(Gussing biomass gasification)
The small Austrian town of Gussing is an inspirational example of radical reduction in carbon emissions and new ecologically based sustainable prosperity. They have achieved an incredible 93% reduction in Co2 emissions while creating 1,000 new jobs in a small town of only 4,000 people. The whole region of South Burgenland is now independent of the global fossil fuel based economy; they generate all their own renewable electricity, heat and transport fuels. At the heart of this is a cutting edge wood gasification plant that produces liquid fuels, heat for the town heat main and electricity. The region now has dozens of other renewable energy plants and has attracted new green businesses who want the stable future energy costs associated with sustainable local renewable energy systems and the ethical kudos of their businesses being part of the new low carbon economy. More info on what they’ve done in Gussing can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCssing and http://guessingrenewableenergy.com/
Much of what has been achieved in Gussing could be done in Herefordshire, where I live. Saturday 16th October, 2.00pm at the Shirehall, I’ll be speaking about what Herefordshire could learn from places like Gussing. Please come along! There are so many positive opportunities. This talk is part of h-Energy week. See (although my talk isn’t mentioned on this link) http://www.herefordshirenewleaf.org.uk/h-energy?page=1
Also this week I’d like to flag-up an excellent competition run by Forum for the Future called “Gatecrashing the Energy Sector”. I’ve put in an entry called “Dissemination Global Best Practice”. Getting more people to vote and submit ideas will help the process, and if anyone wants to vote for my idea that would be terribly useful to promote many of the kind of ideas I write about in this blog. Go to http://gatecrashenergy.ideascale.com/a/dtd/82396-10389