Oxfordshire town sees human waste used to heat homes

Householders in Didcot have become the first in the UK to use gas made from their own human waste and supplied via the national grid to heat their homes.

Up to 200 Oxfordshire homes will be using biomethane made from sewage they had flushed away three weeks earlier.

British Gas, Thames Water and Scotia Gas Networks now hope to roll out the process across the UK ...

Thames Water's chief executive Martin Baggs ... said:

"Every sewage works in Britain is a potential source of local renewable gas waiting to be put to use."

BBC NEWS  05 Oct 2010

'Poo-powered' car seen on the streets of Bristol

Regulation is holding back green power

Europe's biggest coal-fired power station is calling for changes to the Government's renewable energy regulations to enable Drax to convert one of its six coal generators to run on biomass.

Engineers are set to start work converting the facilities immediately and the green generator could be up and running within 18 months.

But under the current Renewable Obligation (RO) regulatory regime the plan – which would be the first of its type in the world – is simply not economic, says Drax.

"Biomass is the earth's fourth-most-plentiful energy resource," Dorothy Thompson, the company's chief executive, said yesterday. "For years it has provided more electricity in the UK than any other renewable resource, but electricity generation from biomass has not increased in recent years due to certain limitations in the policy framework."

Drax can already produce up to 500 megawatts (MW), or an eighth of its output, from biomass burnt alongside coal in "co-firing" facilities. But it is only using around half of the capacity because most of the 1.5 million tonnes of annual input comes from agricultural residue such as peanut husks (rather than specially-grown energy crops, such as elephant grass), which are up to three times more expensive than coal, on an energy output basis ...

Independent  01 July 2010    

Drax 'could switch to biomass within 10 years'

Alternative Energy Sources

Biomass

Biomass

Biomass and bioenergy

Biomass to Gas

Drax Co-Firing Plants

What is BIOMASS?

Wikipedia

Renewable technology that uses energy stored in the ground to heat buildings and provide hot water could be installed in hundreds of thousands of homes and offices by the end of the next decade, a report said today.

There are currently around 8,000 ground-source heat pumps systems in the UK – far fewer than in other European countries, such as Sweden, although the market is expanding rapidly and doubled last year, the Environment Agency report said.

The document concluded that the technology could be installed in 320,000 homes and businesses by 2020 with support from the government.

If enough support was given through the renewable heat incentive, which will be introduced in 2012 and pay homeowners and businesses a guaranteed price for generating renewable heat, more than 1m ground-source heat pumps systems could be put in place.

At the top end of its potential, ground-source heat technology could be installed in more than one in 10 homes and in 40% of commercial buildings, the report said.

Even if growth was limited to it being in 320,000 homes and business – 1% of households and 11% of commercial buildings – it could provide 30% of the renewable heat the UK needs to produce to meet its goals to supply renewable energy by 2020.

Guardian  09 Dec 2009

Britain's slow but steady march towards renewable energy took a step forward yesterday when plans were revealed for the UK's first power plant to produce electricity from geothermal energy – the Earth's own heat.

The plant is a joint partnership between the Eden Project, the Cornish ecotourism attraction which features the world's largest greenhouse, and a geothermal power company, EGS Energy. It is hoped the plant will be built on the Eden site near St Austell, and will power the whole complex.

It will be based around two wells, driven down 4km into the Cornish granite where the bedrock itself is hot enough to heat water to 150 degrees, which will then produce steam to power an electricity-generating turbine.

The plant should be able to produce about three megawatts of carbon-neutral electricity – about the same as a large wind turbine – which will be more than enough to supply Eden's needs. Power left over could be sold to the national grid.

While there is already a geothermal plant in Southampton which supplies heat to buildings in the city centre, this is believed to be the first such facility in Britain to generate electric power.

Engineers believe that the vast quantity of geothermal energy stored in Cornish granite would eventually enable them to make a significant contribution to UK energy needs – as much as 10 per cent of the total.

The Independent 02 June 2009

Newcastle borehole drilling starts in search of heat

'We're mining for heat in Cornwall'

Renewable Heat Incentive

Energy Resources

Wikipedia

Hydrogen fuel for cars comes a step nearer

So what are the world's best hopes for getting over its addiction to petrol?

There is huge disagreement among the experts attempting to predict what the replacement fuel might be.

The current UK Government favours making Britain's bus and train systems electric, while encouraging consumers to buy re-chargeable cars.

However, there is another option – hydrogen. The company behind some ambitious recent claims is called Cella Energy, backed by Oxford University's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the UK taxpayer.

Its experts are claiming that petrol could start to be replaced at the pump with a cheaper new hydrogen fuel within three years ...

Telegraph  13 Mar 2011    The Carbon Plan

Why don't governments push for more hydrogen cars?

Safe, low-cost hydrogen storage

Hydrogen economy

Hydrogen fuel for cars comes a step nearer

UK firm develops way to store hydrogen

M4 in Wales to be 'hydrogen highway'

Hydrogen car to be 'open source'

Hydrogen Fuel Vehicles

There are reasons to be hopeful about hydrogen's potential. The electric drive train of a fuels cell-driven car would be much lighter than a conventional gasoline or diesel drive train. Emissions ... consist only of water and heat ...

Unfortunately there's bad news as well.

A hydrogen energy infrastructure would be quite different from our present energy structure, and so the transition would require time and investment of large amounts of money and energy.. That transition would be aided ... if we were to switch present government subsidies from nuclear power, oil and coal to ... hydrogen.

But, given the political influence of car and oil companies and the general corruption and inertia of the political process, the likelihood of such a subsidy transfer is slim ... Yet if we simply wait for price signals from the market to trigger the transition, it will come far too late.

An even greater problem is the current ... reliance on natural gas for hydrogen production. ... Within only a few years, decision makers will be confronting the problem of prioritizing dwindling natural gas supplies - should they fund the transition to a hydrogen economy or heat people's homes during the winter? ... In terms of energy efficiency we would be better off burning natural gas or using PV or wind electricity directly, rather than going through the extra step of making hydrogen. ... it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the "hydrogen economy" ... will by necessity be a much lower-energy economy that we are accustomed to.

"The Party's Over" - Richard Heinberg, Clairview 2003

Chapter 4 is a thorough examination of the range of alternative fuel sources.

Phantom Eye hydrogen-powered spy plane unveiled

Powering up for a hydrogen economy

Hydrogen Fuel Alternative

Hydrogen Fuel Advantages

Hydrogen as Energy

The Hydrogen Economy

Using green algae to produce hydrogen

World's largest solar plant powers up

Spanish venture is as big as 210 football pitches and has 600,000 mirrors. But there's a dark side ...

When Rainer Kistner, Andasol's director, talks about business prospects, he can find little cause for celebration.

The source of his woes are the so-called feed-in tariffs, the indirect government subsidy which acts as the financial lifeblood for renewable energy projects.

They were slashed by half last week in the UK, and, Kistner fears, they face equally dismal prospects in Spain, too.

"In the future, we know that tariffs will go down. Dramatically," Kistner gloomily predicts. "It cannot affect existing power plants" – such as Andasol – "but the government has to give some sort of guarantee to the investors. It can't say it'll pay so many euros per kilowatt hour... for the next 25 years and two years later say 'Sorry, but we'll give you only half of this'."

Spanish and UK solar energy are not alone in facing an imminent crisis.

Globally, renewable energy is on the retreat, to the point where last month the Ernst & Young accountancy firm warned that, should the eurozone debt crisis worsen, a climate funding gap of $45bn (£29bn) worldwide could emerge by 2015.

Ind  01 Jan 2012    The End of Growth

Trashing ... the environment

Ministers feel the heat over solar energy cuts

Last chance to save the solar industry

Solar Power

Solar superpower: Should Europe run on Sahara sun?

EVERY DAY, the sun pours more energy onto the surface of our planet than we use from all sources in an entire year. It is an inexhaustible powerhouse that has remained largely untapped for human energy needs.

That may soon change in a big way. If a consortium of German companies has its way, construction of the biggest solar project ever devised could soon begin in the Sahara desert. When completed, it would harvest energy from the sun shining over Africa and transform it into clean, green electricity for delivery to European homes and businesses.

Prospects for the project, called Desertec, have blossomed over the past year ... The current plan, outlined by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in a report to the federal government, envisages that the project will meet 15 per cent of Europe's electricity needs by 2050, with a peak output of 100 gigawatts - roughly equivalent to 100 coal-fired power stations ...

But is this really the best use of such a colossal amount of money? Critics are lining up to point out the project's shortcomings.

They say it could make Europe's energy supply a hostage to politically unstable countries; that Europe should not be exploiting Africa in this way; that it is a poor investment compared to covering Europe's roofs with photovoltaic (PV) solar panels; and that, while deserts have plenty of sun, they lack another less obvious but equally indispensable resource for a solar thermal power plant - water ...

New Scientist 26 October 2009

World's largest solar plant powers up

Gentlemen, Start Conserving

German Solar Firms Eclipsed by Chinese Rivals

Government subsidy cut prompts solar outrage

World's most efficient solar cells ready for use in the UK

Solar storm coming: the battle for the UK energy industry

Obama backs giant solar project

'Eternal plane' returns to Earth

Solar Powered Plane

'Eternal' solar plane's records are confirmed

Zephyr solar plane flies 7 days non-stop

European Dream of Desert Energy Takes Shape

Guardian

How Solar Energy Works

Solar Thermal Energy

NEF

Wikipedia

UK's wind farm plans in disarray

Hundreds of local revolts against wind farms have jeopardised the plan to use them to generate more than a quarter of Britain's electricity, figures seen by The Independent reveal.

New wind farms are needed to have any chance of creating enough renewable energy to reduce reliance on coal and gas power production.

But planning approvals for them in England are at an all-time low, with only one in three applications getting the go-ahead from councils in the face of angry and organised opposition from people living nearby.

More than 230 separate local campaign groups against wind farms are operating across the UK, from Scotland and Kent to Norfolk, Yorkshire and Cornwall.

These groups are scoring striking successes in defeating planned wind farms – even when faced with the weight of official recommendations ...

Independent  28 Oct 2010    Is the coalition eco-friendly

Do windfarms work?

Oil lobby in legal threat to North Sea wind farms

Wind energy? No thanks – we want to keep our nuclear option

Queen set to earn millions from windfarm expansion

Wind Turbine Accident data

World's Biggest Offshore Wind Park Goes Live in UK

Wind farms can affect local weather patterns

World's largest wind farm opens off Kent

World's largest offshore facility set to open amid fears over spending cuts

Offshore energy report could dash defeatist arguments

£2bn offshore windfarm to go ahead

Offshore green energy could make UK net exporter by 2050

UK on course to reap massive renewable energy harvest

The Offshore Valuation

PIRC

Go-ahead for offshore wind farm sites

Britain reaches milestone for renewable energy

Offshore wind farms could meet a quarter of the UK's electricity needs

Turbine plan rejected unanimously

We don't want an ugly turbine

Hundreds of jobs to be created in UK wind turbine plan

Crown Estates names winners of wind farms bid

Britain's plan for giant wind farms will need 'super-grid' to take off

Dash for wind power leaves Britain with £15bn funding blackhole

Wind farms could power half of Britain’s homes, but jobs could go overseas

Generating power and jobs?

North Sea Power Grid

Foreign firms gain most

A new economy

Brown pushes wind power

Centrica and npower set to green light huge offshore wind farm projects

Centrica issues green energy warning

Government grants Vestas £6m – but factory will still close

Britain should rally round to protect our wind turbine industry

Green light for the world's biggest offshore wind farm

Hutton tells power grid to clear barriers to wind

PM heralds 'green economy' Budget

Tories criticised over wind farm refusals

Wind power boosted by £1bn in new loans

Wind power plan blown off course

Wind power: the silent majority must speak out, says Miliband

Wind power to drive green revolution

Wind turbine factory sit-in workers accuse Ed Miliband ...

Why London Array?

Recent Reports Log

Offshore wind farms to get more cash

German Switch to Renewables Likely to Be Expensive

Government needs to support solar

UK marine energy sector 'could be worth £76bn

China tops clean energy table

Money will decide nuclear's fate

World energy crunch as nuclear and oil both go wrong

Solar power industry set to lock horns with state

Urgent steps needed to wean UK onto other energy sources

Green Belt row over energy bid

Energy market reform plans fall short

China overtakes US ...

China steams ahead on clean energy

Europe Plans New Power Grid

Feed-in tariffs

How effective are renewables?

How long until the lights go out?

More on EU Power Grid

Where have all the green jobs gone?