'Renewable Energy' new part of our life

Not only are fossil fuels the problem, but according to the IEA's World Energy Outlook 2008, we are likely to see an increase in world primary energy demand of 45 percent between 2006 and 2030. As set out in the Energy Equality chapter, developing countries and emerging economies are in the great need of energy. Both need to fuel their growth, and the latter are beginning to converge with formerly dominant world powers, who are now seeing their economies contract.

The only logical and safe option is to channel all possible resources into a new world energy system, based on renewable energies which can provide millions of jobs, new industries and exports, energy security, and protection of the climate and environment. Any policymaker still voting for fossil fuels, and against renewable energy, on the basis of such pros and cons must be asked to give way to someone wiser and more caring. New nuclear programme is not the answer because problem on technology detail. The more one researches the subject, the firmer these conclusion become:renewable energy is the only reasonable and logical choice, with huge variety of benefits; and the switch must be prioritized immediately.

But this is a highly complex matter-renewable energy and its applications are varied, and provide a unique energy endowment for each country. There is no one-size-fits-all approach on technology and policy which can be advocated/ Ultimately, it will be up to each nation to determine how best to harness and protect investment in its renewable resources, and to decide how to share them.By offering a preferential tariff for producers of renewable energy, as well as investment security, they have led to the most rapid deployment at the lowest costs of any policy.

Investment in renewable energy has been surging, and 2008 was another good year with $120 billion invested worldwide. Approximate figures suggest wind (42 percent), solar PV (32 percent) dan biofuels (13 percent) attracted most of these funds, with biomass and geothermal power and heat, solar hot water and small hydro taking up around 6, 6 and 5 percent respectively. Manufacturing capacity has also benefited strongly from capital investment. The US ($24 billion), Germany, China and Spain ($15-19 billion range) and Brazil ($5 billion) were the biggest investors. Energy security and meeting carbon reduction targets, it will be very interesting to see how deployment develops over the next few years. And around US$500 million in development assistance grants is targeted at developing countries annually for renewable energy projects and for training and market support.

This funds policy analysis work, economic assessment, market and business development, project feasibility studies, financing mechanisms, technology improvements and capacity building, and sometimes covers partial incremental costs of renewable energy projects.

Several foundations and NGOs such as the UN Foundation and the Energy Foundation provide funds and manage programmes promoting renewable energy. Bilateral development banks and agencies also contribute, such as the European Union and the European Investment Bank, and national development institutions such as the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammerarbeit GmbH, better known as GTZ.

As an example of where some of these agencies put their money, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) is one of the many funders of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) a global initiative concerned with reducing policy, regulatory and financial barriers to renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies and projects. The partnership has funded more than eighty ‘high quality’ projects in forty developing countries. These projects are beginning to deliver new business models, policy recommendations, risk mitigation instruments and regulatory measures. REEEP also engages in international, national and regional policy dialogues.

Several United Nations organizations actively promote renewable energy. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has an ‘Energy and Environment Practice” which promote acess to sustainable energy services as an essential development strategy. UNER’s (United Nations Environment Programme) renewable energy activities focus on the needs of developing and transition economies in various areas of renewable energy technology research, development and commercialization.

UNEP’s Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative (SEFI) is a platform providing financiers with the tools, support and global network needed to conceive and manage investments in the “complex and rapidly changing marketplace” for clean energy technologies. UNIDO (the United Nations Industrial Development Organization) focuses on rural energy for productive use. Other UN bodies work to spread renewable energy technology information, and to engage stakeholders in accelerating RE development.

The GEF was established in 1991 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as a mechanism to help developing countries fund projects and programmes that protect the global environment while still supporting national sustainable development initiatives. Nearly a billion dollars has gone to around 150 renewable energy projects in developing countries.

Indonesia and Malaysia is the biggest CPO (crude palm oil) producers in the world. Indonesia has reported with an annual production approximately 22 million tones, a plantation area of approximately 7 million hectares and more than 400 palm oil mills (POM). An additional 18 million hectares has been identified for palm plantation expansion. The solid waste components from POM production are empty fruit bunch (EFB), fiber and shell. These have been identified as the potential raw materials for pyrolysis technology to yield charcoal / biochar or torrified wood, bio-oil and syngas.

JFE have mission to make industry of POMs solid waste processing to produce renewable energy and agricultural products in Indonesia and South-East Asia, by making joint venture company with investor and/or biomass owner. The wide of market access, proven technology (JF BioCarbon System Ltd, Canada as technological support), abundant raw material, good operating business system and research capability for development is the key success of this business.

For further contact please send email eko.sb.setyawan@gmail.com or call Eko +6281328841805, John Flottvik 250-315-2226

Biochar in Action

By 2009 global carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have already reached 387 parts per million (ppm), up by 40 percent from 275 ppm in 1900. Until recently a doubling to 550 ppm was widely regarded as an acceptable target, but this has been revised downward to some 450 ppm as new scientific evidence about a warming planet has emerged. Now a growing number of climatologist are questioning even this limited increase, and argue for an actual reduction of CO2 concentrations to 350 ppm or below. This goes way beyond scenarios currently being proposed by goverments in developed countries, whose policies are homing in on 80 percent reduction of carbon emission from 1990 figures by 2050.

The problem is that every year we are now discharging nearly 10 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. Of this, four to five billion tonnes are not being reabsorbsed into the world's ecosystems, but are instead accumulating in the atmosphere above our heads. According to the Global Carbon Project, the land and ocean carbon sinks-such as forests, and plankton in the ocean-removed about 54 percent, or 4.8 billion tonnes a year, of the carbon that human discharged into the atmosphere between 2000 and 2007. That leaves a carbon surplus of about 4 billion tonnes or so per year, which we need to find ways to reduce or absorb. For global temperatures to stabilize, carbon emisssions must ultimately not exceed what can be absorbed by the biosphere, the Earth's vegetation, soils and oceans. So can we enhance the capacity of bioshere to absorb CO2?

The earth's natural sinks of CO2 are ocean, forests and, perhaps most importantly, soil. The global soil carbon pool is estimated to amount to 2,500 Gt, whereas the biotic (vegetation based) pool is 560 Gt. A key point to be considered is that whilst fossil-fuel burning massively increased in the last 300 years, the capacity of biosphere to absorb it has been significantly reduced at the same time. Dr. Rattan Lal, Professor of Soil Science at Ohio State University, has calculated that 476 billions of tonnes (Gt) of carbon has been emitted from farmland soils due to inapproriate farming and grazing practice, compared with 270 Gt emitted from over 150 years of burning fossil fuels.

Most agricultural soils have lost anything of their antecedent soil organic carbon pool, or a total of 30 to 40 tC/ha. Carbon loss from soils is mainly associated with soil degradation and has amounted to 78+/-12 Gt since 1850. Thus, the present organic carbon pool in agricultural soils is much lower than their potential capacity.Considering all greenhouse gases, the global technical mitigation potential from agriculture is between 1.5 and 1.64 gigatonnes of carbon equivalent per year by 2030.

In addition to measures for enriching farmland and pastures with 'conventional' organic matter, a very significant new option is becoming available under the heading of 'biochar'.
This application related to the FAO states that soil carbon sequestration can take effect very quickly and is a cost-effective win-win approach which combines mitigation, adaptation, increased resilience and the promise of more reliable and increased crops yield. The biochar particles can improve soil structure, and enhance the presesnce of micro-organisms and plant nutrient. Adding biochar to the soil not only enhances fertility and life in the soil, but also helps it to retain moisture-which is very important in an age of climate change.

The FAO is also working on tools to measure, monitor and verify soil carbon pools and fluxes of greenhouse gas emission from agricultural soils, including cropland, degraded land and pastures. With global population expected to grow to nine billion by 2050, and with increasingly uncertain oil and water supplies,well-thought-out new approaches to securing carbon-rich organic soil can help to secure the food supplies of future generations. Professor Johannes Lehman of Cornell University and others have calculated biochar applications to soil could remove several billion tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere per year.