from the ground Up

About a month after my report on Clean Energy, I came across this Guardian story: “Shell dumps wind, solar and hydro power in favour of biofuels”.

Have to admit it was disappointing to read it, since in my report it was clear that Shell was one of the few oil giants with a comprehensive renewable energy portfolio.

From a business perspective, it shouldn’t surprise that the oil giant has chosen to focus on biofuels since it complements their core business model and capabilities. However, if the richest energy companies in the world are themselves reluctant to fund investments and research into renewables, then the economic viability of such energy sources will be even further out of reach for humanity. Once again, it’s the chicken and egg question.

Shell, as a business, has to answer to its shareholders and justify whatever investments they make. So perhaps it’s left to investors to make their positions clear that they do not mind a slightly lower dividend at the moment, so it could translate into a much larger one when renewables take off in a big way and Shell becomes the market leader.

As it is, it appears that kind of investor’s foresight is lacking. And although focusing on biofuels is not “wrong” as it is a form of renewable energy, it is quite arguably the least efficient and most controversial of the renewable sources. Also, it does nothing to revolutionize the world’s transport system, save for finding another source to fuel combustion engine cars.

That there is a renaissance of the electric vehicle is extremely interesting in these times. Remains to be seen if the powerful energy lobby can once again kill it. But imagine the electric vehicle taking off in urban cities around the world, cars won’t even need biofuels then. What would companies like Shell do then?

by Jessica Cheam, The Straits Times, December 9 2008
Country pushes jatropha cultivation for biofuel market
MAW TIN (Myanmar): A green, leafy shrub has taken root in Myanmar, proving to be a keen rival to the country’s padi fields.
With a greyish-brown bark, large hairy leaves and poisonous fruit, the plant is far from a food crop yet [...]

My jatropha story is not published yet so I can’t write too much about it. But leaving where I left off yesterday, on day 2, we left that desolate yet beautiful resort in Ngwe Saung and drove about two hours along bumpy roads to get to the Mawtin plantation near Pathein.

The broken bridge

The road was even bumpier than the main roads, mainly because it was mostly just a dirt track. At one point we had to get off the car, while the 4×4 drove across the river (thank goodness it was low tide) because the bridge had broken from when the cyclone hit and could not longer take the weight of a car. It was the only time I’ve ever appreciated the merits of a 4×4. But I was happy to get out to stretch my legs. If it weren’t so hot, I would have put on my asics and ran all the way to the plantation. Good marathon training.

When we reached the plantation, rows and rows of jatropha plants as far as our eyes could see greeted us. The green expanse before me stretched out forever, marked only by the different shades of green, gradients of the undulating hills. It wasn’t magnificently striking, but I was overwhelmed with a sense of serenity. And for once I really appreciated the peace and quiet it offered.

I wondered if National Geographic ever got the chance to film any of Myanmar’s wildlife - because I can bet my life on the amazing biodiversity they would discover. Come to think of it, although I watch that channel regularly, I have never once seen a documentary on Myanmar. I can imagine it must be extremely difficult to get permission. But it’s such a shame, because its countryside is so beautiful, untouched, and so vast, you wonder why there’s no mention of Myanmar’s forests as a major carbon sink in climate change talks. Its always Indonesia’s trees and the Amazon that’s mentioned and that needs to be saved.

The model eco-farm

Apparently in the surrouding forest there are wild elephants who come out at night, drawn out by the smell of beans that the farm grows on the plantation. The idea that wild elephants might just “visit”, somehow, struck me as a very romantic. Although, I don’t think the pigs thought so - because apparently the night before we visited, an elephant came in the middle of the night and the pigs got so scared they had a mini stampede and one piglet died from getting trampled on.

If you’re wondering why they had pigs there, it’s because the whole farm/plantation was planned like a model eco-farm. Some 650 local Burmese farmers and workers live in quarters built by the company and they are completely self-sufficient in that they even grow their own food, vegetables, rear their own animals for meals. They even ran the farm on electricity generated by burning biomass - rice husks. Part of their plantation is used to grow rice in padi fields. The bamboo they harvest from clearing the land is also made into eco-bamboo products by the workers in their spare time.

Thinking about it, it only made sense the farm should be self-sufficient, being in the middle of nowhere. Even Pathein - the nearest town, and Myanmar’s fourth largest city - was a bit of a drive away. Anyway, I have to admit I went there with my eyes open, as a naturally skeptical and impartial observer (job pre-requisites), but I left with a good sense that things were being done right and that they were really going about the planting in a responsible manner.

I had such an amazing time, touring the plantation, looking even at boring things like warehouses and tractors. The farm even had a clinic with its very own doctor in it. Malaria cases were tracked on a chart on a chalkboard and pills were neatly lined up on the side of the doc’s desk. The farmers’ families are also invited to live on site with them, such that the attap houses form a village with three generations from grandparents to grandkids. I spotted an old woman staring at me with curiousity, sitting in the doorway, with that pondering-about-life look and I gathered it mustn’t be a bad life, being able to live so close to nature, with your family around you. The kids run around, chasing the black kampung chickens, faced smeared with something the Burmese call “tan nah kah” which essentially is tree bark which they harvest from a local tree and smear on their cheeks as sun lotion. The locals I spoke to swear by it - it shields the sun’s harmful rays plus apparently has firming qualities. It’s true many of the locals have great skin. Shame I didn’t manage to secure bring some back. They tell me it’s only a matter of time before “tan nah kah” overtakes SKII as the leading Asian skin product.

More on the plantation will come later - I will only say that if I do get some time off in the near future, like a sabbatical of sorts, I would even go back to the plantation to live for a month, work up a good tan, plant some jatropha trees, mix with the locals, and just enjoy the nature around me. It was refreshing to be surrounded by trees instead of cars and urban concrete, where water was pumped from underground from a tank, and the eggs we ate were from free-range chickens chased around by carefree kids.

Source: The Straits Times, Mar 13 2008

2 out of 3 operational plants here have stopped production, but some firms remain optimistic
LESS than three years since Singapore identified biofuels as one of the new growth areas and opened its first biodiesel plant to much fanfare, the fledgling industry has fallen victim to soaring palm oil prices.
Of [...]

by Jessica Cheam
ON A small new research farm in Singapore’s rural district, the seeds of a so-called wonder plant, jatropha curcas, have just taken root.
The sprouting of these hardy plants – touted as the “fuel of the future” – could mark a new chapter for Singapore’s fledgling biofuels industry.
Scientists in Singapore hope to develop a [...]

A NEW player is about to enter Singapore’s fledgling biofuels industry – which the Government recently singled out as a strong growth engine. Catalist-listed ArianeCorp, formerly Vikay Industrial, has announced that a United States investor will invest up to $248 million in a stake in the firm at 6.5 cents a share as part of a biofuels project in Indonesia.