Infrastructure

Energy independence begins at home

This entry was posted in Carbon Dioxide carbon footprint Carbon neutral climate change Energy Saving Gordon Brown Infrastructure renewable energy Solar Power Wind power on by

Gordon Brown has announced a £100billion renewable energy plan. The Daily Mail and its readers have reacted as you’d expect, ignoring the boost to the economy from all the jobs created and the opportunities through grants to go energy independent.

So, those of you who can, I’d recommend stealing a jump on the whingers and using their tax money to go off grid. When I researched grants for solar panels last month I found that the existing scheme had been phased out, which was annoying. I’m now willing to give Brown the benefit of the doubt and hope this was because they were gearing up to a new and improved scheme. It isn’t easy. I’m not as obnoxiously and knee-jerkingly anti Brown/New Labour as the Mail’s readers, but past performance does mark the Government as untrustworthy.

The schemes for householders will be announced later this Summer. I’ll be looking out for them and will try to do some number crunching on them when they arrive.

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Chicago's green alleys

This entry was posted in Drainage Infrastructure Water on by

Chicago, which claims to have more square miles of alleyway than any other city, is starting to pave them with permeable materials that will reduce run off and cut the heat island effect. They’ll also be installing low energy lighting. The initial costs are greater than just relaying concrete or tarmac but cut the risk of flooded basements and other knock on effects.

Perhaps the scheme could be extended to pavement outside the ally and other pedestrian areas. Far too many of the pavements around here drain off into huge puddles on roads or where there are dips. Take it another step further and let’s have rules that require these materials be used in domestic paving to mitigate all the short sightedconcreting of front lawns that’s become so prevalent.

via Common sense Agriculture, Conservation and Energy

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