Posted on April 24, 2008 by robertkyriakides
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 [...]
Filed under: Coal, John Hutton, PV, biofuels, biomass, carbon emissions, climate change, electricity, energy, gas, global warming, heat, malcolm wicks, microgeneration, natural gas, oil, renewables, solar, solar energy, solar panels, tax, transport, wind turbines | Tagged: bank liquidity, Bank of England, David Strahan, Defra, energy ministers, LIBOR, oil consumption, oil price cycle, oil prices, rights issue, Royal Bank of Scotland, sub prime, the last oil shock, the Treasury | 12 Comments »
Posted on April 10, 2008 by robertkyriakides
When is an overhaul not an overhaul? The answer is simple; when the Government of England and Wales adjusts an incentive program without really making any changes.
The Low Carbon Building Programme has been “overhauled”. The scheme is in effect a way of subsidising householders who want to install some form of microgeneration. The most popular microgeneration [...]
Filed under: carbon emissions, climate change, energy, global warming, heat, malcolm wicks, microgeneration, parliament, propaganda, solar, solar energy, solar panels, tax | Tagged: incentives overhaul, LCBP, low carbon building programme, solar grants | 5 Comments »
Posted on March 27, 2008 by robertkyriakides
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 [...]
Filed under: Conservatives, John Hutton, carbon emissions, climate change, energy, liberal democrats, malcolm wicks, microgeneration, nuclear, nuclear energy, pollution, power, renewables, solar panels | Tagged: carbon footprint of nuclear energy, energy policy, nuclear power, replacing aging nuclear reactors, scttish national party | 6 Comments »
Posted on March 14, 2008 by robertkyriakides
I have been handing out plenty of environmental brickbats to Government Ministers so it is really pleasant to award an environmental bouquet to Caroline Flint, who is the Planning Minister and another to Malcolm Wicks, who is the Energy Minister.
They have instituted changes to the planning rules which will make planning permission for home solar [...]
Filed under: carbon emissions, climate change, energy, genersys, global warming, law, malcolm wicks, microgeneration | Tagged: caroline flint, planning permission for solar, planning rules for solar, solar central heating | No Comments »
Posted on February 18, 2008 by robertkyriakides
I wrote the article below for the Building Services Journal, who have kindly allowed me to reproduce it here.
Biomass is on everyone’s list of an environmentally friendly and sustainable energy sources, even though it involves burning fuel. Many developers these days have to comply with the Merton Rule, whether they are environmentalists or not. This [...]
Filed under: Flooding, John Hutton, Merton Rule, biomass, carbon emissions, climate change, energy, global warming, heat, malcolm wicks, pollution, propaganda | Tagged: benzopyrenes, biomass boiler, carbon cycle, carbon monoxide, carcinogenes, closed cycle, decay, gas back up, heavy metals, lung disease, peat, replanting, smoke filtering, wood ash, wood smoke | 3 Comments »
Posted on February 12, 2008 by robertkyriakides
Malcolm Wicks is the Energy Minister. He has called for evidence on the best way to “decarbonise” the way we heat our homes. He is specifically asking for evidence about existing technologies mentioning combined heat and power, renewable heat, heat from waste and district heat.
I shall be responding to his call for evidence in terms [...]
Filed under: carbon emissions, climate change, energy, global warming, heat, malcolm wicks, microgeneration, solar energy, solar panels, tax | Tagged: consultations, decarbonising heating, energy minister, home heating, incentives, LCBP, low carbon building programme, renewable heat | 12 Comments »
Posted on January 24, 2008 by robertkyriakides
The European Union will legally require each country in the Union to meet a certain fixed percentage of its energy by renewables by 2020 if plans announced yesterday are approved, as they are likely to be. In the case of the United Kingdom that fixed percentage is 15%. The United Kingdom has got off very lightly; [...]
Filed under: PV, biomass, carbon emissions, climate change, electricity, energy, fuel poverty, genersys, heat, law, malcolm wicks, microgeneration, pollution, solar, solar energy, solar panels, tax, wind turbines | Tagged: BBC, BERR, burning forests, district heating, energy minister, EU renewable targets, intermittancy, proportion of possible soalr thermal contribution to UK, renewable eelctricty, renewable energy, renewable heat | 17 Comments »
Posted on January 9, 2008 by robertkyriakides
There has been a lot of news in the past day. The race for presidential candidates in the United States has got very interesting, particularly with Mrs Clinton making a strong showing to win New Hampshire. In the United Kingdom there are new measures that will be introduced in an effort to halt or slow [...]
Filed under: John Hutton, carbon emissions, gordon brown, malcolm wicks, microgeneration, nuclear, nuclear energy, parliament, power, solar energy, solar panels | Tagged: cabinet, carbon intensive nuclear, China, district heating, gordon brown, India, John Hutton, low carbon, nuclear carbon, nuclear waste, parliament, progressive tarriffs, renewable energy strategy, Severn Estuary tidal power, siting of nuclear power stations, sustainable energy generation, uranium mining | 4 Comments »
Posted on January 3, 2008 by robertkyriakides
Well, it is one step forward and two steps back. Medway Council have, despite over 9000 written objections, voted approval for Eon UK, one of Europe’s largest energy utility companies, to build two coal fired stations at Kingsnorth, which is near Rochester in Kent. They do not have the power to fully approve the application, [...]
Filed under: Coal, James Hansen, biomass, electricity, energy, gordon brown, malcolm wicks, microgeneration, natural gas, power, solar energy, solar panels, wind turbines | Tagged: biomass, coal power station, energy minister, Eon, Greenpeace, Kingsnorth, malcolm wicks, Medway, Port Talbot | No Comments »
Posted on November 28, 2007 by robertkyriakides
Malcolm Wicks is the Energy Minister. This month he is turning a valve in South Wales which completes the final stage of a pipeline which has been built stretching 196 miles from Milford Haven to Gloucestershire. The pipeline will carry gas from Milford Haven but as there is no natural gas there it will use [...]
Filed under: climate change, malcolm wicks, microgeneration, pollution, solar energy, solar panels | Tagged: , Argentina, Brecon Beacons, Chile, heat pumps, liquified natural gas, malcolm wicks, Milford Haven, photovoltaic, pipelines, pollution, solar systems, South Wales, wind turbines | No Comments »
