Uttlesford – the most CO2 per household in England – "100% renewable is possible" says Altechnica study.

November 15, 2008 / Dave Andrews / Biofuels, Biomass, Energy studies, Policy, Sustainability, Wind Energy

Dr Derek Taylor, Altechnica and OU Open University Energy & Environment Research Unit

The Altechnica study on Renewable Energy potential in Uttlesford (commissioned by Uttlesford Futures) study shows that it would be potentially possible to ultimately obtain all of the household electricity, space & water heating needs and power personal cars from 100% renewable energy from within Uttlesford.

Uttlesford is the East of England District located in the North West corner of Essex that borders Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire and includes Saffron Walden, Great Dunmow and Stansted Airport within its boundaries. – Prior to Uttlesford Futures commissioning the study, Uttlesford District had been reported as emitting the most CO2 per household in England.

This study showed that domestic heat provision, electricity and potentiall

Optimal central power station back up for wind – what is Claverton view?

November 15, 2008 / Dave Andrews / Demand manage, Electricity, Grid control, Grid/blackouts, Power stations, Wind Energy

The old power-station retention concept does require a lot of maintenance work to keep them open.
Long start up times are also an issue particularly if the turbine and the whole of the steam system is cold.
In comparison the engine based local CHP option can operate happily with minimal maintenance and with remote unmanned start up and operation.

The benefits from wind are clear they replace fossil fuel but are not effective as replacement capacity unless linked to a sufficiently large area of the world to ensure some wind all the time.

Carbon Capture and Sequestration

November 15, 2008 / Dr Fred Starr / 2008 papers

– Just Another Panic-led “Solution” to Another Energy Crisis?
By Dr F.Starr – FIMMM, C.Eng : Claverton: October 2008. This presentation was given at the Claverton October 2008 Conference and was intended to provoke discussion about one of the main downsides to the concepts of carbon capture. The issue in question is that carbon capture will increase coal demand by at least 20%, over what non-capture plant will require. This is particularly important for the UK since, despite what is commonly thought, the UK coal output has been declining since 1913 and continues to decline. At present UK coal only supplies about 10% of our electricity. There is no prospect of a significant increase.

The NASA Climate Scientist James Hansen – urgent warning

November 13, 2008 / Dave Andrews / CCS, Climate, Climate Change, CO2 levels, Coal fired, Electricity, Environment, Policy, Tax

The NASA Climate Scientist James Hansen and an international team of researchers have very recently completed a paper for the Open Atmospheric Science Journal, concerning an in-depth analysis of Climate history at the Earth’s Polar regions, relating it to today’s warming conditions.

Published on 7th November 2008, the peer-reviewed research paper shows, by careful calculations on proxy data for the very distant past, that we should expect high Climate Sensitivity, the warming signal of the Earth in response to Greenhouse Gas accumulation above ground.

The team looked at the relative changes in Carbon Dioxide concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere and showed that the rate of change showed strong negative “radiative forcing” clearly associated with the formation of the polar ice caps, and used that as a basis for calculating the Climate Sensitivity.

How Do We Get Back to Climate Safety?

November 13, 2008 / Dave Andrews / News Briefs

Notice of Meeting: 27th November, 7pm at Friends Meeting House, Euston.

No screaming, no panic, no doom, no gloom. Just a short and simple summary of the latest climate science followed by a discussion of what we’re going to do about it.

On Thursday 27th November 2008, The Public Interest Research Centre will launch the report “Climate Safety” at Friends Meeting House, Euston, London. A panel of speakers – Caroline Lucas, George Monbiot, Kevin Anderson, Jeremy Leggett and Tim Helweg-Larsen – will be discussing the question ‘How do we get back to climate safety?’

With Arctic sea ice melting away faster than anyone had predicted, the climate seems more sensitive than almost anyone thought, placing us in the middle of a climate emergency that cannot be ignored or brushed aside.

Biomethane fueled vehicles – the carbon neutral option*

November 12, 2008 / Dave Andrews / 2008 papers

republished at http://tx1.fcomet.com/~claverto/cms/bio-methane-fuelled-vehicles-john-baldwin-cng-services.html

News Flash – HVDC European super grid meeting in London

November 11, 2008 / Dave Andrews / Electricity, European Supergrid

A meeting of French government representatives and energy and financial experts occurred on Oct 30th in London at which a plan for the construction of an HVDC link to bring power from renewables sites in North Africa to Europe was discussed. It was not clear exactly what the French plans and motives were, although it […]

Systemic Fiscal Reform – way to beat boom and bust

November 11, 2008 / Dave Andrews / 2008 papers, Economics, Finance, Financial system, Investment, Markets, Policy, Resources, Sustainability, Tax, Taxation

By Dr Adrian Wrigley, Neale Upstone and Robin Smith (10th Sept 2008) – SystemicfiscalReform.Org

Systemic Fiscal Reform is a radical programme for the reform of taxation, subsidies and welfare. It is designed to stabilize economies, improve quality of life, and facilitates the transition to full environmental sustainability.

The reforms mainly comprise the abolition of cumbersome and wasteful tax, welfare and subsidy systems, together with abolishing the bureaucracies which implement them.

In their place, a simple integrated tax and welfare system is introduced. This includes retaining a number of existing taxes which have been found to operate effectively where they have been tried.

2008 Claverton Energy Group Conference Papers Available

November 6, 2008 / Dave Andrews / 2008 papers, Alternative fuels, Biofuels, Biomass, Biomethane/biogas, CCS, Climate, Coal fired, CSP, Demand manage, Digestion, Economics, Energy studies, European Supergrid, Finance, Financial system, Hydrogen, Investment, Load management, Markets, Natural Gas, Policy, Renewables, Sustainability, Tax, Taxation, Transportation, Wind Energy

Those that have been forwarded in text format have been published as News Articles. Those in PowerPoint or PDF format have been uploaded to the website, and can be downloaded for reading at:

What is Microgeneration? And what is the most cost effective in terms of CO2 reduction

November 6, 2008 / Dave Andrews / 2008 papers, Economics, Efficiency, Electricity, Investment, Micro-generation, Natural Gas, Policy, Resources, Wind Energy

The UK Government definition of Microgeneration[1] applies to a rather surprising mix of heat and power generating technologies with a thermal output below 45kWt or an electrical output of 50kWe. It covers electrical generation from wind, solar photovoltaics (PV) and hydro, and heat generation from biomass, solar thermal and heat pumps as well as micro CHP which produces heat and power from renewable or fossil fuels. It is not just another term for small scale renewables, but comprises a portfolio of low carbon technologies.

There has been a tendency amongst advocates[2] and sceptics[3] alike to lump all Microgeneration technologies together, either as “all good” or “all bad”. This is particularly unhelpful when attempting to understand the potential contribution Microgeneration can make to UK energy strategy and it is important that we understand the particular characteristics and potential role of each technology.

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