Wind Turbines and the foolishness of subsidising them

About ten miles north of Ramsgate, in the middle of the Thames Estuary some 175 offshore wind turbines have been installed and are now operating, as wind turbines operate, in their own misunderstood fashion. If it is windy, and not too windy, the turbines generate electricity. The publicity claims that the wind turbines will generate enough electricity for 470,000 homes but the publicity is imprecise. There are only 22.5 million homes in the United Kingdom and to power them all will need another 50 arrays of similar turbines but unfortunately it is not as simple as that.

Get the Government to pay you for heating your home’s water with Genersys Solar

Just in time for the cold weather British Gas is raising its prices by more than 8% for gas and electricity consumed by domestic residential households. I had personally expected that shame would probably keep the big energy companies from holding back their price rises until after Christmas, but I was wrong.

Energy independence; we must strive for as much of it as we can achieve

One of the most vulnerable parts of a developed society is the supply of energy. If the supply of energy is disturbed, interrupted or even threatened society has to make rapid adjustments many of which result in suffering and loss of prosperity.

The Answer is Probably Not Blowing In the Wind

Now that Mr Huhne has resigned as Energy and Climate Change Secretary, his successor, Mr Davey, will be tested by a growing feeling that we are spending too much on subsidising wind farms. The one hundred Conservative Members of Parliament who have written to the prime Minister to argue that wind farms are over subsidised in these difficult economic time are right. The intermittency of the energy that wind turbines produces and the lack of any possibility of storing surplus energy makes it difficult to justify the present wind farm programme.

Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Solar – some inaccurate stuff about solar

On 26^th June the Mail on Sunday published an article in its “Live” supplement about solar, both the electricity generating kind and the thermal heat producing kind. It claimed to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about solar roof tiles and unfortunately not only failed miserably in its claim but was full of errors, so perhaps a better title would be “ Some inaccurate stuff about solar”.

Storing thermal and electrical energy

The thing that differentiates solar thermal from all other forms of renewable clean energy is that you can safely and easily store heat. However you generate your electricity – be it by wind or photovoltaics – storing electricity safely and cleanly is a real problem. You can build banks of environmentally damaging batteries using precious rare earths and store electricity thus.

Genersys launches in Santiago, Chile

Santiago is the capital of Chile. It is a fine modern city with some very interesting architecture and a splendid pace of life which I have found very comfortable. Santiago, like the rest of Chile, suffers from high energy prices, a lack of energy independence and in the case of Santiago atmospheric pollution caused by energy use.

Hopes,aspirations, signals, endless reviews and consultations- the 2008 Budget

Mr Darling’s Budget has been much as I feared; it shows a Government that is good at commissioning reviews and studies but lacking the political courage to make genuinely hard decisions.  

The Budget documents states: “Tackling climate change is the most serious and pressing global environmental challenge the world faces.” True. Unfortunately the policies announced under the heading “An Environmentally Sustainable World” will do little to tackle climate change or make the world more environmentally sustainable.