If jatropha is promoted, it should be done in a responsible manner so that farmers would gain rather than lose money.

On Jan. 25, I was happy to see a full-page ad in the dailies announcing the Philippine Energy Summit scheduled for Jan. 29-31.
Not only was a long-neglected issue getting center-stage attention, it was also being convened by Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, known for his quick and decisive action. However, I noted that the Summit agenda did not include areas that would greatly impact on agriculture, women, and the poor.
Organizations like Pilipina, which may speak on women’s role in energy and Power to Empowerment Development Group, which champions a pro-poor energy policy, could contribute significantly to the summit discussions. It is fortunate that they and the more than one thousand summit participants be given the opportunity to state their views, Business.inquirer.net reported.
At the summit’s start, representatives from the consumer, industry/export, transport and labor sectors were given the chance to speak.
What was particularly glaring was that the large agriculture sector--potentially the source of key fuel solutions, having the means to provide alternatives such as jatropha, sorghum and sugarcane--was not among those identified as important to energy.
What made it worse is that there was not a single speaker from the farmer/fisher sector among the more than 100 scheduled speakers during the summit.
On Jan. 26, we relayed this observation to the summit secretariat. We mentioned that in the water summit held three years ago, the farmers--who use more than 70 percent of our water--were likewise neglected. Has it become a habit to exclude farmers because they do not have access to wealth and power?
Demonstrating his admirable action-oriented style, Reyes himself called during the first hour of the first working day to state that the farmers would have their chance to be heard.
The Summit secretariat complied with his direction, but positioned the agricultural views on the third day. In addition, the agricultural representative was placed in a panel on Easing the Burden to Energy/Power Users. The scope of his speech was limited to the “Impact of Energy Crisis on the Agriculture Sector.“
Though this last-minute inclusion is appreciated, the third day panel placement of the speaker and the narrowness of his topic indicated that the Summit secretariat still has not realized the important role agriculture plays in the energy sector.
On the Internet, there are Web pages that enumerate agriculture’s key contributions to energy.
One such site is “Renewable Energy and Agriculture: A Natural Fit
It states: “Renewable energy and farming are a winning combination. Wind, solar and biomass energy can be harvested forever, providing farmers with a long term source of income. Renewable energy can be used on the farm to replace other fuels or sold as a cash crop.“
To explain this view, adding to it the recommendations of our farmers and fishers on the current energy crisis, Leonardo Montemayor of the Alyansa Agrikultura [Agricultural Alliance] Council of Leaders and Federation of Free Farmers addressed the summit on the third day.
“We must decrease our dependence on fossil fuels,“ Montemayor said. “Agriculture is key to this because it can generate energy from agricultural produce such as biomass, sugarcane, sweet sorghum and jatropha.“
However, he pointed out that there has to be solid scientific and financial basis when these products are promoted. For example, sweet sorghum, as compared to jatropha, has more solid scientific data, detailing even the expected financial returns of each variety of the plant.
If jatropha is promoted, it should be done in a responsible manner so that farmers would gain rather than lose money. The mismanagement of the promotion of ipil-ipil, which resulted in the overall failure of the program in the 1970s should not be repeated.
In promoting energy, the impact on the surrounding community should be identified and addressed, especially if it harms farmers and fisherfolk.
Also, there still exists the problem of the fishers who were displaced by the oil exploration in Tanon Strait off Cebu province. Up to now, their plea for just compensation, as provided by law, beyond the inadequate P1,000 per month per family being given has not been addressed. It is hoped that this summit will result in action on issues such as this. If not, then the summit will be no better than an ATNO (All Talk, No Action) conference.
On Feb. 5, the summit will have a final plenary session, a report of which will be submitted to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. It is hoped that in this report the impact, contribution and role of agriculture will be highlighted, so that agriculture will finally take its proper place in energy and nation building.
By Ernesto Ordonez

Twenty percent of all electricity consumed in Denmark is wind-generated, and Great Britain hopes to light every home in the nation using wind turbines by 2020.

As the cost of oil recently hit $100 per barrel, alternative sources of energy are in great demand by the global population. At the current high rate of oil consumption and low rate of discovery, current estimates call for worldwide oil supplies to be exhausted within 50 years.
Researchers around the world, including at Hopkins, are feverishly exploring cleaner and more sustainable energy sources. Scientists are attempting to maximize the energy output and minimize the cost of a variety of approaches. One group at Hopkins is focusing on wind power, Jhunewsletter.com reported.
Wind power has the potential to become an excellent source of renewable energy, with no carbon footprint, no possibility of wind depletion and a good energy output.
Many countries in Europe have already taken to using wind farms for power. Twenty percent of all electricity consumed in Denmark is wind-generated, and Great Britain hopes to light every home in the nation using wind turbines by 2020.
In the United States, about a quarter of the country’s land area is suitable for wind power production, which would generate more than enough electricity to power the entire country.
Researchers at the Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, led by Charles Meneveau, have been studying the interactions between wind turbines and the surrounding air and their subsequent effects on turbine efficiency and local weather.
Using a wind tunnel, Meneveau simulates actual wind conditions on a small scale, with currents passing through arrays of model airplane propellers. A smoke-like material is then mixed with the air so the movement of the wind can be observed.
A laser generates pulses of light in quick succession, and a camera records the position of the particles during each flash. In this way, Meneveau can generate velocity vector diagrams that allow for highly detailed calculations of the energy carried by wind--the same energy harvested by power plants.
Based on such calculations, wind power can be implemented with greater efficiency, since the positioning of the turbines can be adjusted to obtain the maximum energy input.
Furthermore, Meneveau’s research has demonstrated that clusters of wind turbines have the potential to affect local weather patterns, including humidity and temperature. This is an important issue if wind power becomes more widely used.
These findings have the potential to make wind power one of the most environmentally friendly and affordable sources of energy, curbing carbon emissions and making our planet a little greener.

When 1,800 workers lost their jobs after a Maytag appliance factory and headquarters closed last year in the small town of Newton, Iowa, a wind turbine blade company saw opportunity--an available, skilled workforce in the middle of one of America’s hardiest wind energy production regions.
According to Mcall.com, TPI Composites Inc. is building a plant there as the energy industry aims for a cleaner, more sustainable future. With proper incentives, thousands of “green-collar jobs“ could be created, from ethanol production to wind turbines and solar panels, and all the maintenance and construction to support them, industry officials said.
TPI used to build boats, but switched to turbines in 2001 for the “major growth opportunity,“ said Steve Lockard, chief executive officer of the Phoenix, Ariz., company. The idea, he said, is to “transform the workforce away from the Maytag-type jobs of the past into jobs that can withstand the test of time going forward.“
However, advocates and executives say training is key to making sure the industry has enough skilled workers to make it into a real economic engine, and are pushing for more lucrative tax breaks, much like oil companies already receive, to make it profitable.
With the economy sputtering, even presidential candidates are getting on board. Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both say they would funnel federal money into job-training programs for workers to become skilled in green industries, among other initiatives.
The Republican candidates, too, all have plans they say will stimulate the clean energy sector, but none have specifically addressed workforce training for sustainable energy industries.
For people such as Robert Hughes, who worked at Maytag for 21 years, none of it really matters. He’s been out of work since October. At 55, he was making $22 an hour on the assembly line, and worries that new industries replacing the old manufacturing jobs simply means he will become a relic as they look for younger workers.
TPI promised to create 500 jobs within three years at a base pay of $12.25 an hour, not bad for new workers, but quite a cut for Hughes, who says he might apply for work there anyway.
“I’m encouraging my grandkids to go to college and further their education and get into something other than manufacturing because it doesn’t really hold a promising future,“ he said.
Overall, however, the unions see “an opportunity to restore some of the 3 million jobs in manufacturing we’ve lost in the last seven years,“ said Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council.
But while wind and solar have been seeing steady increases in production and investment, federal tax breaks set to expire at the end of the year and an anticipated shortage of skilled workers could stall growth, experts say.
“Already companies that have invested millions of dollars in this industry are getting nervous,“ said Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association.
An energy bill President Bush signed last year left out tax breaks for clean energy industries. The White House said it needs to focus on programs that expire this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The bill does authorize $125 million for green-collar job training programs, but the industry says that isn’t enough.
The tax credits also are not part of a House passed economic stimulus package endorsed by the White House, although the Senate has included the extensions in its version of the bill expected to come up for a vote this week.
Without prompt action, renewable industry experts say next year’s market growth likely won’t look so good. According to the wind association, when previous tax credits expired in 2004, the amount of wind capacity installed fell by 77 percent.
The federal government must not only extend the tax credits, but provide more money for training workers, said George Sterzinger, executive director of the Washington-based Renewable Energy Policy Project.
If not, manufacturing will go overseas and the jobs will be lost, he said. It makes no sense, he added, to wean America off its dependence on foreign oil only to become dependent on other countries for products in sustainable energy production.
“You look at a wind turbine. It’s got a whole bunch of parts. Somebody makes the blades, somebody makes the tower, somebody makes the gear boxes, the electronic controls,“ Sterzinger said.
“Those parts can come from China, India -- or from Buffalo.“
The wind energy industry currently employs about 45,000 people in the United States and had $9 billion worth of investment last year, a 45 percent increase from 2006, Swisher said.
“Given that growth, we’re already seeing constraints in terms of workers,“ he said.
Swisher estimates that by 2030, nearly a half-million jobs could be created in the wind industry, in manufacturing, construction and operation.
The solar industry, too, is growing. Last year set a record with 314 megawatts of new solar capacity installed in the United States, said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. That’s enough to power about 80,000 homes, he said.
The market was worth just about $200 million five years ago. Last year, it topped $2 billion, Resch said.