Renewable Energy in Sydney

A master plan called “City of Sydney Decentralized Energy Master Plan---Renewable Energy” is published in 2012. In this master plan, it introduces the target about renewable energy used in the 2030 in city of Sydney. There are some main targets in this plan:

l  Renewable electricity can provide 30% of electricity used in the city of Sydney.

l  60% of the city’s 30% renewable electricity target can be met from renewable energy within the local government area.

l  Renewable gases can replace 100% of the natural gas used to supply the city’s planned trigeneration work.

l  Renewable energy can reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the entire local government area by 37% based on 2006 levels.

Figure 1 City of Sydney LGA Renewable Electricity Contribution to 30% Target

From figure 1, it shows the components of entire energy system changes. Many new energy resources will be added into energy system to supply power for city of Sydney. There will be 30% of total energy supplied by renewable energy in 2030. It can reduce a large amount of greenhouse emissions generation.

For meet these targets, several kinds of renewable energy will be used and built in Sydney before 2030. The picture below shows a brief process about this system.

The whole energy system is combined with large/micro-wind turbines, solar energy system and renewable gas from waste injected into the gas grid. Among these new energy sources, the key technologies considered in this Master Plan have been analysed across different contexts and scales. There are many opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions based on currently available and proven technologies that can be realised by 2030.

For the part of solar energy, it can be used in many areas. There are solar hot water system, solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar thermal.

Besides these kinds of energy resources, there are some newest energy may be used in 2030. The first is the geothermal energy. And another is tidal energy.

After using these several renewable energy, I believe that the city of Sydney will be a sustainable urban area. If all the targets can be achieved in 2030, the city of Sydney will be a leader as a model in the world. 

Reference:

1. Kibert, C. 1994. Establishing Principles and a Model for Sustainable Construction. in Proceedings of the First International Conference on Sustainable Construction, ed. C.J. Kibert. Tampa, FL, November 6-9. CIB TG 16.

Be sustainable: To solve Urban Heat Island Problem

The rapid development of urbanization brings significant benefits to residents and government. But there are many problems occur with this process. Among these problems, the urban heat island is a serious one. An urban heat island (UHI) is a city or metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities (Wikipedia). The main cause of the urban heat island effect is from the modification of land surfaces, which use materials that effectively store short-wave radiation. This a long term effect in the urban areas. And it will have huge negative impact on environment and human health. As the aim to be a sustainable city, this problem should be solved.

At the beginning, we should know the factors that cause UHI. There are four main factors that influence the UHI. Firstly, Man-made heat source is one of main factors. It includes industrial boiler, vehicle and other kinds of heaters. These machines consume a lot of energy and generate a large amount of heat into atmosphere. Second factor is the effect of moisture. Because there are many buildings in the urban areas, the wind speed will be low. Moreover, wind can take moisture, and the heat capacity of water is high. When wind speed is lower than 6 m/s, the UHI will occur. The rest factors are air pollution and decreasing green field.

When we know the factors which may cause UHI, we can focus on these fields to solve this problem and to build a sustainable urban city.

First of all, the most important method is to increase the green field. The research illustrates that the more green-field is, the lower intensity of UHI is. When the green field covers more than 50% of total urban areas, the UHI won’t happen. Second method is to reduce heat generation into atmosphere. This can be solved by using renewable energy or clean energy like solar or electric. In addition, to control the air-condition use rate is a useful way to reduce effect of UHI. Finally, it needs the government to design well. For example, there is no need to make all tall buildings in one area, it will easily cause UHI.

In conclusion, a sustainable city should meet the entire standards as it called. Because the urban heat island impact on environment and human health, we have to solve this problem as soon as possible. The residents and government should do their efforts to build a sustainable and make the city better.

Reference:

Newman, P.W.G. (1999) Sustainability and cities: Extending the metabolism model, Landscape
and Urban Planning, Vol.44, 219-226. 

Love Food Hate Waste

Recently I have read a program called Food Waste Avoidance Education. This is a program set by NSW government, the office of environment & Heritage. And it builds on the Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) successful program with $ 1.4 million funding (NSW government, 2014). Moreover, the aim of this program is to rise reduce the amount of edible food disposed of in NSW. After reading this program, I think deeply in this problem. Do we really waste a lot on the tables?

From the figure above, it shows the annual food waste by region. In the developed counties, the people waste more than that in developing counties. And more than 100 kg per person a year is also a surprise number. This is really a big number and a large amount of food waste.

These two pictures show the dairy and cereals loss in our daily life. The data still surprise me. Why we generate such food waste and we even do not aware of it? The problem may be our bad habit. In addition, government also has responsibility for this situation. I think that we should build sustainable table in our daily life.

According to the data from “The Sustainable Table”, up to 60% of our personal eco-footprint is embodied in the food that we buy. And the concept of sustainable table can guide people to reduce their waste on food. The Sustainable Table is a collection of recipes and stories from notable chefs, farmers, producers, winemakers, gardeners and everyday people who are reducing their impact on the environment by altering their food choices. These inspiring people eat seasonally, shop locally, buy organic, reduce food waste, purchase ethically and make backyards and public spaces productive (The sustainable Table, 2012). Under this concept, people will know how many calorie they should get per day and what kinds of food is suit for them. It can reduce food over-intake and waste. On the other hand, it is also good for health.

To sum up, with the sharply increasing modern pace of life, more and more people ignore their behavior on food. And the food waste becomes a serious in many urban cities. It is time to solve this problem. The government should do more in education about food and their behavior on food. The sustainable table is a great concept which deserves to spread. It is not only good for health, but also good for the environment.

Reference:

1. Kinlaw, D. 1992. Competitive and Green: Sustainable Performance in the Environmental

Clean Energy Car: The electric-car revolution

The first motor car was invented in 14 May 1886. Karl Benz had finished the first automobile and was ready to test drive. After that, motor car went into our lives. Nowadays, it becomes a useful tool for transportation. However, most of cars still use fossil fuel which is same as 100 years ago. It takes a significant negative impact on environment. Due to the problem of energy shortage especially in fossil fuel, many companies begin to invent an electric-car instead of traditional energy car. In this background, a car called “Tesla” is invented. And it becomes the most popular car in recent years.

There are many advantages of electric-cars. Firstly, compared with traditional energy car which use fossil fuel, the electric-car won’t generate huge amount of greenhouse emissions. Because the main energy for the electric-car is electric, the car owner can charge the battery in car at home. For example, Tesla can charge with a special cable quickly. And they can have this service either in a service center or at home.

Secondly, to maintain this kind of car is also simple and easy.  Because it does not need any machine oil, it can reduce the secondary pollution for the environment. Some opponents may argue that the electric-car cannot run long way compared with traditional energy car. But the fact is that the total kilometers of full energy electric-car is same as that of traditional energy cars. Finally, because the structure of electric-car is much simpler than traditional car, it is cheaper and uses less material. It is also a way to save nature resources due to the large demand and needs of cars.

Let’s still use Tesla as a example. From the picture above, it clearly shows the whole structure of electric-car. The main components only have wheels, battery and electro-motor. Thus, it won’t waste a lot of resources.

To sum up, although electric-car is a new technology which becomes popular in recent years, I believe that it will be a tendency in the future. Because of its environment friendly and using sustainable energy characters, many counties and regions may have interesting in it. It is recommended that government should encourage people to buy electric-car instead of traditional energy car for the concern about the local environment. 

Reference:

[1] Clements-Croome D-J. Creating the productive workplace. Spon Press, 2000.

[2] McDonough W. New Scientist, 20 March 2004. p. 46–9.

Environmentally Sustainable Building aterials

Building and construction industry brings significant profit to the society. However, it also has a huge negative impact on the environment because of its unsustainable materials. Moreover, some of building materials even are toxic which may cause serious disease for human beings. Thus, the concept of sustainable building materials is proposed. In this concept, the benefits range from conserving resources to reducing environmental impacts, improving environmental quality and accruing subsequent savings through improved productivity and waste reduction (Building management). In this blog, it will focus on the benefits of sustainable building materials. And the details and characters of green building materials which used in our life also will be introduced.

A building will consume large quantities of materials in the construction, renovation, maintenance and operation. All of these materials are taken from nature. As the increasing population growth and the process of urbanization, building and construction consume about 3 billion tons of raw materials per year (Roodman & Lenssen, 1995). It accounts 40% of total global raw materials use approximately. In this huge amount of materials, the transformation, use and disposal of them all have negative impact on the local environment. For example, it may cause air pollution and solid waste problem. Thus, the environment sustainable building materials become an important solution to solve or reduce the impact on environment.

Figure 1

From the figure 1, it shows that there are two main streams to select the green building materials. The first stream is to use natural resources more efficiently and recycle the waste materials for reuse. The second stream shows the green building materials which can contribute to safe and healthy, indoor air quality etc. These kinds of materials won’t generate toxic materials or pollution to the air, water and solid. For instant, a new sustainable building material called wool bricks are recently used in some buildings. These wool bricks are same as the name it shows. Simply by adding wool and a natural polymer found in seaweed to the clay of the brick, the brick is 37% stronger than other bricks, and more resistant to the cold wet climate often found in Britain. They also dry hard, reducing the embodied energy as they don’t need to be fired like traditional bricks (Joe Peach, 2010). It is non-toxic and using abundant local materials. Another example is the sustainable concrete. Because concrete is the largest amount which will be used in a building, it seems that it could be more sustainable to reduce the ecological footprint. For the sustainable concrete, more sustainable forms of concrete exist that use recycled materials in the mix. Crushed glass can be added, as can wood chips or slag – a byproduct of steel manufacturing. There are many other new sustainable building materials used in some urban cities, it will bring significant benefits for local environment and human health.

In conclusion, although some opponents argue that the sustainable building materials are expensive, we can ignore its positive impact on the environment. It is recommended that government should encourage building companies to use environment sustainable building materials. 

Reference: 

[1] Westbury PS. The value of innovation. The Journal of The Institution ofStructural Engineer 2004;82(1):33–7.

Urban Agriculture and Sustainable Cities

Urban agriculture is a new concept which is after the development of industrialization and urbanization. Due to the sharply increasing number of population in urban areas, the urban environment becomes worse and worse. Therefore, residents have realized that the quickly extending of urban areas will have negative impact on whole society. In this blog, it will focus on the advantages and challenges of urban agriculture. Also, the characters and definition of urban agriculture will be illustrated.

Because the world is increasingly dominated by cities, the international community is beginning to address the issue of urban sustainable (Tjeerd Deelstra and Herbert Girarder, 2004).

The programmer started in Rio with Agenda 21 and continued at the UN city summit in Istanbul. About 180 nations and states signed the plan about sustainable development principles and all of details. In this programmer, the definition of urban agriculture is ------the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around a village, town, or city. Urban agriculture can also involve animal husbandry, aquaculture, agroforestry, urban beekeeping, and horticulture. These activities occur in peri-urban areas as well. It means that almost counties believe that cities use too much resource and generate too much waste. Thus, urban agriculture will play a vital role in the future sustainability of cities.

There are many advantages of urban agriculture. Firstly, for the part of society, it gives direct links to food production. People can buy the vegetables which grow in local area. Thus, the price will be lower than before. Moreover, it will create many employment opportunity and increase the income. Secondly, for the part of environment, the most important thing is that it can help to clean air and rain water. In addition, the crops which grow in urban areas can help to stop erosion and topsoil removal. Thirdly, for the economic, it creates a better local economy that does not rely on food from far away.

Besides of these advantages of urban agriculture, it still has many disadvantages and challenges. First of all, potential diseases may be spread by urban farming activity such as cholera, dysentery and zoonoses (Jac Smit, Joe Nasr, 2001). Secondly, if not practiced properly, urban agriculture can indeed be both unsanitary and polluting. For example, vegetable irrigation with untreated wastewater from Chilean peri-urban farms resulted in a few cases of cholera in 1992 because the vegetables were not cooked. This problem also happened in Peru. These cases tell us that urban agriculture needs to be managed well in many aspects.

In conclusion, although there are some disadvantages and challenges of urban agriculture, it is still a considerable design for many urban cities. If government can manage and design in a right way, the urban agriculture can benefit a lot for the whole society and local environment. 

Reference:

1. Quanjel EMCJ, Zeiler W, Ken Yeang. Designing with nature. Federation ofEuropean Heating and Air-Conditioning Associations (REHVA) Journal 2003; 13–7.

2. Anderson, J. (2001a). Ripples in the pond: Water recycling and integrated water management. Water 21, Aug 2001, pp 16–21.

3. Cole, C. and Deans, G. (1994). From effluent to power: A major recycling initiative by Hunter water and Pacific power. Proc RWCC 4th NSW Recycled Water Seminar, Newcastle, May 1994, 28–35.

Sustainable Transportation

In the process of development of human society, the limited resource is a main factor which restricts the development. Due to the sustainable development guideline, people realize that we have wasted much resource in the past. In recent decades, there are many changes in transportation. The number of vehicles increases sharply in the world.

For the first question---what is sustainable transport? The answer is that it does not use or rely on dwindling natural resources (Michael Evans, 2011). Instead it relies on renewable or regenerated energy rather than fossil fuels that have a finite life expectancy. For this reason it is said to have a low or a negative effect on the environment since it makes use of energy sources that are sustainable.

Moreover, vehicles are useful tools which can help people do many things. In addition, the transportation is also an economic basis of a country. Because of these reasons, it is important to develop a sustainable transportation system. In this blog, it will illustrate what is sustainable transport. And the advantages of sustainable transportation also will be talked about.

After we know the definition of sustainable transportation, it is necessary to know how to meet this target. There is a figure show the traffic forecasts in the future.

Figure 2. Global ground passenger and freight traffic forecasts 2005-2050

Source: International Energy Agency: Transport, Energy and CO2, 2009

It is clear that the transportation plays a more and more important role in our daily life. It means that transportation will have huge impact on the society and environment. Because of this situation, there are some ways to make the transportation become sustainable.

Figure 3

Firstly, policy makers should set several rules to encourage people and company to accept sustainable transportation. Secondly, service provide is also important. It can guide people to learn how to use the sustainable transportation and even can help them to change their own cars or motorbikes to be sustainable. Thirdly, the most important part is the energy supply. In this part, energy companies should develop their technologies to provide much more sustainable energy, such like biofuel, solar power and hydrogen. These kinds of energy are friendly to environment and renewable.

There is an example in NSW about developing sustainable transportation.

In this plan, the government concerns about climate, energy, policy and the ability of transport. Although this plan is still on the process, I believe that this plan will work well and benefit for whole society and the local environment.

In conclusion, the concept of sustainable transportation will be a tendency in the future. There are many advantages of sustainable transportation such as environment friendly and effectively. However, this is still a plan in many cities. The government should do more efforts to make it become true. 

Reference:

[1] FYI. Sustainable building case study: key tower base remodel. City ofSeattle/D epartment of Design, Construction & Land Use, http://www.cityofseattle.net/civiccenter/Images/ktbase_Key-Tower-SECTION-B.pdf; 2000.

[2] Ken Yeang. The green skyscraper, the basics for designing sustainable intensive buildings. Munich, London, New York: Prestel Verlag; 1999.