#5: Summary of roundtable discussion

The roundtable discussion is about if natural sources of energy such as solar power and CNG should be adopted. At the beginning, the moderator (Lek) gave an introduction about Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

The opposition (Boon Tah) discussed about the disadvantages of the use of CNG user. There are only 3 CNG refilling stations in Singapore which located at the western and northern part of Singapore. This brought about inconvenience for drivers in the east and south to refill their fuel tank. Long queue will form during peak hours at these refilling stations which will cause drivers to wait for a long to get their tank refill. In addition, there is a need to install a conversion kit for CNG. The conversion usually cost $3000 to $4000 which is quite a big sum of money.

The rebutter (Balan) argued that there were 2 more stations under constructions which will be located at central and north east part of Singapore. When the central station starts operating, it will be the 2nd largest refilling station comprises of 38 pumps. This will bring convenience to the CNG drivers. The rebutter continue with his argue by saying that CNG is much cheaper than petrol and diesel: CNG: 1.02-1.24SGD/kg, petrol: 1.558-1.670SGD/litre and diesel: 1.143SGD/litre. This will enable drivers to save in the future.

Moderator then introduced solar energy power, which is a technology which has been available for very long time but is not very well received by the people.

The opposition (Zun Kai) stated that is very expensive to own a solar energy system at home. For instance, in US, there is a need to give an amount of at least U$10, 000 before installing the system. In addition, there is research saying that the solar system is unable to produce adequate energy when there is insufficient sunlight.

Rebutter argued that solar energy system is able to store energy during day time for night time or times whereby there is insufficient sunlight to produce electricity. It is a good investment that in long term will be able to recover the cost in installing solar energy.

Moderator then wrapped up the discussion with the points stated by the 3 participants and talked about the issue of global warming. It is everyone’s responsibilities in combating global warming.

#4 Summary of 2 article on CNG

The first article "CNG car drivers run out of patience", is a newspaper article by Alvin Lim. The article mainly states the frustration of CNG fitted car drivers. By July 2008, there were only 2 refilling stations on operation and only make up to 10 pumps in total. During peak hours, drivers have to wait very long to get their fuel tank top up. One of driver says he sometimes had to wait up to 1 hour before refilling his CNG tank. A typical pump in the station takes 10 minutes to top up the CNG tank and needs 2 more minutes to cool down before refilling the following vehicle. As compared to other 531,590 petrol-driven cars which can fill up within minutes at the other 200 or so petrol stations all around Singapore, CNG drivers are rather inconvenient. There was an incident where the pumps at Jalan Buroh refilling station had to be shut down for safety reason during a thunderstorm. Drivers then had to wait for a long period of time before the pumps resume operation.

The above is a useful source for the roundtable discussion. Firstly, the article provides statistics on the number of vehicles in Singapore with and without CNG fitted technology. It also provides comments from CNG drivers about their views on using CNG fitted cars. Most important is a reliable source as is from “The Straits Times”.

The second article “Alternative fuel, change the fuel, save the world” written by Fandy, states mainly about environmental friendly vehicle and explain how CNG works. Just like bio-diesel, solar energy, electric and hybrid cars, CNG is another environmental cars that has been released in Singapore. However, not many people know the functions and facts about CNG. Many still think that it is very expensive and after conversion the car might under perform. The article also explains that it is a safe system that will not leak even with leakage.

The above source is useful as it explains the specifications of CNG technology and gives facts on CNG. It also explains how it works which let people have better understanding of the technology.

Reference

Fandy. (2008, February 28). Alternative Fuel- Change fuel, Save the world! Retrieved March 13, 2009, from CAR NEWS IN SINGAPORE: http://sg.88db.com/sg/HTML/en-us/indexmkt/Lifestyle/automotive/alternative_fuel.htm

Lim, A. (2008, July 28). CNG car drivers run out of patience. Retrieved March 02, 2009, from asiaOne news: http://www.asiaone.com/News/the%2BStraits%2BTimes/Story/A1Story20080727-79019.html

#3 Thoughts after the lecture

I feel that the 2 hours lecture is very informatics and interesting. The 3 speakers mentioned certain parts which really enlighten me on certain issues regarding global warming, and gave me a better understanding about certain combating global warming.

Prof Andrew Palmer shared with us his knowledge on Geo engineering and spoke mainly about Carbon Storage. He started by discussing issues on climate change and how we response to the changes by mitigation and adaptation. He further elaborated on the technology regarding carbon storage. He explained that carbon dioxide can be stored deep in the ocean within a membrane with will reduced the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. However, this method of carbon storage may results to carbon dioxide diffusing into the ocean over the time and cause ocean to become more acidic.

The next speaker is from NUS, Dr. Benjamin k Sovacool who spoke about Science & Technology Studies (STS). There is a traditional theory which states that technology can be out of control and failure of technology may be due to many factors. By discussing on 2 case studies, he explained the factors which may cause technology to fail. Some of the factors are; political,cultural, social challenges, economic challenges.

The last speaker, A/P Rajasekhar Bala spoke about the global warming in a general context. He explained how green house gases causes global warming and showed charts on increasing global temperature. He also discussed how people combat global warming by mitigation and adaptation. he further add on the difficulties people faced in combating global warming. in the end he shared his views on how government can do his part in reducing carbon emission through incentives and taxes.

Personally I feel that the second speaker's slides are more interesting. It may be due to his eloquence, and may be due to the topic which is something that I have never heard of. In addition, by using case studies he is able to make his topic on STS easier to understand and more interesting. For instance, regarding Case studies 2: Electric Vehicle, he is able to relate how other challenges influence people to stop using a environmental friendly vehicle. Having a technology which may be able to reduce greenhouse gases might not be the main factor in combating global warming, there is a need to look into other aspects as well.