Author: Ben Debski

Twenty to forty percent of the water consumption in sewered cities is used for flushing toilets. This is often potable water brought to the cities at high cost. While the daily water use in industrialised countries ranges from 150 to 250 liters per capita, the volume of our excreta (urine and faeces) amounts to a mere 1.5 litres per capita per day, constituting less than one percent of the wastewater volume. But note what this one percent excreta contributes: the majority of the pathogens in wastewater, 90 percent of the nitrogen, 80 percent of the phosphorus and about 50 percent of the organic matter. These are in fact the major substances of concern regarding health problems and water pollution from sewage. Do we really need to dilute them in large quantities of water and spread pathogens to both waterways and groundwater?

Wastewater as a resource
Nitrogen and phosphorus are valuable plant nutrients, and phosphorus is a limited resource that the world will be running out of in some decades. A century ago these resources were recycled. In cities, the night soil was collected, sometimes mixed with peat and/or lime, and used as fertiliser. With the invention of the water toilet about 150 years ago, and development and installation of subterranean gravity sewer systems, these resources began being discharged to water, causing pollution. When Paris introduced flush toilets and sewers in the late nineteenth century the question arose, “What would happen with the vegetable production in the city outskirts?”

Do we need a 150-year-old technology?
We are still building and improving our sewer systems often at very high cost. But is it necessary to continue using a system developed 150 years ago? Would we have chosen the same water consuming system today if we had no sewers and were planning a new system? The paradox is that we are doing so, despite the interesting alternatives which exist and are emerging.  

Large parts of the world face water scarcity
and over 40 percent of the world population are in the situation where they have no sewers or no sanitary systems at all. Should they all be provided with standard flush toilets and large collecting sewers? Particularly in dry climates the water need alone will make conventional sewer systems very expensive and often not feasible.

Volvo engineers show the way
When Volvo was designing its new conference and recreation centre on a beautiful fjord north of Gothenburg they had to design a near zero-emission wastewater treatment system in order to obtain a building permit. Conventional systems were simply not good enough. The Volvo engineers then designed one of the first multi-apartment source separating systems in the world in the early 1990s. They used low flush toilets for collection of excreta, and combined this with a biogas reactor that received the excreta and grinded organic household waste. From the nutrient rich output from the biogas reactor they produced struvite – a mineral that contains both phosphorus and nitrogen, and returned this as fertiliser to neighbouring farms.

The Volvo engineers had understood that the majority of the pollutants were in our excreta. But they also realised that waste was a potential resource for agriculture. By collecting waste using a minimum of water they could both meet their discharge requirements and turn the pollutants into valuable resources – fertiliser and biogas!

To achieve this, the Volvo engineers were using a source separating system. Over the last two decades source separating technology has been developed mainly in smaller systems. This technology, however, is now ready for upscaling.

Will source separation work in a large city such as New York? Imagine a skyscraper where the water for toilet flushing has to be lifted hundreds of meters. If you could lift one litre instead of 10, large amounts of energy will be saved. By using modern vacuum toilets the flush volume can be reduced to about one litre. Vacuum toilets are already standard on all modern cruise liners, some having more than 1500 toilets. The collecting vacuum systems are becoming very energy efficient, making substantial water and energy savings possible. The development of vacuum systems in cruise ships have therefore paved the way for using such systems in any terrestrial building complex.

More than 90 percent water saving
More water could be saved if greywater is treated and recycled. Greywater is water from showers, sinks, kitchen and washing. Greywater is very low in nutrients and often meets drinking water requirements for nitrogen without further treatment. Commercial systems suitable for installation in the basement of large building complexes have been developed by German companies and are used, for example, in some new buildings in Arabian countries. In Oslo, the capital of Norway, greywater from 33 apartments at Klosterenga is treated to bathing water quality in a beautifully landscaped compact natural system in the courtyard of the building. The treatment area is partly utilised as a playground for children. The high quality effluent in the Norwegian system is made possible using a light∞weight aggregate especially developed for treatment wetlands. The excellent effluent quality allows direct reuse of the water for irrigation, groundwater recharge or for some in∞house applications. Water from such systems often is of better quality than many raw water sources currently used for drinking water production. In order to upgrade to drinking water, compact membrane systems designed for this purpose are already on the market. If treated greywater is reused for in-house applications more than 90 percent reduction in water consumption is possible. In arid areas this option is particularly interesting.

In addition, international research shows that source separating systems give an equal or higher reduction of pathogens than a traditional sewer systems, and a significant reduction in risk of exposure to pathogens. A major reason for this is that the resources are collected using a minimum of water and not mixed into the water cycle in the first place. This could therefore make an important contribution to the improvement of health particularly in the developing world, where conventional treatment systems are expensive, difficult to maintain, and simply not viable.

Leapfrog conventional systems
Source separating systems provide a decentralised treatment option. The systems can be implemented house by house or block by block in urban or peri-urban areas. The locally treated greywater, if not reused, can be discharged to the nearest storm drain, stream or river, thus reducing the need for secondary sewers that are the largest expense of a sewer system. In cities where secondary sewers are not yet established, such as Kuching in Sarawak Malaysia with a population of 0.5 million, substantial cost savings would be possible using a decentralised source separating system as compared to building new sewers in an existing city. Additionally, a source separating system would provide potential for large water savings as well as production of bioenergy and fertiliser for local agriculture. This is in fact a much more efficient and sustainable option, particularly as compared to centralised conventional options based on secondary treatment, where the nutrients would be lost to the sea. There are many cities like Kuching with no established sewer system. For such cities a decentralised approach would be worth considering. They have the option to leapfrog 150-year-old water consuming conventional technology and move right into a decentralised water saving system with potential for water and nutrient recycling and bioenergy production, provided they get access to this technology and are able to adapt it to their specific economic, environmental and cultural contexts. The challenge is now to find the most effective mechanisms to make such a shift in approach possible, and thus contribute to sustainable development both locally and globally.

Further information: www.umb.no

It’s corn planting time in the US Plains, and that means Kansas corn farmer Merl “Buck” Rexford is worrying about the weather – and hoping there is enough water.

Like corn farmers throughout the United States, Rexford hopes to grow a healthy crop yielding more than 150 bushels an acre this year. Much of his crop will wind up at a nearby ethanol plant. And that puts the 65-year-old Rexford at the centre of a bitter divide over biofuels, particularly corn ethanol.

Critics argue that precious water resources are being bled dry by ethanol when water shortages are growing ever more dire. Federal mandates encouraging more ethanol production don’t help. Proponents say corn ethanol for transportation
fuel is far better for the environment, national security and the economy than oil and the first
step toward cleaner fuel sources.

“We really have to ask ourselves, do we want to be driving with renewable fuels or with gasoline made from petroleum resources,” said Brent Erickson, executive vice president at the Biotechnology Industry Organisation, which backs ethanol. Corn ethanol’s future is already muddied by concerns that it requires a substantial amount of energy to produce and that heightened demand makes corn more costly in human food and livestock feed.

“Biofuels are off the charts in water consumption. We’re definitely looking at something where the cure may be worse than the disease,” said Brooke Barton, a manager of corporate accountability for Ceres, a group backed by institutional investors focused on the financial risks of climate change. Corn is a particularly thirsty plant, requiring about 20 inches of soil moisture per acre to grow a decent crop, but most corn is grown with rain, not irrigation. Manufacturing plants that convert corn’s starch into fuel are a far bigger draw on water sources.

Water consumption by ethanol plants largely comes from evaporation during cooling and wastewater discharge. A typical plant uses about 4.2 gallons of water to make one gallon of ethanol, according to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. The ethanol industry pegs that at about three gallons of water to one gallon of fuel.

Washington lawmakers and the White House have been encouraging the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel to help lighten the nation’s costly dependence on foreign oil. But the moves are meeting opposition from many groups who fear that population growth and climate change are combining in ways that will leave not only the United States, but the world, with too little water. Many ethanol plants are located in agricultural areas – close to the corn, but also close to other users who need a lot of water to operate, such as hog farmers and cattle ranchers.

“We’re headed in the wrong direction and this problem is not going away,” said Mark Muller, programme director at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. “This water issue is like the financial crisis… and I’m afraid something awful is going to happen.” The group says much of the Corn Belt stretching through Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota and Indiana has enough water for all, but water availability could challenge the ethanol industry in areas including greater Chicago, western Iowa and Nebraska, and generally west of the Missouri River.

“Water use could be a limiting factor (for ethanol) if we don’t introduce and support more water-saving technologies,” added the Institute’s Jim Kleinschmit. “Water is a worry,” agreed Heritage Foundation senior policy analyst for energy and and environment Ben Lieberman. “When we expand corn ethanol as we have with these federal mandates,” he said, “we are starting to see corn in more marginal areas that may need more irrigation. We are seeing increased water use not just for the processing plants but also the water in growing the corn.”

AAORA’s idea is to combine traditional fuel such as biomass or diesel with low-carbon solar power, during daylight, to generate uninterrupted electricity. The approach is a novel answer for handling the variability of solar power, a major challenge which otherwise requires expensive batteries or other forms of storage to provide round-the-clock power.

AORA is constructing its first hybrid solar power station on a half-acre plot in Israel’s Negev desert, where companies are competing to create more efficient technologies and tap into the multi-billion dollar clean energy market. The Negev plant, unveiled to the public this week at an energy conference in Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat, uses diesel for now. It will be online next month, producing 100 kilowatts, enough energy to power about 40 houses, said Pinchas Doron, AORA’s chief technology officer. The module looks like a smaller version of solar “power towers” being developed in the United States and Europe, with 30 large mirrors reflecting sunlight onto a generator on top of a 30 metre high tower. What is unique in AORA’s design is a gas turbine that can handle super-high temperatures and then work off external fuel when sunlight is unable to produce the necessary heat, Doron said. “It can shift seamlessly between using the sun as fuel and a conventional or another renewable fuel.”

That is important in off-grid locations where there is no alternative power source. And even where there is a grid, the lack of predictability of solar power is a problem, creating a headache for network operators.

Clean energy experts welcome the new design, though some say the technology has its limitations. “This was a logical step. In certain contexts, like remote places, this could be the way to go,” said Ken Zweibel of the Institute for the Analyses of Solar Energy in Washington, DC. “It’s dispatchable. You can’t have that from photovoltaic alone,” he said, referring to traditional solar panels. Israel Kroizer, president of California-based BrightSource Energy Inc, said his company’s steam turbine solar tower, which uses hundreds of mirrors, is more efficient than AORA’s hybrid gas engine for larger scale production of electricity.

BrightSource last week signed contracts to supply Southern California Edison with 1,300 megawatts of solar thermal power. One of the main hurdles was creating a generator that could handle concentrated sunlight that reaches nearly 1,000ºC, much hotter than any other power tower model, said AORA’s operations manager, Yuval Susskind. “Most materials melt in that heat,” Susskind said.

Air in a special receiver at the top of the tower capable of handling the high temperature is heated by the concentrated sunlight and shot into a combustion chamber, where it expands and powers a turbine, producing electricity. A separate route can bypass the solar receiver and use a secondary fuel to power the turbine when necessary, allowing the solar power plant to produce continuous electricity.

The process also creates a by-product of some 170 kw of heat, which can be used to heat water for homes or factories, Susskind said. “Because each of these units sits on just a half-acre, it can provide electricity in the most remote areas,” he said. “You can build one outside a village in Africa or have many together in a desert in California.” A 100 kw plant using traditional photovoltaic panels, which can have up to 15 percent efficiency, would need twice the land, AORA said, than its hybrid-solar plant running at 28 percent solar efficiency.

Susskind said no other plant has hybrid technology at the same scale and efficiency. AORA said the cost of their electricity is competitive with other solar technologies: between $3,500-$5,000 per installed kilowatt, meaning each 100 kw hybrid plant may cost up to $500,000. Total production costs depend on the price of the external fuel.

Over its first one hundred years in business, Acea has inevitably been influenced by the march of Italian history, starting from the first public lighting services for the streets of Prati – a district close to the Vatican City – to the assignment of responsibility, under the fascist regime, for the city’s water supplies.

Sustained growth
Acea makes no secret of its pride in the fact that its most important activities include management of Rome’s famous monumental fountains (the Trevi Fountain is just one that comes to mind). Over the years, and during the economic boom of the 1960s, Acea’s growth continued at a sustained pace.

This is despite the fact that it began to encounter its first significant challenges during this period, following the creation of what would become the nation’s energy giant, Enel. This was accompanied by nationalisation of electricity generation and distribution.

Acea, however, remained in step with the city’s urban and socio-economic development. With its 10,000km of aqueducts, abstraction equipment and pipelines, the Rome-based Company is Italy’s leading water company, meeting the needs of over 8,000,000 people, equal to approximately 14 percent of the Italian market. It manages the entire water cycle in Rome and other areas in Lazio, whilst also providing water services in the regions of Tuscany, Umbria and Campania, where it serves the province of Naples.

Since the 1990s Acea has also expanded overseas, where it is now present in Latin American countries such as Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Peru.

Acea is able to guarantee the quality of the water it supplies thanks to the expertise developed by a Group company, LaboratoRi, which was created in partnership with a leading British research centre: the WRC (Water Research Centre). LaboratoRi carries out periodic tests – almost one million a year – to be able to guarantee the excellence of the water supplied.

With regard to the sewerage network and the water treatment system, Acea Ato2 (which serves Central Lazio and Roma) manages approximately 5,650 km of network, with around 3,850 km serving municipalities outside Rome. This network collects and transports waste water from approximately 3.6 million people to treatment plants.

In the energy sector, on the other hand, Acea is Italy’s number two electricity distributor. In 2008 the energy injected into the network was 12,012.6GWh. Its main market is once again the capital city, where it manages an electricity distribution network of 28,200km and operates over 180,000 street lamps, lighting the city’s squares and roads. Over the decades Acea has developed expertise in the design, implementation and installation of artistic lighting systems. The many world-famous historical and artistic sites and monuments “lit up” by the Company include the Basilica of Saint Peter’s, the Coliseum, the Roman Forum and Villa Adriana.

AceaElectrabel
Finally, 2002 saw the birth of the joint venture, AceaElectrabel, resulting from an agreement between Acea and the Belgian company, Electrabel, one of Europe’s leading electricity companies. The joint venture led to the establishment of three new companies for electricity generation, the market sale of electricity and gas and trading in other fuels. AceaElectrabel immediately concluded national agreements, responding successfully to the challenges presented by liberalisation of the energy market, thanks to significant market shares in Tuscany, Umbria, Lombardy, Piedmont and Puglia.

In recent years the Rome-based utility has begun developing and building renewable energy plants. Acea currently produces more than 4.5 million kWh of solar energy a year from plants located in the Rome area. By 2012, the Company expects solar production to reach 30MW. Finally, Acea also produces 200MW of electricity from wind farms situated in southern Italy, in an area straddling the Molise and Campania regions. Acea operates in the Waste to Energy sector with two plants producing energy from refuse-derived fuel (RDF). During 2007 and 2008 the plants produced a total of approximately 320,000MW of energy.

“The sheer scale of dirty water means more people now die from contaminated and polluted water than from all forms of violence including wars,” the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said.

In a report entitled “Sick Water” for World Water Day, UNEP said the two million tonnes of waste, which contaminates over two billion tonnes of water daily, had left huge “dead zones” that choke coral reefs and fish.    

It consists mostly of sewage, industrial pollution, pesticides from agriculture and animal waste.

The report said a lack of clean water was killing 1.8 million children under five every year. Much of the waste came from developing countries, which dump 90 percent of their wastewater untreated.

Diarrhoea, mostly from dirty water, kills around 2.2 million people a year, it said, and “over half the world’s hospital beds are occupied with people suffering from illnesses linked with contaminated water.”

The report recommends water recycling systems and multi-million or multi-billion dollar water sewage treatment works”.

It also suggests protecting wetlands, which act as natural waste processors, and saving animal waste to use as fertiliser.

“If the world is to … survive on a planet of six billion people heading to over nine billion by 2050, we need to get smarter about how we manage wastewaters,” said UNEP director Achim Steiner. “Wastewater is quite literally killing people.”

Stuart Andrews says APP’s environmental commitment is increasingly about partnership, long-term planning – and tigers.

One of the world’s biggest paper producers claims it’s putting environmental issues at the heart of its corporate strategy. That’s quite a claim for a company regularly at the forefront of unflattering lobs from environmentalists. APP declares it has zero tolerance for illegal logging and has toughened its stance on a range of environmental fronts that travels some distance beyond ordinary compliance. “It is very hard to sum up everything that APP does in a few words,” says Stuart Andrews, “but when I look at the people involved in the business, the passion that exists within my colleagues, meet with the customers and look at the great projects with which we are involved in, personally I would take two strap lines: “caring for lives” and “a sustainable practice beyond compliance.”

APP is well aware, of course, of those environmentalists who doubt its commitment to environmental issues. “All our pulp fibre comes from verified legal origin, certified or recycled sources,” says Andrews. “Illegal logging is however one of the symptoms of poverty, and as the Indonesian Government works towards meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals, APP recognises that it also has its own part to play in this process, and by creating direct employment in forest areas we are also creating downstream jobs.”

Investing in the Environment
APP claims it continues to invest significantly in Indonesia, supporting education, skills, medical care, plus the establishment of community enterprises, environmental protection and disaster relief. “All of these efforts also help reduce the emotional burden that illegal logging imposes on legitimate commerce,” says Andrews.

That’s all very well and good. But how are all these ethical-sounding commitments actually enforced? “We have a very strict chain of custody implemented between our mills and the plantation forests,” claims Andrews. “Locally harvested fibre comes to our pulp mills only from our exclusive fibre suppliers and every truck we unload has to be registered and has verified legal origin documentation. In addition we use weighing stations to verify the quantity delivered with quantity received; we are even using digital photography and satellite image transmission so that the picture of stacked logs on a truck can be verified ‘like a fingerprint’ when it arrives at the pulp mill gates.”  

But huge hurdles and worries remain, not least of which is smoke and fire burning from land clearance. Forest fires are a naturally occurring phenomenon – as seen last year in California, Spain and Greece. Fires in, and near, heavily forested areas can be absolutely devastating – as well as a problem for global warming. “It is in no-one’s interest to have a fire,” continues Andrews, “so APP has had a strict no∞burn policy in place with its fibre suppliers for several years. Contracts with our suppliers forbid the clearance of land using fire, as well as other high-risk activities such as smoking and cooking with unsafe stoves.” Additionally there are fire prevention and fire management plans which include early detection and rapid response teams deploying watch towers, fire fighters and helicopters. APP also works with local communities with fire prevention and fire controlling training programmes, “including educational programmes on alternative ways to prepare land for community farming use,” says Andrews. “It is our goal to detect any new fire within two hours of it starting, and then to limit any damage to a burnt area of a maximum of one quarter of a hectare.”

A Delicate Biosphere
Meanwhile there are targets and initiatives to support. One such APP∞sponsored initiative focuses on the Giam Siak Kecil–Bukit Batu biosphere Reserve in Riau. This area holds one of the greatest treasures of biodiversity anywhere on the planet. “The reserve itself is home to about 80 villages of diverse culture, indigenous knowledge and traditions,” says Andrews. “These communities depend on the continued functioning of the ecosystem and the biodiversity in the landscape for their existence. The protected core area is over 178,000 hectares, and this is protected by a further 222,426 hectares of pulpwood plantation buffer zone, and an outer transition zone of over 300,000 hectares.” So how big is that? “I’d say roughly four and a half times the area of Greater London – so yes I would say ‘significant’.”

APP’s pulpwood suppliers contributed 72,000 hectares of land to the core area; this was land that connected two smaller conservation areas. Also the plantation buffer zone around the core area is actively managed and therefore able to better protect the delicate and bio diverse forest from illegal activities.

The core area of this biosphere reserve also contains a very important peat swamp area – and it was important to protect this unique ecosystem not only as a habitat rescue but also to ensure the sustainability of ecosystem functions in supporting lives surrounding it. “This peat landscape controls the water supply for the surrounding regions,” points out Andrews.

“The peat dome acts like a giant sponge that helps regulate fresh water flows and prevents seawater intrusion.” But what makes the area special or unique? “The diversity of habitats is vital. There are various elevation gradients, different soil types which include wetlands, peat swamp forests and alluvial bench forests. Data collected so far indicates that there are 189 species of flora here, of which 29 are listed by IUCN as endangered, vulnerable, near threatened, protected or less concerned species.” The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CTIES) also lists three rare orchid species found here. And this is before you consider the animals such as the Sun Bear, Tapir, Sumatran elephant, Sumatran tiger, Senyulong, Hornbill, and up to 26 types of fauna listed by CITES.

Tiger, Tiger
The Sumatran Tiger is a particular issue. Tigers need trees. So APP has helped establish a tiger sanctuary in an effort to encourage better co∞existence between humans and these magnificent beasts. “This is a land area of 106,000 hectares dedicated to this project,” says Andrews, “and The Tigers Conservation Working Group has become a multi∞stakeholder organisation.” Security of this sanctuary is enhanced by buffer pulpwood plantation areas to the south. Within and outside the sanctuary there are programmes to combat illegal logging and land encroachment, extensive tiger monitoring through radio collar and camera traps, and studies of food resources and methods to prevent human∞tiger conflict. This project is an ongoing commitment for APP, as are several other large projects, and many smaller schemes. In recent years in Indonesia, APP has been spending in excess of $40m a year on social and environmental programmes, though it is too early to state how much will spend in 2010. So there is a growing partnership of business, national and regional government, community groups and NGO’s involved in this UNESCO man and biosphere project.

APP certainly doesn’t pretend that such initiatives will change matters overnight. But such projects build on substantial existing environmental commitment to the area and biosphere. It’s time, energy and money very well spent.

Further information: www.asiapulppaper.com

Think for a moment about human waste. Most of us think of excreta as something we need to get rid of. What if we think about it as a resource – a way to fertilise a vegetable garden, an orchard or provide part of the energy needs for heating and cooking?

This is not a far-fetched scenario, but highly realistic according to scientists at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) in Norway, pioneers of environmentally safe solutions to organic waste and wastewater treatment.

Fertiliser for the world?
In developing countries, reuse of excreta can substitute 30-100 percent of current mineral fertiliser use. In developed countries the number is 15-20 percent, but can be increased through advances in agricultural practices. Our excreta is the source of about 90 percent of the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in wastewater.

These are the three major nutrients needed for plant growth. While they can be a resource in agriculture, they are currently pollutants in our waters. Thus recycling our waste provides a win-win situation of fertilising our agricultural soils and keeping rivers, lakes and seas clean.
 
At present China and Morocco have most of the remaining mineral phosphorus reserves. China, having evaluated their national situation, are ceasing their export. The European Fertiliser Manufacturers Association predicts demand to exceed production in the year 2040. Arno Rosemarin of the Stockholm Environment Institute envisions serious phosphorus shortages and escalating food prices within one to two decades.

As a consequence the Swedish government is the first country so far to decide to recycle 60 percent of the phosphorus from sewage by the year 2015.

Urine makes the difference
It takes 38MJ of electric energy to produce 1kg of nitrogen fertiliser. Every kilogram of nitrogen fertiliser we spread is equivalent to the energy in one litre of diesel oil. Trials show that yields comparable to mineral fertiliser can be obtained using urine.  Urine contains high amounts of nitrogen that naturally converts from the excreted urea to plant-available ammonia during the six months storage required by the WHO guidelines for “Reuse of Excreta and Greywater in Agriculture” to sanitise it. Urine also contains phosphorus and potassium and thus constitutes a nutrient source that is available wherever people live. In Bangalore, India, urine collected from 700-800 slum-dwellers fertilises banana fields producing 50 tons of fruit per year.

How can we collect the urine? A modern urine-diverting toilet is needed to separate and funnel the urine to a storage tank. Urine diverting toilets can easily be retrofitted in any building. Together with waterless urinals, such as those that are currently used with excellent results at the UMB, large∞scale urine collection is possible.  The urine can be collected by local farmers or used in your own garden after appropriate storage. Collection of urine in urban areas challenges the downstream handling system. For extensive use of large volumes dewatering or solidification is necessary.

Further challenges arise because medicinal residues are mainly excreted in the urine. Modern wastewater treatment plants do not remove pharmaceuticals efficiently, thus collection of urine would protect waters from these chemicals that are shown to have negative effects on aquatic biota. Soil has more potential to degrade pharmaceuticals than aquatic environments and provides a better option for final disposal. But the breakdown and potential assimilation of such chemicals in agro-ecosystems needs further study.

Another idea arises from the recognition that urine can be an important nutrient source for second-generation biodiesel production. At UMB, algae fed with urine have been shown to produce as much fatty acid and subsequent biodiesel as algae fed with mineral fertiliser.

Black water recycling 
In 1997 a first-generation recycling system, based on separate treatment of black water (urine and faeces) and water from kitchen, shower and washing (grey water), was built to serve 48 students at the UMB student dormitories. The system uses a modern and comfortable vacuum toilet system.
 
This system reduces water consumption by 30 percent, it nearly eliminates pollution and produces a valuable plant fertiliser and soil amendment product from the waste material. A liquid-composting reactor is used to sanitise the black water and runs with a net energy surplus in terms of heat. Today the scientists at UMB are pursuing anaerobic treatment for production of biogas from black water and other organic waste. Biogas has a higher energy quality than heat and can be used for cogeneration of heat and power or to power vehicles. Acknowledging the scientists’ activities, the university board decided to convert the entire UMB into a zero emission university and in 2008 the first building was retrofitted with vacuum toilets.

Eliminate secondary sewers?
In Oslo, the capital of Norway, a grey water treatment system serves 100 habitants of a low energy apartment building. The treatment system utilises technology developed at UMB and has produced an effluent that meets the European bathing water standards since its opening day in the year 2000. The effluent is suited for local discharge, irrigation or groundwater recharge. With such decentralised grey water treatment units and separate collection of the excreta, secondary sewers that constitute the most expensive part of a sewer system can to a large extent, be eliminated. As a consequence, more funds can be invested in treatment and recycling without increasing the total cost.

Appropriate sanitation for all
Our excreta is the main source of pathogens in wastewater. Open defecation and discharge of untreated wastewater into gutters, storm-drains or nearby streams introduce substantial amounts of pathogens into watercourses and wells. This is responsible for waterborne diseases killing more than three million people every year and reducing the quality of life for many more millions.

Nearly half the world population lack access to appropriate sanitation (i.e. an improved pit latrine is regarded as appropriate). The internationally agreed Millennium Development Goal for sanitation intends to halve the number of people without access to appropriate sanitation by the year 2015. With the current rate of progress, it is estimated that we will miss the goal by 700 million people. This will leave 2.4 billion people without proper sanitation in 2015.  Moreover 1.2 billion people, primarily in rural areas, will still have to practice open defecation.

Can we meet the need for sanitation by providing traditional flush toilets and sewers to the world? The answer is no. In many areas there is not enough water to sustain traditional toilets, not enough money to build sewers and treatment works, and not enough competence and interest to maintain such systems.

There are close links between unclean water, inadequate sewage treatment, malnutrition, poverty and premature death as well as low productivity in farming. If we are to deal with these vital issues touching at the heart of humanity and human rights there is a clear need for innovation as well as information and capacity building to implement sanitary systems to meet local needs.

Engineering programmes in water and sanitation focus on the design of sustainable systems to suit local conditions. A new international MSc programme; “Sustainable Water and Sanitation” developed in cooperation with universities in Nepal and Pakistan, target health and development in addition to decentralised, natural and source separating sanitary systems. Thus the students learn about a wide range of technical options in addition to traditional centralised sanitation. They learn about health challenges and risks. And, they are trained to engage all relevant stakeholders, consider local cultural and political contexts and overcome obstacles of inadequate institutional structures.

At a time when the focus of the world is as much on pressing, short-term issues such as economic crises and global regulations as it is on longer-term concerns such as climate change, it is important to reaffirm that smart grids are no longer buzz words for the future. They have already become a presence delivering unrivalled benefits driving efficiency and saving energy.

The smart grid has already started to impact our lives. The world’s traditional electrical network, simple and linear with centralised energy production and passive consumption, is undergoing an irreversible transformation to a much more complex, interconnected and interactive model.

All over the world and all over the electricity network, smarter solutions have been implemented which can balance supply and demand far more efficiently, connecting smarter, more active consumers to a greener and more intelligent energy grid.

Due to the steady upstream in smart grid technology, the world’s energy mix is continually evolving. In addition to traditional generation from nuclear, coal, oil and gas, the share of renewable power from photovoltaic, wind, hydro and marine energy is growing fast.

Part of the solution
While solar and wind farms have the capacity to generate significant power, they often operate at a 20-30 percent capacity, so the ability to effectively integrate these plants into the grid and manage instability is key.

For example in Italy, AES Sole, a global company that develops, finances, constructs and manages utility-scale solar farms across the world, started the construction of a large∞scale photovoltaic power plant. With an output of 38,5MWp the park consists of 573,100 solar panels and has the power generation capacity equivalent to the consumption of 18,000 homes (estimated 50,000 inhabitants). This installation will save 28,000 tonnes CO² compared to an equivalent fossil fuel plant and will have a near zero environmental impact as the site could fully be returned to farming activity and without any concern about potential hidden contamination.

Operating as a single contractor for the entire project, Schneider Electric proposed a single contract for the plant design, construction and commissioning which secured feed in tariffs with the short project completion. The solution gives a guaranteed plant availability of 99 percent for two years and commercial energy production happened immediately on the grid connection date due to an innovative solution of ‘full on load’ testing of the plant before operation.

Driving change
On the demand side of things, more efficient companies and active end-users are driving smarter demand to maximise the cost and environmental benefits from energy and company-wide efficiency.

For enterprises and public administration, ‘Active Energy Efficiency’ is the fastest, cheapest and most efficient way to reduce their energy bill and CO2 emissions while managing their business growth.

Schneider Electric’s headquarters in France is a perfect showcase of what active energy efficiency really means. In June 2011 it became the first site in the world to be certified ISO 500001 (the new energy management standard). Having divided the energy bill by four since moving to the site in 2009, a combination of intelligent systems, detailed measurement, strong process and engaged employees has enabled a regular year∞on∞year energy reduction of 5-10 percent, reaching 80 kWh/m² per year by end of 2012.

The general public are not passive and they represent an active part of the smart grid solution. Consumers look for competitive prices and also want to contribute to CO² emission reduction. They are ready to play an active role by controlling consumption, producing green energy, driving electrical vehicles to name but a few. Thanks to new information technologies homes can be equipped with ‘Active Energy Management Solutions’ that allow them to save up to 30 percent on their energy consumption, becoming even more efficient homes and contributing to the production of negawatts – the energy that we don’t use.

Supporting this booming evolution, Schneider Electric has recently become the first manufacturer worldwide to obtain ‘ZE Ready’ certification for Renault for its full EVlink electrical charging infrastructure range. ZE Ready is a comprehensive testing protocol designed to guarantee that internationally accepted standards will be implemented consistently and fairly among electrical vehicles and any charging infrastructure.

In France nearly 700 contractors have already been certified to install charging stations in residential homes and nearly 150 electrical equipment installers work with corporate customers and local communities to equip parking lots with charging stations that can handle energy management services.

Intelligence and communication are delivering value
The smart grid really happens with smarter interactions. Once customers are connected to the smart grid, efficient enterprises as well as efficient homes, they can take advantage of the new ‘demand-response’ systems that are now being tested around the world.

Demand-response is about adapting real-time consumer demand for electricity. It works by encouraging consumers to use less energy during peak hours, or to try to move the time of their energy use to off-peak times such as night time and weekends.

The business model is that of a virtual power plant. When demand rises, this virtual plant aggregates load shedding capacities, today mainly from electro-intensive users as well as decentralised production capacities. It then supplies the grid with this extra electricity to help manage the peak and the value is then redistributed among all users.

Highly supportive of this solution, Schneider Electric has just signed a partnership with French start-up EnergyPool. EnergyPool’s current customer pool already represents a peak-shaving capacity of over one percent of today’s peak – and the pool is growing incredibly quickly as energy prices increase and public money for new generation build decreases. ‘Demand∞response’ could shave 10 percent off the peak usage according to some analysts – making huge savings on new generation investment and on CO2 emissions.

The smart grid equation
Smart grids are now on the way to success and every one is part of the future energy solution. We at Schneider Electric believe everyone has a role to play. Utilities drive smarter supply to manage the increase in demand, overcome network complexity and address environmental concerns. Energy efficient companies and active end users are driving smarter demand to maximise the cost and environmental benefits of greater energy efficiency.

Smarter demand, coupled with smarter supply and demand∞response will continue to make the smart grid a reality, and at Schneider Electric, we are helping customers to be smart grid∞ready everywhere and at every level.

On the Eastern edge of Mexico City lies a sight unseen throughout Europe: garbage – 60 million tonnes of it – stretches off into the distance and over the horizon.

Toxic streams, polluted with heavy metals, meander through a landscape of trash mountains reaching up to 13 metres in height. Poisonous smoke, generated by the open burning of refuse, fills the air. This is Bordo Poniente, the world’s second largest garbage dump.

Estimates of its size vary, depending on whom you ask; city officials have quoted 420 hectares, while some bloggers say it is closer to 1,000. Despite its enormous size, this massive wasteland struggles to contain the 12,500 tonnes of largely unsorted trash that are dumped on the site every day.

When it rains, black rivers flow out of the garbage forming toxic pools of pesticides, heavy metals, and other poisons. These waters inevitably make their way to the nearby canals and lakes, polluting Mexico City’s water sources. When it is not raining, however, Bordo Poniente’s inhabitants and labourers fear a different phenomenon. In the dry seasons the methane produced by layers of decomposing waste can cause violent explosions and raging fires that are difficult to extinguish.

Currently Bordo Poniente emits two million tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, accounting for 15 percent of the city’s emissions – equivalent to about 500,000 cars. About one million tonnes of these emissions are carbon dioxide (CO2), while the remaining half comes from the methane that causes the violent explosions. Yet, methane is not only volatile; it is also a powerful greenhouse gas, with a warming potential 20 times more than CO2. Unlike CO2 though, its stored energy can be harnessed, inciting scientists and entrepreneurs around the world to finding creative ways of exploiting it.

In New Jersey, where the capturing of methane from landfills is becoming commonplace, a single 240∞hectare landfill produces 20MW of power, enough energy to supply roughly 16,000 US homes. If Bordo Poniente were to use the same technology, a back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that it could produce up to 35MW, powering some 40,000 local homes. Mexico City has in fact begun preparations to capture some of the methane from Bordo Poniente, which it will use to power the local area. The city has also commissioned a 300-hectare recycling and integrated energy centre (CIRE), costing an estimated $140 million. According to the City’s Waste Commission, the centre will burn 45 percent of Mexico City’s trash by 2012 converting the landfill into a giant ‘waste-to-energy’ (WtE) plant.

According to a recent cost benefit analysis in Britain, WtE plants are more cost-effective than their coal counterparts. Predictions suggest that electricity produced from these plants could generate 3.1 percent of Britain’s total electricity by 2030. Although the costs to install WtEs are large, these are likely to be reduced with appropriate technological transfer. Additionally, WtE plants are considered to be more socially acceptable than coal power plants and as well as lowering greenhouse gas emissions, their efficiency increases have proven to be quite profitable.

Cogeneration
WtE plants that integrate combined heat and power plants (or ‘cogeneration’) with traditional industries may require even greater initial investments, but are all the more efficient. Turning industrial waste into energy can earn carbon credits, diversify a factory’s output, and ease potential price fluctuations of the primary produce. Take, for example, the sugar mills in India who are leaders in the field of cogeneration and biomass energy; besides producing sugar, nearly one in six mills is a cogeneration plant. These plants generate electricity and heat using bagasse, the residue that results from crushing sugarcane. Apart from feeding this energy back into the plant, it is sold to the electricity grid, thus reducing production costs and creating an additional source of income.

However, as of now, these cases are rare examples. High initial investment requirements are only one of the reasons why WtE plants can face strong public resistance. Therefore, concerted political will is required for such plants to become commonplace, as is the case in some European countries (Sweden, Denmark and Germany). In Germany for example, combined heat and power plants were incentivised in order to make them commercially and politically viable.

Environmental controversy
Despite its advantages, WtE technology remains controversial, particularly at a local level. Back in Mexico City, the environmental group Greenpeace has criticised the CIRE plan, arguing that incineration would worsen air quality and release toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. Gustavo Ampugnani, Director of Campaigns at Greenpeace Mexico, claims that composting and recycling would “in fact save between three and five times more energy.” As a recent Friends of the Earth UK report explains, there are three main types of WtE plants: landfills with methane capture, incinerators, and plants that use anaerobic/aerobic digestion to breakdown waste. The report shows that composting or anaerobic digestion emits less greenhouse gas emissions than either incineration or landfills with methane capture.

Anaerobic digestion, in a nutshell, is the creation of gas from organic waste in biogas plants. Small-scale composite biodigester units that are suitable for installation in any household have proved to be particularly useful in remote areas lacking access to conventional sources of power, especially in developing countries. But, they are often associated with high capital costs and are still not completely viable energy substitutes. While governments have focused much of their efforts on expanding the reach and connectivity of conventional power grids, it may make more sense to instead improve these sources of locally generated power that fill the energy void in remote areas.

Looking at the problem from a policy perspective, for waste to energy initiatives to play a role in the low-carbon energy transition, an integrated policy framework is essential. Easing bureaucratic hurdles and planning directives, and creating an environment where local groups involved in small-scale waste to energy projects can pool resources, will greatly facilitate the expansion of WtE. Furthermore, technology transfer and financial mechanisms such as selling locally generated energy back to the grid will undoubtedly incentivise uptake. Finally, changing social perceptions on WtE possibilities may pose a big challenge but is essential. Countries like Denmark and Germany have seen marked success in fostering public acceptance and greater stakeholder involvement on the issue, yet other countries still have a long way to go.

Although proponents of Mexico City’s CIRE scheme stress its potential to generate thousands of kilowatts of power and to put the city’s waste management scheme in the same league as the likes of San Francisco, groups like Greenpeace show clearly that public opinion is not yet on its side. Nevertheless, it looks likely that the CIRE plan will go ahead regardless. Even if waste to energy cannot be a comprehensive solution to Mexico City’s waste management problem, if the plan does go ahead, it will at least reduce some of the trash mountains that currently populate the expansive wasteland of Bordo Poniente.

About the authors
Niel Bowerman is Executive Director of Climatico and Radhika Viswanathan is Director of Research.  Climatico is a network of academics and professionals providing independent analysis of climate policy.  

Lignite power plants belch dust and smoke into the air above the southern Greek town of Megalopolis, but residents resistant to environmental arguments have blocked a scheme to build the country’s biggest solar energy project on a nearby hillside.

Local game hunters, angry that an earlier plan to grow a forest on the site was scrapped, have gone to court to try to stop the construction of a 50-megawatt solar panel park.

“Under no conditions will we accept sacrificing even one tree… we are not bowing to these interests,” Kostas Markopoulos, president of the Hunters’ Association of the Peloponnese, said on a visit to the site on a hill overlooking the small town.

Below lie the huge open-air mine where lignite, a cheap but highly polluting energy source also known as brown coal, is extracted and adjacent plants where it is burned to generate electricity for southern Greece.

The nearest houses stand only about 100 metres away. Greece is far behind European Union leaders in the field, such as much less sunny Germany.

Despite one of the most generous government subsidies and long∞term guaranteed electricity prices worldwide, it ranked 18th in percentage of renewables as a proportion of gross electricity consumption in the EU in 2007.

The Megalopolis project, using photovoltaic panels to convert sunlight into electricity, would be one of the biggest solar energy schemes in the world. It is expected to cost €200m to €250m.

Nearly two years after electricity operator PPC was granted production licences, nothing has been built on the site. A court ruling on the hunters’ appeal is still awaited.

Investors, waiting for years to tap Greece’s huge potential, say that after decades of struggling with endless bureaucracy, they see some reason for hope as new legislation takes effect.

Sleeping giant
“In the past 15 years, Greece has been the sleeping giant of European renewables,” said Nikos Vassilakos, who heads a Greek and a European association of investors in renewables. “Now something is moving, maybe at a slow pace but investors have learnt to be patient.”

Greece is notorious for its long licensing procedure, which Vassilakos estimated at three to four years on average.

The government has just passed a zoning law for renewables as well as approved new incentives for individuals to install solar panels on rooftops and sell the electricity, doing away with a licensing process that used to cost thousands of euros.

By the end of this year, it plans to submit a law to shorten procedures for wind farms and small hydroelectric plants.

With installed capacity of about 1,200 megawatts, mostly from wind, Greece must move up a gear to comply with EU rules.

It needs to produce more than a third of its electricity from renewables by 2020, from about nine percent currently – the figure drops to about four percent without large hydro plants, which experts say is a more realistic assessment.

Investors present in the Greek renewables market include Italy’s Enel, France’s EDF, and Spain’s Iberdola as well as other, smaller companies. More than ¤4bn worth of renewable applications are awaiting approval by Greece’s energy regulator.

“It’s an exciting moment,” Vassilakos said. “Look at how big the untapped potential is.”

Missing the big picture
Walking around the mine and the hamlets bordering the plant, where pollutants in the air burn the throat after just a few minutes, the hunters’ leader Markopoulos is unconvinced.

“A (solar) park here at such a large scale … would be one large mirror that will drive away wildlife,” he said. “This should be done in other areas, and they exist, that do not destroy the natural environment.”

Environmentalists, investors and local authorities shake their heads in dismay and say the hunters and others lack information and are missing the big picture of environmental, health and economic benefits.

“Building photovoltaics there is going to be better for the environment than a few trees,” said PPC Renewables chief executive Tassos Garis.

 “At first we heard things like the temperature will reach 60ºC, dreadful things, nothing to do with reality,” said Megalopolis mayor Panayiotis Bouras, who backs the project.

Solar power is usually among the most warmly welcomed green options. Hydroelectric dams can cause anger when valleys are flooded and wind turbines can be called eyesores, but solar power is rarely criticised since its panels are usually quite inconspicuous.

The hunters, who shoot rabbits and other small game in the surrounding hills, are not the only ones worried about the project. Those who depend on the power plant and mine for a living fear jobs will be threatened.

 “People work here (in the lignite plant), they earn their livelihood there… what can we do?” said 77-year old Aggeliki, chatting with neighbours near a group of houses a stone’s throw from one of the plants.

In recent years, the cost of producing solar energy has fallen dramatically. More than commercially feasible, it already rivals local energy costs in some countries. Achieving ‘grid parity’ is already a reality, and Trina Solar is leading the way.

Solar energy companies are on a roll. Productions costs are falling and demand is rising. The race is on not just to make sales and expand market share but to enhance brand recognition and create a reputation built on quality. It’s a race that’s winnable for Trina Solar, says the company, who markets itself as providing the “Best $/kWh”.

For too long many Chinese companies failed to differentiate themselves as brand leaders. For some it was a question of cash. For other companies it was about confidence. But solar energy companies are in a very different place today. It’s not just their stellar growth rates that are making companies like Trina Solar better known. It’s about the quality behind the technology – as well as the sheer range of applications solar panel technology is now able to support. “Total system costs are continuing to fall,” says the company. “And now we’re seeing a step∞change in how our technology is used. This includes the emergence of a range of applications that are a world away, frankly, from mainstay projects driven primarily by investment returns.”

The solar module producer highlighted existence of many markets where highly unstable power grid networks exist, especially in growing economies. “If you manufacture goods or services, you can’t afford to keep having black-outs. So the value of a solar installation working alongside your traditional supply is starting to look exciting and attractive.”

Indeed. From factories to tourism, the demand drivers are increasing. In a country with unreliable power supply, solar can be installed at the point of need (unlike wind power) to allow one to refrigerate, cook, or assure medical services. Similarly, projects are now being considered which leverage solar’s flexibility to power extensive wireless telecom networks through tower installations.

It’s not just about supplying energy to the have’s and the have-nots; there’s a growing range of niche markets and applications that solar energy now supports. By supplanting the need for costly and polluting diesel-powered backup generators, traditional industrial sectors are also taking notice. Solar is becoming mainstream.

Trina Solar’s proven strengths
• Large-scale vertically integrated manufacturing
• Strong brand with a reputation for high quality products
• Industry-leading manufacturing cost structure
• Diversified sales across regions and market segments
• Strong research and development efforts and advanced technological capabilities

Surging growth
One of Trina Solar’s key strengths is its vertical platform. This means it is less reliant on other suppliers and companies for its primary value chain components, while it can continually improve its supply chain by leveraging its photovoltaic (PV) supplier park which is integrated alongside its manufacturing campus. This translates to significant cost savings, which are then passed onto the consumer, as well as being invested back into the business, especially R&D.

Yes, some other companies are also managing to reduce costs by integrating their processes. Many companies have little choice but to go the mergers and acquisitions route, but it can be a costly approach if your new acquisitions remain hundreds – or even thousands – of miles apart.

An example of these integrated savings is how Trina Solar manages its manufacturing process. Some companies only cast ingots and slice wafers to sell to others, who in turn run them through a series of high∞tech processes to produce a solar cell. Other companies purchase solar cells only to manufacture a module. But Trina Solar handles these four separate processes internally.

“It’s not just about costs and breaking them down,” says the company. “It’s all about logistic efficiencies, cycle times and leveraging advantages of these time and cost synergies. For new products and processes, it also allows management to rapidly address development issues and accelerate market delivery.”

Meanwhile the solar energy market is surging. According to Solarbuzz, an independent solar energy research and consulting firm, the global solar power market – measured by annual volume of modules delivered to installation sites – grew at a compound annual growth rate of 44.9 percent from approximately 1.5 Gigawatts (GW) in 2005 to approximately 6.4 GW in 2009. That’s a truly stupendous rise.

Is such growth sustainable in the future? According to Solarbuzz, yes it is – very much so. Annual solar power system installed capacity looks likely to increase to approximately 24.7 GW in 2014, and solar power industry revenue could increase from $33.9bn in 2009 to $77.9bn in 2014 it claims. “We believe market growth will be driven largely by increasing affordability and rising grid prices as well as government initiatives in newer markets such as the UK, Australia and Southeast Asia,” says Trina Solar.

The solar market has been hit by some anxiety recently after government subsidies were cut in Germany. However European solar markets are increasingly stable and attuned to developing better technologies. But the next really big market for solar is the US. The Obama government is increasingly backing solar power and as it does so the US market is emerging as one of the top growth areas for solar.

Surviving the recession stronger
For many industries, the global recession of 2008-2009 made for tough going. “But even when credit was tight, we were less impacted,” says Trina. “Yes, some of our customers had to jump through additional hoops to obtain credit, but since the second quarter of 2009, we’ve been operating at 100 percent capacity. You’ve got to remember that European economies on the whole now have deep commitments to meet their renewable targets, and that isn’t going to change.”

There were other upsides as well. Thanks to increasing global production, the price of polysilicon, a key raw material, fell from $400 to under $100 per kilogram in 2009. So as the effect of the global economic crisis subsided through 2009, the combination of increased availability of financing for downstream buyers and decreased average selling prices of solar power products contributed to a strong increase in demand for solar power products during the second half of 2009 compared to the first quarter of 2009.

Of course, periods of volatility can make some investors uneasy. But Trina Solar was able to reassure investors by delivering manufacturing cost reductions at a faster pace than declining prices, a scenario made possible by the changing cost structures that Asian companies benefited from compared with their European counterparts.

“If you go back three to four years and you look at the cost structures of our company compared to European manufacturers, the silicon and non-silicon cost structures were basically reversed. Western companies had lower cost long∞term contracts, but we were buying on the spot market – a substantial difference in the price of silicon. We remained confident that the price of silicon was going to come down, so the end game was won by championing our non-silicon costs.”

Changing demand patterns
Regional demand patterns are also shifting. For a long time Germany served as the default end∞market for solar panels, thanks to widespread acceptance of feed-in tariffs (FIT) earned and the ability to lock into these FIT rates for an extremely lengthy period, often up to 25 years. “But Italy is also very big for us now,” says the company. “Seasonality still exists due to weather conditions, but its impacts are diminishing. For example, Italy recently announced that their feed∞in tariffs will now change frequently and more gradually, to avoid the annual year∞end crush to install and commission new systems. The tariffs will remain attractive but the plan is to smooth out the demand curve, making roll-out less seasonal, which is a positive.”

Another area that’s changing is branding and the need for customer-based service and support in local markets – in fact, wherever Trina Solar’s products are sold. “We’re working very hard now to ensure there is not just pre-service support but also post-service support. Branding is a very personal thing for many people. It’s not about just saying your product is good for consumers. It’s about actually getting out there and proving it, and high∞quality locally accessible customer support is very much part of Trina’s strategy in this logistically sensitive industry.”

Trina’s sales network in brief
• Closer to market for product feedback
• Regional warehouses for short response times
• Local professional support staff
• Consistent global brand image

Coming to a roof near you
The surging mass of IPOs during 2006-2007 also started to seriously put solar power on the map as far as investors were concerned. Some of the weaker players were certainly shaken out during the very tough, and almost immediate, recession.
But here’s an interesting thing. While costs were falling – in some cases dramatically – solar panel brand quality was rising. Unlike, for example, the semi-conductor industry, solar power branding is increasingly about promoting individual brand awareness, and a vital differentiating tool in the industry.

Consumers now increasingly identify solar products by the company which produces them, much in the way consumers identify auto brands. “It’s a business involving products that take significant time to ship or redirect based on customer needs, giving you an opportunity to secure customer brand loyalties. That’s particularly true given our products are warranted for 25 years, which is the length of many feed∞in tariff programmes.”

Brand recognition is also reflected in quality surveys and audits. Last year Trina Solar was ranked number two out of 14 international solar brands in terms of whether their marketed power output claims actually met reality. They did.  

New, high profile tie∞ups with Formula 1 also help – a lot. Trina became a sponsor of the Renault Formula 1 team earlier this year with the company’s distinctive logo sitting on the nose of the car. Make no mistake, Trina Solar is taking branding seriously, and that is increasingly important as the company becomes better known in the West. There’s no denying that Chinese brands are not well known globally, but that’s changing fast.  

A focus on innovation and quality
In terms of research and development, Trina Solar focuses on augmenting its ingot, wafer, cell and module manufacturing capabilities, while reducing manufacturing costs and improving the performance of its products. “Our research and development team works closely with our manufacturing units and customers continually to improve our module and system designs,” the company tells us. “We now own approximately 150 patents for technical innovations. Our vertically integrated business model has helped us develop into a leader in the PV industry.”

Of course, producing their own ingots, wafers, cells and modules in∞house allows Trina Solar to ensure quality along the entire integrated value chain as well as to maintain one of the lowest cost structures in the industry.

In September 2009 it launched its “Trina Solar Center for Excellence”, which includes a broad range of quality-control tests and procedures including product certification processes, material reliability and evaluation tests, and research facilities. The Center is equipped with advanced testing equipment similar to that found in internationally recognised, independent certification facilities. All equipment and testing procedures are done in accordance with rigorous, internationally recognised standards (UL1703, IEC61215 and IEC61730, to be exact).

“At our Center for Excellence, we put our modules through extreme environmental test conditions to ensure their reliability and performance. The platform also allows us to evaluate the latest materials, enhancing product quality and saving money over the long term. This means we can confidently provide our customers with a 25-year output warranty,” says the company. Meanwhile, new partnerships are sprouting up all the time. The company recently signed a partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The deal means that Trina Solar now joins MIT in its Industrial Liaison Program that focuses on promoting university/industry collaboration and technology transfer.  

“We are very excited to announce this collaboration with MIT, one of the world’s leading research institutes, which is expected to strengthen ties between Trina Solar’s State Key Lab of PV Science and Technology and MIT’s research teams,” said Mr. Jifan Gao, chairman and CEO of Trina Solar when he announced the partnership. “Trina Solar and MIT share the same commitment to developing high∞quality solar electricity solutions for businesses and households worldwide and the Industrial Liaison Program is a great way to bring together top minds in the industry to help drive innovation.”

Changing times
So just how will the PV industry changed in the next 5∞10 years? It’s a good question given the pace of change in the solar industry. Costs are almost certain to fall, while more specialized application products will appear. “Products like architecturally friendly black modules and extended high∞output modules have been around for some time now, but they have been premium priced products. We’re now leveraging our manufacturing efficiencies to bring these products to mainstream customers.”

Though speciality solar roofing materials already exist that can generate electricity, they produce at a much lower efficiency rate than solar panels. Though the company is following the development of such building-integrated technologies, its current focus is to extend high quality, high efficiency product advantages to maximise the investment return of the end-user.

“The priority for us is coming in at the right point with market driven products and solutions. For example, to address the larger utility scale projects, we are introducing larger and wider modules to lower overall system installation costs,” says Trina Solar. “We should also see an increase in specially sized modules for smaller, one∞off areas. For building owners it will increasingly be about squeezing every last watt from your roof area. So there will be a wider range of products to choose from to cater for those needs.

Energy prices
What about energy costs? Will they rise or fall? You would think it’s a question of crucial importance for a solar energy player. The company highlights an interesting point. Yes, they acknowledge, traditional energy prices should climb long-term. “But we’re not altogether dependent on prices rising. There already exist varying regional examples where current grid prices translate to compelling economics. For example, in California, peak commercial users increasingly pay far more for their energy use than ordinary residential users. And in places like the Philippines, the cost of energy is huge – far more in terms of most people’s earning power than in places like the US or China. So it’s hard to generalise. But there are certainly huge opportunities.” Don’t forget, too, that part of Trina Solar’s success is its ability to manufacture at huge scale. In that sense, many predict that Chinese companies like Trina Solar will come to dominate the global solar panel market in the way the Japanese dominated the consumer electronics market for the last 40 years. It’s widely estimated that China’s solar manufacturers, including Trina Solar, have taken 43 percent of the global photovoltaic-panel market since 2004. And their heft gives them huge economic advantages, often enabling companies like Trina Solar to pass cost savings of at least 20 percent compared to their Western rivals.

Not forgetting the environment
As a global community, improving standards of living always comes at a cost. And as people consume more electricity every day, the question of how we generate that electricity becomes critical. Inevitably if people continue to rely on fossil fuels and emit ever-greater amounts of greenhouse gases, the damage to our environment and ourselves may become irreversible.

Trina Solar has put huge resources behind ensuring that their own waste challenges are met responsibly. “We have devoted significant efforts to reduce to acceptable levels the waste and by∞products caused by our manufacturing processes. We have installed anti-pollution equipment to neutralise, treat, and where feasible, recycle the wastes generated in our manufacturing processes, which can also carry economic benefits and further reduce our costs.”

Climate change, the company notes, knows no boundaries. “Ultimately, we need electricity generation that is environmentally sustainable, economically feasible, and easily implemented on any scale, from our roofs to our power plants.”

It’s not just about acting responsibly. It’s also increasingly evident that government policy in China is getting behind solar energy to a degree that may rival western markets, as with wind energy. In a sense, China has little choice. Recently, China overtook the US as the world’s biggest energy user. It’s also the world’s biggest coal consumer. No wonder that it’s taking solar energy and running with it hard.

“The value of a solar installation working alongside your traditional supply is starting to look exciting and attractive.”

“We believe market growth will be driven largely by increasing affordability and rising grid prices.”

“The Obama government is increasingly backing solar power and as it does so the US market is emerging as one of the top growth areas.”

A little history
Trina Solar Limited was established in December of 1997 by Jifan Gao, now chairman, working with a small group of scientists during the infancy of the solar PV industry in China. Inspired by the growth of the solar PV industry abroad and particularly the Clinton administration’s ‘Million Solar Roofs’ initiative in the United States, Mr. Gao’s initial plan was to create a solar PV system installation company focused on providing solar energy to different regions in China. After much hard work and dedication, the team successfully launched China’s first solar PV house in August, 2000. Trina Solar then established itself as a leader in the field of solar PV. In cooperation with the Chinese government, Trina Solar helped to establish the first “China National Stand-alone PV System Technology Standard”. In order to promote this important milestone, Trina Solar hosted the First International Solar Power Technology and Marketing Forum in Changzhou in September, 2000. The rest, as they say, is history.

The names behind Trina Solar
Jifan Gao
Chairman and CEO
20+ years of management and entrepreneurial experience
Visionary founder of Trina Solar in 1997
Standing Vice Chairman of the New Energy Chamber of Commerce of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce

Terry Wang
Chief Financial Officer
20+ years of experience in finance and accounting
Former Executive VP of Finance at Spreadtrum (NASDAQ: SPRD)
Former [financial] controller at one of the world’s largest NASDAQ-listed semiconductor assembly and testing companies

Sean Tzou
Director and Chief Strategy Officer
23+ years of experience in supply chain management
Vice President of Solectron Asia-Pacific Services
Previously a Senior Executive of several global business units at Solectron

Further Information: www.trinasolar.com

In May 2010, the rural property of the farmer Nelbio Bronstrup, located in a small town in the Parana countryside, Brazil, received the first batch of materials to adapt his farm to a pioneering project in the country – the Condominium for Renewable Energy of Household Agriculture. It is an initiative led by the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant regarding power generation, the Itaipu Dam. Bronstrup’s farm, where he and his family raise 27 milch cows and 30 heifers, among other 40 rural properties located in one of the drainage basins of the Paraná region, will start producing energy from farming and cattle raising waste.

The project encompasses the company’s efforts into undertaking research and development of alternative sources of clean and renewable energy. The power plant is installed in the Paraná River located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay, both responsible for the administration of Itaipu. Besides its remarkable production in 2009, when it exceeded 91 million megawatt-hours, its performance related to sustainability has come to international prominence.

Each year, the company performs more and more sustainable development actions in the region where it is installed.

The Condominium for Renewable Energy of Household Agriculture integrates the Itaipu Platform for Renewable Energy, which is installed in its Technology Park, in Foz do Iguaçu, home to the plant. In partnership with local governments, educational and research institutions, farmers associations, cooperatives and non-governmental organisations, this initiative promotes research and technology for four sources of energy still poorly explored – wind, solar, biomass and hydrogen. In addition, the platform also researches new uses for the power plant’s main product; such as the development of electric vehicles.

The Itaipu Platform has already obtained practical results from several lines. The most important due to its environmental component is the generation of biomass energy. Paraná’s Western Region, where the plant is located, is one of the largest producers of chicken and pork in Brazil. The animal husbandry strengthens the local economy, but also has a large quantity of waste and effluents. Until now, most of that stuff was just dumped in streams and tributaries of the Paraná River, contaminating the Itaipu Reservoir.

Thanks to the programme, the waste is now transferred to biodigesters that convert organic material into methane gas and fertiliser. Biogas is used for producing electricity used by the farmers. There are six prototypes in operation, including a pig farm, a dairy farm, a poultry slaughterhouse and an agro-industrial crop production. In the most advanced of these projects, developed in the Colombari farm in São Miguel do Iguacu, the energy resulting from the excreta of 3,000 pigs feed the rural property with energy while the surplus electricity can be sold to the public distribution company. The biofertiliser is a byproduct of such process. According to Jose Carlos Colombari, swine producer and partner of the project, there are several benefits. “We save energy and also fight environment pollution.”

The Condominium for Renewable Energy is one more step towards the environmental sanitation that has been taken by the programme Cultivating Good Water that works on drainage basins, internationally acknowledged to be another important action of Itaipu. According to the company’s superintendent of Renewable Energy, Cicero Bley, the condo project responds to the big challenge of introducing smaller producers into the bioenergy market. “It’s a project that can be easily replicated in other parts of the country, especially in Southern states, where there is a strong agricultural production with animals kept in stable,” he says. After the physical adequacy of rural properties, the digesters will be installed, followed by the construction of the main pipeline and finally the MHP thermoelectric.

In March, the Itaipu Technology Park implemented the first laboratory for research on biogas in Brazil. In this laboratory, the potential of different organic materials (such as plants or animal waste) used for producing methane gas or biogas can be studied. The research is important to guide farmers in the region who may be interested in installing digesters in their rural properties.

Last year, another partner of the Itaipu Platform, Cooperativa Agroindustrial Lar invested R$4m to transform chicken excrement into energy from its slaughterhouse refrigerator installed in one of the municipalities of Paraná countryside. In no time, the investment should be recouped due to annual revenue of approximately 120,000 euros from the sale of carbon credits, since the cooperative shall cease to emit 20,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Tail wind
A study carried out by the Itaipu Renewable Energy Platform has proved the potential of wind power in 29 Brazilian municipalities (28 from Paraná and one from Mato Grosso do Sul) by the shore of the hydroelectric power plant lake where over one million inhabitants live. Cooperativa Lar conducts tests to verify the feasibility of using wind turbines in its production units. The study found that farms from that region – 80 percent of them small, with less than 30 hectares – can adopt a hybrid system of supply, gathering energy from wind, biomass and solar energy, other source that has been researched by the Platform.

Since 2003, the Itaipu Platform conducts a feasibility study on the production of hydrogen from electrolysis of water that supplies the plant. This study, whose production experimental plant is already being installed, is the basis for developing an absolutely clean fuel with zero emissions of greenhouse gases.

Itaipu has used over 25 years of experience in power generation for researching new electricity use and developing an electric car prototype. The Itaipu Electric Vehicle is the result of a partnership, signed in 2006 between the power plant, Fiat Automóveis and the Swiss subsidiary KWO. The design of the 100 percent electric car allowed the development of a totally green vehicle, with zero emissions and almost no noise. Currently, there are 21 Electric Palio Weekend cars being used by companies involved in the project. The goal is to produce 50 more vehicles by the end of this semester.

An electricity-powered cart to collect recyclable materials is another highlight of the Itaipu Platform. About 81 electric carts have been manufactured by now. They are working throughout the surrounding counties of Itaipu Lake and other municipalities in Brazil reached by the Collectors Movement. The transport has capacity for 663 pounds of cargo and the autonomy to run 4-5 hours, or 15-19 miles.

The programme that tries to identify renewable energy sources for the triple frontier area is supported by another social and environmental project. Since 2003, Itaipu has coordinated the Cultivating Good Water programme, which is responsible for maintaining the totality of its reservoir of 29 billion cubic meters of water by means of sustainability initiatives. In seven years, the adequacy of rural roads and watershed implementation has been promoted by Itaipu (to prevent rain water drips from farms into rivers, causing erosion and polluting it with pesticides), and two million trees have been planted to replenish riparian forests that protect the springs. The programme also collects empty pesticide containers, encourages organic farming and sponsors waste sorting in the cities.

Case study
A programme of the Itaipu Dam, developed with over 2,000 partners, shows that respect for nature does not inhibit economic development.

Farming has always been considered one of the main villains of the environment, due to the vast tracts of land needed for producing grains and meat in a large scale. But in Western Parana, an experiment led by the Itaipu Binacional that brings together more than 2,000 partners, community associations, cooperatives, educational institutions, local, state and federal governmental agencies and NGOs, has demonstrated that production and economic development may coexist with respect for the environment.

The main objective of the Cultivating Good Water programme is to recover environmental liabilities, by promoting environmental education and changes in the production and consumption of the communities located throughout the watershed. For example, the farmer Luiz Antonio Arruda from São Miguel do Iguacu has made the conversion of his rural property into organic agriculture. “I was sick of messing with poison,” said the farmer, who came to be hospitalised for poisoning by agrochemicals.

Besides the health issue, he struggled to keep conventional farming, especially with its dependence on inputs. Today, Arruda produces cucumber, coffee, Brazilian cherry, guava, pineapple, among other products with certification of organic production. The income has nearly tripled with the Organic Life marketing fairs promoted by Itaipu throughout the municipalities, the adoption of organic products by public schools, and selling to the government, through the Brazilian programne Fome Zero (Portuguese for Zero Starvation).

The concept of green farming has also allowed Arruda to open a new business: rural tourism. Groups of tourists from Europe, North America and neighbouring countries come to Brazil to know about the organic production on his rural property. According to Arruda, the technical support he receives from the staff of the Cultivating Good Water programme allows him to increase business with a little product processing. Instead of selling fruit, for example, he sells the pulp ready for consumption, his main source of income. “The quality of life we have today I would not trade for anything,” he assures.

Altogether, the Organic Agriculture programme has 26 technicians working in 29 counties that are part of the Paraná Basin 3 (a set of watersheds connected to the reservoir of the dam). The free technical assistance is a cornerstone of the programme. Currently, about 1500 farmers are following the example of Arruda and adopting agro ecological techniques of culture.

High productivity
Not only the ecological production is favoured by the Cultivating Good Water, but also a series of actions are carried out by Itaipu and its partners. Among them, there are soil conservation and protection of springs and watercourses, such as terracing, readjustment of rural roads, installation of community water supply, and planting and conservation of native species of trees in riparian forests. Thus, Itaipu contributes to agriculture in the region as a whole, assisting in the retention of the two main natural resources of the Western Paraná: deep and fertile soil, and water in abundance (as guaranteed by rivers such as Parana and Iguaçu, and the Guarani Aquifer by the reservoir of the Itaipu hydroelectric plant, more than 170km long and with 29 billion cubic meters of water pooled).

The high productivity of Western Parana is helping to consolidate its position as the largest grain producer in the country. In 2010 the state will collect a volume of 30.3 million tonnes. This year, for example, farmers in the West of Paraná are celebrating a historic result: the best growing season ever recorded by the Department of Rural Economy (Deral) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Supply. The regional survey is still preliminary, but is now virtually complete. Productivity increased 73 percent over the 2008/2009 season, averaging 3,500kg per hectare. In some municipalities, such as Itaipulândia, increased productivity reaches 247 percent. “It’s the best season of all time,” says Esser Jovir Vicentini, an economist at DERAL.

The farmer Aderbal Boff is one of those celebrating the excellent results of the 2009/2010 harvest. He has just finished the harvest of soybeans in the two areas where he used to plant: his own 150-hectare farm in Itaipulândia and a lease of 180 hectare. At the first harvest, he had recorded an average yield of 7,705 pounds per bushel. The second was even better with 8,686 pounds per hectare.

“Technology, fertiliser and seeds were the same as in previous years. The difference is that it rained a lot and at the right time”, says Boff, who has been in Paraná since 1965.

What it is and how it works
Created in 2003, Cultivating Good Water is characterised by community participation and management of watersheds.

Created from the change in the institutional mission of Itaipu, in 2003, the Cultivating Good Water programme is a set of strategies to ensure the sustainability of an entire watershed. From the identification of key environmental liabilities in the region of the plant (water contamination by pesticides, sediments and organic matter erosion, and loss of biodiversity), a series of corrective actions have been taken, inspired by planetary documents such as the Earth Charter, the Treaty of Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Agenda 21.

The two main differences of the programme are based on the methodology of participatory management and river basin-oriented planning. Each watershed has a steering committee (established by municipal law in 2009),
composed of civil society organisations such as neighbourhood associations, trade associations and cooperatives, and government environmental agencies and public ministries, among others.

Another methodology differential involves the rise of awareness, the diagnosis and the participatory planning of corrective actions, reaching the agreement to commitments (Water Treaty). Until now, the programme is in 127 watersheds. According to Maria Concepcion Donosco, coordinator of UNESCO for Latin America and the Caribbean, the programme is considered a model for watershed management.

Itaipu Binacional, which prides itself on being a leader in clean energy production, aims to be an acknowledged institution for its commitment to sustainable development.