heat recovery loop project. Waikato. Sponsor: Transpower.
The Judges say: “This innovative project takes a proven technology to the next step. Demonstration of ongoing commitment and expertise.”

Commercial Award. MWH NZ Ltd – Dunedin airport groundwater heat pump. Dunedin. Sponsor: Genesis Energy.
The Judges say: “To be commended on innovative approach and combining standard componentry into leading edge technology.”

Industrial Award. Sealord Group – deep sea trawler fuel monitoring. Nelson. Sponsor: Energy for Industry.
The Judges say: “Excellent initiative. Places Sealord at the leading edge of their industry with a project that could be replicated across the New Zealand fishing industry.”

Energy Management Award. Fonterrra – Companywide energy efficiency project. Waikato. Sponsor: Contact Energy.
The Judges say: “High achievements resulted in meeting or exceeding targets. Committed operations staff supported by management with good leadership.”

Public Sector Award. Waitakere City Council – Council energy efficiency and sustainability work. Waitakere. Sponsor: Ministry for the Environment.
The Judges say: “A wide range of projects that are both cost effective and inspirational, providing leadership both within the city and for other councils.”

Product Innovation Award. (Joint Winners) Windflow Technology – design and manufacture of wind turbines. Christchurch. EcoInnovation – domestic hydro turbines. New Plymouth. Sponsor: Equipment Energy Efficiency.
The Judges say: “Windflow technology is an innovative use of New Zealand sourced labour, materials and design. EcoInnovation is a very ingenious re-use of a widely available existing product with opportunity for growth.”

http://www.eeca.govt.nz/news/awards/index.html

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Prudential California Realty EcoBrokers® will be available to discuss the money saving benefits of going green at 5810 Blazing Star Lane, San Diego 92130, during the California Center for Sustainable Energy’s (CCSE) 8th Annual Solar Homes Tour on Saturday, November 10, 2007 from 10:AM to 3:PM.

The Solar Homes Tour is a free, self-guided tour of over 40 homes throughout San Diego County that is designed to: 1) Educate the public about the benefits of installing solar technology, 2) encourage the adoption of clean, renewable solar energy, and 3) help San Diego residents and businesses take advantage of rebates, tax incentives and loans for going green. Visit www.energycenter.org for additional information about exhibits, solar technologies and tour sites.

Prudential California Realty EcoBrokers® join the movement of professionals pushing the real estate market toward energy-efficient, sustainable, and healthier design/features in homes and buildings. “This tour demonstrates how economically and environmentally-savvy San Diegans are harnessing the sun’s power to cut energy costs, realize thousands of dollars in incentives and create a cleaner, more sustainable energy future,” stated Irene Stillings, Executive Director of the California Center for Sustainable Energy. “Prudential California Realty’s desire to assist San Diegans in learning about the rich financial incentives – and enhanced home values -- associated with energy efficiency and renewable technologies is eminently relevant in today’s housing market,” she added.

Prudential professionals that have earned the EcoBrokers Certified® designation have successfully completed a unique and informative training program on the energy and environmental issues that affect real estate transactions.

The EcoBroker® training broadens the range of real estate opportunities the Prudential California Realty licensed real estate agent can offer their clients. Whether the transaction involves environmental assessment and mitigation (mold, radon, asbestos, etc.) or the opportunity to reduce utility bills, the Prudential EcoBroker® is in a position to help. The real estate industry is changing, and to best serve their clients, Prudential California Realty EcoBrokers® understand the newest designs, technologies, and environmental issues to benefit the home buyer or seller.

“The Prudential agent is an example of the quality real estate professional the EcoBroker® designation continues to attract,” explains EcoBrokers® International’s CEO, Dr. John Beldock. “These real estate professionals are not only distinguishing themselves in a competitive market place, but they are really giving back to the community in very constructive and meaningful ways.”

The Prudential California Realty EcoBrokers® have the opportunity to look forward in positively impacting the quality, durability, comfort, safety, and cost-effectiveness of homes and commercial buildings in Southern California.
For more information regarding Prudential California Realty EcoBrokers®, please contact Steve Schobelock at Sexton Communications, 858.634.5200 or via e-mail at steve@sextoncommunications.com.

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By Tom Cahill

Nov. 7 (Bloomberg)

Oil investments of $5.3 trillion will be needed as new sources pace slowing output from old wells, the IEA said. If investments aren't made, this year's 61 percent surge in crude prices to more than $98 a barrel may be the start.
"From 2012, oil supply will be tight, this is not good news for anybody who wants to see an ease in prices," IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol told reporters in London. "The message to our governments is to slow down the demand increases and to producers to invest more if we want to avoid a supply crunch."

China and India's combined imports will surge to 19.1 million barrels of oil a day by 2030 from 5.4 million barrels of oil a day in 2006, the report said in its so-called "reference scenario." That's more than today's combined oil imports to Japan and the U.S., the largest energy user.

High Growth
The IEA maintained projections for oil production reaching as much as 116 million barrels of oil a day by 2030, up from about 85 million barrels a day now. Demand would reach 120 million barrels a day and crude prices as high as $159 a barrel in a "high growth scenario," Birol said.
"We have to look at this because we have all been wrong so far" about Chinese and Indian economic growth, said Birol. "The most important question is what is the pace of growth in China and India in years to come."

Birol, who began leading the team writing the World Energy Outlook in 2002, said high growth forecasts have more closely tracked actual results than the reference scenario for the past five years.

Some in the industry doubt world production can meet IEA projections. Reaching 100 million barrels a day may be "optimistic," Total SA Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie and the chairman of Libya's state oil company, Shokri Ghanem, said last week.
"We are saying what needed to be done, not what will be done,'' said Birol, who added the investment decisions will largely be up to OPEC nations. " If they put their money there they can meet demand.''

Field Declines
An average field decline of 3.7 percent a year means 12.5 million barrels of new production -- more than the current output of Saudi Arabia -- needs to be added between 2012 and 2015 to counter the drop and meet new demand, the Paris-based adviser to 26 oil importing nations said in its 674-page report.

Even a slight increase in the rate of decline would "eat up most of the world's current spare oil production capacity," the group said. "Any shortfall in net capacity growth could result in a sharp escalation of prices."

For every $4 invested in oil infrastructure, $3 will be needed to slow declining rates in existing fields, while $1 will go to new production, Birol said.

Russia and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, home to as much as 82 percent of oil reserves according to statistics from BP Plc, should account for a larger share of production though they may withhold investment because they realize higher prices will result, the IEA said.

Weak Alternatives
"The alternatives to OPEC are getting weaker and weaker," Nobuo Tanaka, the IEA's executive director, said at the conference in London. " They may well go for the higher prices. One of the reasons we may see higher prices is investments won't be made."

OPEC's share of world oil production will rise to 52 percent by 2030 from the current 42 percent, the IEA said. So-called non- conventional oil sources, such as extra heavy oils, tar sands and natural gas-to-liquids sources, will quadruple to 8.5 million barrels of oil a day from 1.8 million barrels of oil a day in 2006, the IEA said.

The IEA's report this year focuses on how China and India, the world's fastest growing energy users, are reshaping the industry. The agency was set up in 1974 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to coordinate energy policy after an Arab oil embargo. It plans to add Slovakia and Poland as members. China and India could also one day join, Tanaka said.

U.S. Inflation
Record oil prices will probably push up U.S. inflation only marginally in coming months while having little impact on global economic growth, International Monetary Fund researchers Kevin Cheng and Valerie Mercer-Blackman wrote in a report Nov. 5.

Efforts to boost supply will spur demand for deep-sea oil rig companies, such as GlobalSantaFe Corp., the offshore oil and gas driller being acquired by Transocean Inc., said Don Hodges, who manages about $1.1 billion at Hodges Capital Management in Dallas.

"It all points to a shortage of rigs, and those companies that have the rigs are in an enviable position," Hodges, who has shares of both Transocean and GlobalSantaFe, said Nov. 5.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aP3OXSofGuFY&refer=india

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Climate change could end globalisation by 2040 as nations look inward to conserve scarce resources and conflicts flare when refugees flee rising seas and drought, US national security experts warned.
Scarcity could dictate the terms of international relations, according to Leon Fuerth of George Washington University, one of the report's authors.

Global cooperation based on a resource-rich world could give way to a regime where vital commodities are scarce, Fuerth said at a forum to release "The Age of Consequences."
"Some of the consequences could essentially involve the end of globalisation as we have known it ... as different parts of the Earth contract upon themselves in order to try to conserve what they need to survive," said Fuerth, who was national security adviser to former Vice President Al Gore.

Rich countries could "go through a 30-year process of kicking people away from the lifeboat" as the world's poorest face the worst environmental consequences, which he said would be "extremely debilitating in moral terms."

"It also suggests the kinds of hatreds that build up between different groups will be accentuated as these groups attempt to move to more clement locations on the planet," Fuerth said.

Published by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the report offers three scenarios for security implications of climate change, starting with the middle-ground estimate by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
This scenario, which the report said could be expected, forecasts global warming of 1.3 degrees C, with sea level rise of about .23 metres by 2040.

"We predict a scenario in which people and nations are threatened by massive food and water shortages, devastating natural disasters and deadly disease outbreaks," said John Podesta, President Bill Clinton's former chief of staff and now president of the Centre for American Progress think tank.

Podesta called this outcome inevitable, even if the United States – the world's biggest emitter of climate-warming carbon dioxide – enters immediately into an international system to cap and trade credits for the potent greenhouse gas.
This is unlikely, though a bill to limit carbon emissions is up for debate, possibly as soon as this week, in the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee. President George W. Bush has opposed mandatory caps on emissions, saying they would hurt the US economy.

Climate change will force internal and cross-border migrations as people leave areas where food and water are scarce. They will also flee rising seas and areas devastated by the droughts, floods and severe storms that are also forecast consequences of climate change.

South Asia, Africa and Europe will be particularly vulnerable to these mass migrations, notably from countries where Islamic fundamentalism has grown, Podesta said.

In the Middle East, he said, the politics of water will hold sway, with the Jordan River creating a physical link to the interests of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4263792a12.html

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Silent, deceptively quick, and even fun to drive, the world's first showroom hydrogen fuel cell car is just around the corner, and Dave Moore has driven it.

Belt up, select "Drive" using a small plastic lug to the right of the steering wheel, release the double-action foot brake, and press the pedal on the right. That's it. You've just had your complete instruction session for the Honda FCX II.

The silent, four-seat sedan leaps off the line with immediate alacrity – one of the many pleasing traits of electric drive – and reaches 80km/h in what seems a couple of heartbeats. This is a quick car – reinforced when the white-coated engineer accompanying me explains that it is, in fact, doing 80 MILES an hour!

In a production version of the car, energy from braking will also be used to charge some li-ion batteries.

I slow for a tight hairpin bend and the car courses through it with a pleasingly flat, firm attitude, performing a slight wriggle through the front-drive system as it deploys the electric motor's prodigious torque. It feels like a silent sports car, with plenty of go, a remarkably pliant chassis and an exhaust emissions level that makes you feel as smug as a cyclist.
The FCX II uses electricity generated by combining hydrogen and oxygen in a fuel cell stack, as well as electricity stored in the li-ion battery pack, to power the vehicle's electric motor.

Honda says that when its first production fuel cell car reaches the market in 2009 it will look very similar to the FCX II concept model I've been driving.

Stunningly shaped, thanks to its fuel cells and powerplant that are lighter and more compact than conventional petrol and diesel systems and can be tucked away anywhere, the FCX II's profile displays just how quickly things can change in the automotive business.

Honda's first FCX was the shape of the likely progeny of a one-night stand between a surgical boot and a Logo hatchback. Four years ago, when that car appeared, its fuel cells and electric power systems were less compact and more difficult to package, and frankly, although the car was nice to drive, clean as a whistle and absolutely silent, it couldn't be described as exactly desirable, except perhaps to the staunchest greenie.

The first FCX was estimated to have cost Honda more than $US1.5 million to build, not counting the research and development costs and the investment in the car's engineering and the salaries of the thousands of workers in the United States and Japan involved with the project.

The FCX II is also a seven-figure car, although Honda says it expects the sticker for the production version to be about a tenth of the original FCX's asking price when it hits the streets. For the meantime, the car will be available on special lease deals to specially selected customers in the US and Japan.

When it is available, the FCX II will have a range of about 450km and be capable of speeds beyond 160km/ h. In other words, it will have a similar capability to that of an Accord V6 while consuming nothing more than hydrogen, and emitting pure water in the form of steam from its exhaust.

Of course, it's not quite as simple as that. Honda intends for its FCX II to fuel up by using a special infrastructure consisting of gas stations powered by solar panels and using water to supply the hydrogen, which will be stored in liquid form in a pressurised container aboard the car.

The car takes 10 minutes to fill and the hydrogen takes much longer than that to be produced. Honda is also working on allowing the FCX II owner extract hydrogen from a home-based gas reticulation system – although such a system will use fossil fuels and is seen as a stop-gap measure only.

The production version will be unveiled at the Los Angeles car show next month, and Takeo Fukui, Honda's president and chief executive, says the car will look like the FCX II, with room for four in a space-age cabin which will have a gauge showing you how much range you have left instead of an E to F fuel dial.

My short, but very educating drive, suggests that while some of the stories of doom and gloom are probably right, Honda's take on the future of driving makes more than a good job out of a bad situation.
Driving might just be fun again.

In fact, it'll be literally a gas, once the support infrastructure has been established and the price has dropped a little more.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4263794a30.html 

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