By the end of this year the world’s major car manufacturers will standardise on a new charging system for electric batteries. German manufacturers have already announced support for what is called the ‘7 pin’ option and by the end of the year Nissan, Renault and others are expected to follow. The 7 pin system allows the use of 3 phase electric power rather than the single phase used in domestic homes. This makes charging far quicker, eventually meaning that a full charge will take no more than 30 minutes. The government is ploughing ten of millions into subsidising the creation of public charging points. But in the most important UK location, London, the authorities are insisting on only installing old-fashioned single phase charging points and have locked out those manufacturers offering 7 pin. Mayor Boris Johnson must reopen the tender to allow bids from companies able to offer modern equipment rather than back last century’s technology. Read the rest of this entry »
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Growing food and bringing it to our tables accounts for about 20% of UK greenhouse gas emissions. Including the impact of the deforestation elsewhere that is driven by UK food demand, the figure may rise to around 30%.(1) If developed countries are to reduce their emissions by four fifths by 2050, it is painfully obvious that food production and consumption habits will have to change dramatically. A recent report on the emissions reductions obtained by people participating in ‘The Fife Diet’, a programme designed to increase willingness to buy only locally-produced food, show just how difficult emissions reductions are likely to be. (2) Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 100 mile diet, fife diet, organic
Do air source heat pumps (ASHP) save householders money? And do they reduce CO2 emissions? In an earlier article on this site I suggested that potential purchasers should be cautious on both measures. I was a little too pessimistic: a recent visit to a home with an ASHP enabled me to get actual data on energy consumption before and after the pump was installed. Carbon and cash savings were better than I expected, although the ASHP still does not represent a good investment without subsidy. But the government’s proposed Renewable Heat Incentive will provide very substantial cash payment to encourage a rapid take-up of these devices. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: air source heat pump reviews, coefficient of performance, CoP, Ecodan, Renewable Heat Incentive
The word ‘trick’, apparently in relation to an attempt to hide a decline in recent temperatures, was the single most damaging aspect of the Climategate emails affair. News and comment around the world focused on this single expression. The climate scientist Myles Allen recently pointed out that even the BBC repeatedly used the phrase ‘trick.. to hide the decline’ as part of the backdrop to its television news reports. (1) The assumption was always that this word must necessarily have indicated intent to deceive but a cursory examination of dictionary definitions shows that the word ‘trick’ is at least as likely to mean a use of a skill or technique. This fact should have been given more prominence by media covering the Climategate affair and by Sir Muir Russell’s recent report. Read the rest of this entry »
Future rises in temperature depend on two separate numbers. First, how much CO2 and other greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere and, second, how much the climate is likely to vary in response to increases in the levels of these gases in the atmosphere. A new paper from Kirsten Zickfeld and others looks carefully at the opinions of fourteen leading climate scientists on the latter of these two important figures. (1) The conclusions suggest that the standard view may be too optimistic. Read the rest of this entry »
West Oxford Community Renewables (WOCR) will inaugurate two of the largest PV installations in the UK on Thursday 24th June on large roofs within the Oxford area. Matthew Arnold secondary school boasts a new 100 kW array while a local Aldi store has a 52kW installation. Other local buildings will take the total up to 250kw within a few weeks. In an extraordinarily impressive achievement, this recently founded business has raised the best part of £1m to fund the new arrays. Read the rest of this entry »
Today’s decision (17th June 2010) of the UK government to withdraw its proposed loan of £80m to Sheffield Forgemasters is extraordinary. No other move could have had quite so much effect on the plans for nuclear power. Forgemasters wanted the money to buy a 15,000 tonne press, a necessary piece of equipment to make the pressure vessel at the centre of a power plant. Without the money, it says it will not proceed with its expansion into the nuclear market. Read the rest of this entry »
At a presentation at the Oxford Energy Futures conference on June 11th, Andy Duff, non-executive chair of RWE npower, made some controversial assertions about the future of electricity in the UK. He focused on three propositions.
a) The UK cannot meet its carbon targets without new nuclear
b) Electricity demand will grow at 1% less than GDP growth
c) The UK will not have enough electricity capacity by the latter part of this decade unless UK society accepts a doubling of wholesale electricity prices, which is the minimum required to free the capital investment required to 1) meet demand and 2) decarbonise sufficiently fast.
In summary, we need nuclear and we all need to accept a substantial rise in electricity prices to pay for it. Read the rest of this entry »
In the second edition of this book, I focus on the importance of embedded energy in the things that we buy. I’ve estimated the carbon footprint associated with our main purchases, both things made here and good manufactured overseas. In addition, I have revised all the figures for energy use in the home and in our transport. The book provides figures for the typical UK resident in 2009, and now covers at least two thirds of the total greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose of the book, as in its first edition, is to provide a comprehensive reference work for those interested in understanding how individual lifestyle choices affect a person’s footprint. I believe it remains the most detailed and rigorous analysis of individual responsibility for emissions.
Shale gas changes everything. One leading industry consultant said recently that natural gas extracted from shale formations may multiply world availability by between ten and hundredfold. This means we will be awash with the stuff everywhere around the globe.
Source: www.scholarsandrogues.com
The price of gas is low today, will probably remain at these low levels and, perhaps more importantly, worries over the security of supply will disappear. Any rational electricity generator will replace old power stations with new combined cycle gas turbines, ignoring fancy new lower carbon technologies such as wind and nuclear unless the carbon price is sufficiently high to block the use of natural gas. The UK’s objective of near-decarbonisation of electricity generation by 2030 becomes impossible without a very high penalty levied on the use of gas to generate power.
Today’s (May 20th 2010) announcement of the plans for the new UK coalition suggest that a guaranteed minimum carbon price is now an explicit government objective. What carbon price will be required to keep nuclear power as a viable alternative to using cheap gas for generation? My calculations suggest a minimum figure of at least £110 per tonne of CO2. Read the rest of this entry »
Two lettuce seedlings: the one grown in biochar compost is on the right
In an experiment at home, I compared the germination and growth rates of lettuce seedlings planted in either a biochar mix or in a conventional peat-based ‘John Innes’ seed compost. Although the germination rates and the speed of growth of the leaves of the seedlings were slightly better in the John Innes seed compost, root formation was extraordinarily enhanced by the use of biochar. Good roots improve the future growth of plants because they enable faster take up of water and nutrients. Read the rest of this entry »
(This article was written in response to a call from climate scientist Myles Allen for voters to avoid voting Green in the UK general election. Myles’ s piece in the Guardian is here.)
Myles Allen wants the Greens to revert to being a party solely concerned with the environment. He says that by offering a full slate of policies we are weakening our appeal to people who those want a focus on climate change and other urgent ecological issues. He says that by linking our policies on the environment to wider ambitions for improving Britain, we are diluting our appeal to our natural supporters. In fact he thinks that our environmental concerns are little more than a cloak to disguise our ambitions for more equitable Britain. We aren’t really interested in arresting climate change, he seems to say. Our secret desire is to build a fairer society. Read the rest of this entry »
The CO2 footprint of packaging at Riverford Organics
Riverford Organics, one of the largest vegetable box schemes in the UK, has suggested it may move away from cardboard packaging and towards plastic. In this week’s note to customers, Guy Watson at Riverford says that plastic boxes could reduce the carbon footprint of the company’s packaging by 70%. He strongly hints that the company wants to move to plastic immediately but is frightened of the reaction of customers. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: cardboard, Guy Watson, plastic footprint, Riverford Organics
The Guardian asked a range of commentators the following questions about a green investment bank, an ideal widely talked about for the UK.
1. How should it most effectively be set up?
2. What should it use its financial resources to support?
My response was
1, The German state investment bank KfW is an attractive model. This entity lent €60bn last year, almost half of which went to companies involved in environmental protection of one form or another. It raises money on the international capital markets but its conservative policies and long-term perspective have meant it has been able to continue supporting smaller companies and environmental projects throughout the last two difficult years. If implemented here, our equivalent should be located outside London, have lending offices spread across the UK and offer private individuals a chance to invest in its activities.
2. In 2009 KfW put about €9bn into building refurbishment. Its activities have been geared towards helping property companies and social landlords improve the poor insulation standards of post-war German housing and commercial property. It has helped improve many hundreds of thousands of homes, providing more comfortable accommodation that it is much cheaper to run. KfW’s lending has also created an effective and flexible eco-refurbishment industry. This has improved employment and skills, particularly in the less prosperous eastern parts of the country. We should copy the German emphasis on housing renovation as a primary activity of the bank, rather than let the UK entity focus on risky venture capital investments
Tags: eco-refurbishment, Green New Deal, Guardian, KfW
The Guardian web pages are reverberating to the clash of arms between George Monbiot and UK supporters of feed-in tariffs for solar photovoltaic panels and other small-scale renewables. Monbiot claims solar power is an extremely expensive way of generating electricity in the UK and that the new scheme is another way of subsidising the wealthy middle class. The fans of feed-in tariffs note the success of similar schemes in other countries. They think that the cashback proposals will help create jobs in businesses that install and maintain low carbon energy sources. The UK scheme will help drive down the costs of renewable technologies and increase public support for wind and alternative sources of electricity.
The argument has focused on solar photovoltaic panels installed on domestic roofs. This note tries to quantify some of the costs and benefits of the new scheme. I’ll take one of the simplest possible examples: an installation of 12 panels on the roof of a medium-sized house in the south west of England, where solar radiation levels are relatively high for the UK. Does solar energy make sense in this country?
Tags: economics of renewable energy, Guardian, Monbiot, Solar PV, wind economics
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