Australia: one in five homes uses solar energy

If there is something missing on Australia's Sun. as such, the price of solar power in this country has been decreasing over the past few years. The potential of this form of energy in Australia is such that nine out of ten Australian homes are considering replacing conventional ways by this solar energy.

The latest data of the Statistical Office of Australia reveal that one in every five homes in the country, i.e. 19%, has already installed a solar energy system â€" whether you are a collector, a photovoltaic panel or both. When decomposed this value, the solar collectors represent 5% of the photovoltaic panels and systems 14%.

In 2011, when the Statistical Office started to analyze the presence of solar energy in the country, the houses equipped with some kind of solar system accounted for only 5% of the total households in the country, writes the TreeHugger.

Is in Southern Australia where there are more homes equipped with some kind of solar system. With prices of equipment of this renewable energy decrease the tendency will be a growing implementation of this type of systems.

Foto: InfographicCollection/Creative Commons

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Quercus moved 450 technicians for the efficient consumption of resources

Between September and December this year, Quercus toured all districts of Portugal with the EcoConsumo Project-support tools for the sustainable consumption of water and energy, backed by the consumer Fund, the Directorate General of consumption.

In total 19 awareness sessions were held which reached more than 450 technicians, among employees of joints and Social security authorities, IPSS, water distribution companies and teachers.

The training focused on information and awareness-raising for more efficient consumption habits, referred to the Quercus said in a statement, providing quantitative data on the possible return with the application of more efficient water and energy consumption, wants fewer consumers equipment of these two features.

Foto: Anton Fomkin/Creative Commons

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Israel: massive oil spill in the nature reserve will take years to be cleaned

In early December a rupture in the pipeline from Eilat-Askeon, in Israel, provoked an oil spill for Desert reservation of Evrona near the Red Sea. Consequently, three to five million gallons of oil have spread for about 81 hectares of the reserve.

The oil has accumulated in ravines, but if there is no heavy rainfall may be possible that the crude oil does not reach the sea. However, the ecologists of the Israeli Government indicate that the spill will take years to be cleaned. The Inhabitat writes that cleaning work began, with teams vacuuming the oil and build barriers to prevent oil from spreading further.

"How do you take care of a deer running and limp because of oil? How do you clean the vegetation? This is a very complicated subject, "says the ecologist the nature and authority of parks, Roey Talbi. "We don't have experience to handle a disaster of this scale. The cleanup could take months at best and at worst years ", he adds.

The spill occurred while a section of the pipeline was undergoing routine maintenance. The section between the city of Eilat, on the Red Sea coast, and the city of Ashkelon, on the Mediterranean coast, near the border with Jerusalem. Cleaning work allowed the removal of two million litres of petrol and 20,000 tons of contaminated soil. The cleanup is being funded by Eilat Pipeline Company who Asheklon is owned by the Israeli State.

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Rhinoceros horns worth as much as gold or cocaine in the black market

As the demand for rhinoceros horns increases â€" 30% over the last 13 years â€" the population of these animals is decreasing at an alarming rate. Currently, there are fewer 90% of rhinos in the wild than in 1970.

"In 2013, more than 2,000 horns of rhinoceroses of Africa were trafficked, which corresponds to 30 times more than in 2000," said Celine Sissler-Bienvenu, Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare to the francophone region of Africa, cites the Dodo.

According to the charge, the traffic is out of control and is supported by organized networks. The horns â€" made of keratin, which can be found on the nails and human hair â€" can reach worth € 28,000 per kilogram on the black market Asia, the main destination.

The current value of the rhino horns is equivalent to the price of cocaine or gold on the black market. The comparison is appropriate, given that trafficking in wild animals became intrinsically connected to another type of illicit trade in recent years. The illegal trade in animals is the fourth most profitable illegal activity in the world, after drug trafficking, weapon and human traffic.

Foto: safari-partners/Creative Commons

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The recipe of Honduras that is taking a species of iguana to extinction

The iguana meat is part of a long Central American cuisine. For those who prefer to have these animals as company the idea can be as unpleasant as eating dog meat. But civilised cultures are very different in different parts of the world.

The iguana meat is so popular in Central America that there are farms for breeding these animals in El Salvador, arriving to export meat to Asia and to North America. During a severe drought that affected Nicaragua during this year, the Government advised its citizens consume iguana meat rather than another type of meat.

However, the consumption of iguana meat in Honduras is becoming a problem. Many of the species of iguana that inhabit the territory of the country are already threatened by habitat loss. The iguana Aguán Valley is one of the most endangered species in Central America and, however, is one of the species most sought after for their meat. It is estimated that there are only 5,000 copies in the Aguán River Valley, where are native.

Investigators from the San Diego Zoo and the National Autonomous University of Honduras made an inquiry to the inhabitants of the area to assess the degree of awareness of the population about the decline of species and also to see if there is a way to lock.

One of the main findings of the investigation was the way the iguanas are dwindling and everything is related to the way in which they are cooked. Apparently, the best way to serve these iguanas is with their eggs, which means that when females are hunting are full of eggs and their meat is more valuable.

Thus, the population decreases not only by adult iguanas that are captured as the future generations that never comes. However, in addition to the problem of the eggs, the iguana meat still has a great reputation throughout Central America. In this region of the globe, the flesh of this animal is considered a cure for all ills, from colds to impotence, writes the Motherboard.

This reputation extends to Honduras, where 38 percent of residents polled by the researchers consider that the iguana meat is medicinal. However, the majority of respondents, especially older ones, are aware of the reduction of the numbers on the iguana populations. But the solution to the problem is not simple. This region of Aguán Valley is particularly poor and the population lives in small communities that remain of little agriculture.

The survey denotes that the long-term objectives of conservationists and inhabitants are the same: more iguanas. However, in the short term, there is a conflict of aims.

Foto: Landfotograf/Creative Commons

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A sympathetic pitch contest of Christmas trees

Earlier this month, the Keele Christmas Tree Farm, a farm that is dedicated to the production of Christmas trees, in Staffordshire, in England, organized one of the most unusual casting contests ever seen. The aim was to launch as far and as high as possible a Christmas tree.

Each participant was given a tree with about 1.8 meters and 10 pounds that had to use in two tests: a height and throwing another pitch in distance. Each participant could perform three trials for each of the pitches. For the event were necessary 100 trees.

Although the event seems a waste of trees, the contest was for a good cause, since the aim was to raise funds for Help for Heroes, an organization that helps war veterans who were disabled, writes the BBC.

The contest was inspired by a similar competition that is organized in Germany for at least eight years, which typically occurs after the Christmas festivities. The difference is how the German competition is after Christmas, the Organization invites the participants to take the trees themselves will no longer have use.

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Dubai is selling the cheapest solar energy in the world

The race to provide the market with cheaper solar power energy is being led, at least for now, by the Dubai. This month the Dubai Electricity Water Authority (DEWA) &, the public energy company, announced the sale of solar energy for only €0,05/kWh. This is the lowest price ever per kilowatt hit by solar energy.

The explanation for a price so cheap solar energy can be the past investments made by DEWA. Earlier this year, the company opened a tender for the installation of a solar plant with a capacity of 100 megawatts, which is incorporated in the second phase of the solar Park Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Currently, this park of 40 square kilometers is home to a 23-megawatt solar plant, built in 2013. However, the goal is to reach 1,000 megawatts of capacity in 2017. In order to achieve this objective, the DEWA asked the companies operating in the solar energy sector to submit proposals for a fixed fee over 25 years, referred to the Inhabitat. Of the 24 companies that apesentaram proposals, the winner was the Acwa Power, a Saudi conglomerate, which presented a proposal to sell the energy to the lower price, the €0,05/kWh.

This value means that the solar market in the Middle East is expanding rapidly and competition and this could be the big economic bets of this region of the globe when oil, abundant still here, finish.

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