A selection of US based, but no doubt useful, photovoltaic links.

Technorati tag: Solar Power, Photovoltaic

What’s a part time ecowarrior to do? More importantly, for an election blog, how should they vote?

Tony Blair recently unveiled plans for sustainable development. A key part of the plan seems to be a call to make overseas governmental trips carbon neutral, investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects to offset the air travel. Is there something we’re not being told about ministerial travel?

More substantially, there’s going to be a “national task force on sustainable public procurement”. This is more like it, but what will it apply to? Purchasing? Light and power? New buildings? The place to go to find out has to be the Labour Party website. Type “Sustainable development” or “environment” into the search engine and you get……..?

Not quite nothing, but really this tells me nothing. Are new hospitals going to get solar water heating? Could city academies be as radical in their low impact design as their educational ethos? I’ll never know if I look here.

Try the same search at the Conservative or Lib Dem sites and you find substance, such as recent speeches by Tim Yeo and Charles Kennedy. Finding that Tory central office is carbon neutral was a pleasant surprise, and both parties say they’ll do something to make aviation pay its environmental dues. In terms of detailed plans Yeo wins over Kennedy. Hoever, the latter is proposing a dedicated Department of Environment, Energy and Transport. I could argue with aspects of either speech, but at least they’ve been presented so I can argue them.

Labour has a nice picture of a field with bales in it. (Square bales, mind. All the farmers where I used to live had switched over to round bales before I went to University over a decade ago. Are the publicity photos even up to date?)

Maybe when the phoney war ends and we enter the election campaign proper Labour will start telling us more, in greater detail, about what they’ll do if given another four years. Or they may carry on saying nice things illustrated with pretty pictures and hope we’ll be fooled again.

I wrote this last week when asked to produce an example blog for the Today programme, which is recruiting bloggers to cover the election. Wish me luck.

Technorati tag: Politics

I don’t have the time to read these right now, so I’ll come back to them later.

Trailbreaker: Climate change update.

New Lab Delves Into Plants For Fuels

Aim: To Measure Green against Green

Alternative Energy California: A Million Solar Power Homes?

Green Energy Sector Should Stop Squabbling – Banker

Technorati tag: Climate Change

A highly successful Government grants scheme designed to increase the uptake of solar power, and consequently improve the market and drive costs down, is to be scrapped three years into its supposed ten year lifespan. The Government has a new programme, called Low Carbon Buildings, in the pipeline, but there’s likely to be a gap between the old scheme being phased out and this one coming online.

Technorati tag: Solar Power

Manchester council plan to have a few wind turbines and solar panels included in future developments. It’ll look cool, but are they also going to insist on energy efficent design to double the impact? I hope so, because I like the idea of living in Britain’s greenest city, which is their stated aim.

Technorati tag: Manchester

LAnd has been purchased- 25,000 acres in Australia- for the world’s first large scale Solar Tower, generating electricity by heating air and funneling it up a kilometre high chimney to drive wind turbines.

Technorati tag: Solar Power

Tony Blair has unveiled plans for sustainable development. They include an interesting, if low impact, call to make overseas governmental trips carbon neutral. This would involve investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects to offset air travel. An interesting idea, but it would be cool if they could extend it to cover all air travel, not just that for bigwigs.

There’s also going to be a “national task force on sustainable public procurement”. Will this apply to PFI builds as well? Probably not, which is a shame because if they could look beyond short term gain a bit of investment in energy saving (and on-site generating through solar, wind etc.) could save millions over the lifetime of a major development such as a hospital.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Carbon nanotube towers could boost the efficiency of photovoltaic cells.

via Slashdot

Technorati tag: Solar Energy

A proposal for the TV series I’d like to make/ see made. This is a first draft. There’s a lot more detail in the transport section than the others because that’s the thing I’ve spent the most time thinking about. Already, I’m thinking the format needs changing a bit, so many of the subjects interlink that it could be hard to dedicate separate episodes to each. Any suggestions for areas to cover and ways to illustrate the various points are welcome.

How To Save The World For Free

Make over programmes have been popular for years. Some have been about improving the value of a home, but most are simply about the look. A recent trend is for programmes aimed at changing lifestyles- making people tidier and more efficient.. I believe it is time to go further. It is time for agrander view, a guide to living a better life and benefitting from it- How To Save The World For Free.
Everyone has heard of global warming. Most people know they should do something about it but feel powerless or that the cost is too high. The aim of this seies is to show that they can make a difference and, if they plan far enough ahead, improve their finances as well.

The Format
Ideally the series would follow the owners of a number of homes as they change their houses and lifestyles. There should be a detached property, a semi-detached and terraced: a family, a couple and a single person. The participants would specify their budgets and a time period (minimum five years) over which they wish to recoup their costs.
Each episode would cover a different aspect of the “greening”, including water, heat, power, transport and food. As well as the examples in the show ideal cases will be highlighted, such as buildings designed from the ground up for energy efficiency.

The Episodes
Transport
Possibly the most contentious area, because this requires an ongoing change. This episode would include the “2 Mile challenge”- The participants pledge to walk to anything within a set distance. Two miles is prferable, but one mile will do. To illustrate this, a large scale map centred on their property is used. With a nail banged into the position of their house a ruler is used to scribe one mile and two mile circles. Within these circles the various amenities are marked- schools, shops, pubs, bus stops etc. This can tie in to the food episode, especially if most of a household’s requirements can be found within walking distance.
This episode would also do an analysis of the benefits of cycling over driving to work then going to the gym for exercise. For slightly more than the cost of gym membership a quality commuting cycle could be bought, saving time and petrol and parking costs.
Also- Safe Routes to School, bio-diesel, smaller cars (challenge the participants to see just how much stuff they really need on a journey and find the smallest space that stuff could be packed into).

Food
Looks at the hidden costs of the supermarket shop, including time, fuel etc. and long term changes. The benefits of preparing food at home can’t really be judged financially, but the programme will look at some such as better control over what you consume. It will cover the pros and cons of buying organic, the time saving opportunities of delivery and benefits of shopping locally (tieing in to the 2 mile challenge).

Water
From low-flush toilets to solar heating. Also, brown water recycling and is a dishwasher more water efficient than cleaning in the sink (I’m pretty sure it’s more efficient than the way I do it).

Heat
Double glazing; orientation- would it be beneficial to enlarge South facing windows and brick up a few North facing ones; solar heating and designing the house for air flow without needing air conditioning.

Power
Consumption- compare a week with filament bulbs to one with low energy lights (remind the participants that just because the lights use less power it doesn’t mean they should be left on all the time.); green energy providers; Solar power; wind power.

At the end of the series the participants will total up the money thay have spent, work out the savings they are making and assess whether they will break even within their chosen time period.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

The NAtional Audit Office says that the Government is well on its way to having 10% of energy produced by renewable sources by 2010, but at a cost to consumers that could be reduced if it put as much effort into reducing consumption. Of course, the best solution would be to concentrate on both. All new build houses should be required to hit energy efficiency targets and have solar tiles on their roofs.

Technorati tag: Renewable Energy

Solar Stirling engines could produce electricity more efficiently than photovoltaic cells, particularly as their design allows for the generation of AC electricity rather than requiring conversion from DC. I can’t imagine a domestic size machine, but you never know.

via Gizmodo

The Housing Minister has called for more pre-fab homes to be built in the UK. No mention of energy saving features, but surely if mass production lowers unit cost then they can look at incorporating solar and other features.

The Channel 4 wesite has a page listing the companies involved in builds on Grand Designs. This one is particularly useful, being about the underground house built in Cumbria.

A specific link, for later reference as the site is currently under construction, Sundog Energy– providers of solar panels based in Penrith.

It’s possible to retro fit almost any building with solar panels. Take the example of Manchester’s CIS tower- soon to have them on all 400 feet of its service tower.