Posts by Alfie
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Envirologue: Too Big to Fail – Why…, in reply to ,
And solar technology has not reached its energy payback ratio to be economicaly viable for New Zealand conditions yet?
I can assure you that solar is viable these days -- to me it's a no-brainer to add solar panels to your home. Yet there are just over 5,000 installed systems in the country at the moment.
I have a modest 4kWh system down here in the south where we get less sun than many. I've saved $2,500 in the 18 months it's been operating and I'm looking at an 8 year payback. From that point all generated energy will be free for the following 15 years, probably more.
Living rurally we pay more for power than urban users -- currently a ridiculous 42.99 cents per unit. That certainly increases motivation and speeds up the payback. But users in sunnier climes would benefit from feeding more power back to the grid.
Honestly... every home should have solar.
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They have 5 dams and a wind farm.
I'd forgotten that Genesis inherited the Tekapo stations from Meridian as part of that levelling out of power companies. However their wind farm is really only a toy one (22GWh pa) and over 75% of their generation still comes from gas.
As a solar advocate I'm disappointed that at this stage solar generation only provides 0.1% of our electricity. Solar farms are becoming commonplace throughout the world, yet NZ still doesn't have a single one. I'd really like to see Genesis and the other power generators at least considering this option.
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Genesis will shut down the last two coal-burning generators at the Huntly power station in 2018. That will save them $20-$25m a year and effectively achieves 20% of the government's latest carbon emission target in one easy exercise.
Green Party co-leader James Shaw said Genesis' decision had highlighted how unambitious the Government's emission reduction targets were.
"If the Government's aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 11 per cent on 1990 levels by 2030, this move takes care of more than one fifth of that – and that's just one business representing only 40 per cent of the country's coal use."
New Zealand could (have) achieved the Government's target "sleep walking".
There's no mention of Genesis moving into solar or wind or anything remotely green or sensible.
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John Key is putting a positive spin on wealthy foreign investors buying NZ homes.
I go around the rest of the country and people say to me 'Can we have a few of those Chinese buyers in Wellington and other parts of New Zealand because actually we want our house prices to go up'.
Key maintains that Aucklanders just love foreign buyers because it's making them all rich. Ah yes... being rich. Apparently the main aspiration of most National voters.
As a homeowner outside Auckland I see more value in a fair and equitable society where young people are not condemned to rent for their whole lives.
I guess the sky must a different colour down this way.
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The announcement begins...
It's really quite bloody marvellous. Renowned journalist and broadcaster John Campbell is coming home to Radio New Zealand.
JC will present a new multi-media drive-time news show, Jim Mora will stick to The Panel and Mary Wilson (Checkpoint) has been "promoted to a senior news management role" to make way for Campbell.
The new show debuts in September. Good on ya RNZ.
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Leaders of countries are usually remembered for their big decisions.
When it comes to climate change, David Cameron is determined to get rid of all the green crap, Tony Abbott intends to kill Australia's renewable energy sector and our own government is pussyfooting about in the hope of some yet-to-be-invented miracle technology might save us all.
So it was refreshing to hear President Obama announce his Clean Power Plan yesterday. That requires US power plants to cut their carbon dioxide emissions to 32% below 2005 levels by 2030 and encourages investment in clean energy technologies. It will also serve the fracking industry with a well-deserved whack.
Remember the agreement Obama reached with Chinese President Xi Jinping late last year --- the world's two biggest polluters are making the right noises. Obama's latest announcement takes this a step further.
Note that 2005 rather than 1999 (Kyoto) levels are being used as a reference and Obama is bound to strike a lot of resistance from the powerful US coal industry. Even so, coming from the world's most powerful man, this initiative is great news.
What a pity our small, once-green country didn't take the initiative on climate change when we had the chance. We could have provided an example for the rest of the world. Now that would be a legacy any politician could be proud of.
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Tim Groser's office in New Lynn has been modified.
Photo - NZ Herald -
Legal Beagle: Cameron Slater: computer hacker?, in reply to Thomas Lumley,
If you use someone else's password without their permission to log in to their gmail account, that's unauthorised access even if you also have a gmail account.
My interpretation of Slater and Ede's access in this case is the equivalent of someone putting a sticky note on their monitor which says Gmail password in large letters. While the account owner's incompetence obviously makes it easy for anyone to access their email, there comes a point when your actions become illegal. If you download sensitive information from the account and republish this or use it for commercial gain, that's surely illegal.
Slater earns a living from his site. Republishing data he could reasonably assume to be private and confidential could be seen as making commercial gain. In his video he states the numbers of credit cards in two files, proving that he downloaded and accessed that info.
Ede worked for the PM at the time. By knowingly downloading credit card data from his employer's opponents, he realised that he was breaking the law and his subsequent boasts about using dynamic IP addresses proves this.
The world is full of badly secured websites. While I would have expected the Labour Party to be a bit smarter in this regard, I have no doubt that both Slater and Ede knew they were downloading and using private information and I would like to have seen this matter tested in court.
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Excellent news!!!
The current round of TPPA talks have failed -- that's great for most New Zealanders. -
The Police have decided that was "no evidence of criminal offending" when Slater and Ede accessed Labour Party info. The comprehensive Police report manages to incorrectly spell both Hager (Hagar) and Tim Barnett's (Barnnet) names.
Attention to detail... fail.
