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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (1868)	8/19/2005 10:19:48 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24213

Indonesian outage leaves 100m without electricity By Shawn Donnan in Jakarta Published: August 19 2005 01:56 \| Last updated: August 19 2005 01:56 Some 100m Indonesians were without electricity on Thursday as power outages hit the country's main grid, leaving office workers in Jakarta trapped in elevators and the state-owned power monopoly struggling for an explanation. Perusahaan Listrik Negara said power was last night being restored across most affected areas after a failure hit the Java-Madura-Bali inter-connection system at 10.23am, causing outages across the main island of Java and nearby Bali. But Eddie Widiono, PLN's president, warned that yesterday's problems highlighted the fragile state of an electricity grid that almost half of Indonesia's 220m population relies on. In parts, the main transmission lines were more than 20 years old, Mr Widiono told reporters. The outages also highlighted what is rapidly becoming an energy crisis for Indonesia, one of the world's most resource- and energy-rich countries. The World Bank and others have warned that lack of investment in the power sector would create a power-generating deficit as the economy and demand for electricity grew. In January the Indonesian government told investors attending a special infrastructure summit that it needed to add more than 22,000MW of generating capacity by 2010 at a cost of more than $30bn (€25bn, £16.5bn). That would double Indonesia's current capacity of about 23,000MW. To keep up with growing demand, now roughly in line with the country's “effective” generating capacity of about 19,000MW, Indonesia needs to add 2,400MW a year at an estimated cost of $2.5bn annually. Even as it tries to attract fresh investment to the power sector, analysts say Indonesia is struggling to put together an attractive landscape for investors. Many power investors suffered during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis when Indonesia's currency woes caused it to renege on dollar-denominated generating contracts with independent power producers. In a big setback last year, the Constitutional Court struck down a 2002 electricity law that would have opened up the sector to competition and privatisation. The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, which wants to attract $150bn in infrastructure investment over the next five years, has said it is working on a new law. news.ft.com

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (1868)	8/20/2005 12:16:26 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24213

"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry Subject: Amount of land required to grow a person's food patmeadows Woo-hoo! I found some numbers (in addition to those of Jeavons, Duhon, et al.) on the amount of land required to grow all of a person's food - more or less. (See below.) The table below is from 'The Integral Urban House - Self-Reliant Living in the City,' Helga Olkowski, Bill Olkowski, Tom Javits, and the Farallones Institute Staff, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1979. I have copied a portion of Table 3.4, page 58, from this book. Notes: 1. These numbers are for Berkeley, CA - an ideal, or very close to ideal, gardening climate, with year-round gardening. 2. The table purports to show the requirements for 'a family of two adults and two children having a total food-energy requirement of 8000 kilocalories per year and consuming a proportionately higher percentage of fresh vegetables than the average family.' I do not know how to break this down into the numbers for one adult. Maybe two adults plus two children equals three adults? Three and a half adults? ?? 3. Note that the table consists of cumulative numbers (i.e., the second equals the first number PLUS an addition, the third number equals the second number PLUS an addition, etc). Subtraction can of course get the individual numbers for each category of food grown. I've added a few notes to the table - these are explained in the text of the book. Item Square Feet Required A) Leafy greens (eaten fresh) 150 sf B) Dinner vegetables (cooked 600 sf veggies eaten fresh) plus (A) C) Entire vegetable supply 2500 sf (includes storage vegs such as potatoes, onions, winter squash, canned tomatoes, beets, etc.) plus (B) (D) Entire fruit supply plus (C) 3500 sf (E) Grains and cereals plus (D) 25,000 sf (entire supply of fruits and veggies) (F) Forage crops for livestock 100,000 sf plus (E) Note that an acre is 43,560 sf. And there you have it! I have no experience with growing grain (other than as a cover crop) or forage for livestock, but I think the salad greens, fruit, and veggie requirements look fairly realistic, as near as I can judge from my own gardening experience - which is all in a very much less favorable climate than that of Berkeley, CA. Cheers, Pat -- northern Pennsylvania "Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry groups.yahoo.com