The True Cost of Renewables...

Today the Committee on Climate Change published a report on the impact of climate change on energy bills and hopefully puts to rest the scaremongering about the cost of renewables on utility bills.

The key point? Yes, renewables will add to the cost of our bills by about £100 by 2020....cue raving headlines from the press...

However, the real impact of the report is that it states that rising gas prices will add £130 over the same period. Since 2004, rising gas prices have added £300 to our bills already and the cost of inaction in terms of carbon prices and fossil fuel costs will add £600 by 2050.

So the result is this....there will be a cost involved whether we support renewables or not - but it will be much, much higher if it is the latter option. We need to get over it now...and got on with greening our energy supplies.

Link to Report

'Peak Carbon' has arrived...

Frightening information has emerged in the latest Nature Climate Change and Earth System Science Data Discussions publications that carbon emissions have now reached such a level worldwide that we will be unable to reduce them to pre-industrial levels no matter what we do.

The level, estimated to be 391 parts per million, means we have now hit a critical moment - we either act now to address this issue or the carbon level will go up and up and out of reach of our mitigation efforts.

Peak Carbon was always hoped to be a good thing - the moment when global levels topped out and then took a downward turn for the better - now it appears it is the critical moment which signifies 'now or never' - time to make massive change happen or prepare for the impact of significant climate change....

EU Renewable Grid Hits Snag....

I was very disappointed to read of the recent funding difficulties being experienced by Desertec - the organisation aiming to meet 15% of Europe's power requirements from a network of renewable energy projects based in North African deserts.

The ambitious scheme has seen several large backers (Siemens and Bosch) withdraw in recent weeks and now Spain's government is starting to falter over a commitment to build power installations in Morroco - what would have been the first steps of the ambitious scheme. This can hardly be surprising given Spain's financial woes.

The scheme aims to bring 125GW of power by 2050 to Europe's shores via undersea cables but has been understandably criticised as it will take all of the energy it generates away from Africa which has its own power problems, needs and demands. 

It now seems likely that China will enter the fray to fill the gap as they are interested in high voltage direct current technology such as that being deployed here to bring the power under the Mediterranean to the continent.

It does seem wholly unfair, however, that Europe would be able to deploy a massive renewable energy generation infrastructure in north Africa and none of the energy generated would be used locally. Europe would be pretty miffed if the roles were reversed. Surely collaboration and knowledge transfer would work better than simple exploitation? I'm sure the north African countries that are involved in the scheme are at the very least receiving a healthy land rental but how many of the other contracts are being fulfilled by local organisations? Few I would reckon...

However, here's hoping that the project does come to fruition - it would be an incredible feat of engineering and further proof that renewable power works on a massive scale...

Human Factors and The Global Economy

I do find it most odd that in these modern times where so many things in our lives and our systems and networks are automated and computer-controlled and the human element (and all its inherent frailties) has been engineered out of so many facets in life, that the single most important and critical driving force in our global economy - the various stock markets around the world - are still influenced by something as random and unpredictable as human perceptions and fears. With the world’s total derivatives market sized at something approaching US$800 trillion, it is not hard to see why it is so important.

"Market confidence" is a phrase we hear in the media so often just now, especially with such uncertainty in the Euro zone. Confidence is such a wholly human trait - defined as ‘firm trust’ and as such is a variable that is hard to control, predict or measure. Everything else in life has been refined and improved over time but the stock markets remain controlled by the vagaries of human emotion as they did when they were first opened.

I do find this contrary to our approach to most other things in life. Cars were invented back in 1885 by Mr. Benz and have been refined greatly since then - they do the same thing now that they did back then - only better and in a more efficient way. The same, it seems, cannot be said about the stock markets. Whilst the tools used in conducting market trading have changed dramatically since they began - from face-to-face to ticker tape to computers - not much else has. I often wonder what would happen if Google got their hands on the stock markets. They wouldn't stand for such imprecision or uncertainty. They'd engineer out such variables and craft an algorithm that provided a balanced sustainable system where everything was measured and accounted for and the resulting process would see an equitable meritocratic system established that everyone knew and understood and could access and benefit from.

The concept of Efficient Market Hypothesis tries to determine that only changes in fundamentals such as the outlook for profit levels will affect shares prices beyond the short-term. Yet the Dow Jones crash of the 19th of October 1987 is attributed in part to market psychology, an event that was the largest ever one day fall in the Dow Jones Index’s history. Further psychological factors include the impact of group thinking which accounts for our social norms such as needing self-confidence nor being left behind so when one market trader starts dumping shares, others tend to follow. Mass panic (or euphoria in a positive situation) can follow and hysteria can set in. The chart below outlines how interest levels and dividends have been relatively flat and how stock prices and earnings have fluctuated.

When I hear news reports detailing the impact of fluctuations in the market caused by ‘uncertainty’ in a particular currency or lower than expected sales results from a major corporation ‘shaking confidence’ it does bring a rye smile to my face - and continued exasperation. Why is something so vital to our lives left to something so unpredictable as human behaviour...?

One of my favourite movies of all time is Inside Job which tells the tale of the recent banking crisis and how it was down to the frailties of human emotion, in this case pure greed, and is a timely warning of how susceptible our global economy is to human-led change and that vigilance in future is essential.

WWF outlines worrying overuse of planet's resources

The WWF, long a commentator and assessor of man's impact on the planet, has recently unveiled the latest very worrying report in their 'Living Planet' series that identifies that we continue to use the equivalent of 1.5 planets worth of Earth's resources every year. The report also outlines that if we don't change our ways we will require the equivalent of two planet Earths by 2030. In essence we are asking for more than the Earth can provide...

The report, launched from the International Space Station by astronaut Andre Kuipers, makes for sobering reading but the introduction from Andre is pretty inspiring....


Whilst the UK compares well with other countries in terms of our environmental impact, we still have work to do...hopefully this will be a rally cry rather than a lone voice. More can be found here:http://www.panda.org/lpr

The full report can be downloaded here:http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/lpr_2012_final_120507.pdf

Honda Unveils Smart Home System

Honda are at it again, this time showcasing a whole-house solution that goes beyond a few efficiency measures and the retrofitting of some renewables. They recently unveiled their Honda Smart Home System which controls the in-house energy supply and demand, helping to manage both consumption and generation of energy and integrates with recharging of electric cars.

A combination of technologies are integrated into the home including solar pv panels, a rechargeable battery system for generated energy storage and a gas chp cogeneration unit that tops up the electricity and heat demand, all managed by their new Smart eMix management system. The home can theoretically cope when blackouts occur and take care of the recharging of the ev parked in the garage. Honda hope it will see real-world carbon savings approaching 50% of the level of emissions seen from homes in 2000.


It is encouraging to see more companies entering this field as addressing the ‘whole home’ will be critical in reducing the high level of emissions from this sector. The more miniCHP systems that come to market the better, especially as EVs become more common place and the lure of being able to generate our own power from within the home is a tempting one. Sadly the wide scale availability of the necessary technology is still lacking.

Ecotricity goes after the 'Big 6'

The following video from Ecotricity is a fun one that pokes a stick at the Big 6. Worth a watch....

One point I would say is that I wish it was as easy as the video portrays at the end to put up a wind turbine!

i8 - Pleasing on the Eye

This is a commercial for the futuristic but under development for the real world BMW i8 plug-in hybrid...I have little doubt it will sell well if it looks as good as it does in this video!

Carbon floored....

In the week when UK emissions are reported to be up 3.1% it is disappointing to hear that the UK’s setting of a carbon floor of £25.00 per tC will have a potentially negative impact as power producers will ship generation elsewhere, meaning that emission levels will remain the same and the national economy will be adversely impacted by the move.


The Government’s Energy and Climate Change Select Committee announced the findings and stressed that the UK Government would be better served to make the EU Emissions Trading Scheme work more effectively than to try and do something on its own.

It is widely held that the value of carbon is too low and some form of underpinning is necessary to drive emission reductions, it is just such a shame that the ideal solution has yet to be found. It’s also a shame the the UK Government’s efforts to prop up the value of this ‘stock’ could be a hindrance rather than a help.

PV Breakthrough?

Terrific news has emerged in the last few days of a performance breakthrough for photovoltaics. Two companies in the US have hit new highs in terms of efficiency of solar panels.

Alta Devices have stated their standard pv panels now achieve 23.5% efficiency whilst Semprius have announced their concentrated pv systems (using lenses to enhance the light) hit 33.9% output.
This is an incredible performance and here's hoping both companies are able to make these panels commercial realities. Intriguingly their use of gallium arsenide has been key. Although dearer than silicon, it does have better electronic properties... as evidenced by their performance figure announcement.