Climate meeting in London

Event 1: How to find 100 billion USD ?
One of the importat breakthroughs during the conference on climate change in Copenhagen was an agreement that in 2020 developed countries will provide $ 100 billion annually to climate-projects in developing countries. The money will be allocated to emissions control and climate adaptation.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently named members of a high-level advisory group on mobilizing Climate Change Resources. The group is led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and Gordon Brown of Britain.

Money is one of the most important and difficult issues in the climate change negotiations. The unanswered question is how the find the $ 100 billion annually to climate-projects in developing countries. This challenge must be solved if there is going to be a new international climate agreement. The financial crisis has not made this task any easier.Tomorrow the 19 people in this high-level advisory group will meet in London to try to find a solution.

From the USA comes Lawrence H. Summers, president Barack Obama's principal economic adviser. From China comes Deputy Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao. India, Brazil and South Africa are included - and of course Mexico, who will host the next major climate meeting. Among the members are also the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, the economist Nicholas Stern and investor George Soros.

In reality, Ban Ki-moon set up a forum for negotiations outside of the official climate negotiations. Agreement between the countries in the group, will lay the foundation for unity in the formal UN negotiations.

Event 2: First high-energy collisions carried out in Geneva

The first high-energy collisions between particle beams have taken place at the Large Hadron Collider, ending more than a year of frustration for scientists in Geneva.

Collisions occurred just after noon BST, five hours after scheduled, but well within the time frame expected by scientists at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN).

"This is a major breakthrough. We are going where nobody has been before. We have opened a new territory for physics,” said Oliver Buchmueller, one of the key figures on the project.

The atomic particles smashed together in head-on collisions, with each beam having an energy of 3.5 trillion electron volts, three times the previous record. By creating ultra-high energy collisions, scientists are mimicking the conditions moments after the Big Bang.

"It's a great day to be a particle physicist," said Professor Rolf Heuer, the director-general of CERN. "A lot of people have waited a long time for this moment, but their patience and dedication is starting to pay dividends."

Link to CNN.com

Progress: The snow is melting
Still no word from the subcontractor who has been measuring the heatloss from the ventilationsystem in the attic. Now that the outside temperature is above 0C every day - we will of course not see icicles until next year, but I still hope that they will improve the isolation of the pipes as they have promised. Not only will it hopefully reduce the icicles problem, but it will also improve the overall energy efficiency of our "Jahus" (more heat reaches the livingroom).

I do not want to accept the proposal to move the heatpump (which will cost me ca 1000 USD) until the other issues have been solved.

Earth Hour - Yesterday

Event 1: Earth Hour was yesterday evening
Watch the 3 minute official video below .... (does only work from the blog not from the Facebook copy)....



Happy Easter Vacation !

Can Norway's black gold be green?

Event 1: The greenest barrel of oil in the world
CNN went offshore to an oil rig in the North Sea to see how in Norway we manage to produce the greenest barrel of oil in the world. For every barrel of oil produced, 8kg of carbon dioxide is emitted (sixty percent less than the global average).

"In Norway they have a great attitude towards the environment. There were little notes on our beds in fifth-floor hotel rooms with encouragements to use the stairs; the napkin dispensers in restaurants are emblazoned with "just take one"; and there were recycling bins on every street corner. I was left wondering how this environmental awareness translates into the big business of oil and gas exports."

Link to the article on CNN.com

Comment 1: Didn't he give the answer himself in the first sentence? Statoils CEO Helge Lund (ref previous blog post) is very proud of the fact that his company produces oil with 60% less CO2 emissions than the industry average. Without the environmental awareness this would not have happened.

Oil and gas is- and will for a long time be their primary focus, but Helge Lund is also happy to talk about their other "green" R&D efforts - new renewable energy sources (offshore windmills, wave-energy, tidal etc.) and of course their carbon capture and storage projects.

You may also want to see the articles "Environment and Society" and
"Statoil publishes annual and sustainability report for 2009" and the actual Sustainability Report to get more information on this topic.
 
Event 2: Hungary's sale of used CO2 credits worries carbon traders
EU has the world's largest emissions-trading market. On March 15th the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) said sales of ‘recycled’ United Nations carbon credits could damage the reputation of the European Union’s emissions-trading market.

The warning came after Hungary said it agreed to sell UN credits to an unspecified broker for 4 billion forint ($21 million).

Link to article on this AAU sale

ASPECTS OF CARBON TRADE

There are two main kinds of UN carbon credits.

• Assigned Amount Units (AAU): Under the Kyoto Protocol, countries were granted a certain number of permits to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, called Assigned Amount Units (AAUs), which are equivalent to one tonne of CO2. On average 1.5 billion AAUs are accumulated every year under the Kyoto Protocol, according to European Commission figures circulated among EU member states.
• Certified Emission Reductions (CER): is accepted in Europe’s market. CERs are also known as carbon offsets because they are created when polluters or investors pay for emission reductions in poorer countries in exchange for the tradeable credits.

Rich countries can buy carbon offsets to help them meet emissions caps, paying for carbon cuts in developing countries. International trade in recycled credits is legal, and exploits the fact that the greenhouse gas emissions of some former communist countries are far below their Kyoto targets, leaving them with surplus emissions rights (Note: this is due to worse than expected market growth and NOT a result of big investments in CO2 reduction projects).

The AAU figures (per year) are broken down as follows:  

• Russia: 1.1 billion AAUs (see definition below)
• Ukraine: 478 million AAUs
• EU10 (East & Central Europe): 439 million AAUs
• In contrast, the older member states of Western Europe (EU15) have a shortage of 144 million AAUs per year that they should buy from other countries on the carbon market.

The Hungary deal
Hungary figured out how to swap its more valuable CERs for less-valuable UN credits known as Assigned Amount Units (sold some 800,000 tonnes of used CERs, saying it would put aside the equivalent number of AAUs) .  

The European Commission, the EU’s regulatory arm, said it was “concerned” as the central European country sold credits that had already been turned over to comply in the bloc’s system.


"Carbon leakage"
Carbon leakage occurs when there is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in one country as a result of an emissions reduction by a second country with a strict climate policy. Carbon leakage may occur for a number of reasons:

• If the emissions policy of a country raises local costs, then another country with a more relaxed policy may have a trading advantage. If demand for these goods remains the same, production may move offshore to the cheaper country with lower standards, and global emissions will not be reduced.
• If environmental policies in one country add a premium to certain fuels or commodities, then the demand may decline and their price may fall. Countries that do not place a premium on those items may then take up the demand and use the same supply, negating any benefit.

Carbon leakage does not necessarily imply that the increased emissions are from competing companies; climate policies may have the effect of causing companies to relocate its production to countries without a climate policy in order to take advantage of the economic benefits.

Carbon leakage has been cited as an impediment to the effective reduction of carbon dioxide emissions through the Kyoto Protocol. This is because the 37 developed countries are the only parties to have agreed to cap their industrial emissions and there is no visibility of the carbon footprint of their imports.

Recent studies suggest that nearly a quarter of China's CO2 emissions are as a result of its production of goods for export, primarily to the USA but also to Europe, suggesting that the current focus on emission policies within national schemes may be misplaced, and question whether responsibility for emissions should rest with the producer or the consumer. It has also been argued that developed countries have a responsibility for the historical legacy of pollution which obliges them to act first, whilst allowing other developing countries with a low intensity of emissions per person to find methods of raising their economies and standard of living in a sustainable way. Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism was designed as a way of funding the technology transfer needed for such sustainable development.

One example is the Norwegian company Norsk Hydro who uses a lot of energy to produce the light-metal aluminum. They argue that unless they can continue to get cheap electricity in Norway - they will have to move all production to other parts of the planet where they will use cheaper fossil-fueled energy (in countries where they do not have to pay for CO2 emissions). Link to information about their new gas-powered Qatar-plant.         

Green certificates
A Green Certificate - terminology used in Europe - also known as Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) in the USA, are a tradable commodity proving that certain electricity is generated using renewable energy sources. Typically one certificate represents generation of 1 Megawatthour of electricity. What is defined as "renewable" varies from certificate trading scheme to trading scheme. Usually, at least the following sources are considered as renewable:

• Wind (often further divided into onshore and offshore)
• Solar (often further divided into photovoltaic and thermal)
• Wave (often further divided into onshore and offshore) and tidal (often further divided into onshore and offshore)
• Geothermal
• Hydro (often further divided into small - microhydro - and large)
• Biomass (mainly biofuels, often further divided by actual fuel used).

Green certificates represent the environmental value of renewable energy generated. The certificates can be traded separately from the energy produced. Several countries use green certificates as a mean to make the support of green electricity generation closer to a market economy instead of more bureaucratic investment support and feed-in tariffs. Such national trading schemes are in use in e.g. Poland, Sweden, the UK, Italy, Belgium (Wallonia and Flanders), and some US states.

Norway is not on the list, but it isa positive move that our Oil and Energy Minister Terje Riis-Johansen, and the Swedish industry minister Maud Olofsson signed an agreement in september 2009 on principles for further cooperation on green certificates. The ambition is a common certificate market in the two countries.

In contrast to CO2-reduction certificates (AAU's or CER's under the UNFCC), which can be exchanged worldwide, Green Certificates cannot be exchanged/traded between e.g. Belgium an Italy, let alone the USA and the EU member States.

Comment:
Given that "the greenest energy is the energy we don't use" - I hope that we will get to a point when 1 MWh of saved electric energy will equal 1 certificate. This would lower the total cost of "Jahus" projects and therefore help reduce the demand for electricity for heating houses.   

Bring (clean) energy to the consumer

Event 1: Energy Creep
SURVEYS of hundreds of UK households reveal that people who have made their houses more energy efficient are more likely to indulge in small excesses - turning up the heating, for example, or keeping it on for longer.


Small excesses add up to large costs. The results of the studies - seven of them in total - suggest that such energy creep could wipe out as much as half of the anticipated savings from making homes more energy efficient (Building Research & Information, vol 38, issue 1).

Comment 1:

It sounds like those who increase the efficiency of their houses are getting increased comfort, paying less for it and reducing their carbon emissions at the same time. That sounds like a win-win-win to me and it should be promoted as such.

Event 2: From hippy to nuclear enthusiast

In previous blog posts I have regularly referred to a book by Steward Brand that I enjoyed reading. From actively fighting nuclear energy - he is now arguing for nuclear energy. Included below is an interesting article about Steward Brand. 

Link to article on Steward Brand

Yesterday, I also included a link to a recommended 30-minute video-clip in which another nuclear enthusiast, Bill Gates, talks about the challenges we're facing and the potential that lies in TerraPower. He talks about small nuclear reactors that will feed on waste from current nuclear reactors - and because we do not have to refill fuel or remove waste from it during the 60 year operation-cycle it is more secure than any nuclear reactor today.  

Comment 2: Bring (clean) energy to the consumer 

Many of the latest developments discussed in this blog will bring "energy production" closer to the consumer (Bloom boxes, PowerChips etc) - which will reduce the need for more capacity and redundancy in the power grid. The vulnerability will be reduced - because a distributed network of power generators are less likely to fail than fewer and bigger units.     

We will still need a power-grid and there is a heated debate about the investments in a better power grid (smart-grid, more capacity, more redundancy etc.)

• Avoid the big price differences we have seen in Norway this winter. The south-west region had more electricity available than the east/northern parts - but the grid did not have enough capacity to even out these differences     
• Enable export of clean energy from Norway to Europe (energy saved in private households can be used to replace coal-based electricity in Europe)
• Establish Norway as the green battery of Europe (pump water to the dams in the mountains when there is "too much" electricity generated in Denmark (windmills) and Spain (solar-powered energy). 
• Will probably result in more expensive electricity in Norway. I have argued that this is a better way to control inflation than higher interest rates - but many disagree with my arguments (will drive energy saving projects, will create more jobs, will limit inflation etc.)        

Event 3: Summary Projected Costs of Generating Electricity -- 2010 EditionThis joint report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), is the seventh in a series of studies on electricity generating costs. It presents the latest data available for a wide variety of fuels and technologies, including coal and gas (with and without carbon capture), nuclear, hydro, onshore and offshore wind, biomass, solar, wave and tidal as well as combined heat and power (CHP). It provides levelised costs of electricity (LCOE) per MWh for almost 200 plants, based on data covering 21 countries (including four major non-OECD countries), and several industrial companies and organisations. For the first time, the report contains an extensive sensitivity analysis of the impact of variations in key parameters such as discount rates, fuel prices and carbon costs on LCOE. Additional issues affecting power generation choices are also examined.

The study shows that the cost competitiveness of electricity generating technologies depends on a number of factors which may vary nationally and regionally. Readers will find full details and analyses, supported by over 130 figures and tables, in this report which is expected to constitute a valuable tool for decision makers and researchers concerned with energy policies and climate change.

The figure below shows regional ranges of LCOE for nuclear, coal, gas and onshore wind power plants (at 5% discount rate)

 

Hints and Tips:

Checklist before you invest in a heatpump: 

1. Does the supplier have a good reputation?
• Is the vendor a certified refrigeration fitter (if in Norway, preferably with the approval of the Norwegian Heat pump Association - NOVAP) ?
• Ask for references and check them!
2. Verify that the product has the capacity and features to meet your needs.
• It is better to buy a pump that is too big than too small.
• Check that the pump has stepless adjustment / inverter
• The pump should have R410A as refrigerant.
3. Check that the heat pump is adapted to local weather conditions
• In Norway the winters can be very cold and it should therefore have a heating cable in the drainage channel (to avoid ice that blocks the flow of condensated water)
• Get a statement from the reseller that specifies that the pump is suitable for the climate where you live. Some manufacturers say that their pumps do not operate well in salty air, something which is common along the coast.
4. Make sure you get a detailed written contract
• Does the price include installation and verification of the installation?
• If you also have a balanced ventilation system, do they verify that they work well together?
• Do they offer a services contract? You need yearly maintenance (change filters etc.) and a health check of the system once a year is recommended.
• Include all the promises from the supplier

A "Micro Nuclear" reactor for your garage?

Event 1: A "Micro Nuclear" reactor for your garage?
It would seem that Toshiba hasn't given up on its dream of producing a nuclear reactor for the home, and its latest potential partner counts quite the big name among its backers. Run by a former Microsoft exec and partially funded by Bill Gates himself, TerraPower is said to have opened preliminary discussions with Toshiba regarding a possible joint venture between the two companies.

The aim is, predictably, to make safer, smaller, more socially acceptable, and just plain better reactors. TerraPower boasts its tech can run without refueling for up to 60 years on depleted uranium and Bill Gates has gotten enthusiastic enough about the whole thing to give a 30-minute talk on the matter (click below for the video).


Event 2: Turn off your lights for one hour
Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future.

Turn off your lights for one hour, Earth Hour, 8.30pm, Saturday 27th March 2010.

Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas will stand in darkness. People across the world from all walks of life will turn off their lights and join together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet

China’s most significant historic landmark, the Forbidden City in Beijing, will turn off its lights for Earth Hour at 8.30pm on Saturday March 27, in a dramatic display of action on global warming from the world’s most populous nation.



Link to earthhour.org

Progress:
Still no word from the ventilation subcontractor. They have previously said that they can move the outdoor-part of the heatpump, and my third of the cost will be approximately 1000 USD. The goal is to move it away from the bedroom wall (to the bathroom wall where the noise does not bother us) and further away from our neighbor. I am still waitning for the specifications of the operation (how will it look like after the operation?).

They have in the last few weeks collected temperature information from the ventilation system. The goal was to determine the cause of the icicles problems (why is the cold attic warmer than before the "Jahus" project?) We have not yet received any report after the data was recorded and analyzed.

    

"Food for thought"

Comments:
I have previously referred to the book by the American social entrepreneur and technology guru Stewart Brand - "Whole Earth Discipline: an Ecopragmatist Manifesto". It examines four "tools that environmentalists have distrusted and now need to embrace". Below I have added some more comments on some of his suggestions:

• Urbanization: In China we now see the biggest movement of people seen in human history (more than 300 million people moving to the cities in the next 15-20 years). This is a positive thing for the climate because the footprint per person is less in densely populated areas. 

• You do not have to drive your car as much (or even have a car at all). Look to Curtiba in Brazil to find city planning at its best (picture). 

• You don't have to use as much energy to heat your appartment (compared to a house in the suburbs) because you get heat from the appartments next to yours, the one above you and the one underneath yours
• Requires less resources for utility services (water, garbage collection etc.)
• According to Steward Brand women tend to get other priorities when they move to a city. They want to work, and one result is that they give birth to fewer children. Fewer people means less pressure on the resources of our planet (both the challenge of feeding everybody, the energy needed to support all these people and of course the CO2 footprint of every individual that walks this planet)    
• Link to my previous blog post  

• Nuclear power: This is energy without greenhouse gases and this is why Steward Brand argues that even environmentalists must embrace this technology. This is also the reason why the Department of Energy in USA recently proposed $36 billion in new federal loan guarantees on top of $18.5 billion already budgeted – for a total of $54.5 billion. That's enough to help fund six or seven new power plants. Link to my previous blog post  

• Geo-engineering: scientists search for ways to manipulate the climate to avoid some of the global warming effects that they say will come as a result of too much GHG in the atmosphere. This is a very controversial idea - but maybe we will find it neccessary if all else fails    
• Biotechnology: grow more on less space and with less resources sounds like a "no brainer" when you read Steward Brands book. He even talks of "smart houses" in the cities where they grow vegetables very efficiently. If genetically modified food means growing more food on less space and with less energy (and CO2 emissions during the production process) - it can have a positive effect on our climate. This free farmland can again become forests which work as CO2 sinks.  

I have also included other issues and measures associated with the theme of energy and climate crisis:

• More effective power generation: A chunk of ceramic can efficiently combine everyday fossil-fuel natural gas with oxygen from the air – without burning – to generate electricity on a small scale. That offers a way to meet a building's demand for power without losing energy to heat and friction in a conventional power plant or to transmission losses in a national grid. Earlier this month I included a piece on Bloom boxes - Bloom claims its boxes can halve a building's carbon footprint, a figure backed up by many familiar with such fuel cells.
  
  
  
  NewScientist have now published more on this technology. Bloom boxes must operate at minimum 900 °C, they claim, but solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) can get even cooler. Those from Ceres Power in Crawley, UK, operate below 600 °C, because they use an electrolyte that works at lower temperatures than those used by Bloom and Topsoe. That's low enough for the device to be held together with steel welds. "That was a real 'Aha!' moment," says Peter Bance of Ceres. "We don't rely on the ceramics for support – we can use steel." A porous steel sheet at the cell's heart is printed with ultra-thin layers of ceramic anode, electrolyte, and cathode.
  
  
  Home boilers powered by the cells are cheap enough to begin rolling them out in their thousands this year, the start of a four-year programme to install 37,500 in the homes of customers of the UK's biggest energy supplier, British Gas. The technology could, says Bance, "almost make your electricity bill disappear".
  
  
  As this quick survey of the fuel-cell market shows, the interest and excitement around Bloom's technology is understandable, but more thanks to the underlying technology's potential than to a single, PR-savvy company.
  
  
• More effective car fuel: SOFCs are much more practical than the hydrogen fuel cells used in some prototype vehicles. They eschew expensive platinum catalysts by operating at high temperature, and because they can use a variety of small-chain hydrocarbon fuels, they can use today's fuel (does not require tomorrow's fuel).

• Some people point out that the rainforests are extremely valuable to humanity - but where can you see this value in the marketplace? We saw signs of money transfer from the developed- to the developing countries at COP15 in Copenhagen. When the countries with rainforests get credit for the CO2 their forests "suck up" - hopefully more money will be transferred from countries with "dirty" coal powerplants.
  
  Countries may also decide, like Norway and France, to take some of the comitted CO2 cuts abroad by investing money in rainforest-friendly projects in Brazil etc.  

• Not only will this money be used by the developing countries to protect the rain-forests, but they will use it to grow in a sustainable way. In India villages have received some money and invested in solarcells and batteries at a local power-loading station. The villagers come once a day to pay for- and take home a fully recharged lamp. This project replaces the old oil-fired lamps which resulted in local pollution (sick children and CO2 emissions). Better light in the evenings also allow children to do more homework and improve their skills.

• Why does the Norwegian government want to tax (VAT) e-books while their printed counterparts are not taxed? It must be better for everybody if we could produce and distribute content electronically (paper comes from trees and the process recuires a lot of physical packaging and transportation before the book reaches the consumer).

• IPCC say that more than 50% of the CO2 cuts must come from reduced energy demand. Are we spending too much money and direct too much attention to the generation of more new (sustainable) energy and too little on saving energy where we can? There are low-hangig fruit in abundance out there and most people agree that "the cleanest energy - is the energy you don't use".
  
  Some of the obvious measures include improved public transportation system (more frequent and cheaper trains/buses - ref comments above on Curtiba in Brazil), more expensive fuel for fossil-fueled cars, higher tax on electricity combined with incentives to improve energy efficiency of businesses and ordinary private homes ("Jahus" projects) etc.
  
  The Norwegian Climate and Pollution Control Directorate (Klima- og forurensingsdirektoratet) recently presented their report "Klimakur 2020". This report adresses how Norway can achieve cuts of 12 million tonnes of CO2 by 2020. It was a big surprise to find that cuts in energy used in buildings were hardly mentioned. The reason was that the energy used today is dominated by clean hydroelectrical power (almost no CO2 footprint). I would argue that it should have been given much more attention. 1 TWh of reduced energy demand from buildings will be just as important to the climate as 1 TWh of energy from a new windpowered powerplant - assuming there is a demand for this energy (or else the prices will drop and we go in the opposite direction).

The added demand for this high quality energy (low CO2 footprint) will come from electrifying both the transport sector and the offshore oilproduction, providing electricity to the industry with high-energy demand (Aluminum produced with clean electricity in Norway rather than with coal in Qatar) and export to EU via the expanded power grid  (to replace coal-powered powerplants).       

Event: International meeting on climate change
Bolivia and other developing nations refused to sign the Copenhagen accord and this is why Bolivia is hosting an international meeting on climate change next month. In the words of the Tuvalu negotiator, "we were not prepared to betray our people for 30 pieces of silver".

Link to The Guardian (on this conference)

Big power from tiny wires

Event 1: Big power from tiny wires
A team of scientists at MIT have discovered a previously unknown phenomenon that can cause powerful waves of energy to shoot through minuscule wires known as carbon nanotubes. The discovery could lead to a new way of producing electricity, the researchers say.



Like a collection of flotsam propelled along the surface by waves traveling across the ocean, it turns out that a thermal wave — a moving pulse of heat — traveling along a microscopic wire can drive electrons along, creating an electrical current.


Link to MIT News
 
Event 2: Dramatic improvements in fuel efficiency of cars?
The Power Chip™ is a new technology that uses the physical mechanism of thermionics and quantum thermotunnelling to generate electrical power directly from heat, with no moving parts, and with a higher projected efficiency than any current technology.



Power Chips should revolutionize electrical power generation across virtually all applications. In present large generating stations, adding Power Chips to capture heat that is now wasted will enable power plants to produce at least 20% more power with no increase in fuel consumption or emissions. Eventually, more-efficient power plants, using only Power Chips to produce power, will become common.

In automobiles and other vehicles, Power Chips initially are likely to replace the alternator, using waste heat from the radiator and exhaust and greatly increasing the efficiency of the internal combustion engine. Within a few years, electrically-driven vehicles will become possible, with power generated by Power Chips--burning gasoline, natural gas, or hydrogen as fuel to produce heat--and driving a super-efficient Chorus® Motor. Such an automobile would achieve dramatic improvements in fuel efficiency, and produce a fraction of the emissions.

Link to PowerChips

Comments: I also included some info about the Bloom box recently which promises to generate electricity from natural gas more efficiently than the combustion-type burners today (using new fuel-cells). I will of course continue to look for news-clips like these, and those I find most relevant will also be shared with readers of this blog.   
 

Progress:
I have no progress to report, but I want to share with you my expereices from registering our house on the web-site http://www.energimerking.no/ (to get an official energy efficiency lable for our house). 
 
I logged in using the same procedure I use when registering my tax return statement every year (on Altinn). I entered my 11-number personal ID number and a password - and then received a passcode as an sms on my cellphone. Using that passcode I was able to enter the web site. 
 
I wanted to see the effect of our Jahus project on the official energy efficiency rating - and I therefore started by registering our house the way it was before the Jahus project. I entered the size of the house (270 sq meters) and the year it was built (1971) and used defaults generated by the system wherever possible. The whole process took less than 30 minutes and I came out with an rating "E". 
 
I then selected the simple dataentry process again, but with the Jahus data. I was able to specify that we now have a air-to-air heatpump and balanced ventilation, but this process did not let me specify the extra isolation and changing of old windows and doors (ca 50% of the Jahus cost). The result was a rating "D". 
 
I then selected the detailed data-entry process to get credit for all our renovation efforts (extra isolation + new windows and doors). I now had to specify the shape of the building and on which walls the different windows were located. The system also asked about timers on the thermostats (panel heaters, heated floors etc.), and I was able to specify that the heated air from the heatpump gets distributed by the ventilation system. The whole process took almost 1 hour, but to my surprise the rate was still a "D". 
 
If I only judged by the rating of this system - 50% of the Jahus project (judging by the cost) was a waste. Adding isolation and replacing old windows and doors are the number 1 actions recommended by Enova - so finding that these efforts didn't give any improvement in the rating was a big disappointment. We are not planning to sell the house anytime soon. The energy lable is therefore not as important to us as the positive effects we have experienced in our indoor climate and the lower electricity bills in the years to come.    
 
   
 
    
 
 
     
    

The electricity bill has arrived

Update frequency
It has been a while since I posted anything on this blog (sorry). The reason for this "radio silence" is:

• Nothing has happenend in our "Jahus project". See comments under the heading "Progress"
• No major events in the marketplace (climate/energy)  

Event 1: Electricity bills arrive 
Most norwegian homes have now received their latest electricity bill. There was quite a lot of attention in the press regarding higher energy prices even before the latest electricity bills, but the higher cost still came as a surprise to many families.

"Reducing the electricity bill" has been a more frequent topic around lunch- and dinner tables these last weeks than CO2 and global warming.

Comment 1: This is of course a good thing. Even the global warming sceptics see the need for energy saving efforts - and reducing the electricity bill at home involves extra isolation, replacing old windows/doors, adding a heatpump and balanced ventilation, and of course replacing the oilburner as a heatsource. Most people prefer these efforts to shorter shower-time, lower temperature in the house etc.
                  

Event 2: Energy lables on all buildings

Last week I attended the first seminar (hosted by NVE) on energy lables for buildings in Norway. As mentioned in an earlier blog post these energy lables are mandatory from July 1st 2010 for rent- and sales of homes in Norway.    

The goal of this project is to help the customers (buyers) navigate in the marketplace and select the object with the best value for money - including the projected operations cost.

Comment 2: I believe that this effort will help put emphasis on energy efficiency in homes, but think that we need more incentives to accellerate the adoption of these energy saving efforts in our over 1 million draughty houses. These incentives could be cheap loans from Husbanken (pri 1), more grants from Enova (for example to isolation and blanced ventilation projects), and reduced VAT on typical products like heatpumps, balanced ventilation, isolation etc.  

Progress:
The two top priorities now are:

1. To move the outside portion of the heatpump to a new place where the noise is less of a problem (to where it should have been put in the first place).
2. To reduce the heatloss in the cold attic and therefore fixing the icicles problem

Progress 1: They admit that the heatpump probably should have been placed in the corner outside the bathroom and WC (restroom) from day 1 - away from the neighbors and not on a bedroom wall. We had some discussions, but I have indicated that I can be willing to pay one third of the cost related to this operation (to finally finish this project and "get on with life"). They offered to move the outside portion of the heatpump for a fixed price of 1200 USD (which should be 1/3 of the total cost).

I asked how they planned to do it, are they including the wooden heatpump cover, and where they recommended that it gets moved - they couldn't answer and I am still waiting for the spesifications (we will do X for the price Y).

Progress 2: The Project Leader has previously promised to add more isolation on the ventilation pipes in the attic to keep it cold. He promised that the net result would be warmer air supplied to the living room and no more icicles problems.
   
The ventilation subcontractor and the project leader, however, have had a dispute over responsability for the icicles problem. To prove their point the ventilation subcontractor have placed some monitoring/recording device in the system and I am waiting for the two companies to reach an agreement and deliver what they have promised.      

The Future Of Energy?

Event 1: Bloom Energy Boxes

Over the past several years, there’s been no shortage of talk about alternative energy, and its potential to change the world. The problem is that most of it is just that — talk. But on February 22nd., a report that aired on 60 Minutes showed one alternative that is not only real, it’s already being tested by companies such as Google and eBay.

Bloom Energy are producing tiny fuel cell boxes they call “Bloom Boxes.” Two of these can apparently power a U.S. home (and only one for homes in countries that use less power). So how small are they? Look at the picture above, each device isn’t much bigger than a standard brick. Of course, they need to be surrounded by a larger unit that takes in an energy source (such as natural gas). But still, these units look to be about the size of a refrigerator and can easily fit outside of a home, providing it with clean, cheap energy.

Currently, these boxes cost some $700,000 - $800,000, but eventually, founder K.R. Sridhar envisions one in every home — and he thinks he can get the cost below $3,000 for a unit to make that happen. And he’s talking a 5 to 10 year timeframe for this.

You simply have to watch this clip (from 60 Minutes on CBS): The Bloom Box

What is a fuel cell?
How does this specific solid-oxide-fuel-cell (SOFC) work?

Comment 1: Any effect on CO2 emissions?
I found the following on CO2 emissions from traditional natural gas- and coal fired powerplants: The average emissions rate from natural gas-fired generation is 515 kg (1135 lbs)/MWh of carbon dioxide. Compared to the average emissions from coal-fired generation, natural gas produces half as much carbon dioxide.

Bloom Energy claims in their Datasheet that the CO2 emissions will be 350 kg (773 lbs) / MWh when running on natural gas (carbon neutral on Directed Biogas). This is only 67% of the emissions from a traditional powerplant based on natural gas combustion - and hence this looks like a good alternative to the big centralised powerplants burning natural gas (and even better when you compare it to coal).

Comment 2: What other positive effects could we expect?

• More effective electricity generation:
• They claim that they get more electricity out of the gas. Normal gas power stations have an efficiency of 50%, and an (achievable) efficiency of 80% for such a device therefore means half price per kWh, for the same amount of gas you burn (and almost half the CO2 emissions as previously discussed).    
• The loss of energy associated with transport of electricity over the powergrid is dramatically reduced in a scenario with a network of distributed Bloom boxes (anything less than 100% efficiency with a pressurized gas line is a leak that needs to be serviced).
• Replacing one grid with another: gas must be transported to each of these Bloom boxes.
• In USA 50% of the houses are hooked up to the gas network (and many more could), but in other countries like Norway there are very few houses hooked up to a distribution system for natural gas 
• The cost of building a distribution system for natural gas is probably too high. Regions without such a network will probably not see a Bloom box in every home - but bigger regional poverplants based on the same SOFC technology         
• 
  
  More robust energy distribution system:  
• Removing many SPOFs (single point of failure) such as the big powerplants, critical powerlines etc. Black-outs are therefore less likely in a scenario with millions of distributed Bloom boxes
•  There is of course the possibility of failure in the gas-supply, but I would be surprised if they do not include a small tank of LNG with every Bloom box installation (allowing it to operate for a few hours without supply of gas through the network).  

Comment 3: What could this technology have done to the current "energy crisis" in Norway?

• The CEO of Statoil, Helge Lund, would be very happy because this scenario would lead to a massive demand for "his" natural gas. He has for a long time argued that all coal-based powerplants should be converted to gas to cut the CO2 emissions in half (50%).   
• 
  
  We wouldn't be so dependant on nuclear power from Sweden (producing more energy ourselves - using our own natural gas)
• 
  
  Our lack of capacity in the powergrid has led to very different prices depending on which region you live in. This problem would not exist if we had a network of thousands micro-powerplants (in all regions) 
• 
  
  The concern about the vulnerability in the energy supplychain would fade with this transition from a centralized to a distributed infrastructure    

BUT, even though the CO2 emissions are lower than from traditional gas-fueled powerplants, there would be more CO2 emissions from Norway than what we have today. 

• It would replace clean nuclear power from Sweden (no CO2 emissions)
• It could increase the available electricity in the marketplace and prices would therefore drop - leading to an increase in demand

I believe there is too much talk about increasing the energy-production today. What we need today is better incentives for those who initiate energysaving projects (and we all know that lower energyprices will have the opposite effect).

The Bloom boxes will probably have limited success in Norway - due to the availability of clean energy (hydroelectric power) and a lack of gas distribution infrastructure. Agri businesses/farmers could, however, run their whole operations from methane and other gases that are produced from composting and slurrystores (manure).

In the USA where they have limited amounts of clean energy, huge reserves of gas and a good distribution network for the gas - the Bloom boxes might turn out to be a huge hit.
 
Progress:
Today the ventilation subcontractor finally replaced the big and noisy fan - with a smaller and less noisy fan. He also took out some instrumentation from the system and brought it back to the office. They will  now analyse the results and then disucss with the project leader who should be responsible for fixing the "too warm attic problem".   

Rebate for home improvement

Event 1:
President Obama is on a tour across the southern USA right now promoting his plans for getting the country back to work. The number one program he highlighted? "Cash-for-Caulkers," a $6 billion proposal to provide cash rebates to people who improve the energy efficiency of their homes. That's right: getting America and the world back to work means investing in clean energy programs that save cash and the climate.

“This is not a Democratic idea or a Republican idea,” Obama told his audience. “This is a common-sense approach that will help jump-start job creation while making our economy stronger.”


Comment 1:
Why doesn't politicians here in Norway do the same?

• the last few weeks have shown us what happens when the demand for electricity exceeds supply (prices go sky-high). Electrifying the oil-fields and the transport sector will further increase demand and it is much cheaper and makes more sense to reduce energy demand in draughty houses than to invest in more electricity generation capability.      
• Norway also needs more activity in the building- and construction sector (unemployment is high on the political agenda)  

Yes, we have Enova and they provide some grants, but only small amounts and not for any of the measures we have implemented in our "Jahus" (balanced ventilation, air-to-air heatpump, improved isolation and replacing old windows/doors).

Our Finance Minister even says that printed books will continue to be tax-free, but ebooks (to my Kindle ebook reader) will not be given the same tax exemption. Does this make sense?

• Cut down the forests to produce paper and packaging material (CO2 emissions)
• Transport the paper to where they print the books (fossil fueled transport sector)
• Transport the book half way around the globe to a bookstore near you (more CO2 emissions)
• Recycle or burn all the packaging material and the books not being sold 

.....or, you could buy a book online from Amazon and in a matter of minutes it downloads automatically to your Kindle. What can be more climate-friendly than that?

The same goes for music CDs - isn't it a good thing that you can buy and download music from Spotify, Itunes etc. rather than having to bother with physical media? Films used to ship on VHS cassettes, and now DVDs are common - but soon we will get rid of the physical media here too.   

Content does not weigh anything and travels with the speed of light.  

Progress:
Yesterday, the "too warm attic" not only caused snow on the roof to melt and create icicles as it fell from the roof - but on the inside of the roof there was condensated water that ran down the inside of the roof and tried to get out. Some of it didn't - and started to find its way into our living room.

The attached pictures show that icicles also form under the roof - indicating that there is condensated water coming out from under the roof. The Project Leader was here today to look at this new surprising effect and promised to fix it. I believe there he has a fight going on with the subcontractor who placed the ventilationsystem in the cold attic (Rockwool and Glava who produces isolation material say that you should avoid placing ventilation systems in cold attics).