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.
Professor Lewis Lesley comments on the recently announced plan to purchase expensive High Speed Trains from Hitachi
(Letter originally printed in The Guardian but heavily edited…………) Dear Editor, Whilst commentators have been arguing about how many jobs and where, no one has raised the question of “value for money”. At £5.4m per carriage, these are the most expensive trains ever in real terms. As a comparison for the same money, 30,000 high speed luxury […]
Read MoreLittle known (or conveniently forgotten) reason for 1926 miners strike recalled – Dr Fred Starr
If no one has anything better, here is a slightly incomplete table for coal production. This has been compiled from various sources over the past few years.
Peak was 1913 when we were exporting 100 million tons at a price of around £1 per ton. This might be equivalent to £50 per ton today (or higher?).
UK coal exports began to get uncompetitive after WWI, and was one of the main reasons for the 1926 General Strike, when the coal owners wanted to reduce wages.
Coal output was insufficient in WWII (and afterwards) and was one reason for sending one in every ten
conscripted men down the mines
UK coal reserves are now given as somewhere between 400-800 million tonnes. Not the billions that everyone supposes.
If the UK energy system was totally dependent on coal, as it used to be, these would last 2-4 years.
Read MoreRenewables East event helps small and medium sized companies in the East of England and the East Midlands access funding and support for green energy and low carbon technology
Simon Sherrington is organizing a free event on behalf of Renewables East. It is designed to help small and medium sized companies in the East of England and the East Midlands access funding and support to develop their early stage green energy and low carbon technology and service ideas. It is open to anyone meeting Renewables […]
Read MoreLetter from Professor Roger Falconer concerning Severn Barrage and Tidal Lagoons
Professor Roger A. FALCONER South Glamorgan, 12th January, 2009 The Editor Penarth Times Dear Sirs, I read with interest the letter from Paul Kinnersley in this week’s Penarth Times, where he states that the tidal lagoon is cheaper and more efficient than a Severn Barrage and he encourages ‘all […]
Read MoreChris Hodrien's CCS / Carbon Capture and Storage prediction comes true in US
Chis Hodrien told us all at the October Claverton conference at Wessex Water Bath. that gasification-CCS was poised to become reality! It is interesting that the States are all legislating in favour of gasification IGCC (having recognised its many advantages for new-build), the very opposite of the British Gov’ts post-combustion CCS bias. They also recognise […]
Read MoreEuropean Super Grid – "Wrong to suggest this would make Europe more vulnerable than importing Russian Gas and Middle East fossil fuels" – ?
The above slide from Czisch (“An affordable renewable power system for Europe”) shows that Europe is unlikely to be vulnerable to sudden disconnection / sabotage of say a single or several, North African regions since there is considerable redundancy in connection and diversity of supply areas, and European grids of necessity already have existing sophisticated […]
Read MoreToyota announced that it plans to start selling fuel cell vehicles in 2015
13th January. Toyota announced that it plans to start selling fuel cell vehicles in 2015. They also announced they will release a plug-in hybrid later this year and an all-electric two seater in 2012. Speaking at the North American International Auto Show Masatami Takimoto, Toyota’s executive vice president of research and development, said […]
Read More" Why Batteries Not Hydrogen Fuel Cells Are The Future Of Private Motoring" – George Wallis
Wallis’ excellent paper attempts to show why cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells are not the immediate future of private motoring, and why batteries have an important and immediate part to play. Note: (‘Nazi sharks etc.’ refers to a no doubt bad taste joke, made by James May during the recent BBC TV Top Gear show, […]
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