Forget renewables in Europe – it would make nuclear and the Emissions Trading Scheme Fail!

Saturday’s Guardian led on a story under the headline “Britain seeks loophole in EU green energy targets”. Apparently the Business Minister, Lady Vedera proposes that renewable energy targets should include projects outside the EU. In other words, we should count as part of EU emission targets projects that we sponsor (or sell) to places outside [...]

Christian Aid is lobbying for the wrong things

The Christian Aid charity is campaigning about climate change. There are advertisements in glossy magazines (I saw one in the Sky magazine) depicting poor southern Asians being flooded out of their homes by dirty flood water, with a call for readers to contact their MP to ask him to increase the emissions reductions in the [...]

Another YouTube video for Genersys

Genersys has put another video on YouTube. In it I explain how solar thermal systems are controlled by the digital controller and the pump station. If you are thinking of getting a solar system you will get an idea of how they work by clicking the YouTube link on the right of this page.
Modern domestic thermal [...]

Is your home suitable for solar panels?

Lots of people want to install solar panels but worry about whether their house is right for them. How should they be aligned and is the roof strong enough? Most houses are suitable for solar and a solar system will work well almost everywhere in the world.

The key thing to check is whether the area [...]

The new nuclear renaissance – an easy decision but…

John Hutton is Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. By training he is a lawyer, but he now is in charge of Energy for the United Kingdom. His problem is to set out an energy policy that will provide the nation over the long term with energy as cheaply and as low [...]

Ice, deserts and the wisdom of the ancients

The vernal equinox has come and the days are getting longer. For those of us in the United Kingdom we can look forward to the weather getting warmer (although you would not think so from the unseasonal snow we have seen over the past few days) and the longer daylight hours mean, amongst other things, [...]

Do biofuels cause more harm than the benefits they provide and should there be a Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation?

Things are not what they seem when it comes to renewable energy. Most people, including those who should know better, think that all energy from renewable sources is equally benign and all should be supported equally. In fact this simplistic approach can cause more damage than benefits. You end up with heat pumps and biomass [...]

Celebrities and lawyers: an environmental journey or climbing on a bandwagon?

There have been a lot of people starting on an environmental journey. Celebrities have discovered just how green their life styles are and are anxious to tell us about how climate safe they are. Lifestyle magazines feature articles, often with a compendium of famous musicians, models, chefs and people generally famous for being famous.
Reading about [...]

Solar central heating

There has been a lot of interest in my post of 10th March which shows you how you can heat your home with solar energy. In Kent Chris Flaherty of Vietech Heating has recently fitted a solar heating system using a 450 litre store. 
I have added his photograph to this post so that you can [...]

Energy prices, free markets and Russian Gas

The last of the big six energy suppliers, Scottish & Southern Energy, announced a price rise a couple of days ago which will take effect from 1st April 2008. They blame wholesale price increases and they are right to do this. They also point out that transmission costs are also going up as are “environmental costs”.  
Like all [...]