No energy

Ah, electricity. The elixir of the Gods.
It remains a touchy subject here in SA, with the constant threats of load-shedding as we approach winter. (And believe me, we’ve been doing some serious approaching today.) At the heart of this is the fact that while we want to use lots of electricity, we don’t have a huge amount to spare.
In addition, apparently we also want to be “green” and to reduce our combined carbon footprint.
Oh, and we don’t want anything done in our back yard. That’s very important too.

All in all, it adds up to bad news. We’re buggered. (Technically and metaphorically, anyway.)

Shale gas could end SA’s oil dependence” says Professor Philip Lloyd, who heads the Energy Institute at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, in a wonderfully rational, fact-filled and unemotional article on the Karoo fracking saga.

If Shell should succeed with its exploration, said Lloyd, jobs would be created on a scale never before seen in South Africa. It would also bring about a large decline in greenhouse gas emissions in this country.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which maintains global surveys of energy resources, Karoo shale gas is the fourth largest resource in the world. It was originally estimated that there was about 1 000 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of shale gas in the Karoo, but geological data collected over the years have reduced this to about 450 tcf.
The tcf unit is an abbreviation used in oil and exploitation to indicate the size of gas resources. It represents a million, million cubic feet.
This is enormous. Mossgas was built on the supposition that there was at most 1 tcf in the undersea gas resource feeding that plant.
If the Karoo resource is even close to the amount indicated by the USGS, South Africa would be able to erect gas turbines for electricity generation all along the coastline. This would end the country’s dependence on coal to generate electricity.

And that’s not all:

Shale gas is also the best available reducing agent for iron ore. New steel works could be created on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore route, as “beautiful steel” could be manufactured using it, said Lloyd.
More than 40m tons of iron ore is exported along the Sishen-Saldanha route to Asia and Europe. Lump iron ore from Sishen is some of the most sought-after iron ore globally, but cannot be processed into steel here because of the cost, particularly that of energy for heat for the reduction process.

But Lewis Pugh says that it’s not a very good idea.

And now there is celebration as struggling German Chancellor, Angela Merkel pulls the plug (geddit?) on Germany’s nuclear power plants “due to Fukushima”, but probably much more likely “due to lost votes”:

The decision in the early morning hours today by coalition leaders in Berlin underscored Merkel’s flip-flop from a 2009 re- election promise to extend the life of nuclear reactors. She did her about-face after the March meltdown in Japan as the anti- nuclear Green Party gained in polls. Her party lost control of Baden-Wuerttemberg to the Greens in March and finished behind them in a state election for the first time on May 22.

Ironically, in order to address the energy shortfall that it faced when Merkel shut down seven reactors in a post-Fukushima kneejerk reaction in April, Germany began importing electricity from France: a country that produces 78% of its power from… er… nuclear energy. Oops.

But perhaps the local greenies shouldn’t be too happy, as Minister of Energy Dipuo Peters stated today that SA was not considering any German-style nonsense:

“We in South Africa have to understand that nuclear is not a quick-fix solution but a long-term method to address the energy crisis and climate-change challenge,” she said in a speech prepared for delivery at the second regional conference on energy and nuclear power in Africa, held in Cape Town.
Nuclear energy forms part of the integrated resources plan (IRP) that sets out the country’s energy mix up to 2030. Nuclear would contribute 23% of the energy supply.

I hope no-one has asked Lewis Pugh.

Lewis, of course, would surely be delighted were South Africa to adopt wind power. But probably only if he doesn’t live near a potential wind farm. Because wind power may be clean and green, but those big turbines are ever so invasive, aren’t they? And they whine constantly. And they kill birds.
That’s why the residents of several West Coast villages are up in arms about having wind farms erected in their back gardens.

West Coast properties owners are dismayed by the prospect of having a new wind farm in Parternoster, Western Cape and are determined to prevent the huge turbines from being erected near the town.
The wind farm – known as West Coast One – is just one of several that have been planned for the West Coast region and it has been given environmental approval by the Department of Environment Affairs.

The developers, Moyeng Energy, jointly owned by Investec Bank and French group GDF Suez, plan to build 55 turbines near Paternoster. Each turbine is about 80 metres tall and once complete the wind farm will cover an area of 55 square kilometres.

Residents in the small town are trying to mount an appeal against the environmental approval and if this is unsuccessful they intend to take legal action to prevent the development from going ahead. According to Andre Kleynhans, chairman of the Paternoster Ratepayers’ Association the wind farm will destroy the natural charm of this fishing village.

Yes, just like the residents of the Karoo and their objections to fracking; just like the residents of Bantamsklip & Thyspunt and their issues with having a nuclear power plant just around the corner, there are problems with siting even the cleanest and greenest of power generation methods.

So. What now, my eco-warrior friends? Must we produce our electricity by magic?
Because I think Isaac Newton might have something to say about that.

We have to come to terms with the fact that we need electricity and that we need to produce electricity. It’s time to realise that no matter what method we choose to produce it, someone is going to be unhappy.
Who then, is to say which method we should choose, where it should be and whose back yard it must be in? How are the (proven) problems of wind turbines worse than the (alarmist) problems of fracking? Who decides?

And where are Lewis Pugh and the Kelvin Grove protest meetings about the Paternoster wind farm?

Double standards, anyone?

Disclosure: 6000 banks with Investec and buys his petrol at Shell. Deal with it.

Curb fall injuries

Incoming from several sources (so it must be true!):

Transcript for those with poor eyesight or on mobile devices (or those on mobile devices with poor eyesight):

Assailant suffers injuries from fall

Orville Smith, a store manager for Best Buy in Augusta, Ga., told police he observed a male customer, later identified as Tyrone Jackson of Augusta, on surveillance cameras putting a laptop computer under his jacket. When confronted, the man became irate, knocked down an employee, drew a knife and ran for the door.
Outside on the sidewalk were four Marines collecting toys for the Toys for Tots program. Smith said the Marines stopped the man, but he stabbed one the Marines, Cpl. Phillip Duggan, in the back; the injury did not appear to be severe.
After Police and an ambulance arrived at the scene Cpl. Duggan was transported for treatment.
“The subject was also transported to the local hospital with two broken arms, a broken ankle, a broken leg, several missing teeth, possible broken ribs, multiple contusions, assorted lacerations, a broken nose and a broken jaw… injuries he sustained when he slipped and fell of off the curb after stabbing the Marine,” according to the police report.

Using Google Streetview on Augusta didn’t reveal any particularly high kerbs: I guess he must just have landed awkwardly.

Poor chap.

He’s even got the best poster…

So said ANC Provincial Secretary Songezo Mjongile of his party’s mayoral candidate for Cape Town, Tony Ehrenreich.
Sadly, Mjongile was referring to the ANC poster of dear Tony, in which he has an obviously forced smile and looks rather creepy as a result. But COSATU have also released a poster of the man, which I think is really cool.

The neutral background, the dated red and green blocks of colour, the three-quarter profile, the slightly raised chin, the positive, but firm gaze into the middle distance. It’s all terribly reminiscent of a Soviet propaganda poster. The politics, of course, aren’t all that different either.
And while I’m disinclined to agree with Mjongile’s assessment that Ehrenreich will get the 750,000 votes he needs to become our Mayor until 2016, he actually did get the poster thing right. Albeit accidentally.

Flying high

It’s been another manic weekend here at Chez 6000.
The last of my regulation energy expired on Wynberg School field a few hours back and I’m definitely well through my reserve tanks now.

My boy (though now asleep) enjoyed his weekend to the fullest, and so this quota photo on him hanging in mid-air during a Southern Cape dune jumping session seemed the most appropriate I could find at rather short notice:

This last dregs of my ATP will be expended on replying to comments from loonies on this post.
Entertaining stuff and well worth a read.

Ajax to return to Cape Town Stadium

Favourable grass-growing conditions, plus some expert love and care by the Cape Town Stadium groundstaff means that despite previous reports to the contrary, Ajax Cape Town’s final game of the season will be staged at the Mother City’s World Cup venue:

Ajax Cape Town is returning to Cape Town Stadium for their last game of season against Maritzburg United on May 21, 2011.
The last game of the season for Ajax Cape Town is certainly going to be the most important game played in Cape Town since the semi-final of the 2010 World Cup.
Local support for Ajax Cape Town is vital to provide the final surge across the finish line. We urge the City and the people of Cape Town to get behind the Urban Warriors as they strive to bring the PSL Championship trophy home.

After a mixed response to their previous games at the venue, i, they’re putting on a Football Festival in order to pull the crowds in:

Ajax is planning a major soccer feast at the Cape Town Stadium when they play Maritzburg United.

The Urban Warriors are making 40 000 seats available to the people of Cape Town to ensure that everyone have an opportunity to witness Ajax Cape Town winning their first ABSA Premiership League title in their history.

Shooz Mekuto the Ajax PRO said, “I am very excited with the developments ahead of our last PSL fixture at the Cape Town Stadium for the current season. I am inviting all the people of Cape Town to come a watch history unfold when Ajax Cape Town lift the ABSA Premiership trophy for the first time.”

Shooz may be confident, but Maritzburg United will be no pushover in a game which Ajax have to win to be sure of claiming the title. “The Team of Choice” beat high-flying Mamelodi Sunclowns on their last outing.
Still, that’s all the more reason for locals to come out and support the Urban Warriors next Saturday. The city is making the Fan Walk and the Park & Ride facilities available to supporters and (with the right result) it should be a great day for Cape Town football.
I will, of course, be there: if you want to say hi, I’ll be the tall, good-looking bloke in red and white.

Tickets are now on sale from everyone’s favourite online outlet, Computicket and are priced at R40, R60 and R80.