Central Azucarera de San Antonio in Iloilo Philippines is a Sugar Milling company. They recently announced plans to setup a Php 1.6B ($32M) Power Plant which will have a 14 MW Capacity and will be fed by Bagasse recovered during the processing of Sugar Cane Stalks. The issue of pollutants is solved by dual scrubbers incorporated into the design of the plant which will filter and clean the exhaust gasses.

Of the total capacity generated by the plant, 9 MW will be used by the Sugar Milling Company while the remaining 5 MW will be sold to the grid. The plant is expected to be online and operating by 2008.

Not really new to use Bagasse for the milling of cane, but this is probably the first time for the Philippines to have non fossil fuel plant not using thermal or hydro as a power source to feed the National Grid.

Original Article here

This time it’s not a politician or an environmentalist that’s pleading the world to take action against global warming, but rather the chief economist of the British Government, Nicholas Stern.

He likens it to the world slipping to 1930’s like depression. Early action on our part would far outweigh the cost of full blown global climate change. Which would result in the disruption of economic and social activity of the plant similar to the effect of a war.

On a side note, he also pointed out the business oppurtunities brought about by global warming, such as the huge potential of supplying low-carbon energy products in this soon to be emerging market.

Original Article here

I found this great article via Hack-a-day, which show’s how you can make your own LED solar tracker… this is useful for those who want to optimize their solar panels sun collecting position… if you don’t feel like assembling your own, you can always purchase ready built ones for $35.

Of course this is just the tracker and you will still need the actuator enabled tripod to mount the solar panel on which will make sun chasing possible…

Oil was recently discovered in the Country of Zambia in Africa as 12 samples taken from the district of Chavuma and Zambezi came back positive. The president has now formed a special cabinet committee which will select foreign oil firms who will conduct exploration of the find. No ballpark figure however was given as to how big the oil find is.

Zambia is already known to have oil as they can output 130 barrels a day. A far cry from their 12,000 barrel a day requirement.

Compared to Nigeria, Zambia seems to have a fairly stable socio-political climate as it was once a colony of the British. If ever Zambia becomes an oil exporting country, I hope this will alleviate the unemployment of the country which is pegged at 50% (2000 est.) Copper Mining is the traditional export of Zambia.

Time to update the CIA country factbook on Zambia.

Article here