The Awqaf and Minors Affairs Foundation (AMAF) in Dubai has announced a plan to convert a mosque to the first eco-friendly mosque in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to the Khaleej Times newspaper, the project will cost 25 million UAE dirhams or 6.81 million USD.

The eco-friendly mosque is expected to save about 20 percent of water and power consumption. The normal consumption of water in the mosques is about three liters per person a day while the normal consumption of electricity in the mosques is about  250 kilo watts per square meter a year. Adding to eco-friendly conversion, the mosque would extend to about 9,754.82 square meters (105,000 square feet), making it the largest mosque in Dubai.

After the modifications, the mosque would accommodate about 3,500 worshipers at the same time. The roof of the mosque would be gardened to reduce the sun heat; additionally, it will use the solar energy to heat ablution water. The ablution is an Islamic procedure for washing parts of the body by using water to be prepared for prayer. The recycling plant within the mosque facilities will take the used ablution water for gardening and washroom use. The mosque will be constructed by eco-friendly materials to avoid non-biodegradable waste. It will also use an automatic thermostat to keep cool without wasting energy and will use natural light.

According to the Khaleej Times, Mr. Tayeb Abdulrahman Al Rais, Secretary-General of the AMAF, said: “The construction of the mosque is in line with the UAE leadership’s vision towards the conservation of resources, environment protection, and the adoption of green practices. With the global call for energy conservation, it is essential for developers to take responsibility for creating buildings that comply with green standards. The mosque project complies with best practices in corporate governance, while being transparent and gaining the validation of Awqaf, government and private institutions.”

In the neighboring city, Abu Dhabi’s General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments department approved the plan of an eco-friendly mosque to be built within Saadiyat Island. The design was made by Suhail Mohammed Suleiman, a graduate architecture student at Al-Hosn University. This initiative is not the first in the mosque-building field. In 2008, the Islamic community in Manchester opened Masjid-E-Noor, which was the first partially eco-friendly mosque in the world. The mosque was built with wood from renewable sources.  It also possessed solar panels to generate electricity.

In 2010, the Muslim community in Cambridge opened the first fully operated eco-friendly mosque. The mosque was designed by the award-winning architecture company, Marks Barfield, who designed a lot of projects in the UK and in the world, such as London Eye and Kew Treetop Walk.

Additionally, in 2010, eco-friendly mosques were opened in Buyukeceli village, which is in the Mersin province of Turkey. The mosques were opened by the residents of the village to protest having a nuclear plant there. This action was taken to show the government that there are many renewable sources that generate clean energy and are preferable to a nuclear plant.

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Year 2012 is expected to be watershed year for Illinois State’s 15-year policy to bring choice to customers. With approximately 80% of municipalities approving referendums on electric supply aggregation, based on preliminary results, ComEd estimated that approximately half of residential customers could switch to an alternative retail electric supplier (RES) by the end of the year. This represents great progress in the state’s 15-year policy to create a fully competitive market for electric supply, the company said.

“This week’s municipal referendums represented an important milestone in the journey to a fully competitive residential electric supply market, which ComEd has supported from the beginning,” said Anne Pramaggiore, president and chief executive officer, ComEd. “In the coming months, as municipalities go through the process of public hearings and deciding on the best supplier and electric supply contract, ComEd will do everything it can to help make the process smooth and productive.”

As a result of industry restructuring, ComEd’s primary role today is to distribute electricity that is generated by other competitive power producers. Already, more than 60% of all energy delivered by ComEd is provided by RES suppliers. ComEd purchases the remaining energy in the competitive wholesale market through the Illinois Power Agency (IPA) and passes it through to customers at its cost. ComEd does not profit on the sale of electricity.

The referendums were designed to earn public approval to begin a process to identify a supplier and contract terms. Municipalities are required to hold a public hearing and send opt-out letters to give individual residents the opportunity to decline participation in the municipal aggregation program.

ComEd’s supply costs are currently higher than the price RES’s can provide because of long-term contracts procured through the IPA in 2007 when wholesale market prices were much higher. Those contracts will expire in May 2013. ComEd will continue to deliver power to customers’ homes and businesses and restore outages regardless of which supplier a customer chooses now or in the future.

Competition in the residential market is expanding through individual customers switching to a RES and through electrical aggregation programs, where municipalities shop for electricity supply on behalf of their residents and enter into a single contract with a RES.

Once the municipality selects a RES, each resident has the option to “opt-out” of the program and either select their own supplier or remain with ComEd. ComEd works with these municipalities by providing electricity load data and other information to allow these communities to solicit bids and make informed decisions. More than 200 municipalities considered referendums to authorize them to pursue these opportunities.

While the electricity market for large commercial and industrial customers has experienced vibrant competition for years, the residential market was slower to develop. This has changed in the last year. Today, there are more than 30 alternative suppliers in ComEd’s territory who are certified to sell energy to residential consumers.

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American DG Energy, a leading On‑Site Utility, offering clean electricity, heat, hot water and cooling solutions to hospitality, healthcare, housing and athletic facilities, has reached an agreement to supply clean energy to Governor Paterson Towers, a 225 unit, 30 story, residential high-rise, located in Paterson, New Jersey.

Under the terms of the agreement, Governor Paterson will soon receive a significant portion of its energy from a 75 kW combined heat and power (also called CHP or cogeneration) system, which will be owned and operated by American DG Energy. Governor Paterson will receive a discount on the energy produced by the CHP system and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The value of the agreement to the company is $1.9 million over the fifteen-year term.

Working with its partner, Peter Westerhoff, to develop this project, American DG Energy will produce clean energy in the form of electricity, space heat and domestic hot water at Governor Paterson Towers and sell it to the residential property at a price lower than the local energy utility rates. Having opted for the company’s On-Site Utility energy solution, Governor Paterson will pay only for the energy used by the property and will avoid all capital, installation and operating costs.

The energy will be produced with small-scale, combined heat and power equipment, located at the property site but owned and operated by American DG Energy. The company will also handle all service, maintenance and repair; therefore, Governor Paterson will not need to provide manpower to support the equipment.

CHP systems offer considerable environmental benefits when compared with purchased electricity and on-site-generated heat from a boiler. By capturing and utilizing heat that would otherwise be wasted from the production of electricity, CHP systems require less fuel than equivalent separate heat and power systems to produce the same amount of energy. Because less fuel is combusted, greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, as well as air pollutants like nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, are reduced.

The CHP system planned for Governor Paterson Towers will be comprised of a CM-75 Ultra by Tecogen, which is equipped with a proprietary ultra-clean emissions technology and has recently been granted the new air emissions certification from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).

This certification eliminates the process of applying for pre-construction operation certification and air permits prior to installation which will save time and money on implementation of this project. In addition, the CHP system is expected to reduce the residential property’s emissions by 252 tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of removing the carbon emissions of 42 cars each year.*

* Figures were calculated using the EPA CHP Partnership emissions calculator.

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Permits allowing mining less than 6km from a World Heritage site in South Africa were approved in July 2011. The permit allows Australian-owned Coal of Africa Limited’s (CoAL) subsidiary, Limpopo Coal company Pty ltd. to mine near Mapungubwe. In 2003, UNESCO listed Mapungubwe as a World Heritage Site.

The Mapungubwe National Park lies at the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers in South Africa. In the early 1930’s, Ernst van Graan, a farmer and prospector, convinced a Mowena local in the Limpopo province of South Africa to show him where a fabled hill of gold was. The Mowena showed the farmer the hill and on it, an archaeologist’s dream of artifacts were found.

From the Mapungubwe hill, priceless artifacts and information regarding life in southern Africa AD 1300 were found. A golden rhino statue, glass beads and pottery were found on this site. These recoveries tell much about the societal and technological advances occurring around this time.

Groups opposed to the Coal of Africa’s mining so close to a World Heritage site have launched an interdict in an attempt to stop the Vele Colliery operations. The group goes by the name Mapungubwe Action Group (MAG).

It is comprised of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa, the Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists, the Peace Parks Foundation, Birdlife South Africa and the Wilderness Foundation of South Africa. They are concerned about the proximity of Vele to Mapungubwe as well as the impact the activities will have on the biodiversity of the unique area.

On IOL.co.za’s Business Report, Nick Hilterman writes “CoAL has been ramping up public relations around the proposed 8,500 hectare largely opencast coal mine in the Mapungubwe cultural landscape, next to Mapungubwe Park and World Heritage site and across the rise from the Zimbabwe component of the forthcoming Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation area.”

The Action Group’s chairperson, commented to a South African Newspaper, The Mail and Guardian, “The interdict application is an interim measure that seeks to prevent the mine from carrying on any mining or related operations on Vele,” Hilterman said.

The applicants have lodged internal appeals against both the decision to grant the mining right and the decision to approve the Environmental management Programme. The decision on these appeals is pending.

Mining Weekly reported that “CoAL has stopped all activities requiring the use of water after a coalition of nonprofit organizations appealed the integrated water use license.” The company is allegedly engaging with the Environmental Affairs minister, Edna Molewa to resolve the matter as soon as possible.

Should CoAL get it’s way, the Vele Colliery should produce about 5 million tons of soft cooking oil over a 25-year period. A website dedicated to the cause of protecting Mapungubwe, lists five things that people can do to help keep CoAL off the World Heritage site, of which one is to sign their petition and another to reach out to the authorities.

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As the weaker than expected storm finishes its visit to the eastern coast of the United States, authorities still call Irene a serious threat.

The tropical storm Irene moved slowly over the East Coast, bringing steady wind, rain, and flooding. The Associated Press reported that Irene hit Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and Washington D.C.

According to a Sunday article by the San Francisco Chronicle, 4 million homes and business were without power across the eastern United States on Sunday. Irene caused an estimated $3 billion in damages, a number that is likely to grow in the coming week.

Regardless of damage costs and power outages, many reports were quick to characterize Irene as “weaker than expected.”

“People are saying they’ve dodged a bullet … [but] people have lost lives. I don’t think you can say we dodged a bullet,” said Craig Fugate, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator, on the effects of Irene. The Los Angeles Times reported Monday of an estimated 35 deaths in the wake of the storm.

Experts from the National Weather Service announced on August 20 that Irene formed in the Atlantic.

On August 22, Irene’s momentum increased. The storm was declared a category 2 hurricane as it cut power to more than a million residents in Puerto Rico. Irene became a category 3 storm as it traveled toward the East Coast of the United States.

By the time the storm hit the North Carolina on Friday afternoon, it was considered a category 1. Hurricane Irene was later downgraded to a tropical storm.

Even though Irene showed weakening, many state authorities took careful precautions to evacuate residents from dangerous areas.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported that New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, ordered the mandatory evacuation of 370,000 residents in low-lying neighborhoods. “I think we made exactly the right call,” said Bloomberg on Sunday. The Journal also reported that no New York mayor had ever called for such a broad evacuation order in history.

President Obama expressed the dangers of Irene to the country. “While the storm has weakened as it moves north, it remains a dangerous storm that continues to produce heavy rain,” Obama said at the White House. “Many Americans are still at serious risk of power outages and flooding, which could get worse in the coming days as rivers swell past their banks.”

According to a statement put forth by the U.S. Department report, power was restored to 1.57 million households Monday. New York, Connecticut and New Jersey have the most residents still without electricity.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/eguchishintaro/

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Since Japan saw March’s devastating earthquake hit, the island nation has been focusing on securing its energy supply with a focus on electric vehicles. With the Fukushima nuclear plant knocked out and many other plants affected by what has been called the worst earthquake in 300 years, widespread blackouts became common throughout the country. In response, off-the-grid electricity sources have become increasingly favored to prevent future failures.

According to the National Police Agency of Japan, the 8.9 Richter scale earthquake and tsunami that hit the Pacific coast of Tohoku severely affected five of the country’s top companies. Toyota Motor Corp., Sony Corp., Honda Motor Co.,  Nissan Motor Co. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. were the top five which suffered setbacks.

Nissan, the creator of the all-electric Leaf, has taken action by developing a solar charging system which stores its power in the Leaf’s lithium-ion battery. The automaker has installed 488 solar panels so far at its Japan headquarters which will provide enough power for 1,800 Leafs for a year.

Nissan suspended its operations at six plants immediately following the earthquake. Due to damages and small fires which broke out at the Tochigi and Iwaki Plant, restorations took place lasting longer only at the Iwaki engine plant which was in the quake zone. Production restarted March 24 with almost 1,300 Infiniti models lost due to damages during the quake.

While the company’s shares lost 10.1% following the wake of the earthquake, it has regained strength in shares as well as in the development. In a joint venture with Sumitomo Corp, Nissan plans to reconstruct its electric car batteries when they are traded then resold as power storage units. Plans to implement this project are estimated to begin in 2016.

“These batteries can be useful as back-up power for homes when there’s an outage,” said Takashi Sakagami, head of the joint venture, 4R Energy Corp.

In addition to helping household energy security, a second life for old car batteries is also made possible. The batteries are high capacity and composed of various heavy, precious and rare metals which would be problematic to dispose.

Increasing technology of electric cars provides an advantage that is not only beneficial to the environment but also to Japan’s energy security. With electric vehicles, each household could potentially have its own mobile power source in the event of another disaster which disables access to mass produced power.

Big power consumers on the eastern side of the island are now required to cut power use by 15 percent and households have been directed to do the same.

Other automakers in Japan are developing their own methods of bringing energy security from the car to the home. Mitsubishi Motors is developing a portable converter which will allow electric vehicles to power household electronics. Toyota is developing batteries for direct home use to power a project known as the “Toyota Home.”

These model homes will manage power usage, tap into solar power and store excess power in the batteries for night-time use. It is estimated by Toyota’s project manager, Hiroshi Okajima, to be available by the end of 2013.

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