Transport, my ministerial brief, must play a major role in a low-carbon future. And I am determined we'll get there
Andrew Adonis
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 July 2009 09.30 BST
There are issues that shape every generation and define every age. Climate change is just such an issue and our political generation has got to deal with it.
The scientific consensus tells us that by 2050 we must reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 50%. But, as a developed country, we have a responsibility to go even further. So we passed the landmark Climate Change Act and set ourselves a binding target to reduce the UK's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050.
With transport accounting for 21% of total UK domestic emissions, de-carbonising this sector has to be front and centre of efforts to meet our obligations and commitments. Which is precisely why we are launching our new strategy today: "Low carbon transport: a greener future".
This is a key component of the government's wider plans to cut carbon. It sets out our long-term vision for a fundamentally different transport system in our country, contributing substantially to the CO2 savings needed to meet the economy-wide carbon budgets. Our vision is underpinned by the concept of choice – making low-carbon travel a genuine and viable option for people and businesses, within and between different modes of transport. And it's inspired, in Anthony Giddens's words, by "a mixture of the idealistic and the hard-headed".
Real progress is already being made. The New Car CO2 Regulation, which we agreed with our European partners last December, is expected to save 7m tonnes of CO2 in the UK in 2020. We also have a huge opportunity to create a flourishing market for ultra-low emission vehicles in the UK. We have moved firmly into this space, to get new, greener technology on our roads. We have established a £250m fund for consumer incentives and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, to encourage take-up and support the technology as it comes to market. We have also launched a £30m scheme to encourage uptake of low-emission buses, which will stimulate the market as well as helping to safeguard jobs in bus manufacturing.
Last month, we announced the results of two technology competitions. The first, a £25m programme run by the Technology Strategy Board, will see more than 340 ultra-low emission cars tested out in cities around the UK. In the second, public-sector fleets will trial up to 150 low-emission and all-electric vans.
But technology isn't the whole answer. We also need to think about how and when we travel. There is an important role for the regions and local authorities here. We are giving large urban areas across England the chance to bid to become the country's first sustainable travel city. This will be used to encourage greener and more active travel modes – walking and cycling, as well as improving public transport.
There is an exciting agenda on the railways with transformational projects like the Crossrail scheme, which will bring an additional 1.5 million people within 60-minutes' commuting distance of London's key business districts. We have completed the country's first high-speed rail line, High Speed One, and we are preparing the way for a north-south high-speed line with the establishment of the High Speed Two Company. We have been examining in detail the case for more rail electrification and plan to make announcements soon.
Another important point – close to my heart – is improving the integration of services. That is why I have pledged £5m to improve radically cycle facilities at our railway stations.
In aviation, we have set ourselves a tough national target to bring CO2 emissions from UK aviation below 2005 levels by 2050. We will achieve this first by the use of market-based measures, including an effective emissions trading scheme. And Ed Miliband and I will be pressing for international aviation, as well as international shipping, to be included in any new global deal agreed at the Copenhagen climate change conference in December.
The goals we have set ourselves are certainly ambitious. But, thanks to a track record of progress and achievement, we have before us a real opportunity to build a greener, cleaner future for our transport system, our country and the environment we all share. It is an opportunity I am determined to seize.
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Fuel bills could rise by £250 per annum to pay for switch to renewables
Energy bills could rise by as much as £250 in the next decade, the Government admitted, under plans to tackle climate change.
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent Published: 7:33PM BST 15 Jul 2009
Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, set out a raft of measures to cut greenhouse gases by more than a third by 2020.
Most of the cuts will have to come from the energy industry as it switches from fossil fuels like coal and gas to renewables like wind and solar.
This will mean a £100 billion investment in building the new infrastructure and most of the cost is likely to be passed onto the consumer by energy companies.
The Renewable Energy Strategy released on Wednesday set out how the Government will boost the amount of power coming from renewables from 2 per cent to 15 per cent by 2020.
The document estimated that it could cost households as much as £250 per year, while energy experts estimated bills could rise by up to £500 every year.
Mr Miliband insisted there will be no cost before 2015. Even when bills do begin to rise he said the annual cost would be closer to £77 because households will be using much less energy as a result of new efficiency measures.
But the Tories acccused ministers of "hiding the truth", while energy campaigners voiced concern for vulnerable households.
Launching the new strategy, Mr Miliband said the cost of switching to renewables would be compensated for by households taking up voluntary energy saving measures.
For example 7 million households are expected to take advantage of "green loans" in order to improve insulation and heating.
Home appliances like televisions are becoming more efficient, most people will be using energy saving lightbulbs and energy companies are obliged to help households fit insulation and double glazing.
Some 1.5 million homes will be given loans to set up their own tiny renewable energy schemes like putting solar panels or wind turbines on the roof in order to generate their own electricity.
Mr Miliband said failing to switch to renewables would ultimately cost more as the cost of fossil fuels increases. He also said there will be a cost to the countryside through climate change and less energy security.
"There are costs as a result of the Renewable Energy Strategy but there are also gains," he added.
Greg Clark, the Tory energy spokesman, said: "They [the Government] say we need to be candid about the facts but this is not being candid.
"This is hiding the truth. I think it is very likely that households will end up paying more than £77 and it is because the Government has failed over a 10-year period to take any steps to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and increase energy efficiency. We are now in a hole and we are having to pay dearly to get out of it."
Ian Parrett, an energy analyst at Inenco, said: "The six per cent increase in energy bills, that the Government predicted for 2020, is based on the balance between increased energy prices and expected improvements in efficiency.
"We know that to support the scale of investment required in low carbon energy, companies will have to increase prices. The issue here though, is that those homes and businesses that have already taken efficiency measures will see greater increases in their bills without benefiting from additional support to reduce consumption.
"There are already fears that this increase could be as much as 50 per cent."
Garry Felgate, chief executive of the Energy Retail Association, also called on the Government to be honest.
"Increased investment in clean energy and domestic energy efficiency will have cost implications for all customers," he said. "We encourage the Government to be candid about the increase in costs to customers. While some people are struggling to pay their bills, we must be mindful of the increased costs these customers will face, over and above the cost of the energy they use."
Jonathan Stearn, energy expert for Consumer Focus, said the poorest households must be better protected to prevent hundreds of thousands more being pushed into fuel poverty.
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent Published: 7:33PM BST 15 Jul 2009
Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, set out a raft of measures to cut greenhouse gases by more than a third by 2020.
Most of the cuts will have to come from the energy industry as it switches from fossil fuels like coal and gas to renewables like wind and solar.
This will mean a £100 billion investment in building the new infrastructure and most of the cost is likely to be passed onto the consumer by energy companies.
The Renewable Energy Strategy released on Wednesday set out how the Government will boost the amount of power coming from renewables from 2 per cent to 15 per cent by 2020.
The document estimated that it could cost households as much as £250 per year, while energy experts estimated bills could rise by up to £500 every year.
Mr Miliband insisted there will be no cost before 2015. Even when bills do begin to rise he said the annual cost would be closer to £77 because households will be using much less energy as a result of new efficiency measures.
But the Tories acccused ministers of "hiding the truth", while energy campaigners voiced concern for vulnerable households.
Launching the new strategy, Mr Miliband said the cost of switching to renewables would be compensated for by households taking up voluntary energy saving measures.
For example 7 million households are expected to take advantage of "green loans" in order to improve insulation and heating.
Home appliances like televisions are becoming more efficient, most people will be using energy saving lightbulbs and energy companies are obliged to help households fit insulation and double glazing.
Some 1.5 million homes will be given loans to set up their own tiny renewable energy schemes like putting solar panels or wind turbines on the roof in order to generate their own electricity.
Mr Miliband said failing to switch to renewables would ultimately cost more as the cost of fossil fuels increases. He also said there will be a cost to the countryside through climate change and less energy security.
"There are costs as a result of the Renewable Energy Strategy but there are also gains," he added.
Greg Clark, the Tory energy spokesman, said: "They [the Government] say we need to be candid about the facts but this is not being candid.
"This is hiding the truth. I think it is very likely that households will end up paying more than £77 and it is because the Government has failed over a 10-year period to take any steps to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and increase energy efficiency. We are now in a hole and we are having to pay dearly to get out of it."
Ian Parrett, an energy analyst at Inenco, said: "The six per cent increase in energy bills, that the Government predicted for 2020, is based on the balance between increased energy prices and expected improvements in efficiency.
"We know that to support the scale of investment required in low carbon energy, companies will have to increase prices. The issue here though, is that those homes and businesses that have already taken efficiency measures will see greater increases in their bills without benefiting from additional support to reduce consumption.
"There are already fears that this increase could be as much as 50 per cent."
Garry Felgate, chief executive of the Energy Retail Association, also called on the Government to be honest.
"Increased investment in clean energy and domestic energy efficiency will have cost implications for all customers," he said. "We encourage the Government to be candid about the increase in costs to customers. While some people are struggling to pay their bills, we must be mindful of the increased costs these customers will face, over and above the cost of the energy they use."
Jonathan Stearn, energy expert for Consumer Focus, said the poorest households must be better protected to prevent hundreds of thousands more being pushed into fuel poverty.
Miliband's manifesto to make Britain a low-carbon economy
The national strategy to cut emissions published yesterday comes at a price. But are we willing to pay it?
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Thousands more wind turbines, millions of "smart" electricity meters for homes and new cars emitting 40 per cent less pollution than they do now all are on the way in the next decade under ambitious plans to slash CO2 emissions from every sector of the economy.
They form part of the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, a national government strategy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the fight against climate change, which was launched by the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband, yesterday.
Although the detail may sound familiar – many of these projects are already on the drawing board – it is the bringing them together into an all-inclusive society-wide plan which is new, as the Government faces up to its legally-binding target of cutting UK carbon emissions to 34 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.
Under last year's Climate Change Act, ministers have bound themselves to hit the target with a system of rolling five-year "carbon budgets", and the strategy shows in detail for the first time how they intend to do this.
Its central component is a seven-fold increase – in just a decade – in the amount of Britain's energy for power generation, transport and home heating supplied from renewable sources such as wind, wave and solar power (from just over 2 per cent to 15 per cent).
This leap will mean that by 2020 about 30 per cent of electricity alone will come from renewables (up from 5.5 per cent today) and this huge expansion will derive principally from much more wind power. Although no precise figure was given yesterday, this will involve, Mr Miliband said, "thousands" of new wind turbines, both onshore and offshore (one current estimate is about 7,000).
By the 2020 date another 10 per cent of electricity will come from non-renewable low-carbon energy sources, principally the new nuclear power stations whose construction the Government is backing, and the infant technology of carbon capture and storage (CCS), which takes the CO2 emissions from power stations and buries them underground. Demonstration power plants fitted with CCS should be coming onstream by 2020.
The Government accepts that low-carbon energy will be more expensive for consumers and yesterday gave two sets of estimated increases on power bills. Just paying for the new system might add £77 to electricity and £172 to gas bills each year but when all climate change measures are taken into account – such as home insulation which will save consumers money – the total addition is likely to be between £75 and £92 by 2020, the Government said. On the other hand, the White Paper foresees a substantial increase in employment from the changes, with as many as 400,000 new green jobs being created.
The Low Carbon Transition Plan: Major cuts in five sectors of society
Energy Generation (responsible for 35 per cent of UK emissions)
The plan envisages 40 per cent of UK electricity coming from low-carbon sources by 2020 – 30 per cent from renewable energy sources and 10 per cent from nuclear and clean coal. Later this year there will be a national Policy Statement on Nuclear Power which will assess potential sites for new atomic power stations. The Government has already said that any new coal-fired power stations will have to be fitted with Carbon Capture and Storage technology. Later this year plans will be published for a "smart" version of the National Grid which will be more flexible.
Workplaces: Industry and Business (20 per cent of emissions)
High-carbon industries will be included in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme which will save around 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2020. There will be financial incentives to save energy and invest in low-carbon technologies. The Government will seek to boost green industries with £405m for new technologies, up to £120m of investment in offshore wind, and £60m for marine energy and to help develop the South-west as the UK's first Low Carbon Economic Area.
Homes and Communities (13 per cent of emissions)
Emissions will be cut from homes by 29 per cent on 2020 levels by much greater energy efficiency achieved through the wider use of insulation. Smart meters, which enable people to understand exactly how much energy they are using in real time, and maximise their energy saving opportunities, will be rolled out to every home – 26 million – by 2020. The obligation on energy suppliers to help households save energy will be extended. From 2016 all new homes will have to be zero-carbon and rental properties may have to have Energy Performance Certificates.
Farming, Land Use and Waste (11 per cent of emissions)
Farmers will be encouraged to cut emissions by 6 per cent by 2020 through more efficient use of fertiliser and better management of livestock and manure. Although the UK now recycles or composts a third of its waste, more must be done. There will be support for anaerobic digestion (a technology which turns waste and manure into renewable energy) and there will be a push to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills, and also for better capture of landfill emissions.
Transport (20 per cent of emissions)
By 2020 transport emissions will be cut by 14 per cent on 2008 levels, and the first step will be to improve the fuel efficiency of conventional vehicles : C02 emissions from new cars will have to fall by 40 per on current levels across the EU by 2015, to 95 grams per kilometre. British government vehicles will comply with this by 2011. £30m will be invested to deliver several hundred low-carbon buses and there will be more support for new technology for low-carbon cars. £140m is being invested to promote cycling and £5m is being spent on new cycle storage at rail stations.
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Thousands more wind turbines, millions of "smart" electricity meters for homes and new cars emitting 40 per cent less pollution than they do now all are on the way in the next decade under ambitious plans to slash CO2 emissions from every sector of the economy.
They form part of the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, a national government strategy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the fight against climate change, which was launched by the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband, yesterday.
Although the detail may sound familiar – many of these projects are already on the drawing board – it is the bringing them together into an all-inclusive society-wide plan which is new, as the Government faces up to its legally-binding target of cutting UK carbon emissions to 34 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.
Under last year's Climate Change Act, ministers have bound themselves to hit the target with a system of rolling five-year "carbon budgets", and the strategy shows in detail for the first time how they intend to do this.
Its central component is a seven-fold increase – in just a decade – in the amount of Britain's energy for power generation, transport and home heating supplied from renewable sources such as wind, wave and solar power (from just over 2 per cent to 15 per cent).
This leap will mean that by 2020 about 30 per cent of electricity alone will come from renewables (up from 5.5 per cent today) and this huge expansion will derive principally from much more wind power. Although no precise figure was given yesterday, this will involve, Mr Miliband said, "thousands" of new wind turbines, both onshore and offshore (one current estimate is about 7,000).
By the 2020 date another 10 per cent of electricity will come from non-renewable low-carbon energy sources, principally the new nuclear power stations whose construction the Government is backing, and the infant technology of carbon capture and storage (CCS), which takes the CO2 emissions from power stations and buries them underground. Demonstration power plants fitted with CCS should be coming onstream by 2020.
The Government accepts that low-carbon energy will be more expensive for consumers and yesterday gave two sets of estimated increases on power bills. Just paying for the new system might add £77 to electricity and £172 to gas bills each year but when all climate change measures are taken into account – such as home insulation which will save consumers money – the total addition is likely to be between £75 and £92 by 2020, the Government said. On the other hand, the White Paper foresees a substantial increase in employment from the changes, with as many as 400,000 new green jobs being created.
The Low Carbon Transition Plan: Major cuts in five sectors of society
Energy Generation (responsible for 35 per cent of UK emissions)
The plan envisages 40 per cent of UK electricity coming from low-carbon sources by 2020 – 30 per cent from renewable energy sources and 10 per cent from nuclear and clean coal. Later this year there will be a national Policy Statement on Nuclear Power which will assess potential sites for new atomic power stations. The Government has already said that any new coal-fired power stations will have to be fitted with Carbon Capture and Storage technology. Later this year plans will be published for a "smart" version of the National Grid which will be more flexible.
Workplaces: Industry and Business (20 per cent of emissions)
High-carbon industries will be included in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme which will save around 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2020. There will be financial incentives to save energy and invest in low-carbon technologies. The Government will seek to boost green industries with £405m for new technologies, up to £120m of investment in offshore wind, and £60m for marine energy and to help develop the South-west as the UK's first Low Carbon Economic Area.
Homes and Communities (13 per cent of emissions)
Emissions will be cut from homes by 29 per cent on 2020 levels by much greater energy efficiency achieved through the wider use of insulation. Smart meters, which enable people to understand exactly how much energy they are using in real time, and maximise their energy saving opportunities, will be rolled out to every home – 26 million – by 2020. The obligation on energy suppliers to help households save energy will be extended. From 2016 all new homes will have to be zero-carbon and rental properties may have to have Energy Performance Certificates.
Farming, Land Use and Waste (11 per cent of emissions)
Farmers will be encouraged to cut emissions by 6 per cent by 2020 through more efficient use of fertiliser and better management of livestock and manure. Although the UK now recycles or composts a third of its waste, more must be done. There will be support for anaerobic digestion (a technology which turns waste and manure into renewable energy) and there will be a push to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills, and also for better capture of landfill emissions.
Transport (20 per cent of emissions)
By 2020 transport emissions will be cut by 14 per cent on 2008 levels, and the first step will be to improve the fuel efficiency of conventional vehicles : C02 emissions from new cars will have to fall by 40 per on current levels across the EU by 2015, to 95 grams per kilometre. British government vehicles will comply with this by 2011. £30m will be invested to deliver several hundred low-carbon buses and there will be more support for new technology for low-carbon cars. £140m is being invested to promote cycling and £5m is being spent on new cycle storage at rail stations.
Saving tomorrow's world: How the planet's environmental problems could be solved by technological innovation
By Steve McCormack
Thursday, 16 July 2009
This year's Bosch Technology Horizons Award, in association with The Independent and the Royal Academy of Engineering, gave young people in two age groups the chance to answer the question, "How can technology and engineering provide innovative solutions to today's global challenges?"
A total of 545 entries were received, with writers grappling with issues such as renewable energy, the global water shortage, and medical solutions to new diseases. Their essays also addressed the philosophical and public relations side of the engineer's role. As one of the judges, I was impressed by the combination of scientific understanding and writing flair exhibited by all 14 essays that made the shortlist in both age groups. In the 14-18 age group, Leon Zhang from Urmston Grammar School in Manchester took the first prize of £700, while in the 19-24 age group, Gavin Harper, in the second year of a PhD at Cardiff University, netted the top award of £1,000.
The Technology Horizons Award, now in its fourth year, encourages students to think creatively about the changes and challenges facing the world. The award also seeks to highlight the importance of technology and engineering to young people, and inspire more of them to choose these subjects for study at A level and university.
The winners attended a presentation ceremony at The Royal Academy of Engineering in London, hosted by former Tomorrow's World presenter Kate Bellingham, now President of Young Engineers, and featuring presentations from Andy Green, the RAF pilot who drove the Thrust supersonic car to a world record 763 mph in 1997, and Peter Fouquet, President of Bosch UK.
Winner, 14-18: Leon Zhang
Take this time to think, for just a moment. In the past second, one and a half acres of rainforest were cut down, destroying the homes of many species of wildlife. In the past minute, the energy used in the UK was equal to 313 million tons of oil, which we can never get back. In the past hour, 160 children died from lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Mother Earth is in deep trouble. And it is our duty to get her out.
The problems our Earth faces can affect us all. Melting polar ice caps, rising temperatures, the economic crisis – it seems we cannot escape them. The media has done its fair share emphasising the problem. Yet, there is a bright side. Our greatest strength as human beings is the ability to think. We can try to put a stop to these global dilemmas.
One prime example is finding solutions to water problems in developing countries such as Africa. In one of the hottest places on Earth, water is in scarce supply. Up to 250 million Africans could live in water-stressed areas by 2010, and more than 50 per cent of Africans suffer from water-related diseases such as cholera and infant diarrhoea. However, there are solutions. Engineering has already produced breakthroughs. By pressurising sea water to produce vapour jets and filtering them through carbon nanotubes, we can get clean drinking water from sea water – an almost inexhaustible resource. It may sound complex, but such engineering feats can save millions of lives, not just in Africa but all over the planet.
Japan has long been renowned for its mind-blowing technological advances that are often years ahead of the rest of the world. One of its most ambitious plans is to build a working space solar power system by 2030. By drawing on the colossal energy of the sun, it could meet the entire world's electricity requirements indefinitely without nuclear or GHG emissions. It sounds like a space-age dream, doesn't it? If successful, the impact on the world would be monumental. It would mean energy for schools, hospitals, and homes. It would mean another industrial revolution.
Every day, people everywhere are doing their bit, from recycling newspapers at home, to developing hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars in a lab. We are finally entering an era where engineering and technology are making the world a better place. Take the time to think, for just a moment. Now stop, and think towards the future.
The award winners
Aged 14-18
Winner: Leon Zhang, Urmston Grammar School, Manchester. Runner-up: Jonathan Morris, St Olave's Grammar School, Kent Highly Commended: Emily Cullis, Ounsdale Sixth Form College, Wolverhampton; Max Iles, Worcester Sixth Form College; Constance Mantle, Highgate School, London; Ben Richardson, Cults Academy, Aberdeen; Ethan Simpson, Hawick High School.
Aged 19-24
Winner: Gavin Harper, Cardiff University Runner Up: Alejandro Vicente-Grabovetsky, Cambridge University Highly Commended: Thomas Barker, Sheffield Hallam University; Mohammad bin Jalil Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College; Holly Ferrie, Brunel University; Su Sean Goh, LSE; Cole Soutter, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Winning Schools: (those submitting most entries)
St Olave's Grammar School, Kent; Westcliff High School for Girls, Essex.
Winner, 19-24: Gavin Harper
Bespoke pieces are always expensive. Whether it's a tailor-cut Savile Row suit, or a hand-made piece of furniture, there is a premium to be paid for exclusivity. That is why one-off's are never going to change the world. They're just too expensive. Make fewer than 100 of them, and the cost of R&D is prohibitive. Churn them out like bottletops, and the initial costs of development dwindle into insignificance.
While many would advocate a smattering of made-to-measure nuclear power stations, the real clean-tech solutions will borrow more from the high street than haute couture.
Once we take a design, engineer out the complexity, make it cheaply and stamp it out cookie-cutter style, the price of innovation falls. It makes engineering business sense, and the concept can just as easily be understood by the hordes of shoppers flocking to Primarni, who know that if you take leading edge design, simplify it and make a lot, you get a product that performs, at an acceptable price.
GE announced in November 2008 that it had shipped its 10,000th 1.5MW wind turbine – impressive, for a company that has only been in the market for just over half a decade: it shows that once mass production intervenes, it's possible to increase capacity quickly. Unlike Ford... these turbines are "only available in white".
Another company, SolFocus is fast becoming the IKEA of the Solar Industry. It knows that if you have an expensive material, whether silicon for a solar panel, or top-notch wood for a table, there are parts of the product where you can use a cheaper material, and where using the more expensive material is needless over-specification. So where IKEA uses quality wood as the facing veneer for its furniture, but makes the structure from cheaper recycled manufactured woods, so SolFocus is using a cheap mirror to concentrate the solar energy onto a small piece of high-quality silicon. It is using less of an expensive material to achieve a similar effect.
They are not the only people with this idea – Cool Earth Solar takes it further. While you can produce a precision-reflecting surface that will give high performance, how much cost can you engineer out of a parabolic reflector? Rather than trying to extract the most sunlight from a given area, why not turn the idea on its head and extract the most sunlight for a given amount of money?
The company feels anything but deflated about its idea to make parabolic reflectors out of metallised mylar – an exceptionally cheap material, but one that does not hold its form very well due to its flimsy nature... unless you make it into a balloon. Premium helium party balloons are made from two circular sheets of plastic fused together, so imagine a parabolic reflector formed from a clear sheet, and a shiny sheet. It's a lightweight solution, to a heavyweight problem. Best of all, the lack of weight means the mounting hardware can be commensurately lean.
Concentrating solar plants apply the same approach on a larger scale. eSolar is a company with bold ambitions – to churn out electricity from the sun at a price lower than you can make it from coal, with its associated carbon penalty. The concept is similar – rather than coating large areas of land with expensive silicon, make arrays of cheap mirror that can focus the energy on a single point. The US threw £266m into developing Solar One, a concentrating plant with a capacity of 64MW (since upgraded to Solar Two), but take this concept, and rather than making a one-off, break it down into modules that can be mass produced out of standard components, and you've got a recipe for cheap, clean power.
The challenge for engineers isn't generating complexity – throw sufficient money at a problem, and it's always possible to generate a sophisticated technical solution – but reducing the cost to a point where the technologies become ubiquitous.
An apocryphal tale, long proven to be fictitious, carries an important fable for clean-tech. The story goes that the Americans invested a small fortune in inventing a pressurised pen (that claim should rightfully be attributed to Dr Paul C Fisher) which could write in zero-G, while the Russians used a pencil.
Cheap and a lot is the answer.
Thursday, 16 July 2009
This year's Bosch Technology Horizons Award, in association with The Independent and the Royal Academy of Engineering, gave young people in two age groups the chance to answer the question, "How can technology and engineering provide innovative solutions to today's global challenges?"
A total of 545 entries were received, with writers grappling with issues such as renewable energy, the global water shortage, and medical solutions to new diseases. Their essays also addressed the philosophical and public relations side of the engineer's role. As one of the judges, I was impressed by the combination of scientific understanding and writing flair exhibited by all 14 essays that made the shortlist in both age groups. In the 14-18 age group, Leon Zhang from Urmston Grammar School in Manchester took the first prize of £700, while in the 19-24 age group, Gavin Harper, in the second year of a PhD at Cardiff University, netted the top award of £1,000.
The Technology Horizons Award, now in its fourth year, encourages students to think creatively about the changes and challenges facing the world. The award also seeks to highlight the importance of technology and engineering to young people, and inspire more of them to choose these subjects for study at A level and university.
The winners attended a presentation ceremony at The Royal Academy of Engineering in London, hosted by former Tomorrow's World presenter Kate Bellingham, now President of Young Engineers, and featuring presentations from Andy Green, the RAF pilot who drove the Thrust supersonic car to a world record 763 mph in 1997, and Peter Fouquet, President of Bosch UK.
Winner, 14-18: Leon Zhang
Take this time to think, for just a moment. In the past second, one and a half acres of rainforest were cut down, destroying the homes of many species of wildlife. In the past minute, the energy used in the UK was equal to 313 million tons of oil, which we can never get back. In the past hour, 160 children died from lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Mother Earth is in deep trouble. And it is our duty to get her out.
The problems our Earth faces can affect us all. Melting polar ice caps, rising temperatures, the economic crisis – it seems we cannot escape them. The media has done its fair share emphasising the problem. Yet, there is a bright side. Our greatest strength as human beings is the ability to think. We can try to put a stop to these global dilemmas.
One prime example is finding solutions to water problems in developing countries such as Africa. In one of the hottest places on Earth, water is in scarce supply. Up to 250 million Africans could live in water-stressed areas by 2010, and more than 50 per cent of Africans suffer from water-related diseases such as cholera and infant diarrhoea. However, there are solutions. Engineering has already produced breakthroughs. By pressurising sea water to produce vapour jets and filtering them through carbon nanotubes, we can get clean drinking water from sea water – an almost inexhaustible resource. It may sound complex, but such engineering feats can save millions of lives, not just in Africa but all over the planet.
Japan has long been renowned for its mind-blowing technological advances that are often years ahead of the rest of the world. One of its most ambitious plans is to build a working space solar power system by 2030. By drawing on the colossal energy of the sun, it could meet the entire world's electricity requirements indefinitely without nuclear or GHG emissions. It sounds like a space-age dream, doesn't it? If successful, the impact on the world would be monumental. It would mean energy for schools, hospitals, and homes. It would mean another industrial revolution.
Every day, people everywhere are doing their bit, from recycling newspapers at home, to developing hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars in a lab. We are finally entering an era where engineering and technology are making the world a better place. Take the time to think, for just a moment. Now stop, and think towards the future.
The award winners
Aged 14-18
Winner: Leon Zhang, Urmston Grammar School, Manchester. Runner-up: Jonathan Morris, St Olave's Grammar School, Kent Highly Commended: Emily Cullis, Ounsdale Sixth Form College, Wolverhampton; Max Iles, Worcester Sixth Form College; Constance Mantle, Highgate School, London; Ben Richardson, Cults Academy, Aberdeen; Ethan Simpson, Hawick High School.
Aged 19-24
Winner: Gavin Harper, Cardiff University Runner Up: Alejandro Vicente-Grabovetsky, Cambridge University Highly Commended: Thomas Barker, Sheffield Hallam University; Mohammad bin Jalil Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College; Holly Ferrie, Brunel University; Su Sean Goh, LSE; Cole Soutter, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Winning Schools: (those submitting most entries)
St Olave's Grammar School, Kent; Westcliff High School for Girls, Essex.
Winner, 19-24: Gavin Harper
Bespoke pieces are always expensive. Whether it's a tailor-cut Savile Row suit, or a hand-made piece of furniture, there is a premium to be paid for exclusivity. That is why one-off's are never going to change the world. They're just too expensive. Make fewer than 100 of them, and the cost of R&D is prohibitive. Churn them out like bottletops, and the initial costs of development dwindle into insignificance.
While many would advocate a smattering of made-to-measure nuclear power stations, the real clean-tech solutions will borrow more from the high street than haute couture.
Once we take a design, engineer out the complexity, make it cheaply and stamp it out cookie-cutter style, the price of innovation falls. It makes engineering business sense, and the concept can just as easily be understood by the hordes of shoppers flocking to Primarni, who know that if you take leading edge design, simplify it and make a lot, you get a product that performs, at an acceptable price.
GE announced in November 2008 that it had shipped its 10,000th 1.5MW wind turbine – impressive, for a company that has only been in the market for just over half a decade: it shows that once mass production intervenes, it's possible to increase capacity quickly. Unlike Ford... these turbines are "only available in white".
Another company, SolFocus is fast becoming the IKEA of the Solar Industry. It knows that if you have an expensive material, whether silicon for a solar panel, or top-notch wood for a table, there are parts of the product where you can use a cheaper material, and where using the more expensive material is needless over-specification. So where IKEA uses quality wood as the facing veneer for its furniture, but makes the structure from cheaper recycled manufactured woods, so SolFocus is using a cheap mirror to concentrate the solar energy onto a small piece of high-quality silicon. It is using less of an expensive material to achieve a similar effect.
They are not the only people with this idea – Cool Earth Solar takes it further. While you can produce a precision-reflecting surface that will give high performance, how much cost can you engineer out of a parabolic reflector? Rather than trying to extract the most sunlight from a given area, why not turn the idea on its head and extract the most sunlight for a given amount of money?
The company feels anything but deflated about its idea to make parabolic reflectors out of metallised mylar – an exceptionally cheap material, but one that does not hold its form very well due to its flimsy nature... unless you make it into a balloon. Premium helium party balloons are made from two circular sheets of plastic fused together, so imagine a parabolic reflector formed from a clear sheet, and a shiny sheet. It's a lightweight solution, to a heavyweight problem. Best of all, the lack of weight means the mounting hardware can be commensurately lean.
Concentrating solar plants apply the same approach on a larger scale. eSolar is a company with bold ambitions – to churn out electricity from the sun at a price lower than you can make it from coal, with its associated carbon penalty. The concept is similar – rather than coating large areas of land with expensive silicon, make arrays of cheap mirror that can focus the energy on a single point. The US threw £266m into developing Solar One, a concentrating plant with a capacity of 64MW (since upgraded to Solar Two), but take this concept, and rather than making a one-off, break it down into modules that can be mass produced out of standard components, and you've got a recipe for cheap, clean power.
The challenge for engineers isn't generating complexity – throw sufficient money at a problem, and it's always possible to generate a sophisticated technical solution – but reducing the cost to a point where the technologies become ubiquitous.
An apocryphal tale, long proven to be fictitious, carries an important fable for clean-tech. The story goes that the Americans invested a small fortune in inventing a pressurised pen (that claim should rightfully be attributed to Dr Paul C Fisher) which could write in zero-G, while the Russians used a pencil.
Cheap and a lot is the answer.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
In Strategy Shift, Exxon Plans $600 Million Biofuels Venture
By RUSSELL GOLD
After years of snubbing alternative fuels as a bad investment, global energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp. said Tuesday it will sink $600 million into researching how to turn algae into a biofuel that would also help fight global warming.
Exxon's partner in the biofuels effort will be groundbreaking genomics scientist J. Craig Venter and his company Synthetic Genomics Inc. The companies will attempt to develop algae strains that excel at both sucking up greenhouse gases and secreting oil that can be fed into refineries alongside conventional crude oil.
Shares in the world's biggest oil and gas companies head higher, boosted by the August crude-futures contract's move back above $60 a barrel. Jim Jelter reports.
More
Environmental Capital: Biofuels Bonanza
If the companies are successful in developing cost-competitive barrels of algae-based oil on a large scale, the Texas energy company said it could invest billions of additional dollars to build production facilities in the future.
Exxon's embrace of biofuels represents a strategic turnaround for one of the world's biggest refiners of transportation fuel. Exxon grew into the world's largest publicly traded company by extracting fossil fuels from the earth and converting them into gasoline, diesel and chemicals. But as global supplies of oil become harder to find and growing concerns about greenhouse-gas emissions inspire new attempts at government regulation, the concept of domestically produced oil derived from algae has become an alluring enough prospect to catch Exxon's interest.
Mr. Venter, a well-known biologist who led an effort to map the human genome, said the leap into algae-based fuels wasn't going to be easy: "The challenges are not minor for any of us, but I think we have the combined teams, scientific and engineering talents, to give this the best chance of success."
The two companies said they would like to use genetic engineering to develop algae strains that consume significant amounts of carbon dioxide, a gas produced by fossil-fuel use that is contributing to climate change.
Exxon's head of research, Emil Jacobs, said it was possible the algae farms would be located near power plants and other industrial complexes to use the carbon dioxide generated in those places as feedstocks for the algae.
Algae farms could produce two streams of income for the venture: one from selling barrels of algae oil to refineries and the other from capturing and reusing carbon dioxide. "It is reasonable to say you have to look at all commercial elements," said Exxon spokesman Rob Young.
Greg Singleton, a senior analyst with Point Carbon, an energy and environment market-analysis firm, cited industry findings that 40% of carbon-dioxide emissions from a coal-fired power plant could be reused, but it would require an enormous 13.1-square-mile algae farm. "On paper it looks attractive," he said, but cautioned, "I haven't seen it done on a large scale."
The U.S. Senate is set to soon take up the Waxman-Markey energy bill, which would cap greenhouse-gas emissions and allow companies to sell credits for any emissions savings they produce. Though it isn't clear how the proposed law would treat a carbon-munching algae farm, said Mr. Singleton, "In a carbon-constrained environment, it is something that could be very profitable for Exxon in the long run."
Executives stressed that the partnership will be focused on research, and it could take up to a decade to produce commercial quantities of fuel from algae.
Exxon's investment follows years of criticism from environmentalists and some shareholders for the company's reluctance to invest significantly in
After years of snubbing alternative fuels as a bad investment, global energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp. said Tuesday it will sink $600 million into researching how to turn algae into a biofuel that would also help fight global warming.
Exxon's partner in the biofuels effort will be groundbreaking genomics scientist J. Craig Venter and his company Synthetic Genomics Inc. The companies will attempt to develop algae strains that excel at both sucking up greenhouse gases and secreting oil that can be fed into refineries alongside conventional crude oil.
Shares in the world's biggest oil and gas companies head higher, boosted by the August crude-futures contract's move back above $60 a barrel. Jim Jelter reports.
More
Environmental Capital: Biofuels Bonanza
If the companies are successful in developing cost-competitive barrels of algae-based oil on a large scale, the Texas energy company said it could invest billions of additional dollars to build production facilities in the future.
Exxon's embrace of biofuels represents a strategic turnaround for one of the world's biggest refiners of transportation fuel. Exxon grew into the world's largest publicly traded company by extracting fossil fuels from the earth and converting them into gasoline, diesel and chemicals. But as global supplies of oil become harder to find and growing concerns about greenhouse-gas emissions inspire new attempts at government regulation, the concept of domestically produced oil derived from algae has become an alluring enough prospect to catch Exxon's interest.
Mr. Venter, a well-known biologist who led an effort to map the human genome, said the leap into algae-based fuels wasn't going to be easy: "The challenges are not minor for any of us, but I think we have the combined teams, scientific and engineering talents, to give this the best chance of success."
The two companies said they would like to use genetic engineering to develop algae strains that consume significant amounts of carbon dioxide, a gas produced by fossil-fuel use that is contributing to climate change.
Exxon's head of research, Emil Jacobs, said it was possible the algae farms would be located near power plants and other industrial complexes to use the carbon dioxide generated in those places as feedstocks for the algae.
Algae farms could produce two streams of income for the venture: one from selling barrels of algae oil to refineries and the other from capturing and reusing carbon dioxide. "It is reasonable to say you have to look at all commercial elements," said Exxon spokesman Rob Young.
Greg Singleton, a senior analyst with Point Carbon, an energy and environment market-analysis firm, cited industry findings that 40% of carbon-dioxide emissions from a coal-fired power plant could be reused, but it would require an enormous 13.1-square-mile algae farm. "On paper it looks attractive," he said, but cautioned, "I haven't seen it done on a large scale."
The U.S. Senate is set to soon take up the Waxman-Markey energy bill, which would cap greenhouse-gas emissions and allow companies to sell credits for any emissions savings they produce. Though it isn't clear how the proposed law would treat a carbon-munching algae farm, said Mr. Singleton, "In a carbon-constrained environment, it is something that could be very profitable for Exxon in the long run."
Executives stressed that the partnership will be focused on research, and it could take up to a decade to produce commercial quantities of fuel from algae.
Exxon's investment follows years of criticism from environmentalists and some shareholders for the company's reluctance to invest significantly in
Gene scientist to create algae biofuel with Exxon Mobil
• New biofuel requires no car or plane engine modification• Carbon Trust says production will take 'many years'
Alok Jha
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 July 2009 17.44 BST
Gene scientist Craig Venter has announced plans to develop next-generation biofuels from algae in a $600m (£370m) partnership with oil giant Exxon Mobil.
His company, Synthetic Genomics Incorporated (SGI), will develop fuels that can be used by cars or aeroplanes without the need for any modification of their engines. Exxon Mobil will provide $600m over five years with half going to SGI.
"Meeting the world's growing energy demands will require a multitude of technologies and energy sources," said Emil Jacobs, vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil. "We believe that biofuel produced by algae could be a meaningful part of the solution in the future if our efforts result in an economically viable, low-net carbon emission transportation fuel."
Transport accounts for one-quarter of the UK's carbon emissions and is the fastest growing sector. Finding carbon-neutral fuels will be crucial to the government meeting its target to reduce overall emissions by 80% by 2050.
Algae are an attractive way to harvest solar energy because they reproduce themselves, they can live in areas not useful for producing food and they do not need clean or even fresh water. In addition, they use far less space to grow than traditional biofuel crops such as corn or palm oil.
"Algae consumes carbon dioxide and sunlight in the presence of water, to make a kind of oil that has similar molecular structures to petroleum products we produce today," said Jacobs. "That means it could be possible to convert it into gasoline and diesel in existing refineries, transport it through existing pipelines, and sell it to consumers from existing service stations."
The Carbon Trust, a government-backed agency that promotes low-carbon technologies, has forecast that algae-based biofuels could replace more than 70bn litres of fossil fuels used every year around the world in road transport and aviation by 2030, equivalent to 12% of annual global jet fuel consumption or 6% of road transport diesel. In carbon terms, this equates to an annual saving of more than 160m tonnes of CO2 globally with a market value of more than £15bn.
Ben Graziano, research and development manager at the Carbon Trust, said that alge-based biofuels offered the potential for "major carbon savings". "Exxon Mobil is estimating that algae could yield just over 20,000
litres of fuel per hectare each year, which is in line with our own forecasts. However, producing biofuel from algae on such a massive commercial scale is a major challenge, which will require many years of research and development."
Venter, who is best known for his role in sequencing the human genome, said the new partnership was the largest single investment in trying to produce biofuels from algae but said the challenge to creating a viable next-generation fuel was the ability to produce it in large volumes. "This would not happen without the oil industry stepping up and taking part," he said. "The challenges are not minor for any of us but we have the combined teams and scientific and engineering talents to give this the best chance of success."
The research programme will begin with the construction of a new test facility in San Diego, where Venter says different techniques to grow and optimise algae will be tested. These will include open ponds as well as bioreactors, where the algae are grown in sealed tubes. "We will be trying out these different approaches … using newly-discovered natural algae to test the best approaches we can come up with to go into a scale-up mode."
Venter has spent several years trawling the world's oceans in search of environmentally-friendly microbes that could be used, in one way or another, to bring down the world's carbon emissions. The organisms he has found include those that can turn CO2 into methane, which could be used to make fuels from the exhaust gases of power stations, and another that turns coal into natural gas, speeding up a natural process and reducing both the energy needed to extract the fossil fuel and the amount of pollution caused when it is burned.
Alok Jha
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 July 2009 17.44 BST
Gene scientist Craig Venter has announced plans to develop next-generation biofuels from algae in a $600m (£370m) partnership with oil giant Exxon Mobil.
His company, Synthetic Genomics Incorporated (SGI), will develop fuels that can be used by cars or aeroplanes without the need for any modification of their engines. Exxon Mobil will provide $600m over five years with half going to SGI.
"Meeting the world's growing energy demands will require a multitude of technologies and energy sources," said Emil Jacobs, vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil. "We believe that biofuel produced by algae could be a meaningful part of the solution in the future if our efforts result in an economically viable, low-net carbon emission transportation fuel."
Transport accounts for one-quarter of the UK's carbon emissions and is the fastest growing sector. Finding carbon-neutral fuels will be crucial to the government meeting its target to reduce overall emissions by 80% by 2050.
Algae are an attractive way to harvest solar energy because they reproduce themselves, they can live in areas not useful for producing food and they do not need clean or even fresh water. In addition, they use far less space to grow than traditional biofuel crops such as corn or palm oil.
"Algae consumes carbon dioxide and sunlight in the presence of water, to make a kind of oil that has similar molecular structures to petroleum products we produce today," said Jacobs. "That means it could be possible to convert it into gasoline and diesel in existing refineries, transport it through existing pipelines, and sell it to consumers from existing service stations."
The Carbon Trust, a government-backed agency that promotes low-carbon technologies, has forecast that algae-based biofuels could replace more than 70bn litres of fossil fuels used every year around the world in road transport and aviation by 2030, equivalent to 12% of annual global jet fuel consumption or 6% of road transport diesel. In carbon terms, this equates to an annual saving of more than 160m tonnes of CO2 globally with a market value of more than £15bn.
Ben Graziano, research and development manager at the Carbon Trust, said that alge-based biofuels offered the potential for "major carbon savings". "Exxon Mobil is estimating that algae could yield just over 20,000
litres of fuel per hectare each year, which is in line with our own forecasts. However, producing biofuel from algae on such a massive commercial scale is a major challenge, which will require many years of research and development."
Venter, who is best known for his role in sequencing the human genome, said the new partnership was the largest single investment in trying to produce biofuels from algae but said the challenge to creating a viable next-generation fuel was the ability to produce it in large volumes. "This would not happen without the oil industry stepping up and taking part," he said. "The challenges are not minor for any of us but we have the combined teams and scientific and engineering talents to give this the best chance of success."
The research programme will begin with the construction of a new test facility in San Diego, where Venter says different techniques to grow and optimise algae will be tested. These will include open ponds as well as bioreactors, where the algae are grown in sealed tubes. "We will be trying out these different approaches … using newly-discovered natural algae to test the best approaches we can come up with to go into a scale-up mode."
Venter has spent several years trawling the world's oceans in search of environmentally-friendly microbes that could be used, in one way or another, to bring down the world's carbon emissions. The organisms he has found include those that can turn CO2 into methane, which could be used to make fuels from the exhaust gases of power stations, and another that turns coal into natural gas, speeding up a natural process and reducing both the energy needed to extract the fossil fuel and the amount of pollution caused when it is burned.
Toyota considers building hybrid in UK
The car industry has received a boost after Toyota said it is considering building a hybrid model of its Auris car in the UK.
By Graham RuddickPublished: 7:33PM BST 14 Jul 2009
The Toyota Auris
The Japanese car maker has a car plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire, which employs roughly 4,000 people, and gaining production of the new model would go a long way to securing the site's long-term future.
Reports in Japanese newspaper Nikkan Jidosha Shinbun said the company would start making the Auris hybrid, a hatchback, in 2012.
A spokesman in the UK for Toyota said it was "investigating" options but could not confirm the location of manufacturing at this stage.
At present, Toyota manufactures the model in Japan and the US. However, at a press conference in June, the new Toyota president, Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, said the car maker would look to increase production of the hybrid in Europe. He said: "As stricter environmental regulations come into place, we are gradually shifting our focus to the hybrid segment. We are confident that this will create a stronger position for Toyota in Europe."
Toyota has established itself as the world's largest car maker following the turmoil suffered by General Motors because of the sharp downturn in global sales. The Japanese company produces the world's best-selling hybrid, the Prius. However, it has cut staff, pay, and implemented production shutdowns because of the financial crisis.
By Graham RuddickPublished: 7:33PM BST 14 Jul 2009
The Toyota Auris
The Japanese car maker has a car plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire, which employs roughly 4,000 people, and gaining production of the new model would go a long way to securing the site's long-term future.
Reports in Japanese newspaper Nikkan Jidosha Shinbun said the company would start making the Auris hybrid, a hatchback, in 2012.
A spokesman in the UK for Toyota said it was "investigating" options but could not confirm the location of manufacturing at this stage.
At present, Toyota manufactures the model in Japan and the US. However, at a press conference in June, the new Toyota president, Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, said the car maker would look to increase production of the hybrid in Europe. He said: "As stricter environmental regulations come into place, we are gradually shifting our focus to the hybrid segment. We are confident that this will create a stronger position for Toyota in Europe."
Toyota has established itself as the world's largest car maker following the turmoil suffered by General Motors because of the sharp downturn in global sales. The Japanese company produces the world's best-selling hybrid, the Prius. However, it has cut staff, pay, and implemented production shutdowns because of the financial crisis.
The dawn of carbon budgeting: now every tonne counts
The government's new climate change strategy should mean greater emphasis on emissions savings rather than trading and shared responsibility
Bryony Worthington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 July 2009 16.22 BST
The publication of the government's climate change strategy tomorrow should herald the beginning of a new era in the fight against climate change. While the public-facing, energy-saving policies may catch the headlines, what is going on behind the scenes is in reality more important.
In order to meet the requirement of the Climate Change Act, and the carbon budgets it created, the government has had to adopt a new approach to managing carbon. In this new regime every tonne counts and all government departments with an influence over policies affecting emissions will need to play their part in keeping reductions on track. The mechanics of how this will work are not yet clear but it is certain that climate change is now a shared responsibility across the entire government. Departments falling behind will need to take corrective action or face the consequences, which could mean finding money to pay for emissions reductions in other parts of the world. This should serve to focus the minds of ministers and permanent secretaries.
When Friends of the Earth wrote the first report advocating carbon budgets in 2005, which I co-authored, we were seeking to cause exactly this kind of change in the government's attitude to climate change policy. We wanted them to adopt a more holistic approach that took into account the effect of all policies, not just the limited climate-specific policies it had introduced, and also, importantly, the trends that were causing emissions to rise, where often there were no policies in place to counter them.
The principle behind carbon budgeting is simply that emissions must stay within a pre-determined limit or compensating actions, such as payment for emission reductions elsewhere, must be taken. This was meant to engender the feeling that every tonne counts, since allowing an emission to take place creates a liability against the budget, whereas, investing in emissions savings effectively creates an asset. This was intended to force the government to think long term and to break the deadlock that the Treasury then had on climate policy, by expressing the problem in a language they understood. In other areas of public life the principle of borrowing to invest in long-term projects was accepted but, when it came to climate, the mantra was keep it cheap, which led to an over-reliance on emissions trading to deliver the cheapest possible short-term solutions anywhere in the world.
With a clear framework dictating that emissions must, one way or another, go down, the smart minds in the Treasury can now apply themselves to working out how to uncover emissions savings in Britain for less than it would cost to keep buying them overseas. This shouldn't be difficult as we've really only just got started and there is still plenty of low-hanging fruit. They will also quickly work out that it is far more sensible to invest at home rather than allowing cash continually to flow overseas, at a time when we need all the inward investment we can get.
Increasing the efficiency with which we use energy and reduce wastage are both obvious candidates when it comes to low-cost solutions. Improving our building stock can also help to counteract rises in energy costs so it should be no surprise that these policies take centre stage in the government's strategy. Looking longer term it is clear that to get to a zero carbon Britain we will have to start by creating a zero carbon electricity system. Clean electricity, as opposed to the high-coal variety we currently use, can then be used to replace the fossil fuels we use to heat our homes and power our vehicles.
These are not radical new ideas – these aren't needed just yet – but they're not necessarily straightforward to achieve either. The government still needs to create a clear plan and to harness the power of the private sector to deliver its vision cost effectively. It also needs the buy-in of the public to do their part in embracing the changes we need to go through.
Tomorrow's publications should give us the first iteration of that plan – policies will not be written in stone and will no doubt flex and change as departments work out what works, and what doesn't, when it comes to staying within budget. But this could be the dawn of the first comprehensive, concerted attempt to tackle the problem of climate change – let's hope it works.
Bryony Worthington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 July 2009 16.22 BST
The publication of the government's climate change strategy tomorrow should herald the beginning of a new era in the fight against climate change. While the public-facing, energy-saving policies may catch the headlines, what is going on behind the scenes is in reality more important.
In order to meet the requirement of the Climate Change Act, and the carbon budgets it created, the government has had to adopt a new approach to managing carbon. In this new regime every tonne counts and all government departments with an influence over policies affecting emissions will need to play their part in keeping reductions on track. The mechanics of how this will work are not yet clear but it is certain that climate change is now a shared responsibility across the entire government. Departments falling behind will need to take corrective action or face the consequences, which could mean finding money to pay for emissions reductions in other parts of the world. This should serve to focus the minds of ministers and permanent secretaries.
When Friends of the Earth wrote the first report advocating carbon budgets in 2005, which I co-authored, we were seeking to cause exactly this kind of change in the government's attitude to climate change policy. We wanted them to adopt a more holistic approach that took into account the effect of all policies, not just the limited climate-specific policies it had introduced, and also, importantly, the trends that were causing emissions to rise, where often there were no policies in place to counter them.
The principle behind carbon budgeting is simply that emissions must stay within a pre-determined limit or compensating actions, such as payment for emission reductions elsewhere, must be taken. This was meant to engender the feeling that every tonne counts, since allowing an emission to take place creates a liability against the budget, whereas, investing in emissions savings effectively creates an asset. This was intended to force the government to think long term and to break the deadlock that the Treasury then had on climate policy, by expressing the problem in a language they understood. In other areas of public life the principle of borrowing to invest in long-term projects was accepted but, when it came to climate, the mantra was keep it cheap, which led to an over-reliance on emissions trading to deliver the cheapest possible short-term solutions anywhere in the world.
With a clear framework dictating that emissions must, one way or another, go down, the smart minds in the Treasury can now apply themselves to working out how to uncover emissions savings in Britain for less than it would cost to keep buying them overseas. This shouldn't be difficult as we've really only just got started and there is still plenty of low-hanging fruit. They will also quickly work out that it is far more sensible to invest at home rather than allowing cash continually to flow overseas, at a time when we need all the inward investment we can get.
Increasing the efficiency with which we use energy and reduce wastage are both obvious candidates when it comes to low-cost solutions. Improving our building stock can also help to counteract rises in energy costs so it should be no surprise that these policies take centre stage in the government's strategy. Looking longer term it is clear that to get to a zero carbon Britain we will have to start by creating a zero carbon electricity system. Clean electricity, as opposed to the high-coal variety we currently use, can then be used to replace the fossil fuels we use to heat our homes and power our vehicles.
These are not radical new ideas – these aren't needed just yet – but they're not necessarily straightforward to achieve either. The government still needs to create a clear plan and to harness the power of the private sector to deliver its vision cost effectively. It also needs the buy-in of the public to do their part in embracing the changes we need to go through.
Tomorrow's publications should give us the first iteration of that plan – policies will not be written in stone and will no doubt flex and change as departments work out what works, and what doesn't, when it comes to staying within budget. But this could be the dawn of the first comprehensive, concerted attempt to tackle the problem of climate change – let's hope it works.
Miliband promises more green jobs but Vestas wind turbine plant is closing
Ben Webster, Environment Editor
The Government aims to install 7,000 wind turbines in ten years, but they will be made abroad
One of Britain’s biggest employers in the green energy industry is to cease production within hours of a government announcement today pledging as many as 400,000 green jobs by 2015.
Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, will claim that Britain will become a world leader in low-carbon technology and manufacturing. He will argue that raising household energy bills to pay for investment in wind, solar and tidal power is justified not only by the dangers of global warming but also the opportunity to build a new “green economy”.
However, tomorrow morning the Vestas factory in Newport, Isle of Wight, Britain’s only significant manufacturer of wind turbines, will produce its last batch of seven-tonne blades. More than 600 people employed at the plant, and a related facility in Southampton, will be made redundant at the end of the month. All 7,000 turbines that the Government will commit today to installing over the next decade will be manufactured overseas, mainly in Germany, Denmark and China.
Vestas managers and union leaders held meetings with Mr Miliband and officials to discuss the possibility of converting the factory — which supplies the US market — to produce a different type of blade suitable for British wind farms. The Government did not, however, offer any financial aid and was unable to give any assurances that it would break the planning logjam that has paralysed the British market for wind turbines.
In April, the Scottish government gave £10 million in grants to save 100 jobs and possibly create 200 more at a much smaller turbine factory in Argyll.
Wind power will be at the centre of today’s Renewable Energy Strategy and Low Carbon White Paper, which will set out how each sector of the economy will help to meet the overall target of a 34 per cent cut in CO2 emissions by 2020.
Mr Miliband will say that more than £100 billion will be invested in raising the proportion of energy from renewable sources from 2 per cent at present to 15 per cent by 2020.
Workers at the Vestas plant, however, questioned whether the Government’s pledges could be taken seriously when ministers had done nothing to save their jobs. Peter Hunt, a safety administrator at the factory, said: “If the Government was as committed to wind power as it claims, why is it acting so slowly to improve the planning process? We need a central planning body to overcome the not-in-my-back-yard groups who are blocking British wind farms. But if it comes, it will be too late for us.”
Local groups opposing wind farms on the ground of visual intrusion have blocked almost half of the 93 applications made in the past three years and delayed the remainder for as long as two years. Several sites have been identified on the Isle of Wight but it has no turbines, partly because of a hate-mail campaign targeting landowners involved in applications.
Reg Barry, a Liberal Democrat councillor, said: “Why are we subsidising foreign car factories with the scrappage scheme but doing nothing to protect jobs in our greenest industry? The factory closure will be devastating for the island. These are 600 well-paid jobs on which you could raise a family and pay a mortgage, not temporary tourism jobs.”
A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “Ultimately it was a commercial decision for Vestas. But the Renewable Energy Strategy is going to be a massive opportunity for manufacturers generally.”
Jack Dromey, deputy general-secretary of the union Unite, said: “It would be a bitter irony if there was a boom in British wind farms but the wind turbines were made on the Continent and in China.”
The Government aims to install 7,000 wind turbines in ten years, but they will be made abroad
One of Britain’s biggest employers in the green energy industry is to cease production within hours of a government announcement today pledging as many as 400,000 green jobs by 2015.
Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, will claim that Britain will become a world leader in low-carbon technology and manufacturing. He will argue that raising household energy bills to pay for investment in wind, solar and tidal power is justified not only by the dangers of global warming but also the opportunity to build a new “green economy”.
However, tomorrow morning the Vestas factory in Newport, Isle of Wight, Britain’s only significant manufacturer of wind turbines, will produce its last batch of seven-tonne blades. More than 600 people employed at the plant, and a related facility in Southampton, will be made redundant at the end of the month. All 7,000 turbines that the Government will commit today to installing over the next decade will be manufactured overseas, mainly in Germany, Denmark and China.
Vestas managers and union leaders held meetings with Mr Miliband and officials to discuss the possibility of converting the factory — which supplies the US market — to produce a different type of blade suitable for British wind farms. The Government did not, however, offer any financial aid and was unable to give any assurances that it would break the planning logjam that has paralysed the British market for wind turbines.
In April, the Scottish government gave £10 million in grants to save 100 jobs and possibly create 200 more at a much smaller turbine factory in Argyll.
Wind power will be at the centre of today’s Renewable Energy Strategy and Low Carbon White Paper, which will set out how each sector of the economy will help to meet the overall target of a 34 per cent cut in CO2 emissions by 2020.
Mr Miliband will say that more than £100 billion will be invested in raising the proportion of energy from renewable sources from 2 per cent at present to 15 per cent by 2020.
Workers at the Vestas plant, however, questioned whether the Government’s pledges could be taken seriously when ministers had done nothing to save their jobs. Peter Hunt, a safety administrator at the factory, said: “If the Government was as committed to wind power as it claims, why is it acting so slowly to improve the planning process? We need a central planning body to overcome the not-in-my-back-yard groups who are blocking British wind farms. But if it comes, it will be too late for us.”
Local groups opposing wind farms on the ground of visual intrusion have blocked almost half of the 93 applications made in the past three years and delayed the remainder for as long as two years. Several sites have been identified on the Isle of Wight but it has no turbines, partly because of a hate-mail campaign targeting landowners involved in applications.
Reg Barry, a Liberal Democrat councillor, said: “Why are we subsidising foreign car factories with the scrappage scheme but doing nothing to protect jobs in our greenest industry? The factory closure will be devastating for the island. These are 600 well-paid jobs on which you could raise a family and pay a mortgage, not temporary tourism jobs.”
A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “Ultimately it was a commercial decision for Vestas. But the Renewable Energy Strategy is going to be a massive opportunity for manufacturers generally.”
Jack Dromey, deputy general-secretary of the union Unite, said: “It would be a bitter irony if there was a boom in British wind farms but the wind turbines were made on the Continent and in China.”
Renewable energy 'can provide all of Scotland's electricity'
Published Date: 15 July 2009
By Joe Quinn
SCOTLAND can meet all of its electricity needs from green energy alone by 2030, a report claimed yesterday.
The country's energy security will not be seriously harmed by the scheduled decommissioning of the Cockenzie and Longannet coal power stations or the Hunterston B nuclear station, said the report.Renewable energy can meet between 60 per cent and 143 per cent of electricity demand by 2030, said the energy analysts' report commissioned by environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth Scotland and WWF Scotland.If Scotland also met official targets for energy saving, ending all fossil fuel generation by 2030 is "feasible", it said. And even a "business as usual" Scotland will not need any new fossil or nuclear capacity.Instead, security of supply can be maintained by investment in grid upgrades and infrastructure such as storage capacity and "interconnectors" for importing and exporting power.Dr Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, said: "Scotland has the best renewable energy potential of any country in Europe and we should be aiming high. This report provides us with a clear description of how to set ourselves on the path to 100 per cent renewable power."The message is clear: Scotland's renewable potential has to be fully realised and that means harnessing the considerable wave and tidal power of our seas and continuing the expansion of both onshore and offshore wind."A Scottish Government spokeswoman said the report vindicated the administration's drive to make Scotland the "green energy powerhouse" of Europe
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