Energy

Had it with the mainstream news agenda? Let’s make our own news.

“Smart Grid. Dumb Idea” is only the second episode from Off-Grid News. Its about the lobbying campaign by corporations like GE and IBM to persuade the nation to spend $2 TRILLION to boost the existing grid, instead of investing it in locally produced energy.…

Electrical blackouts that cause disruption to millions are a looming threat to society, argue Hugh Byrd and Steve Matthewman

Hugh Byrd is a professor of architecture at the University of Lincoln, UK. Steve Matthewman is an associate professor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. This is adapted from their paper in the journal Social Space:

ON 14 August 2003, the north-eastern US and Ontario, Canada, were crippled by an enormous electrical blackout that affected 50 million people. Commuters struggled to get to work, ATMs failed, 36 car manufacturing plants were closed and hundreds of flights were cancelled, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in economic losses. The cause was later found to be a software bug in a control room in Ohio.…

Off-grid energy company Knoydart Renewables in Scotland is one of several projects to benefit from a new GBP1m Highland Sustainable Fund.

It will receive GBP75,000 (100% match funding) to refurbish and increase the capacity of an essential hydro electric scheme which is the only energy supply to the off-grid community of Knoydart.

The community of Knoydart is often referred to as ‘Scotland’s last wilderness’. Only accessible by boat, or by a 16-mile hike, it is not connected to the UK road system or the national power grid network.…

The owners of Direct Energy – one of North America’s largest energy and energy-related services providers with more than 5 million residential and commercial customers, has been accused of paying staff bonuses to inflate customers’ bills by up to 60 per cent.

British company Centrica is already known for playing hardball. Its boss Sam Laidlaw has long been one of the highest paid energy bosses in the UK, and unashamedly gouges the British consumer.

When the British Government regulator announced an enquiry into the running of the energy market last month, Laidlaw responded by threatening to cut investment in the UK.

Now a whistleblower has claimed that his British Gas subsidiary is paying staff bonuses to inflate customers’ bills by up to 60 per cent.…