Nuclear West Cumbria

At some stage the land underneath West Cumbria will be used as a dump for spent nuclear material produced as a by product of nuclear electricity generating power stations. West Cumbria, the geologists believe, was formed by rocks laid down at various times between 500 million years ago and 200 million years ago. Since then [...]

Season of the witch

London is cold and rainy in late October. This is the season when hurricanes have blown, although not for the past 23 years. On Sunday the clocks are moved to give us another hour of sleep, but herald into dark evenings. Some days when I start work early and work late I will not see [...]

Wicked Leaks

Generally I applaud those who leak information into the public domain; there is a long and noble history of whistle blowers whose activities have benefited society and helped strengthen that precious and diminishing resource – freedom. There is another precious and diminishing resource that is threatened – water. Whether it will be climate change that [...]

A Short Guide to the United Kingdom’s Renewable Energy Statistics

This year the United Kingdom is generating 3% of its energy requirements from renewable sources as defined by the European Union. That may seem to be cause for celebration, as that figure can only rise, we hope.

Grown ups who keep growing

It has become a mantra: growth is the solution to all our woes. The politicians and economists have repeated it so often that they think that everyone believes that growth will cures our economic ills.

Solar Thermal Energy and the Energy Action Plans of the European Member States

The European Union has been pushing renewable energy at its member states. In many cases it has been pushing at an open door but in some cases, particularly that of the United Kingdom, the national renewable energy plan has not yet been completed in so far as renewable heat is concerned.

The altruism of tree planting

There are plenty of trees in the part of London where I now live. I spent the first ten years of my life hardly ever seeing a tree, and when I did see trees they were stout huge park trees in Victoria Park. I wondered how children could ever climb them, as they always seemed [...]

Freedom … going…going…

History repeats itself, not exactly, parrot fashion, but it repeats itself in the sense that the names and places may have changed but the similarity is not purely coincidental. In the rich world we have become obsessed with security. We were once obsessed with freedom. Or forebears fought to be free and freedom was more [...]

Our excellent banks

From time to time I have found myself shouting at the radio. Yesterday I was listening to a discussion about banks on Radio 4’s Today programme. The topic was the new tax on banks that has been announced in the Chancellor’s Spending Review. A chap called Paul Myners, ennobled by the labour government, was there [...]

More about the Renewable Heat Incentive

I have been trying to unravel the Renewable Heat Incentive that the Government announced on Wednesday. So far the details have not emerged but the following seems clear:- The incentive will apply to domestic, commercial and industrial projects It will not be funded by levies on heating bills It covers all renewable heat technologies but [...]