Eight19 and the "Un-Grid"

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The off grid market continues to expand and attract innovative new business and financial models aimed at delivering energy access for the poor. One of the most recent, Eight19 Ltd., made a splash with an article in The Economist explaining their pay-as-you-go “energy escalator” business model (seen in the graphic above).

We sat down with Eight19 (which takes its catchy name from the time it takes sunlight to reach the earth - 8 minutes and 19 seconds) CEO Simon Bransfield-Garth who offered up a fascinating vision of the future of energy dubbed the “Un-Grid”. Take a minute to read his take below.

So how does eight19 work?

We provide off-grid communities (mostly in Africa) a “pay-as-you-go solar model” personal solar system called IndiGo.  Local people buy scratch cards for around $1 a week which are validated over SMS using their mobile phone and add credit to the IndiGo unit.  By combining solar and mobile phone technology, the IndiGo solar electricity system is inexpensive to buy and allows users to light their homes and charge mobile phones as a service.

We have similarities to other pay as you go offerings (like Simpa Networks). The main difference is we start at a smaller scale (light for 2 rooms and provide a USB for phone charging). This lowers the price point to roughly $1/ week providing an 18 month payback. We offer (like others) a progressive purchase option that enables households to own the system. But we also offer the option to upgrade to a more powerful system. This "energy escalator" business model supports a bottom up approach to electrification and allows users to pay less than half their normal spend on kerosene. 

Let's Focus on Plug-In Cars

There's a new kid in town.

The Ford Focus Electric, the newest all-electric released by a major auto company rolled into the 10th annual Cleantech Forum in San Francisco on Wednesday, a conference put on by the Cleantech Group. The Focus goes into production next month and will be available in New York, New Jersey, and California.

The Focus will soon join the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, and Tesla's Model S as plug-in cars available on the lot. The BMW's Active-E, the Mitsubishi i, and Toyota's Plug-in Prius are to follow. Ford also is getting ready for its plug-in hybrid Fusion Energi and the C-Max hybrid. 

"We are bullish on this as a way to meet our CO2 commitment," said Mike Tinskey, Ford's Associate Global Director, who added that the EV race is "a marathon, not a sprint." The company wants these new models to represent up to 20 percent of global production by 2020, and plans to hire thousands of engineers and workers to meet its goals. 

All of these cars mark a new beginning for the fuel economy. Last summer, the Obama administration introduced carbon pollution standards of 54.5 mpg by 2025, which will save tens of billions of dollars, drastically reduce our oil dependency, and have the effect of shutting down 72 dirty coal plants for a year. These standards will also push automakers to manufacture more EVs and hybrids to meet these requirements and help wean the country off oil.

March Madness: House Republicans miss game winning shot on transportation

With time expiring this Saturday on the current transportation bill, the House of Representatives was poised to hit a shot at the buzzer by passing a broadly supported two-year transportation bill already passed United States Senate (winning the support of half of Senate Republicans).

Instead of hitting the game winner, though, Speaker Boehner and House leaders simply added three more months to the shot clock.

Two weeks ago the Senate passed a two-year transportation bill, called MAP-21, with an overwhelmingly bipartisan majority of 74-22. This bill, while not perfect, takes critical steps to reduce our dependence on oil, repair our infrastructure and move our transportation system into th 21st century. Importantly, as we enter the construction season, it would provide a shred of certainty to states and towns that are trying to plan and build their transportation systems.

Fearing that the House might actually pass the bipartisan Senate transportation bill if it was brought to a vote, Speaker Boehner only allowed the House to vote on extensions of the current law. Even that proved difficult, as three times in three days the Speaker was forced to cancel a vote on an extension because he lacked the necessary votes to pass them.

On Thursday, the fourth time was the charm, and the House passed its three month extension. Rather than see 1.8 million Americans left unemployed due to the House’s inability to pass a long-term transportation bill, the Senate acquiesced and agreed to that extension. They simply had no other option.

So again, why did House Republican leaders not want to pass the Senate transportation bill agreed to by half of their Senate Republican colleagues?  

"Our Land, Our Decision" - Kosovo Protests World Bank and U.S. Plans For New Coal

Today's Obiliq protest against coal.

While the U.S. has stopped building new coal plants, and has rejected 166 proposed coal plants in the past decade, some of our government institutions are, inexplicably, trying to force new coal plants on other countries. In Europe, local Kosovars are fed up with an increasingly corrupt process to push forward an unnecessary and polluting new coal-fired power plant. They are sick and tired of being steamrolled by the World Bank and U.S. government, which came to the country with a decade-old project in tow that they refuse to update to reflect 21st century realities.

This refusal is all the more damning with recent allegations of corruption being heaped upon this already controversial project. With official venues for communication broken, locals have decided they have no option but to resort to protest. Today, the people of Obiliq gathered with civil society organizations to protest the inherent corruption driving the environmental and health impacts their town will face if the plant is built. (The photos in this post are from today's protest.)

The final straw came in response to allegations of corruption leveled by a local political party Alliance for the Future of Kosovo. These allegations apparently forced two companies that were pre-qualified to withdraw from the process. This should have given authorities pause. Instead, on the very same day, the World Bank announced its support, in principle, for the project. Locals were speechless.

All Signs Point to Yes: Romney Supports Tax Giveaways for Oil Companies

Today, with the Senate voting on a proposal to end tax giveaways to the five largest oil companies, Mitt Romney still has not been forthright about his position on the issue. Previously, when asked, Romney said that he hasn’t looked into oil subsidies, but added that all corporate tax rates should be cut.

Still, it doesn’t take a detective to figure out what his position is on the subsidies issue – all the signs are there:

• Romney has again announced his support for Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget, which maintains $40 billion in tax subsidies for big oil companies.

• Romney’s chief energy advisor, billionaire oil executive Harold Hamm, has vocally urged Congress to maintain the tax breaks he enjoys.

• Romney’s already taken nearly $800,000 in contributions from the oil and gas industry.

• Aside from a legion of hedge fund managers, Restore Our Future – the pro-Romney Super PAC – has also received more than $1 million from the oil and gas industry.

Mitt Romney probably doesn’t pump his own gas, but he definitely has some friends who are oil executives. They’ve got his ear and they’ve lined his pockets, and they are counting on him to maintain their precious tax breaks. It’s time for Romney to stop dancing around the issue and admit that he wants taxpayers to subsidize his Big Oil friends who are making billions off of skyrocketing gas prices.

-- Tony Cani, Sierra Club Political Director

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Learn more about the positions of the Republican Presidential Primary candidates at Realrepubs.com.

The Sierra Club Voter Education Fund’s Real Republicans project seeks to educate voters about the records of the 2012 GOP presidential candidates by highlighting their extreme positions on public health and other issues of critical importance to the American people and encourage the public to find out more about the candidates and their positions on these issues.

New Videos: Coal Will Say Anything

The pollution caused by coal is serious business, as are the devastating affects coal pollution has on our health, our mountains, our air and water, and our planet. But sometimes the claims made by coal boosters are truly absurd, and the Sierra Club has just launched a new series of videos spoofing industry attempts to dismiss the very real harm that coal pollution causes.

I may be dating myself here, but I grew up watching the PBS classics, and so one of my favorite videos in the series is the one featuring painter Bob Ross. He always made it look so easy to plant those happy little trees. In our new video, a coal executive does a voiceover for Bob Ross as he paints a mountain: "Now, you can see where we've blown the mountaintop, exposing the coal. Scrapey scrapey, good bye lakey! And all the rivers and creatures as well."

I hope you'll check out the full set of videos here, and then share them with your friends - we launched these two videos this week, and we'll be releasing three more in the coming weeks. You can also "like" Mr. Coal on Facebook and follow him on Twitter for more of his crazy talk.

These videos underscore how truly ridiculous it is for the industry to claim coal is safe and harmless. After all, every year, coal pollution contributes to 13,000 premature deaths, triggers 200,000 asthma attacks, and exposes 300,000 newborn babies to dangerous levels of mercury. Mountaintop removal operations have blown up over 500 mountains, and buried over 2,000 miles of streams with rock and debris.

That's why Americans have rejected 166 new coal fired power plants, and why over 100 plants are now announced for retirement. America is moving beyond coal, to clean energy solutions like energy efficiency, wind, and solar that are creating tens of thousands of jobs, and sparking innovation that will power our country and our economy in the 21st century.

So help us spread the word. Enjoy these videos, and tell your friends - coal will say anything!

-- Mary Anne Hitt, Director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Wind Energy

Baseball is just around the corner. And there's no better way to bring in Opening Day with some ... wind energy.

The Cleveland Indians have installed a 3,000 pound turbine in time for the home opener on April 5. The turbine is a  "helical wind turbine," which incorporates an innovative design meant for urban areas with restrictive spacing. You can view pictures here. The turbine's capacity is 25,000 kilowatt-hours, "enough electricity to power two typical homes for an entire year," according to the Indians.

Here's more:

The Indians hope the turbine will cut costs, increase its use of renewable energy and potentially create new jobs in the region with the development of new technology.

"With this project we hope to not only benefit the environment by increasing our use of renewable energy, but also help an impressive new technology generate local jobs by taking advantage of Cleveland's great manufacturing workforce and factories," said Brad Mohr, assistant director of ballpark operations. 

The turbine is being mounted on the ballpark’s southeast corner. It will be illuminated with colored LED lights and can be seen by anyone traveling into downtown on roadways from the south.

Now that's something even Ricky Vaughn can get behind.

-- Brian Foley

The Spark That Ignited India's Grassroots Anti-Coal Movement

India’s grassroots are on fire. All across the country a social crisis is brewing as a wave of coal plant proposals creates a toxic brew of land acquisition, corruption, and environmental degradation.  Now a new TV documentary captures the dark side of this coal boom exposing for the first time to a global audience what Indian communities are facing:

The story of grassroots resistance to this boom however has not yet been told. Communities and activists all across India are increasingly standing up for their right to a clean environment and a prosperous livelihood. While these protests have grown in breadth and depth, it was only recently that one community’s fight was able to ignite the tinderbox that India’s coal rush had created.

That community was Sompeta. In January 2010, more than 3,000 community members stood up and fought plans to sacrifice their land, their water, their air and ultimately their livelihoods for a new coal plant. Their protest was met with brutal repression, including the deaths of three community members. This valiant struggle galvanized public opinion and ground the project to a halt.

Now all across the country communities and activists are inspired by Sompeta, and they are fighting back. Here is a video I made that tells their story:

-- Justin Guay, Sierra Club International Program

Oil Spill: Tanker Collision Spills 450,000 Gallons in Port Arthur, Texas

Big Oil has a shameful history. That’s why in this series we arehighlighting some of   its mostrecent disastrous oil spills and raising awareness of the devastation that will occur if the industry is allowed to drill in the Arctic and off our coasts. Join us in the effort to protect our special places from drilling!

The Eagle Otome, one of Exxon Mobil’s chartered oil tankers, collided with an outbound vessel towing two barges in the harbor of Port Arthur, Texas on July 25, 2009. 450,000 gallons of oil spilled into the water, contaminating a 2 mile radius in the Port Arthur waterway. The barge that collided with te Eagle Otome was carrying a heavy load of chemicals, adding a great risk for further contamination.The Coast Guard closed the waterway to thru traffic for cleanup operations, harming businesses dependent on ship traffic.

This was the largest spill Texas had seen in 16 years. The magnitude of the spill called for an evacuation of all residents within 28 blocks of the spill; a great inconvenience to say the least. The toxic spill oiled birds, threatened lakes, marshes, sensitive wildlife sanctuaries and wetlands around the Port Arthur area. These areas are considered extra sensitive because they are home to juvenile shrimp, fin fish, and many bird species.

Join us in telling President Obama to protect America’s Arctic from the dangers of drilling!

-- Jessie Tucker

New Carbon Pollution Safeguards Will Protect Our Health, Our Children's Future

Today, our nation is taking a historic step for our health and our children’s future. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Obama Administration have just announced new carbon pollution safeguards that will protect clean air and the planet, while also spurring innovation and creating jobs in the clean energy economy.

Carbon pollution is linked to life-threatening air pollution like the smog that triggers asthma attacks, and it is the main contributor to climate disruption – making it a serious hazard to Americans’ health and future.

EPA today established new proposed safeguards under the Clean Air Act to protect Americans from dangerous carbon pollution produced by new coal plants.

These standards will protect Americans' health, our economy and the future of our children, from carbon's threats. Before today, there were no limits on the amount of carbon being spewed into the air by the nation's largest sources of carbon pollution: dirty coal-fired power plants.

Concerned about these dangers, Americans have repeatedly said no to new coal-fired power plants for the past decade, defeating 166 proposed coal plants across the nation. Now, as the Sierra Club's executive director, Michael Brune, said today in a press statement, "These first-ever carbon pollution standards for new power plants mean that business as usual for the nation’s biggest sources of carbon pollution, dirty coal-burning utilities, is over."

As I’ve said before, a growing body of scientific evidence shows that warming temperatures caused by industrial carbon pollution pose a number of threats to our health and families, including worsening smog pollution, which in turn triggers asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses.