Arctic ice melt and how this will affect us.

Arctic ice melts and how this will affect us.
Ice at the Arctic and the Antarctic plays an important role in regulating our climate. Ice is white, and white reflects back solar radiation, instead of absorbing it. The area of ice at the poles acts as part of the very complicated control system that our planet [...]

Why I do not buy energy on a green tariff

Why don’t I buy energy on a green tariff? 350,000 people have signed up to buy energy on a green tariff from one of the six major domestic energy suppliers in the United Kingdom. I am not one of them. I was never convinced by something that calls itself a “green” tariff. The phrase is [...]

Can Parliament control energy prices?

Can Parliament control energy prices?
Parliament’s role has been gradually changing over the years. It still makes laws, but most of the laws it makes are “whipped” by the government onto the statute book; Members of the House of Commons are dependent upon their parties – Harold Wilson once famously threatened the “take away their [...]

Energy prices spiral, fuel poverty increases – time to rethink fundamentals

As energy prices continue their upward spiral hundreds of thousands of families are now spending a huge share of the income on energy. Once this share goes above 10% of the income the family is said to be in fuel poverty. The UK are under an obligation to abolish fuel poverty, because it is scandalous [...]

UK’s nuclear energy will cease to be under government control

The UK’s nuclear energy will shortly cease to come under government control.
Centrica (the energy company which owns British Gas) is buying 25% of British Energy, the nuclear generating plant, from EDF. The UK Government owns 35% of British Energy, which is worth according to the price that Centrica paid for its shares, around £4.3 billion. [...]

Gas and electricty prices rise again, a pain and a scramble

Gas and electricity prices rise again; the pain is just starting.
Following up on Centrica’s statement last week that their prices would rise so that an average consumer would be paying £1000 a year for gas, EDF has announced an actual price rise. For those without a capped energy price gas will cost 22% more and [...]

Solar concentrators in the desert

There has been talk about building a huge array of solar concentration mirrors in a desert to generate electricity. There are already a number of plants that do this. The mirrors concentrate the rays of the sun and the energy is converted from radiation into heat. The heat is used to create steam which drives [...]

Why I do not buy carbon offsets

I do not buy carbon offsets.
The carbon offset is now big business. Plenty of people are being offered carbon offsets when they book air travel. In a moment of environmental concern many people do sign up. I do not recommend that you do buy a carbon offset . These are my reasons.

We do not really understand how to [...]

Clean coal and dirty coal

Coal is dirty to touch and dirty when it is burnt. Can we ever have clean coal? We burn lots of it in order to generate electricity, and so does the United States, China and India as well as many other countries. It is the fossil fuel that emits the most carbon dioxide when it [...]

Glyndebourne’s wind turbine and its carbon emissions by helicopters

Glyndebourne Opera House wants to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions. This is a very worthy aspiration. The opera house has applied for and succeeded in getting permission to put up a 850kW wind turbine the pole of which will be 44m high. It will have three rotor blades having an overall diameter of 52m; the [...]