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"Understanding the carbon balance of a business is a vital first step towards thinking about management decisions that may have some mitigating effect on climate change by reducing GHG emissions. The calculator has been updated with the latest UK National Inventory Report (1990-2006) data published in April 2009. This may change the output from previously entered data. Working through the steps below will help you calculate your carbon balance and understand the results. Step 1 - Get your data together. You will need physical data for crops, stock and energy use. Step 2 - Log-in (on menu bar) to enter your farm details or if you have previously used the calculator select a farm profile that has already been created by clicking on it. Step 3 - Create a calculation for the farm selected. If you have already created calculations for the farm selected you may also modify, copy or use any of these, also by clicking on the description. Step 4 - Enter data in the input screen. For more guidance visit the Help page. Step 5 - When finished obtain your CALM report by clicking "Report" at the top of the screen and choosing the output format you require. Step 6 - Use the mitigation advisory notes, available from the reports section, to assess ways you can improve your carbon balance."

"The objective of this study is to:  compile the available recent literature on ILUC emissions;  compare these emissions with the assumed gains of biofuels;  assess how ILUC changes the carbon balance of using biofuels;  formulate policies to avoid these extra emissions associated with ILUC. Trends in land use, with and without biofuels All the studies on global agricultural markets reviewed predict that new arable land will be required to meet future global demand for food and feed. Although there will be increased productivity on current arable land (intensification), food and feed demand will probably grow faster, which means that mobilization of new land is likely to occur. Biofuels produced from crops (the current mainstream practice) will add extra demand for crops like wheat, rice, maize, rapeseed and palm oil. This will increase prices for these crops (as well as for land) and lead to two impacts: intensification of agricultural production and conversion of forests and grasslands to arable land. In this report we consider the issue of indirect land use change initiated by EU biofuels policy and seek to answer the following questions:  What is the probability of biofuels policies initiating land use changes?  What greenhouse gas emissions may result from indirect land use change, expressed as a factor in the mathematical relation given above?  What technical measures can be applied and what policy measures adopted to limit or entirely mitigate indirect land use change and the associated greenhouse gas emissions? We first (Chapter 2) broadly discuss the mechanism of indirect land use change. We next discuss why there is a perception among stakeholders that there is a serious risk that EU biofuels policy will initiate indirect land use change (Chapter 3) and consider the figures cited by other studies as an indication of the magnitude the associated greenhouse gas emissions  (Chapter 4). We then broadly consid

By Jorge Moreno, Environmental and Building Technologies, Frost & Sullivan With more end users focusing on reducing energy costs, energy-saving water-to-water heat pump (WTWHP) chillers are being deployed to reduce a facility's utility bills. A WTWHP chiller is a water-cooled chiller that is designed to produce hot water at a specified temperature. The use of a WTWHP chiller is very similar to a conventional centrifugal chiller except for the fact that it uses two compressors, slightly different piping configurations, and more advanced controls in order to balance cooling and heating loads. In a conventional chiller, cold water is produced for comfort cooling, and the hot water that is extracted from the refrigeration process goes into a cooling tower and is released into the atmosphere. In a WTWHP chiller, this hot water is captured and relocated to a second heating stage, where the temperature is raised and the water is used as a heating source for a building's heating requirements. The key strength of WTWHP chillers is the high coefficient of performance (COP) that translates into significant energy savings and a shorter payback period. On the other hand, the key weakness is that it can only provide such benefits in a narrow range of applications primarily due to its coincident need for cooling and heating requirements throughout the year to ensure efficiency. A coincident need means that the application demands sizable water heating load along with the typical high cooling requirements in summer, and a sizable chilled water load along with the typical heating requirements during winter. Cooling output is directly dependent on the demand for heating, and vice versa. Consequently, in the absence of sufficient heating requirements, there is only a limited amount of cooling that can be produced. Any excess heating or cooling cannot be stored and hence, it is critical to align the cooling with the expected heating requirements. Coincidentally, in the absence of suf

Solar energy can be utilized in various ways - to provide electricity, mechanical power, heat and lighting. Passive solar heating and cooling can save substantial electricity bills. Design of a building is very important for tapping passive solar energy. The building and windows are designed in such a way that they carefully balance their energy requirements without additional mechanical equipment. Solar benefits are utilized through windows and pumps, and fans are used minimally.

Wind comes out the clear winner. Concentrated solar power, geothermal, solar photovoltaics, tidal, wave, are good additions to the mix. Hydroelectric is added for its load balancing ability. Nuclear and coal are less beneficial. Corn and cellulosic ethanol should not be included in policy options. Hopefully, the next administration will be wise enough to follow Pr. Jakobson's recommendation . . . and align its subsidies with the right kind of technologies.

Well ... time will tell whether plug-in hybrids will be a "licence to print money scheme" or a technology to balance the grid. Because there is a reason for the peak - we all use energy according to the same pattern, driven by day-night, office hours and schools.

This merits revisiting. With the recent collapse of the Spanish market, the correction of the German market and the expected collapse of the French PV market, FITs prove unsustainable or victim of their own success. Once the market picks up, governments can no longer support their price tab. Moreover, they are based on a false premise: the cost of taking a technology through the learning cycle is prohibitive - it requires too many tens of billions.

The topic is complex. Some underlying questions: * Why promotion of renewables was set-up? * What is the complete economic balance of renewables promotion? (expenses in subsidies, but savings in fuel imports, job creation, exports.... some interesting studies have been done on this - see for instance Macroeconomic study on the impact of Wind Energy in Spain - http://www.aeeolica.es/userfiles/file/aee-publica/091211-executive-summary-2009.pdf) * Is the allocation of subsidies cost done correctly? Electricity consumers often pay extra-cost, but benefits go to other pockets. Should there be a cost re-allocation to make the model sustainable? * Is regulatory framework evolving less rapidly than technology? FITs on PV in 2008 could be significantly reduced compared to FITs in 2007, and so on. How to accomodate regulation to that quick cost reduction? * Had governments defined a cap in global subsidies amount? Not really, this explains why they are all reacting to initial plans. * Development of technology and market drives costs down. Why some few countries should make this investment to the benefit of the entire world? * Have we excessively promoted market growth and neglected technology development? Are we paying too much for building power plants with primitive technology?

@Fernando - I agree that the topic is complex. However, I'd refrain from making claims on employment effects. This is an area where secondary effects are rarely taken into account. While I realise these claims are popular, basically nobody knows.

What will happen when the gas runs out, when the deepest oil well of the Arabian peninsula finally runs dry, when the giant drills of the offshore platforms reach nothing but dry rock? Will we face a future of blackouts and electricity rationing, or will we find a way to avert the doomiest scenarios and continue living lives in which energy consumption is crucial to everything we do. Think of the electricity you use in a day. You are woken by the clock radio buzzing into life, and you turn the bathroom light on as you climb into your power shower. After dressing you head downstairs, where you turn on another radio, put some bread into the toaster and turn on the kettle, getting the milk from your fridge to put in your tea. After breakfast you head to work, where the lights are burning - and on go the computer and desktop fan.

According to last week's investigation on the balance of plant for PV systems, that means a new copper demand of 16,000 to 160,000 tonnes for the year. A good median estimate is 50,000 - 60,000 tonne.