ESB acquires British wind farms
by David Masters
Irish energy firm ESB has expanded its pioneering of renewables to Britain with the purchase of two British wind farms. Government-owned Electrical Supply Board (ESB) acquired the Fullabrook Wind Farm in Devon and the West Durham Wind Farm in Co Durham. The West Durham site already generates 24MW of electricity, and the Fullabrook site has planning permission for a 66MW farm. ESB's acquisitions are the first step in its plans to generate 200MW ...
Peak Oil by 2020 warns IEA
by David Masters
The world will hit peak oil within the next decade, a leading energy analyst claimed this week. Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said the majority of global oil reserves will likely be used up by 2020. In an interview with the Independent, Birol said an IEA survey of 800 oil fields found that most of the biggest fields have already peaked. Oil production in these fields is declining at ...
More cash needed for green homes
by Alan Harten
WWF Scotland says the Government funding program for increasing home energy efficiency in Scotland is a step in the right direction but needs to expand rapidly in order to see the best results. Director of the Scotland branch of the WWF, Dr. Richard Dixon, said that they see the measures towards becoming more energy efficient as positive and welcomed, but stated the Government will need to seek out an additional ...
Petrol: £6 per litre by 2040
by David Masters
Petrol prices are set to hit $20 per gallon (£3.13 per litre) within a generation, American journalist Chris Steiner has predicted in groundbreaking a new book. Taking into account that we pay higher fuel tax in the UK compared to the US, this is equivalent to £6.21 per litre at current tax rates. In '$20 per gallon', Steiner predicts that as petrol prices soar, people's lifestyles will be forced to change drastically. Within ...
Vestas protest enters second week
by David Masters
Ongoing protests against the closure of a wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight have entered their second week. Around 25 workers are continuing their occupation of the Vestas Wind Systems factory in a bid to stop the factory closing with the loss of 625 jobs. Danish firm Vestas plans to close the factory at the end of this month despite rising profits. The company blamed the small size of the UK's ...
Alert Me.com and British Gas seek to lower CO2 output
by Alan Harten
Alert Me.com and British Gas New Energy announced that they reached an agreement yesterday that will result in the companies completing a joint trial of home energy management technologies to help Gas customers reduce CO2 emissions in their households and to save money on gad bills. The news comes in the wake of a June announcement that AlertMe was able to secure £8million in funding by investors so that it could ...
Greenpeace activists occupy Italian power stations
by David Masters
Greenpeace activists occupied four coal-fired power stations in Italy this week to coincide with the G8 meeting in the country, at which world leaders met to discuss climate change and the global economy. Over 100 Greenpeace activists from 18 countries joined the protests, calling on world leaders to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Protesters scaled the plants at Brindisi, Marghera, Porto Tolle, and Vado Ligure, occupying conveyor belts, cranes, and chimneys. All four power ...
São Paulo premieres hydrogen-powered eco-bus
by David Masters
Commuters in São Paulo could soon find themselves riding to work on a hydrogen powered eco-bus. The region's first hydrogen-powered bus - which runs silently and does not produce a single gram of pollution - was launched on the streets of São Paulo this week as part of a two month pilot scheme. With nearly half of the city's 18 million inhabitants riding the bus every day, the initiative has huge potential ...
Environmentalists uncover Shell’s dirty flaring secret
by David Masters
Oil giant Shell continues to practice gas flaring in Nigeria despite having known of its environmental and health dangers for the past 15 years, according to a new report published this week. Since 1996 Shell has promised to stop gas flaring in Nigeria - the biggest source of heat trapping gas in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Bank - yet the practice continues to this day. 'Shell's Big Dirty Secret', written ...
Campaigners want ‘Green New Deal’ for Northern Ireland
by David Masters
A new campaign in Northern Ireland is urging a joined up approach to tackle the effects of the recession and climate change. The Green New Deal, a coalition of businesses, farmers, trade unions, charities, and environmental campaigners, wants the government to invest in renewable energy to secure Northern Ireland's energy supply, combat global warming, and create thousands of jobs. Plans put forward by the group include refurbishing tens of thousands of homes ...
The £1.6bn energy rip-off
by David Masters
Energy suppliers are ripping off customers to the tune of £1.6 billion by failing to pass on falling energy prices, a consumer watchdog revealed this week. Consumer Focus found that gas prices should be at least 7.4% cheaper than they are currently, while electricity should be 3.1% cheaper. Energy providers have pocketed an extra £1.6 billion by keeping energy prices artificially high, Consumer Focus said, calling on the government to step in. The ...
Expect a £5,000 energy bill in 2020
by David Masters
UK households could find themselves spending nearly £5,000 per year on energy within a decade, according to new research. A study by uSwitch.com found that the cost of cutting carbon through renewable energy and carbon capture initiatives will cause the average annual energy bill to quadruple from £1,243 to £4,733. The price comparison site found that gas and electricity prices have more than doubled in the last five years, and said it ...
Energy inefficient schools waste £70m
by David Masters
British schools could save £70 million per year off energy bills by making school buildings more energy efficient, the Carbon Trust said yesterday. That's enough to fund 230,000 extra computers or 4.5 million extra text books per year. Embracing energy efficiency would also help schools in the fight against global warming, slashing nearly 600,000 tonnes off schools' annual carbon emissions. The Carbon Trust announced the figures at the launch of a new campaign ...
Wind farms power 10,500 new jobs
by David Masters
The wind energy industry has the potential to attract £2 billion investment to Northern Ireland, creating more than 1,300 jobs, a new report said this week Deloitte's report for the Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) said constructing and developing wind farms across the whole of Ireland would attract around £12.5 billion investment before 2020, with over £4 billion of this being retained in local economies. In total, 10,500 new jobs would be ...
Renewable energy start-up seeks £10m investment
by David Masters
A new eco-friendly energy supplier is currently looking to raise £10 million from investors. Greenrock Energy Limited plans to become an industry leader across Europe in ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems. GSHP energy is a highly efficient technology, using the solar energy stored just below the earth's surface to heat buildings. It can also be used to cool buildings by sending heat back underground. GSHP systems typically produce up to 6.5 ...
Check your energy use from your mobile phone
by David Masters
Householders can now find out exactly how much they're spending on electricity and gas from anywhere in the world using a new mobile phone app. Current Cost, maker of energy monitors, has teamed up with Intamac Systems to launch the new home energy monitoring device with mobile connectivity. The ENVI energy monitor sends power consumption statistics direct to the internet, where the information can be accessed from any PC or mobile handset. Users ...
Employee avoids disastrous nuclear fire at Sizewell
by Alan Harten
Over 40,000 gallons of radioactive water spilled out of a 15ft crack into the open in the Sizewell A reactor back in January 2007. The radioactive water leaked out of the cracked pipe into a cooling pond. According to reports, had the leak not been caught by an attentive worker, the cooling pool which contained 5,000 uranium fuel rods may have dried out, causing the rods to spark and potentially ...
Fuel poverty still plagues Britain
by David Masters
Over 5 million UK households continue to live in fuel poverty despite government measures to tackle the issue, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced this week. Recent falls in energy prices have had little impact, with the current average annual energy bill up by more than a third (36%) compared with January 2008. During 2008, energy bills rocketed by £381. Cuts to the price of energy since ...
Power Predictor estimates savings from microgeneration
by David Masters
A new gadget launched last month calculates how much money a household or business could save on their energy bill by opting for solar panels or a wind turbine. Inventor Tony Hammond said the Power Predictor “takes the guesswork out of microgeneration”. The Power Predictor is left outside for a month, where it gathers data on wind and solar conditions. Users then connect the device to their PC, which uses specially designed software ...
New solar panel design captures light and heat
by David Masters
A new solar panel design captures the sun's heat as well as turning the sun's light rays into electricity. PVT's cogeneration solar panels are three times more efficient than traditional photovoltaic panels because they power a thermal system in addition to generating electricity. Photovoltaic panels convert just a quarter of the sun's energy into electricity; the rest is lost as waste heat. US-based PVT Solar plans to capture this lost heat using a ...