Flooding and the need to decentralise energy supply

In all the uncertainties about climate change one thing is very clear. In the United Kingdom we are experiencing more extreme weather and we are feeling the effects of extreme weather more extremely than ever. I think that what is happening is that climate change is having an effect on our environment in ways that [...]

Uranium and being kind to Kazakhstan

Regular readers of these writing will recall that I have been critical of Business Secretary John Hutton’s call for a nuclear energy renaissance; I am sure that the nuclear industry cannot guarantee safe disposal of waste and I have also been sure that the carbon emission costs of nuclear are nowhere near as low as [...]

Why should anyone buy a solar system? The Value Propositions

Why should anyone buy a solar system?
For most people this is the critical question that the solar thermal industry needs to answer. We have the product, we have the technology, but why should anyone part with their hard earned cash – for a solar heating or a solar water heating system?A good solar system costs [...]

Oil prices rise as the economy falls

The price of oil still rising but the economy of the world is slowing down. This at first sight seems like a paradox. If the world’s economy slows down you would expect less energy to be used and therefore the price of oil should fall. Today oil stands at around $120 a barrel – it [...]

Wind turbines or peat lands Scotland makes a wise choice

The Scottish Parliament has always been a supporter of renewable energy; its record is exemplary – far better than Westminster’s on renewable energy, so when it announces a decision to reject an application to build 181 wind turbines to generate electricity on the Isle of Lewis some eyebrows were raised.
 
I am sure that the application [...]

The money you save with a solar system

There are some positively misleading reports about what solar water heating does and what it saves. In the Telegraph on Saturday one “expert” who turns out to be a builder claiming to “give it to you straight, Jeff Howell, claims that the annual savings are less than £70 per year and that at this time [...]

Peak Coal - when will coal run out?

The concept of “peak oil” is well known; there is a stage when we have less oil in our world’s reserves than we have used. It does not take much imagination to understand that this is not good. M King Hubbert was a geologist working for Shell in the 1950s.
He proposed that the rate [...]

Heat Pumps and carbon emissions

Heat pumps are a terribly important technology, but we run the risk of being indiscriminate in their use. Not every heat application is environmentally suitable to operate with a heat pump. We have to choose the best horse for each course when it comes to microgeneration and renewable energy.
A heat pump works by exploiting ground [...]

Humpty Dumpty, Zero Carbon Homes and public confusion

The National House-Building Council Foundation, which is an independent research institution, connected to the NHBC, but operating separately and works closely with the Building Research Establishment, to look at the Government’s target of all new homes being “zero carbon” by 2016. 
The definition of a Zero Carbon Home is a bit of a Humpty Dumpty definition. [...]

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 [...]