Auckland Fuel Consumption Dropping

A friend sent this analysis of Auckland's petrol and diesel sales over the past 12 years or so. I'd particularly like to see the data for the last 9 months. Wouldn't you?

He sees the information as "...an economic proxy for the region, as well as an interpretation of the aggregate traffic activity..."

The data indicates that present consumption is back where it was 8 years ago. That indicates a big reversal of GDP growth - though it could just as easily indicate that people are using fuel more efficiently, or that they are cutting back on unnecessary car trips. If that was the case it would be a good thing - even if it shows up as a dip in Auckland's regional GDP.

It's about time we began prominently using other indicators that show increases in productive efficiency, and increases in efficient use of resources (land or fuel).

The Auckland Plan's simple emphasis on GDP growth as a measure of the success of the Auckland Plan (or not) is buying into the old paradigm that any growth is good growth - even if it means increasing consumption of fuels that we all know are finite in capacity, and increasingly expensive to buy.

Energy Saving and Insulation

It's not surprising that other countries are discovering the benefits of conservation and energy efficiency. But I was a bit surprised by this advertisement in Malaysia's The Star newspaper.

The text runs like this:

Cooling costs are no small matter for buildings and homes in tropical countries. The excessive use of air-conditioners for cooling are a huge energy drain, and are a major contributor ro high CO2 emissions and global warming. Recognising this, the Malaysian Government has recently instructed all its officers' air-conditioning systems to be set no lower than 24 degrees centigrade, in a bid to reduce the amount of energy used....

The advertisment advocates mineral wool insulation, citing a study suggesting that Malaysia "can potentially save a total of 1,483 GWh annually - corresponding to the capacity of a 242 MW power plant."

Interesting. See: www.mimg.org.my

How sustainable is ferry travel....?

This is an interesting one. The issue of how "carbon hungry" ferries are first came to my attention when I was asking the former CEO of Veolia (Chris White), how expensive it was to run our diesel trains. I did some research and found the following:

Cost of fuel to run Auckland's public transport. % of mode operating costs.
Mode Rail Bus Ferry	% of Operating Cost 3% 11% 30%

You can appreciate how much it costs to push a ferry through the sea, compared to the low rolling friction of a train, with steel wheels running on steel rails whose gradients are usually not more than 2%. But a train is a very heavy thing - when it's full of passengers the total weight hardly changes.

Now we have a "free weeks ferry and bus" ticket being offered by ARTA and Fullers. This is good. But it is helpful to understand what we are promoting here....

There is a fantastic link I recommend if you are interested in growth strategy and intensification and stuff. It's a blog: Agenda 21, Auckland, Intensification, and Sustainable Urban Development, by Manish Udar. You can find it here:
http://sustainability.rediffiland.com/blogs/2007/05/21/Agenda-21-Auckland-Intensification-and-3.html

Here's a quote:

".....Public transport is an area of considerable energy wastage. It is quite commonly believed that commuter trains are the most sustainable form of urban transport, followed by fully occupied buses followed by fully occupied cars and that the least sustainable form of urban transport is an empty commuter train followed by an empty bus followed by a single occupancy car. But these common assumptions are not borne out by facts, if energy consumption and CO2 emissions for various transport modes are examined....As is shown by the following table, urban transport also contributes heavily to the greenhouse effect if it consists of petrol, diesel or gas driven buses, or if coal or gas is used in the production of electrical energy to power public transport trains. It also shows that vehicles with a high occupancy rate are less likely to contribute to the greenhouse effect. If a lot of people are packed together in a given space, they are more likely to be able to find a group of persons to occupy their vehicle to its optimum capacity. This seems to suggest that an intensified city will lead to lower greenhouse emissions. Whether this is borne out by experience needs to be examined....."

Carbon dioxide emissions in terms of kg per passenger kilometer
Mode Electric car (2 seater, 2 people) Average bus Quickcat ferry (rush hour) Suburban diesel train 4.0 litre Jaguar XJ8 (2 people) Electric Inter City 225 train Internal air flights Jet Raider ferry (average)	Carbon 0.02 0.08 0.08 0.13 0.16 0.17 0.26 0.45	Occupancy 100% 20% 65% 22% 40% 50% 65% 20%

That old Jet Raider ferry is seriously hungry.
Because those partly filled trips really chew through the diesel.
Wonder how the Kea does?