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 [...]

Mr Brown’s own yardstick and climate change

Mr Gordon Brown’s recent speech was about climate change and as you would expect he tried to put a very positive emphasis on the government’s climate change policy. It is worth looking at the speech in detail so that we can fully measure the government’s climate change policy against a proper yardstick. I shall give [...]

Labelling supermarket items with carbon details

Knowledge is critical, for without knowledge we cannot make meaningful choices. Unfortunately when it comes to carbon emissions knowledge is fairly meaningless unless it is comprehensive. That is why when it comes to moderating our own carbon emissions behaviour we should accumulate our knowledge which should then help us in actions which concentrate on the [...]

Energy Savings Trust misleads the public about the benefits of solar systems

Anyone in the renewables industry has to devote a large part of their work to education. We deal in technologies and concepts that are relatively unknown to the public (and the governmental agencies) especially in the field of solar thermal technology.
 
The United Kingdom does not have any facilities for testing solar thermal collectors. These [...]

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 [...]

Science for its own sake

We need many tools, many weapons to bring climate change into a state where it has a minimal impact on our children and our grandchildren. Whatever its cause, the climate of our planet is changing and we need to slow down the rate of change to a rate with which our own evolution can keep [...]

Windfall profits but not from wind farms; the blighted emissions trading scheme

I have written in this web log about what I perceive to be the failings in the Emissions Trading Scheme, much beloved of the United Kingdom Government as the means of curbing carbon dioxide emissions. The scheme in effect licenses large emitter to produce so many emissions each year; if they produce less they can [...]

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 [...]