the answer lies within . . . . -Cat Stevens
Oslo has a new power plant up and running as of last week.
The heat pump, a system of compressors and condensers, cost 90 million Norwegian crowns (US$13.95 million) and has an effect of 18 megawatts (MW), enough to heat 9,000 flats or save burning 6,000 tonnes of oil a year.
Two thirds of the plant's heat output is extracted from raw human sewage. More below.
It's really really complicated high tech stuff we're talking about here, folks.
A heat pump.
The technology exists everywhere. The infrastructure required ranges from the utterly trivial to the daunting (in the case of very large urban areas). And the raw material could only be in short supply in conditions so extreme that concerns other than heating would already have changed society entirely.
From Reuters: Oslo's Sewage Heats its Homes
Sewage was flowing into the system at 9.6 Celsius (49.28 Fahrenheit) on Friday and coming out at 5.7 Celsius after heat is extracted with a refrigerant.
The energy in turn goes to warming the water in the 400 km (250 mile) pipe system, fed to offices and homes, to about 90 C from a temperature of 52 C when it reaches the sewerage plant. Other plants, burning industrial waste, also heat the water.
~~~~~
At the opening ceremony for the plant, Oslo mayor Per Ditlev-Simonsen was given a new toilet seat for his office. "It will be an inspiration," he said.
The next logical step is to use the solids as fertilizer for agricultural crops, or perhaps as replacement for
the nutrients now missing from our forests due to human intervention, or in other nutrient-deficient zones. Reintegration. Waste is a verb, not a noun. Properly speaking, there is no such thing as waste; only nutrients, energy, and opportunity misplaced, misused, wasted.
It
can
work.
On a reflective personal note:
The dog returns to his vomit
The sow returns to her mire
And the burnt fool's blackened finger
Goes wobbling back to the fire
"Extreme measures"
That is the dominant tone of the headline writers so far describing the Oslo project. Surely they will do better, especially the British, masters at this sort of thing even when the subject is not scatological.
Extreme compared to what? To James Lovelock's current ideas, seriously received at the Edinburgh International Science Festival over the weekend? He envisions a global heating apocalypse where the countries that can do so head north in pursuit of agricultural land and living space as Britain descends to third world status or worse. From The Scotsman:
How we can avoid doomsday climate change scenario
Instead of "grandiose gestures" about the need for new international treaties, he said the government should be taking practical steps to safeguard the country from the coming storm by building or recommissioning power stations, building flood defences around low-lying, fertile areas such as East Anglia to protect our food supplies, and planning where people from cities like London and Liverpool will move to when they are flooded by rising seas. Otherwise, society would break down and farmers might need to arm themselves to fend of roaming bands of former city dwellers.
~~~~~
Prof Lovelock, whose science festival talk was moved from Edinburgh City Chambers to the Hub venue's main hall because of the demand for tickets, said nuclear power stations should be built or retained to safeguard Britain's energy needs.
Lovelock advocated exploration of such ideas as putting millions of tiny reflecting particles into orbit in a last ditch attempt to turn down the heat. I'm not so sure he is as crazy as he is sometimes made out to be. Should we be looking into reflecting or blocking some of the energy reaching earth?
James Lovelock's current version of optimism is hard to distinguish from grief:
The only hope was that a kind of wartime spirit would emerge to deal with the coming crisis.
Recalling his time as a student before the Second World War, Prof Lovelock said: "Everybody knew something damned awful was going to happen, but nobody seemed to have an idea what to do personally. But when it started, it was amazing how people pulled together and a lot of people enjoyed it. Perhaps a lot of changes [in the climate] will produce that kind of atmosphere and we'll get more co- operation than we would normally get in peacetime."
How extreme?
And what qualifies as exteme, when entire countries contemplate finding a new home? From Nature:
Tuvalu also wants to discuss immigration policies with Australia and New Zealand. More open policies would provide both economic opportunities and the possibility of a new home if, or when, the islands become uninhabitable.
~~~~~
Ideally, {Prime Minister} Toafa would like to buy land in New Zealand or Fiji to resettle the entire nation. "Because we love the sea, we need a place close to the sea. And we know these are very expensive places," Toafa says. But relocation is more than a logistical and economic problem. It threatens their national and cultural identity -- "unless we can develop an
underwater Tuvalu."
(click to enlarge map - Tuvalu is more or less in the middle)
A sinking Feeling
I won't try to condense or quote this article. Read it. It is a look at the rising sea level in Tuvalu, arguments over the reasons, and the varied response. A rise in mean sea level of 40 centimeters could mean the end of Tuvalu, which joined the UN specifically to make itself heard on the subject of climate change. In January and February Tuvalu experienced the highest tides ever recorded. But what does it all mean? A discussion with the local folks. Think what it means to abandon the only home you have ever known. How much better not to believe.
"I always tell my
people you have to
rely on your eyes."
--Hilia Vavae (a Tuvaluan meteorologist)