The Plastic Water Bottle Effect

Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)

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The Plastic Water Bottle Effect

Plastic, plastic everywhere—on the beach and polluting the air. Plastic bottles and other plastic products find their way into the environment and are detrimental to us as well as wildlife. An alternative to a plastic water bottle is a BPA-free bottle that can be reused multiple times and will not pollute our planet.

The Importance of Reusable Water Bottles

To highlight the importance of these reusable water bottles, we created an infographic that discusses the negative impacts of plastic water bottles. By compiling these facts and statistics everyone can better understand how vital it is to find an alternative to plastics.

Cut Down on Pollution

Enjoy reading this infographic and be sure to share it with friends and family members that rely on plastic water bottles. By doing so and cutting down on your own usage, you can help reduce the amount of bottles that pollute the air, waterways, and roadways. 

spill proof water bottle

Plastic water bottles can be purchased anywhere from a grocery store to a gas station all across the globe. Selling plastic bottles at these locations make it easy for millions of people to pick up a bottle on their way to work, the mall, or anywhere else, for that matter. While these bottles are convenient, they are also extremely harmful to the environment and impact wildlife. It doesn't stop there. The chemicals and materials used in the production of a water bottle prove to be harmful to humans and can cause many types of cancers, birth defects, and interfere with hormone levels. Once again, the negative effects continue to grow. These pesky plastic bottles that take years to disintegrate are affecting animals and their habitats. Production and distribution of water bottles pollute the air we breathe, making these bottles a slow killer.

The above infographic highlights the dangers that are linked with plastic water bottles. We created this infographic to inform readers about the dangers that are linked to plastic water bottles in hopes that it will raise awareness throughout the world and promote change. If more people purchase and use a refillable water bottle instead of its plastic counterpart, we can help cut down on the negative effects that come with the production of plastic water bottles.

Help us improve the environment, population, and wildlife by sharing this infographic with friends on social media sites. If we reach out to the masses we can help make a difference in the world we live in. Therefore, it's time to post, tweet, email, and blog this information and begin spreading the word with one share at a time. Don't be afraid to email this content to your coworker that goes through a case of plastic water bottles every two days. Send it to your family members to help protect them from the harmful chemicals that come with drinking from a plastic water bottle. However you get the point across to people, it's imperative that you spread the word and encourage others to do the same.

Another way you can help the environment and encourage change is by purchasing reusable drinking bottles for everyone in your household. Many companies sell gym water bottles, stainless steel BPA-free water bottles, and even bike water bottles that are perfect to fit everyone's lifestyle. Filter system water bottles are also a healthy water bottle alternative that actually filters the water as you drink. These filter water bottles are great because users can fill them up with their tap water from home, the office, or other public places without having to worry about having clean water in the bottle. Do your part by purchasing a reusable water bottle with or without a filter to use everyday and share the above information with the world.

CCRES special thanks to  Mike Thomas.

Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)

Water management in Croatia

This summer Croatia will be the second of the former Yugoslavian countries to join the European Union, after a 10 year struggle. EU membership of course means European governance when it comes to water management. Jeremy Josephs looks at how the country is preparing for the Water Framework Directive and opportunities for the global water sector.

The small state of Croatia situated at the crossroads of central Europe and the Mediterranean only came into being as a legal entity in 1991. But no one would seek to dispute the fact that when it comes to Croatia's accession to the European Union, it has been a lengthy encounter. After more than 10 years of occasionally fraught negotiations, the European Commission has finally given Croatia the green light to join the EU on 1 July as the 28th member state.

Croatia's stunning 1800 km of coastline helps contribute to the country's €6.61 billion generated through tourism alone

Croatia will thus become the second of six former Yugoslav republics to join the bloc, with Slovenia having been granted entry in 2004. But Croatia's leaders are acutely aware that elaborate EU rights come packaged together with onerous responsibilities - and nowhere is this duality more apparent than in respect of the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD).
This landmark EU measure obliges members to achieve good qualitative and quantitative status in respect of all water bodies (including marine waters up to one nautical mile from shore) by 2015. Easier said than done.
Croatian ecologists were initially up in arms, accusing their government of deceiving and flaunting EU legislation, and going public with the harsh accusation that Croatia's implementation of the WFD was nothing more than "a dead letter" despite the fact that government in Zagreb had moved swiftly and early on to transpose the WFD into national legislation.

Croatia recently teamed up with Montenegro to eliminate sea pollution and thus further and more effectively protect the Adriatic Sea. The EU assisted the project with a grant of over half a million Euros

"Water management in Croatia is far from sustainable", they thundered, "and consists of redundant and extremely expensive hydro-technical river regulations. This is typical old-fashioned water management which disregards EU institutions and its legislation. Worst of all, it appears that State agency for water management, Hrvatskevodem, is accelerating all such activities to regulate as many rivers and streams as possible prior to accession."
It was perhaps as well that Dr. Stephan von Keitz and his European Twinning Team Project was able to issue a more upbeat assessment of Croatia's WFD track record. They concluded that while there were undoubtedly challenges ahead there was absolutely no reason at all why the small but energetic Balkan state would not be able to strengthen the institutional and administrative capacities of all stakeholders involved.
In fact the truth was that when it came to the issue of EU accession, ecological issues were relatively low down on the agenda. Rather, the fight against organized crime and corruption in Croatia always taking priority. Still, slowly but surely in the years prior to accession the government in Zagreb, with support and assistance from Brussels, was working away to ensure that water came to be seen as a valued natural resource - an integral part of the aquatic and terrestrial eco-system.

Adriatic Coastline

When it comes to tourism, at least, this somewhat ambitious agenda and occasionally rousing rhetoric has undoubtedly been far easier to get across. For the very simple reason that tourism continues to dominate the Croatian service sector, accounting for up to 20% of GDP. Annual tourist industry income is now estimated at a massive €6.61 billion. Much of this is attributable to Croatia's stunning 1800 km of coastline, where the Adriatic brims with isolated beaches, watersport hotspots and historic ports.
Which means that no degree in either hydrology or environmental studies is required to realise that it is in almost every Croatian's interests to ensure that the Adriatic becomes as pollution free as it possibly can be. And precisely why Croatia recently teamed up with Montenegro to eliminate sea pollution and thus further and more effectively protect the Adriatic Sea. The EU assisted the project with a grant of over half a million Euros. The objective is to control sewage levels going into the sea and monitor overall water quality.
The French-based conglomerate and service provider Suez Environnement is present in over 70 countries on five continents. Its arch rival Veolia Environnement boasts a similarly impressive international portfolio. Little wonder, therefore, that both had been closing monitoring the rapidly evolving Croatian water service sector throughout the many years that the EU accession talks were going on.
Six years ago, in fact, representatives from Suez were reported to have visited the ancient Roman city of Split, interested in investing in the public sector – not just in water but gas distribution too.
"Suez's ambitions apparently extend far beyond the city borders to the whole of Croatia", the Transnational Institute of Water Justice reported at the time. Clearly partisan in its approach, its readers were informed that "the misinformed city government, influenced by business interests, seems ready to generously offer property belonging to the city to the French multinational".
Not that such one-sided reasoning would have deterred either French group – but these early investment soundings happened to coincide with what came to be known as the great Croatian privatisation controversy – a phrase used to describe matters associated with mafia-style activity which plunged the nascent Balkan republic into a severe economic depression almost immediately after its creation.

Croatian Privatisation Cartel

There were dozens of incidents known collectively in Croatia as the "privatisation robbery" (privatizacijska pljačka) when favoritism became common. This was to the extent that the President had apparently decided on a concept of some two hundred families controlling all property in Croatia. Of course all of this was more than sufficient to ensure that even the most enthusiastic investor would lay low and keep his head down, at least for a while.
Still, it would be a brave person who would put money on either of the French giants Veolia and Suez from returning to knock on Croatia's potentially lucrative water sector doors. And in any event, their various subsidiaries have already taken tentative steps in other sectors, transport and energy included.
As Vanesa Vujanić from the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy at the University of Dundee has pointed out, what is likely to influence the ongoing tug of war between the public and private sectors in relation to the Croatian water sector is not in fact the WFD, believe it or not, but harmonisation with two specific water utility directives – the Drinking Water Directive and the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. Why these two in particular? Because their implementation has been estimated to require some 4.5 billion euro's worth of investments. That's right – billions, not millions.
Croatian tourism might indeed be doing very well indeed but even that booming sector did not manage to prevent the country from reentering a recession in 2012 with Zagreb cutting back significantly on spending on a wide variety of programs. Moreover its high foreign debt, strained state budget and over-reliance on tourism revenue are all likely to combine to hinder future economic progress in both the short and medium terms.
All of that to suggest that when it comes to the privatisation of the Croatian water sector (and thus the entry of the major international players – French or otherwise) it is highly unlikely to be the end of the matter. Far from it, in fact.

Trans-border Cooperation

The Croatian capital Zagreb is located in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river which is an integral part of the Black Sea drainage basin. It is a little known fact that the Sava is one of the longest rivers in Europe and among a handful of major European rivers that do not drain directly into a sea.
One key initiative got underway in 2008 – the International Sava River Basin Commission (SRBC) - which aims to promote trans-border cooperation for the sustainable development of the region. The SRBC is well placed to do this – since the Sava runs through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and is the most important Danube tributary, adding almost 25% to the Danube's total discharge at their meeting point in Belgrade. Significant pressures have been identified within the basin, true enough, notably the fact that many agglomerations within it have no, or insufficient, wastewater treatment and are therefore key contributors to organic and nutrient pollution. But despite these shortcomings it has been heralded as an example of how cooperation and education can serve to solve regional water problems in the Balkans.
Vladan Bozovic from neighbouring Montenegro's Biotechnical faculty is in no doubt that good cooperation in respect of water issues is the way forward: "People in our region should harmonise national water acts and policies, improve development and implementation of legislation and regulations in accordance with EU directives and policies, co-ordinate management and protection of water basins including reservoirs for hydropower plants, irrigation and rehabilitation of degraded areas around water basins."
This is another example as to how the successful resolution of water issues can become a broader catalyst for peace.

The walled city of Dubrovnik is known as the "pearl of the Adriatic". With its new water management responsibilities after EU accession, Croatia will want to keep it that way

The question has to be raised of whether those responsible for strategy and international investments at the Paris headquarters of both Suez and Veolia - might dare to take a second look at the prospect of the undoubtedly good returns waiting to be found out there in the key Croatian cities of Zagreb, Split, Osijek, Zadar and Dubrovnik. For there can surely be no doubt that there is much work to be done in both water supply and sanitation and therefore good returns to be made.

 Water Conservation Facts
By Zeljko Serdar,
 President & CEO
Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)

2.5 gallons: The amount of water per person much of the world is allocated.
400 gallons: The amount of water per person used by the average American citizen; 30 percent of this is used for outdoor purposes, such as watering the lawn.
70 percent: The amount of worldwide water use that is allocated to farming; most of these farming irrigation systems operate at only 40 percent efficiency. According to a 2002 article by Lester Brown, aquifers are depleting all over the world--in China by 2-3 metres per year. In the US, the Ogallala aquifer is shrinking rapidly. In India, aquifers are going down by 3 metres per year, in Mexico by 3.3 meters per year.
263: The number of rivers that either cross or demarcate international political boundaries, in addition to countless aquifers. According to the Atlas of International Freshwater Agreement, 90 percent of countries in the world must share these water basins with at least one or two other states. Major conflicts such as Darfur have been connected to water shortages, and lack of access to clean water.
1430: Gallons of water per capita in the United States; only 100 gallons of that is household use per person as most is used for agriculture, according to water expert Peter Gleick.
88 percent: Of deaths from diarrhea are caused from unsafe drinking water, inadequate availability of water for hygiene, and lack of access to sanitation; this translates to more than 1.5 million of the 1.9 million children under five who perish from diarrhea each year. This amounts to 18% of all under-five deaths and means that more than 4,000 children are dying every day as a result of diarrhoeal diseases.
$11.3 billion: The amount of money required to provide basic levels of service for drinking and waste water in Africa and Asia.
$35 billion: the amount of money spent on bottled water in the most developed countries in the world.
1.5 million: Barrels of crude oil used for making PET water bottles, globally. This is enough oil to fuel 100,000 American cars for a year.
2.7 tons: The amount of plastic used to bottle water. 86 percent become garbage or litter.

Energy Strategy of the Republic of Croatia

Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)
special thanks to Jeremy Josephs (freelance contributor), and  
Tom Freyberg
Chief Editor - Water & Wastewater International

Vjetroelektrana Ponikve kod Stona

 

 

Otvorena vjetroelektrana Ponikve kod Stona

 

Nakon prethodne dvije na šibenskom području, na poluotoku Pelješcu danas je svečano otvorena i treća hrvatska vjetroelektrana njemačke tvrtke WPD iz Bremena, prva uopće na jugu Hrvatske.

Godišnja proizvodnja njezinih 16 vjetroagregata može zadovoljiti potrebe 26 tisuća kućanstava. Uloženih 46 milijuna eura, a s pripremnim radovima još desetak više, za njemačku tvrtku WPD najveće je dosadašnje ulaganje u inozemstvu.

Više od 12 godina trebalo je od početka zamisli o vjetroelektrani do njezine realizacije. No već danas izražena je bojazan da bi se nešto slično moglo događati i ubuduće. Naime, za izgradnju svoje četvrte vjetrolektrane u Hrvatskoj njemačka tvrtka čeka još samo odluku Vlade. Stoga su i pomalo neobične riječi izgovorene na svečanosti.

Za razliku od dosadašnjih projekata, na ovom svečanom otvorenju nema predstavnika Vlade. Nadam se da to nije znak odbijanja potpore obnovljivim izvorima energije, točnije energiji vjetra. Stoga bih rekao, draga Vlado, molim vas da omogućite ostvarenje našeg idućeg projekta Katun kod Šestanovca, poručio je na otvorenju Andreas Chollet, voditelj projekta WPD Europa.

Da bi u Hrvatskoj trebala postojati povoljnija klima za ulagače, naglašava i njemački veleposlanik u Hrvatskoj. Trebaju se osjećati dobrodošlima, trebaju imati potporu hrvatske vlade. Ne traže oni neke posebne uvjete. Jednostavno se žele otvoreno natjecati s hrvatskim tvrtkama, naglasio je veleposlanik Hans Peter Annen.

Oni koji su godinama gurali projekt pelješke vjetrolektrane glavnu zapreku vide u beskrajnom administriranju. Kažu, ništa ne ide jednostavno, svuda je priča komplicirana, na svim instancijama.

Ako se pitate zbog čega onda Nijemci ustraju na Hrvatskoj, otkrili su - nigdje u svijetu nisu naišli na toliko stabilne uvjete vjetra, praktički istovjetne iz godine u godinu. Opet nas priroda spašava.

Župan Nikola Dobroslavić i načelnik Općine Ston Vedran Antunica  u pratnji voditelja projekta i direktora tvrtke WPD Milana Antonijevića i Željka Samardžića obišli su 345 milijuna kuna vrijedan projekt vjetroelektrane Ponikve.

Naime, Antonijević i Samardžić izvijestili su župana o tijeku investicije WPD-a u vjetroelektranu koja na brdu iznad Ponikava  ima 16 stupova i  snagu 34 MW (megavata).  Župan je i ovom prilikom Antonijeviću i Samardžiću čestitao na projektu vjetroelektrane Ponikve te je istaknuo kako je riječ o jednom od najvećih ulaganja u Županiju. Također, župan je kazao kako je ovaj projekt primjer drugim ulagačima da je moguće ostvariti ovoliko vrijedne i složene projekte te da se svi problemi na koje se naiđe u realizaciji, uz suradnju lokalne vlasti i investitora, mogu nadvladati. Inače, WPD u planu ima i projekt gradnje druge vjetroelektrane na području Županije i to na predjelu Bile ploče pored Orebića. Hrvatski Centar Obnovljivih Izvora Energije (HCOIE)

JCM Capital

JCM Capital to Fund Solar PV Project Development in Japan

  Toronto, Ontario, Zagreb - May 2013 - JCM Capital (JCM) announced that it has set up a company in Japan to invest in utility-scale ground based solar photovoltaic (PV) projects. The company will focus on projects 10MW and larger, and will be actively seeking partners to develop project sites of 40 hectares and larger. JCM will co-develop and fund project costs through to the construction-ready stage and rely on its construction and long term financing partners to build, finance and operate the projects.

JCM investments will be used for project specific development costs such as land acquisition, engineering, legal negotiations and hard costs for the local development team. JCM will fund a project as long as there is a clear path to obtain all necessary permitting including a power purchase agreement, interconnection agreement, environmental approvals and land control.

JCM’s CFO, Mr. Martin Ritchie, comments that, “this expansion into Japan is a key part of our corporate strategy to grow our business internationally.  We anticipate that Japan will continue to have explosive growth potential considering the great demand for energy, strong political will and the well-designed Feed- in-Tariff (FIT) program.”

JCM has a current target to fund and develop an initial 100MW of projects in Japan. Christian Wray, JCM’s CEO, comments, “JCM has the necessary capital and solar PV expertise to complement our local partners’ market knowledge and project management capabilities.”

Through this company, JCM hopes to facilitate sustainable development of energy sources in an environmentally responsible way, and bring more clean electricity to Japan.
  About JCM Capital
JCM Capital focuses on financing and the co-development of solar energy projects. The Company provides development capital for early-stage to construction-ready solar PV projects while offering strategic and project management support. Current portfolios include commercial rooftop and utility-scale ground-mounted projects in North and South America, Africa and Japan.  The Company is looking to expand its reach through the cultivation of new partnerships and associations in emerging solar markets.

Global Head Office

21 St. Clair Avenue East,
Suite 500,
Toronto Ontario, Canada
M4T 1L9

Tel: 647-447-1662 info@jcmcapital.ca

 More info:

 http://www.jcmcapital.ca/

Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)

An interview with Prof. Dr. sc. Davor Pavuna

 
by Lidija CRNČEVIĆ
(Translated into English by Ina Vukic)

We spoke in the Classical gymnasium gardens where he held a lecture on that day to young people, who listened to him for two hours almost “not breathing”, says don Bernard. Immediately before the lecture in the John Paul II Hall, dr Pavuna implied that he was not in Dubrovnik by accident at the time when decisions are being made regarding Srdj (Srđ/golf course development and apartment building proposals), Ombla (hydroelectric plant) and Peljesac bridge … and people in the hall listened to him with total concentration and understanding, feeling that there is profound understanding to which he testifies. Yet, for half of his life, he was an agnostic and a disbeliever, and because of this he is often known to say that he knows “what’s happening in President Josipovic’s and Prime Minister Milanovic’s heads” … and then …he become a witness to God’s love and grace. Has this been only a moment or a long-lasting road along which he kept awakening and becoming conscious?
“When I was about 24 years old, a student at the Faculty of Science in Zagreb that already knew something about Physics, I realised that I cannot receive all the answers through pure science even if I was fairly and honestly a serious researcher, young man. I started to listen to the “Beatles” then, and they were flirting with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and so I completed studies of Transcendental Mediation, and on one occasion my father’s friend came to visit us and said: listen, you are seeking spirituality; that is why I proceeded to study it.
When I was 26 I went to England for my Doctorate and I marveled at how everyone there talked openly about Jesus Christ, how they mention the Gospel and the good news as something positive while back home, in the Bolshevik ‘titoslavia’, that was poison for the people. When I spoke with my parents I asked what kind of a Catholic family were we when they did not tell me that was the most beautiful news that ever was. They told me they were afraid of UDBA (Yugoslav Secret Police), because they had already had problems when they baptised me.
After that, I began studying not only the Bible, but other religions as well, I even went through Hare Krishna, Zen Buddhism, I studied the Koran, the Occult, Kabbalah, and then in India they wondered what I was looking for there when I have ‘my’ Jesus Christ, the greatest guru of them all. At the beginning of 1980’s I started going to spiritual lessons with Father Zvjezdan Linic and it was then that  I got to know Jesus Christ, during a healing prayer I was healed of all possible delusions, circusies, Satanism, and gradually I began developing into a believer.
It does not come overnight and, in a way, I am an interesting witness because for half of my life I was a disbeliever or an agnostic, and after that, a follower of Jesus and a believer. Given that I have experience in both, I know exactly the conscience that the agnostic Josipovic and the disbeliever Milanovic as well as the other disbelievers have, and I also have the conscience of the other one, the normal believer. And, on appearance, I’m the same as them from outside, but completely different from inside.
While once I was scattered, nervous, neurotic, with similar behaviour that we see today from Prime Minister Milanovic, whose behaviour is also schizophrenic at times, today I posses the greatest gift of all – the gift of faith.  That is the most beautiful gift I could ever give to anyone. When I look at myself from inside, I feel peace and joy, it’s not important what’s happening outside. There is gentleness within me, independence, lots of prayer, contemplation, maturing, but there in no greater gift for man than to realise the gift of faith and receive grace. Life and faith are grace, and when you receive that, there is no Nobel Prize or anything else in life, which is greater than that. When I was in Mostar, in December, I was told that the visionary Vicka has invited me to visit her. When I came to her I told her I did not understand, that I did not need anything. She replied: I know, brother, but the two of us are servants of Jesus Christ …”

Can we talk about you mission, you hold lectures more frequently than before, you criticise bankers, politicians, investors … your words impress more because a fascinating scientific biography of a world-renowned physicist stands behind them?

“ Yes, I know I have a mission. While I was in my ‘Indian phase’, with Sai Baba in Puttaparthi, I once wanted to abandon physics. That was just before the time when they asked me what I was looking for in India when I have Jesus Christ, the greatest guru of them all. At that time Vesna Krmpotic, our great poetess, was also there and I told her that I would like to study spirituality, and all she said was – no, stay with physics.
I suffered a great deal for having had to stay in contact with those Cartesians, Mathematicians, with such ‘bizarre’ people, who had fallen into the illusion of that knowledge, although it’s not bad, I’m happy for having understood, for having mastered everything to its last level, because it is beautiful to understand creation.  I know that well, but the ultimate truth is not in mathematics, in physics and in understanding creation.
The ultimate truth is the relation of man towards dear God, awareness, conscience and love are also important components at the moment of departure, atoms remain here, but as my mentor Tomislav Ivancevic says, the spiritual soul separates again, and that is awareness, conscience and love. Holy books and all the testaments say that we meet with dear God as with infinite light and love.  Theologically speaking, according to my belief, man is an infinite conscience of love within a being that continues, love in infinite being in conscience, and so the body is the smallest, it is the man’s limitation, the suffering and the cross, it can be comfortable, useful … but it is terribly temporary.
The worst moment in life is when you are separated from your mother at birth, when they cut the umbilical cord, because to be in the mother’s womb is something that is most beautiful. A man truly feels good when he is in synergy and re-joined with God, after holy mass, when he receives communion, returns again into the body of Christ, it is like returning into the mother’s womb.  I can even explain that as a scientist, because I’m a professional in the highly coherent quantum systems, which is transcendental to me and other people, that is a science that requires studies of Physics over 12 years, and is compatible with this mystique about which I’m talking about and if people would know the miracles we know in science, they’d immediately believe, you know the miracles from the Bible, artificial, immaculate conception, they’ll be able to achieve that as well in five thousand years … people do not understand to which degree we are potent in scientific terms as beings, and when we deepen that spiritual component as well, because we are all God’s and if we were to inherit Christ as He himself says: I am the way, the truth and the life and so you can be like me. We are like apes in our bodies, but we are also like God, the point is in the will, capacity, belief, believing to the end … as Jesus says: if you had as much faith as there are seeds of mustard, you could move mountains”.

How is it possible that Croats can be recognised as intelligent, capable, diligent people, while at home in our country everything is going in a catastrophic direction?

“I understand numbers and facts well … I won’t judge anyone, but I’m of a trained mind, so you work it out yourself … you cannot, on the one hand, calculate that the world economy has, say 50 trillion Euro, and on the other hand you see that there is 5 thousand trillion in the banks, 100 times more, those are bankroids’ deceptions, derivations, manipulations … I see how they’re deceiving us, we have all become proletarians, and we have all become debtors and I see that they’re making us into slaves or worse …
In the state of Croatia, where I was a reviewer of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and the Arts, in 1992 that was a fair strategy, but 21 years later when my children have grown up, I see that my country is a tragedy… and listen to the numbers, my homeland Croatia, which could have been a heavenly garden by now, has 370 thousand officially unemployed, 180 thousand people who work but do not receive pay, that is 550 thousand people who do not have regular income, nor are they regularly included in the society.
When you multiply this with about three persons in a family, that is about 2 million people, half the nation … is it possible that in 2013 in the 21st Century, when I talk about topics that make your hair stand on end, because I am a professional man, that my nation, and I’m the dust of this nation, a child of this nation, whatever, that half of my nation almost has nothing to eat?!
250,000 farmers are on the brink of hunger and collapse, and this country could feed millions, wait, who is mad here? We have the so-called left option in government, social-democratic, that is DEMONcracy, I’m ashamed to think about them, I cannot understand why those people haven’t resigned yet, because I also said that a year ago. They cannot solve anything, regardless of which government is in power, because it’s always the same people, from the system, they are a part of the problem, they are potentates, they are bourgeois, neo-skoj ( re:Young Communist League of Yugoslavia), neo-liberal pharaohs who work for foreign centres of power, I know that because my students work for those foreign centres of power. Hence, we are dealing here with manipulation of a nation, and not only ours, the same story goes for our Greek, Spanish, Italian brothers … the only ones who have saved themselves, and we could have done that as well, are Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria … because they went with productivity, they placed an accent upon engineers and productivity, we could have done that as well.
I’m not judging anybody but I have the right to ask. And I’m asking loud and clear, let them give me an answer, it’s all the same to me whether the government is HDZ or SDP, we have been betrayed by the complete partitive politics, all respect to the exceptions, I won’t say – everyone.  But, allow me, we are among the top 10 or 20 in the world for beauty, sport, music, science … how is it possible that we are sixtieth for our economy? That means that there is pure sabotage, manipulation through fear. You humiliate and blackmail the people for every ‘carrot’.
Iceland has shown a mature democracy when, four years ago, it removed all of its rulers, jailed its Prime Minister, wrote a new Constitution, nationalised and took over all the banks, dismissed all debts … what’s quite legitimate … only people are sovereign. I am no leftist, no revolutionary; I’m only talking about the factual state of affairs. Why is Iceland better than Croatia? It’s not!
Why does this country not have the right to a referendum, why is some Srdj constantly thrown at us, some Ombla, which are complete manipulations as is Plomin? I say that responsibly, in the republic of Dubrovnik, which is a global symbol of freedom, self-conscience, where Rudjer Boskovic, the symbol of superman, I don’t know how to call him as he was exceptional even in that century … and we allow all this?? Wait, people, are we apelike for allowing this to happen? Well, when will someone bang their fist on the table, well this is a most elementary logic; I know even more numbers.
I’ll say it again, I’m not judging, I’m only talking about the factual state, is that not a task of a physicist, tell the facts and know the analysis. I know a lot more and this what’s happening to us is a horror, proven manipulation. My physicist colleagues, main professionals for the financial crisis and the public, we are mathematically qualified, we know that we are manipulated, we know exactly who, where, what and how, we know everything.
On 15th April, in Switzerland, we had a meeting of the world’s best professionals, truly exceptional, even Heads for the crisis, in the Swiss and other banks around the world, therefore colleagues who know, when I publicly asked, before the full hall of people, whether we could believe the politicians, bankers and investors, the answer was a loud and clear no. So, I say, with a complete conscience, consciousness, integrity: the politicians, bankroids, investors and media manipulators, who are manipulating us and work on this planet as well as in Croatia in order to suck our energy and resources are mafia of the worst kind … this is not a conspiracy theory, this is the factual state of things, which I attained from my students, and you can imagine how many I have, plus the real number, the details I have, which I can show to anyone at anytime. I know everything by heart, including where there is which Croat on the planet, I ask you which minister knows all that, and we’re paying him?
We have not counted the victims from the First, the Second to the Homeland war, we don’t even know how to count the corpses, and I’m involved with the studies of electrons and I know where every one of my electrons is. Listen to me carefully: two years ago, in an interview with the president of Zagreb bank administration, it was said that there was 20 billion Euros of our savings in Croatian banks, from that they lift 10-12% interest, even 2.3 billion Euro annually … that money goes abroad, who is mad here?? The savings of Croatians at home and abroad, in the banks here, go abroad, I’m not even going to talk about the privatisation of those same banks, I ask scientifically, am I a cretin, am I mad?? I am formed to know how to analyze things like that and I cannot be mad. But we are among the first world’s 10 or 20 in everything, it’s just that in the economy and in things like these that we come sixtieth … This means we’re dealing with sabotage, I can prove it to you, forgive me you political partitionists regardless of which political party you come from, but you have betrayed this nation, it’s all in black and white, that’s a factual state of affairs”.

Yes, but who will bang their fist on the table? Who is the power that’s prepared for such fundamental and profound changes? Who are the new people, for many years now the Croatian political scene, even at the lower levels, has always seen the repeat of the same people? The people are facing the wall, all offered options have been spent … why do we increasingly, more often, see that at times of elections the people are giving up their right to decide.

“Who is going to be the one to bang his fist on the table? Well, among them I’ll be one as well. You know, these are collective phenomena. It’s like when a butterfly moves its wing on Hawaii and a storm happens in Boston. The times of Tito and Hussein are finished. We are protected by information, manipulations, that’s called the correlated era, neither the politicians nor the bankroids can understand these things I’m talking about … neither they nor the investors can pull us out from that because they do not possess trained minds like Physicists do. Mathematicians could, but even they cannot connect the details with mathematics in the concepts I’m talking about.
However, physicists have analyzed the so-called econometrics and distribution, we understand it, we can even tell when the phase transition of information occurred, in the 1960′s when we transitioned from one type of correlating information into an another type, the next unavoidable phase transition will be in about 2050, give or take twenty years, because we are in such a biosphere of correlating that we will experience financial collapse or we will pull ourselves out, but that depends on us. Accordingly, we all act in planetary ways, but we must awaken people … we have initiated that phase transition but it won’t be as if we choose our new leader and, with that, we will save Croatia … let’s not create illusions about that.
Different centres of power blackmail even an expert team, it’s known exactly who they are, because that is a global problem, of course. Croatia is not in a typically Croatian problem, Greece, Spain, Italy … are there … When what’s happened to us happens, and betrayal has happened over the past 15 years, instead of creating a country like Austria, Switzerland, in other words an industrious country that we have in our genetic code, Croats are prosperous, but we have entered into bad Sanaderisation, Berlisconisation, a prostituted component of this nation, we just ‘lick’ someone over, we just bow to someone … the various types of theft, those social phonies, those people who push themselves into politics, don’t know anything.
When you talk to me you can tell that I’m more or less sophisticated in my communication, but you cannot say that I do not know my numbers, my facts, my relations. I bring out hard numbers, as every engineer does, engineers make products from ideas, revenue works with these, and those people only cheat, scam, speak nonsense … I think every woman sees that very well. And then it happens that the country becomes a colony, all become Greece and that becomes unavoidable. That is like a vortex you cannot stop. So, we must awaken the young and we too must awaken, there is a lot of the how and the what. We act. Why are we not talking about them? Both domestic and foreign intelligence services are involved in that, so, in order to protect ourselves and in order to win, we must work ‘under the radar’ so they don’t see us”.

One could conclude that your coming to Dubrovnik before the referendum, in the moment when the role of “saviour” of the survival of Croatian economy – from investments in Srdj and Ombla, was imposed upon it, was not accidental?

“Of course it wasn’t accidental. I came to save Dubrovnik from Srdj, Ombla and similar smut, including the Peljesac Bridge. Water is the absolute fundamental property, water from springs can be rotated, it is like a happy molecule that dances, when you place it into a tap or a bottle, it’s like people in a bus, it cannot dance, that’s absolutely important, it’s more important than petroleum. Especially for this century.
And then it happens that some kind of zombies, the so-called investors, out of reasons totally different from nobleness and golf, are offering such a project on Srdj.  For Dubrovnik’s profit? For greater profit for Dubrovnik, golf on Srdj is as if you go and colour Stradun in with lovely felt-tip pens, as if Stradun will be more beautiful if you colour it in – some more.  Literally cretinism, odd corrupted types speak nonsense.
I have nothing against golf, we can talk about that, but not this here and not in this context, because the Dubrovnik landscape is historically important here, and the water in this countryside, in Konavle, is important … and the absolute foundation is at the back of Ombla. We’re talking here about classic manipulation of the so-called dogsbodies, for some odd interests and some odd betrayal. There’s a lot more to this, symbolics are there, I’m not here by accident, including the need for Peljesac Bridge, it is an absolutely normal thing that we connect the Dubrovnik region with its parent country.
Dubrovnik is a much bigger brand than Croatia, or in the extreme case Rudjer Boskovic, who was an exceptional scientist and member of all academies; there is none like him today … accordingly that is the defence of the essence of authenticity. We are here today to defend that that is most important, and that is – identity. Let’s compare that with water – which would not be what it is if it were not for oxygen and hydrogen. Identically, it’s important for Dubrovnik to be Dubrovnik, and to destroy Srdj or Ombla means that you destroy the essence of Dubrovnik, taken oxygen and hydrogen from it … that’s as if you place a mother into some artificial formation and leave her to bear children. An absolute no must be said to that, no, no and no!
We’re dealing with the manipulation of citizens here, these people are hypnotised with some supposed needs. Consumerism is already a terribly known terminology for manipulation, when you enter into a shop, people are hypnotised by colours, meaning the red and yellow attract better etc., so, it’s done in the same way in the media. People are being convinced into usefulness of Srdj, from employment onwards, but people are manipulated with this”.

What has happened with Croatian intellectuals, where is their social engagement, ultimately, accountability? Why are most of them keeping silent?

“Partly because these zombie-like dogsbodies in power have ‘destroyed’ them, ridiculed them … the self-conscience of this nation has slumped so much, and that is a part of that manipulation. To break a nation, to bring it to a state of numbness, you must break its self-conscience. Everything and everybody is being manipulated. I’ve already said: whoever wants to invest in Dubrovnik – and your Mayors, all of them are to blame – must become a citizen of Dubrovnik, pay taxes here, bow to St Blaise and become Catholic. Then we can talk about investments. Do not permit some sort of “Genghis Khan globalisation”, for them to occupy this free republic, because we all fall with that, anyone that doesn’t see that is either stupid or foolish. That is the message that is crystal clear. Hence, there are not only wars that occur with weapons, there are special wars, this is a war of spirit, a war of strategy … Dubrovnik is being defended here even today!”
You are an adviser to the American President Obama for Energetics…
“Not only to him, I’ve worked in America for over 20 years, I work with the Chinese, Koreans, Turks, Slovenians, Montenegrians, … European Union, it’s almost more difficult for me to say with whom I have worked that with whom I haven’t …”

except in our country?

“ Well, not really … in recent time my mathematics, natural science, biotechnical account in Croatia has ‘exploded’. Suddenly my colleagues, whether they like me or not, people who know things, work with things, calculate something, say: help, this is a nightmare, these social phonies have destroyed the country.
Engineers and scientists are in a consternation, it’s like as if you know how to play football but you’re always seated on the bench, and those people just zombie around, there is no productivity any more, everything has crashed … Why do we need so many Economists, we have a surplus of Economists, what are they going to sell when we don’t produce anything any more. My own account has engaged me, given that I’ll be an Emeritus in Switzerland in a few years, I’m moving towards retirement, I want to be engaged … If the Koreans could move from a subservient colony to a leader in productivity in only two generations, this nation can achieve that quicker.
You can see that we have emboldened ourselves, this is revolution … conscience, consciousness and love. Croatian people must bang their fists on the table and those various Mayors, local pharaohs, I’m not at all interested in how you might call them and to which party they belong, that partitiocracy must fall. I’ve said – I have the solution. Iceland, Iceland, Iceland. Some humble people in Iceland removed the whole government, emptied the parliament, re-wrote the Constitution, threw all the banks into the garbage, dismissed all debts …like a computer that you unplug from the electricity.
Turn it off and then turn it back on, reinstall the operational system and appoint honourable and dignified people who will work in the interests of the people, and people are sovereign. Accordingly, we no longer want those pests, honour to exceptions, but they are collective pests. Because only pests can allow all this that is being done to the people. Slaves had greater rights than what people have in this country … we must ‘fight’ among ourselves for a referendum. That’s impossible in a country, which has good social maturity”.

Who are the people of love whom you often mention?

“People of love are everybody, including the two of us … they are not exclusively Catholics. People of love are those who understand the sciences of Jesus Christ, at times they are perhaps disbelievers, but in practice they apply science. But from the psychological, the psychiatric perspective science is eerily logical … let’s presume that someone is not a believer, but he understands the meaning of forgiveness and love, which from the psychological point of view are obviously important.
In simple terms, science of the Gospel is forgiveness, towards one self, towards fellow man, even towards dear God, and then we can experience that love, the channels of love begin working. But when you deliberate even without regard to the religious part, forgiveness is important, it is psychologically important. You cannot heal a patient if the doctor-patient channels don’t exist, or if the patient is not active. It’s known that we have 60 thousand thoughts in a day, of which even 95% are negative. We have even moved the spectrum of thoughts in this civilisation and that’s why prayer is important, contemplation, faith. Well, if we change that now, and the people of love do that, we have a chance.  Action is important!
Let’s be active; let’s demand accountability, and that means that we are moving towards the better, that we experience heavenly garden in this our country, and that is possible.  Because we have splendid water, splendid land parcels, we can have splendid food, let’s experience love, togetherness, compassion … it’s possible to achieve this in half a generation here”.

The election of such a new Pope, humble, with a steel, not gold crucifix around his neck, named Francis (Franjo) … is also not accidental.

“Let’s be frank, we could not receive a greater gift than to return the essential simplicity of God’s science, Jesus Christ … that is the way out from the enormous consumerism, manipulations … our church is also partly to blame, one of the guilty parties for that. We have not been adequately active, we know that Satan has crept into the church, even into the Vatican, that’s no secret … this of which I speak is called awakening because of that … we will either perish as a civilisation or we will conquer. We, as people of love, must count on all possible dominations, but as we are Christ’s, we are the conquerors, love conquers forever, and that’s why I am a great optimist. Thanks be to Jesus and Mary”.

 
ABOUT Prof. Dr. sc. Davor Pavuna: 

Professor, Institute of Physics of Condensed Matter FSB – Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Born in Croatia 1952. Diploma work on magnetotransport in metals (Zagreb, 1977); Ph.D. Thesis on electronic properties of amorphous metals (1982) under Prof. J.S. Dugdale, at that time, the President of the SRC of Great Britain. Following 3 years of research in the CNRS as an Associate Lecturer at the University of Grenoble, where he initiated successful research program on quasicrystals, Pavuna joined EPFL in 1986 as a superconductivity and subsequently functional materials group leader. His publications include more than 150 research papers, 25 reviews, 24 edited professional books, widely used (>100 Universities recommend it worldwide) textbook on superconductivity. Pavuna teaches elementary physics, basic and advances courses on quantum fluids and properties of disordered solids. He has co-organized 15 international conferences and 3 summer schools. In addition to more than hundred lectures in leading institutions worldwide and invited conference talks, he collaborated with and advised companies in Korea, Germany, UK, France, Switzerland, Ireland and USA. Source: http://cream.epfl.ch/files/content/sites/cream/files/shared/PavunaCV.pdf


Liquid Water is not a fluid of HOH molecules that propagate like classical ”balls”, actually, fractal maths is required to account for it’s dynamic properties:

Historically water engineering was pre-dominantly treated within a conventional mathematical framework, like Bernoulli approach or more advanced Navier-Stokes equations; lately by various numerical modeling schemes. Here we outline how the natural, yet complex water (and related fluids) flow and implosion engineering can successfully be treated by contemporary fra-ctal mathematics. Such an approach could gradually improve our fluid engineering and the planetary use of natural water in bio-medical, transport and energy context.
More on : http://www.waterjournal.org/volume-4/pavuna

Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)

News and Events by CCRES May 03, 2013

Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources  News and Events May 03, 2013

Energy Department Offers $13 Million to Advance Ocean Energy Technologies   The Energy Department on April 30 announced up to $13 million in funding to develop and test advanced components and technologies to boost the performance of marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) energy systems. The Energy Department plans to select up to 10 awards aimed at developing advanced controls, power systems, and device structures specifically for MHK applications, which harness energy from waves, tides, or currents. Through the new funding opportunity, the Energy Department intends to support projects that increase the power-to-weight ratio of MHK devices or improve system reliability through investment in three component technologies. The Department will select up to six projects to develop advanced control systems, including software or hardware, and perform numerical modeling or testing to assess performance improvements; up to two awards will be selected that focus on developing lighter, more compact, and more efficient power take-offs (PTOs) to increase system and component reliability and modularity and to make PTOs longer-lasting and easier to repair; and up to two projects will develop and test an advanced device structure that minimizes the loads transmitted to other components and increases the device’s ability to withstand extreme conditions. See the funding opportunity announcement at the Water Power Program Financial Opportunities Webpage. The Energy Department also launched a new Energy 101 video on a range of innovative MHK technologies and the Department’s research and development efforts to improve performance and lower costs. Additional information on these efforts is available through Open Energy Information’s new Water Power Gateway. See the Progress Alert and the Water Power Gateway.   New Battery Design Could Help Solar and Wind Power the Grid   Researchers from the Energy Department's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have designed a low-cost, long-life “flow” battery that could enable solar and wind energy to become major suppliers to the electrical grid. The research is a product of the new Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), an Energy Department Energy Innovation Hub. Established last November and led by Argonne National Laboratory with SLAC as a major partner, JCESR is one of five such Hubs created by the Energy Department to accelerate energy research. While solar and wind power make a substantial contribution to the nation’s energy supply, they also create significant power fluctuations, which can sometimes exceed the tolerances of the electrical grid. “Flow” batteries can smooth those fluctuations. Typically, flow batteries pump two different liquids through an interaction chamber where dissolved molecules undergo chemical reactions that store or give up energy, and have a membrane that only allows ions not involved in reactions to pass between the liquids while keeping the active ions physically separated. The new flow battery uses a simplified design without a membrane, and is a less expensive design compared to other batteries, which may improve its scalability and cost-effectiveness. In laboratory tests, it also demonstrated excellent energy storage performance through the equivalent of more than five and a half years of daily charge and discharge cycles. See the Energy Department press release and the JCESR website.   Report Assesses Potential U.S. Hydropower Upgrades   The Energy Department on April 22 announced a new study outlining key improvements that can be made to hydropower production in the United States to provide more efficient and cost-effective electricity to homes and businesses. Developed with funding from the Energy Department, the Electric Power Research Institute's (EPRI) report, "Quantifying the Value of Hydropower in the Electric Grid," identifies and assesses the quantifiable benefits from potential improvements. The report cites potential upgrades such as installing turbines that can operate with lower water levels, utilizing new power plant designs that can increase revenue and efficiency, and monetizing the services hydropower provides to the nation's electric grid. Hydropower supplies about 7% of U.S. electricity generation and is currently the nation's largest source of renewable electricity. Hydropower is widely valued for the ancillary services, or flexibility, it provides to the power grid—allowing storage capabilities, enabling fast stops and starts, and responding rapidly to imbalances of supply and demand to maintain power system stability. For example, pumped storage hydropower plants can pump water uphill when electricity supply exceeds demand, such as during nighttime hours or times when renewable energy sources are generating more power than consumers are using. This ability to store energy until it is needed—and to absorb excess renewable energy generation—lowers electricity prices and enables the generation of more renewable electricity. The researchers looked at improvements that could boost the efficiency and output of hydropower plants and at pumped storage hydropower systems, particularly in their potential to be integrated with variable renewable sources such as wind and solar power. According to the report, hydropower plants could see their largest revenue and efficiency increases by deploying new hydropower technologies, making operational improvements, utilizing hydropower's flexibility more in grid resource planning, and monetizing the energy storage capability of pumped storage. Among the key findings from the report: relying more heavily on hydropower to address changes in electricity supply and demand could provide more flexible reserve power options and reduce wear and tear on conventional thermal-generating equipment; and expanding the effective operating range of hydropower units by reducing the minimum amount of water needed to use the turbines stably can increase the production value of plants by 60%. EPRI also published nine accompanying case studies and supplemental reports that discuss the elements covered in the final report in greater detail. See the Energy Department Progress Alert and the complete report .   EIA Opens New State Energy Portal Online for Consumers   The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced on April 11 that it has launched a publicly available, comprehensive online view of the U.S. government's national and state energy data and information. The agency designed the new online portal with a range of users in mind, including policy makers, energy analysts, and the general public, who want to locate and compare state energy data and rankings and customize their own maps and charts, using an assortment of interactive tools. Users can view an array of energy facilities and resources, including information about renewable resource potential for wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal energy. In addition to customizable maps, the portal summarizes each state's ranking of its energy production, consumption, prices, and more. The state energy portal adds a unique visual dimension to each state's energy resources and infrastructure. See the EIA press release and the state energy profile website.

CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (CCRES)   special thanks to U.S. Department of Energy | USA.gov

A Renewable Boost for Natural Gas   The race to transition to cleaner, greener natural gas power plants is getting a boost from an unlikely source—solar energy. A new system developed by the Energy Department's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) converts natural gas and sunlight into a more energy-rich fuel called syngas, which will allow hybrid solar-gas power plants to use about 20% less natural gas to produce the same amount of electricity while also lowering the plant's greenhouse gas emissions. The system works through concentrating solar power, which uses a reflecting surface to concentrate the sun's rays like a magnifying glass. In the case of the new system from PNNL, a mirrored parabolic dish directs sunbeams to a central point, where a device absorbs the solar heat to make syngas. The four-foot-long, two-foot-wide device contains a chemical reactor and several heat exchangers. The concentrated sunlight heats up the natural gas flowing through the reactor's channels, where a catalyst helps turn the natural gas into syngas. The heat exchangers recycle leftover heat from the chemical reaction gas, increasing the efficiency of the system. In fact, tests on an early prototype of the device demonstrated that more than 60% of the sunlight hitting the parabolic dish was converted into chemical energy contained in the syngas. For the complete story, see the Energy Blog. Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)