United Kingdom: Webinar on Geothermal Heat from Abandoned Coal Mines in Scotland

Webinar – Climate change solutions: Geothermal energy opportunities in Scotland (Scottish Enterprise)

Wednesday, 29 January 2020, 2pm – 4pm (GMT), 6:00 AM – 7:30 AM PST

Scottish Enterprise presents an overview of Scotland’s unique minewater geothermal investment opportunity.

The global warming crisis has highlighted the urgent need for solutions required to help countries to limit their environmental impact through the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions. Scotland is an international leader in combating climate change however there is much more to be done both in Scotland and around the world.

This webinar will explore how the use of geothermal heat from mine water could help on the journey to be a net carbon zero country and how your business could help.

The decarbonisation of heat in Scotland is a major opportunity for companies with technologies and expertise in a variety of industries. Heat currently accounts for 52% of Scotland’s energy demand and 41% of carbon emissions. As a result, meeting the target to reach zero by 2045 will be largely dependent in progress on decarbonising heat. By 2032, the Scottish Government has set a target for 35% of heat for domestic buildings and 70% of heat and cooling for non-domestic buildings to be supplied using low carbon heat technologies. The combination of high heat consumption (as a proportion of total nation energy consumption) and highly ambitious greenhouse gas targets means that Scotland has an earlier and greater need for low carbon heating solutions than other countries.

Mine water geothermal is potentially a crucial technology for the decarbonisation of Scotland’s heat supply. 600 km³ of flooded mine-workings sit under Scotland’s populated Central Belt region, potentially providing between 8-40% of national heat demand.

This webinar will provide an overview of Scotland’s net zero ambitions, introduce a world leading geothermal testing facility in Glasgow, and provide an overview of Scotland’s unique mine water geothermal investment opportunity.

The following speakers are confirmed:

  • Andy McDonald, Head of Low Carbon at Scottish Enterprise
  • Professor Zoe Shipton, Professor of Geological Engineering at the University of Strathclyde
  • Dr Alison Monaghan, Geologist at the British Geological Survey.

Register for the Webinar – Climate change solutions: Geothermal energy opportunities in Scotland.

USA, California: Radio Interview on the Potential for Geothermal Energy in the Golden State

More Energy Expected To Come From Geothermal In California (KPBS)

Two new geothermal plants are in the works in the state, one is in the Salton Sea area and the other is in northern California.

The growth in geothermal is believed to be spurred by a California bill passed in 2018 requiring the state to get to 100% renewable energy by 2045. Clean power from geothermal sources has long been generated in California, but the scale has been small, accounting for just 4.5% of the state’s energy in 2018.

Los Angeles Times energy reporter Sammy Roth wrote about the expected expansion of geothermal energy in the state. He joined Midday Edition to discuss how geothermal makes energy and why it’s poised to grow.

Read More………

Quebec backtracks on decision to permit euthanasia for mental illness

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I reported, last week, that the Québec government officially decided to extend euthanasia to people with mental illness.

Katrina Laframboise with Global News reported that the Québec government is now backtracking on its decision to extend euthanasia to people with mental illness. Laframboise reported:

Health Minister Danielle McCann made the announcement on Monday as a forum on the issue is being held in Montreal, saying the government needs to take more time before expanding the criteria of the law.

“We are taking a pause,” she said.

“We will implement a period of consultations and reflection on this sensitive and complex question,”

Whether I like it or not, because the Quebec and Federal governments did not appeal the lower court decision in Truchon, technically, euthanasia has already been extended to people with psychiatric conditions, as of March 11.

The court decision also extended euthanasia to people for psychological reasons. Canada’s euthanasia law stated that a person qualifies for euthanasia if the:

illness, disease or disability or that state of decline causes them enduring physical or psychological suffering that is intolerable to them and that cannot be relieved under conditions that they consider acceptable 

Before the Truchon court decision, a person did not qualify for euthanasia based on psychological suffering alone because the law required that the person’s “natural death be reasonably forseeable“. Since the court struck down this requirement it means that euthanasia for psychological suffering alone is possible.

Philippines: Indigenous Peoples Give Thanks for Benefits from Mt Apo Geothermal Power Plants

Manobos hold thanksgiving ritual in Mt. Apo for Benefits from geothermal power (Minda News)

Leaders of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) in North Cotabato held a ritual on Friday as part of their thanksgiving for the ‘gifts’ they received from a private company for allowing it to use part of their ancestral domain as site of its geothermal power production.

Leaders from the Manobo Apao Descendants of the Ancestral Domain of Mount Apo (MADADMA) led the ritual they call ‘Sumaya’ at Lake Agco in Barangay Ilomavis.

The Manobos came from Barangay Ilomavis in Kidapawan City and Barangay Kinawayan in Magpet, whose lands are situated within the 10-kilometer radius of the 701-hectare in Mount Apo where the geothermal power plants owned by the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) were constructed in the early 1990s.

The Manobos claim the land as part of their ancestral domain.

During the ritual, MADADMA chair Datu Damaso Bayawan said they appreciate the benefits they continue to receive from EDC as part of their royalty share.

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Kenya: 35 MW Sosian Menengai Geothermal Power Project Gets Green Light

Sosian Energy gets nod to drill Menengai steam (Business Daily Africa)

Local renewable power firm, Sosian Energy has been granted approval to drill geothermal power in Menengai, Nakuru.
The firm got the green light through a notice last Friday by the National Environment Management Authority (Nema). The environmental watchdog further invited the public to share their views on the project within 30-days from last Friday.
The firm, associated with Steel and cement tycoon Narendra Raval, is one of the three Independent Power Producers (IPPs) contracted by the state to build the 105-MW Menengai Geothermal power plant.

Belgian trial draws curtain from dark back-story to euthanasia death

This article was published by Mercatornet on January 27, 2020.

By Michael Cook

The criminal trial of three Belgian doctors for assisting in an allegedly illegal euthanasia of a woman in 2010 is under way. It is the first time that doctors have been charged with an unlawful death since the legalisation of euthanasia in 2002. The accused have been named in the media: the doctor who administered the lethal injection, Joris van Hove; the general practitioner, Frank de Greef; and the psychiatrist, Godelieve Thienpont.

Tine Nys (center) with her sisters.

The parents and two sisters of Tine Nys have succeeded, after nine years of harassing the bureaucracy, in having charges laid. The prosecution alleges that the defendants did not follow the prescribed guidelines for euthanasia in Belgium. Tine was 38 when she died, surrounded by her family, in 2010. The doctors aver that she was suffering from a “serious and incurable disorder”. In her case, it was said to be unbearable psychological suffering.

A few intriguing facts have emerged.

The portrait of Tine Nys grew sadder with the testimony of each witness. She had been estranged from her family for years. She experienced violence in her relationships, she had an abortion, she had worked as a prostitute. “Everything in her life was a failure,” said Dr Thienpont, who diagnosed her as autistic not long before the death. (Dr Thienpont is Belgium’s leading psychiatric euthanasia doctor).

The main lawyer for the parents and two sisters of Tine was forced to step down over a clear conflict of interest. The head of Belgium’s euthanasia evaluation commission, Wim Distelmans, revealed that Fernand Keuleneer had been a non-voting member of the commission when her case was examined. It’s puzzling how a lawyer could possibly believe that this was acceptable. Mr Keuleneer has since been replaced by another lawyer, Joris Van Cauter.

How the doctors broke the Belgian euthanasia law became clearer. Tine had asked Dr de Greef for a letter authorising euthanasia, but he refused. So she went to LEIF, a euthanasia group which supplies euthanasia doctors, and found Dr van Hove. Dr van Hove dropped by Dr de Greef on the evening of April 27, 2010 at 8pm and asked him to sign a paper. Apparently de Greef misunderstood what he was signing, because he claimed to have been aghast when he learned that Tine had been euthanised shortly after the visit.

This occasioned two breaches of the conditions which shield doctors from prosecution for murder in Belgium. First, Dr van Hove had falsely listed Dr de Greef as the first doctor confirming that Tine was eligible for euthanasia. Second, the paperwork arrived at the euthanasia commission nearly four weeks late.

This worries euthanasia doctors. One told the Belgian newspaper De Morgen, “As a doctor, will you still run the risk of performing euthanasia if you know that with that you run the risk of being prosecuted for premeditated murder? Just because your euthanasia certificate did not arrive at the committee within four days?”

Dr Joris van Hove’s seamy background was highlighted in the media coverage. He has been in court before over offenses like drink driving and forgery. In 2017 he was convicted of molesting young male patients. Was his troubled background the reason why he had turned his hand to euthanasia? (On that fateful evening he had to rush off to do another euthanasia after Tine Nys.) Perhaps more testimony will shed light on this. The Dutch medical council has begun disciplinary proceedings against him.

Dr van Hove admitted that he had never done a euthanasia for psychological suffering before and that he had been clumsy. He had not completed his “end of life” training and he failed to administer the lethal injection properly. He did not have a stand for the infusion and the bag plopped onto Tine’s face as she was saying goodbye to her family. He neglected to bring a blank death certificate. It was like asking Mr Bean to perform euthanasia.

However, Dr van Hove told the court that the euthanasia procedure had been carried out within the law. He protested that the very fact that the case had reached the stage of prosecution was a victory for the “hidden agenda” of the Catholic Church.

The general practitioner, Dr Frank de Greef, painted himself as the victim of a charming but manipulative young woman and her angry relatives. When she was diagnosed as autistic by Dr Thienpont, he was thunderstruck. “When I saw that diagnosis, I thought: What kind of stupid person have I been? Look at its history, everything could be explained by that autism. Tine was engaging and intellectual, but also manipulative and looking for conflict.”

The trial continues.

Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge.

Chile: EDC Progressing With 240 MW Mariposa Geothermal Power Project

Compañía filipina que inyectará 240 MW de energía geotérmica suma nuevos avances – Philippine company that will develop 240 MW of geothermal energy makes new advances (La Tercera)

Nuevos pasos ha dado en las últimas semanas el Proyecto Mariposa, ubicado en la VII Región, que busca inyectar 240 MW de energía geotérmica en el país. La iniciativa liderada por la compañía filipina Energy Development Corporation (EDC) ya tiene perforaciones iniciales y actualmente se encuentra elaborando el Estudio de Impacto Ambiental (EIA) para ingresarlo a tramitación.

(From Google Translate) New steps have been taken in recent weeks by the Mariposa Project, located in Region VII, which seeks to provide 240 MW of geothermal energy for the country. The initiative led by the Filipino company Energy Development Corporation (EDC) already has started drilling and is currently preparing the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) to begin the process.

Lee mas………..                                Read More………..

From Global Geothermal News archives: 

Iceland: Countdown to World Geothermal Congress 2020

2020 to become a milestone year for the global geothermal energy sector (International Geothermal Association)

Going into a new decade, geothermal energy is well positioned in the efforts on a global energy transition providing heating, cooling and electricity around the clock

With the beginning of 2020, an exciting year and decade starts for the global geothermal energy community. Convening at the World Geothermal Congress 2020 (www.wgc2020.com) in Reykjavik, Iceland, the geothermal community enters a new period for our industry, rejuvenated and excited with the increasing interest into what geothermal energy has to offer in the global energy transition.

Read More……….

Climate Change: Golden State Leads the Way in De-Carbonization Policies – But Could Do Better

How Even Stronger California Climate Policies Could Spark A $7 Billion Economic Opportunity  (Forbes)

California is a global leader in the clean energy transition, with some of the world’s most ambitious decarbonization policies. But even the Golden State, which met its 2020 greenhouse gas emission reduction target four years early, should be doing more.

Results from the newly released California Energy Policy Simulator (EPS) find the state’s existing climate policy strategy risks falling short of California’s 2030 target of 40% emissions reductions below 1990 levels. Findings suggest 2030 emissions will exceed the target by about 25 million metric tons – roughly 10 percent – even using optimistic assumptions about policy effectiveness.

Six policies to get on track for the 2030 target:

  1. Fortify the cap-and-trade program. 
  2. Modestly boost clean electricity goals. 
  3. Accelerate transportation sector decarbonization.
  4. Jump start building electrification transformation.
  5. Establish a zero emission performance standard for heat in the industry sector. 
  6. Introduce a GHG emission performance standard for concrete production. 

Read More………

Global: Geothermal Installed Capacity at End of 2019 is 15,406 MW – ThinkGeoEnergy

The Top 10 Geothermal Countries 2019 – based on installed generation capacity (MWe) (ThinkGeoEnergy)

Global geothermal power generation capacity stood at 15,406 MW at the year-end 2019. With addition of 759 MW in capacity, this is the largest annual growth of geothermal in the past 20+ years.

Read More………

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