News Briefs | Claverton Group

Biomethane vehicles open up green driving

UK business can now take advantage of the first mass scale second generation biofuel to be produced from waste. This is as a result of the launch in the UK of 3 brand new vehicles that have been developed by Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz to run on 100% renewable methane (biomethane)

The Volkswagen Caddy Ecofuel is ideal for companies who operate small white vans or far airport taxis who need 7 seats. The Sprinter NGT is the perfect large van, ideal for supermarkets and with thousands of applications. The Econic articulated truck is ideal for deliveries into cities and between distribution centres. All these vehicles have low environmental impact in terms of noise, NOX and particulates but it is their carbon neutrality when fuelled on biomethane that is transformational.

Paul-Frederik Bach, ex-Director of West Denmark Power talks about Danish Windpower and smart grids.

Paul-Frederik – who has been a stalwart member of the group and attended 3 previous Conferences, could not make the last meeting due to illness. He was kind enough to give us this presentation which came with the following note:

Dear Chris, Dave and Fred,

The Claverton group is a fascinating forum, because different and interesting people meet there. Of course I am disappointed that I cannot attend the conference. I hope to be present at a future event.

I attach a brief PowerPoint (7 slides) to meet your request. I have tried to summarize my views. You are welcome to use it as you may prefer, for presentation, for handout or for other purposes. Slide 4 is a summary of my Platts paper (which was written for the Claverton discussions from the beginning).

The conference programme seems to be well packed with interesting contributions. I hope that the papers will be available at the web site.

How Do We Get Back to Climate Safety?

Notice of Meeting: 27th November, 7pm at Friends Meeting House, Euston.

No screaming, no panic, no doom, no gloom. Just a short and simple summary of the latest climate science followed by a discussion of what we’re going to do about it.

On Thursday 27th November 2008, The Public Interest Research Centre will launch the report “Climate Safety” at Friends Meeting House, Euston, London. A panel of speakers – Caroline Lucas, George Monbiot, Kevin Anderson, Jeremy Leggett and Tim Helweg-Larsen – will be discussing the question ‘How do we get back to climate safety?’

With Arctic sea ice melting away faster than anyone had predicted, the climate seems more sensitive than almost anyone thought, placing us in the middle of a climate emergency that cannot be ignored or brushed aside.

Smart Metering 2009; Making it Happen

The Institution of Engineering and Technology are working with Tom Eales from Special Report Publishing who is producing a 16 page Smart Metering Supplement, to be published in The Daily Telegraph.

The supplement will focus on explaining the advantages, opportunities and challenges around smart metering for business and will be published in The Daily Telegraph on the 27th November 2008 with a huge circulation of 610,000 copies.

Further copies will be distributed at Smart Metering 2009 and all editorial content will also be published on the Daily Telegraph Business Club website. The tabloid-sized page report will be written by highly regarded journalists and industry speakers and will be packed with relevant editorial.

PR Report for 2008 Conference

By Keegan Wilson. In a short space of time (8-9 days) we crammed a huge amount of activity. We wrote three press releases, contacted 169 journalists on each occasion (507 in total) and spoke with key journalists in our agreed target media – national broadsheets, television and selected magazines.

Results: You were interviewed twice by Bath FM. Energy Now has written about the conference and Dr Czich’s strategy for Europe (this article should be out next month and I should be receiving a copy, which I can give you).

Lewis Smith at The Times is open to writing about this and is considering it for next week (from 10 Nov on). I finally managed to speak with John Vidal at the Guardian. John is interested in this story and I am still working to get coverage from him, so should have a clearer idea shortly of whether he is going to write something on this.

Roger Harrabin is the main man at the BBC for environment and energy, and he is associated with lots of BBC programmes. Roger has not committed to giving any coverage, but he has expressed a keen desire in the Claverton Group and this story. So we have made a good contact.

Affordable and Renewable Electricity Supply for Europe and its Neighbourhood

Optimal Solution: 100% Renewable HVDC Supergrid to save our climate By Dr Gregor Czisch. 2008 Conference Paper Synopsis: In view of the resource and climate problems, it seems obvious that we must transform our energy system into one using only renewable energies. But questions arise how such a system should be structured, which techniques should […]

Where Does The Wind Come From and How Much Energy is There?

Brian Hurley, M.Sc.

2008 Conference Paper Synopsis: The source of the wind is the sun. The winds come from the suns energy falling on the earth’s surface, giving rise to heating of the atmosphere. This leads to convection currents in the atmosphere, ie the movement of air due to changes in its density and pressure. We can gain an understanding of how global circulation works by developing simplified models of the processes that produce the global system. The physical drivers of the wind at a global scale and at the level of a wind farm are examined.

Squaring the Circle on Coal – Carbon Capture (CCS)

By Chris Hodrien

2008 Claverton Conference Paper Synopsis: Huge global reserves of coal remain, well-distributed among relatively stable supplier nations, and its production is increasing. With the recent rapid increases in oil and gas prices, especially in the UK, it is again becoming the minimum cost option for power generation and heavy industry. Large thermal (steam turbine) powerplant is also the global utilities’ preferred generating option because of its predictability/reliability, operational characteristics, retrofit to existing powerplant sites and “fit’ to the existing grid structure.

Generation of Electricity from Gas Network Pressure

2008 Claverton Conference Paper Synopsis:
1. Existing technology for pressure reduction
2. Explanation of thermodynamics
3. Expander only
4. Expander-CHP
5. Expander – CHP using Biofuels
6. CO2 impact
7. Basic economics
8. Market overview

Presenter:
John Baldwin
MD, CNG Services Ltd

Carbon Pools – Financing Energy after Peak Credit

By Chris Cooke

2008 Conference Paper Synopsis

1/ Conventional Financing – involves both “asset-based finance” (Investment) and “deficit-based” finance (Debt), typically “secured” or “asset-backed.”

– investment is either “Public” – by the State – or “Private’ through a legal entity known as a “Joint Stock Limited Liability Company.”

2/ Peak Credit and the Credit Crunch – following last year’s point of “Peak Credit” conventional “deficit-based” financing is drying up rapidly, and probably permanently.

3/ “Equity – but not as we know it, Jim” – using legal frameworks which are not based upon Company Law, but upon Trust and Partnership Law.

4/ Introducing the Carbon Pool – a simple new investment mechanism where assets remain in Public ownership, but investors could buy Energy Units redeemable against units of energy eg 10 Kilo Watt Hours.

– Carbon Pool funds may then be created, unitised, funded by a carbon levy and used to invest directly in renewable energy (“MegaWatts”) or energy savings (“NegaWatts”).

5/ Outcomes – by creating, and Unitising energy – with intrinsic value – energy value of carbon may be monetised rather than monetising by government “fiat” intrinsically worthless CO2, or TEQ’s .