The Sahara Forest Project – A new source of fresh water, food and energy

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The world is running short of fresh water. With agriculture accounting for some 70% of all water

used, the water shortage is closely linked to food production and economic development. The

provision of clean water is a pre-condition to life, health and economic development and the lack

of water in many parts of the world is the root cause of much suffering and poverty. Present

methods of supplying water in arid regions include: over-abstraction from ground reserves,

diverting water from other regions and energy-intensive desalination. None of these methods are

sustainable in the long term and inequitable distribution leads to conflict. To make matters

worse, global warming is tending to make dry areas drier and wet areas wetter. Since the 1980’s,

rainfall has increased in several large regions of the world, including eastern North and South

America and northern Europe, while drying has been observed in the Sahel, the Mediterranean,

southern Africa, Australia and parts of Asia.

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PR Report for 2008 Conference

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By Keegan Wilson. In a short space of time (8-9 days) we crammed a huge amount of activity. We wrote three press releases, contacted 169 journalists on each occasion (507 in total) and spoke with key journalists in our agreed target media – national broadsheets, television and selected magazines.

Results: You were interviewed twice by Bath FM. Energy Now has written about the conference and Dr Czich’s strategy for Europe (this article should be out next month and I should be receiving a copy, which I can give you).

Lewis Smith at The Times is open to writing about this and is considering it for next week (from 10 Nov on). I finally managed to speak with John Vidal at the Guardian. John is interested in this story and I am still working to get coverage from him, so should have a clearer idea shortly of whether he is going to write something on this.

Roger Harrabin is the main man at the BBC for environment and energy, and he is associated with lots of BBC programmes. Roger has not committed to giving any coverage, but he has expressed a keen desire in the Claverton Group and this story. So we have made a good contact.

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Where Does The Wind Come From – And How Much Is There?

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Introduction: The source of the wind is the sun. The winds come from the suns energy falling on the earth’s surface. Due to the orientation of the earth’s surface to the sun’s rays near the equator the rays strike the surface at more optimum angles. The effect is that the air near the surface in tropical regions is heated more than the air near the surface of the polar regions. This leads to convection currents in the atmosphere, ie the movement of air due to changes in its density and pressure. This air movement is the principal cause of the winds.

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How to Turn Standby Generation Into Profit-Making Assets

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It does not make sense to ignore assets, leaving them idle, collecting dust and slowly degenerating (excuse the pun). Ask yourself why we spend thousands of pounds on standby generation just to have it lying dormant, gathering dust? Surely it makes much more sense to generate a profit from at least some of these assets.

With the continued expansion of wind energy the national grid need to increase their ability to cope with power fluctuations. They are already discussing ways in which they can encourage increased participation in Short Term Operating Reserve (STOR).
What is the solution? One solution is to increase use of embedded generation

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European Super Grid – press release

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At the fourth Claverton Energy conference, hosted by Wessex Water, Bath, international energy expert Dr Czisch outlined his strategy for a European-wide super grid that would supply all of Europe with entirely renewable electricity. Speaking at the conference Dr Czisch of Kassel University, Germany, also said the move to a renewable electricity system could cost the UK consumer the same as what is currently being paid, and, if there is the political will, he added that it could in theory be achieved in decades.

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UK ENERGY SYSTEM COULD SUFFER SAME FATE AS BANKS, EXPERTS WARN

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Representatives of an independent group of over 250 international energy and financial experts are meeting this week to reveal how the UK, Europe and other continents can run on renewable electricity for a similar price to that currently paid for fossil-based electricity. The Claverton Energy Research Group is also warning on the eve of its conference, which runs in Bath from 24-26 Oct, that current world governments’ energy policies are inadequate to meet growing global energy demands, and says serious action needs to be taken now!

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George Soros Agrees With Claverton?

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During In an Interview on the Global Financial Crisis and investment in Energy, George Soros appears to agree with Claverton Group’s previously expressed views. In an interesting ‘Global Viewpoint’ article distributed by Tribune Media Services Inc, entitled “My Interview with George Soros: End of Financial Crisis Could Be in Sight” it seems that George has caught up with our thinking, in that he says what the markets (or government!) should be investing in is new/ alternative energy sources:

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Affordable and Renewable Electricity Supply for Europe and its Neighbourhood

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Optimal Solution: 100% Renewable HVDC Supergrid to save our climate By Dr Gregor Czisch. 2008 Conference Paper Synopsis: In view of the resource and climate problems, it seems obvious that we must transform our energy system into one using only renewable energies. But questions arise how such a system should be structured, which techniques should […]

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