40,000 homes hit by storm
February 10, 2009 at 2:55 pm
The end of January saw large parts of Ireland suffer as a result of severe storms. It is estimated that over 60,000 homes (some estimated figures have risen to above 70,000) were left without power after the adverse weather conditions wreaked havoc across the country. The Electricity Supply Board revealed that the areas worst hit were the west and the south-west and teams were forced to work hard to bring power back to these areas.
The blackouts, unfortunately for homeowners, did not stop when the winds died down, as more houses lost electricity hours after the end of the storms. It was initially thought that only 40,000 houses had been affected by the storm, primarily in the regions of Kerry and Cork, but numerous overhead power lines and telephone poles located across the country were damaged severely by high winds and debris. It is thought that the winds reached speeds of 150 kilometres an hour at their peak. The effects of the storm were exacerbated by episodes of lightning, which prevented the teams from the Electricity Supply Board from working efficiently and quickly.
If you notice any damage caused by the storms and are unable to take action yourself, make sure that you alert the local authorities as soon as you can.
Sainsburys turning unsold food into electricity
February 10, 2009 at 2:56 am
Sainsbury’s, the UK’s third largest supermarket retailer, has announced proposals to radically change the way that it deals with the problem of unsold food.
The announcement was made at the Zero Waste conference in Edinburgh. Alison Austen, Sainsbury’s Environment Manager, outlined plans for a new scheme that will see all of the supermarket’s 28 Scottish stores sending their unsold food to a biomass plant in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, to be converted into electricity.
At present, 42 tonnes of waste each week – from Sainsbury’s Scottish stores alone – are sent to be buried in landfill sites. Speaking at the conference Ms Austen said: “Each tonne of food waste diverted from landfill by Sainsbury’s will generate enough power for 500 homes and will save 3 tonnes of CO2 compared to fossil fuel. Scotland is at the forefront of our wider UK plan to completely cut our dependence on landfill.”
Sainsbury’s intends to have this operation underway in February, followed by a roll-out to the rest of its UK stores. The result will be that, by the end of 2009, the supermarket chain will have completely ceased to use landfill.
Sainsbury’s will be working with PDM Group, a company that specialises in animal by-product processing, generating electricity from biomass, and producing bio fuels from waste products. PDM claims that it will eventually be dealing with the waste from 238 of Sainsbury’s stores using a network of biomass combustion plants.
By dealing with its waste in this way in Scotland, Sainsbury’s claims it will only use one lorry to collect the waste from each store and transport it to the plant, as opposed to about 336 lorries currently removing unsold food and waste.
