Calgary produces more carbon dioxide per person in an urban setting than smog-filled Mexico City or New York City, according to a report by the United Nations.

Going by new international measuring standards, Calgary produces 17.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide per capita, ranking it fifth-highest in a comparison of 50 global cities.

Toronto and Vancouver, the only other Canadian cities surveyed, had emissions of 9.5 tonnes and 4.9 tonnes, respectively. That brings them near the middle of the pack, along with Tokyo and Mexico City.

The electrical grids in those cities run on hydro or nuclear power, whereas Calgary relies on coal-fired electrical plants that create more emissions.

“Calgarians get their power from burning coal. They live in a fairly sprawling city and because we have large homes and we really have no climate regulations in Canada, it’s not surprising at all,” said Chris Severson-Baker of the Pembina Institute on Tuesday.

“Every time they turn on the lights, turn on their TV, they’re essentially burning coal, and that is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and something we could do a lot of work on to reduce.”

The UN Environment Programme report was prepared for last month’s World Urban Forum. Only Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Denver and Rotterdam, Netherlands produced more CO2 than Calgary, according to the study.

“It is not a good position for the city to be in,” said Rick Ciezki, the City of Calgary’s manager of environmental assessment and liabilities. “Obviously we want to improve that and drop lower, if not completely off the list.”

The UN used statistics from 2003 provided by the city. Even taking into account green initiatives — such as wind power running the C-Train system and greening the city’s corporate electricity use by 2012 — Ciezki said the UN’s rating is likely fair.

“I wouldn’t dispute them necessarily. We do have a higher emission number and higher ecological footprint. I think the thing to emphasize here is the work we’re doing to reduce that,” he said.

Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice, who is an MP for Calgary, acknowledged the city’s high ranking also comes from Calgarians’ heavy use of vehicles.

“In any city there’s certainly room for improvement,” he said from Ottawa.

Higher density, fewer emissions

The UN findings suggest cities with higher densities such as New York City generate fewer emissions per person.

Calgary Ald. Brian Pincott, who sits on the city’s environment committee, said higher density — in general, where residences, amenities, and public transit are built close together — can help, but only if it’s done correctly.

“What does that density look like? What does the transportation look like? Where do you actually buy your groceries? Where are your schools? Do you walk to those things? Where are your jobs?” said Pincott.

“How do you live in relation to public transit? It’s those kinds of things that have to go into making a sustainable, viable, livable city.”

The new, user friendly website is a comprehensive resource for businesses that are looking to reduce their electricity bills and go green. LED Light Works have created an online platform that not only educates customers on the newest evolution in lighting but also provides a cornucopia of resources. These include a profile of their diverse product range, lighting solutions, an interactive news facility, and social networking links that allow users the option of keeping up to date with company news and international LED research and development.

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The audit, by the Global Carbon Project, found carbon dioxide levels from human activities are increasing by about 2 per cent per year, or 1.3 tonnes of carbon per capita.

The good news is that carbon dioxide levels are slightly lower than previous years due to the global financial crisis.

“That’s a little bit less than through the previous seven or eight years when they’ve been increasing at over 3 per cent per year, so there has been a slow-up,” said the CSIRO’s Dr Michael Raupach – one of 30 scientists contributing to the audit.

“It’s partly the beginning of the effect of the global financial crisis. By 2011, emissions will have recovered to something like 3 per cent per year, roughly what they were before the global financial crisis.”

Scientists blame an increasing use of coal for the continuing rise in carbon emissions.

Dr Raupach also blames growth from developing countries like China, where exports and the production of manufactured goods are booming.

“That fraction is very likely to continue to increase because growth rates in the developing nations are very high,” he said.

“China at the moment has a growth rate for both its economy and emissions of the order of 10 per cent per year.

“With growth rates like that it’s pretty much inevitable that there will be a continue in emissions increases coming from developing countries.”

Australia in the bad books

But Dr Raupach says Australia does not come out clean either.

The 2008 assessment found the nation’s CO2 levels are continuing to rise and among developed nations Australia has the lead on a per capita basis.
“In the basket of developed countries, we compare with the US (its emissions are almost flat at the moment), countries like Canada, with the EU countries, and in almost all of those countries we exceed their emissions rate,” he said.

Based on this latest audit, scientists say the planet is continuing to track close to the worst-case scenario, with carbon dioxide emissions estimated to have increased by 41 per cent since 1990 levels.

Professor Matthew England from the University of New South Wales warns if those levels are not stabilised or reduced, then the outlook for the planet is bleak.

“What this means is we’re looking towards, say at the end of this century, being at a global average warming of up to 7 degrees Celsius if this goes on for many more decades,” he said.

“And that level of climate change is in some sense unthinkable.”

By environment reporter Sarah Clarke

If a time traveller from a hundred years ago were to visit a home today, much of the technology would be completely alien. The television, cordless phone and computer would probably leave him flabbergasted. But on seeing a light bulb, he might say, “Ah! Here’s something I recognise. A few of those grace my home, too.”

If the visitor comes back in 15 years, the fruit of Thomas Edison’s bright idea may be gone. The likely replacement: light-emitting diodes, or LEDs.

LED lamps were unthinkable until the technology cleared a major hurdle just a dozen years ago. Since then, LEDs have evolved quickly and are being adapted for many uses, including pool illumination and reading lights, as evidenced at the Lightfair trade show here this week. More widespread use could lead to big energy savings and a minor revolution in the way we think about lighting.

LEDs have been around since the 1960s, but have mostly been relegated to showing the time in an alarm clock or the battery level of a video camera.

They haven’t been used as sources of illumination because they, for a long time, could not produce white light – only red, green and yellow. Nichia Chemical of Japan changed that in 1993 when it started producing blue LEDs, which combined with red and green produce white light, opening up a whole new field for the technology.

And the industry has been quick to exploit it. LEDs are based on semiconductor technology, just like computer processors, and are increasing in brightness, energy efficiency and longevity in a way that is reminiscent of the way each year’s new crop of processors is faster and cheaper.

Just this week, researchers at the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, said they had boosted the light output per watt of a white LED to almost six times that of an incandescent light bulb, beating even a compact fluorescent bulb in efficiency.

The current generation of mass-produced white LEDs is not as effective. It is about twice as good as a light bulb of the same wattage, but the energy savings aren’t enough to overcome the major drawback of being expensive.

“It’s hard to convince consumers based on energy savings alone,” said Nadarajah Narendran, director of lighting research at Rensselaer. “If you look at compact fluorescent lamps, they’re four times as efficient as incandescent lights, and how many homes have those? It has less than 5 percent penetration.”

But development is brisk, and the US Department of Energy has estimated that LED lighting could cut national energy consumption for lighting by 29 percent by 2025. The total savings on US household electric bills until then would be $US125 billion ($A162.49 billion). LEDs have other advantages that are propelling them into niche uses, despite their upfront cost.

Current white LEDs will last up to 50,000 hours, about 50 times as long as a 60-watt bulb. That’s almost six years if they’re on constantly. Hotels are interested in using LEDs in bedside lamps to save them the trouble of replacing burned-out bulbs, said Jim Anderson of Lamina Ceramics, which showed off a 6-watt array of LEDs that produce light equivalent to a 20-watt halogen bulb.

LEDs are also durable. Being solid-state, they can resist the vibrations in aircraft and cars, according to Narendran, who has worked with Boeing on designs for aircraft cabins.

General Electric and smaller iLight Technologies of Evanston, Illinois, make glowing LED signs that look like neon.

Neon lighting is a leading cause of fires at restaurants and the signs are vulnerable to vandalism. By contrast, LED signs made of Plexiglas are tough. At the trade show, iLight exhibited an LED sign that still worked after taking a blast from a shotgun.

The feature of LEDs likely to propel them into homes is aesthetic, not practical. Arrays that mix red, green and blue LEDs can produce any color of the rainbow. Instead of a dimmer, you might have three sliding knobs that let you mix color.

“On a very hot day you might want blue light to cool it down a bit, or on a winter day you may want to simulate sunlight,” said Steve Landau of Lumileds Lighting, an LED-making joint venture of Agilent Technologies and Philips Lighting.

Qantas Airways the Australian airline, recently outfitted its first-class cabin with LED lighting that shines a deep blue when it is time to sleep. A system like that would be too expensive for most homes, but industry experts believe the price will come down in a few years as the technology develops.

“We are still in a very young research environment,” said Norbert Hiller, vice president at Cree Inc. of Durham, N.C., which produces blue and green LEDs. “Our researchers keep surprising us.”

Ann Arbor will continue streetlight upgrade while a University of Pittsburgh study makes the case for LEDs

Municipalities around the world realize the potential energy and maintenance savings associated with LED street lights, and more conversions are underway. Ann Arbor, MI was an early convert and is now planning a larger deployment. The University of Pittsburgh has completed a study that recommends in large-scale conversion in Pittsburgh, PA. Meanwhile, the conversion to LED traffic lights is much further along, but some new grant money will further accelerate that movement.

Ann Arbor actually made news a few years back becoming one of the first municipalities in the US to install LED-based streetlights. As LEDs Magazine reported in 2007, the city trialed 25 fixtures with subsequent plans to convert 1000 fixtures. Last year, ElectricTV.net featured a video about the project. The city claimed that the savings they have experienced with their initial program leads them to believe that they can recover the cost of replacing all 6600 lamps in town in just four years.

Fast forward to now, and the city is apparently ready to move forward with the program. AnnArbor.com is reporting that the city will convert 800 more lights by the end of 2011. The latest upgrade is being funded by a $1.2 million grant courtesy of the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Conversion Block Grant Program.

The Ann Arbor city governemnt has taken a very proactive stance promoting LED usage. The city’s Energy Office has a web page dedicated to LEDs including a whitepaper developed by the office. The web site states the goal of cutting the streetlight energy bill in half.

In Pittsburgh meanwhile, the university’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation has completed a 72-page in-depth study on LED streetlights entitled “Life cycle assessment of streetlight technologies.” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first reported the story that concludes that the city could save $1 million per year in energy cost and $700,000 per year in maintenance cost via a conversion to LED streetlights.

Moving to traffic signals, LED traffic lights were in the news a few weeks back because of safety concerns focused on snow blocking LED bulbs with winter storms ravaging the US. In the past few days, however, cities across the US have moved forward with more aggressive LED-traffic-light-deployment plans.

Just this past week, for instance, Texas comptroller Susan Combs announced that 15 Texas cities would receive $6 million in federal grants for traffic signal projects. The grants are specified for signal upgrades to LEDs, but that will be a prime use of the funds. For example, the Brownsville Herald reports that the money received by that city will go to LED signals.

“The United States must lead in energy efficiency. These solid-state lighting projects will help us significantly cut our energy use, reduce our carbon footprint, and save money,”
United States Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

In the core technology area, Cambrios, the University of Rochester, and WiteOptics LLC will split $4 million. Cree, General Electric, Lightscape Materials, Osram Sylvania, Philips Lumileds, and PPG industries will receive $10.3 million in the product development area. The manufacturing area grant is $23.5 million and recipients include Applied Materials, GE Global Research, GE lumination, KLA-Tencor, Philips Lumileds, Ultratech, Universal Display, and Veeco Instruments.

Each recipient of the DOE funding will focus on a predetermined research topic. For instance, General Electric will research phosphors for warm-white LED light engines. The DOE SSL web site includes a complete list of recipients and the focus of their work. Of the 17 projects funded, six will focus on SSL source, component, or integrated luminaire development. Eight will target cost reductions through improvements in manufacturing equipment and processes, with the other three focused on core research.

The DOE has previously funded five rounds of research in core technology and product development. This latest round marks the first investment in manufacturing projects.

Another fantastic and aesthetically stunning example of LED lighting at its best is the Globen Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.

What do the Pope, the Dalai Lama, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Philips all have in common? Each has captivated the masses at Globen Arena, the world’s largest spherical building

Globen measures 110 metres in diameter and rises almost 85 metres into the sky. A monumental landmark for Sweden’s capital skyline, the Globen serves as the city’s marquee venue for concerts, shows and sporting events. Since the Globen opened in 1989, it has proved extremely difficult to illuminate its enormous exterior surface. Conventional sources could not light the structure efficiently, and the fixtures could not withstand the extremes in temperature in Stockholm, where the temperature ranges from -20 to 30 degrees Celsius. Ice, snow, sun, wind and rain would wreak havoc on the fixtures.

17 years after the Globen was unveiled, SGA Fastigheter – its owners – realized that amazing progress had been made in LED-based lighting and asked lighting designer Gerahd Rehm to transform the Globe’s exterior – with the help of Philips’ ColorBlast® 12 Powercore fixtures. This state-of-the-art fixture was chosen to cast bold, saturated colour across the 15,000-square-metre sphere. The fixture’s rugged exterior and durable LED sources make it well suited to the challenging climate. In addition, as a complete, single-cable line voltage system, the fixture requires no external power supplies, which also makes installation easier.

What seemed like a daunting and immense task turned out to be a breeze. Stockholm Lighting Company AB carried out a range of tests, prepared 3D design configurations and ordered 670 ColorBlast 12 Powercore fixtures to light the sphere. CeCe El, a Stockholm-based electrical contractor, mounted the fixtures on 28 specially-designed, triangular metal support beams that encircle the perimeter of the Globe.  The beams are fixed to a number of structures, including neighbouring buildings, rails, vertical masts and specially-constructed extension arms, in a total of 31 locations in order to project light onto the sphere from all directions. Each beam holds roughly between 20 and 30 ColorBlast 12 Powercore fixtures, which are fastened on the two opposing sides of the triangular beam. The fixtures provide directional light and are individually programmed to change colour instantaneously, without the need for the coloured gels or filters that would be required with conventional light sources. Furthermore, they require little or no maintenance, and their long-life source is an essential benefit for the hard-to-access beam locations.

The fixtures are DMX-controlled via a specially constructed wireless network. Together they produce a multitude of light shows, including the display of a hockey team’s colours or customized effects that can be synchronized with the music at live concerts inside the building.  The possibilities for lighting designs are virtually endless.