Hazy rants

I've a bone to pick with the Indonesian government. Or rather, the lack of thereof. I'm talking about the haze which has become a yearly fixture for us here in south east asia and has worsened to become a serious health hazard. My father, a senior citizen of 75 years old, has been suffering from coughing fits for over a fortnight now. His doctor tells us that at least 4 other elderly patients have been admitted into the hospital Intensive Care Unit for haze-related acute respiratory problems. This isn't funny, if the Indonesian government continues to sit on its ass and do nothing while its peat land/jungles burn, then i propose that the matter be taken OUT of the Indonesian government's hands and into the international arena. They have had more than 10 years to deal with the fucking problem and they have utterly failed. They are making our lives miserable because they are too impotent or too corrupt to enforce the letter of the law and stop these burnings. Will Indonesia bear our medical bills? Fat chance. So screw them. If they're helpless to control what goes on in their land which has been causing us so much grief and anguish just because we are unfortunate enought to be their next door neighbours, then we, as victims of the Indonesian government's gross incompetence and mismanagement, have the right to take matters into our own hands. Sue their pants off in the International Court of Justice. Even if we get only a paper judgment, at least that's good enough, if only just to put on record that the Indonesian government is/can be held liable for its actions or omissions. I'm talking TORT their asses off. I'm fed-up and so is everyone else.

Malaysia's Nuclear Conundrum

By 2022 when my daughter will be about 13 years old, Malaysia, barring a change of government or a reversal in policy (which isn't altogether improbable given our government's track record), will have built two 1,000 Megawatt nuclear power stations. Which state/s will play host/s to these babies is anybody's guess for now but the decision has been taken. Wind, hydro, solar power are too expensive, it seems. And somebody has to make sure that our ever-growing energy needs are met in the future. I'm opposed to nuclear power in principal but more to the point i'm more worried about whether we have the ability to maintain nuclear power plants. We're a laid-back people and generally speaking aren't too technologically-inclined notwithstanding the government's heroic efforts to drag us kicking and screaming into the industrial age (well, now we're into the post-industrial age so you have an idea of where we stand globally). Nuke plants under the supervision of advanced countries, nay, superpowers such as the United States and the old Soviet Union have had unfortunate incidents - the three mile island and chernobyl fiascos, respectively. And these are BIG countries. You can put many many Malaysias into either superpower state. And there is the million megawatt question of where to ship nuclear wastes, the waste products of generating nuclear power, to. Unlike some countries with realms far and wide spread all over the globe, we aren't blessed with great geographic spread at least not of the kind big enough to keep civilians well out of the range of a nuclear fall-out/dump. Maybe i am sounding a little pessimistic here. We can do this, they say. I sure hope they're right and i'm wrong.

light and easy

I've always been a big proponent/fan of renewable energy in general and solar power in particular. Hitherto i had always held the idealized belief that solar power is a never-ending and perpetual source of power with zero emissions and is 100% environmentally-friendly. But when i delved deeper into the subject today, i discovered that there may be a darker side to solar power as well as its obvious benefits. You see, currently a lot of solar power is produced by old-fashioned solar panels. The manufacturing of solar panels requires polysilicon, a material which is made from silicon. In the process of making polysilicon, a waste/by-product is produced, called silicon tetrachloride. Now silicon tetrachloride can be processed and recycled safely at high temperatures (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) and put back into the production process. But this processing entails high investment costs and time. According to a Washington Post article dated March 9, 2008 by Ariana Enjung Cha, in China the problem is some companies that make polysilicon dump the waste/by-product silicon tetrachloride unprocessed in the factory's immediate surrounding countryside areas. Yep, just like that and easy as pie. Unprocessed silicon tetrachloride releases highly toxic and corrosive hydrochloric acid ("HCL" - remember secondary school chemistry class? yep the same stuff, old HCL) and generates fine powder silicon dioxide which is so fine that it can be easily ingested or inhaled. HCL is produced when silicon tetrachloride reacts with water in the soil. Crops cannot grow in this and it is certainly not suitable for people to live nearby. For each tonne of polysilicon produced, the process generates at least 4 tonnes of silicon tetrachloride liquid waste. And some Chinese companies manufacturing polysilicon have been dumping their unprocessed silicon tetrachloride wastes right outside their factories where there are rural communities living on and working the land. Crops die and the peasants complain but nothing is done except denials from the bosses and a promise from the local authorities to "look into the matter". Companies save a lot of money by not treating their silicon tetrachloride wastes. As you can imagine, the margin thins dramatically when you have to foot a huge electricity bill and additional manpower/time spent just to treat your waste/by-product. The solution? Just dump it.
In Malaysia we already have a solar power outfit "First Solar" operating a RM2 billion plant in Kulim, Kedah and it recently expanded its production lines there. Next to come to Malaysia, that is in Malacca where Yours Truly is domiciled, is another solar power outfit called Sun Power, a San Jose, California based company founded in 1985 (First Solar is also a US company). It's a given that they will be manufacturing solar panels which require polysilicon as raw material. Not a problem. Problem is when someone sets up a factory to produce polysilicon here and the aforementioned potentialities ala China, may then surface. If they are importing polysilicon say from China, we will not suffer the ill-effects of indiscriminate dumping of silicon tetrachloride here. I hope.

On a brighter note, there is new technology that doesn't require polysilicon, for example "Solar Paint" developed by Nanosolar (a solar power outfit also based in San Jose, California)and "Solar Ink". Popular Science magazine's Michael Moyer writes: "Imagine a solar panel without the panel. Just a coating, thin as a layer of paint that takes light and converts it to electricity. Popular Science's Innovation of the Year for 2007 is a solar cell that can be printed like paper and applied to roofs or any other flat surface, delivering solar energy at 1/10th the cost of a traditional glass and silicon cell."

One hopes that First Power and Sun Power will invest in Solar Paint/Solar Ink as well as producing traditional solar power panels. Woe betide us if anyone decides to make polysilicon in Malaysia, decides to save some money/increase profits the easy way and not process its waste/by-product silicon tetrachloride but just dumps it all in some kampung. Remember Asian Rare Earth's case in Bukit Merah, Perak during the 80s? I liked HCL better in the confines of my secondary school chemistry laboratory.

Oily mess

The oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in another catastrophic oil spill the likes of which have been unmatched since the Exxon Valdez tanker spill off the coast of Alaska on March 24, 1989. But it's unlikely that they can avert oil spills in future since there is always the risk of another oil rig exploding or an oil tanker hitting the rocks no matter how detailed the precautionary measures taken. All of which is even more convincing evidence of why we need to move away from reliance on fossil fuels as an energy source and explore and develop renewable energy sources such as solar, wind or ocean wave power. There will always be industrial uses for oil in plastics and fertilizers, but the bulk of oil consumed today is to supply our energy demand. Fossil fuel has been around for only a short 2 centuries, on an industrial scale at least, and the damage it has wrought on the environment has been nothing but short of catastrophic. It threatens our very survival as a species. For ancient fuel we have sacrificed clean air, clean environment for the smoggy choke of our cities. The costs in terms of health care and damage to the environment alone would make economic sense not to use oil as an energy source or at least to move away from oil immediately. With the age of the internet where the world wide web is a treasure trove of information and research tools, one hopes that research and development of renewable energy sources, especially solar power and its storage capabilities, will be greatly enhanced. Imagine waking up every morning to breath clean, pure air! No carbon monoxide emissions, no combustion engine produced CO2 added to the greenhouse effect, cars running on highly efficient solar panels with batteries to store enough solar power for a 100km drive! Will this become a reality for our children? Let's do it. We can, we can, we can.