Tidal energy – the UK's best kept secret | Environment. The latest report on Renewables from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) offers lukewarm support for electricity generation from tidal streams. The UK has some of the fiercest tidal currents in the world, but the CCC says the tidal turbines will deliver energy at a higher cost than PV in 2040. The assumptions behind this pessimism are questioned in this article.
The tides around Britain's coasts sweep huge volumes of water back and forth at substantial speeds. The energy contained in the tidal races off the west of the UK is as great as anywhere in the world. The rewards for tidal stream developers are commensurate. The CCC might then have been expected to push for a significant programme of support for tidal. A) Tidal generation does not help with the 'intermittency' problem of renewables generation. b) The levels of yield are relatively low. C) The cost of capital is high for a developer using tidal turbines because of the risk of the technology not working Intermittency Yields are low.
Letters to a heretic: An email conversation with climate change sceptic Professor Freeman Dyson - Climate Change, Environment. From: Steve Connor To: Freeman Dyson You are one of the most famous living scientists, credited as a visionary who has reshaped scientific thinking. Some have called you the "heir to Einstein", yet you are also a "climate sceptic" who questions the consensus on global warming and its link with carbon dioxide emissions.
Could we start by finding where we agree? Would you also accept that CO2 levels have been increasing as a result of burning fossil fuels and that global temperatures have been rising for the past 50 years at least, and possibly for longer (4)? From: Freeman Dyson To: Steve Connor First of all, please cut out the mention of Einstein. Answers to your questions are: yes (1), yes (2), yes (3), maybe (4), no (5), no (6), no (7). There are six good reasons for saying no to the last three assertions. That will do for the first set of questions. No thank-you! You ask me where the extra trapped heat has gone, but I do not agree with the models that say the extra trapped heat exists. Finding The Right Light Bulb. ALL I wanted to do, ALL I WANTED TO DO, was enjoy a pleasant eco-sustainable evening in my eco-friendly house stuffing my eco-greedy face with eco-flavourless cornchips while I sat on my eco-overstuffed couch and read the eco-processed pages of the latest Umberto Eco.
BUT when I turned on my eco-IKEAN reading lamp, I wasn't getting the eco-efficient light power that I eco-bloody needed. This new ecobulb I'd just bought, it was completely hopeless: it was one of those long spirally ones, the kind that poke out in an offensive way like the lampshade is having a pelvic prolapse. But the light energy coming out of the ecobulb was so feeble I couldn't read a single word of my book - I had to shift over towards the TV and try to use the light coming out of the red TV-standby diode. And the tone of this ecobulb was a nauseating ultraviolet fluoro blue: I might as well have been reading in a St Kilda public toilet surrounded by a bunch of junkies desperately trying to find a vein to slap up. Cambridge Ideas - How Many Lightbulbs? Valentine's Day Gift Guide 2011: Sweet on Earth (Slideshow) Professor Gehan Amaratunga — Cambridge Environmental Initiatives.
Departments and Institutes Department of Engineering : Head of the Electrical Power and Energy Conversion Research Group, Electrical Engineering Division Research Interests Professor Gehan Amaratunga is the head of the Electrical Power and Energy Conversion Research Group within the Electrical Engineering Division of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge.
Research interests include: Integrated and discrete semiconductor devices for power switching and control; Novel materials and device structures for low-cost, high efficiency solar cells; Power electronics for optimum grid connection of large photovoltaic electricity generation systems; Study of fundamental physical properties of amorphous carbon/caron nanotube/polymer materials for application in future electronic devices; Vacuum microelectronic devices for power switching and terahertz signal amplification; Solid state systems for quantum electromagnetic energy conversion and quantum computation. Keywords nanotubes. David MacKay FRS: Sustainable Energy - without the hot air: Contents. Professor David MacKay — Cambridge Environmental Initiatives. Wind Turbines Might Help Crops Absorb More CO2, Fight Fungal Infections, Etc. Photo: Flickr, CCBeneficial Microclimate ImpactAccording to the preliminary results from research done by DOE and University of Colorado scientists, wind turbines built in the middle of crop fields might be doing more than just producing electricity.
Indeed, while the turbines don't produce any more air movement (in fact, they decrease it a bit because they absorb some of the wind's energy), they do create more air turbulence which "may speed up natural exchange processes between crop plants and the lower atmosphere. " This, in turn, might create a bunch of positive effects like keeping crops cooler, dryer, less prone to fungal infections, and growing faster by extracting more CO2 from the air. Photo: Flickr, CC "Our laser instrument could detect a beautiful plume of increased turbulence that persisted even a quarter-mile downwind of a turbine," Lundquist said. [...] " Photo: Flickr, CC. Electric cars: Highly charged motoring.
'Green light' for global biodiversity science panel. 14 June 2010Last updated at 11:30 By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News So far, nations have failed to halt the rate of biodiversity loss An international meeting has given the green light to the formation of a global "science policy" panel on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Proponents say the new body will "bridge the gulf" between scientific research and urgent political action needed to halt biodiversity loss. More than 230 delegates from 85 nations backed the proposals at a five-day UN meeting in Busan, South Korea.
The international panel is expected to be formally endorsed in 2011. Among the main roles of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will be to carry out peer reviews of scientific literature in order to provide governments with "gold standard" reports. 'Historic agreement' "The essence of this vision is to ensure environmental sustainability while pursuing development," he explained.