Perspective on $13 Billion

$20B for energy independence and growth may seem like a lot of money. Here’s some information to help put the number in perspective. 23 Helicopters for the President of the United States will cost $13B.

Let’s think about that: $13 billion dollars for 23 helicopters. That’s not counting fuel, maintenance, staffing, and repairs.

Read about it here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25585.html

Annual Consumption of Electricity

We have started to read the annual report from the Central Electric Board.

The annual electricity usage was around 2200 GWh in 2007.

We will aim to supply 2500 GWh of wind and solar energy.

Shai Agassi

We seek the participation of Shai Agassi.

Can we replace all the vehicles on the island with electric ones?

Can we trade them all in for new passenger cars, taxis, buses, and utility vehicles? Who will take the used cars off the island and recycle them? Will Renault provide cars at cost? What will the battery fueling infrastructure cost?

Btter Place can guide us. I will reach out.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand

We seek the participation of Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

We wish to show his new movie, Home, throughout the island.

Hydrogen production technology

An interesting article about GE’s hydrogen producing technology.

http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/hydrogen-electrolyzer-award/

Setting the First Meeting

We are setting up our first meeting with stakeholders in Mauritius.

Recap: summarize the project

The Solar Mauritius initiative is fundamentally a global message and symbol marking an inflection point in human history, where we turn our energy production from burning to harvesting; harvesting the sun, the wind, and the tides.

The high-level points are the following:

• We aim to test Prof. Daniel Nocera’s technology breakthrough.
• We aim to install photovoltaic panels in quantity to generate at least the current consumption of the island.
• We aim to raise the standard of living, comforts, and wealth of the nation.
• We aim to create an exporting economy.
• We aim to replicate this program across sun-rich islands large and small.
• Financing for public education, for global PR campaign, and for the implementation of the solar power plants will come from the Mauritian government, from private equity investors wishing to invest in the transformation of the current electrical utility, from the sale of carbon credits, and from EU, UN, and US funds, where possible.

Training may be Needed

Stumbled on this website and this organization that provides a very much needed and useful service.

http://www.sunepi.org/SunEPI/Welcome.html

Some Coal Numbers from Bill Gross

“…coal plants in the United States cause about 24,000 cancer deaths per year. Outside of the priceless value of each life to those families affected, economists have done various studies determining the value of each life between about $1m and $6.5m. Even if you take the low end of that range, that’s $24B per year. Coal plants account for about 49% of the electricity in the United States, or about 1,995 billion kilowatt hours. JUST the life lost from those coal plants, NOT including ANY impact on global warming, is about 1.2 cents per kwhr, on the low end, and 7.8 cents per kwhr on the high end.” read more

Bagasse

Bagasse is a by-product of sugarcane processing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagasse