We have been approached and asked to make known an opportunity to invest in a wind farm(s) project to Claverton members or their associates. Essentially this involves 600 MW capacity in a series of wind farms in various countries with 30 MW in the UK. We have been told that agreements have been obtained with governments and land owners. […]
Read MoreDelivering a 21st Century Infrastructure for Britain
Invitation to a lunchtime debate Delivering a 21st Century Infrastructure for Britain
Read MoreFury at plan to power EU homes from Congo dam – Grand Inga – World Bank supports controversial $80bn project
Plans to link Europe to what would be the world’s biggest hydroelectric dam project in the volatile Democratic Republic of Congo have sparked fierce controversy.
The Grand Inga dam, which has received initial support from the World Bqank would cost $80bn (£48bn). At 40,000MW, it has more than twice the generation capacity of the giant Three Gorges dam in China and would be equivalent to the entire generation capacity of South Africa.
Grand Inga will involve transmission cables linking South Africa and countries in west Africa including Nigeria. A cable would also run through the Sahara to Egypt.
Read MoreUKERC topic scoping workshop (TPA – Technology and Policy Assessment theme)
2009/8/13 Gross, Robert J K Dear Colleague The UK Energy Research Centre Technology and Policy Assessment theme (www.ukerc.ac.uk) is hosting a workshop for stakeholders from across the energy arena to help define its priority research areas for the next 5 years. We very much hope that you will be able to attend and contribute. The […]
Read MoreVision 2020 and beyond – Dr. Gregor Czisch Ex Kassell University discussed the integration of African Power production internally and with Europe to fully exploit the vast hydro power available at the Inga Dam site
” The Grand Inga dam can provide 2/3 of African power needs and some of Europe’s”
While integration – meaning electrical inter – connections of neighbours – on the
one hand may enable cheap electricity, on the other, it can cause dependence.
Therefore, to avoid a single source dependency, it might be seen as a better
solution, to use less favourable resources inside a given country, and accept higher
costs and other disadvantages. Another way out of this dilemma is diversification of
interconnections. Therefore regional integration may be more attractive when the
number of participating countries rises.
In some cases, regional integration is the only reasonable way of using known
resources which are too big for a national approach.
An extreme example is the hydropower potential near Inga, by the Congo River, in
the Democratic Republic of Congo. The African Power Pools have been formed in
order to erect large scale regional integration projects – leading in a structure one
may call an African Supergrid – to be able to handle the tremendous amount of
electricity which could be produced here at very low prices, and which would be
enough to deliver two thirds of the current African consumption. But the huge
capacity makes it difficult to bring the different objectives together.
Read MoreEnergy and carbon savings with trams – a short paper by Professsor Lewis Lesley
“Getting urban car trips down from 70% to 50% would save about 5% of UK carbon emissions.”
Transport is an energy intensive activity, heavily dependent on oil (99.97%) and a significant emitter of carbon dioxide (30% of UK total). Exhortation and education can reduce car dependency but in the absence of draconian powers to force people to change travel modes, people will freely choosing sustainable alternatives is surely the best way? Market research and behavioural studies demonstrate that for short journeys, under 2 miles (50% UK car trips) walking and cycling are acceptable options, when there are safe and attractive routes. For longer urban journeys ( < 5 miles = 75% of UK car trips) public transport should be the alternative to car ? In the UK most urban public transport is by bus (80% of trips). Car users however are not willing to use buses. Studies by the US Transportation Research Board shows that on a like for like basis of frequency, travel speed, fares etc, buses attract 40% less car users than even old rail services
Read MoreProfessor Lewis Lesley and other Claverton think tank members discuss rail electrification and carbon savings
Most of the (sub)urban electric trains in UK are multiple units, where most if not all coaches have motors. The reason for this is the need to get high adhesion for rapid acceleration, by distributing the track forces to most if not all wheels. Rapid acceleration (and braking) are needed when stations are close together get a high service speed.
Inter City trains do not need urban rates of acceleration but high top speeds. Electric motor coaches are (much) more expensive than “trailer coaches”, so having one or two locomotives per train is a compromise over costs. THe TGV trains in France climb steeper gradients than most railways (3%) but 6 power bogies on an 18 coach (36 bogie) train is enough to get up the hills
Technology S-curves in renewable energy alternatives: Analysis and implications for industry and government
Plotting the performance of a technology against the money or effort invested in it most often yields an S-shaped curve: slow initial improvement, then accelerated improvement, then diminishing improvement. These S-curves can be used to gain insight into the relative payoff of investment in competing technologies, as well as providing some insight into when […]
Read MoreRelative / comparative costs of wind energy, nuclear energy, hydro power, coal power, natural gas, geothermal energy, and biomass
In general it can be seen that there is not a lot to choose between the cost of wind energy, and coal, gas or nuclear. PV and CSP are considerablymore expensive however.
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