For a quarter of a century, HusumWind has hosted one of the World’s largest wind power conferences. This year the conference was held in Hamburg. As might be expected, there were some hard feelings. A PR professional approached my table of North American journalists, in a Hamburg restaurant. He points out that while there are only around 60 wind turbines installed in the city, there are more than 800 in Nordfriesland (which Husum is part of) and 3,100 in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein (which Nordfriesland is part of). It did not take much to uncover the reasons for the switch in venues. More than 1,200 companies from 30 countries will be displaying their products and projects at this year’s event. Even the lady manning Husum’s booth admitted this was to large an event for Husum. Hamburg is the gateway for Germany’s offshore wind industry and a leading center for renewable technology.
It has been seven years since Cisco DeVries came up with what Scientific American would later call one of the top 20 “world-changing” ideas of the year. He was the Mayor of Berkeley’s Chief of staff. They were thinking about ways to hasten the adoption of solar technology. DeVries realized the breakthrough they needed was financial rather than technological. The $20,000 or $30,000 people needed to install a solar system was a hefty bill. He was looking for a way the city could help when a northern Berkeley neighbourhood asked to have their utility lines put underground. This improvement was to be financed through their property taxes. DeVries realized this was the vehicle that could finance the adoption of solar and other energy improvements. The Property Assessed Clean Energy (P.A.C.E.) program was born. There are many questions remaining about the events ahead. One of them is how did California First help bring PACE home?
North American cities are primarily designed for automotive traffic. There has been more attention to bicycles, buses and trains, but most people still look upon them as a poor person’s transportation. There is a much different model in Europe. In Germany, public transit is often the preferred way to travel.
The ECOreport reposts Mayor Derek Corrigan Speaks Against Kinder Morgan at a Rally to Protect Conservation Land on Burnaby Mountain
The City of Burnaby is trying to enforce a municipal bylaw to protect Conservation Land on Burnaby Mountain. The giant US oil company, Kinder Morgan, has begun clear cutting and drilling in preparation for boring through the Mountain to ship heavy tar sands crude oil from Alberta through Burnaby to China.
Jens Wieting of Sierra Club BC believes BC’s emissions are being seriously underreported. There are some bright spots in the province, like the city of Vancouver, but for the most part Canadian politicians are not dealing with the reality of Climate change.in the podcast below he talks about BC’s Need to confront Climate change.
