Issue 08, 2005

New centre leader

More power down the line

Wind on the ice

Putting cars through their paces

Data for the electricity market

Putting cars through their paces

Putting cars through their paces

Staff from key central government agencies and the regional council took the opportunity to see NIWA’s remote sensing of vehicle emissions in operation.

NIWA recently measured the exhaust emissions of almost 10 000 vehicles in Wellington.
The remote sensing technology owned by NIWA measures the emissions in real life driving situations. Drivers do not have to alter their speed or route.

Data for the electricity market

Each day, NIWA delivers vital hydrological data to M-co, the company that provides information services to the New Zealand electricity market.
Lake level, canal flow, and other generation data are transferred electronically to NIWA’s Christchurch office, where they are processed and sent to M-co.
Such information matters because, on average, 70% of the country’s electricity comes from hydro. Careful management of lake levels is crucial to the electricity supply as lake storage volumes are not large by international standards and inflows vary dramatically.

Wind on the ice

Wind on the ice

At the moment, electricity for Scott Base, Antarctica, is generated from imported fuel which is costly and has to be handled with care. NIWA has provided Meridian Energy with full instrumentation to monitor the wind at Scott Base for a year. The project is being undertaken in partnership with Antarctica NZ, and is designed to determine whether wind energy could be used on a small scale for some electricity generation on the ice.
The wind monitoring project uses a 20-metre high mast.

New centre leader

New centre leader

Dennis Jamieson is the new leader of the National Centre for Climate-Energy Solutions.
Dennis has a background in engineering and the commercial application of technology. He is involved in energy and water resource projects in New Zealand and offshore.
The Centre recognises that human-induced greenhouse gas emissions are primarily the result of inefficient use of energy, and seeks to attack climate change at its source.

More power down the line

More power down the line

NIWA staff recently spent about 20 days in the backblocks providing meteorological measurements for line surveys commissioned by Transpower. The aim is to get maximum use out of the existing lines and to increase the reliability of the power supply.
Transpower wants to know how much extra power it can put down the lines before the lines sag so much (as a result of heating up) that they get too close to roads, buildings, trees, and the like.

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