A recent Bloomberg survey of key energy decision-makers concluded that China shows more government support than any other country for funding renewable energy. It also shows equally high support for transformational clean technologies, like smart grids and electric cars. With the right government backing, China could address its own energy security issues with technology to spare for export.

The graphs charting China’s economic growth and energy demand mirror one another: each resembles the left side of a mountain with no peak in sight. By the IEA’s reckoning, China’s electricity demand alone will nearly triple by 2035. On the surface, this may come across as resoundingly bad news to environmentalists. However, China’s industrial cloud has a strong green lining. And unlike the Olympics, China’s not just using green paint this time.

This year, Bloomberg Businessweek Research Services in partnership with ABB surveyed energy professionals, government officials and CFOs about the future of energy, the opportunities and the barriers. Among the results of this 2011 Energy Survey, China emerged as the strongest government supporter of clean energy technologies.

China’s renewable energy: Readers may remember that China’s wind power capacity surpassed the United States in 2010, and continues to grow. The National Development and Reform Commission estimates that China, the world leader in wind, could generate as much as 1 TW of wind energy by 2050. Similarly, this year China bumped its four-year targets for solar generation up by 50%, and the shear volume of solar panel production from the People’s Republic had US solar manufacturers suddenly in a panic.

Where will the greenbacks for China’s green energy growth come from? The Bloomberg survey shows that nearly 90% of Chinese energy decision-makers believe that the government should fund renewable energy growth. That makes China far and away the most enthusiastic about government support of renewables. By contrast, fewer than 40% of Americans surveyed think it’s the government’s role to fund clean energy. In the ongoing war of words between China and the US over climate change and energy security, those numbers speak volumes.

Smart grids: China will likely soon also be the world’s biggest smart grid market. Last year alone, it invested 3.7 billion US dollars in modernizing its electricity grid, and the so-called “12th Five-Year Plan” calls for wide installation of smart meters, IT software and other components of a smart grid over the next few years. The 2011 Energy Survey reflects the same strong government support of smart grids as for renewable energy. All of the decision-makers surveyed agreed that updating China’s is either somewhat important or very important. Moreover, as with renewable energy, over 90% believe that continued investment in China’s smart grid will come from the government.

Electric vehicles: With a smart grid with vehicle to grid technology in place, electric vehicles (EVs) also become a convenient way to store and provide energy to the grid. China’s planning to have one million EVs on the road by 2014. To support these electric cars, it’s building 400 electric vehicle charging stations by 2016. According to the 2011 Energy Survey, over 80% of Chinese decision-makers believe that the Chinese government should support the EV infrastructure, a full ten percent more than the next leading country and a great deal more than the USA, where fewer than 40% agree with government support for EVs. To this tune, the Chinese government is investing 100 billion Yuan (15 bn USD) in alternative fuel vehicles over the next ten years.

The 2011 Energy Survey is still open for participation for members of the public to give their input on the future of energy and compare their views with those of energy market decision-makers. Take the survey. You can also view a detailed list of the survey’s conclusions and watch related videos. For a summary of the conclusions, see this infographic.

Article by Gavin Hudson, appearing courtesy Earth & Industry.

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A new report from ExxonMobil predicts that nearly half of the world’s cars will either be hybrids or powered by alternative fuels by 2040.

While hybrids now account for just about 1 percent of all vehicles worldwide, the oil giant forecasts that hybrids and alternative energy vehicles will move to the mainstream as governments increasingly push for better fuel efficiency.

The ExxonMobil report, “The Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040,” predicts that overall energy demand will remain flat in developed nations over the next three decades, but demand in developing nations such as China and India will increase nearly 60 percent from 2010 to 2040.

The report also predicts a worldwide boom in shale gas production and forecasts that 30 percent of the world’s electricity will be produced from natural gas, while demand for coal will peak before seeing “its first long-term decline in modern history.”

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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The mission: defeat the enemy while preserving Uncle Sam’s pocketbook. Saving the Earth is a worthy, but secondary, objective.

The Department of Defense last week rolled out its plan to consume less, and find new ways to source, energy. The need has become particularly pressing as operations in Afghanistan and Iraq last year led U.S. forces to consume 5 billion gallons of fuel. The military’s insatiable thirst for energy puts troops in danger as they transport fuel through hostile territory — the Marines estimate one service member is killed for every 24 convoys. It also exposes the Pentagon budget to price shocks in volatile energy markets.

The “Operational Energy Strategy,” called for a three-pronged pincer movement: reduce energy demand and improve efficiency; expand energy options beyond petroleum, including biofuels and renewable energy; make energy security a priority for future plans.

Here are nine ways that the military is trying to cut down its energy use.

1. Portable solar panels to power batteries. A serviceman on a three-day foot patrol in Afghanistan will carry 33 batteries. By 2012, that number could increase to 50 batteries. To combat this growing need to juice up gear, the Army has begun equipping soldiers with portable 62-watt solar panels that can charge batteries in five to six hours. Charging equipment remotely means troops don’t have to go back to vehicles or bases to plug-in or replace batteries.

2. Net zero energy bases. Forward-thinking urban architects have long championed the idea of constructing buildings that generate as much energy from renewable sources as they use. Now the military wants in. While net zero is difficult to achieve, it’s an aspirational goal that drives gains in energy efficiency and conservation and on-site generation. Several bases, including Fort Carson, Colo., are currently attempting to go net zero.

3. Unmanned drones to deliver cargo. Not only would it be safer to drop off cargo with a drone, it would also reduce aircraft weight by removing non-essential items (like on-board pilots) and save fuel. The Air Force asked suppliers in 2009 to build a vehicle that can deliver 500-3000 pounds of cargo within a radius of 500 nautical miles and have a speed of 250 knots and vertical take-off and landing capability. Other service branches have already moved forward with a variety of unmanned cargo vehicles.

4. Jets powered by plant seeds and waste grease. The Air Force uses more than 2 billion gallons of aviation fuel a year — more than some small countries — and consumes the most energy of any service. It has begun experimenting with blends of military aviation fuel and biofuels made of camelina, a plant seed oil, beef fallow and waste oils and greases. Cost is still a major obstacle; the biofuel costs 10 times standard fuel.

5. “The Great Green Fleet.” The Navy has a series of green initiatives – including getting half of its energy from alternative sources by 2020 – but the catchiest is the “Great Green Fleet,” a carrier strike group with nuclear and hybrid electric ships and biofueled jets that is slated to be operational by 2016. Smaller green vehicles will include a new class of Navy river boat, a 49-foot-long riverboat that zooms at 40 knots and is powered by a blend of algae fuel and diesel. It’s a long way from JFK’s PT 109.

6. Hybrid propulsion systems. The USS Makin Island, an amphibious assault ship, has a hybrid gas turbine/electric propulsion system that could save $250 million in fuel over the ship’s lifetime. The diesel electric motors power the ship at low speeds and the 70,000 horsepower gas turbines propel the ship through the high seas (most amphibious ships use steam power). Not quite the “Prius” of the seas, but efficient.

7. Shorter aircraft routes. One way to cut down on fuel use by aircraft is to work with allies to fly more fuel-efficient routes. The U.S. recently formalized a deal with Kazakhstan to allow U.S. supply and troop planes to pass through the former Soviet republic’s airspace directly into Afghanistan. Planes leaving the U.S. can fly directly over the North Pole into Northern Afghanistan.

8. Solar outposts. Supplying fuel to forward bases is expensive and dangerous, so there’s an imperative to create on-site power generation and solar is the most obvious choice. The military is only at the early stages of this project. A company of Marines in Helmand Province, Afghanistan is looking into generating solar power and U.S. forces have helped build Afghan National Army outposts powered by solar energy.

9. Locally grown alternative fuels. Transporting a gallon of gas to combat vehicles in Afghanistan costs about $400, according to a 2009 Pentagon estimate. If the military could source biofuels from local crops, an option troops have explored, it would likely be less expensive and have the additional benefit of promoting the local economy.

Article appearing courtesy Txchnologist.

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Yes, you read that correctly.

In an assessment eerily similar to one delivered by Mark Delucchi and Mark Jacobson (and broken down here) less than a week ago, BP – the energy company that we all love to hate – says that the diversification of energy resources by 2030 will see renewables leaping ahead of fossil fuels for the first time in history.

At least that’s the message delivered by BP Energy Outlook 2030, an industry report which BP Group Chief Executive Bob Dudley says covers the “huge issues.”

Huge indeed, since what could be a bigger issue than global energy supplies, or the greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide most of them produce when burned? Scientists have repeatedly warned that any increase in global warming beyond 2 degrees Celsius could lead to catastrophic climate change.

Of course, Dudley is quick to point out that the report is a projection, “not a proposition.” Or, in Dudley’s carefully worded explanation, while the company is not as optimistic as some about reducing carbon emissions, the cause implicated in global warming, it does see wind, solar, bio-fuels and other renewable sources of energy capturing an increasing portion of market share, increasing up to 6 percent by 2030, or as much as 18 percent of market share overall.

This figure compares more than favorably to natural gas, which the report expects to grow the fastest of the fossil fuels, or at 2.1 percent per year – more than three times as fast as oil. Even coal is expected to grow no faster than 1.2 percent per year, though by 2030, BP speculates, it will provide as much energy as oil (not counting biofuels).

In order for renewable energy technologies like solar and wind to leap ahead as predicted, fossil fuel consumption is expected to fall, from 83 percent to 64 percent.

This fall, the report suggests, will be largely a result of environmental policy initiatives around the globe, and the report anticipates a peak in global emissions just after 2020, at about 20 percent above 2005 levels – a fact that Dudley says should be a “wake-up call” in light of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s caveat regarding that infamous 2 degrees.

The report also examines energy demand from emerging economies like China and India, and suggests that such non-OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, a consortium of 34 largely European countries) nations will account for 93 percent of demand.

What makes the report truly hopeful, in terms of renewable technologies like solar (and truly scary in terms of staying under that 2-degree limit) is the fact that one of the world’s largest and formerly most profitable oil companies is saying it. This is like having your chain-smoking father remind you that cigarettes cause cancer.

Photo Credit: Oregon DOT & Wikimedia via CC licenses

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In the United States, even the most basic programs for encouraging renewable energy and sustainable business have a hard time making it through Congress. On the other side of the Atlantic, however, western European countries are lining up to demonstrate that how industrialized nations can build up their economies with renewable power. Justmeans has already covered some of the major sustainable business innovations in countries like Portugal, Italy, and Germany. Now it seems as if Denmark could become the next European nation to take up a true leadership roll in the transition to clean energy sources.

Today, Denmark’s Commission on Climate Change Policy is set to publish a report on the potential for repowering Denmark with non-fossil fuel based energy. Yet even though it hasn’t yet been officially released, media sources are already picking up the story that the report will recommend a shift to 100% renewable energy by the year 2050. The Commission on Climate Change apparently feels wind energy holds the most potential for development—and that makes sense, considering Denmark is a peninsula nation with vast offshore wind resources. The report also advises meeting a significant portion of Denmark’s energy demand with biofuels.

To be sure, Denmark is hardly a stranger to sustainable business and initiatives designed to reduce fossil fuel consumption. The city of Copenhagen is widely known as one of the most bicycle-friendly urban centers in the world, and the Danish company Vestas is an important player in the international wind energy market. Denmark’s island of Samso is already powered completely by renewable energy sources. Yet to make a complete break with fossil fuels, the national government will need to do even more.

Specifically, the Commission on Climate Change recommends Denmark channel half a percentage point of its GDP into developing renewable energy. It also lays out forty suggestions for measures the country should take to encourage sustainable business. These recommendations include further developing offshore wind resources, making more efficient buildings that cut back on ratepayer electricity bills, and investigating new sources of alternative energy. By following these guidelines, the report maintains, Denmark can sever ties with fossil fuels within the next four decades.

Of course recommendations do not necessarily translate into action, and the onus is now on the Danish government to translate proposals into policy. This November Denmark will release a new strategy to reduce climate change and ramp up domestic renewable energy—and the government will hopefully incorporate the Climate Change Commission’s suggestions into its strategy. If this happens, Denmark may solidify its position as a leader in the increasingly competitive clean tech field. It will also up the stakes for countries like the United States, which have yet to make such a concrete commitment to sustainable business.

Article by Nick Engelfried, appearing courtesy Justmeans.

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It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock somewhere. It’s also the 5th week of the Green Business Blog Carnival, a traveling series of green business news, commentary, and insight. Next Friday, check out the carnival at Green Marketing TV.

Grab yourself a margarita and enjoy the show…..

We need water to survive and no doubt need water to produce the things we eat, the energy we use, and just about everything else you can imagine. Luckily, Green Energy World’s Subhash Chandra Mathur reminds us that the energy-water nexus is real and raises serious concerns that need to be dealt with.

Are you too lazy to compost? Well no need to worry. Over on the Sundance Channel, Jeff McIntire-Strasburg has compiled a good list of companies that will do the composting for you. No more worms for you.

Have you wanted to gain insight from green thought leaders, but didn’t want to pay a small fortune to attend a conference. Nick Aster at triplepundit has compiled a number of video interviews from Sustainable Brands 2010 on topics ranging from green hotel certification to green product development.

Greenwashing – there seems to be a lot of it. At Learning in the Corporate Sector, Ryan Tracey explores shades of green and how companies can integrate environmental sustainability into their strategic plan.

Builiding energy efficient and sustainable facilities is all the rage these days. Over at Green Economy Post, Keith Pehl explores some of the challenges in designing and building sustainable facilities. LEED Platinum, here we come!

Data centers are energy hogs. Over at Green Marketing TV, Lorna Li teaches us what green web hosting is all about and identifies some of the options available.

Well, there you have it! Have you even taken a sip of that margarita yet? If you would like to have one of your posts considered for a future edition of the Green Business Blog Carnival, please submit it using the submission form.

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BEIJING (Reuters) – Cities across eastern and central China are rationing power for industry and urging residents to limit gas use after a wave of icy weather sent energy demand soaring while straining supplies of coal that were already tight.

Much of China’s manufacturing and farming heartland shivered on Wednesday under snow, sleet and unusual cold that drove south after dumping big snowfalls on Beijing and much of the country’s north in past days.

Daytime temperatures in Shanghai and across the nearby coastal provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang skidded close to 0 degrees Celsius (32 F), and many areas inland were hit by snow or sleet, according to meteorological departments.

The harsh weather has pushed energy demand to new peaks, while transport snarls have slowed coal supplies, already low as power and coal companies haggle over prices.

The confluence of soaring demand, transport snarls and brinkmanship over coal prices could force power cuts and upset production in some big economic provinces, if conditions worsen.

“Conditions for thermal coal supply and shipment do not allow for optimism,” said the China Electric Power News, mouthpiece of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

“In central and eastern China, power plants’ inventories of thermal coal remain as tight as they were at the end of last year, and already strained shipment of coal has suffered more hardships after being hit by the snow storms.”

Even with these worries, the cold snap is unlikely to seriously slow China’s economic momentum. Much larger power and transport disruption after icy cold hit parts of southern China in early 2008 barely registered in GDP numbers.

Power authorities have said they should be able to surmount the strains by expanding transmission between regions rationing the power and gas use by thousands of factories, with limited disruption to the broader economy.

Shandong, a coastal province, limited power going to industry after the cold pushed power generating capacity to its limit. Eastern Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces were also straining to meet power demand, and some cities imposed rations for industry.

The inland province of Hubei has also been rationing power, after some power plants shut for lack of coal, local media said.

But China’s top exporting province, Guangdong in the south, has enough power to ensure “normal operations”, the China News Service reported, citing a provincial electricity grid official.

China’s coal mining is concentrated inland while demand is concentrated on the coast, resulting in long hauls that are often slowed by transport capacity strains and weather.

China imports about 5 percent of its natural gas in the form of LNG, but imports are set to grow after the opening of a pipeline from central Asia.

While most residents in northern cities, such as Beijing, enjoy centralized heating, cities south of the Yangtze River do not, leaving many to endure the cold or buy their own heaters.

But even the Chinese capital, which normally enjoys priority treatment in everything from energy to food, curbed heating to government buildings, shopping malls, office buildings and industry to ensure supplies to residents, the Beijing Daily said.

The energy strains are only partly a consequence of the recent cold snap. Demand for power was already running high as quickening economic growth pushed up factory production.

Coal suppliers and power companies are locked in price negotiations, and the freezing weather could work in favor of the suppliers, said the China Electric Power News.

“The impact of the snowy weather could become another negotiating pawn for big coal firms,” it said big coal firms.

Article by Chris Buckley, additional reporting by Jim Bai; editing by Benjamin Kang Lim; appearing courtesy of Reuters

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Update: This article has been modified since its initial publication. Please note that the report mentioned in this article is not a United Nations publication. More information about the authors and the report can be found here.

A major report issued by the United Nations Millennium Project has just been released. It finds that half the world appears vulnerable to social instability and violence due to increasing and potentially prolonged unemployment from the recession as well as several longer-term issues: decreasing water, food, and energy supplies per person; the cumulative effects of climate change; and increasing migrations due to political, environmental, and economic conditions. It also finds some good in the global financial crisis, which may be helping humanity to move from its often selfish, self-centered adolescence to a more globally responsible adulthood.

After 13 years of the Millennium Project’s global futures research, it is increasingly clear that the world has the resources to address its challenges. Coherence and direction has been lacking. But recent meetings of the U.S. and China, as well as of NATO and Russia, and the birth of the G-20 plus the continued work of the G-8 promise to improve global strategic collaboration. It remains to be seen if this spirit of cooperation can continue and if decisions will be made on the scale necessary to really address the global challenges discussed in this report.

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The Pacific Northwest just finished four days of triple digit temperatures, which put the heat on renewable energy sources to keep up with demand. Just as records were being set for power consumption, wind power generation slowed due to the calm air from the locked-in high pressure system.

The extreme weather highlights the reality that wind — and to a lesser extent hydropower — may not be a panacea for power production.

Southern Washington and the Portland metro area had a record breaking streak of warmth that pushed energy demand to record highs, but the high pressure system also featured calm breezes. The local utility Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) had to quickly balance the reduction in wind power with increases in hydropower.

To make matters worse, during long hot and dry spells the water levels in the rivers that produce power can also drop, further reducing the ability for renewables to meet peak demand.

Granted, this is an extreme example of both weather and a utility that has a strong (and growing stronger) portfolio of renewable power. Despite the Northwest’s infamous frequent cloud cover, BPA might consider installing concentrated solar farms on the sunnier (east) side of the Cascades if it wants to avoid adding more fossil fuel production.

BPA has been dealing with wild fluctuations in wind for some time, as reported by the Seattle Post Intelligencer. The utility has been making wind power producers pay for its cost in balancing wind with other resources, and recently spiked fees by “only” 90 percent after considering quadrupling the cost.

Per the paper: “By 2011, the agency estimates the system will run out of the capacity to adjust enough to accommodate for the variations of wind power. As a result, the BPA, a nonprofit federal power-marketing agency, is accelerating plans for change, including: building more capacity, flexibility and quicker response times; implementing better forecasting tools; and sharing the responsibility for moving power within and outside the region.”

While wind is approaching grid parity for cost, it can’t be equally dispatchable without energy storage or being augmenting by other more manageable resource. This reality check shouldn’t detract from wind investments; it merely suggests a more balanced approach for utilities.

This article originally appeared on Matter Network.

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Energy demand in Europe is not growing as fast as in other parts of the world but it still constitutes a significant portion of global energy demand.  Europe’s share of global primary energy demand is around 14%, although it is likely to decrease to 11-12% by 2030 according to IEA forecasts. While growth is slower than 50 years ago, energy for Europe continues to be a strategic issue.

On July 13 2009, the first international agreement on the Nabucco project was signed in Ankara to ensure gas supply for Europe from the Caspian Region to Austria through Turkey and Eastern Europe. Europeans are to almost 50% dependent on foreign resources for their primary energy demand.  Having experienced gas cuts in recent years, resulting in hard times for their industries and residents, Europe would like to become less dependent on Russia by securing its supply from different sources.

While trying to maintain a steady gas supply, Europe is also coming up with sustainable policies and clean technologies to help satisfy its energy demand. The EU Climate Change Programme and related policies were created against environmental concerns, but Danish wind power and German photovoltaic successes are born out of the support for developing local sources of energy and creating new jobs.

Now, renewable energy might be taking on a new level. On the same day as Nabucco was signed, twelve major companies came together in Munich to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to establish the Desertec Industrial Initiative. Desertec is an international clean development concept developed by the Club of Rome based in Munich. Briefly, the project involves Europe (EU), Middle East (ME) and Northern Africa (NA) as a whole to connect their resources and establish an interconnected system to provide energy supply mostly from renewable resources.

The project would constitute concentrated solar plants in the African and Arabian deserts, supplemented by wind, hydro and geothermal power. Generated power is essential for the producer countries for their desalination of sea water, and the project would be a new platform for European countries to fulfill their carbon free economy requirements. It could create a completely new and sustainable economy and provide new jobs for MENA countries, including those with oil and gas resources.

Although the project would use already proven technologies like CSP (concentrated solar plants) and HVDC (high voltage direct current transmission), some years (maybe even decades) will be needed for the preparation of the policies and integration of the MENA countries. The project will need a single electricity market in the EU-MENA region, for which the infrastructure will have to be upgraded extensively. Creating awareness and establishing feasibility studies in regards to political, financial, technical and environmental issues will take up some time in the next years.

If it succeeds, Desertec will become the largest clean power initiative in the world, satisfying 15% of Europe’s energy demand and covering substantial needs of the producer countries. Critics claim that this centralized energy generation project bears high risks for becoming a target of terrorist attacks; moreover, Europe would still be dependent on other sources of foreign energy supply.

The estimated cost of the Desertec project is around EUR 400 Billion. Over the next few years, the initiators of the project are aiming at building a pilot kick-off project with a capacity of 1 GW in order to prove its feasibility and attract supporters.

Considering the recent nuclear power discussion on the CleanTechies Blog, one easily gets curious about how the world is going to (be) shape(d).

[image credit: Desertec Foundation]

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