Climate | Claverton Group

How Much Wind Energy is there? – Brian Hurley – Wind Site Evaluation Ltd.

Introduction

The starting point is an estimate of the total quantity of kinetic energy in the atmosphere. Lorenz gives 1.5 x 106Joules/m2 as the quantity of kinetic energy contained in the atmosphere(1). Smil gives a figure described as the annual “solar radiation reaching the earth” as equal to 5.8 x 1024Joules, or 1.84 X 1017W, and 360W/m2(2). Annual Solar radiation absorbed by earths surface(land and sea) 2.9 x 1024Joules, or 9.19 X 1016W, and 180W/m2. Note the solar constant is 1,366W/m2. Smil refers to a source from Lorenz(1976) that “atmospheric motion” was about 2% of 3.5PW insolation. ( Applying 2% to Smil’s 9.19 X 1016W giving 1.84 X 1015W with his figure for winds below 1km 1.22 x 1015W is the right order of magnitude

Earthwatch Lecture – Forests and Climate Change

Earthwatch Lecture – Forests and Climate Change Thursday 26th March, 7.00pm-8.30pm at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR Our forests, home to an extraordinary range of biodiversity, and arguably one of our greatest safeguards against climate change, continue to be depleted at an alarming rate. How can we set about securing their future?

"These Fossil Fools" – Catherine Mitchell – excellent article in the Guardian on futility of market solutions to climate change

The UK’s energy policy has to focus on lowering carbon emissions by a combination of renewable energy and reducing demand. This requires a system almost entirely different from that we have in place today: one that is conducive to innovation and change; and one that is flexible and resilient to all sorts of technological futures.

"Green Grid" – Excellent article in New Scientist by David Strahan (The Last Oil Shock) on HVDC supergrids

Articles “Green grid” A version of this article was published in New Scientist on 12 March 2009. Original is here (This article was in part stimulated by the last Claverton conference held at Wessex Water, Bath where Dr Czisch spoke, and various discussions, (various discussions2), (various discussions3) (varous discusions4) on this website. Graeme Bathhurst is […]

Pumping Power calculator – what power is needed to pump seawater to the middle of the Gobi Desert for desalination in the SeaWater Greenhouse? – answer – not a lot

The spread sheet for calculating this, kindly provided by Wessex Water, one of the UK’s leading water supply companies, is available here: This spread sheet enables you to calculate power needed to pump water any distance through any height: http://tx1.fcomet.com/~claverto/cms/?dl_name=Pipe_Headloss__Power_calculator.xls You can see that in fact, compared to national energy consumptions, […]

Senior Energy Analyst reports on biochar as economic method of CCS

Hi Claverton,

Just read this on bio-char.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/67843ec0-020b-11de-8199-000077b07658.html.

Sound’s good to me. At £9/tonne this seems a sizeable contribution to GHG

reduction at a carbon price we already have in the EU cap and trade system.

I think the silver buckshot Al Gore cites will have many such low tech, low

cost solutions. For me making charcoal is an intuitively correct solution

as it seems to be a simple way of compressing the natural carbon capture

cycle that can be done at low capital costs and with lots of other benefits

as well.

Rgds

M

EcoTrack: project monitoring for the carbon market

Introducing EcoTrack
Project monitoring is often haphazard and time-consuming. Furthermore, results from monitoring do not always lead to improvement and learning. Now EcoTrack makes project results transparent and easy to use.
EcoTrack is a new monitoring system for sustainable energy and household energy projects. It is highly reliable, networked, and results-based. Eco, a private company based in the UK, has developed EcoTrack to systematize the monitoring process, provide timely data, and enhance reporting to funders and other project stakeholders. EcoTrack allows users to track the progress of activities, outputs, outcomes and objectives against performance indicators. It therefore improves the quality of both monitoring and management.

Carbon Pathways Analysis – Informing Development of a Carbon Reduction Strategy for the Transport Sector

Carbon Pathways Analysis July 2008 Executive Summary Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Carbon Pathways by Mode Chapter 3: Carbon Pathways by Type of Journey Chapter 4: The Impact of Mode Switch on Emissions Chapter 5: International Comparisons Chapter 6: The Challenge for Transport Acknowledgements This paper has benefited greatly from the inputs of Mark Barrett […]

THE FUTURE OF ELECTRICITY: LIBERALISATION, LONG DISTANCE TRANSMISSION, HVDC AND SUPERGRIDS

Polly Higgins 28.07.08 ELECTRICITY & TRANSMISSION IN EUROPE AND BEYOND Russia is running out of gas, oil is peaking globally, and energy prices are escalating. The most recent climate change science from NASA tells us that we must stabilise our carbon dioxide emissions at 350 parts per million, a figure we have already overshot with […]

Prof Klaus Illum talks about atmospheric C02 levels and climate change

From – Klaus Illum3 February 2009 The time scales of the graphs above and below differ by a factor 1,000. The composition of the atmosphere (H2O, NH3, N2O, CH4, O2, …..) has changed during the last hundreds of millions of years. During the last hundred thousands of years the CO2 concentration has fluctuated at a […]