Journalism by Peter Fairley Global Reach Covering energy and technology has taken me around the world, from the coalfields of Inner Mongolia to the un-electrified villages under Bolivia’s Cordillera Real. Bolivia / Canada / China / France Germany / Japan / Libya / Turkey
Bolivia: “Lighting Up the Andes” Spectrum, 2004. A Canadian couple is lighting up remote, rural villages not connected to the electric grid. Their ingredients: solar panels, high efficiency LEDs, and an innovative combination of development and ecotourism. My story documents a May 2004 trip to rural Bolivia, but Luxtreks’ grass-roots system has brought light to over a thousand homes from Peru to Pakistan. China: “China’s Coal Future” Technology Review, January-February 2007. Northern China is fast becoming the epicenter of China's energy industry thanks to the Shenfu Dongsheng coalfield. With an estimated reserve of 223 billion tons of coal it is one the world's seventh largest coalfields; efforts to convert much of that coal to transportation fuels could make it the world's most profitable while helping to stem China’s growing dependence on imported oil. But the as-yet-unproven coal liquefaction technology employed represents an environmental gamble. Liquefaction plants consume tens of millions of cubic meters of water annually—water that China’s arid north can hardly spare. “China’s Cyclists Take Charge” Spectrum, June 2005. For all the talk of a growing infatuation with automobiles, China continues to roll primarily on two wheels—increasingly driven by an electric motor. In fact, over 1 million clean, quiet electric bikes and scooters ply Shanghai's streets. Nationwide, manufacturers sold about 10 million electric vehicles in 2005. (The Spectrum special issue featuring this investigative piece picked up a Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award.) Libya / Morocco: “Closing the Circuit” Spectrum, November 2008. Engineers working in the teeming cities and lonely deserts of North Africa are creating the last links in a power grid that will ring the Mediterranean Sea. Sharing electricity over this ‘Mediterranean Ring’ could secure Europe’s power supply with clean renewable energy, accelerating North Africa’s development and knitting together two worlds that seem to be racing apart — those of Muslim North Africa and an increasingly xenophobic Europe. Japan: “Hybrids’ Rising Sun” Technology Review, 2004. At Toyota Motor’s sprawling factory in Tsutsumi, Japan, assemblers turn out 400 Prius hybrid sedans every day. It looks much like any other automotive factory floor—and that’s what’s remarkable. Within a decade Toyota could offer the gas-electric combo in every category of vehicle it sells. Detroit is scrambling to catch up. Turkey: “Profile: Hittite Solar Energy” Spectrum, 2012. Concentrating sunlight to produce steam and power has lost its commercial shine amid a glut of cut-price solar panels. A recently recapitalized Turkish start-up plans to put solar thermal back on track. Istanbul-based Hittite Solar Energy's strategy is to overhaul the steam production process and attack a market that photovoltaics canÕt touch. France: ”Nuclear Wasteland” Spectrum, 2007: Nuclear reactors deliver 77% of France’s electricity and Paris-based technology giant Areva is leading the global renaissance in reactor construction. Given such leadership it is thus unsurprising that nuclear boosters in the U.S. want to emulate its method for handling nuclear waste: spent fuel reprocessing, whereby plutonium and uranium recycling shrinks the volume of high-level waste requiring long-term storage. But follow the radioactivity and one finds that France’s system never quite delivers on this promise. “Life in the Fast Lane” TechReview.com, 2006: The moving walkway that shuttles commuters across the sprawling Montparnasse Metro station was nicknamed "TRGV," (trottoir roulant grande vitesse), after France's TGV intercity trains, which average 300 kph. The nickname endures -- with more than a tinge of irony. Designed to be the world’s fastest walkway at 12 kilometers per hour, the TRGV’s overall speed has plummeted to a pokey 4.5 kph -- roughly the stride of a vigorous commuter. Germany: “Germany’s Green Energy Gap” Spectrum, 2009: The majestic offshore-class wind turbines that REpower Systems began erecting near Germany’s coast in 2004 are designed to withstand anything the famously unforgiving North Sea can dish out. Yet they have never felt the spray of salt water. Instead, Germany’s biggest set of offshore turbines tower over communal pasture—above sheep munching, bleating, and adding to the world’s supply of greenhouse gases. A dearth of real offshore wind farms is just one of several signs of a slowdown in Germany’s two-decade-old transition to renewable energy. The country’s balkanized power grid retains a Cold War-era split between east and west and is ill-adapted for renewable energy. Utilities are readying a new generation of coal-fired power plants. And its nuclear phaseout is headed for the scrap heap. Canada: “Digging a Carbon Hole for Canada.” AlbertaViews, 2003. Melt the billions of barrels of hard tarry petroleum trapped in Alberta's oil sands and you have an oil reserve rivaling the Saudi oil fields--plus a heavy environmental price tag. Demand for oil is strong, promising billions of dollars in profits to oil sands developers, and the Kyoto Protocol is simply too weak to stop the party. "On a road to nowhere." Canadian Business, 2000. Visionaries in the Canadian government set the fuel cell revolution in motion. Twenty years later Canadian firms with world-leading technology, including fuel-cell producer Ballard Power Systems, are poised to cash in. Anemic support from Ottawa may squander that opportunity. The Globe: Algeria : Brazil : Democratic Republic of Congo : Denmark : Italy : Norway : South Africa : Spain : Sweden : US : UK : Zambia
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