Energy, the Challenge for the world

Report in the Wall Street Journal of Oct 02:

For more than a century, producing power has been a matter of flipping a switch. Things won’t be that easy as the world goes for energy from renewable sources. Winds tend to blow harder at nights, a problem, since people use electricity mostly during the day. Sunshine can lose its intensity in seconds if eclipsed by a cloud, inconvenient for people who like their air conditioners to run steadily on summer days. Wind and solar energy cannot be stored, as storage technology is still embryonic. And so the search for ways to accommodate the vicissitudes of wind and sun continue to shape up as one of today’s great technological quests.  

Many countries are pledging to produce 20% of their energy from renewable sources within about a decade. This will be a major stretch. Recession has severely crimped renewable energy investment. Proposals to turn over large swathes of desert and coastline to renewable energy generation are encountering angry opposition.

Currently, every wind farm and solar installation has to be backed up by a nearly equivalent amount of conventional fuel to keep the power grid running. That raises costs. Also required is investment in high voltage transmission lines to carry renewable electricity from remote areas to the cities.

In 2008, thousands of wind turbines installed across the US collectively produced only 1.3 % of actual electricity. Most of the wind turbines are located in Bonneville service area at the Columbia river gorge. This Tuesday at 1.00 a.m the wind farms were cranking out 1,550 megawatts. By 7.00 a.m that fell to about 800 mw, just as people were waking up and turning on their lights and toasters. That night, when most people were asleep, wind power topped 2,000 mw.

Most of the electricity in the Bonneville area comes from hydroelectric power. Water release from the dams is reduced to  make use of the wind power, but when wind is blowing hard, Bonneville releases extra water down the spillways without generating electricity to protect the system wires from overheating. And when the wind is so strong that Bonneville cannot ditch enough water, the utility orders wind turbines to shut off.

Texas produces more wind power than any other state. At 3.00 p.m on Feb 26, 2008, wind farms were throwing off about 2,000 mw  electricity, enough to serve about one million households. Then a cold wave blew in making the Texans turn up their heat. However, by 6.30 pm – when energy demand typically peaks – wind production had cratered to about 360 mw.  Ercot, the operator of Texas electric grid scrambled. It cut off power to various industrial customers. To avert situations like these, Ercot has hired a company to provide, an hourly forecast of how the wind will blow at every wind project on the Ercot grid. A very expensive arrangement.

Just after midnight on Christmas morning, 2007, an unexpected wind surge hit Colorado, a state with a lot of wind turbines. It sent power production soaring on the system operated by Xcel Energy. “We were walloped” says the vice president of the company. To compensate, Xcel scrambled to dial down some of its fossil-fuel power plants. Those plants were never designed to ramp up and ramp down at the level we are asking them to do. In this age of renewable energy, “We are learning as we go”.

My question is, if the American are still learning, what hope have we of successfully harnessing wind and solar power at affordable cost. What has not been mentioned in the above report is that water is as much a renewable source of energy as is wind and solar. And we have the technology for harnessing water power to produce cheap and clean electricity.

Have Political appointments proper place in Foreign Service?

Dr. Hamida Rajput

Like each of their predecessors, President Zardari and PM Gilani are being charged with the appointment of their cronies to represent Pakistan as ambassadors.

This issue is as old as the country, though the contemporary challenge relates as much to popular skepticism about the huge amounts of money in politics as it does to the practice of appointing non-career and inexperienced citizens to these diplomatic jobs.

Recently for the first time in th ehistory of foreign service of pakistan,officers raised their voice and went to the court against the appointment of DMG officer as ambassador of pakistan to paris.however,it is ironical to note that none of them find it prudent to include other persons enjoying the perks and damaging the cause of country at state funds.the noted cronies appointed on the political basis are ambassador in UAE,UK,Newyork,washington,Brunei,iran and yemen .As sane citizen of pakistan,I would have included all the appointees whose qualification is nothing more than the friend or party loyalist.The zardari Gilani and kayani troika are getting their cronies appointed on prized postings but foreign office gurus don’t fell itr fit to raise voice aginst it.in england a new post of minister was created to accomadate one Kayani on diplomatic seat.It is neither pointed out in the press nor included in the case against Jehanzeb khan.why it was person specific,why not general against all pigmies out to grab the posts and do nothing but to damage relations during their hybernation period. My perspective is that the debate should have been multi dimensional. It must listen to all concerned and persons should go through a very thorough vetting process.

The argument in favor of career diplomats is that they have extensive multicultural experience and language skills, they know the art of diplomacy, and they understand the functions of a complex embassy environment. The best career officers also have mastered the challenge of representing U.S. administrations that have shifted policy positions, sometimes rather dramatically.

Political appointees, on the other hand, are reflections of the changing political scene. They have been in the trenches with the new regime during long campaigns or late night mehfils, a democratic process that never fails to capture the attention of our foreign friends. They also reflect the pluralism of our society, in most cases the high standards of professions as diverse as business, the law, academia or science must be tapped to serve but merit not affiliation should decide the appointments..

The vetting process must be extensive. It includes an IB investigation and foreign office panel should interview them to evaluate and explore every public utterance of the nominee.

Then the senate foreign relations committee should put the candidates through more rigorous questions designed to determine political vulnerability. The majority party in the confirmation process should try to know whether the other party has the evidence to embarrass the government over the appointment.

The chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee be given the power to decide whether to allow a nomination to proceed to a hearing and a vote.

When a nominee emerges through this process as a Senate confirmed ambassador, it must then be frustrating to read that somehow one's appointment is tainted because of legitimate and legal participation in the political process.

At present we are experiencing large share of duds, people who are all ready to embarrass the country. I think of the ambassador to Yemen a few weeks back, a former professor who was selected in part because he is best at sycophancy by PM Gilani. It might have been better if no one in Yemen would have noticed him.

Here is the ambassador who routinely fell asleep while talking, the victim of a strong appetite for free alcohol. These are exceptions, but the damage done far outlives the tenure of these sad cases. He is representing Islamic Republic with half naked wife in receptions and hotel lobbies in this conservative Muslim country.

To further impair the relations,he has been coming late to the embassy,discouraging his number to to work.He has been living in th ehotel sheraton on state expenditure since his arrival,taking his wife and young daughters to show ignorant people of sanaa the enlightened moderation every day.While sitting in the office neither he does nor he asks others to work.It is pertinent here to point out here that since last six years there was political ambassadors,he virtually kept embassy out of diplomatic business.it was considered that pakistan has closed embassy.When he left in last august the officer incharge who was from OMG kept his tradition alive.in may 2009,a officer from foreign service took over as CDA.He was looking like talibans and extermist but in few days he made the Embassy alive in all fields.He arranged community dinner on 11^th june a huge gathering at embassy.A fund raising function was arranged on 25^th june.Pakistan School sanaa celebrated its annual function with minister education presiding.The School was great concern for all pakistanis and yemeni parents in sanaa.the embassy has remained aloof and former principal has made it government school.this man took pain of reviewing syllabus,making it at par with international schools. He established computer lab, language lab, website and renovation of school at war footing. it was all done within six weeks of his arrival. He worked very hard to meet traders, government functionaries, awakened TDAP, BOI and ministry of commerce. He met governors, ministers and leading business people. it has made us for the first time proud of our embassy because news was almost every day on the government TV. People were talking about Pakistan . It is not the end of story; he has kept community involved in all activities to attract importers to Pakistani products. He visited prisoners in all towns of Yemen . He met lawyers, judge's ands law ministry officials just in three months of his tenure.

Visiting but he brought four ministers in two months. He went further and got approval from minister higher education for graduate classes in evening. He got plots from governors of Taiz and Aden . The first medical delegation of Yemen visited Pakistan in ramzan and second was about to leave in late October. Pakistani ministers of trade and industry and education were invited by their Yemeni counterparts. You would be surprised that how could I know all facts, for your kind information all was published in local newspapers. The most interesting was the 14^th august celebrations, which were held first time in our twenty years at such high scale in the Embassy.Yemeni graduates of pakistani universities were invited on Iftaar dinner,jouranlists and business people were invited to listen to the potential of pakistan in all fields.Iftaar was also arranged for all community and Chan Raat including eid millan where we all participated due to this officer.The arrogance of lady ambassador was felt by all ladies in all functions.

But alas! A political crony took over in mid September and all activities were suddenly stopped. He started reversing all his revolutionary decisions and only enjoying free dinners at the houses of influential Pakistanis, whose children study in American school. He is appointing his wife as headmistress as she was teacher in beacon house. He has dismantled the system of autonomy and accountability of teachers. He has kept school closed on the advice of incompetent teachers who did harm the school in past whereas all other private schools are open. Top of all the open door policy of Foreign office officer has been abrogated. The only good thing for this good old professor is his glamorous lady, who is seen like Indian ladies in all functions. We are really ashamed of his actions and behaviors.

You are kindly requested to give this piece of writing due place in your live discussion. if you want to disclose my name, I don’t mind, but embassy would surely try to punish me. I am ready to face it for the sake of my beloved country. Please wake up the rulers Yemen is one of the crucial markets where we can grab market if aggressive work is done. The good work has been stopped by this political crony in the interest of country.

 

Sanaa, yemen