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Sydney Harbour was abuzz  as the crew of the Plastiki, a boat made from recycled plastic bottles, ended its voyage across the Pacific ocean earlier this month. The ship set sail to raise awareness about the harmful effects of plastics in our oceans and landfills. The crew, including project leader David De Rothschild, ended a 130-day trip that began this Spring in San Francisco.

The boat was constructed using 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles. The sail is hand-woven from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is also utilized in several other components of the boat’s frame, and the mast is reclaimed aluminum irrigation pipe.

Besides the wind energy harnessed by the Plastiki’s sail, wind turbines and solar panels provide renewable power as well, along with trailing propeller turbines and bicycle generators.

A flotilla of boats welcomed the seafarers and guided them into port, where friends, family and supporters awaited the 10 crew members with an arrival ceremony. According to the Plastiki Blog, all on board witnessed the pollution — much of it plastic waste — slowly strangling our oceans, “affirming their mission to share their experience with the watching world and most importantly highlight solutions to protect our oceans and beat waste.”

Find photos of the Plastiki’s arrival in Sydney, as well as pics and documentation from the entire voyage, at ThePlastiki.com.

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The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Tony Hayward would likely be stepping down from his position as chief executive officer of the company. The multinational oil and gas corporation is reeling from the explosion of an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and the resulting three-month oil leak which has caused the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

Looking for someone to blame, the world has pointed to the corporation (or, more generally, offshore oil drilling), but BP hasn’t had anywhere to point but inward. Perhaps that will change (they hope) if the company’s board of directors decides to oust CEO Tony Hayward during a meeting Monday night.

The meeting will be held the night before BP is to release quarterly earnings results — a release in which they’ll have to explain heavy losses due to the gulf oil spill, the true environmental and economic damage of which may never by known.

Another source speaking on condition of anonymity told the Washington Post that Hayward and several other company members who had had roles in the spill response could be punted, with Hayward being the most obvious and likely choice. Not only is he the figurehead most equated with BP and its criminal negligence, but some of his comments in the wake of the disaster have been…er, less than sensitive to victims of the disaster.

The hope for BP’s board could be that Hayward stepping down would be construed as someone taking full responsibility for the spill, and thus symbolize a new direction for the company.

The most likely successor to Hayward is American Bob Dudley, reports BBC News. Dudley is in charge of BP’s clean-up efforts in the Gulf of Mexico and would be the first American to run British Petroleum. He came to BP when it merged with Amoco in 1998.

The choice seems an obvious one from a PR standpoint. Dudley is American, more relatable to the wounded populace, and he is from Mississippi, a Gulf state — even more relatable to the wounded populace. He’s also in charge of the clean-up effort, perhaps the only visibly proactive measure BP has taken in a region where the company is now widely despised.

Does It Matter?

Whoever Hayward’s successor may be, how anyone could take the resignation of one (or even several) high-profile employees as valid, substantial evidence for the turning over of a “new leaf” for BP is beyond me. Hayward may have been in charge during the worst oil spill in U.S. history, but the laundry list of BP atrocities goes back well before him. He himself promised a new era of safety and reliability when he took power in 2007.

So a new face at BP amounts to nothing more than a new face. Their work is inherently dangerous to the environment, especially given the difficulty of finding new oil reserves, and the company’s primary goal, as it must be for any corporation, will continue to be profit — a goal impeded by increased government regulation and surveillance.

So if BP is to change, to turn over a new leaf, it will only come through increased pressure from the global public through its representative governments, assuming that each populace has more control over its government than do the oil companies in question, as is evidently not the case here in America given the near total lack of action from the U.S. Congress in response to such a revolting and unprecedented disaster. Some members of Congress even felt compelled to apologize to BP when President Obama took the company to task over its negligence and poor response to the spill.

Does Hayward’s ouster matter? Not really. Only when we put more preference on clean, renewable energy and stop coddling and subsidizing the oil and gas industry will oil and gas companies begin to see that there is safety in safety and profit in a newer, cleaner energy source. They’ll keep right on drilling and, unfortunately, the oil will keep right on spilling until we find a way to stop relying on it.

By the way, even if this did change BP for the better (not just until the heat dies down), there’s still ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips and a host of other global oil and gas companies to contend with. Broader change than a Tony Hayward resignation is needed.

Photo Credit: Guardian, nola & Boston

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Oregon is already home to the largest solar panel manufacturing plant in North America, thanks to SolarWorld’s continental headquarters in Hillsboro just west of Portland. Now, the Portland area — one of the most sustainable in the land — will receive another landmark boost from the renewable energy sector. This morning, Solexant Corp. announced that it will build a 110-megawatt thin-film production plant in Gresham,  east of Portland.

The thin-film plant will be the first of its kind in the world, according to Solexant. The San Jose, CA-based company utilizes technology developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (one-time workplace of Energy Secretary Stephen Chu) to manufacture printable nanocrystal solar cells using special inks.

While the company already operates a 2-MW pilot plant in California, the Gresham plant will represent its first step into large-scale production. The plant will initially employ about 100 workers, increasing to 170 at full production. Furthermore, if all goes well for Solexant, there is the long-term possibility of increasing annual production to 1,000 MW, which could add up to 1,000 new jobs in Gresham.

Solexant has qualified for $18.75 million in tax credits for the manufacturing facility, and will also receive a $25 million loan from the Oregon Department of Energy’s small-scale energy loan program (SELP). When finalized, this will be the largest SELP award ever offered, and will be doled out in two installments of $6 million before a final $13-million installment. Because the award is so large, the town of Gresham has been required by the ODOE to guarantee the final $13 million.

The winning of a thin-film manufacturing plant adds nicely to Oregon’s growing solar energy portfolio. In addition to the 500 MW SolarWorld plant, Oregon is leading the nation in many other ways as well. Not least of those is a new pilot feed-in tariff similar to that which made Germany a global leader in solar power.

Solexant’s nanocrystal solar cells are, according to a company press release, “The first solar cells based on ultrathin films incorporating nanocrystals made of high‐performance, inorganic materials.” The company also claims cost savings of up to 50 percent compared to other PV technologies, due to high-efficiency materials and low-cost production. The secret, apparently, is the use of inorganic materials (as opposed to low-efficiency organic materials) to produce a flexible thin-film solar cell.

Source & first picture: OregonLive
Second photo: GreenTechMedia

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Once upon a time in a TV land older than most people I know, there lived a prime time soap opera called Dallas. In this show lived a big-hat-wearing Texas oil tycoon named J.R. Ewing. Those of you who remember this egregious, womanizing, money-grubbing corporate captain of industry will get how amusing it is that the owner of Ewing Oil (then and now played by Larry Hagman) has come out of this oil well to promote solar power. The rest of you might want to search Wikipedia and then, perhaps, YouTube.

Hagman, who is probably more famous for playing Major Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie, is now a spokesman for SolarWorld. And he has resurrected the J.R. Ewing character to help illustrate that point. SolarWorld is based in Germany but has manufacturing plants in California and Oregon. The 500-megawatt plant in Oregon is currently the largest solar cell manufacturing facility in North America.

As for Larry Hagman/J.R. Ewing, he lives in Ojai, California on a veritable plantation. There he grows vegetables and some 200 avocado trees, and has already installed a 94-kilowatt solar power system. If you’re wondering how the former (if fictional) oil tycoon changed his tune to one of solar energy, know that this photovoltaic system has reduced his annual electric bill from $37,000 to just $13, according to the LA Times.

Hagman is starring in a new ad campaign for SolarWorld in which he will play off Sarah Palin’s laughable Drill, Baby, Drill exclamation by encouraging homeowners to “Shine, baby, shine.”

Tip of the Cowboy Hat to CleanTechnica for the article
Photo Hattip to Virgin Media

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While the Solar Impulse jumps hurdles and breaks records for manned solar-powered flight, a different plane altogether is setting similar marks for unmanned flight. The Zephyr is in the midst of attempting a 14-day continuous high-altitude flight powered only by solar panels integrated into the plane’s facade. Already, the Zephyr has set a new record for continuous solar flight at seven days (168 hours), more than doubling its own previous record. The goal? To prove that the Zephyr is the world’s first “eternal plane” able to fly indefinitely without in-flight refueling.

The Zephyr is a solar drone built by QinetiQ, a leading defense technology and security company. The plane is currently flying over the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. It will fly for another week without any refueling except by the solar panels adorning its 22.5-meter (74 ft.) wingspan. The plane weighs only 50 kilograms (110 pounds).

The Zephyr is equipped with lithium-sulfur batteries that recharge by sunlight during the day and power the plane at night. Its light weight is made possible by a carbon fiber structure, and its solar electricity to operate the plane is harnessed using amorphous silicon solar cells lining the wings and tail. The plane is launched by hand.

Potential military uses for a plane like this are obvious, as drones are already in wide use for safe surveillance over enemy territory. The Zephyr allows this safety and observation, but without any time restrictions. Other more benign benefits revolve around science and communication. The plane could allow long-term, high-altitude observation of the earth and its ecosystems, allowing scientists valuable insight into how the Earth functions, as well as how to better protect it–something the Zephyr itself is doing by flying without fossil fuels.

The Zephyr will be showcased at the Farnborough International Airshow in England, home of the plane’s creator, QinetiQ.

Via AutoMotto
Photo Credit: QinetiQ

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After nearly 90 days, the Gulf of Mexico oil leak has finally been capped, at least temporarily. Following delays and apprehension, the wellhead was capped on Thursday afternoon as part of a test evaluating the amount of pressure within the well. If all goes well through Friday, the well could remain shut indefinitely.

Brought to you by BP, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, and whether or not the well remains shut, cleanup and recovery from it will no doubt last years.

The longer the test lasts, the more hope for a long-term solution to the oil leak. As of early Friday morning, nearly 12 hours after the well was capped, everything remained quiet a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

Yet despite the promise of a successful pressure test, those involved have stressed that these are just that — tests. While the cap could remain on the well permanently if pressure holds, BP and the government may also decide to let the oil flow again and try to collect all of it. The cap could also allow closure during hurricanes when collection is impossible.

Cautious optimism is the doctrine of the day for BP and the U.S. government, for whom the three-month oil spill has been utterly embarrassing, not to mention atrocious, deathly and economically disastrous for all life in the Gulf region. President Obama has called the cap a “positive sign” but will not go further. Indeed, Thad Allen, who is in charge of the government’s spill response, asserted that the cap was in reality only meant to be used during inclement weather. The Gulf of Mexico currently stands in the midst of hurricane season.

The cap would be used to more efficiently siphon oil onto ships on the surface. Two ships are above the well right now with two more slated for arrival in about a week. With all four ships in use, and given success of the pressure test, BP should be able to capture all of the oil leaking from the well — roughly 35,000 to 60,000 barrels per day, according to the latest, obviously rough estimates.

As Day Two of the test begins, BP is at least 12 hours closer to shutting down the flow of oil for good. The cap will hopefully buy them time to drill a relief well to permanently stop the leak. But at this point, there is little trust in hope in the Gulf region. While oil drillers and politicians plea for a lift on an Obama administration ban on new offshore drilling to save jobs, fishermen and others tied to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico face an uncertain future. Some hardly believe anyone involved in the spill response anymore. Most see little hope for the future, regardless of any success in stopping the leak.

“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a dead man, in my opinion,” a local crabber told the New York Times. Millions of barrels of oil still float in Gulf waters and no one has even attempted to estimate the horrible ruination imposed on flora and fauna, indeed the entire food chain of the region.

With one offshore oil spill, BP has effectively ended life as anyone in the region knew it, and immediately ended the lives of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and countless members of the animal world. And still some 42,000 offshore oil wells continue to draw oil from American waters.

Which will come first: an end to our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels, or the BP oil spill cleanup process? An unfortunate riddle for the ages. Let’s just hope that both come as soon as humanly possible.

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Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) was set for a booming takeoff. At least 22 states officially signed on in support. The popular financing program was first successful in Berkeley, where it originated as a means to promote home solar power. But then, everything came to a screeching halt when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suddenly laid siege to the popular financing program by forbidding homeowners to participate.

Taken aback, municipalities have frozen their PACE programs and a virtual tsunami has torn through the building and greentech industries. Even pleas from the Obama administration fell on deaf ears. But now somebody has begun the fight to win PACE back. California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who is also a candidate for governor, is suing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

His claim is that the move by the two quasi-governmental lenders and their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), violates California’s law authorizing the locally administered PACE programs. Brown asserts that the FHFA’s guidelines restricting homeowner participation is “severely hampering California’s efforts to assist thousands of California homeowners to reduce their energy and water use, help drive the state’s green economy, and create significant numbers of skilled, stable and well-paying jobs.”

Indeed, PACE is widely accepted as a viable means of achieving improved home efficiency and increased use of renewable energy on a national scale, with the Obama administration doling out $150 million of stimulus funding in support thus far. PACE programs allow property owners to borrow money from their city or county for energy efficiency or renewable energy upgrades and then pay them back through a voluntary increase in property taxes.

In addition to its violation of California law, Jerry Brown’s lawsuit also alleges that the FHFA violated federal law by not conducting an environmental impact review as to the effect of its lender guidelines. By enacting the restrictions, the lawsuit states, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have “deprived California and its citizens of the associated residential energy and water efficiency and renewable energy benefits, thereby significantly impacting the human environment.”

Jerry Brown is the first to strike back at the FHFA and the two private lenders, but he will very likely not be the last. The town of Babylon, New York is also threatening legal action, according to Grist, and Sonoma County, CA has opted to reopen its program with or without Fannie or Freddie’s approval. Still, some 200 PACE programs have been frozen in the wake of the FHFA’s announcement earlier this month.

Via New York Times
Photo Credit: Political Lunacy & SF Citizen

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New video illustrates devastation on Gulf, wildlife.

An important pressure test on the latest attempt by BP to cap its leaking oil well was originally scheduled for Monday, but has yet to get underway. The problem seems to be nervousness about how well the cap will hold, and the even longer delays stemming from a test failure. Thad Allen, Commander of the federal spill response and retired Coast Guard Admiral, made the choice yesterday to delay the test at least another 24 hours.

The test would shut off the flow of oil by sealing a stack of valves on a cap already installed at the wellhead nearly a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. If the well is able to hold pressure, then the cap could remain on, effectively closing off the leak that has been spewing anywhere from 2 to 4 million gallons of oil into the Gulf daily. Estimates on the exact amount of oil leaking daily vary widely, but are certainly more than the low-ball accounts given by BP when the spill began nearly 90 days ago (after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank, killing 11 workers and setting off the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history).

Senior BP Vice President Kent Wells, who noted that the test was so important officials decided to give another day to study it, told the New York Times that his company was waiting for pressure to build up to ideal test conditions. “It’s very clear,” he said. “What we’re waiting for is pressure to build up. The higher, the better.”

However, a technician involved in the test, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Times that the real debate was whether the test was worth the risk, as a pressure buildup could damage the well bore and force the repair team several steps backward in eventually sealing it up. The technician added that the test is also designed to provide data in relation to drilling the relief well that will permanently stop the leak, but he asserts that many relief wells have been drilled in the past without such information and that to wait for it is unnecessary.

The test could take anywhere from 6 to 48 hours to complete, if and when it gets started.

On a different note, today I discovered a video compilation of photos taken of the BP oil disaster. The photos, from the Alexander Higgins Blog, illustrate the incredible devastation the oil spill has leaked on the Gulf of Mexico, its shores and the wild and marine life inhabiting the region. Higgins prefaces the compilation as “the photos BP does not want you to see,” which is obvious considering BP’s blatant culpability in the disaster and almost laughable (if not so disturbing) ineptitude at doing anything about it.

Say what you will about Higgins’ rather inflammatory blog or the soundtrack he provides to the aforementioned video; the photographs do not lie and really bring home for us who live on the other side of the country (or world) real pain and destruction caused by the BP oil spill for the residents of the Gulf region, both human and animal. It also goes to show the true necessity and urgency of weening ourselves off of fossil fuels and into renewable resources such as solar power (a good alternative for ailing southern U.S. states in the line of fire from the spill).

Photo Credit via screengrabs of a CBS Video

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In opposition to two separate rulings by federal judges, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the Obama administration imposed another moratorium on new offshore drilling permits in U.S. waters. After an appeals court judge last week denied the administration’s request to overturn the lifting by a previous circuit judge of the initial ban, the Obama administration decided to take matters into its own hands. The new moratorium will be in effect until November 30 or such time as Secretary Salazar sees evidence that deepwater oil exploration and drilling can proceed with safety.

The oil industry and its political allies are in an uproar over the move, citing primarily the loss of thousands of jobs as good reason not to enforce the ban.

Said Secretary Salazar, “I am basing my decision on evidence that grows every day of the industry’s inability in the deepwater to contain a catastrophic blowout, respond to an oil spill, and to operate safely.”

Democratic Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu felt otherwise: “Obviously more effective regulations and greater transparency are a must, but this Deepwater Horizon incident is an exception and it should be treated as such,” she told a presidential commission investigating the BP oil spill. “I urge this commission to take immediate and swift action to immediately lift the moratorium.”

Landrieu noted that the ban could cause the loss of up to 120,000 jobs in Louisiana as unusable oil rigs move to countries where they are allowed to work. She stated that this “second economic disaster has the potential to become greater than the first.”

42,000 other wells still operate in U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico, and the moratorium only affects new deepwater drilling permits, limited to just 33 projects.

While the Obama administration has expressed concern and understanding regarding the economic loss in the region stemming from the moratorium, it presses that safety is of the utmost concern. As Salazar and a number of other administration officials have reiterated several times, any evidence showing that oil companies are prepared for an oil spill or even to operate safely pales in comparison to the glaring evidence that they are not. Until these companies can show the administration otherwise, the moratorium remains in effect.

“I remain open to modifying the new deepwater drilling suspensions based on new information,” noted Salazar, but first the oil drilling industry “must raise the bar on its practices and answer fundamental questions about deepwater safety, blowout prevention and containment, and oil spill response.”

Oil companies have been using their economic clout to try to dissuade the administration from instituting the moratorium. Indeed, Diamond Offshore Drilling, which operates 10 of the 33 rigs affected by the moratorium, has already redeployed two rigs to Egypt and West Africa with a third slated for departure to Brazil if the administration sticks to its guns on the new moratorium.

Source: Grist.org

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In opposition to two separate rulings by federal judges, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the Obama administration imposed another moratorium on new offshore drilling permits in U.S. waters. After an appeals court judge last week denied the administration’s request to overturn the lifting by a previous circuit judge of the initial ban, the Obama administration decided to take matters into its own hands. The new moratorium will be in effect until November 30 or such time as Secretary Salazar sees evidence that deepwater oil exploration and drilling can proceed with safety.

The oil industry and its political allies are in an uproar over the move, citing primarily the loss of thousands of jobs as good reason not to enforce the ban.

Said Secretary Salazar, “I am basing my decision on evidence that grows every day of the industry’s inability in the deepwater to contain a catastrophic blowout, respond to an oil spill, and to operate safely.”

Democratic Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu felt otherwise: “Obviously more effective regulations and greater transparency are a must, but this Deepwater Horizon incident is an exception and it should be treated as such,” she told a presidential commission investigating the BP oil spill. “I urge this commission to take immediate and swift action to immediately lift the moratorium.”

Landrieu noted that the ban could cause the loss of up to 120,000 jobs in Louisiana as unusable oil rigs move to countries where they are allowed to work. She stated that this “second economic disaster has the potential to become greater than the first.”

42,000 other wells still operate in U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico, and the moratorium only affects new deepwater drilling permits, limited to just 33 projects.

While the Obama administration has expressed concern and understanding regarding the economic loss in the region stemming from the moratorium, it presses that safety is of the utmost concern. As Salazar and a number of other administration officials have reiterated several times, any evidence showing that oil companies are prepared for an oil spill or even to operate safely pales in comparison to the glaring evidence that they are not. Until these companies can show the administration otherwise, the moratorium remains in effect.

“I remain open to modifying the new deepwater drilling suspensions based on new information,” noted Salazar, but first the oil drilling industry “must raise the bar on its practices and answer fundamental questions about deepwater safety, blowout prevention and containment, and oil spill response.”

Oil companies have been using their economic clout to try to dissuade the administration from instituting the moratorium. Indeed, Diamond Offshore Drilling, which operates 10 of the 33 rigs affected by the moratorium, has already redeployed two rigs to Egypt and West Africa with a third slated for departure to Brazil if the administration sticks to its guns on the new moratorium.

Source: Grist.org

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