Can renewable energy meet Britain's energy needs?
August 27, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Scientists have long believed that renewable energy could help provide a significant proportion of global energy requirements. Renewable energy refers to energy which results from natural phenomena such as wind, flowing water and solar rays. A number of studies now indicate that the solution to the UK’s growing energy crisis could be found in nature.
So how have researchers come to this conclusion? Recently conducted studies have revealed that the solar energy hitting buildings in the United Kingdom could be used to produce seven times more electrical energy than what is required to power the same structures. Using photovoltaic (PV) panels to capture the rays as they hit the buildings, the solar energy could be converted into electricity.
Recent innovations have also helped increase the efficiency of those systems which convert renewable energy into forms which can be used to heat or power homes. Wind turbines and PV systems which can be installed with little hassle are now widely available on the market.
In Germany, for example, installation rates for PV systems have been increasing exponentially during the last ten years. This situation contrasts with the slow installation rate of other ‘newer’ forms of energy – such as nuclear power. Indeed, it can take up to ten years for a reactor to be constructed.
Nevertheless, renewable energy also has its fair share critics. Opponents suggest that the solution to Britain’s energy needs lies in nuclear power. Advocates of nuclear power argue that Britons need not be worried about the issues surrounding the disposal of hazardous waste material.
Whilst supplies of nuclear fuel are likely to run out during the next few hundred years, waste plutonium and uranium will pose problems for hundreds of thousands of years. Supporters of the use of nuclear fuel in Britain claim that present generations need not worry about this issue. In the future, it is argued that science will find effective and environmentally-friendly methods of dealing with nuclear waste.
Opponents, however, remain vocal in their criticism. According to Keith Barnham, professor of physics at Imperial College, London, this arrangement is anything but ideal. Writing in The Guardian, he stated: “I consider it immoral that we should leave more than 10,000 generations to deal with the waste of the three generations who will have consumed the world’s exploitable uranium reserves. For a start, how will they know where the plutonium is buried, when the store must survive intact for more than 100 times the age of Stonehenge?”
The debate surrounding the use of renewable energy in Britain is likely to continue for many years to come. What is clear, however, is that nuclear energy is unlikely to provide a sustainable means of meeting the UK’s energy requirement. Significant time and investment is undoubtedly needed when it comes to developing the country’s renewable energy infrastructure. However, if we are to bear the interests of future generations in mind when constructing current energy policy, renewable energy appears a far more viable and environmentally-friendly option.
You can still pay for your gas at the Post Office
August 20, 2007 at 4:27 pm
The long standing partnership between British Gas and The Post Office has proven to be as reliable as ever as a new deal has been signed in August 2007 that will mean British Gas customers will still be able to pay for their gas bill at their local Post Office branch. As many as 5 million people in the UK pay for their British Gas supply at the Post Office and the deal struck will see them able to continue doing so until at least December 2010.
A British Gas spokesman is quoted as saying, “The Post Office is at the heart of the community and we are happy to support it”. Aside from this deal though, many Post Offices in the more rural areas of the UK have recently faced closure. In the last five years up to one thousand branches have had to close their doors to customers. However, it is reported that only 1% of the UK population do not have a Post Office branch within a three-mile radius of their homes.
Gary Hockey-Morley, the marketing director of the Post Office said, “Over six million British Gas customers want to pay for or towards their gas or electricity bill at the same time as posting a parcel or buying their foreign currency at the Post Office. We are delighted to sign this new agreement allowing these customers to continue paying at the Post Office”.
The vast majority of customers who do pay for their Gas at the Post Office are elderly. They often prefer to use cash or cheques rather than a direct debit. However, they are more likely to be the people unable to travel up to three miles to pay their bills as so many branches are being closed down. For now though, they can carry on as normal.
Stand by for standby busters!
August 20, 2007 at 3:40 pm
A new gadget has been launched on the UK market which could help save the UK from some of the considerable amounts of unnecessary CO2 emissions and electrical usage which are the result of us being too lazy to turn off our televisions properly.
The Standby Buster is a clever little device that you attach to the existing wall-socket for your television (or any other appliance that has a standby function). An extra remote control provided then means you can turn off the appliance completely from where you are sitting, rather than leaving that little red light on and the power only partially turned off.
That little red light costs the average household £40 a year and causes up to 245kg of CO2 emissions according to the consumer magazine Which?. For only £14.99 these figures can be a thing of the past. The Standby Buster works not only for TVs but also for games consoles, DVD players, video players, digital boxes and other remote control devices. All of these appliances can be powered-down to zero from one remote control without the need to remove any plugs. There is also a feature where you can choose which ‘zone’ (appliance) you want to cut the power to, so not every appliance has to be switched off.
The Liberal Democrat Environment spokesman Norman Baker MP revealed in 2005 that the amount of CO2 emissions from appliances such as the ones listed above, when they are left on standby mode, is equivalent to around 1.4 million long-haul flights in one year in the UK.
A study by the Energy Saving Trust reported that in the UK we spend £12 billion each year on electrical gadgets, and by 2020 these gadgets will be responsible for around 45% of all electricity used in households.
Which? Magazine published a summary in October 2006 of what they found to be the best energy saving gadgets on the market. Featured were a Solio Solar Charger for £60, which uses the sun’s rays (even when overcast) to charge devices such as your mobile phone or mp3 player. Then there was an Intelligent Main Panel at £30, which turns off all appliances linked to a computer, such as a printer, scanner and monitor when you shut down the computer. Then, finally, a Water-Powered Clock at £8, which won’t save the planet single-handedly but it all helps.
There are many more ways that electronics designers can reduce the number of watts household appliances use each year. For example, a mobile phone charger is reported to use up to five watts just being plugged in the wall and not even charging the phone. A digital radio requires around four times as many watts to turn on as an analogue one. The author of a report entitled The Ampere Strikes Back stated that “On average we are seeing a three-fold increase in the energy needed to power bigger flat-screen TVs. The simple message to people is switch things off when you have finished using them”.
UK School Given Grant for New Wind Turbine
August 16, 2007 at 12:03 pm
A school in Kent has recently been given a £15,000 grant so that they can install a wind turbine in their grounds and thereby generate their own electricity. This is under a new company initiative by the energy company E.ON, which is the largest integrated gas and power company in the UK.
Sandwich Technology School, the 11-18 comprehensive which has been given the grant, will now be able to use the turbine in order to make the school more environmentally friendly and to promote such renewable methods of producing energy. As Susan Hibberd from the school says, “We have a heavy carbon footprint and our wind turbine will go a long way towards cancelling that out”.
This is one of the many initiatives that have been taken recently in order to give out a positive message about using energy supplies which are safer for the environment. For example, only a few weeks ago a wind turbine was approved to power the Glyndebourne Opera House, which is located on the Sussex Downs.
E.ON as a company is doing a lot to keep spreading the message. Speaking of the Sandwich Technology school initiative, a spokesperson from the company, Sarah Green has said: “We know there are plenty of local groups that want to go green by reducing carbon emissions from community buildings, and we are keen to help them contribute to the fight against climate change in this way.”
Indeed, this new wind turbine is only one in a series of campaign efforts E.ON is making to promote wind turbine use. As E.ON writes on its website, “We have the expertise and scale to change energy, making a difference for both our customers and the environment. We’re developing one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms right here in the UK and aim to bring more renewable energy to our customers.” Following these ambitions, E.ON have in fact now released a “Wind of Change” TV campaign which is a 60 second commercial about a quiet British coastal town that is revitalised by a wind that lifts everyone’s spirits.
Now that companies such as E.ON are promoting renewable forms of energy, and schools and businesses are using them as well, we may finally be making people aware of the alternatives to conventional electricity production.
New plans for Welsh wind-farm
August 9, 2007 at 11:31 am
A huge wind farm proposal has altered its plans and drastically reduced the overall size of the farm by up to 20%, which will mean the site will make much less of an impact on the Welsh landscape. Npower Renewables, who are building the farm, originally drew up plans back in November of 2005 for the farm near Llandudno in North Wales, which they claimed would be able to provide electricity for 500,000 homes while avoiding roughly 2 million tonnes of C02 being released into the air.
However, due to opposition from numerous parties, even within the Welsh Assembly, Mark Legerton from Npower Renewables has said “We have taken steps to reduce this (the visual impact) significantly”. The revised plans will be forwarded to local councils, MPs, AMs as well as the UK government and other concerned organisations including the strongly voiced Save Our Scenery. Building could begin in 2010 but the fate is likely to rest in the hands of the government’s Department of Trade and Industry. Indeed, many Welsh electorates in the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru parties are pressing for a detailed public enquiry and an overall verdict for the site to come from the Welsh Assembly.
Despite the scepticism over the plans, a survey by pro-wind group Embracewind in 2005 found that 75% of Welsh people agreed that wind farms were a necessity. Moreover, the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform published a short fact-sheet in 2001 which responded to some of the concerns with wind-farms. It stated, “Noise from turbines is less than from many other everyday country activities”, “Landscape architects are often consulted on the layout of the wind farms” and “There are just a few cases where birds have been injured through collisions with wind turbines”.
Opposition seems as strong as ever though, despite the column inches given each day to the subject of climate change. As reported in The Guardian in May 2007, the village of Marshland St James in the far west of Norfolk fought harder than most against wind-farm developers and an 85 metre anemometer, which measures winds speeds to gauge the usage of certain sites and is worth £100,000, was sabotaged and destroyed one night by an anonymous villager. The question therefore should be posed, in an age where we are expected to look at new energy sources, might we all have to bite the bullet? Or should we draw the line somewhere?
Cannabis farms put electricity bills on a high Guide
August 8, 2007 at 7:02 pm
While many of us are conscientiously switching off our lights and forking out for eco-kettles, the UK’s criminal population is guzzling gas like there’s no tomorrow. The reason? A lucrative cash crop of cannabis, which requires energy-intensive hydroponic systems and 24-hour lighting for cultivation. Not only are the drug barons using huge quantities of electricity, they are also stealing their supply from the energy companies. Ofgem, the gas and electricity regulator, reported in 2004 that stolen electricity accounted for 1% to 1.5% of all distributed units. This equated to £220 million to £330 million every year, a figure which should be revised upwards given the increase in home drug cultivation in the intervening three years.
Domestic properties which have been converted to grow illegal substance, so-called cannabis farms, are on the increase in the UK. The Metropolitan Police Authority suspect that up to 800 properties in the capital have been converted into hash houses by criminal gangs. And this isn’t a problem that is confined to London – in June, police raided a rented property in Aberdeenshire and uncovered a sizeable cannabis farm. Derek Gartshore, the owner of the suburban home, was aghast that his property was being used as a greenhouse. But he’s not alone – in 2006, DI Neil Hutchinson of The Met, reported a 5 fold increase in the amount of cannabis which was home grown in the UK. Hertfordshire police uncovered more than a dozen domestic cannabis farms in the commuter towns of Hemel Hempstead, Watford, Stevenage, Bishop’s Stortford and Waltham Cross in 2006. Detached and semi-detached properties in quiet streets seem to be favoured by the gangs.
The UK Revenue Protection Agency (UKRPA) and local police forces are increasingly concerned about the energy theft associated with the growing number of grass greenhouses, which is costing the industry and private individuals hundreds of thousands of pounds. They are warning landlords to be on the look-out for signs of cannabis cultivation. The Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) are cracking down on the problem. Many have set up theft investigation units, and are liaising with police forces to investigate properties with abnormal usage in order to identify the cannabis thieves. Presently, there is no foolproof method for identifying energy fraud – after all, energy is “lost” from the network in other ways, such as overestimated meter readings.
Theft detection and investigation is an expensive business for DNOs. The cost of electricity theft is ultimately passed on to the customer. In the case of rented accommodation, the landlord may be liable for the cost of stolen electricity. More generally, Ofgem suggested in 2004 that the illegal abstraction of electricity was adding £1.70 to £12.70 per year to the average household electricity bill.
If you suspect electricity (or gas) theft is occurring in your neighbourhood, you can call the British Gas hotline in confidence on 0800 587 2737 (open 8am-5pm, Monday to Friday) or email RevenueProtectionElectric@centrica.co.uk. Alternatively, you can report the fraud via a UKRPA webform.
Could crowd power help generate electricity?
August 7, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Inspired by one of Thomas Edison’s most unique inventions, researchers are currently examining a number of novel methods of generating power. Visitors to Edison’s house in the 1880s had to enter by passing through a turnstile which in turn pumped water into a tank above his home. In a modern twist, scientists are now considering the possibility that the energy produced by moving feet could be harnessed and used to generate electricity. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believe that a flooring system known as a ‘crowd farm’ could be used to capture the mechanical energy created as people walk, run or jump. This energy would then be turned into electricity which could be used to power everything from light bulbs to electrical trains.
So how does this technology work? Crowd farms require the installation of a specialized flooring system constructed from blocks which slip against one another as people walk across them. As these blocks move against each other, energy is generated and a dynamo turns the captured energy into electricity.
This technology possesses great potential. A single step creates sufficient electrical energy to power a 60W bulb for two seconds. A moving crowd, on the other hand, could produce enough energy to power an electrical train for the same length of time. If the crowd farm technology were to be applied to surfaces which thousands of people move across each day, then the possibilities for electricity generation are endless. A prototype of the crowd farm has already been tested in a railway station in Turin, Italy. In addition, a number of Japanese train stations now generate small quantities of electricity by capturing the motion of ticket gates as commuters pass through them. The developers hope that the technology will also raise people’s awareness of the vast quantities of electricity that they consume each day: “We want people to understand the direct relationship between their movement and the energy produced,” stated Thaddeus Jusczyk, co-creator of the MIT’s crowd farm.
The technology involved in constructing a crowd farm is relatively simple and easy to reproduce. However, it is very expensive when viewed from an efficiency perspective. Several thousand human steps are required to produce sufficient energy to power an entire building for a short period of time. It is also not possible to install the technology in existing buildings which have more traditional floorings. As such, crowd farms need to be developed further before they can become economically viable. According to James Graham, one of the researchers behind this project: “Only through experimentation – which can be expensive – (can this) technology become practical.”
Graham and Jusczyk, both graduate students at MIT, have already received numerous awards for their invention. Their prototype of a crowd farm recently won the prestigious Prize for Sustainable Construction from Japan’s Holcim Foundation. However, without further investment, it is unlikely that the project will move beyond this initial stage of development.
Powergen offer account which lets electricity users ‘Go Green’
August 1, 2007 at 4:18 am
Powergen, part of German power giant E.ON, has become the first electricity provider in the UK to offer consumers the option to ‘Go Green’ in their power usage. Subscribers to the new service will have all their electricity generated by wind farms and hydro-electric power stations, or their gas will be offset with ‘carbon reduction programmes.’
Nick Horler, Managing Director of Powergen Retail, said: “We all understand that using energy has an impact on the environment, but it is more difficult to work out what you can do about it. Go Green offers our customers the easiest way to take green electricity and gas and reduce their impact on the environment.”
In order to provide what Powergen believes to be the most environmentally friendly service on the market, the company will match every unit of electricity used by ‘Go Green’ customers to renewable sources. Any residual units will be offset in an approved carbon trading scheme. The company has teamed up with Climate Care to ensure this scheme works to reduce carbon emissions as effectively as possible. Climate Care runs sustainable energy projects which promote the use of green technology.
The account compares favourably to others of its type on the market. Although npower, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern operate accounts that use mainly renewable sources, they are not combined with certified offsetting schemes. The Powergen account also offers peripheral environmentally-friendly features. You can manage your account online, thus reducing the need for paper statements to be sent out. You can also use a ‘carbon calculator’ to work out precisely what your carbon footprint is, and find out how best to reduce it. Customers on the ‘Go Green’ tariff will find their bill runs at a premium of about 2 per cent compared with standard Powergen rates. On average Go Green will cost an extra £17 per year.
E.ON, Powergen’s parent company, is the largest provider of gas and electricity in the UK. It already runs 18 onshore wind farms and 2 offshore wind farms, the largest hydroelectric plant in England and Wales, and co-fires biomass in its coal-powered facilities. It has plans to invest around £1 billion into green energy projects over the coming five years. These projects include:
- The UK’s largest biomass power station in Lockerbie.
- New offshore wind farms in the Solway Firth and Thames Estuary.
- 1000MW of wind farm capacity added to its existing facilities.
To open an account or see more information, click here.
Canadians make electricity out of sewage
August 1, 2007 at 4:04 am
Finding less harmful ways to generate power for our homes and businesses has become something of a necessity. There is still plenty of room for greener electricity production in the UK. Whether it’s a solar panel on our homes, a wind farm on our hills, or the removal of a coal power plant in our fields, cleaner methods are now very much in sight for us all.
One of the newest and cleanest ways of producing electricity also happens to sound like the dirtiest. Turning raw sewage into electricity is a simple and very effective method for generating power. A treatment plant in Nanaimo in Canada has recently spent $6.8million on improving a sewage plant and a co-generation facilty to convert biogas from sludge into electricity. It can then serve up to 80,000 people in the area.
The Fuel Cell method used here is a relatively simple one. Biodegradable solid waste is sent to large tanks known as digesters, where the waste is then stored for roughly one month. In that time the conditions are warm and wet which allows the bacteria to eat away at the waste which then releases methane gas. The methane is then stored in a huge fuel cell system where it is broken down into its component parts: hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is then converted into a carbonate that when combined with the original hydrogen, produces electricity – as well as water, carbon dioxide and a great deal of heat.
One of the principle benefits of this method is the minimal level of harmful pollution emitted. The CO2 emissions here are roughly half those emitted by a traditional coal powered station, thus helping with the global warming problem.
There are some draw-backs though. The amount of electricity actually produced is very small in comparison to current methods, and also the fuel cells themselves, which are very expensive, have to be replaced every four years or so.
