Increasing energy prices - why they will rise and rise and what we can do about it

Natural gas and electricity prices will get higher. British Gas increased electricity and gas bills by an average of 15% this January and is now signalling further large price increases. It claims that its profits have been hit by a 92% increase in the wholesale price of gas in the past twelve months and therefore [...]

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 [...]

How much stock of energy should we hold?

If you run a business you know that the stock that you hold (known in the US as inventory) is critical to the success of your business. The more stock that you hold the more capital you have tied up; in some businesses stock decays with time (such as food) or becomes less valuable by [...]

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 [...]

Biofuels - we drive and the world starves

 
Sometimes you can only see a picture clearly if you step back from it, so you can see the whole canvas. So it is with energy. Without any doubt we are heading for an energy crisis. The oil will probably peak – that is to say reach its maximum production in ten years time. Oil [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]