UK Capacity Auction – Blinded by the lights?

Blinded by the lights? So, the presents have been opened and the over-eating survived. What now remains of your ‘spirit of Christmas’? For me, the answer is always the same – it’s the lights. Since childhood, they have fascinated me. I would wander the streets, marvelling at efforts people made to light up their houses […]

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Karl-Heinz Tetzlaff 1938-2014

From: Bill Powell, 11/2014. Karl-Heinz Tetzlaff had a vision for a sustainable economy based on hydrogen produced from biomass which he and his former boss Dr Wolfgang Wendel at Hoechst Chemicals preached wherever they could get an audience.  In retirement their roles were reversed with K-H leading with ideas and enthusiasm. I first knew him […]

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List of proposed scenarios and technologies for de-carbonizing Europe

This is a work in progress article on wikipedia  [hide]  1 Introduction 2 Nuclear energy 3 District heating and combined heat and power 4 Super energy conservation 5 Use of individual heat pumps for heating 6 Increased use of wind energy 7 See also 8 References 9 External links Introduction[edit] There are a large number […]

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Look at the list of Labour Party politicians (and their spouses) who are open to the susupicion of having been corrupted by nuclear industry

. These are from Donnachadh McCarthy’s new book The Prostitute State – How Britain’s Democracy Has Been Bought, http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2587477/nuclear_power_trumps_democracy.html Former Energy Minister Brian Wilson became a non-executive director of Amec Nuclear, a client of BNFL.         Former Energy Minister Helen Liddell was hired to provide “strategic advice” by the former nuclear corporation British Energy.         […]

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UK DH economics – to be able to borrow at less than 6% for new assets thenDH needs to be run by a regulated monopolies

Edited Extract from a recent Claveton Exchange: Some people’s  insistence on and belief in, the term and world view summed up by “real UK political/business conditions” is IMHOP blinding them to the actual realities of economics and politics. The UK govt, or any govt,  can at a stroke, change the market rules to suit what it sees as the best long term view […]

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The Trouble With Climate Change Denial

  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/bob-ward/climate-change-denial_b_5554513.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-politics&ir=UK+Politics Bob Ward Policy and Communications Director, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Huffington Post 4 July 2014 11:57   Over the past few months, the Global Warming Policy Foundation has been strongly pushing a campaign pamphlet on ‘The trouble with climate change’, written by its founder and chair, Lord Lawson of Blaby. […]

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biomass-fuels

Biomass fuels – critique of FOE report

Re. the FOE briefing on using woody biomass in power plant. It is dreadful, masquerading as ‘research’ when it is just a re-tread of the appalling ‘Dirtier than Coal’ report from 2012-13. This was based on very biased research by the US legal anti-biofuels ‘hired gun’ Tim Searchinger. This carefully selected amongst the worst out of […]

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biomass-heating

Biomass Heating & Power Generation

Chris – I spent close to 2 years working for Balcas whose 2 UK plants can supply 155,000 tonnes a year. I got to know a lot about the true economics of production, economies of scale, transport vs production costs and life-cycle GHG emissions. I don’t have a direct pellet industry connection now but know many of […]

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