Events

Progress on Disclosure only Success of COP27

As President Biden prepares to address Cop27, it is already clear that “the world’s last chance to conquer climate change” will end in failure.Newsflash: 1.5 degrees is dead and buried.

None of the largest emitters are sticking to pledges made at earlier meetings. China, Russia and India have not even sent their leaders. No wonder campaigner Greta Thunberg is boycotting COP27 – dismissing it as “Greenwash.”

Among an increasing clamour for advanced western economies countries to pay “reparations,” some of the world’s worst carbon emitters (China, Brazil) are hiding behind a smokescreen of historical confusion. At least 20 per cent of historical carbon emissions took place before the industrialisation of the advanced economics since 1850. China has been burning coal for millenia. It had a booming iron and coal industry through the Tang and Song dynasties. In the 11th Century it was burning several hundred thousand tonnes of coal annually. And if you include deforestation as well as fossil fuel in the calculations, Malaysian and Argentina are as much to blame as UK – or China, which is currently the world’s largest emitter and set to increase.

Meanwhile the world’s energy companies are using Cop as a set of useful idiots to push through their plans to receive over $100 TRILLION for decarbonising the world’s energy grids – i.e. paying them to clean up the mess they created in the first place. It would be the most spectacular example of greenwashing in history.

But one little-noticed factor does justify the whole COP process and stop me at least from dismissing it as a complete waste of time. The giant global project to quantify our emissions is gathering pace.
The EU is finalising disclosure rules for 50,000 companies in the 27-country bloc to report on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, as well as a company’s impact on the environment, known as double materiality. (https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/cop27-sustainable-standard-setters-close-regulatory-gap-2022-11-10/).

This initiative is a vital building block, and our last best chance to at least reduce the level of damage. Even though its too late to save 1.5, it is better than nothing.…

November 11, 2022 No Comments

Energy

Sunset for the Grid?

The electricity grid is a relic of C20th technology…

November 3, 2022 No Comments

Former Eton prefect Kwarteng shouts down opponents

Energy

Now UK Energy Utilities Want A Windfall Tax

The UK government announced last Friday, it will insulate the British people against energy price rises this winter – using money rather than more conventional insulating material.

A huge cash pile – up to £10 BILLION per month – will be tossed onto the country’s inflationary flames – cash which could still be spent (if HMG could be persuaded to act in time) on more effective measures, like building thousands of renewable-energy “microgrids”, which would tackle the energy shortage this winter, and every succeeding winter.
As the Chancellor was making his statement in Parliament, the sterling exchange rate collapsed. Currency markets are acutely aware that the government’s energy price guarantee is rather like King Canute ordering the tide to recede. The Utility companies that provide gas and electricity are concerned the problem is being addressed in the wrong way, even though it was their suggestion in the first place.

The Times reported last week that the power firms themselves don’t want to be herded into signing cut-price power supply contracts this winter.
Senior executives at several power generation groups, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Times that while they did not want a windfall tax, they now believed it may be the best option for this winter, since it would only target actual profits.
One said they would back a windfall tax if it was “implemented in a fair way and doesn’t stifle investment — so you get allowances if you’re going to continue to invest”.

The idea of a one-off levy is gaining popularity amid fears that other proposals for tackling excess profits may be too complex to implement at short notice, and could be even more damaging, according to industry executives. Ministers are understood to have held talks with companies including Orsted, RWE, SSE, ScottishPower, Drax, Vattenfall, EDF and Octopus.

Electricity producers in Europe have warned that they face a “Lehman Brothers moment” where the market for trading energy could collapse if liquidity evaporates. European power companies face margin calls in excess of $1.5 trillion owing to the wild price swings in the market, according to the Norwegian energy giant Equinor. Governments in Finland and Sweden have this week been forced to pump billions in emergency liquidity to prop up the sector. Germany has offered $7 billion in emergency loans to help the sector.
Cash-strapped British power companies are struggling to hedge against surging market gas prices, the governor of the Bank of England has warned, raising the prospect of emergency credit help for electricity suppliers.
HE said policymakers were working on ways to ensure that the energy trading market continued to function. Centrica, which owns British gas, was reported this week to have asked banks for billions in emergency credit to meet its margin calls.
A report by the TUC issued at the start of Labour Party annual conference in Liverpool, calls for a new British …

September 25, 2022 No Comments

Professor of Netzero - Subhes Battacharyya

Energy

New wind farms could bypass the grid – and locals would benefit

The UK government’s new energy policy is, to nobody’s surprise, much like their old energy policy. Attention has focused on the lack of support for energy efficiency measures like insulation. There is a more fundamental criticism that needs urgent debate.

It was left to Andrea Leadsom, former UK energy Secretary to identify the key problem. She told the BBC last week that the quickest, cheapest way to increase renewable energy supply, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels, is to build wind turbines and solar farms in the countryside (everything stated about wind below could apply equally to solar). The obstacle, Leadsom said, was that developers tended to place their wind farms in places convenient to plug them into the national grid, and these places are rarely in the most windy locations.

My own local windfarm in East Sussex is a perfect example. Sometimes the blades do not turn even when a stiff breeze comes in across the channel. It was placed there because it is two miles from the former nuclear power station at Dungeness. So the cost of connecting to the grid was negligible.

The solution is staring us in the face – build wind turbines where the wind is – and then instead of feeding it into the grid -send it direct to nearby communities – at a large discount.

Technically, this is completely feasible.

At the moment, turbines are connected to the high voltage lines in order to carry the power to the central generating stations where it is then redirected out again. Instead the power could be distributed locally using whatever local transmission lines already exist. But the Utility companies are not geared up for that.

This needs a regulatory revolution similar to the one that forced BT to open up to competition 25 years ago. The phone lines were made available to any company wanting to offer a service on them, as long as they met minimum technical standards. The same could happen for electricity.

Local communities could be served by a single turbine, or a group of them, – financed by an individual entrepreneur, a local community or a giant multinational. With the latest IPCC report stressing the vital urgency of reducing fossil fuel usage now, huge opposition is to be expected from the energy industry to a change in the regulatory arrangements.

The current system does not allow individual consumers to take the benefit of low prices at times of low demand. “Balancing locally demand and supply is still not being incentivised through the system,” said Professor of Net Zero at Surrey University, Subesh Batt. “The regulators need to look into this and support it.

“That goes back to the issue of how we ensure that the return on the investment does not leave the local community and improves their overall quality of life and prosperity.

The urgent task therefore is not …

April 10, 2022 No Comments

People

Dale Vince enters politics

UK Energy boss Dale Vince’s appearance on Radio 4’sThe World This Weekend on Sunday, to announce his entry into politics, was a great piece of self-promotion ahead of the sale of Ecotricity – the green energy company he founded 25 years ago

What better excuse for a sale? And what better time than now to cash out, when interest in renewables is peaking? He could also bring a lot of funding into the Green Party ahead of the council elections in May.

Vince could now choose a Green peerage, and he deserves it – if only because his vegan football team, Forest Green of course, is currently top of the League Table

Vince started his business life battling for planning permission to erect a wind turbine in a field he lived in with the local milkman. Once he had built the turbine he figured he might as well apply for a bigger one, and parlayed his fortune from there. In 2020 the turnover of Ecotricity was £222m.

Critics question the way he picked a fight with the other leading green energy company in the UK – Good Energy. But he stayed in control of his company, whereas Julia Davenport exited Good Energy last year. And he has remained true to his roots, calling out the big energy companies for their lack of green policies.

Vince might decide the Lords is a den of political cronyism and opt to stand for election. Campaigning alongside Molly Scott Cato, he could probably secure her victory in his home town of Stroud. The current Green party candidate, Scott Cato came second in the December 2019 election with 32%, and the Labour winner on 44%.

Scott Cato is the Green party press officer. She would not wish to stand aside, but clearly Vince is better at publicity than she is. Not that he would settle for so lowly a role. As the party’s energy expert he would command widespread respect and attention. And with him as chief fund-raiser, the Green party election coffers would never be fuller.…

April 4, 2022 No Comments

Energy

Micro-Nuclear or Mini-nuclear?

COP26 may have been a near-total failure, but I heard dozens of delegates congratulating each other on being present for what one called “the energy sales conference to end all sales conferences.” And its true that there were more representatives of the fossil fuel industry in Glasgow than any one country-delegation.

It would be ironic if the biggest achievement announced at Cop26 this week is not the international carbon-reduction route-map we were promised, but a groundbreaking business deal between the UK government and Rolls Royce for the supply of miniature nuclear reactors, each capable of powering up to a million households.

Ten years ago I was on the board of a micro-nuclear startup. The company lasted about two years until we were shut down by the American investors, who concluded we had come to market way too early to cash in – the story of my life. At that point I was an energy novice. And I remained convinced that micro-nuclear was the answer to providing safe, reliable power at reasonable cost with very few waste disposal issues.
I kept studying the energy market, expecting micro-grids of all kinds to emerge, especially in developing countries. There has been a gentle rise in micro-energy technology but the thrust has always been big projects. Its time that changed.
Now Warren East of Rolls Royce says he will be able to bring in the first prototypes at a cost to the Exchequer of £35-50 per Megawatt hour – the industry standard unit of cost for energy of all kinds. And, he was quick to point out, this makes them competitive with wind and solar producers which, although they can produce electricity at a lower cost, have yet to solve the problem of how to store their energy for use at times when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. Battery technology is advancing rapidly and still has a long way to go.
Paul Dorfman of the Nuclear Consulting Group, an independent think tank, told Radio 4’s Today programme,on Tuesday (9 Nov) that the mini-reactors are actually not that small – about half the size of conventional reactors – and that the Rolls Royce plan to site them within the perimeter of existing nuclear sites does not protect them from the threat faced by the current generation of nuclear reactors – which must be near the sea to guarantee sufficient cooling, where they cannot be adequately protected from flooding.
Warren East had to balance the need to make the reactors as small as possible for safety reasons, against the desire of both UK plc and Rolls Royce to make the project as big as possible. Policymakers and multinationals are addicted to big projects.
World Bank boss David Malpas told an interviewer last week: “The world bank is an institution that does big projects. That means how do you decommission a coal-fired power …

November 16, 2021 No Comments

Energy

Off-Grid campaign for Renewable Micro-Grids

UK Parliamentary Petition

Decarbonise UK energy by funding locally-owned renewable micro-grids

About 75% of all global warming (ie carbon emissions) is caused by the production and consumption of energy. Please see our new video and sign our petition to persuade the government to act.

It will cost hundreds of billions to make electricity production in the UK carbon-neutral, but the current national grid is inefficient, with at least 8-10% of energy lost in distribution or transmission. And a further 30% wasted in the electricity production process.

The Government estimates it will cost a total of £500 billion over 20 years to decarbonise the grid, and it intends to spend most of that money through the energy companies which caused the problem in the first place. the UK should instead fund resident-owned renewable energy grids across the country. Power to the people.

More details

We are campaigning for 100,000 signatures for the parliamentary petition and then a government debate while Cop26 takes place.

Sign this petition

52 signatures

Show on a map

10,000

At 10,000 signatures…

At 10,000 signatures, government will respond to this petition

At 100,000 signatures…

At 100,000 signatures, this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament

Share this petition

Created by

Nick Rosen

Deadline

18 February 2022

All petitions run for 6 months

Official petition website: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/594570…

September 29, 2021 No Comments

Events

1.4 million Texas homes off-grid as power network buckles

More than half of energy-rich state’s total power generation capacity remains offline

The electric grid, which is designed to enable energy trading rather than protecting domestic consumers, has collapsed in Texas due to extreme winter weather. The same thing could easily happen elsewhere in America.

Houston’s mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter: “The city does not control the Texas power grid. We do not oversee Ercot which manages and serves as the traffic cop for the electric grid. That is the governor and the State of Texas.”

Hundreds of thousands of lives have been disrupted as energy prices spiked 100 times due to surging demand for heating in the extreme conditions. Many are reduced to melting snow to provide drinking water.

For residents of the Lone Star State, the problem stems from both a record spike in demand in a place that rarely gets this cold, as well as an unexpected drop in the supply of energy from natural gas, coal, wind, nuclear, and solar sources iced up by sleet and wind. This is coupled with the arcane power management setup in Texas – similar to other States.

Amid a backlash from angry Texans, Republican governor Greg Abbott called on the state’s legislature to investigate and reform Ercot. “The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has been anything but reliable over the past 48 hours,” Abbott said. While the Texas power grid has proven largely capable of handling demand peaks during the state’s sweltering summers, the electricity supply system has been crippled by some of the coldest weather the state has experienced in decades. Wholesale electricity prices have hovered around Ercot’s price cap of $9,000 a megawatt-hour for days because of the supply shortages, far above typical prices of about $25/MWh. That has the potential to put immense strain on energy suppliers forced to buy at the astronomical prices.

US natural gas prices surged as much as 10 per cent on Tuesday to about $3.15 a million British thermal units, its highest level since October. Prices at one Oklahoma pricing hub, where supplies were extremely tight, soared from about $3 an MBtu to almost $1,000 an MBtu. The freezing temperatures and sustained power outages have also disrupted the state’s oil industry, the largest in the country. Producers in Texas’s Permian oilfield, one of the world’s most prolific, face days of disruptions as pipelines and other equipment freeze up and icy road conditions delay repairs.

Though the number of customers in the dark had dropped by 25 percent in Texas on Tuesday, nearly 3.2 million customers remained without electricity early Tuesday evening, according to PowerOutage.us. That’s about 1 million customers fewer than at the peak of the blackouts, but still represents more than a quarter of the Lone Star State.

Meanwhile, about 11,000 customers were without power in Oklahoma, primarily around the Oklahoma City metro area, with 120,000 out

…

February 16, 2021 No Comments

Energy

US Power Grid Closes in on Debtors

The Washington Post reports an unprecedented rise in arrears owed to Utility companies by America households struggling in the pandemic. Those bills are about to fall due. And the Utilities are planning to collect.

There was a moratorium on Utility bills, but it has now been lifted in most states and now only DC and 14 States still protect consumers from Utility debt collection.

In the DC, area, Fairfax Water is “considering” shutting off service for nonpayment. There has been more than a sevenfold increase in unpaid bills since before the pandemic.

Nationally, As of Dec. 31, Americans owed their gas and electric utilities an estimated $32 billion, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association, which represents state directors of low-income energy aid programs. In the District of Columbia, NEADA estimates that almost 63,000 households owed about $50 million, while more than 400,000 in Maryland owed $251 million.

“We’ve never seen numbers like this before,” said Mark Wolfe, NEADA’s executive director. “The question is, how do we keep families connected to the grid and in their homes when they don’t have income coming in? . . . We’ve never had a situation where this many people haven’t paid a bill in more than nine months, and we still have a long time to go.”

Washington Gas plans to begin sending shutoff notices to unresponsive Maryland customers after March 31, which could lead to disconnections starting around Memorial Day, the utility said. About 80,000 accounts in the Washington region were more than three months past due as of Dec. 31 — a 30 percent increase from a year earlier.

A coalition of more than 600 racial justice, labor, environmental and religious groups have urged President Biden to declare a national ban on utility cutoffs. The administration recently extended a federal moratorium on evictions through March and proposed $25 billion in rental assistance and $5 billion for home energy and water costs as part of its $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package.

One economist estimated that residential electricity use spiked 10% on average between April and July 2020, leading to households spending nearly $6 billion on extra usage.

…

February 6, 2021 No Comments

Energy

Big tech needs to be on the grid – but we dont

The combined power usage of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple is more than 45 terawatt-hours a year, about as much as New Zealand, new research revealed today. That amount will grow, as the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning demands more computing power.

Meanwhile its increasingly possible for individuals to live entirely separated from the electricity grid.

Britain’s first houses with appliances powered entirely by hydrogen will open within two months as ministers step up their campaign to prove that the fuel will become a greener replacement for natural gas.

The two show homes set to open in April in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, will include boilers, hobs, cookers and fires that release no carbon emissions as part of the Government’s drive to phase out the use of fossil fuels.

The semi-detached properties – which are expected to look like normal houses from the outside – are not intended to become family homes, instead serving as a showcase for hydrogen technology.

The Government believes hydrogen could play a major role in achieving its goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 while also helping create up to 100,000 jobs by that point – including 8,000 by 2030.

The project secured a £250,000 grant from the Government’s Hy4Heat innovation programme and is being run by gas distribution firms Northern Gas Networks and Cadent.

The companies have both also input £250,000 of funding each for the houses, which are planned to be open to members of the public who will be able to view appliances and see how they compare to existing ones.

Hy4Heat has said the development of ‘hydrogen-ready’ appliances could have a big effect on the cost and impact on the public of a potential conversion of the gas grid from 100 per cent methane to 100 per cent hydrogen. Alternatively, Hydrogen could be converted from a water supply in the home.

Northern Gas Networks chief executive Mark Horsley said: ‘We’re delighted to be working with BEIS and Cadent on this unique demonstration, which gives energy customers a first glimpse at hydrogen technology in the home.

‘Just like natural gas, hydrogen can heat homes in exactly the same way, meaning minimal change for customers in terms of how they use gas for heating or cooking.

‘The houses bring to life the potential of this green gas for keeping UK homes warm, while minimising impact on the environment.’

The Government said students from schools, colleges and universities will visit to learn about the technology, as well as careers in the green economy and in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects.

Cadent chief executive Steve Fraser added: ‘We are proud to be part of this important project where we will be able to show customers what their future gas appliances will look like.

‘A familiar sight to them, with one difference, they will be powered by hydrogen. These …

February 1, 2021 1 Comment

Energy

Best portable power stations to buy in 2021

Whether you are living off-grid or just moving arond for business or leisure, keeping powered up is an important part of your preparations. Portable power stations are the smaller, lesser-known cousin of generators. These easily-packed gadgets can go with you on camping trips, to building sites — wherever you need electricity — to keep your phone, power tools and other electronics running.

We picked seven power stations to test for this list, ranging in price from $270 to $1,200. We focused exclusively on rechargeable battery-powered models, although gas models are available, too. While each power station does the same thing — provide power on the go in a compact design — each one has a different design and range of features.

Keep in mind that the prices for each power station may change as retailers introduce sales and other updates.

Best overall

Jackery Explorer 1000

Click to view image.

The Jackery Explorer 1000 is by far the most well-rounded portable power station of the bunch. At 22 pounds, this powerful generator is fairly compact, especially compared with the 44-pound Ego Nexus model. Despite its smaller size, it manages to make space for three three-prong outlets, two USB-C ports, two standard USB-A ports and more.

Its display is easy to read, too, and it dominated the performance tests, exceeding its expected run time of 3 hours and 2 minutes (with three work lights connected to it) by an average of 8.5 minutes.

You can add on the 100W Solar panel for another $300

Fast facts

* Price (Amazon): $1,000

* Watt hours: 1,002

* Weight: 22 pounds

SEE AT AMAZON

Best midrange

Klein Tools KTB5

When you don’t need something quite as powerful as the Jackery Explorer 1000, the Klein Tools KTB5 is an excellent option. While it has roughly half the watt hours of the Jackery generator, it’s still a solid performer with a lot of power.

Complete with two three-prong outlets, two USB-C ports and two USB-A ports, you can charge pretty much anything you’ll ever need with this midrange power station. Bonus: It did well in my performance tests, averaging just 2 minutes less than its expected 2-hour and 29-minute run time (with two lights connected to it).

Fast facts

* Price (Amazon): $500, currently on sale for $465

* Watt hours: 546

* Weight: 12 pounds

SEE AT AMAZON

Best budget

Rockpals 300W

The Rockpals 300W is our pick for affordable portable power station. Not only did it average 2.5 minutes over the expected 2-hour 33-minute run time (with one work light connected), it’s only 7.5 pounds and has a ton of options, ranging from one three-prong outlet to four USB-A ports and a handful of other features.

$270 isn’t exactly budget, but it’s the most affordable model tested — and its strong performance and solid lineup of features give it even more value.

Fast facts…

January 2, 2021 No Comments

TV News still showing active fire in Orange County

Energy

New California fires caused by electricity grid – SoCal confesses

Oct. 28—Thousands of Southern Californians were without electricity for a third day Wednesday, as the region’s largest utility turned off power to areas where strong Santa Ana winds were causing high fire risk.

Power company Southern California Edison told state regulators that its equipment might have ignited one of a pair of fast-moving wildfires in Orange County, Calif., that have prompted evacuation orders for 80,000 people.

A few miles to the north, the Blue Ridge Fire also broke out Monday and has blackened more than 10,000 acres and led to evacuation orders for the city of Yorba Linda. Both conflagrations were driven by Santa Ana winds gusting up to 80 miles an hour. In all, more than 16,000 homes valued at $14.1 billion were at risk from the twin fires, according to estimates by Realtor.com.

Simultaneously About 355,000 power customers – covering an estimated 1 million people – were in the dark in the northern part of the state as officials issued warnings for what could be the strongest winds in California this year.

The fast-moving wildfire forced the evacuation of 70,000 people and seriously injured two firefighters in Southern California on Monday as powerful winds across the fire-fatigued state prompted power to be cut to prevent utility equipment from sparking new blazes.

The wind-driven fire spread to more than 16 square kilometers within a few hours of breaking out around dawn in Orange County, south of Los Angeles.

Strong gusts pushed flames in Silverado Canyon and near houses in Irvine, a city of about 280,000 residents 65 kilometers southeast of Los Angeles.

Two firefighters, aged 26 and 31, were severely burned as they battled the blaze from the ground, Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy said.

Water-dropping helicopters were briefly grounded because the winds made it unsafe to fly.

Officials did not immediately know the cause of the fire, one of several that broke out across the region.

Tinder-dry weather

The electricity shutdowns marked the fifth time this year that Pacific Gas & Electric, the nation’s largest utility, cut power to customers to reduce the risk of downed or fouled power lines or other equipment that could ignite fires amid tinder-dry weather conditions and powerful wind gusts.

The conditions could equal those during devastating fires in California’s wine region in 2017 and the Kincade Fire that devastated Sonoma County north of San Francisco last October, the National Weather Service said.

Fire officials said PG&E transmission lines sparked that fire, which destroyed hundreds of homes and caused nearly 100,000 people to flee for their lives.

Extreme fire danger moved into Southern California late on Sunday following cooler temperatures over the weekend. A area north of Los Angeles recorded a wind gust of 156 kilometers per hour.

“We have very strong winds and very low humidities, and that’s causing ideal conditions for a very strong Santa Ana event with …

October 28, 2020 2 Comments

All you need to go off-grid

Energy

Progress on Disclosure only Success of COP27

Sunset for the Grid?

Now UK Energy Utilities Want A Windfall Tax

New wind farms could bypass the grid – and locals would benefit

Dale Vince enters politics

Micro-Nuclear or Mini-nuclear?

Off-Grid campaign for Renewable Micro-Grids

UK Parliamentary Petition

Decarbonise UK energy by funding locally-owned renewable micro-grids

At 10,000 signatures…

At 100,000 signatures…

Share this petition

Nick Rosen

18 February 2022

1.4 million Texas homes off-grid as power network buckles

US Power Grid Closes in on Debtors

Big tech needs to be on the grid – but we dont

Best portable power stations to buy in 2021

New California fires caused by electricity grid – SoCal confesses

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Energy

UK Parliamentary Petition

Decarbonise UK energy by funding locally-owned renewable micro-grids

At 10,000 signatures…

At 100,000 signatures…

Share this petition

Nick Rosen

18 February 2022

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