Millions of UK’s Poorest Face Higher Heating Bills in the Name of Going Green

The world has officially gone mad. As we are grinding into the worst economic slump for a century, simple things like heating bills are going up and up.There are also significant health risks for pensioners and low income families. It is they who are in most need of heating during the colder months. But it is exactly these people who are increasingly struggling to heat their homes.

The concept of Renewable Energy has become a buzzword for energy companies and governments in the past decade. It is meant to be the solution to the problems of our world. And who would argue with the idea of saving some money and saving the planet. With this mantra on their lips, they win votes and build wind farms, supposedly for our benefit.

But there’s something fishy about the way the “green energy” issue is used, exemplified by the recent proposal by UK energy secretary Ed Milliband. The plan is called the “Renewable Heating Incentive”, and aims to construct a large number of wind farms and solar energy facilities to reduce reliance on fast depleting and environmentally unfriendly fossil fuel sources. Now you’d think that the responsibility for paying for these developments would land at the feet of global energy giants – but you’d be wrong. It is going to be the bill payer who has to pay for this! The plan aims to charge a levy to energy providers using fossil fuels. The big friendly energy company, however, is planning on paying for this cost by increasing home gas and electric costs.

Gas prices went up by 59% last year, and electricty by 26%. This meant that millions had to think twice about switching on their portable heaters. Going green has been touted as a way for people struggling to pay their bills to lower their costs. However if this idea is brought in it will harm precisely those who are struggling. Essentially what this will mean is that those with more secure and higher incomes will be the ones who can afford to switch to green energy sources for their homes. But if you can’t, and resort to using fan heaters or oil filled radiators to warm your house when the temperatures drop, you’ll be hit with higher energy bills. The same will be true even if you factor in the low interest loans scheme that is supposedly aimed at making it more affordable for people to go greener. It’s unlikely that a family that is already struggling to pay their gas and electic, not to mention interest on existing debts, will be willing to take on more debt, whetever the interest rate may be. If the introduction of university student loans have taught us anything, its that offering low interest loans only make these schemes more appealing to the middle classes.

I ask you, is that right? Surely it would be much better to force energy corporations to give up a small percentage of their enormous profits to pay for this scheme.  This money could then be used to provide green energy refubishment to those on lower incomes who are struggling to pay the bills, so that their bills can be reduced. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Technorati Tags:: alternative fuel, energy companies, environment, gas prices, green energy, green fuel, heating bills, recession, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, stealth tax, uk government

Understanding the ABC of Carbon Offsets

We understand carbon offsetting as the procedure of curbing greenhouse gas emissions through particular projects to offset the impact of harmful gases emitted in the past. The motivation behind buying carbon offsets is to balance those emissions that we are unable to prevent during the course of our daily lives. If someone generates emissions when another sustainable alternate is available, it is usually frowned upon by eco-conscious people. For ease, one offset is measured as the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide.

Several European countries have made nationwide legislations that permit businesses to emit up to a particular volume of emissions. If a business releases more than the assigned limit, it needs to buy carbon offsets to settle the equation. While this compulsory necessity to sustain a low carbon footprint is the main driver of offset trading, there is also a smaller voluntary marketplace. People who are eco-conscious buy offsets to decrease their personal carbon footprint even though they are not required by law to do this.

In simple words, the demand for carbon offsets is largely driven by environmental regulations on official state level and then by eco-conscious people feeling guilt when they release greenhouse gases. But how are carbon offsets ‘manufactured’? Companies that offer you offsets typically buy them from large projects carried out to cut GHG emissions anywhere in the world. Genuine projects ensure that the overall emissions released on earth get controlled so the exact site of these projects is not a big concern.

Greenhouse gases blend into the atmosphere and spread all over the earth rapidly; it doesn’t make any difference in the long run if you emit CO2 in United States, Asia or Europe as the overall effect will be the same for the global environment in each case. For the same reason, many carbon credit projects are set up in China even though majority of carbon credit buyers are located in Europe and North America. Because everything from labor to construction materials is cheaper in developing cities, the final cost of producing one carbon offset is considerably less if compared with European nations.

This small article won’t enter the debate of carbon offset scams. It’s sufficient to say here that carbon offsetting does help the planet if done according to established standards.

Technorati Tags:: Carbon offset, Carbon Offsets, CarbonFootprint, environment, Greenhouse gas

How Green Is Your Workplace?

Stop Talking Start Doing – IBM’s ad shows the way

We’ve all seen the TV campaigns, news stories and general buzz about reducing your carbon footprint at home. An army of newly-enlisted eco-warriors are going about switching to energy saving bulbs, insulating their lofts and stopping putting their TVs on standby.It’s commendable stuff, but unfortunately CO2 emissions from individuals are only a minority of the problem.The truth is that the largest part of the global enviornmental burden comes from businesses and organisations.  And just like any economy of scale, in larger organisations even a small change can have a huge impact.

This may be all true, I hear you say. Not my job though. Reducing the company’s carbon footprint is my boss’s job, not mine. Hell no. If you have a workplace, you can make big changes to your employer’s carbon footprint.Plus it can be a lot more effective than the actions you take at home.

Here are some pointers, small and large, on achieving a greener workplace:

1. Recycle office waste. The amount of paper, cans and plastic used at work is many times more than what you throw away at home. Why not try bringing in recycle containers in accessible locations. Its simpler than you think, as there are countless government and charity programs to do this for you for free.
2. Drive less to work. Emissions from car exhausts are so harmful, and they can be cut by starting a fairly simple car pooling system. Or better still, think about cycling or walking to work.
3. Switch to energy saving lightbulbs. Switching a few bulbs in the house conserves only a small amount of energy. But think of how much more energy is used in lighting up your office and you begin to see how powerful a simple thing like switching to energy saving bulbs could be.
4. Green Information Technology. The energy usage of IT systems is huge for the majority of companies and organisations. You can make a big difference simply by making sure your monitor isn’t left on standby when you finish work. Or better still, get on to your IT department to review their “green baseline”. Get them to perform some proper asset tracking on all office IT equipment, using professional asset management software, a business can dramatically reduce its carbon footprint and help meet increasingly stringent government environmental requirements.
5. Campaigning. Go to the next level. Get like-minded colleagues together to run green campaigns and the real revolution begins.By putting pressure on our bosses to take seriously their green duties we little guys can make a real difference. Very often going green also saves a lot of money, as the TV ad above shows.  For example, companies involved in transporting goods and supplies often generate millions of tons of CO2. Pushing them to properly review their transport and logistics management and make the smallest of improvements can save them big money and dramatically reduce their carbon footprint in the process.

This is just a starting point on the subject. This article was primarly aimed at getting your juices flowing about this issue. Agree? Disagree? Feel free to air your thoughts!

Technorati Tags:: campaigning, carbon emissions, Carbon Footprint, environment, green, green at work, workplace

Washing away the water with your washing machine waste

Washing Machine Waste

The average UK household uses roughly 40 pints of water a day using washing machines, this figure has risen sharply over the last few years, since 1990 washing machine usage has gone up by a massive 23% due to the fact that the average household now washes their clothes on average 4 times a week compared to  15 years ago when it was just 3. Throughout the country this equals around 800 million pints of water which would fill 145 sizes Olympic swimming pools. Can we reduce this washing machine waste?

In the past many people used commercial laundry equipment in laundrettes to wash their clothes but as washing machines have got significantly cheaper this area has now declined.

The British government has said that it wants to decrease water usage by 2010 but as more and more people look to save time and money this target does seem like it will be met. But now there appears to be a way that this could all change. “Xeros” is allready being dubbed the new Dyson, which was the bagless cleaner the re invented the way we cleaned in the mid 90′s.

The machine uses only 2% of the water conventional large washing machines use which makes it the first virtually waterless washing machine. The Researchers at Leeds University where this product is being tested claim the technology  could be ready as early as 2009. It works by the use of thousands of small plastic chips which are around half a centimetre in size which then absorb and remove dirt. Around 20 kilos of these chips are loaded in each wash with a small cup of water, this is then heated to help disolve the dirt and then the chips remove it.

The company behind the product hope this will change the way we wash our clothes and could not only save money but also the environment, it is also hope this technology could be used in commercial dishwashers as well as many other water using household items

Related articles on washing machine waste

• Washing Clothes Without Water
• A Very Very Small Washing Machine
• Virtually waterless washing machine edges closer to production

Technorati Tags:: environment, saving water, Washing machine, washing machine waste

Different Types of Concentrating Solar Power

Concentrating Solar Power

There are two main types of solar power generation methods used to produce electricity on a commercial scale. Photovoltaic panels, which are the large collections of the systems that you see in small scale on house roofs. Using the heat of the sun as thermal solar power are concentrating solar power (CSP) plants.

We will take a look at the way in which concentrating solar power plants create electricity. CSP plants are capable of producing electricity at a higher maximum capacity than a photovoltaic facility of the same size. They will play an increasingly important role in the move away from fossil-fuel sourced energy to that of renewable energy.

There are four main types of concentrating solar power systems: parabolic troughs, fresnel reflectors, dish / engine systems and central receiver systems. The technology involved with each is proven and either has been or still is in operation around the world with more developments in solar energy in progress to increase global capacity.

Trough systems work by making use of mirrored troughs that are used to focus the sun’s energy onto a receiver tube that is filled with fluid. The heat generated from this process heats the fluid to high levels so that super-charged steam is created. A conventional steam generator is then used to produce electricity.

A trough-based CSP plant typically consists of rows of mirrored troughs placed parallel to each other along a north-south axis in what is known as a collector field. Optimum heat is focused on the receiver tubes thanks to the pivoting nature of the parabolic troughs which track the sun’s movement across the sky. Electricity continues to get generated when the it’s cloudy or after the sun has set thanks to thermal storage. Technological advancements are continuing to prolong this production period in a bid to move to continuous solar electricity production.

One of the largest developments to use the parabolic trough design is the Andasol project in Spain. The surface area of the mirrors used to form the energy collection field of Andasol 3 alone is around 500,000m2.

Fresnel reflectors provide a more concentrated focus of solar energy onto centrally placed receivers. Costs are reduced using this method because the rows are positioned more closely together, there are fewer moving parts and less receivers are required. The receiver is stationary and it is shared by multiple mirrors.

An example of a recently commissioned CSP plant using reflector technology is the Kimberlina CSP plant in California developed by Ausra. This power plant is relatively small at only 5MW capacity, but it paves the way for future large-scale developments.

Dish / engine systems are stand-alone units that contain dish-shaped parabolic mirrors that concentrate the sun’s energy onto a receiver mounted above the dish. From there the energy is converted into mechanical power and electricity is generated similar to the way a mechanical engine runs. Each dish / engine unit has a capacity of around 25kW of solar power and it tracks the sun to ensure optimum power.

An example of the dish / engine technology is the Stirling Energy Systems dish called the Suncatcher that will be used in fields of thousands to form a power facility capable of generating over 500MW of electricity.

Central receiver systems, known colloquially as power towers, is another way to produce concentrated solar power. Looking as though they’re honoring a higher deity, thousands of mirrors called heliostats cluster around a receiver that sits on top of a tall tower. Molten salt is heated as it passes through the receiver and this then makes steam which operates a conventional steam generator. The molten salt can be stored for great lengths of time which means that this type of solar energy generates electricity continuously around the clock.

An example of a central receiver system in development is the Solar Tres power plant being built in Spain. The Solar Tres power plant will be a 15MW facility and it follows on from the successful demonstration power plant known as Solar Two which was located in the Mojave Desert.

One of the crippling problems with solar energy has been the high cost per watt of electricity, but technological advancements are bringing those costs down. Already, concentrating solar power plants hold a huge advantage over the traditional fossil fuelled counterparts in the lower impact to the environment. In fact, one of the only impacts that concentrating solar power plants have on the environment is land use.

Renewable energy continues to grow and with continued support it will eventually become one of the main sources of electricity around the world. Concentrating solar power has proven to be a renewable energy source with still more untapped potential.

More on concentrating solar power:

Technorati Tags:: concentrating solar power, csp, environment, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Solar Power

Carbon Footprint Awareness Is Important

Carbon Footprint Awareness

There are still many people who have no concept of what a carbon footprint is or how it is produced. The impact we all have on global warming is reflected not only in our personal production of greenhouse gases but in the products we use. This isn’t surprising, it’s just a fact of life that there are many distractions that take place and we take for granted the imprint we are leaving on the world, just by living.

I’ll give you a simple personal example of how my family takes energy use for granted. In our house we have multiple digital clocks and they all run 24 hours a day, one in each room – the microwave, the conventional oven, the CD player, the stereo and in each bedroom all has a clock and each one is sucking up passive energy we could be saving, and we don’t give it a thought. It’s just one of the assumed “rights” of living in a modern affluent society, we may not use it but we don’t mind paying for it regardless. Some people might be a little bit shocked if they were to find out exactly how much carbon emissions they are producing per year, not to mention an indication of the cost and how simple it might be to save a few bucks and the environment at the same time.

You Can’t Change What You Don’t Know

The previous heading sums up a whole range of human instincts and precisely describes one of the roadblocks in front of those trying to educate people on the importance of reducing our carbon footprint. It only takes a gentle reminder that there are consequences for the actions taken on a daily basis that people begin to realise that there is a need to change.

It’s only when you find out that the yearly average carbon dioxide production for running a car stands at two and a half tonnes that it hits home that there may be a problem. It also allows you to then set a goal to lower your number for the next year. Suddenly you have a goal – a quantifiable goal – that you can set for yourself and aim for with real purpose. There will be no way of definitively knowing the damage you are doing with your carbon footprint without some means of calculation. Trying to produce less in the future would be next to impossible to gauge.

The fact that we each stand to get a direct benefit in terms of cost to reducing our carbon footprint should have people more than a little interested.The cost benefit in question is an actual dollar saving! The word will continue to leak out while, hopefully, carbon dioxide doesn’t.

Technorati Tags:: carbon dioxide, carbon emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Footprint Awareness, environment, Global Warming

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