Hello all,
First of all I wish you all the best for a healthy, secure and very cooperative renewable energy new year and further future, with lots of opportunities to develop projects.
Thank you Jan-Willem and Dirk to share this video with us. (http://youtu.be/grZSxoLPqXI )
Hans Rosling is a great edutainer as he describes himself and his Gapminder foundation http://www.gapminder.org/ is a wonderful source of statistical historical data presented in Hans Rosling’s particularly attractive and comprehensible way.
Earth Overshoot Day fell on august 20th last year, indicating very clearly that there is no more space to grow out of the crisis, in view of the difference in average GDP particularly not for the wealthy industrialized countries, unless….”growth” is based on the one and only outside source we have: the sun. Going all solar means thinking of ecological food, renewable energy and materials that can be grown. These last ones offer a particularly interesting advantage. Used in construction they constitute a safe and verifiable sink for CO2 over the lifetimes of the constructions they are used for. That is quite a strong argument for the use of wood, straw, cork, wool, hemp, flax, celluloses as construction and insulation materials to not only avoid CO2 emissions but actually absorbing them.
Hans Rosling speaks about the moral obligation for the wealthiest 1 billion people to take measures against climate change themselves instead of demanding the upcoming, let alone the developing countries and third world countries, to abstain from wanting to reach similar living standards industrialized countries have reached. I can only repeat what I mentioned during our meeting in Luxemburg or what I have been sharing with many of you on the difference between measures against climate change (traded at less than 15 euros per ton) and avoiding the loss of local community resources (worth around 180 euros per ton at current international crude oil prices) to the purchase of fossil and nuclear fuels. Measures against climate change can be taken all over the world avoiding change locally, while keeping resources in our local community can only be done locally. While climate measures appeal to only a part of the population, keeping resources in local communities to support local development may appeal to a much wider range of people adhering to the whole political spectrum. While I certainly strongly support measures to avoid or alleviate climate change, I believe it might be good to at least use the economical and local development argument as well.
Even in a densely populated country in north-western Europe like Belgium energy consumption that is paid for only represents around 2% of annual solar irradiation. A feasibility study showed that going 100% renewable is not only feasible but also affordable. The upper estimate of the cost was put at 400 billion euros. At current crude oil prices the energy consumption represents an annual cost of 25 billion euros. So the payback time would be quite reasonable, particularly if the transition would be financed by citizens. In Belgium citizens have 250 billion euros on savings accounts hardly giving any return, so the money and the technologies are available.
100$/barrel > 75€/barrel
1 liter petroleum > 2,5 kg CO2 > 10 kWh
1 ton CO2 > 400 liter petroleum > 2,5 barrels (159 liter/barrel) > 4000 kWh > 187,5€
Both wind and solar have reached parity with fossil and nuclear in many places all over the world, even without financial support. So there are great opportunities for local communities that want to keep resources from leaving their economies. Not only can they earn money, going renewable will also allow them to harvest a whole range of values that cannot easily be translated into money: resilience, solidarity, kindness, peace, self-sufficiency, self-confidence, security of supply, local employment, a healthier environment,…
Kind regards and best wishes to you all, it is great working with you,
Dirk Knapen
Renewable Energy Sources COOPeratives
Citizen cooperatives for renewable energy
RE-connecting citizens of Europe – harvesting values
