I think this open letter from Jeremy Leggett of Solar Century to Cameron puts the current situation into clear context: 4 November 2011 The Right Honourable David Cameron MP Dear Prime Minister You will recall that five years ago you chose to host your first Shadow Environment team ‘meet the media’ event at Solarcentury. I […]
Read Moreimminent threat to the Feed-in tarrif from the ‘greenest government ever’ and the ‘green jobs revolution’
On 17 February 2011 14:28, Jonathan Selwyn <j.selwyn@larkenergy.co.uk> wrote: I would like to draw your attention to the imminent threat to the Feed in Tariff for PV. Whatever your views on the efficacy of large scale land based solar, the emergency review announced last week threatens the entire sector. In 10 short months since […]
Read MorePapers in Energy Policy from Mark Delucchi and Mark Jacobson, Stanford / California University USA – 100% renewable energy at reasonable prices and timescales
Mark Jacobson and Mark Delucchi recently published two papers in Energy Policy expanding upon our article on 100% wind, water, and solar power for the world, published in Scientific American in November 2009. I am attaching corrected in-press proofs of the articles. Mark and I continue to work on various aspects of this, so we […]
Read Morea regular up to date source of hard info on renewable energy- Renew
Need a regular up to date source of hard info on renewable energy? Renew is a 36 page newsletter on renewable energy developments and policy which has been produced by Open University Professor Dave Elliott without a break bi-monthly since 1979. It’s widely seen as a reliable and up to date source of information, news […]
Read MoreHas Professor MacKay FRS, Chief Scientific Advisor to DECC, underestimated Britain's potential for Renewable Energy?
Today, The Times has claimed that Britain’s potential renewable resources are insufficient to meet demand, and therefore that Britain needs new nuclear plants. This is reported as having been stated by the new Chief Scientific Advisor to DECC, Professor David MacKay FRS, the author of the free online book: Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air – though it appears that The Times invented this quote. Nevertheless, the claim that Britain cannot live on its own renewables, is also made in his book.
However, the claim is not true.
On the professor’s own (underestimated) calculation of Britain’s renewable potential, it is possible for Britain to power itself from wind and solar. Current energy demand (heat, transport & electricity), is 98kWh per person per day (245GW), and the professor’s book identifies 68kWh/d (170GW) of wind onshore and offshore, and 55kWh/d (137.5GW) from photovoltaics, which together gives 123kWh/d (307.5GW). That means that even ignoring wave, tidal, geothermal and biomass, Britain’s renewable potential supply just from solar and wind substantially exceeds our energy demand.
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.
Read MoreRenewable Community Energy request for european contacts
Subject: Renewable Community Energy – request from George Hay in the US. Claverton: Are there any European “leaders” in community energy/sustainable energy concepts in England/Europe you could put me in contact with? I’m seeing in CA: the RESCO project by Gerry Braun, methodology for municipalities to plan for distributed resouces, attract critical mass of investment […]
Read MoreADRECS – How To Rapidly Convert The Central Deserts Of China To Agricultural Regions Producing Huge Amounts Of Renewable Energy For Europe
This article describes a novel concept using existing technology to very quickly a) control the desertification and sand drifts b) enable the establishment of plant species c) the construction of wind farms or CSP connected to Europe by either a lengthy HVDC transmission system, or the local production of ammonia which can readily be transported to eg Europe / USA and easily used as a vehicle fuel d) the construction of a vast area of seawater greenhouses using sea water pumped thousands of miles to be desalinated by solar energy to allow the production of food and or energy crops. (Contrary to what some ill-informed people claim this does not use a huge amount of energy compared to other national uses) e) unlocks the massive potential for carbon sequestration via organic matter in soil
Read MoreToronto gets feed in tarrifs – we don't – we wonder why.
Quote “Renewable energy in Ontario got a massive boost Thursday with the proposal of a fixed-price plan that, by June, could see the province paying out generous premiums to large and small generators of green power. The premiums – called advanced feed-in tariffs – are what the government guarantees to pay over the life a […]
Read MoreClaverton has been asked to comment on the attached submission from the REA to government
please put any comments, as a comment, and or send to John Baldwin ASAP. There are only hours in which to make a submission. The energy dimension to A sustainable recovery pathway Overview – a Green New Energy Deal The pathway to recovery from this economic downturn must take us in a new direction, not […]
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