Since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of mexico on April 20th, the estimated fallout has increased rapidly. BP initially claimed the rate of spillage to be around 1,000 barrels of oil per day but we are slowly coming to the realization that this will be one of the largest spills of all time. Whilst BP continues to attempt to downplay the media reaction, the Flow Rate Technical Group has upped the estimate of the flow rate to between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels every day. To put this in perspective the spill has already far eclipsed the Exxon Valdez disaster, previously the largest spill in US history. Instead, this flow rate is approximately equivalent to an Exxon Valdez sized disaster every single week.
We’ve put together the above graph to help visualize the extent of the spill. Current estimates of Deepwater Horizon put it between 2.1 & 3.7 million barrels, which mean some believe it is already larger than the largest historic spill from a well: Ixtoc I which took place place in Mexico in 1979. The graphic also shows how small the Exxon Valdez disaster was in comparison.
The largest ocean spill of all time took place during the first gulf war, when Iraqi forces dumped the oil from a series of tankers in the Persian Gulf in an attempt to prevent the advance of US marines. However, this is no longer stands that much taller and its looking increasingly possible that this could be exceeded.
The only larger spill in history was on land, in California, when the Lakeview Oil Company caused a huge underground oil reserve to erupt whilst searching for Natural gas in 1909. The resulting spill is estimated at around 9 million barrels, which sadly isn’t out of the question for the current spill. Hard to understand how BP exec Tony Hayward deems it acceptable to find time to sail whilst the fishermen of the Gulf remain rooted to shore.
1. Evidence of another oil plume has been found by the University of South Florida.
2. California takes the great step of banning plastic bags from retail stores and imposes a minimum fee on paper ones.
3. New study shows Arctic see ice is at its lowest point in thousands of years.
4. OpenPeak gets $52 million in funding for energy management products, with a focus on touch screen interfaces.
5. BP buys up the adds on Google for searches related to the oil spill to direct traffic to their website, rather than 3rd parties. Witness a simple search for “Oil Spill”.
My Emissions Exchange is a new market place that enables you to sell reductions you make in energy use as credits to people and organizations that are looking to offset their carbon footprint. The service works by tracking your energy bills and calculating any reduction in energy use that you manage to make. Savings that you do make can then be sold by My Emissions Exchange on your behalf or you also have the option of donating them to an organization of your choice.
The first thing to do when you sign up to the service is to set your baseline usage over the past 12 months. You enter your energy data manually on the site but once you do this you must ‘lock it in’, after which it can only be changed by MyEex staff. You will need to make copies of your energy bills and send them in to be verified. The process isn’t entirely fluid, but the verification of carbon credits is extremely important. False claims of carbon savings, e.g. when people tried to get paid for energy savings that would have happened anyway. This is the concept of additionality and is a challenge for all sellers of legitimate carbon credits.
Its also important that 12 months of data is used to create the baseline so that corrections can be made for seasonal variations. In other words, if you live in a cold climate you can’t claim you have reduced your energy in the summer just because you are using less heating than during the winter. In order to actually claim that an energy saving has been made, you need to demonstrate that your usage is lower in comparison to the same month from the previous year.
Much like the service EarthAid we recently reviewed, the next step is to go about reducing your energy usage. The site provides some tips and resources to enable you to do this. There is enough information to cover all the important basics which are where the most important savings can occur. They are also categorized and contain estimates of the amount of energy/monetary savings you can expect from them, which can help you prioritize your actions.
If you manage to achieve savings over the comparable month from the previous year, then comes the payoff. Once MyEEx verifies your savings they will certify and broker the trade. And how much can users stand to gain? Tami and Randy Wilson of Harrisburg, Pa received $17.50 for the metric ton of carbon dioxide that they saved, which would seem to compare reasonably favorably to market estimates. A recent study from the Environmental Protection Agency suggested prices between $13 and $26 indicating there should be demand for carbon credits available on the MyEEx marketplace. Of course, users also stand to benefit from reduced energy bills.
My Emissions Exchange is a for profit company and currently take 20% commission on trades. Project manager Paul Herrgesell believes the economic incentive is an important one, saying that MyEEx
“is a system that incentivizes you to save energy on a personal level and aligns with your economic interests”
Ensuring that energy savings are accurate and legitimate is a challenge that MyEEx will have to face. Verifying actual energy bills seems like a reasonable way to do this, but is still potentially vulnerable to some types of fraud. However, I don’t consider this to be in anyway insurmountable. There are many industries which have to cope with an inability to extensively audit at such a granular level. Instead, researching an appropriate quantifier is all that required. For example, if you can verify that 1 credit in 100 is fraudulent, then the market price for credits on the MyEEx exchange would just be 99% of the price on the worldwide carbon market.
Challenges aside, My Emissions Exchange is a very exciting prospect with the potential to be an industry disruptor. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the service develops and how the market at large reacts to what this company are doing.
Back since Google PowerMeter was first announced I had been excited to try it out. Initially PowerMeter was only available from Utility providers that had partnered with Google. Unfortunately the energy provider we use in our California office was not one of these and we started to consider switching just so that we could take PowerMeter for a spin. Then Google announced that the PowerMeter service would become available to those who use select energy monitoring devices, the first being the TED 5000. Great, I ordered one of these immediately, but too quickly to even read the small print which says that the TED 5000 will only work with 2-phase power supplies. Inevitably, when I checked ours I found it is a 3-phase system and thus incompatible. Of course, all of this only served to increase my anticipation.
So, when UK company AlertMe was announced as the second device partner, I finally got my chance to try out the elusive service. AlertMe’s energy monitoring gadget is designed to monitor in real-time how much electricity you are using. The system comes in two parts, the first being the ‘Meter Reader and Transmitter’. This consists of a clip that attaches around your main electricity line. Not an electrical connection though, it simply sits outside the wire’s shielding. The clip is connected to a transmitter which will send the meter readings wirelessly to the second part of the system, the ‘Nano Hub’. This gadget will receive these meter readings and via an ethernet cable will send your energy data over the web for you to access 24/7 from anywhere.
In addition to allowing you access to Google PowerMeter, AlertMe also provide their own dashboard to view your data, which is very functional. Below you can see the initial snapshot view of whats going on. You can see clearly your current electricity draw and a calculation of what it has cost you so far for the day. Your personal cost per KWHr and currency is fully customizable. The history feature is also quite detailed, you can view a graph of energy use for anywhere from one day to an entire year. It can also be downloaded as a spreadsheet (csv). Data is updated every 5 minutes so you can get a very detailed break down of your energy usage habits. For example, you can clearly see peaks in the graph when your heating kicks in or when you put the kettle on for your morning cup of coffee. (more…)
EarthAid is a brand new system designed to help you monitor your energy usage and encourage you to reduce it. They provide a database of energy saving tips and users who carry these out successfully will receive points for the energy that they save. This applies not just to electricity use, but both water and gas as well. The service ties in with your online account for your utility providers so will track your energy use automatically. Points can be exchanged for rewards from the partner network that EarthAid has set up. Usefully, they also provide information on the various tax incentives that are applicable. For example, if one of the actions you are considering is purchasing a new Energy Star qualified refrigerator they will link to the relevant tax rebates that you are entitled to.
Sign up is free, and the company makes clear that they intend to keep it that way. The first thing that you need to do is link your energy accounts. You can select your utility providers from a pre populated drop down menu and enter your login details. Obviously, your utility provider will need to provide online access to your bills, but from a few trials on their system it seems that the majority of providers do offer this. If your provider doesn’t allow this, I suggest you contact them because the sooner we can escape the black box of energy billing, the better. If you successfully link your energy bills then your data will be fed into EarthAid and you can monitor your energy usage, similarly to Google PowerMeter.
These days you can’t go anywhere without stumbling over someone who’s attention is deeply invested in their beloved iPhone. I’ve managed to avoid this trend so far (I’m an android), but I’ve managed to test out a number of green and environmental iPhone apps on my old iPod touch. Whether the ubiquity of these gadgets and gizmos is a positive for the environment is a debate we will save for a rainy day. There’s no doubt that a lot of additional electronic waste is produced, but there are undoubtedly situations where these items can be helpful, e.g. cutting down on travel needs or being used as an alternative to newspapers. With out further ado, let’s get to it:
CFL Light Bulb Savings Calculator
The CFL Savings calculator is a very simple app that will allow you to calculate just how much money you can save by switching energy intensive incandescent bulbs for CFL ones. CFL bulbs represent a far more energy and money sensitive option over traditional incandescent bulbs. Choose how many bulbs you have and your location, which it uses to provide the cost per kWHr and it will calculate your savings. You can also enter the cost of each bulb and the amount of hours per day you use them. The app is great as it makes it clear what a no brainer it is to switch to CFL bulbs.
Price: $1.99
Free Version Available?: No
3rd Whale’s FindGreen
FindGreen has been described as Yelp for the environment. Quite simply it is a guide-book to all the great environmental and sustainable resources that surround you. The app auto locates you using GPS and with 60,000 listings makes it a breeze to find anything from yoga studios to bicycle shops or organic restaurants in your vicinity. Features include the ability to submit new listings and rate existing ones. The ‘green tip of the day’ function is also a very nice touch.
Price: FREE
Free Version Available?: Yes
A Real Tree
The name really says it all for this incredibly straight forward iPhone app. Quite simply, when you purchase this app for $0.99, one tree will be planted in the real world. The tree will be planted in one of 12 countries that are currently fighting deforestation. All of these countries are located in tropical regions where the climate benefits from tree planting are maximized. When you purchase a real tree, or one for a friend, the app will furnish you with a ‘virtual’ tree (as pictured) which you can display proudly on your Facebook page.
Price: $0.99
Free Version Available?: Nope, just buy the tree!
Amazon Kindle for iPhone
Another simple, but effective app. This app from Amazon allows you to read the books you have purchased for your Kindle, Amazon’s popular eBook reader. Whilst the small size of the iPhone doesn’t really provide an optimal interface for reading it can be useful for reading a few pages on the go. The app will sync the page that you are on with your Kindle, so it is easy to pick up just where you left off. eBooks are set to have a big future in reducing the amount of paper we use and tools like these are important for making that transition.
Price: FREE
Free Version Available?: Yes
Clear Standards Carbon Tracker
The idea behind this carbon tracker is that it will use the iPhone’s in-built GPS system to track your movements and use this to calculate your carbon footprint. The limitation here with the iPhone is that you cannot run applications in the background, so you will have to have this app open, or there will be a fair amount of data to enter manually. If you can get over this hurdle, it’s a great tool to help you reduce your carbon emissions. It allows you to set monthly goals and motivates you to keep them each time you open the app.
We are giving away a free Sunforce Solar Panel to anyone who retweets this page. The Panel has an output of 1.8 Watts and can be used to top up your car battery. Simply plug it into the 12V cigarette lighter plug in your vehicle and it will immediately start charging your car battery.
For a chance to win all you have to do is retweet this article, or send out a tweet that contains “@PlentyWays” and a link to this page (http://bit.ly/rttQy) or any other page on our website.
For those of you who aren’t on Twitter (!) you can also write a blog post and link to us. Let us know by sending us a message. No more entries after midnight next Tuesday 6th October.
EarthAid is a brand new system designed to help you monitor your energy usage and encourage you to reduce it. They provide a database of energy saving tips and users who carry these out successfully will receive points for the energy that they save. This applies not just to electricity use, but both water and gas as well. The service ties in with your online account for your utility providers so will track your energy use automatically. Points can be exchanged for rewards from the partner network that EarthAid has set up. Usefully, they also provide information on the various tax incentives that are applicable. For example, if one of the actions you are considering is purchasing a new 
The CFL Savings calculator is a very simple app that will allow you to calculate just how much money you can save by switching energy intensive incandescent bulbs for CFL ones. CFL bulbs represent a far more energy and money sensitive option over traditional incandescent bulbs. Choose how many bulbs you have and your location, which it uses to provide the cost per kWHr and it will calculate your savings. You can also enter the cost of each bulb and the amount of hours per day you use them. The app is great as it makes it clear what a no brainer it is to switch to CFL bulbs.
FindGreen has been described as Yelp for the environment. Quite simply it is a guide-book to all the great environmental and sustainable resources that surround you. The app auto locates you using GPS and with 60,000 listings makes it a breeze to find anything from yoga studios to bicycle shops or organic restaurants in your vicinity. Features include the ability to submit new listings and rate existing ones. The ‘green tip of the day’ function is also a very nice touch.
The name really says it all for this incredibly straight forward iPhone app. Quite simply, when you purchase this app for $0.99, one tree will be planted in the real world. The tree will be planted in one of 12 countries that are currently fighting deforestation. All of these countries are located in tropical regions where the climate benefits from tree planting are maximized. When you purchase a real tree, or one for a friend, the app will furnish you with a ‘virtual’ tree (as pictured) which you can display proudly on your Facebook page.
Another simple, but effective app. This app from Amazon allows you to read the books you have purchased for your Kindle, Amazon’s popular eBook reader. Whilst the small size of the iPhone doesn’t really provide an optimal interface for reading it can be useful for reading a few pages on the go. The app will sync the page that you are on with your Kindle, so it is easy to pick up just where you left off. eBooks are set to have a big future in reducing the amount of paper we use and tools like these are important for making that transition.
The idea behind this carbon tracker is that it will use the iPhone’s in-built GPS system to track your movements and use this to calculate your carbon footprint. The limitation here with the iPhone is that you cannot run applications in the background, so you will have to have this app open, or there will be a fair amount of data to enter manually. If you can get over this hurdle, it’s a great tool to help you reduce your carbon emissions. It allows you to set monthly goals and motivates you to keep them each time you open the app.
