Portfolio 4

Our group's topic for round table discussion is to investigate one or more technologies to mitigate climate change and give the reason why certain citizen groups should support, promote or oppose the technologies. For this topic, I read several relavant articles on the web page and found two of them especially helpful for writing assignment two.

The first passage is called: Innovative technologies to mitigate climate change.In this passage, its author, Dr Ulrich Eberl , gives Siemens as an example and shows how companies can help to mitigate climate. According to him, the most efficient way to combat climate change is to employ innovative technologies that increase the efficiency of power generation, transmission and utilisation in industry, buildings and transportation. From his statements, the technologies he mentioned can roughly be classified into two groups. One is how to improve the current manufacturing faciliyies and the other is finding new energy sources. The parts I am interested in are NANO TECHNOLOGY FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE GAS TURBINES and VIRTUAL RENEWABLE ENERGY NETWORKS.

Nano technology for high performance gas turbines is a great way to improve power plant efficiency. The materials in a gas turbine, for example, have to withstand very high temperatures of up to 1,500ºC. The combustion chamber is also subjected to high pressure and a glowing hot tornado of gas that passes through at a speed of 100 metres per second. Finally, the turbine blades are exposed to centrifugal forces equivalent to 10,000 times the acceleration due to the Earth’s gravity. If Siemens can successfully put this technology into practice, a facility of this kind will achieve an efficiency rating of 60 per cent (by comparison, the best coal-fired plants reach 46 per cent). This will definitely reduce CO2 emmision by a huge amount and can earn the company a great profit.

Virtual renewable energy networks, also known as smart grids is a process where small, distributed plants that use biomass or geothermal sources, combined heat and power plants, and plants with fluctuating outputs (wind, solar) are to be integrated into the existing network hierarchy without disturbances. Siemens developers are working on smart grid systems that bring together the most diverse electricity sources to form ‘virtual power plants’. Smart grids can turn specific consumers on and off in order to balance out peak loads, thereby creating a dynamic balance in the power network rather than the static one that exists today. By doing this , the company can earn as much as €2 billion per year. For me, this huge profit is a good reason why Siemens should focus on this technology.

The second article I found interesting is quite different from the first one. It is called Climate Change Debate Hinges On Economics. In this article, the auther did not mention specific technology. Instead, he talked about whether the public are able to accept the technology which costs us a lot. Although energy and climate experts say the world already possesses the technological know-how for trimming greenhouse gas emissions enough to slow the perilous rise in the Earth's temperatures, the energy legislation considered by US Congress so far will make barely a dent in the problem, while farther-reaching climate proposals stand a remote chance of passage. Ways to mitigate climate change are there: in the rescearchers' labs and on our books but not in our real life.

This passage is very easy to read and do not have any technical terms. I chose it as my WA2 resource because it gives rise to another consideration of the climate change problem. It is true that everyone wants to protect the environment but what if the price for that is too high? Technology is useless if the public does not accept it. Every coin has two sides. Maybe next time when we face environmental problem, we should view it in a different manner.

Eberl, U. (2007). Innovative technologies to mitigate climate change. Climate Action Programme. Retrieved on Feb 28th 2009 from http://www.climateactionprogramme.org/insights/article/.

Mufson, S.(2007). Climate Change Debate Hinges On Economics. Washington Post Sunday, July 15, 2007; Page A01. Retrieved on Feb 28th 2009 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/14/AR2007071401246.html.