Stories appearing in the Bangladeshi media indicate that plans are afoot to create a capacity for solar panel manufacture in the country over coming years. Companies are vying with each other for a share of the action.
Two of the Ashden Award's previous award-winners - Grameen Shakti and Rahimafrooz - are key players in rolling out solar power in Bangladesh and are mentioned in the plans.
The Financial Express article "Bangladesh-US venture to build country's first solar plant" says the move by Star Group to build a solar plant comes as solar power makes inroads in a vast swathe of rural areas left untouched by the national electricity grid, achievements that Grameen Shakti has played a large part in, backed by soft-loan refinancing schemes by IDCOL.
In the article, the MD of Rahimafrooz, which sells batteries to the charities, said the plant would speed up the growth of solar systems in the country. He said Rahimafrooz is also pursuing its own plan to build a photovoltaic panel factory, as he sees Bangladesh emerging as a top solar-powered nation within a few years.
"Solar power systems are changing the face of rural Bangladesh. And it would be a billion dollar industry within a few years," he said.
The article in The Daily Star focuses on IDCOL's plan to establish solar plants, in collaboration with partners such as Grameen Shakti. They currently import panels from India and China.
More info:
Financial Express Bangladesh
Daily Star article
Daily Star opinion on sustainable energy
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Bangladeshi ventures aim to build solar PV industry
New study boosts hopes for offshore wind in SE England
A recent story in The Observer (26.4.09) reports a study by Atmos Consulting that shows wind speeds in the area of East Anglia and Essex are increasing, boosting the hopes of proponents of offshore wind farms along the coast and potentially making the economics more feasible.
According to the research wind speeds in these areas have been rising so much that wind farms site there could generate 50 percent more electricity than previously envisaged.
The data is based on NASA satellite images that shows wind speeds increased from 7.5 metres per second in 1990 to 8.5 metres in 2008. The images measure the size of tiny capillary waves on the ocean's surface, which indicate the wind's strength.
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Budget announcements on the environment receive mixed reactions
Yesterday's UK budget announcements from the Chancellor Alistair Darling include a number of environmental ingredients, but do not amount to a "green budget", according to many environmentalists. However, it is the first time a Chancellor has set a budget for carbon with a "legally binding" target.
The government will spend £1 billion on supporting low carbon businesses. They will aim for greenhouse gas emission cuts of 34 percent by 2020, short of the 42 percent target with respect to 1990 levels recommended by the government's advisory climate committee. NGO's such as Friends of the Earth, Christian Aid and the New Economics Foundation have criticised the target announcement as not bold enough to ensure the UK reaches the 80 percent cut in emissions needed by 2050.
There is a promise of £435 million for energy efficiency improvements including £100 million for local authorities to spend on better insulation. In addition the government has announced £5 billion is to be spent on renewables, particularly wind farms and solar PV, pronouncements welcomed by the BWEA and Solar Century, amongst others. Between 2011 and 2014, £525 million will be spent on offshore wind farm to power 3 million homes.
A few other measures are of note to local sustainable energy schemes such as Ashden Award winners in the UK: £45m to small-scale domestic renewables; £25m to community heating schemes and £65m in loans to public sector organisations for improving energy efficiency.
According to Simon Brammer, UK programme manager for the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy: "This is no green budget but it does represent some progress towards a more low carbon economy. We welcome the announcement of support for energy efficiency, for small scale domestic energy, community heating schemes and for renewable energy as a step in the right direction. We hope the support for green technology will help bring more green jobs and the boost the confidence of private investors enough to really scale up the success of many of our winners."
Read more:
- Richard Black analysis on the BBC
- Louise Gray in the Telegraph
- Terry Macalister in the Guardian
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Visiting Fruits of the Nile in Uganda
This is a guest post from Adam Brett.
I recently returned from an interesting trip to Uganda with organic expert, Dr Julia Wright of Garden Organics to visit some of our projects. One of these is a small solar-drying fruit company called Fruits of the Nile, a 2008 Ashden Award winner. We are currently assisting them in their transition to Organic and Fair Trade certified production for all of their products. We are also exploring whether Fruits of the Nile can diversify to include solar-dried berry products in their repertoire.
Depending on weather conditions, Fruits of the Nile are hoping to export between two to four tonnes of chewy bananas this month and they continue to dry and export pineapples. We discussed the possibility of growing and drying berry products also. During the trip we saw and tasted both strawberry and Chinese gooseberry (also know as Physalis or “golden-berry”) which we think could be scaled up by Fruits of the Nile for little cost. Julia also thought the growing conditions in Uganda could be good for growing blueberries. We discovered that the drying ratios for berries are higher than expected: 4.5 kilos of golden berries yield 1 kilo dry weight, with the ratio only slightly lower for strawberries. This means farmers will need to grow less than they do currently for pineapple. It will also be easier to solar dry the berries than it is for other crops because they can be held for ripening after harvesting more easily.
We travelled to Western Uganda to meet the farmers we work with and see how they cultivate strawberries. I also wanted to show Julia the range of available growing conditions in Uganda. We found golden-berries growing wild in a number of banana plantations, and several farmers experimenting with strawberry cultivation for the local fresh market.
We agreed to go ahead with trial cultivation of berries in the Central region which has the best conditions for these crops – it is hot enough for drying and there are good cultivation conditions. We selected a possible family farm that we have worked with as a good potential site for initial trials.
We are encouraging Fruits of the Nile to chase up the organic certification, which is taking some time to process although they are at the very final stages. For the time-being the existing stocks of pineapple are “organic in conversion”, waiting on the final approval of organic certification and they can become organic as soon as the certificate arrives.
In the short term we have decided to prepare a berry cultivation manual for Fruits of the Nile and local farmers and review the cultivation requirements for growing berries before we begin. Despite the problems that the global recession is inevitably causing for these local farmers, like so many others, we found the staff to be positive and doing their best to adapt to the prevailing conditions.
Adam Brett is Managing Director of Fulwell Mill in Sunderland, UK. He sits on the judging panel for the Ashden Awards, but stood down from this during 2008, when Fruits of the Nile applied.
Friday, 17 April 2009
World Bank 2009 Global Development Marketplace
The World Bank's 2009 Global Development Marketplace is now accepting proposals on Climate Adaptation.
Visit their website at www.developmentmarketplace.org, available in English, French and Spanish.
The Development Marketplace is a competitive grant program administered by the World Bank. The 2009 global competition is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and additional DM partners. It aims to identify 20 to 25 innovative, early-stage projects addressing climate adaptation. The DM is a unique opportunity to turn your idea into reality; if selected your project could receive up to US$200,000 in grant funding for implementation over two years.
The competition focuses on three sub-themes:
1) Resilience of Indigenous Peoples' Communities to Climate Risks
2) Climate Risk Management with Multiple Benefits
3) Climate Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management
Who can apply? Non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, foundations, academia and development agencies based in the country of implementation may apply without additional partners. All other groups must partner with at least one organization; the type of partnership varies across types of applicants. Individuals cannot apply. Click here for more details on partnerships and eligibility criteria or check the guidelines, available in English, Spanish and French.
How to apply? All proposals must be submitted online. Proposals must be submitted through the DM online application form available on the DM website. Only proposals received before May 18, 2009 6 p.m. EST (22:00 GMT) will be considered.
How will the proposals be selected? Proposals will be selected through a rigorous selection process. Click here for information on the selection process and assessment criteria.
Questions? Please contact dminfo@worldbank.org
The application deadline is May 18, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. EST (22:00 GMT).
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Costing the Earth: A Burning Solution
Dick Bradford, of Barnsley MBC (an Ashden Award winner), and Mike Pepler, Technical Manager at the Awards (and also a woodland manager) were both interviewed for the recent episode of Radio 4's Costing the Earth programme, "A Burning Solution", which talks about the use of biomass fuel.
It’s repeated on Thursday 16th April 2009 at 13:30 and you can listen online here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jm3l3
This is also in the news, as the Environment Agency’s recent “Biomass: Carbon sink or carbon sinner” report has been mentioned, although in the main BBC news it is reported with the headline “Biomass 'worse than fossil fuels'”, when in fact the report only said this was the case if nitrogen fertilisers were used to grow trees and/or the biomass was moved a long distance - neither of which Dick or Mike do in their work with wood fuel.
Monday, 6 April 2009
UK wind farm investment cut
Some concerning news out last week, reported in both The Times:
Britain’s ambition to become a global leader in renewable energy suffered a major setback last night when the world’s biggest investor in wind power said that it was slashing its investment programme.
The announcement comes less than two months after ministers backed a string of huge gas-fired power stations, prompting concern that the Government cannot fulfil its promise of a green energy revolution.
Iberdrola Renewables’ decision to cut its investment in Britain by more than 40 per cent, or £300 million — enough to build a wind farm powering 200,000 homes — is the latest obstacle to Gordon Brown’s target of generating 35 per cent of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Lifting it to that level from the current 5 per cent would cost an estimated £100 billion. But wind energy investments have collapsed as funding dries up in the credit crunch and the price of oil, gas and coal has fallen. Delays obtaining access to the national grid and planning permission have compounded the industry’s woes.
and The Telegraph:
Click here to read the rest of this post.It came a day after Ed Miliband, the Climate Change Minister, angered rural campaigners by saying opposition to wind farms is as socially unacceptable as failing to stop at a zebra crossing.
His comments were made at the screening of a new climate change documentary, The Age Of Stupid, in London.
He said: "The Government needs to be saying, 'It is socially unacceptable to be against wind turbines in your area – like not wearing your seat belt or driving past a zebra crossing'.''
His comments came as a report by a coalition of countryside campaigners said the expansion of wind farms threatened some of Britain's most scenic countryside.
However, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds this week called for a vast increase in the number of wind farms in the UK after a study found far more could be built without damaging wildlife.
Friday, 20 March 2009
Ashden Awards channel launches on Green TV
The popular environment video website, Green.tv, has now launched a channel specific to the Ashden Awards. Films will be added gradually over the next few weeks, you can view the channel here:
http://www.green.tv/ashden_awards
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Power to the People
Simon Brammer, UK programme manager for the Ashden Awards, was recently interviewed for an article in The Independent:
More than a few eager job hunters will have been cheered by Gordon Brown's announcement earlier this month that the green pound is set to create 400,000 jobs over the coming years. The Prime Minister spoke of a "green new deal" which would rebuild the global economy on low-carbon lines, investing in the sort of environmentally responsible technologies that have been championed for years by organisations, such as the Ashden Awards in its work with sustainable energy projects in the UK and abroad.Read the full story here Click here to read the rest of this post.
As its UK programme manager, Simon Brammer is responsible for liaising with the businesses, charities and local authorities who've won one of the Ashden Awards' annual grants of up to £30,000 to develop and maintain existing renewable energy projects.
Monday, 16 March 2009
LCBP support for solar runs out
A recent report from the Renewable Energy Association says:
The Renewable Energy Association, representing the renewables industry, expressed astonishment and concern at the closure of Stream 2 support for PV under the Low Carbon Building Programme (LCBP).Read the full story here Click here to read the rest of this post.
Only four days after the Government laid out plans for a low-carbon revolution, at the launch of its new low-carbon industrial strategy, it announced that the funding stream for the most popular technology, solar power, had run out. No applications made since the 26 February are permissible and the whole stream is due to end in June.
In December last year an extra £7 million was allocated to the PV stream of the LCBP to tide it over until the programme closed. However this funding had all been allocated by the 26 February 2009. A further £12 – 15 million still remains in the LCBP budget and at the present rate of spend it is predicted that £8 million will remain unspent by the end of the programme. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have said that Phase 2 will not be extended and any remaining funds will be sent back to the Treasury.
The REA recommends the immediate reallocation of remaining LCBP funds on a first come, first served basis so all microgeneration technologies can gain maximum benefit.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
British scientist gets serious on making the energy numbers add up
David MacKay, author of “Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air” is a number-cruncher par excellence and is spending much of his personal energy using the power of figures to get people thinking about what plans we should be making as a country for delivering our energy needs. Yesterday at Allington House, London, he number-crunched his way through many detailed scenarios for how the UK could achieve sustainability through a combination of renewable energies, energy efficiency, reducing energy consumption and expanding other sources of energy. The thrust of his approach seems to be to assess realistically what can be achieved, how much people will be prepared to change, and then persuade the government and other implementers to get on and do what’s needed.
What was his conclusion? In a nutshell, “It would be very difficult to live on renewables, at least as we currently live”. He argued strongly that renewables like PV, solar water heating, biomass and wind power would have to be at country-scale to be able to make a significant impact. Wind power, for example would have to include massive offshore and onshore farms covering a large proportion of the country as well as vast underwater ones in the North Sea to make a real difference. Most of his favoured solutions were fairly obvious and widely touted – insulation, turning down thermostats, reading energy meters and using heat pumps (air source and ground source). Others were more contentious - electrifying transport, importing electricity from solar farms the size of Germany in North African deserts, and possibly expanding nuclear power stations. His ideas are likely to polarise audiences into those that see his approach as refreshingly realistic and others who are not happy with any role for nuclear power. Mackay doesn't necessarily advocate a strong role for nuclear, but wants those who reject it to make sure their numbers for energy supply still add up.
MacKay, a physics professor at Cambridge University gave his presentation at the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts office in London, where the Ashden Awards is based. Find out more and download the book for free and at www.withouthotair.com
Ringmer College Races Ahead with Green Initiatives
Receiving green flag status is the highest Eco Schools accolade a British school can win, "This is the 4th year running for us. Our success was largely down to simple but effective measures like vigilant energy monitoring and energy saving around the school" says Stephen Green.
Thanks to prize money from the Ashden Awards, students can now closely track the energy use of the College’s ground source heat pump with an easy to view monitor in the Sixth Form building entrance and science labs.
The growing profile the college has enjoyed since winning the Award, has also helped Ringmer secure new support from the County Council which will enable them to install a new biomass boiler later this year. This will burn wood chip, a sustainable fuel. The college will then be able to boast yet another renewable energy source to add to its solar panel display, wind turbine and ground source heat pump.
The College was recently chosen as a pilot school by the County Council to work with researchers on new insulation measures. To make this crucial energy measure more engaging for the pupils, they plan to use Perspex panels in the ceiling to show different types of traditional and modern insulation – from sheep’s wool to high tech fabrics - and even use human hair from a sponsored hair cut!
On June 6th the College will hold a fun-packed Green Car Grand Prix with several local primary schools. Using electric cars supplied by Green Power Goblin Cars, the children will make and drive the cars themselves to test their endurance and technical prowess, and learn about fuel efficiency, efficient driving habits etc. Some of the Ashden prize money is going to this exciting event, with an Ashden trophy going to the winner.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Professor Muhammad Yunus video
Last week the Ashden Awards hosted a lecture by Professor Muhammad Yunus, here's the video of the event, starting with an introduction by Sarah Butler Sloss, Executive Chair of the Awards, and a short film.
Monday, 2 March 2009
Inspiring words from the guru of microcredit, Professor Muhammad Yunus
On Thursday night we were lucky enough to have a lecture from the guru of microcredit, Professor Muhammad Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank. He is a phenomenal, creative individual with the ability to come up with a life-changing idea a minute it seems. He has now developed his years of experience and knowledge into a concept he calls “social business” to address the problems of the poor. In the lecture, given in his intimate, conversational style, he spoke convincingly about the need for an urgent change in the world’s financial systems to promote lending to the credit-worthy poor, and spread the values of social business. The lecture hall at the Royal Geographical Society in South Kensington was packed with people from all walks of life and all ages, with a great turnout of young people. Unlike many lectures, where papers shuffle and yawns are stifled, the atmosphere was quite electric, as the audience seemed to hang on every quiet and inspired word, each containing real resonance at this time of anxiety and uncertainty.
I first came across Professor Yunus’ work when working for the Panos Institute back in the 1980’s and we published a book called Banking the Unbankable, containing a chapter about his work in Bangladesh. Twenty years on, the Grameen Bank has spread microfinance to over 7 million people, offering small loans without collateral that are hugely improving the lives of poor women and their families in Bangladesh. Professor Yunus gave a moving description of his visit to a “Grameen woman”, one of his first lenders, and her daughter who is going to university thanks to his efforts. He commented sadly on the fact that this woman herself could have been where her daughter is now, if it were not for a system that stopped poor people from progressing and taking charge of their lives. He gently encourages all the children of these Grameen women to go out in the world and start up their own social businesses, instead of relying on others to give them work. I’m sure for many people in the audience he was lighting the spark of an idea…
Refreshingly, Professor Yunus sees the global financial crisis that we are constantly told will ruin lives and cause chaos, as an opportunity as well as challenge – an opportunity to bring about major changes in banking, the economic system and society. “The financial, environmental and food crises are all interrelated and are all driven by selfishness. We must seize this opportunity to come up with an alternative financial system, based on trust and selflessness. The poor are suffering from financial apartheid. They make up two-thirds of the world’s population but are currently excluded from the system. The real issue is not whether the poor are credit-worthy but whether banks are people-worthy” Professor Yunus told us.
We heard how the Grameen enterprises now number over 30 covering solar energy, mobile phones, water, health and many others, all driven by social motives. We at the Ashden Awards are very familiar with the member of the Grameen family that is expanding sustainable energy - Grameen Shakti. Last year they and their committed leader, Dipal Barua, won the Ashden Outstanding Achievement Award for incredible work installing solar home systems, biogas plants and improved stoves across Bangladesh. When they first won an award in 2006 for their solar energy programme and Dipal came to London to receive the prize, he was inspired by other winners using biogas and improved cooking stoves and decided to go back and do the same in Bangladesh. Two years later they’ve installed 220,000 solar home systems, 6,000 biogas plants and produced 23,000 improved stoves!
It was great to hear that the Grameen programmes so far are unaffected by the financial crisis - “While the financial world collapses all around us, our schemes are thriving - so who is really credit-worthy?” he remarked.
If you’re interested in these ideas, make sure you read Professor Yunus’ book which is now in paperback, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism where he puts forward his vision of a future where many embrace the idea of social business, business with a conscience that is not founded on the profit motive, but the motive to help others. “I think every problem can be turned into a social business. Each one is the development of a seed, and it can be replicated to change the world instead of to make money.”
Juliet Heller, Ashden Awards
The Big Energy Shift
Government is setting ambitious targets for renewable energy, heat and energy savings. To achieve these targets, a significant step change will be needed in the way we heat our homes and offices and take up energy savings measures.
The Ashden Awards has been working alongside a wide range of stakeholders and the Department for Energy and Climate Change who are now working with households and communities, businesses and the public sector to work up options for delivering 'the big shift'. There are many options that are being tested from financial ones such as feed-in tariffs to establishing community wide areas projects to legislative sticks such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) set out in the Climate Change Bill.
Earlier this week the Ashden Awards participated in the public sector stakeholder event which brought together public sector organisations as wide as primary care trusts, local authorities, government department or schools. The mood of the event reflected the urgency that is increasingly being felt by Government to deliver against carbon reduction targets and highlighted a number of key issues that are blocking the action needed in the public sector. These include skills and capacity issues such as the need for strong leadership and energy champions within organisation, supply chain issues such as developing the capacity of delivery organisations and helping them to scale up to meet demand and strategic issues such as whether there is a need to extending zero emissions targets to existing public building stock.
Of course there are already shining beacons in the UK whether they be local authorities, schools, charities or businesses already delivering effective sustainable energy solutions; they are called Ashden Award winners. So we were there to share winners’ success stories and to demonstrate the some are already leading the way.
Visit the website at www.bigenergyshift.org.uk
Simon Brammer, Ashden Awards
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Ashden Awards past winner gets Zayed Future Energy Prize
Grameen Shakti, who won an Ashden Outstanding Achievement Award in 2008, have now been awarded the inaugural Zayed Future Energy Prize. Dipal Barua accepted the prize of $1.5m, saying:
“It is a great honour to receive this recognition inspired by the vision of HH the late Sheikh Zayed, I consider myself a global Ambassador of the Prize, and would like to carry forward the message of environmental sensitivity that is being championed by the leadership of Abu Dhabi.”You can read more on the press release section of the Zayed website. Click here to read the rest of this post.
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Ashden Awards Winter Receeption
Last week we held a Winter Reception at the Royal Society of Arts. Jonathon Porritt CBE, who is an Ashden Awards trustee and chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, spoke at the event.
He gave us his analysis of the energy situation in the UK, referring to the effects of recession and the "new green deal" brought in by President Obama.
As well as Jonathon's presentation, there was plenty of opportunity for networking, with investors, funders, past winners and Ashden Awards Circle members present.
There were also displays of some of our winners' technologies, including scale models such as this sawdust-fuelled stove from KSG:
and this treadle pump from IDE India:
Friday, 6 February 2009
Coverage of our event at Intelligence Squared
Treehugger.com has reported on the Intelligence Squared event we were involved with on 25th January:
"Can Asia go green? (and if it doesn't has the world had it?)" was a fascinating discussion amongst four women (finally!) from Asian countries. Malini Mehra, from India, Christine Loh, from Hong Kong (a Time magazine Hero of the Environment), Svati Bhogle, Indian and winner of an Ashden Award for Sustainability and Isabel Hilton, editor of China Dialogue each examined their respective country's status and future.Svati, pictured below with Ben Dixon of the Ashden Awards, won the Energy Champion award in 2008 for her work with wood stoves for businesses in India.
We had several displays set up for the event, including scale models of some of the technology used by our international winners:
and the infamous "energy bike" from Global Action Plan (a 2008 UK winner):
Click here to read the rest of this post.
Monday, 2 February 2009
Ashden Awards winners in the Independent
A couple of articles featuring Ashden Awards winners have been published in the Independent recently. The first is about how Zara Solar has brought solar PV lighting to Tanzania:
Developing solar power in Africa is being eagerly pursued by international organisations including the World Bank and the United Nations and a host of smaller NGOs such as the UK’s Ashden Awards, a sustainable energy initiative whose support was the catalyst for the spread of the technology through northern Tanzania. In 2007 Ashden awarded £30,000 to a local solar entrepreneur, Mohamedrafik Parpia, to expand his fledgling business and investigate ways of helping the very poorest Tanzanians access the systems. In just three years, Parpia’s business Zara Solar has fitted nearly 4,000 systems, providing electricity to a much greater number. Click here for the full storyThe second is also based on Tanzanian organisations, this time the Kisangani Smith Group, who have developed domestic stoves that can burn waste sawdust, and MRHP, who use crop waste to fire bricks:
The stoves are made from a sheet of metal which is lined with clay. Sawdust or other agricultural residues are then used as fuel. Cooking with biomass in this way dates back to the discovery of fire, but that does not make it primitive. “I kept watching the carpenters throw away sawdust,” says Reuben Mtitu, whose grandfather set up the blacksmith workshop he now runs to provide skills and employment for local young people. “I wondered why they wasted so much, and started to think of ways we could put it to good use instead.” Click here for the full storyClick here to read the rest of this post.
Getting your message out with social media
The Big Green Challenge has just started writing a series of blog posts on how to use social media to get your message out to the world.
Vicki Costello introduces the series:
The web today can offer enormous possibility for supporting citizen-led action on social and environmental issues. From sites such as freecycle and liftshare, which provide a service to help people create specific change, to groups of people getting together through networking sites such Facebook to campaign on a particular issue.You can read the full introduction here.
...Over the next 6-8 weeks, Headshift’s Robin Hamman will guest blog for Big Green Challenge to help tell you how. He’ll be talking about how to make the most of blogs, photos, maps, video and groups; tying it all together and keeping it going.
Robin has been working with the Big Green Challenge Finalists to help them make the most of social media, and we want to share some this training, through the Big Green Challenge blog, to help many more community-led projects benefit from online social media tools.
The first post of the series is here, and future posts will appear on the Big Green Challenge blog. Click here to read the rest of this post.
