The time has come for The Cleantech Show to take a Sabbatical. Or more accurately I am heading off for an extended trip around the world starting with the sights of South and Central America for the next 6 months.

During this time I may be bringing a few interviews from places around the world, and if you are part of a cleantech venture we may even have the opportunity to meet face to face. Cameron Reilly and myself also may organise some guest podcasters to do some special shows as well.

I would like to thank all of The Cleantech Show audience who have tuned in over the last year. Its great to hear your comments and feedback on the show. Its been a pleasure producing it.

If you would like to be notified when new episodes are released I would recommend that you sign up to the feedblaster email notification at Subscribe to TPN :: The Cleantech Show by Email. This will let you know when new episodes are realeased. I can be contacted at:

All the best with your endevours!

Kind regards
Nick Bruse
Host, The Cleantech Show

The Cleantech Show #35 (MP3 – 13MB – 36min)
Interview with Nick Rowley, Director of Kinesis and Former advisor to PM Tony Blair

For two week in december last year more than 10,000 participants were brought together by the UNFCCC for the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, including representatives of over 180 countries together with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations and the media. The conference culminated in the adoption of the Bali roadmap, which charts the course for a new negotiating process to be concluded by 2009 that will ultimately lead to a post-2012 international agreement on climate change.

On this weeks show we are very lucky to have Nick Rowley Director of Kinesis and former Senior Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair, to provide insight into the process, politics and objectives of creating a global climate treaty. Nick was closely involved in the Bali Conferene , and has been involved significantly in the policy field.

On the show we discuss an insiders perspective on bali. The interests, the positions. Expectations and Outcomes. What can we expect over next two years and how to achieving business and political engagement. Then what does this all mean for cleantech industries and companies.

Nick’s business Kinesis is an Australian based consultancy working with business and government on sustainability and climate change. Whist working for Prime Minister Blair he was part of a small team who advised the PM on climate change prior to the G8 Summit at Gleneagles in July 2005 working closely with the likes of Sir Nicholas Stern and the Prime Ministers Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir David King

If you are interested in the global treaty, as nick says on the show there is no shortage of reports and key figures out there to listen to but you can find out more at the UNFCCC website and theres some good summaries on wikipedia

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #34 (MP3 – 13MB – 35min)
Interview with Martin Lowson, Deputy Chairman, ULTra/Advanced Transportation Systems Ltd

Personal Rapid Transport(or Transit) PRT was conceived a numerous decades ago as a way of transporting people in cities quickly and effectively without the need of drivers or a large footprint.

The concept essential involves computer controlled driverless vehicles that move on a single lane track, removing the need for complex intersections, that then travel at steady speed by merging and demerging as required to reach their destination. If your still not sure what I mean, check out the following video

To discuss PRTs and one of the first PRT systems to be installed, my guest today is Martin Lowson, Deputy Chairman of UK based Advanced Transportation Systems Ltd and founder of the ULTra system, .

The ULTra system has been in development for the last 12 years and unlike other PRTs ATS Ltd have focused on integrating many existing technologies to reduce the complexity that has plagued previous PRT systems. You can read more about this history on wikipedia.

On the show we discuss the new installation of the ULTra system at Heathrow Airport, how the technology works and the best niches for its implementation. By having vehicles which are much lighter, travel at a steady yet constant speed ULTra is very energy efficient. The small footprint of the tracks required in the system also that it can fit in existing airports and cities where traditional systems are not feasible.

PRTs have been a significant interest of mine over the last 15 years so its great to see one finding a level of commercial acceptance. I hope you enjoy the show as much as I did.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #33 (MP3 – 14MB – 38min)
Interview with Jim Clishem, CEO, Active Power

More and more energy efficiency is gaining focus as a means of reducing carbon emissions, energy consumption and cost. In data centres for instance the power demands in an individual server rack have gone from approximately 1kw to 7kw in the last 10 years. This has a two fold effect. Namely increased electricity directly used by computer hardware, and that used by cooling systems to keep the resulting increased heat dissipation in check.

The other driver for better energy efficiency and energy management is to help cope with availability, reliability and quality of power provision. For instance in China or even parts of the US there are increasing instances of brown and blackouts. Solutions purely aimed at the supply end of the market are only half of the only answer.

The UPS (uniterrupted power supply) forms part of this mix, particularly in locations like Data Centres or high quality manufacturing and fabrication facilities.

On this weeks episode of The Cleantech Show we are going to explore the energy management and UPS industry with Jim Clishem, CEO of Active Power (NASDAQ: ACPW) and in particular their Flywheel based UPS and the company’s CoolAir system, which provides both backup power and cooling. Both of these technologies provide a more energy efficient solution than traditional battery based UPS systems.

Active Power’s CleanSource Flywheel energy storage systems is able to achieve storage and release efficiencies of around 98% when compared with battery based systems operating in the 88% range. Losses of Two percent versus 12 percent equates to average savings of 84% protecting the same critical loads.

One of the interesting things that I learn’t during the interview is that now uninterrupted cooling systems are becoming more and more important in Data Centers. The reason being is that although most UPS systems backup the power provision to server farms, they don’t provide it to the air conditioning systems. Only a few minutes in these conditions and hardware can begin to fry.

Active Power also have their CoolAir DC system for this purpose. Essentially it stores energy in the form of compressed air and heat. During a utility outage, the compressed air is routed through a Thermal Storage Unit (TSU) to acquire heat energy. The heated air spins a simple turbine/alternator to produce electric power.

Enjoy the show.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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Wishing you all a great holiday season and happy new year!

And The Cleantech Show episodes will be back in early January 2008.

The Bali Action Plan is linked to the page:

http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_13/items/4049.php

and can be downloaded direct from:

http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/cop_13/application/pdf/cp_bali_act_p.pdf

The agreement of the Kyoto parties (ie. not including the US) is likely to be
found in due course at:

http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/3878.php

Source: Phillip Sutton, Greenleap Mailing List

The Cleantech Show #32 (MP3 – 12MB – 34min)
Interview with Monique Conheady, CEO and Founder, Flexicar

Many of you in major cities are most likely aware of care sharing programs, albeit under potentially different names. Some of you probably fit the demographic just by listening to this show, and may well be participants. Car sharing has been a system that has been around in varying forms for decades. With the advent of modern wireless and internet technology it is becoming far simpler and cost effective, and showing signs of expanding from its cottage industry status. Evidenced by the recent merger of Zipcar and Flexcar in North America.

On this weeks show, I wanted to explore these developments and the car sharing phenomenon more broadly with a one of the car sharing companies in Australia, Flexicar. Our guest on today’s show is Monique Conheady, co-founder and CEO of Flexicar. In our interview, we discuss the growth challenges, as well as where the tipping points to the car sharing industry lie.

If your part of a car sharing scheme you will certainly find this show of interest, and if your not, well tune in, as the next 10 years may invite a new era for intergrated car sharing and intermodal public transportation.

Flexicar was founded as “Flo Carshare” in 2004. They started the car sharing business with the belief that Australia’s inner city residents needed a sustainable, affordable alternative to car ownership. They provide local residents and businesses with driving freedom and flexibility. The Flexicar car sharing service is now available around corner, around the clock.

Prior to establishing Flexicar Monique was an Assistant Director with the Federal Government’s Department of Health and Ageing. She has worked as a project manager globally for Ove Arup & Partners in Melbourne, London, New York and Cairo, and was involved in the development of an ebusiness venture for UK retailer, Sainsbury’s.

Enjoy the show.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #31 (MP3 – 8MB – 22min)
Interview with Dr. Michael Ottaviano, MD, Carnegie Corporation & CETO

Wave Power seems to be reaching a level of acceptance in the market such that I think its time in the sun i think is rapidly approaching. This is the case Particularly here in Australia where companies developing ocean power technologies are looking to couple power generation with desalination and colocating facilities close to capital cities.

My guest on today’s Cleantech Show is Dr Michael Ottaviano, MD of Carnegie Corporation a company that has been developing the CETO ocean power technology. One of the really interesting aspects of their technology is that it provides high pressure sea water, rather than electricity back to the shoreline. In their view this makes it the most efficient and cost effective way to desalinate freshwater from wave energy, and allow the production of electricity through traditional hydro electric turbine technology.

On the show we discuss in depth how the CETO technology operates, and the benefits it has in comparison to other forms of renewable energy. Michael explains the massive energy availability that is available in the 2m wave environment where the CETO technology operates efficiently. This is another great technology to watch, as the company aims to have a commercial product ready in the next 18 months. Make sure you listen in.

There are also some great animations on the CETO website that explain visually how the technology operates.

Listed on the Australian Stock Exchange since 1993, Carnegie (ASX:CNM) is a dynamic company focused on clean energy investment and development. Carnegie is currently involved in developing two clean energy technologies: the CETO Wave Energy technology & its 100% owned clean coal technology, Cleaner Coal Power.

Prior to joining Carnegie, Michael was a Senior Manager specializing in Technology and Innovation consulting at a global accounting and advisory firm. He has advised companies on new product development, intellectual property, innovation portfolio management and technology commercialization across various industries and ranging from start-ups to ASX-listed companies with market capitalizations in excess of $1billion.

Enjoy the show.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #30 (MP3 – 12MB – 34min)
Interview with Dr. Peter Binks, CEO, NanoVic

The cleantech sector contains solutions incorporating elements of novel integration, novel technologies and novel business models

In the novel technology area, nanotechnology solutions are becoming significant contributors to solving energy, water, waste and climate problems. On todays show we explore nanotechnology and cleantech, with Dr Peter Binks CEO Nanotechnology Victoria Ltd an expert in the field to understand where nano cleantech science is progressing.

On the show we explore the historical evolution of the nanotech research space, and how it has progressed from the realm based around silicon fabrication to a world of biomimicry and natural systems replication. We discuss the foundation of Nanotechnology, that being in a realm where the benefits of both classical and quantum physics can be exploited. We explore the role of nanotech in the energy and water industries, and more broadly how it can act as a foundation technology in other cleantech sectors.

If you want to understand how nanotechnology connects with the cleantech space, and where the future is going, make sure you tune in.

Nanovic also has a pretty expansive website you can browse as well, so make sure you check it out.

Dr Peter Binks has been Chief Executive Officer of Nanotechnology Victoria Limited since May 2003. From the original concept, he has steered the implementation of an ambitious business plan and built a highly capable organization delivering valuable nanotechnology solutions to Victorian industries.

Peter was the 1983 Rhodes Scholar for Tasmania, and has a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Oxford University. Prior to joining Nanotechnology Victoria, Peter worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, with BHP as a strategic planner and as General Manager at BHP’s Research Laboratory in Melbourne, and with Telstra Mobile as General Manager Strategy and Business Development.

Enjoy the show.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #029 (MP3 – 13MB – 35min)
Interview with Jan Dekker, Cleantech Ventures – Venture Capital Firm

Following on from our recent shows on Technology Transfer and Research Commercialisation, on this weeks show we look at the process of Venture Capital investment into Cleantech. My guest this week is Jan Dekker, Investment Principle of Cleantech Ventures.

Cleantech Ventures is a specialist venture capital fund manager focused on investments in companies developing clean technologies. As mentioned in previous blogs and shows they have recently released a report on the Australian Cleantech Investment Industry.

On the show we talk broadly about private equity investment into cleantech. Jan and his team have been investing in this space for the last 4 years and have assessed over 500 deals during this time. We discuss whether the drivers for cleantech have changed over this period, and what shifts we are seeing in the behaviour of industry with investment and exit approaches.

If your seeking capital investment in the cleantech sector, this weeks episode reinforces the approaches to capital raising that seasoned entrepreneurs know to well. If your struggling to raise capital or want to learn more about the process, please tune in.

Jan is a career cleantech investment professional. He has been employed in a variety of senior executive roles within the cleantech arena for almost 20 years. Prior to founding Cleantech Ventures, Jan was the Managing Director of the Centre for Energy and Greenhouse Technologies, an early stage venture fund manager targeting new sustainable energy technology investments.

Previously he was an Associate Director at the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) in NSW where he was responsible for managing its renewable energy business units (solar, wind, co-generation, waste coal mine gas, green power and bio-energy), and the company’s Renewables Investment Fund – a project investment vehicle. Jan has also held positions with Sydney Water, the NSW EPA and as an environmental consultant.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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It’s that time of the year again when we ask you, our most loyal and lovable audience, to spend ten minutes of your life answering a bunch of questions about what makes you tick.

We do this in the hope that this information (all anonymous of course) will encourage advertisers to increase their interest in advertising on our podcasts. We love producing these shows for you and we love the fact that they are freely available.

However it takes a lot of work, time and energy and the costs of the infrastructure grow every year. We need to generate some revenue to allow us to keep building and getting better. You can help once a year by filling out our survey.

Click Here to take survey

Thanks
Nick

Host, The Cleantech Show

The Cleantech Show #028 (MP3 – 12MB – 32min)
Interview with Dr Shane Huntington, CEO Quantum Communications Victoria & School of Physics, University of Melbourne

In a recent report by Australian Venture Capital firm Cleantech Ventures and the Cleantech Network LLC, the findings highlighted that one of the key successes in countries with active cleantech industries is the ability to transfer research from universities effectively into industry. More on that report next week as we interview Jan Dekker from cleantech Ventures

On this weeks show we explore the issue of Technology Transfer in detail with Dr Shane Huntington, Quantum Communications Victoria (QCV), who has been both a researcher, a business owner and someone who has run university commercialisation programs.

Its a common perception is that the process of technolgoy transfer is a difficult one and we explore the reality as scene from the eyes of industy, researchers and investors in detail.

Dr Huntington and I discuss what works….and what tends not to work. Key issues he highlights is the need for appropriate levels of communication between all parties, and how there is a need for mediators in the interaction. We also explore why do some universities, countries do better than others at this. In particular we discuss the approach being taking in the QCV program.

As well as being part of the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne, For the past 12 years, Dr Huntington has been a broadcaster on 3RRR’s science radio program. In this capacity he has interviewed more than 500 scientists and provided detailed descriptions of hundreds of scientific concepts to a general audience. So he is well versed in the psyche of the scientist.

If your an investor, a scientist, government policy maker or an industry player involved with a new technology that is being developed within a university you should tune into this show.

I believe this issue is one we need to keep looking at how to improve to get better value out of our university brainpower. Hope it spurs some ideas out there.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #026 (MP3 – 10MB – 27min)
Interview with Dr Anita Hill, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering

A few weeks ago I blogged briefly on a new membrane technology that mimics pores found in plants allowing more cost and energy effective separation of a range of gas, liquid and ion mixtures.

On this weeks show we have Dr Anita Hill, CSIRO, one of the lead researchers of the technology, which was developed through the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship, in partnership with Hanyang University in Korea and the University of Texas.

CSIRO’s Materials Science and Engineering comprises a multidisciplinary team and Dr Hill and I discuss how important this was in the breakthrough with this most recent membrane technology.

One of the key benefits of the technology is that unlike other membranes that have high separation efficiencies this membrane is made from a highly robust plastic. Meaning that not only can it separate efficiently because of its unique pore structure, but also last longer between replacements, reducing the cost of operation and maintenance.

Through collaborative research the team now has a very good understanding of how to expand the applications of the membrane by custom designing pore size and distribution. Applications include desalination, gas separation (including CO2 separation) and fuel cell membranes. In my view this research is set to become a key platform technology.

Make sure you listen in, and enjoy the show.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #026 (MP3 – 15MB – 42min)
Interview with Clint Wilder, Co-Author, The Cleantech Revolution

“When industry giants such as GE, Toyota, and Sharp and investment firms such as Goldman Sachs are making multi-billion dollar investments in clean technology, the message is clear. Developing clean technologies is no longer a social issue championed by environmentalists; it’s a money-making enterprise moving solidly into the business mainstream.” The Cleantech Revolution.

On this weeks show we have the co-author of The Cleantech Revolution, Clint Wilder come on the show to discuss his new book. In The Clean Tech Revolution, authors Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder identify the major forces that have pushed clean tech from back-to-the-earth utopian dream to its current revolution among the inner circles of corporate boardrooms, on Wall Street trading floors, and in government offices around the globe.

On this show we explore how deep and transformative the cleantech revolution goes, the winners and losers, how to make sense of all that is happening, what history teaches us, and Clints predictions for the next 20 years.

Clint’s advice on who should read the book includes anyone interested in the the sector, MBA’s or students looking at getting involved and of course investors and company executives wanting to understand the sector more. To wet your whistle you can also download the introduction and first chapter of the book

Clint Wilder is a veteran award-winning business and technology journalist and co-author of The Clean Tech Revolution. As contributing editor at Clean Edge, he often writes the monthly CE Views column on the cleanedge.com web site, co-authors the firm’s annual Clean Energy Trends Report, and has helped research and write reports for Clean Edge clients in industry, finance, government, and the NGO sector.

Enjoy the Show.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #024 (MP3 – 15MB – 42min)
Interview with Dave Holland, MD of Solar Systems

There have been a lot of developments in the solar energy sector recently and we have had a number of companies on the show present their unique approach to capturing the sun’s energy. Solar concentration is a core component of many solar systems installed or being developed today.

Many different approaches to focusing sunlight have been used in these systems from mirrors, traditional lenses, fresnel lenses, and even holograms, in both small and large scale generation solutions. By concentrating sunlight these systems enable smaller amounts of PV to be used, or greater temperatures able to be reached for thermal applications.

My guest this week is Dave Holland, Managing Director of Solar Systems, a world leader in electricity production from solar concentrator methods. Solar systems has received significant funding both privately and from the Australian federal governments Low Emissions Technology Development Fund. As well as a number of ~40MW projects around Australia, Solar Systems has announced a 154MW heliostat solar concentrator power station in northern Victoria. The A$420 million project will generate 270,000 MWh per year, enough for more than 45,000 homes.

On the show we discuss the technology approach Solar Systems has taken to both achieve viable energy generation, but also how to demonstrate broader and larger installations effectively to prospective investors.

One of the critical aspects of Solar Systems technology is that once the collector systems are established, as higher efficiency photovoltaic devices are developed they can be retrofited quickly into existing systems. Something which the solar systems team has done on projects already. They are also developing a component that allows a high efficiency generation of hydrogen through both electrolytic and thermal processes for base load and stored power.

Dave Holland joined Solar Systems in October 2000. He has been responsible for establishing the go-to-market strategy, establishing the contracts in the Northern Territory and driving the commercialisation of Solar Systems’ activities. Dave is Deputy Chairman of Renewable Energy Generators Australia Ltd, an organisation that represents the interests of more than 90% of Australia’s renewable generating assets.

With significant interest from overseas companies and investors Solar Systems is one company to watch
cheers

Nick Bruse

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At the launch breakfast this morning we heard from Jan Dekker (CV) and Anastasia O’Rourke (CN) present the key findings of the study. I’ve summarised some of these below, but you can download the full report from the Cleantech Ventures website.

Key findings

• A$540m of venture capital dollars invested from 1999-2007
• 174 rounds in 75 companies
• Around 3% of total VC invested
• 66 IPOs between 1974-2006 and 24 in 2005-06 alone

The Cleantech space in Australia is becoming more and more interesting as international and domestic investors are realising that Australian cleantech investment opportunities are relatively untapped, compared with the rest of the world.

Key drivers that are seeing a growth in the sector in Australia are:

• commodity boom increasing economic activity
• technology readiness from research institutions
• environmental pressures including water shortages and climate change impacts
• increasing policy push as a result of upcoming election
• strong media interest in the sector
• increasing capital availability

However there still remains some challenges for Australian Cleantech including:

• lack of early stage capital
• more technology transfer to business required from Australian University and Research institutions
• more corporate venture funds and company investment & engagement required
• stronger policy particularly around Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets, emissions trading and Kyoto
• better analyst coverage of listed companies

By way of reference Cleantech Ventures has screened around 450 companies and made 11 investments via its CEGT fund over the last 4 years. In October this year Cleantech Ventures announced it has completed the first close of its new Cleantech Australia Fund.

The fund’s first closing of $50 million is made up of $20 million provided through the Australian government’s Innovation Investment Fund (IIF) program and $30 million from VicSuper, a superannuation fund committed to sustainability.

The Cleantech Show #024 (MP3 – 24MB – 68min)
Interview with Rod Adams, Adams Atomic Engines Inc

On this weeks show my guest is Rod Adams from The Atomic Show, and founder of Adams Atomic Engines Inc, a nuclear energy company. Nuclear you say? Is that cleantech?

This weeks show is all about having an open discussion about nuclear energy and see if we can understand the reasoning put forward by an entrepreneur in this space. Now personally, I have an issue with how prevalent and available we are willing to make nuclear technology,  but this weeks show is all about context.

Its about understanding better how we make choices as to what technologies we should use to make the world a better place. Its also about understanding how the energy industry works, the dynamics that drive it, and using that knowledge to work more quickly to reduce our dependence on the CO2 producing coal and oil industries.   Make sure you listen in!

Nuclear power is one of the suggested climate stabilisation wedges to reduce carbon emissions and atmospheric carbon concentrations to an acceptable level. There are a further 10+ suggested wedges which include aggressive energy efficiency programs, reducing deforestation/land clearing, deploying renewable energy supplies, implementing CCS on coal power stations and reducing transportation emissions.

Nuclear energy in many countries is seen as an ethical no go zone whilst in others its been part of their energy mix for 40 years. The reason for having Rod on this weeks show is to have an open dialog about nuclear power, how Rod sees it as a means of fighting climate change, and for you as a listener to make up your own mind.

Rod has had a lot of experience with nuclear power and advocates both large and small scale systems for stationary and naval power. Rod graduated with distinction from the US Naval Academy in 1981 with a BS in English. Despite his liberal arts degree, Admiral Rickover accepted him into nuclear power training. He served a junior officer on board USS Stonewall Jackson and as Engineer Officer on board USS Von Steuben. He also earned an MS in Systems Technology (Command, Control and Communications) from the Naval Postgraduate School.

His energy interest areas have included large storage batteries, hydrogen generators, diesel engines, gas turbines, wind propulsion, solar thermal and nuclear fission. He left active duty, joined the Naval Reserves and founded Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. in 1993 to design and market nuclear powered gas turbines.

Hope you enjoy the show, and I look forward to some commentary on this thought provoking episode.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The latest story to come out is this one about a Sodium Sulfur batter that is able to operate at the megawatt scale.

clipped from www.technologyreview.com Charging Charleston: The utility American Electric Power (AEP) deployed this huge sodium-sulfur battery as part of a demonstration project in Charleston, WV. The battery provides 1.2 megawatts of power for up to seven hours, easing the strain on an overloaded substation. Trouble-free operation since installation last year convinced AEP that such energy-storage technology is ready for active duty. Credit: AEP The AEP system uses a sodium-sulfur battery about the size of a double-decker bus (see below), plus power electronics to manage the flow of AC power in and out of the DC battery. Though new to the United States, the system has been used at the megawatt scale in Japan since the early 1990s; the battery was produced by NGK Insulators of Nagoya, Japan.

CSIRO, through the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship, in partnership with Hanyang University in Korea, the University of Texas, has developed a new membrane that mimics pores found in plants.

clipped from www.csiro.au Artist’s impression of a plastic membrane allowing carbon dioxide to move through its hourglass-shaped pores while preventing the movement of methane. The development has applications in water, energy and climate change mitigation.  This plastic will help solve problems of small molecule separation, whether related to: clean coal technology separating greenhouse gases increasing the energy efficiency of water purification producing and delivering energy from hydrogen.

The Cleantech Show #023 (MP3 – 14MB – 36min)
Interview with Attilio Demicheli, Katrix

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) as we have discussed previously on the show with companies like Grid-X Power has a significant role to play in reducing the emissions profile of the built environment and industry. Predominantly this is a result of bringing waste heat from the typically remote electricity generation process to provide space and water heating or heat for industrial processes at the point of demand.

Many of these applications for CHP have typically been focused at the 1 – 2 MW and upwards development range or at small scales when differential pricing of fuel and electricty prices allow utilising natural gas combustion.

Enter micro-CHP and my guest today on the show Attilio Demicheli, CEO of Katrix, a company with a solution to this CHP barrier. On the show we discuss how micro-CHP promises to be a key enabler for mass market uptake of distributed

(non-centralised), renewable energy solutions in the sub 50 kW power range, otherwise known as micro-generation.

Katrix MicroGen’s core technology is its fluid expanders, which are devices that generate direct rotational power from the expansion of appropriate gases or liqu

ids, in an organic rankine cycle (see graphic below – turbine replaced by Katrix expander). This technology can be utilised in any situation where there is significant low level heat such as biomass combustion or as Katrix believe in solar thermal applications.

Katrix are currently in a capital raising cycle and seeking development partners for the pilot production phase of the technology.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #022 (MP3 – 14MB – 38min)
Interview with Daniel Almagor, Engineers Without Borders

On this weeks show we explore the question of “What is appropriate technology?” with CEO and founder of Engineers without Borders Australia, Daniel Almagor. There is a lot of discussion about how technology transfer will improve the lives of people living in the developing world. Daniel and his team have been working at the coal face with villages in south east asia and has discovered important lessons about how to approach the technology transfer issue.

If you have ever had an interest in applying your skills to problems in the developing world or would like to understand how technology transfer works in reality, tune into this episode. Also, Engineers without Borders is having a 3day conference from the 29th November to 1st December 2007 in Melbourne, Australia. The theme – “Laying the Foundations”. You can view the program at their conference website. Make sure you check it out.

Daniel Almagor is the founder and President of Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) and the Managing Director of Medivax. After finishing high school Daniel took a year off to travel, and through his travels became increasingly interested in working with people in developing countries. After obtaining his Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and Bachelor of Business Administration from RMIT, Daniel was frustrated by the limited opportunities for young engineers to get involved in development projects in third world countries because of their lack of experience.

This drove him to establish Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB). More broadly Daniel saw Engineers Without Borders as responding to the engineering community’s demand for ways of using their engineering skills for a good cause.

Since this time Daniel has steered the organisation of over 3000 members through the successful deployment of volunteers to countries in the Asia Pacific region on projects as diverse as biomechanical training, appropriate energy solutions, and water and sanitation.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #021 (MP3 – 12MB – 33min)
Interview with Craig Roussac, Investa Property Group.

Over the last 3 years Deacon University’s Built Environment Research Group conducted a 3 year survey and found that the built environment demands 40-50% of global energy, consumes 40% of non-renewable resources, generates 40% of landfill waste and uses 30% of fresh water reserves.

These unsustainable environmental impacts are driving the reassessment of the functional, economic, and societal mandates of the property fund and construction industries.  The good news is that 33% of energy related CO2 emissions are generated by energy use, 29% of that can be cut by existing tech by 2020. (newscientist)

My guest today is Craig Roussac, General Manager – Sustainability, Safety & Environment of Investa Property Group.  Investa is a fully integrated property group and the largest listed owner of commercial property in Australia.

On the show Craig and I discuss the success that Investa has had over the last 5 years in transforming their property portfolio utilising sustainable practices, education, green building redesign and novel green building leases.

Investa is now recognised as a world leader in sustainability. Up until early this month when it became a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Real Estate, Investa was the leading Real Estate company on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI) and it also led the DJSI’s Financial Services Super-sector.

Investa was ranked 38th on the Global 100 list of the most sustainable corporations on Earth announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, and has received numerous other awards and accolades.

We have lots to learn from the experience of Craig and his team at Investa. Enjoy the show and please post your comments.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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Essentially it examines whether or not a carbon price through an emissions scheme is actually going to achieve the required changes in carbon use quickly enough.

Here’s some excerpts:

“Governments are relying way too much on the price of carbon to deliver everything,” said Jim Watson of Sussex University’s Energy Group.

“It is a prerequisite but not a panacea. It has to go hand in hand with regulations and technological developments, and they are sadly lacking,” he said. “If you rely too much on the carbon price you give people the option of buying their way out of it. It is a very poor weapon in what is supposed to be a war to save humanity. “The oil price shocks of the 1970s didn’t wean us off oil, so why should we believe that a high carbon price will wean us off carbon,” he added.

The exchange is the creation of Brian Price, whom I interviewed recently on the cleantech show during which we discussed the FEX-SIM in detail. You can listed to the show here if you didn’t catch it earlier.

The launch has been covered in a AAP news article to a degree particularly about the FEX-SIM, if you want a few more details at a glance the FEX website has a press release.

Much of what Mr Gore had to say was about the worlds past experiences and success in dealing with the global problem of chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) and ozone layer depletion, a future where in 25 years we may no longer have an artic sea ice in summer, and the near future and how select countries and companies are showing the way by moving quickly to deal with climate change.

He highlighted that both in Australia and in the US we are seeing significant movement amongst the state legislators and governments in driving emissions reduction targets and signing onto the Kyoto protocol limits at a state and city level. In the US he stated that 600 cities and 12 states are in the process of have done this already. In Australia state governments have moved quickly also to push an emissions trading and reduction goals.

In fact he went so far as to say that activities and the speed of change in industry, investment and policy in Australia may well allow it to regain a leadership position in this issue if it continues on this path.

He highlighted during question time that we do face significant challenges when it comes to issues of nuclear proliferation based around nuclear energy as a solution to climate problems. He highlighted that historically all cases where nuclear material has found its way into weapons program in countries have been found to be associated with nuclear energy programs.

An innocent question was asked by a young 10 year old student, there as a result of winning a school competition, which was “If you were elected to be the president of the united states in 2008, what would you do to deal with climate change.”

Mr Gore’s response was “Bless your heart” with a lot of laughter in the room, followed by, “I’m not running for president… but… if I was in that situation I would look at abolishing employment taxes and instead place taxes on pollution.” He said it was ridiculous that we live in a world where we are happy to penalise employment but not penalise pollution [including emissions]

I had the opportunity to pose a question myself, and asked Mr Gore if over the last year since he was in Australia had he come up with a dinner party ‘Zinger’ response sceptics of climate change, as posed by Andrew Denton in an interview on Enough Rope in September 2006, given we still need to move more quickly.

His response was no he didn’t have the zinger yet to convince climate sceptics but said that the challenge with climate change is “This this change is hard… really hard.. in fact its at the limits of what we as a society can do.” He went on to say that for laggards and sceptics at this stage of the process, we must lead by example, help bring them along, as the world is changing under their feet and its tough.

I’ll leave you with the quote from the end of his presentation, an old African quote, which sums up our future pretty well.

“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” The problem Al Gore highlighted is that we need to go quickly and far, so we must devote ourselves close to completely to this challenge.

If you want to catch the first 5 mins of his 20 minute presentation you can catch it on the FEX website

Cheers
Nick

The Cleantech Show #020 (MP3 – 13MB – 37min)
Interview with Adrian Crouch, Procept

Sensor developments, embedded systems, wireless communications and internet connectivity in recent years have fostered the growth of a gamut of remote and distributed sensor and control technology. In the cleantech sector we see applications of this in water management, smart energy grids, pollution sensors and micro-energy harvesters to name a few.

My guest today is Adrian Crouch, Director of Procept, a leading electronics design company specialising in product commercialisation. On the show we discuss the embedded and wireless technologies and cleantech industry developments including energy management and sensor applications.

Adrian talks about how in many cases what we are seeing in the electronics industry is traditional technologies being enabled by long distance, high bandwidth wireless or mesh networks and embedded systems to function as part of much broader solutions. One key issue continues to be power management which brings its own challenges in the design of these solutions.

Procept offers its clients an integrated approach to the development and manufacture of products for the industrial, consumer, scientific, environmental and medical markets.

Adrian has a wealth of experience in technology development working with businesses to translate their functional and business requirements into lines of code, microprocessors, circuits and solder, antennas, and managing the industrial design, production scaling and manufacturing relationships.

Adrian is happy to field your questions in the comments, or if you have a product you need advice on then contact him or his colleagues via their website. Enjoy the show.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #019 (MP3 – 14MB – 38min)
Interview with Mark Sinclair, Windlab Systems

According to Global Wind Energy Council figures 2006 recorded an increase of installed capacity of 15,197 MW, taking the total installed wind energy capacity to 74,223 MW.

Key to the continued development of wind resources around the world is the accurate assessment, modelling and design of wind energy installations. My guest on todays show is Mark Sinclair, CEO of Windlab Systems. In the science of wind energy resource assessment, Windlab Systems is an international leader specialising in the development and application of wind-assessment technologies.

Over the last two years 2005/06 growth rates for the industry have averaged 36%, despite constraints facing supply chains for wind turbines. In terms of economic value, the wind energy sector has become one of the important players in the energy markets, with the total value of new generating equipment installed in 2006 reaching €18 billion, or US$23 billion (wiki)

On the show we discuss these recent wind energy industry developments and explore the process of how wind resources can be identified and developed successfully. With real estate being of primary importance, and a growing consolidation and maturity in the industy, tools that can get a company to a high quality location and demonstrate effective turbine mapping are critical.

Off the back of a recent capital raising, Windlab Systems is now seeking to extend its international partnerships in the wind energy sector.

Mark Sinclair is an experienced senior level manager in the energy sector. Mark has held roles in Shell and recently with Stanwell Corporation as manager of their Wind Development Group. In that capacity he oversaw the development of a number of wind farms in Australia.

Enjoy the show.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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Nick

original post: http://blogs.natlogic.com/friend/2007/09/no_more_coal.html

Architecture 2030 has a full page ad in the New Yorker this week asking “Think You’re Making a Difference? Think Again.” They note that “There are 151 new conventional coal-fired power plants in various stages of development in the US today,” and go on to compare the beneficial impact of major conservation initiatives against the negative impact of one coal plant:

Home Depot is funding the planting of 300,000 trees in cities across the US to help absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions… The CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized (500 MW) coal-fired power plant, in just 10 days of operation, will negate this entire effort.Wal-Mart is investing a half billion dollars to reduce the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of their existing buildings by 20% over the next seven years. If every Wal-Mart Supercenter met this target… The CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized coal-fired power plant, in just one month of operation each year, would negate this entire effort.

California passed legislation to cut CO2 emissions in new cars by 25% and in SUVs by 18%, starting in 2009. If every car and SUV sold in California in 2009 met this standard… The CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized coal-fired power plant, in just eight months of operation each year, would negate this entire effort.

Their conclusion: No more coal.

Today, buildings use 76% of all the energy produced at coal plants. By implementing The 2030 Challenge to reduce building energy use by a minimum of 50%, we negate the need for new coal plants.

My conclusion: No more new coal, sure. How about no more old coal either? As I wrote earlier this year in Big Deal for Less Coal:

I’ve been thinking a lot about coal lately, musing about the financial strategies that would enable shutting down and writing off the entire industry. Why not buy out owners, employees and communities — and take the financial hit now, rather than over a century or two of continued subsidies and escalating environmental and climate damage.

Estimates of the global subsidy to the coal industry range from tens to hundreds of billions of dollars per year. (See Lester Brown, Herman Scheer, Green Scissors, and UIC for a few examples.) The market capitalization of the 25 largest companies is $52.8 billion, their annual revenues about $28.5 billion. Which is a better investment? Continuing to pour major subsidies (which according to some analysts may exceed the industry’s revenues) into to an industry with massive environmental impacts? Or using that budget to acquire, shut down and write off the industry; to pay decommissioning and cleanup costs; to provide transition investment and training to affected communities; and to invest in the renewable fuels and energy sources to fill the gap?

This would be a fascinating fall project for a bunch of MBA students. My bet is that this scenario generates an interesting ROI even without accounting for environmental and health costs, and a very attractive one with those included. Anyone interested in running the analysis?

As for the arguments that modern society couldn’t survive without coal, German parliamentarian Herman Scheer notes that “we are faced with a green washing of black energies.”

These attempts use existing mental barriers in peoples’ minds against Renewable Energy: Renewable Energies do not have enough potential to completely replace nuclear and fossil energies, their increased introduction will be too expensive and will require unaffordable subsidies, Renewable Energies technologies will need a long time to be fully operational.These arguments are wrong.

(Scheer refutes those arguments here.)

“We should not wait for international treaties,” Herr Scheer advises.

Experience gained from international governmental conferences over the last 35 years shows that these events always follow the hidden motto: “Talk globally, postpone nationally”. Their participants always have to reach a consensus. But an unbridgeable gap exists between consensus and acceleration. In history, no example of a breakthrough of a new technology can be found which has been promoted by an international treaty. The common rule is: be faster than others, because the speediest will have most opportunities.

So, anyone interested in that “shut down the coal industry” scenario? I’m easy: I’ll take a team of MBA students or a modest contract from a smart investment firm.

But let’s run those numbers!

The Cleantech Show #017 (MP3 – 14MB – 37min)
Interview with Phil Kithill, Atmocean Inc.

In February 2007, Richard Branson and Al Gore announced a new global science and technology prize - The Virgin Earth challenge  – whereby an individual or group can demonstrate a solution that can remove at least 1 billion tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year for at least ten years. The objective is to act as a saftey and long term mechanism to help reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The prize? $25 million, but the solution has to be commercially viable and registrations are open until 2010 (wiki)

One company which many have high hopes for being eligible for this prize and a candidate for large scale CO2 sequestration is Atmocean based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our guest on this weeks show is Phil Kithil the founder and CEO of Atmocean Inc and inventor of the company’s wave-driven ocean upwelling system.

Previously Phil founded and led Advanced Safety Concepts, Inc., an automotive safety technology business where he was awarded 12 US and international patents on occupant sensing and crash sensing, which he sold to Methode Electronics (a Chicago-based automotive supplier) in 2004.

Atmocean is developing its proprietary wave-driven ocean upwelling system to cool the upper ocean and enhance natural biological processes to absorb CO2. When widely deployed across critical ocean regions, the Atmocean technology can help fight global warming by sequestering massive amounts of CO2 on the ocean floor, reduce hurricane intensity, and help revive ocean fisheries.

If you would like to understand how the technology works, the Atmocean website has some good animations and video clips explaining the technology

Currently the company is a significant research phase testing and refining the technology. When deployed estimates are that a 100,000 sq km array of 25,000 pumps would be able to sequester 2.5 million tonnes of CO2.  Phil and his team are also raising capital for further development of the technology.

So in the comments this week, do you think this technology can achieve what is says? Are there other technologies that are better placed to sequester carbon dioxide. Lets hear your thoughts.

Enjoy the show.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #017 (MP3 – 15MB – 41min)

India is quickly becoming one of the worlds largest markets for clean technology. With rapid economic growth, coupled with issues of poverty, energy supply, food and water provision and pollution its appetite is steadily growing for technologies, and companies who can work with India companies and government bodies in this sector. Not to mention the growing expertise of Indian companies like Reva Electric Car Co or institutions like TERI in developing cleantech solutions for the world.

Clean Technology AustralAsia recently held the 1st India Cleantech Forum in Delhi. On this weeks show, event organiser and MD of Clean Technology AustralAsia, Peter Castellas, having just returned from India, speaks about the event and more broadly about the Indian cleantech industry and market. We discuss many of the key techniques for companies seeking to establish projects in India successfully, and talk candidly about issues of bureaucracy, style of business, and barriers.

Peter is the joint founder and Managing Director of Clean Technology AustralAsia, a business established to accelerate the investment in and deployment of clean technologies in the Asia Pacific region.

As well as having run successful Cleantech Finance & Investment Initiatives in Australia and China and conceived and developed the 1st India Cleantech Forum, Peter is currently leading a major international project for the Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate. This project focuses on developing a strategic action plan to increase the investment in and deployment of renewable energy in India.

As part of this initiative Clean Technology AustralAsia, in conjunction with the The Energy and Resources Institute India, are undertaking an Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate (APP) project to identify ways Australian companies can participate in the dynamic renewable energy market in India.

To participate in this survey and for details on the project go to www.cleantechnology.com.au/app and receive 50% off the registration price on Clean Technology AustralAsia’s next Australian Cleantech Forum.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #016 (MP3 – 13MB – 36min)

T-Mag Pty Ltd is a new integrated casting technology for magnesium that significantly extends the capability and reduces the cost of permanent mould casting for a wide range of high-performance components.

On this weeks show Sam Tartaglia from T-Mag is our guest, and he explains the significant benefits and how the technology of T-Mag works. With cast car parts the T-Mag technology has the abilty to lower the weight of cast aluminium components by around 30%. And with magnesium use expected to grow steadily by 20% each year, this technology is expected to perform well.

Sam has over 28 years experience in manufacturing, R&D and management. Sam has extensive experience in light metals having previously worked with the CSIRO, Nissan in Australia and Teksid Aluminium for many years the world’s largest aluminium and magnesium casting company.

T-Mag produces castings suitable for high-strength, high-integrity applications; the tooling and running costs involved are low, comparable to permanent mould casting processes for aluminium. The T-Mag website show how their process compares with existing approaches.

T-Mag Pty Ltd is a joint venture between CSIRO and three Australian companies — Alloy Technologies International , FLOTEK, and SAGE Automation — to commercialise its innovative magnesium casting technology.

T-Mag has been developed through the Light Metals Flagship of CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world. T-Mag Pty Ltd is undertaking a new R&D project proudly funded by the Australian Government with a grant under AusIndustry’s Commercial Ready program

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #015 (MP3 – 14MB – 37min)

On this weeks show our topic is combined heat and power (CHP). One of the leading companies in Australia developing CHP solutions is GridX Power. Craig is a co-founder of the business, chief operating officer and is responsible for new business development in Australia and internationally. He has an in-depth understanding of technologies in the sustainable energy sector and in structuring a robust business within the cleantech sector.

One of the key features of GridX is that they have developed a unique business model in the Australian environment that is paving the way for residential, commercial and industrial property developers to meet their energy requirements. Particularly within power constrained areas whilst meeting the environmental requirements for their developments.

micro CHP has been around for a long time Europe and North America in the residential market with the use of boiler technologies, but now we are seeing increasing interest in both the residential development sector and also commercial property sectors for power, heating and cooling.

Early in his career, Craig worked in the micro Combined Heat & Power marketplace providing energy solutions for utilities and developers in Australia and the UK. Through GridX, he has pioneered the introduction of mass market distributed generation within Australia.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #014 (MP3 – 11MB – 30min)

The Active Reactor is an electronic device that saves electricity and energy when used with HID (high intensity discharge) lamps. On this weeks show founder and Managing Director of The Active Reactor Richard Dluzniak and I explore the massive potential for this technology to reduce the energy requirements and lifetime of street lighting.

By continuously adjusting the power to a lamp to produce only the design level of lighting considerable energy savings can be achieved. The savings for HPS lamps is typ 20-25% and for MH lamps the saving is typ 15-20%. The Active Reactor also increases the lamp life by over 50%.

The Active Reactor is applicable to all forms of streetlighting, carpark lighting, sports lighting, factory and industrial lighting where high pressure sodium(HPS) or metal halide (MH) lamps are used.

This is a great technology that after multiple years of trial and testing is now ready to have a big impact on our street-scape energy use.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #013 (MP3 – 16MB – 45min)

Earlier this month I blogged about the announcement of the new FEX-SIM Sustainability and Cleantech Stock Market. The Financial & Energy Exchange (FEX) is set to open a new trading board on the Newcastle-based National Stock Exchange (NSX), with high profile green campaigner and former US Vice President Al Gore to give an address at the opening.

On this weeks show, Brian Price CEO of the FEX-SIM and I discuss the foundation and motivations behind starting the exchange, the opportunities for investors and advice and process for cleantech companies looking to list. We explore Brian’s expectations for the success of the FEX-SIM, and he provides some clear advice on how to create a successful market and the strength and commitment to the initiative they are undertaking.

Brian has over 22 years of experience in complex derivative transactions, option market making, highly specialised tactical portfolio overlay construction through use of synthetic and derivative products. Has featured in the book ‘Master of the Markets’ in 2003 and 2005 as one of Australia’s top 10 investors and has been a member of the strategic advisory board of HFA Ltd since its inception in 1998.

An Australian based specialized market risk asset manager and derivatives consultant, he has traded over 5 million futures and options contracts as principal and millions more for clients. Brian has extremely strong and broad relationships with well over 50 high level key derivative market participants ( fund managers , market makers, traders and investors ) as well as an excellent working knowledge of the Australian derivatives market space.

The FEX Sustainability and Cleantech Investment Market (FEX-SIM) will open on 14 September, and we wish you all the best success Brian and team.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #012 (MP3 – 23MB – 64min)

My guest this week is Michael Curran, a Founder and Director of Mycrolab, an Australian company developing a “Lab on a Chip” platform technology. The technology can shrink many laboratory based medical assays and diagnostic tests down to the size of a credit card and reader, by utilising microfluidic techniques.

Mycrolab’s technology is set to change the way in which diseases both in the 3rd and 1st world are treated. The developing world already has significant issues with water quality, pathogens and diseases, for which effective detection can result in better managment and isolation of potential outbreaks. As a result of climate change problems many of these issues are set to increase, with changes in disease vector migration, the potential for enviornmental refugees and the resulting health issues, and managing livestock and agricultural diseases to maintain food production.

On the show Michael and I discuss the technology itself and then go on to discuss the wider issues the world is faced with in the coming century. Currently much of the cleantech community is still operating with a view that economic benefit is equally as important as the social and environmental benefit of its labors. Michael highlights that we keep having to bring our focus back from purely a monetary outcome. That we need to identify whats wrong with the world and focus on fixing those things first.

Please make the time to listen to this show in full and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #011 (MP3 – 16MB – 44min)

What if you could develop an additive that could be integrated into products in over 25 markets, including paints, power cable coatings, refrigeration consumer food packaging and even clothing that could reduce the temperature of objects and spaces by 15-20%.

Well this is what the Australian company, TAG Technology is able to achieve with its Thermally Active Granule technology. On this weeks show I speak with CEO of Tag Technology, David Forder about the huge implications of their product and the success they have had to date in a broad range of applications.

Paint is an obvious application of this technology, and the company is far down the pathway of developing products in this area. But how bout this, when applied to a coating that can be applied to high tension power cables they can result in a temperature reduction in the power line by 25%. For those that understand electrical resistance this has a huge effect on reducing the resistance and hence loses associate with power transmission. Current results indicate an expected 10% transmission efficiency improvement. Amazing!

In 2000, David took a major shareholding in ‘TAG’ , a unique nano scale technology which allows the production of thermally active coatings, films and textiles. David (now Chief Executive Officer at TAG) has been actively commercialising this technology since 2000. Products incorporating the technology are expected to begin entering the market in September this year.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Financial & Energy Exchange (FEX) is set to open a new trading board on the Newcastle-based National Stock Exchange (NSX), with high profile green campaigner and former US Vice President Al Gore to give an address at the opening.

The FEX Sustainability and Cleantech Investment Market (FEX-SIM) will open on 14 September, with Gore the special guest speaker. FEX-SIM will operate under the NSW license, targeting the sustainability and cleantech industries.

FEX-SIM board listings will centre around companies committed to identifying and promoting business solutions to promote the transition to a clean and sustainable future. All companies listing on the FEX-SIM board will be subject to NSX listing rules.

Richard Symon, chief executive of NSW, said he was pleased to be a part of the FEX initiative.

“We are delighted to be working with FEX to develop the FEX Sustainability and Cleantech Investment Market.”

FEX-SIM will launch at FEX in Sydney on 14 September.

The NSX has been operating in its present form since 2000 and specialises in the listings of small to medium size companies of capitalisations around AUD$500,000.  Many companies that stuggle to find capital in Australia, or are too small or don’t have the funds for an ASX listing have pursued this pathway.
The NSX website in their press release highlights that:

FEX-SIM will be a purpose-built Australasian equity market, operating as a board, and under the Australian Market Licence, of the National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX). FEX-SIM will be promoted exclusively by Financial & Energy Exchange Limited (FEX) . FEX-SIM will target the fast emerging sustainability and cleantech industry sectors

Cheers
Nick

The Cleantech Show #010 (MP3 – 13MB – 34min)

In a recent announcement, the International Energy Agency (IEA), issued a new report yesterday predicting a supply pinch in the next 3 to 5 years. Tom Konrad, Editor from Alt Energy Stocks comments on the resulting impact this has had on renewable energy stocks in one of his recent blog postings, and it’s my pleasure to have Tom on the show this week.

AltEnergyStocks.com is one of the Internet’s premier websites for investing in the sectors of alternative energy, renewable energy and clean technology.

In this weeks show Tom and I discuss the blossoming Alternative Energy Investment market and explore in detail Tom’s candid advice on developing a portfolio of alternative energy investments. Dependent on whether your a conservative or more aggressive investor there are opportunities in the market and Tom provides some valuable insight into the market drivers and the more interesting areas of investment.

Tom is an independent investment advisor and financial analyst specializing in renewable energy and energy efficiency companies. He has a Ph.D. in mathematics from Purdue University, and is a level II candidate for the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. He serves as Treasurer for both the Colorado Renewable Energy Society and Ratepayers United Colorado.

Look forward to you listening in.

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #009 (MP3 – 13MB – 37min)

To date much of the focus in investment and new cleantech ventures has focused on the energy and biofuels industry sectors, with a slowly but surely growing diversification into waste management, water management, green buildings and other industry areas. The environmental services sector has become quite established in many countries as organisations have moved to provide offerings from backgrounds as diverse as accounting, quality, compliance and technical infrastructure.

My guest this week is Doug Smith founder and CEO of Village Green. Village Green is a dedicated sustainability management consulting company that has also established itself as a leader in an Environmental IT sector with the creation of its automated sustainability auditing software.

Village Green, a company leading the field in sustainable business practice, was conceived through the recognition of community concerns, a need for business wellbeing and commercial sustainability. Doug’s team at Village Green recently stepped into the limelight winning the 2006 Banksia Award (Education Category) for the company’s Sustainable Business Management program in operation throughout the country.

On the show, Doug and I discuss their growth from a 3 person company in 2001 to a company employing more than 20 people around Austrlia, and with now their first overseas software license in Ireland. What Doug and his team have managed to achieve in the last 4 years is truly inspiring. Whats more is that their software system, which can produce automated reports on a clients energy, waste and water performance, I believe is a significant business opportunity for national and international licensees. Especially with the advent of emissions trading and the IT audit infrastructure that will be required to extract value for businesses.

Enjoy the show!

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #008 (MP3 – 13MB – 36min)

My guest this week is Matthew Nordan, the President of Lux Research. On the show we explore the findings from Lux Research’s recent report into the Cleantech sector – The Cleantech Report.

This years Cleantech Report provides a comprehensive analysis of cleantech – offering proprietary data, unbiased analyses, and fresh insights in emerging energy and environmental technologies. Lux Research serves as an indispensable advisor to corporations, start-ups, financial institutions, and governments seeking to exploit science-driven innovation for competitive advantage.

During our discussions, Matthew and i explore some of the key findings of the report in detail, including:

• US$48 billion invested by governments, corporates and VCs on cleantech R&D
• Approximately 1,500 cleantech start-ups operate worldwide, and
• 4,093 U.S. patents focused on cleantech were issued in 2006.

If you would like to know more about the report, please contact Lux Research directly.
If your a cleantech company, Matthew has some good advice in the interview for how you can be involved in future reports, and gain access to their investor clients.

Enjoy the show!

cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #007 (MP3 – 12MB – 34min)

Carbon Neutrality is the key objective of many consumers and organisations seeking to nullify their impact on global emissions. For many individuals and companies an available approach is to choose to offset gross emissions by purchasing Carbon Offsets. The Growth in this market over the last 5 years has resulted in a proliferation of approaches, new businesses and questions about the transparency of the process.

On this weeks show i have Jeff Angel the Executive Director of Total Environment Centre to examine this issue, and shed light onto the Carbon Offset Industry and where offsetting fits into the steps to achieving Carbon Neutrality.

Jeff has been an environmental campaigner since 1973 on a wide range of issues including: urban sustainability, waste management, air pollution, public transport, forest protection, threatened species, coastal planning, corporate environmental sustainability and renewable energy.

The Total Environment Centre has released a number of reports on the Australian Industry, but the findings and recommendations are applicable globally.

• TEC Carbon Neutrality Watch [PDF 248Kb] – May 2007. A review of the carbon neutrality and offset market.
• Neutral and Beyond: A review of carbon neutrality & offsets [PDF 215Kb] – Opinions from the industry on carbon neutrality and offsets.

My question for comments this week is

‘What role do you think carbon offsetting should play in emissions reductions?’

Please let us know your thoughts.

Cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #006 (MP3 – 20MB – 56min)

The pressure to establish Emissions Trading programs in order to reduce C02 emissions is mounting in many countries and at a global level worldwide.

In this weeks show we have an in depth discussion about Emissions Trading with Rob Fowler, the Managing Director of Abatement Solutions – Asia Pacific. Rob is an expert on emission’s trading programs and advises clients in Australia, China, Europe and the United States.

On the show we discuss the in’s and out’s of Emissions Trading programs, how they can be set up, the differences between cap and trade and baseline and credit systems, and the progress being made in various schemes worldwide. So be sure to listen in.

Rob’s provided some links that people can follow for more detail on the topics and organisations discussed in the show.

• National Emissions Trading Taskforce (Australian States)
• Prime Minister’s Emissions Trading Task Group (Australia)
• Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme (Australia – New South Wales)
• Australian Greenhouse Office (Australia)
• IISD Linkages – Climate and Atmosphere (Global)
• Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol (Global)
• EU Emissions Trading Scheme (European Union)

Cheers
Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #005 (MP3 – 13MB – 36min)

On this weeks show our guest is Gary Bertuch, the Managing Director of HySSIL Pty Ltd, a company commercialising a revolutionary new lightweight concrete technology involving the CSIRO.

Hyssil’s technology allows the production of lightweight concrete panels that have and unique combination of lower weight, higher strength, lower embodied energy and construction costs and excellent thermal properties than existing concrete products.

In the interview we learn from Gary about the massive market applications of the product and of new concrete technologies they are helping the CSIRO to commercialise.

With over 30% of emissions worldwide associated with the built environment, this technology is surely going to be a significant player in the coming years to help reduce both embodied and operating emissions from buildings and reduce the energy requirements in construction and heating.

Cheers
Nick Bruse

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Without going into detail about the politics around this issue in Australia at the moment, essentially we are waiting to see if John However is willing to put the pressures of climate change ahead of the pressures of political change.

The report follows on from an initiative by the Australian States and Territories to set up a emissions trading scheme by 2010, which essentially lay down the gauntlet to the Australian federal government to do something.  Read more here

The key outcomes of this are whether we will see an acceptable cap set for emissions, and that the resulting price of carbon emissions is somewhere above $20/tonne as the bare minimum. For real change we want prices closer to $40/tonne at which renewables will be able to compete viably with existing power generation. For more commentary on this go to the 7.30 report transcript.

So, grab a cup of bonox or bosco ,  download the report and curl up for a night of reading.

Cheers
Nick

The Cleantech Report, a component of Lux Research’s energy and environment service identifies that:

“Government funding for clean technologies has barely grown faster than inflation for the past two years, but initiatives announced in 2006 indicate a 10% increase for 2007. And corporations like General Electric, BASF, and Toshiba are making R&D investments to maintain rapid revenue growth in sustainable products and services,” said Lux Research President Matthew M. Nordan.

“Unlike previous technology waves in information technology and biotech, however, the U.S. is not leading the world. The Asia/Pacific region takes first place in government funding, corporate R&D spending, and scientific publications while the U.S. only leads in deployment of venture capital and in patents issued.”

You can find more about the report and its contents here

The Cleantech Show #004 (MP3 – 13MB – 36min)

Sylvia Tulloch, is the Managing director and founding team member for 3rd Generation solar cell technology company Dyesol (ASX:DYE).
3rd generation solar cell technology utilises biomimicry of the chlorophyll dye in plants to produce energy from the sun.

Dyesol has been a pioneer in the field of Dye Sensitised Cells (DSC) over the last 10 years, now providing the key dyes and titania pastes to some of the 800 research and commercial organisations around the world developing DSC applications.

Don’t miss this show, as Sylvia goes into detail about how DSC technology will have a large roll in the coming decade. We discuss the technology and the applications where its lower cost high volume potential for energy generation in building materials, consumer devices and a host of other applications means it will have a signifcant roll in the future.

If your interested in more detail about some of the companies that we discuss on the show, Sylvia has provided links to some of their partner companies:

G24 Innovations – Large scale DSC Manufacturing plant

Corus – Steel and Aluminium sheeting company integrating DSC tech into its roofing products

Cheers
Nick Bruse

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Around the world in developing countries 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water sources, and nearly 40 percent of the global population does not have access to basic sanitation. source: Worldwatch institute

As with most climate change pressures the solutions to these problems are many and varied including behavioural change and efficiency measures, regulation, new technologies, low cost local solutions and large scale infrastructure projects. All a necessity to deal with this issue.

Recently the i have been observing a range of technology developments and large scale infrastructure projects to deal with this issue.

In a recent episode of Australian Story, we heard about Max Whisson’s dreams of bring fresh water to inland Australia using ‘water roads’ and his latest invention the water windmill.

The CSIRO has recently announced its new partnership to improve membrane technology

The Advanced Membrane Technologies Research Cluster is working to develop the next generation of membrane technology to deliver Australia a safe and sustainable water resource.

Perth Australia has now established one of the largest desalination plants outside of the middle east and set up a 185MW wind farm to power it.

However something that recently came across my desk was this great story out of Mexico of a low energy low cost solution to producing clean drinking water.

The technology works by utilising vapour pressures differences between two large columns of fresh and saline water. The smart part of the technology is that it takes advantage of localised vacuums that can be formed at the top the water columns by using gravity. If you remember your high school science classes this is the same effect that a tube mercury creates when up-ended in to a mercury bath to create a Barometer.

The water vapour pressures above each column are normally in equilibrium, but when the saline water column is heated by only a difference of 10-15 degrees you get a preferential movement to the fresh water column.

This low cost desalination system has been developed by New Mexico State University engineers and can use low grade heat from solar to industrial waste heat to drive the process.

The full article can be found here

The ingenuity of these approaches were often thought up in another era.

In an age gone by when candles and lighting oil were expensive, Victorian England Buildings, used light wells to illuminate the insides of their buildings.

Through the innovations in sky tracking technologies from telescopes and solar energy applications, we are now seeing a return to this solutions in the form of heliostats sunlight collectors.

The basic design is a rooftop tracking light collector follows the sun across the sky and through a combination of precision optics and fibre network can pump that light to the centre of a building.

source: http://archrecord.construction.com

There’s a bunch more technologies summarised at this site on internal lighting technologies, including light reflectors, heilostats and light shelves.

source: daylighting systems

Coupled with good design for new builds, and implementing these were possible we all might have a day in the sun.

In this case that system is trash collection and disposal. The system being, installing the bins, collecting the trash and truck logistics, disposing of it.

Big Belly is a solar powered trash compactor built into a municipal bin. Which allows up it to hold up to 5 times the amount of trash. USD 3,600–3,900, (AUD 4300-4700).

Now I’ve grabbed a few rough estimates from my construction contacts of installing a bin in Melbourne Australia and your looking at around $1000-1500 fully installed (Feel free to provide your own data).

So if we now can cut down the number of trips to an individual bin because it overflows only 1/5 as much, this must save on petrol. Also it saves on compaction stopping time by the truck company, and they can run less sophisticated trucks witout compactors (not an overnight change of their fleet obviously). Now the bin is solar powered and with normal PV you need good sunlight – not good for some cities – but you could use cheaper dyesolar cells to bring the cost down and allow low light operation. Next week i have an interview with Sylvia Tulloch from Dyesol talking about their dye solar cell technology.

I’d be interested to understand the full system cost and emissions breakdown these have.

A collegue and friend of mine Doug Smith from Village Green who runs a sustainable management consultancy is well versed in these sorts of systemic solutions. As a cafe owner, he thought it ludicrous that all the cafe’s along the stretch of shops in the city had different trash collection providers for their waste, a relic of the ins and outs of cafe ownership and waste management industry. So much so that in one small block of a city there were 6 waste management companies servicing it, so that each and every night a truck from a different company would be coming for the trash. This created problems with noise, garbage bins always being out, not to mention increased fuel costs which were being passed onto the owners.

His solution was to talk with the other owners and choose one company. Not a simple process given contracts etc with small business, but he did it, and now runs a very successful company in Australia helping other small and large businesses do exactly the same. Check them out at www.villagegreen.com.au

The Cleantech Show #003 (MP3 – 15MB – 42min)

This weeks podcast is an interview with Mitra Ardron. Mitra is principle of Natural Innovations a company which provides consulting services on developing businesses around sustainability, and in particular green technologies.

Mitra has previously worked in commercialising internet technologies and co-founded the international NGO Association for Progressive Communications.

On the show we discuss the commercialisation process in context of cleantech companies, the australian market, and in relation to previous technology booms like that of the dotcom boom.

Mitra is currently working with Zelfo Australia on a clean fabrication technology that is a plastic like product made from hemp, which we talk about on the show.

You can read more of Mitra’s advice, commentary and thoughts on sustainability via his blog at www.mitra.biz/blog

Now, during the show Mitra’s computer started up its fan to try cool itself in that balmy byron bay weather where Mitra lives. The post production couldn’t clean up the interference, so hopefully it won’t distract from Mitra’s insights on cleantech and sustainability.

Cheers

Nick Bruse

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The Cleantech Show #002 (MP3 – 10MB – 30min)

This weeks podcast is an interview with Dr. Tim Finnigan, Founder and CEO of Biopower Systems, a distributed ocean power technology company.

On the show Tim and I discuss the company’s novel approach to harnessing ocean power, including their tidal current power technology bioStream and wave power technology bioWave (shown below)

Tim talks about the development of the company, and about his inspiration in designing the technology.

Tim and his team are in the process of updating their website so we’ll have some links shortly including animations of the technology.

Enjoy the show.

Nick Bruse

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Solar concentrator technologies allow the same level of light to be captured often as a traditional panel technology. However they drastically reduce the cost of the photovoltaic components by concentrating the incident sunlight onto a much smaller surface area silicon or galium arsenide photovoltatic element.

Tracking systems are usually part and parcel of this mix to achieve the highest incident light percentage, and in many systems this means typically bulky systems with poor aesthetic quality and room mounting issues.

Soliant Energy solves this problem by having smaller individual cells as part of an array that fits into the standard existing mounting systems for PV. Even though some shading occurs across their elements, The ease of installation and reduced silicon costs has enabled the company to halve the typical PV unit cost for their 1st generation designs – yet still generate comparable power output. Second generation design will include double axis tracking.

The below pictures are from the Soliant Energy website, show their 1st Gen product

The Cleantech Show – Nick Bruse

Its well worth a read, and this is a particularly poignant given the political influence Rupert has had over the years (wwwiki) and being such a powerful business leader and media owner. I’m interested in your thoughts on the impact this announcement has in the broader scheme of things.

Nick Bruse

Speech by Rupert Murdoch, May 9th.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us here today. This morning is the first time we have ever done a global event for all News Corp. employees, many of whom are joining us live by webcast. So I should say good morning, but to those of you who are watching: good afternoon, and good evening…

I’m here to tell you about a new initiative we’re undertaking at News, one that will affect us all.

As many of you know, I grew up in Melbourne, Australia and the last few months and years have brought some changes there:

In Melbourne, 2006 was the 10th consecutive year with below average rainfall. And 2005 was the hottest year on record throughout Australia.

Australia is suffering its worst drought in 100 years.

Now, I realize we can’t take just one year in one city or even one continent as proof that something unusual is happening. And I am no scientist.

But I do know how to assess a risk– and this one is clear.

Climate change poses clear, catastrophic threats. We may not agree on the extent, but we certainly can’t afford the risk of inaction.

We must transform the way we use energy, and of course not only because of climate change…

When I look around the world today, I see continued dependence on oil from vulnerable regions… and oil money going to leaders of countries hostile to us. Then there’s accelerating development in China, India and other developing economies that are reliant on fossil fuels.

But there are promising new technologies– bio-fuels, solar and wind power, cleaner coal.

And we all hear a demand from the public– our audiences– for governments and businesses to involve them in solving our energy challenge.
Today, I am announcing our intention to be carbon neutral, across all our businesses, by 2010.

Climate change and energy use are global problems– News Corp is a global company.

Our operations affect the environment all over the world.

Our audiences– hundreds of millions of people on five continents– care about this issue. Three quarters of the American public believes climate change is a serious problem, and in many other countries, developed and developing, the numbers are even higher.

And as many companies have already learned, acting on this issue is simply good business.

Reducing our use of energy reduces costs.

Inviting our employees to be active on this issue helps us recruit and retain the world’s best.

For us, as a media company– this is a chance to deepen our relationships with our viewers, readers, and web users.

The initiative we are launching today will involve every business, every function. It’s not only for our facilities managers or our fleet directors– it’s about how we recruit new employees, how we develop relationships with advertisers and how we design movie sets.

This is about changing the DNA of our business to re-imagine how we look at energy.

This is all new for us. We have much to learn from others. We studied the example of BSkyB, and we met with non-governmental organizations, with other companies, and with scientific experts.

If we are to connect with our audiences on this issue, we learned that we must first get our own house in order…

We’re not a manufacturer, or an airline, but we do use energy. Printing and publishing newspapers, producing films and television programs, operating 24-hour newsrooms. It all adds carbon to the atmosphere.

Our first step was to measure our emissions of greenhouse gases– our carbon footprint.

Our carbon footprint last year was 641,150 tons. It includes the electricity used in all our operations globally, and any fuels we burn.

Our analysis was independently verified and, today, we are reporting these figures to the public.

We could make a difference just by holding our emissions steady as our businesses continue to grow. But that doesn’t seem to be enough: we want to go all the way to zero.
BSkyB has already done this. When all of News Corporation becomes carbon neutral it will have the same impact as turning off the electricity in the city of London for five full days.

Some of our businesses use more energy than others, but our strategy everywhere is the same… first, reduce our use of energy as much as possible.

Then, switch to renewable sources of power where it makes economic sense…

And, over time, as a last resort, offset the emissions we can’t avoid.

This will take time, but we have already started:

On the Fox lot in Los Angeles, we have completed three separate reviews of energy use, and we found some areas to address immediately… even just switching the bulbs in our exit signs, will reduce carbon emissions by 200 tons. That’s equal to 200 flights from New York to LA.

We’re also experimenting with solar-powered golf carts on the Lot…

We’ve broken ground on the new Fox studios building that will be our first U.S. building officially certified as achieving excellence in environmental design.

The New York Post has begun replacing lighting at their plant… and we’ll do the same at our headquarters.

Our new Fox Networks Center in Houston will utilize the latest LED lighting technology in all of its master control rooms.

And at News America Marketing in the U.S. and at News Digital Media in Australia, we’ve begun replacing the companies’ fleet cars with hybrid vehicles.

The award-winning Keith Murdoch House in Adelaide, opened two years ago, uses 40% less energy than a typical office building. It uses solar panels to heat water, and collects rainwater from the roof to be re-used in the building.

As we upgrade and expand everywhere, building new data centers and office buildings, from Bulgaria to India, from Chicago to Milan, we will always take energy into account…

As we reduce our energy consumption, we are also buying electricity from sources that use less carbon…

Today, I am proud to announce that both News International and HarperCollins in the UK have entered arrangements to buy renewable energy… 70% of News International’s electricity will now come from hydroelectric power plants in Scotland… saving over 36,000 tons of carbon next year alone –- enough to fill 650 railroad cars with coal.

These two businesses have made such rapid progress that they will be carbon neutral by the end of this year.
While we handle our own emissions, we can also work with our business partners to reduce emissions together….

Sky, working with NDS, redesigned their set-top boxes to go to a power-saving mode automatically.

Fox Home Entertainment was recently recognized by Wal-Mart for reducing the environmental impacts of our DVDs and– just yesterday– we completed an analysis of the carbon footprint of a DVD from the first moment of its production– all the way to the retailer’s shelf.

In London, we have done a similar analysis of one issue of the Times– from the tree to disposal– looking for ways to reduce carbon up and down our supply chain.

While we reduce our own carbon footprint we will encourage the companies who truck our DVDs and newspapers, sell us paper, and provide an enormous range of products and services– to all contribute.

Today, we are joining the Climate Group, a coalition of businesses and governments working together to solve the climate problem.

But some emissions will be unavoidable. As a last resort, we will offset these emissions.

A carbon offset is a financial tool to support projects that prevent carbon from being released into the atmosphere. Done right, they will widen the implementation of carbon-saving technologies, and give an incentive to create new solutions.

We have entered into an agreement to begin purchasing carbon offsets this year, from projects that provide wind power in India.

When our net emissions reach zero– through a combination of operational changes and carbon offsets– we will be carbon neutral.

We need to push ourselves to make as many reductions as possible in our own energy use first– and that takes time. But we must do this quickly– the climate will not wait for us.

To offer his views on climate change, may I present one head of state who has been a global leader on this issue and so many others throughout 10 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair…

Thank you very much, Mr. Blair.

But becoming carbon neutral is only the beginning. The climate problem will not be solved by one company reducing its emissions to zero, and it won’t be solved by one government acting alone.
The climate problem will not be solved without mass participation by the general public in countries around the globe.

And that’s where we come in.

We’re starting with our own carbon footprint. Not nothing. But much of what we’re doing is already, or soon will be, little more than the standard way of doing business.

We can do something that’s unique, different from just any other company. We can set an example, and we can reach our audiences. Our audience’s carbon footprint is 10,000 times bigger than ours…

That’s the carbon footprint we want to conquer.

We cannot do it with gimmicks. We need to reach them in a sustained way. To weave this issue into our content– make it dramatic, make it vivid, even sometimes make it fun. We want to inspire people to change their behavior.

Imagine if we succeed in inspiring our audiences to reduce their own impacts on climate change by just one percent. That would be like turning the State of California off for almost two months.

And imagine if… we were able to take on the carbon footprint of our audience in Asia. Many of the most serious impacts of climate change will be felt there, and China and India’s emissions are rising rapidly. STAR is the number one Hindi-language network in the world. In India alone, we reach 100 million people.

The challenge is to revolutionize the message.

For too long, the threats of climate change have been presented as doom and gloom– because the consequences are so serious.

We need to do what our company does best: make this issue exciting. Tell the story in a new way.

And, as you saw in our opening video, this is already happening… news coverage of this issue is increasing, but we can also do some things that are unexpected:

SPEED, the network devoted to cars and motorcycles, is working on a project that will peek into the future as transportation, fuels, and motorsports go green…

Our advertisers are asking us for ways to reach audiences on this issue.

FOX is developing a solutions-based campaign which will offer advertisers the opportunity to partner with us to engage the general public.

24 is committing to change the way the show is produced… using biodiesel generators, and powering the studio with renewable energy…

FOX has plans underway for the All-Star Game this summer.
The National Geographic Channel is launching a new effort, called Preserve Our Planet, to offer programming related to climate change…

On July 7, a series of concerts around the world, the LiveEarth concerts, will draw further attention to this issue… and Foxtel will be the exclusive Australian broadcast partner for this event.

And then there’s what we can do online. I’m proud to announce that MySpace has launched a channel dedicated to climate change. MySpace.com– slash– OurPlanet. What better way to enable young people to connect with each other and engage on this issue.

Now… there are limits to how far we can push this issue in our content. Not every hero on television can drive a hybrid car. Often times it just won’t fit. We must avoid preaching. And there has to be substance behind the glitz.

But if we are genuine, we can change the way the public thinks about these issues.

Now there will always be journalists… including some of ours… who are skeptical, which is natural and healthy. But the debate is shifting from whether climate change is really happening to how to solve it. And when so many of the solutions make sense for us as a business, it is clear that we should take action not only as a matter of public responsibility, but because we stand to benefit.

This all begins with you, our employees. As we reduce our company’s carbon footprint, we will help you to reduce your own.

I’ve started myself– I bought a hybrid car a few months ago– and of course for each of us there will be some changes we can make, and other changes we can’t.

But we shouldn’t let what we can’t do stop us from doing what we can.

We have launched Cool Change, our campaign to communicate with you on this issue, including a website where you can contribute ideas, and be rewarded for your efforts.

Fox has recently announced a new benefit it is offering its employees: a financial incentive to buy a hybrid car. We plan to roll this out to other News Corporation businesses.

I ask each of you to think about how this effort affects your own job, because I am certain it does.

As you discover new ways to save money or connect with your audiences or business partners, you will realize: finding a way to act on climate change is not only good for the planet, and not only good for our business, it will be good for your career.

And it will be great for attracting new talent– dynamic, creative, engaged people who think about the future, not one year ahead, but a generation ahead– exactly the kind of people we need for our company to thrive.
Our company has always been about imagining the future and then making that vision a reality.

News was once a small publisher of newspapers in one region of Australia…

There have always been those who doubted us…

Who doubted us when we expanded to Great Britain…

When we launched a fourth broadcast network in the United States…

When we launched a cable news network…

When we bought MySpace…

And they have been proven wrong. At each step, we took a risk, and re-invented ourselves.

News Corporation, today, reaches people at home and at work… when they’re thinking… when they’re laughing… and when they are making choices that have enormous impact.

The unique potential– and duty– of a media company are to help its audiences connect to the issues that define our time.

We are only at the beginning of this mission, and we have a long way to go.

As we imagine the future, our responsibility now is to make that future our own. I hope that each of you will continue to be inspired by that challenge, just as I am. We have much to do.

Thank you.

This weeks podcast is with Andrew Neilson who is the Legal and Commercial manger and Company Secretary at Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL). For those of you not familiar with Ceramic Fuel Cells they are a Australian and London Stock Exchange (AIM) listed maker of solid oxide fuel cell technology.

On the show Andrew explains Ceramic Fuel Cells Technology, their growth into the European Market and important insights into the future of Fuel cell technology as distributed base load power generation.

Andrew’s kindly provided some links to general industry information and their partners including:

Julich , EWE , Bruns , Gaz de France, De Dietrich Thermique, AIM market

Enjoy the show.

Nick Bruse

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So how do we all feel when it comes to what energy sources we should turn to in the coming years. CSIRO commissioned a study to look at public opinion in detail. The report found that “there is high public demand for information about new energy technologies and declining tolerance for advocacy of a single solution.” Expand the link below for the rest of the article.

Cheers
Nick Bruse

The following is reproduced from the CSIRO website:

The results of one of the most detailed research projects undertaken into public perceptions of new power generation technologies and how they contribute to global warming, were released at the Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies in Brisbane today by the Minister for State Development, the Hon John Mickel MP.

26 April 2007

The project found there is high public demand for information about new energy technologies and declining tolerance for advocacy of a single solution.

Conducted by CSIRO for the Centre for Low Emission Technology (cLET), the research also indicated that while 88 – 89 per cent of respondents preferred solar power, after being apprised of some of the problems associated with generating and storing solar, they were willing to consider a range of alternatives.

Public opinion about nuclear power was polarised, with the degree of uncertainty about the technology varying between different regions.

“The results provide significant information for policy makers and energy technologists working on climate change responses.”

There was also a general lack of awareness about what is actually being done to address climate change – including development of low-emission and gas technologies. However, once respondents were included in discussions about subjects such as carbon capture and storage, they were likely to be more positive towards the technology.

cLET Chief Executive, Dr Kelly Thambimuthu (also Chair of the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas R&D program), said the project’s aim was to better understand public perceptions of low-emission technologies and to explore any regional differences.

“The research and information provided to focus groups was guided by an advisory panel that included representatives from cLET, CSIRO, government researchers, industry and the environment movement,” Dr Thambimuthu said.

“The results provide significant information for policy makers and energy technologists working on climate change responses.”

The project was conducted in Queensland and New South Wales over the past two years.

Energy Generation from Biomass is one of the technologies that is being developed as a significant contributor to the renewable energy mix in developing countries and countries with high agricultural waste products that can be feed stocks. India is spending a great deal of effort and research in this area due to its sizable off-grid population in rural agricultural areas.

In more developed countries and regions, its also being seen as an effective co-generation technology for using the waste materials from agriculture and food process industries.

MIT Tech review Extract: ‘a new research paper published online in the journal Biomass and Bioenergy argues that the battle against global warming may be better served by instead heating the biomass in an oxygen-starved process called pyrolysis, extracting methane, hydrogen, and other by-products for combustion, and burying the resulting carbon-rich char’ full story

Nick Bruse

Having said this there are examples of commercialised technology coming out of CSIRO and CRCs in australia all the time.

I thought i’d flag this story thas recently come out regarding CSIRO’s climate adaption flagship. Heres a cut and paste from the article on the CSIRO site below

” CSIRO’s role in measuring, forecasting and adapting to climate change has been expanded with the announcement last week by Prime Minister John Howardof A$43.6 million in funding over four years for the establishment of a Climate Adaptation National Research Flagship.

18 April 2007

The new Flagship, to be developed in collaboration with partners such as the Bureau of Meteorology and the Australian Greenhouse Office, will complement and add to the extensive atmospheric, climate and environmental research carried out by CSIRO over many years.

CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Geoff Garrett said the new Flagship was vital to providing a co-ordinated effort to delivering timely scientific solutions which will enable Australia to adapt more effectively to the impact of climate change.

“Climate change is creating not only critical national challenges, but also opportunities, and we must continue to develop the technological infrastructure and solutions necessary to adapt to it,” Dr Garrett said.

“The ability to accurately predict climate change variations and the resultant effects, risks and costs at local, regional and national levels is essential if Australia is to build a coherent and appropriate response to climate change.

“With the increased modelling capacity and scientific understanding the new Flagship will bring, Australia will be better able to make informed national planning, regulation and investment decisions,” he said.

“Climate change is creating not only critical national challenges, but also opportunities, and we must continue to develop the technological infrastructure and solutions necessary to adapt to it,”

Dr Garrett said.

One of the main areas of work for the Climate Adaptation Flagship will be the development, with the Bureau of Meteorology, of the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS) which will integrate climate and water knowledge. With better knowledge of the impact of climate change, the aim is to reduce the costs associated with adaptation and to identify new opportunities.

CSIRO, working in partnership with a range of other organisations, is uniquely positioned to help address the problems of climate change prediction in order to enable better land management, improve the management of the impacts of climate change, and better predict and understand extreme events.

CSIRO’s National Research Flagships were launched in 2003 to address major national challenges in areas such as energy, water and health and also opportunities for industry development and job creation. This will be the seventh Flagship.

Last year’s independent review of the Flagships Program, chaired by former Government Chief Scientist, Dr Robin Batterham, highlighted the fact that the Flagships are delivering powerful scientific solutions to national problems, successfully driving large-scale activity addressing Australia’s National Research Priorities in a collaborative, cooperative, and intensively managed manner.

source: CSIRO website

People interested in the program and speakers can visit the cleantech technology australasia website

Cheers
Nick

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