This is the first 11 MWe operating module of three towers currently being built to constitute what will be soon a 50 MWe concentrated solar power (CSP) facility that is sited a few kms west of Seville in Spain near a place called Sanlúcar la Mayor. It works, as most will know, by reflecting solar […]
Read MoreDECC Updates Its Generation Cost Database, But Misses the Cheapest – CHP DH and Micro CHP
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) had a meeting to discuss the generation costs of energy technologies in November last year. This exercise happens every so often and its objective is to update inputs that might be used in any energy-related modelling work carried out by the department. The link represent DECC’s initial […]
Read MoreCAP Biogas Technology To Be Installed On United Utilities Trucks
Clean Air Power Limited are converting UU’s diesel trucks at Davyhulme the sewage treatment works serving the large Northern City of Manchester, famous for its football teams, to run on dual fuel diesel-biomethane. The basic idea has been around for years, essentially methane is fed into the inlet of an ordinary diesel engine, where the […]
Read More"Climate scientists: it's time for 'Plan B' " – The Independent Survey
According the Independent newspaper – Steve Connor, Science Editor and Chris Green. Friday, 2 January 2009 “An emergency “Plan B” using the latest technology is needed to save the world from dangerous climate change, according to a poll of leading scientists” carried out by The Independent. This is due to the collective international failure to […]
Read MorePromoters overstate the environmental benefit of wind farms
According to the Daily Telegraph, Dec 21, The British Wind Energy Association, (BWEA ) the wind farm industry lobby group, has been “forced to admit that the environmental benefit of wind power in reducing carbon emissions is only half as big as it had previously claimed”. This is because it used a carbon emission figure […]
Read MoreProfessor Roger Falconer FREng will talk about the Severn Barrage, Cardiff 12th Jan.
Professor Roger Falconer FREng, Halcrow Professor of Water Management, Cardiff University, Monday, 12th January 2009, 19:00 (Refreshments at 18:30)
University of Bristol, Merchant Venturers’ Building, Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UB
The presentation will review the current main Severn Barrage proposals, as originally promoted by the Severn Tidal Power Group, together with giving a brief overview of alternative options such as the Shoots Barrage and Offshore Tidal Impoundments.
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 More100% carbon reduction possible with wind power, vehicle to grid and interconnection.
Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security
Mark Z. Jacobson is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford University. and has amongst his qualifications a B.S. in Civil Engineering and a B.A. in Economics.
With Jacobson’s credentials, and the fact that this is a peer reviewed journal, the paper has to be taken seriously. He indicates that wind powered battery electric vehicles not only offer the most reduction in CO2 compared to other options, but is also better than the other options when other environmental impacts are considered. CCS is a poor option, and corn to ethanol or cellulosic ethanol are very bad indeed.
He notes, that as does Claverton, that the intermittency effects can be dealt with using a combination of geographic dispersal, demand management, storage, use of vehicle to grid, and weather forecasting.
"CO2 (equivalent) saving from short-rotation willow coppice (SRC) is ZERO" – official
DEFRA and ADAS (the UK agricultural agency) are now circulating a study comparing net GHG impacts of different bio-feedstocks which concludes that the net CO2 (equivalent) saving from short-rotation willow coppice (SRC) is ZERO because of the direct and indirect GHG emission from the fertilisers used, whereas there is near 100% CO2 (equiv) saving from Miscanthus (“elephant grass”) because it doesn’t need fertilisers. Some of the wood wastes show up to 600% CO2-equivalent net saving because of the methane emissions in the “base case” where they are put to landfill (I presume this applies to most natural forest-floor debris and dead trees). …….Chris Hodrien
Read MoreParsons Brinckerhoff "has made huge miscalculations on Severn Estuary tidal lagoons’ costs"
December 14, 2008
The famous (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig_(Boston,_Massachusetts))) American engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff (“PB”) has submitted cost numbers on power from tidal lagoons (25p) that are roughly 800% higher than all the previous studies of Tidal Electric Limited’s tidal lagoon power conducted by UK engineering giant WS Atkins (3.1p) and corroborated by AEA Technology, OFGEM, Rothschild Bank, Montgomery Watson Harza, and several private energy companies. PB has arrived at their extraordinarily high numbers by ignoring the technology developer’s design parameters and introducing their own design and therein making four costly design errors:
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