(Some clarifications and extensions made since earlier version) A number of people have made comments similar to this: “I have found Czisch’s plan for an Inter-Continental Grid, with Europe as its centre, unrealistic, politically. The idea that Europe should rely on power imports from Africa and the Middle East is completely barmy. The recent panic […]
Read MoreUK Gas Storage Fiasco Illustrates Folly of Assuming That Markets Can Substitute for Strategic Planning
Headline in the Guardian article covering this, Jan 12th says it all “Plans to Increase Britain’s gas storage capacity left in tatters by credit crunch” What did the economists at Ofgem expect? Only an economist would have any faith in the Market’s ability to replace central planning. Having bemoaned the fact that UK only has […]
Read MoreNew Study Puts The Generation Costs For Power From New Nuclear Plants Triple Current U.S. Electricity Rates
A new study puts the generation costs for power from new nuclear plants at 25 to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour — triple current U.S. electricity rates.
see: http://climateprogress.org/2009/01/05/study-cost-risks-new-nuclear-power-plants/ rel=no follow
Current CSP costs (still substantially less than nuclear):
Vinod Khosla gives current CSP at 16 cents kWh (and note PV far higher at 22.4 cents kW/hr – see slide 124 onwards at http://www.slideshare.net/guest76ed37/khosla92507 rel=no follow
Also, good summary of costs can be found here: puts current CSP at 13 – 17 cents kWh: http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2008/04/concentrating-on-important-things-solar.html/ rel=no follow
Makes CSP look very attractive indeed at 11 cents per kWh by 2011 (cf Ausra & Bright Source CSP plants signed up with PG&E in South West America) – compatible with gas prices, and estimated to reduce to 4-6 cents per kWhr by 2020. Nuclear costs unlikely to reduce, but instead are on an upward trajectory.
New Titanic Disaster Discovery Points Way To Solving Global Warming And Fossil Fuel Shortages
Jodrell Bank radio telescope discovers faint radio echoes of last broadcasts from doomed ocean liner Titanic. World learns of hitherto unknown triumph of economic thinking with striking lessons for how to deal with global warming and predicted energy shortages! (Also see http://tx1.fcomet.com/~claverto/cms/professor-lowed-notes-similarity-between-birkenhead-disaster-and-complex-systems-such-as-politics-globalisasion-and-economics-the-banking-crisis-perhaps.html) By: Brendan “Lunchtime” O’Toady * Images courtesy Wikipedia. It is well […]
Read MoreBlackouts could hit Britain by 2015, says National Grid chief
Reported in The Daily Telegraph by Jon Swaine 22 Dec 2008, Steve Holliday, National Grid chief executive, said that Britain faces a severe shortage in power generation due to crumbling coal and nuclear plants being taken out of service and that the Government needs to cause the investment of Pounds 100 billion in new power plant.
This is the legacy of the deluded economic “thinking” of the Thatcher era which instituted the not widely admired market for electricity which was supposed to use market signals of supply and demand to cause an optimal delivery of the cheapest sources of power.
Read More"US government should fund massive public works projects" – Dennis Kucinich – Congress
On the Today programme this morning (Wednesday 18th Dec) there was an interview with Dennis Kucinich, chair of a US congressional committee (who stood for the Democrats presidential candidate in 2004), and he proposed that the US government should take over creating money from the banks, to fund massive public works projects, rather than borrow […]
Read MoreSystemic Fiscal Reform – way to beat boom and bust
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.
Read More2008 Claverton Energy Group Conference Papers Available
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:
Read MoreWhat is Microgeneration? And what is the most cost effective in terms of CO2 reduction
© Jeremy Harrison:
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.
Read MoreUK ENERGY SYSTEM COULD SUFFER SAME FATE AS BANKS, EXPERTS WARN
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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