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SA's electric car, Joule - Official pics.
Our own electric car is unveiled at the Paris Motor show. This was in
my opinion one of the coolest things to happen last year. Let's all
hold thumbs Optimal Energy gets the investment required to start mass
production. I'd love to have one of these baby's parked in my garage
circa 2011.
Darling wind farm powers up.
Seems like eons ago we first blogged about the Darling Wind Farm, but
it only took around two years to get them up and running. Eskom could
(and should) learn a thing or two about wind-powered energy from these
guys.
Four top edible garden growers.
If 2007 was the year the Worm Bin first became popular in SA, 2008 was
definitely the year to start growing your own. Or have someone else do
it for you. Enter edible garden services.
Cape Town recycling in crisis.
Whilst the City's kerb-side recycling stalled in a number of areas due
to difficulties with contractors, it at least seems like a success for
the Atlantic West Coast / Pinelands areas. 2008 also saw recycling NPO
Fairest Cape as well as Footprints close their doors. Ironic when
interest by consumers in recycling is at an all time high, evidenced by
private recycling collection services springing up in Cape Town and
Joburg.
Solar powered gyrocopter out of Plumstead.
There are a few cool things about Plumstead, one is that it's the home
of urban sprout. Another is that it's the birthplace of the solar
powered gyrocopter. Still a while before we see these taking to the
skies, but we can always hope...
How would you like Eskom to pay you for a change.
On a rare occassion parliamentarians from the IFP, DA, ANC and ID stand
together in favour of a feed-in tariff for private power producers to
be able to sell renewable electricity back to the grid (REFIT).
Unsurprisingly Eskom still tries to put a spanner in the works, but
we'll see as the Feb deadline draws near.
Spekboom soaks up CO2.
Who would have guessed this would have been in the top 10. Must be a
lot of farmers out there searching for a way to earn carbon credits?
The food crisis is here.
Things are looking a bit better nowadays, with good rains, the petrol
price dropping and the interest rates coming down marginally. So how
come the food prices never come down? Our industrial food system is
indeed still in crisis, with bread price collusion recently making
headlines again. I'm sure these giant food corporations smirk when the
competition commission fines them a paltry 6% of turnover.
When the waves hit Cape Town.
Recent storm warnings for KZN highlight that global warming will indeed
affect SA's coastal cities. We spent a few days in Balito last year and
noticed not just one timeshare complex lapped by the waves.
Peak oil theory debunked. Peak what? Now that oil is back at sub $50 dollar-a-barrel prices...
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