In the latest installment of his excellent Greenwash column, the Guardian's Fred Pearce asks whether a wind farm could result in more carbon emissions than a coal-fired power station. Referring to a proposed 187 square kilometre wind farm on the Shetland Islands - potentially the largest in Europe - Pearce writes:

More than half of the wind turbines in Scotland are on highland peat. This is not sensible. Scottish peat bogs hold three-quarters of all the carbon in British ecosystems – equivalent to around a century of emissions from fossil fuel burning.

Apart from water, peat bogs are largely composed of huge volumes of saturated, undecayed plants. A single hectare typically contains more than 5000 tonnes of carbon, ten times more than a typical hectare of forest. But any disturbance leads to lower water levels and to the peat drying, oxidising and releasing its carbon, says biochemist Mike Hall of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust.
The bog can decompose for hundreds of metres round every turbine, potentially releasing millions of tonnes of carbon. The process is slow, but frequently unstoppable, Hall says. So many wind farms may eventually emit more carbon than an equivalent coal-fired power station.

This poses the questions - considering so much talk of expanding wind power in Ireland has centred on our boggy west coast, and considering Bord Na Mona's plans to become a major player in the wind sector, has any analysis been carried out of the potential for wind farm development to release large quantities of carbon from Irish bogs? Will this be considered on a case-by-case basis for wind farms proposed in boggy areas?

Over on Treehugger, Warren McLaren wonders about the potential for timber housing to act as a carbon sink, referencing an Australian report (scroll down) on the topic. He writes:

And I remembered a report I saw last month in The Age newspaper that suggested that timber frame houses were excellent carbon sinks. Not a trick that steel can replicate. According to research:

Almost 100 million tonnes of carbon is stored in timber in Australian houses, with about 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent added each year as new houses are built ...

That annual addition would absorb about 0.4% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions (as measured in 2006), but has been on the decline as Australian houses have utilised more bricks, concrete, metal and plastics in the past 20 years. The study noted that were more wood used, “annual carbon storage in houses could rise from 1.6 million tonnes in 2008 to 4 million tonnes in 2050.”

He also notes:

The report, entitled “Dynamics of Carbon Stocks in Timber in Australian Residential Housing” does need to be considered with a degree of circumspect, because it was commissioned by industry body, Forest & Wood Products Australia, who obviously have a vested interested in higher timber use.

However, industry influence aside, the researchers at Melbourne University's Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, and the NSW Department of Primary Industries did collate some intriguing figures. For instance, they calculated that whilst most wood used in houses was historically sourced from Australian native forest or imported timber, these days 80% is derived from domestic softwood plantations.

 

It may be over two weeks since it was published, but I still thought it would be worth attempting to summarise the main points from the ESRI's 'Policy Options to Reduce Ireland's Greenhouse Gas Emissions' report. Ultimately it recommends the inevitable, a carbon tax, which it says will discourage carbon emissions while allowing 'actors' in the economy to respond flexibly based on the most appropriate methods of reducing carbon in their particular sector. It would also provide revenue for the government to offset the negative effects of a rise in fuel prices, enabling it to encourage competitiveness through reductions in labour and income taxes, and to support the vulnerable. What I find most interesting is the acceptance that we need to put a price on the limited capacity of the atmosphere to absorb man-made carbon emissions - if that's the case, don't we also need to put a price on other finite elements of the biosphere that we exploit, such as biodiversity? 

Among its most interesting observations and conclusions are the following:

Rob Moody has posted an interesting article on Greenbuildingadvisor.com about home energy efficiency measures that don't actually save much energy.

 Among his suggested culprits?

 Boiler tune-ups, floor insulation, window replacement and cooling your attic. 

Inhabitat has published the 20 finalists in its ReBurbia suburban design competition. Some of my favourites include: 

Regenerative suburban median: Within many suburban developments there is an abundance of under utilized space within residential lots and public rights of way. Many suburban streets are 35-50ft wide; such widths unnecessarily consume ecological, social, and economic resources. We propose a new regenerative median for suburban streets that treats gray water and sewage, produces agriculture, provides a platform for small scale commercial activity and slows down automobile traffic to promote increased pedestrian activity and social interaction within the neighborhood.

Ex Box: There is a movement of reusing abandoned malls for community spaces. EX-BOX will allow the building to be self-sustaining by providing energy and space for public events. It provides renewable energy by maximizing the solar exposure with the use of various angles. By plugging in the programs that add density to the empty space and provides better environment, the space will bring people and allow community events.

Entrepenurbia: Rather than taking the traditional, additive approach to solving problems, the Entrepreneurbia model simply abolishes poorly conceived zoning laws to attract forward-thinking small business owners and start-up companies. The result is a community of entrepreneurs who transform inefficient single-family dwellings and purely decorative landscape spaces into intelligent home-based businesses.

C3 Initiative: The C3 initiative will “re-colonize” suburbs by adding localized and micro versions of retail, energy generation, water efficiency, community organization, and economic development. C3 colonies utilize existing/built environments but look inward and generate energy, water conservation, community and revenue as a sustainable micro-society.

 

The Guardian reports on attempts by scientists to mimic the energy-producing abilities of plants:

Now scientists developing the next generation of clean power sources are working out how to copy, and ultimately improve upon, the humble leaf. The intricate chemistry involved in photosynthesis, the process where plants use sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar, is the most effective solar energy conversion process on Earth. And researchers believe that mimicking parts of it could be the ticket to a limitless supply of clean power...

...At Imperial College London, researchers have embarked on a £1m project to study, and eventually mimic, photosynthesis. Part of a project called the "artificial leaf", involves working out exactly how leaves use sunlight to make useful molecules. The team then plans to build artificial systems that can do the same to generate clean fuels such as hydrogen and methanol. These would then be used in fuel cells to make electricity or directly to power super-clean vehicles.

Similar projects are gathering pace around the world: the US is poised to approve a federal research budget of around $35m a year for ideas that could create fuels from sunlight and the Dutch government has allocated €40m for similar research.

According to James Barber, a biologist at Imperial College London and leader of the artificial leaf project, if artificial photosynthesis systems could use around 10% of the sunlight falling on them, they would only need to cover 0.16% of the Earth's surface to satisfy a global energy consumption rate of 20 terawatts, the amount it is predicted that the world will need in 2030. And unlike a biological leaf, the artificial equivalent could be placed in the arid desert areas of the world, where it would not compete for space agricultural land.

There's more here . 

 

 

The HARP database allows Building Energy Rating assessors to enter real performance data for heating appliances when calculating Building Energy Ratings rather than low default scores - but few renewable appliances are listed, and the industry appears confused and deterred by the application process. Lenny Antonelli investigates.

When it comes to redeveloping old buildings, green designers face two choices: replace existing structures with modern, energy efficient buildings or refurbish and avoid the embodied energy and waste of demolition and new construction. Lenny Antonelli visited a redeveloped convent in Booterstown, County Dublin that combines the best of both approaches.

Homeowners thinking of applying for Home Energy Saving scheme grants should pay close attention to a renovation project in Stillorgan, south Dublin. The refurbishment boasts every upgrade measure grant-aided under the scheme, including three types of wall insulation, a high efficiency boiler and sophisticated heating controls. Lenny Antonelli visited the house to find out more.

Check out this profile and video tour of a house designed for US Green Building Council (USGBC) founder David Gottfried. The house boasts the highest 'platinum' certification under LEED, the USGBC's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design building rating system, and features solar thermal and photovoltaics, rainwater collection, water efficient plumbing fixtures, reclaimed timber flooring, FSC-certified furniture, a natural lighting strategy and zero VOC finishes.