Power, waste and bureaucrats
April 27, 2006
Yes, bureaucrats waste your money, and yes, they have way too much power, but this is not what this post is about.
This from Stuff:
Transpower's plan to build a $754 million transmission line between Auckland and the central North Island by 2010 has been rejected by the Electricity Commission.
...
The commission's rejection was applauded by New Era Energy, the lobby group for landowners affected by the proposed 200-kilometre, 400-kilovolt line between Taupo and South Auckland. They called on Transpower chief executive Ralph Craven to resign.
It also pleased consumer group Sustainable Energy Forum, which believes newer technologies will make a big transmission line redundant.
Rest here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3650173a10,00.html
Electricity Commission? State-owned enterprises? The possibility of confiscation of property rights for building new power lines? I don't understand how people can blame privatisation of the electricity market for our power woes. Admittedly, I am no expert on the electricity industry, but this doesn't sound like a privatised electricity market to me! It sounds like a bastardised, semi-privatised Frankenstein's monstrosity.
Bloody bureaucrats!
At least, the land-owners in Waikato are happy. Even though their property rights were almost violated, their property is safe, for now. And that's a good thing.
Personally, I'd like to build a nuclear power plant in the Kaipara area north of Auckland, but knee-jerk, nuclear-free New Zealand would never allow that to happen. Perhaps the electricity industry should start seriously considering the following technology:
(From Toronto Star)
A Collingwood-area township has an ambitious plan to start addressing Ontario's twin shortages - landfill space and electricity.
Southgate Township officials announced yesterday they have a deal with a private company to build a gasification facility that cooks garbage, producing a gas, that can be turned into electricity.
...
Ontario is in the midst of a waste disposal crisis, with municipalities and businesses sending nearly 4 million tonnes of garbage to Michigan each year because there's nowhere to put it here.
Ontario also doesn't have enough electrical generating capacity and faces the prospect of brownouts and buying expensive imported power.
These two problems, combined with community opposition to building new landfills, has municipalities starting to look at incinerators and other thermal technologies.
...
The gasification proposal in Southgate is similar to incineration. Instead of an open flame, the technology the company, Greey CTS, wants to use cooks garbage at 550 Celsius in an oxygen starved environment. This makes it more efficient and environmentally friendly, they say.
The gas and steam produced can generate enough electricity to power thousands of homes.
Sounds good, doesn't it? Auckland has serious power problems (thanks to bureaucratic intervention) and a million people must generate a huge amount of waste. Two birds with one stone. And it really is clean... Check out this article on Wikipedia about the gasification technology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasification
Isn't human ingenuity great! :)
But wait, back to the Toronto Star article...
But there are major hurdles to overcome before Southgate will be able to turn the deal they announced into reality.
Southgate wants to have the 24-tonne-a-day demonstration plant running within a year, but to do that the Ministry of the Environment needs to waive the lengthy environmental assessment process. The province can chose to do this given the small size of the plant.
In addition to getting speedy approval for a demonstration facility, Micek also hopes the province will allow them to build the 400-tonne-a-day plant without undergoing a full environmental assessment, once they see how well the demonstration facility works. That would mean they could be building the full size plant in two years, he said.
That plant could handle 254,000 tonnes of waste per year, or 6.35 per cent of the waste currently being shipped from Ontario to Michigan.
In theory, the province can waive the requirement for an environmental assessment but it's never been done for a waste proposal, said John Steele, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment.
Because Ontario is in desperate need of waste disposal options and more electricity, these kinds of projects should get speedy approval, Micek said.
So far, that hasn't been the experience of other municipalities seeking garbage solutions.
Bloody bureaucrats! :-/ Sounds familiar doesn't it? Once again, progress hampered by busybodies. Productive people should not have to ask permission from the unproductive to produce (See Ayn Rand).
You know, one of these days, all you honest, hard-working, productive people out there will get pissed off enough at these parasites, and finally tell them to scuttle off. Well... I can hope, can't I? :)
Links:
Auckland power line proposal rejected
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3650173a10,00.html
TVNZ - Pylon delay to hit investment
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411749/707651
Toronto Star - Could trash power your home?
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1146088214905
PhysOrg - Ontario township to get gasification plant
http://www.physorg.com/news65371524.html
Wikipedia - Gasification
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasification
This from Stuff:
Transpower's plan to build a $754 million transmission line between Auckland and the central North Island by 2010 has been rejected by the Electricity Commission.
...
The commission's rejection was applauded by New Era Energy, the lobby group for landowners affected by the proposed 200-kilometre, 400-kilovolt line between Taupo and South Auckland. They called on Transpower chief executive Ralph Craven to resign.
It also pleased consumer group Sustainable Energy Forum, which believes newer technologies will make a big transmission line redundant.
Rest here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3650173a10,00.html
Electricity Commission? State-owned enterprises? The possibility of confiscation of property rights for building new power lines? I don't understand how people can blame privatisation of the electricity market for our power woes. Admittedly, I am no expert on the electricity industry, but this doesn't sound like a privatised electricity market to me! It sounds like a bastardised, semi-privatised Frankenstein's monstrosity.
Bloody bureaucrats!
At least, the land-owners in Waikato are happy. Even though their property rights were almost violated, their property is safe, for now. And that's a good thing.
Personally, I'd like to build a nuclear power plant in the Kaipara area north of Auckland, but knee-jerk, nuclear-free New Zealand would never allow that to happen. Perhaps the electricity industry should start seriously considering the following technology:
(From Toronto Star)
A Collingwood-area township has an ambitious plan to start addressing Ontario's twin shortages - landfill space and electricity.
Southgate Township officials announced yesterday they have a deal with a private company to build a gasification facility that cooks garbage, producing a gas, that can be turned into electricity.
...
Ontario is in the midst of a waste disposal crisis, with municipalities and businesses sending nearly 4 million tonnes of garbage to Michigan each year because there's nowhere to put it here.
Ontario also doesn't have enough electrical generating capacity and faces the prospect of brownouts and buying expensive imported power.
These two problems, combined with community opposition to building new landfills, has municipalities starting to look at incinerators and other thermal technologies.
...
The gasification proposal in Southgate is similar to incineration. Instead of an open flame, the technology the company, Greey CTS, wants to use cooks garbage at 550 Celsius in an oxygen starved environment. This makes it more efficient and environmentally friendly, they say.
The gas and steam produced can generate enough electricity to power thousands of homes.
Sounds good, doesn't it? Auckland has serious power problems (thanks to bureaucratic intervention) and a million people must generate a huge amount of waste. Two birds with one stone. And it really is clean... Check out this article on Wikipedia about the gasification technology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasification
Isn't human ingenuity great! :)
But wait, back to the Toronto Star article...
But there are major hurdles to overcome before Southgate will be able to turn the deal they announced into reality.
Southgate wants to have the 24-tonne-a-day demonstration plant running within a year, but to do that the Ministry of the Environment needs to waive the lengthy environmental assessment process. The province can chose to do this given the small size of the plant.
In addition to getting speedy approval for a demonstration facility, Micek also hopes the province will allow them to build the 400-tonne-a-day plant without undergoing a full environmental assessment, once they see how well the demonstration facility works. That would mean they could be building the full size plant in two years, he said.
That plant could handle 254,000 tonnes of waste per year, or 6.35 per cent of the waste currently being shipped from Ontario to Michigan.
In theory, the province can waive the requirement for an environmental assessment but it's never been done for a waste proposal, said John Steele, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment.
Because Ontario is in desperate need of waste disposal options and more electricity, these kinds of projects should get speedy approval, Micek said.
So far, that hasn't been the experience of other municipalities seeking garbage solutions.
Bloody bureaucrats! :-/ Sounds familiar doesn't it? Once again, progress hampered by busybodies. Productive people should not have to ask permission from the unproductive to produce (See Ayn Rand).
You know, one of these days, all you honest, hard-working, productive people out there will get pissed off enough at these parasites, and finally tell them to scuttle off. Well... I can hope, can't I? :)
Links:
Auckland power line proposal rejected
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3650173a10,00.html
TVNZ - Pylon delay to hit investment
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411749/707651
Toronto Star - Could trash power your home?
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1146088214905
PhysOrg - Ontario township to get gasification plant
http://www.physorg.com/news65371524.html
Wikipedia - Gasification
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasification