New Windfarms Will Not Cost Billpayers After Subsidies Hit Record Low
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Guardian.
This is the first paragraph.
The UK’s next wave of offshore wind farms will generate clean electricity at no extra cost to consumers after record low-subsidy deals fell below the market price for the first time.
I have deliberately chosen to print this report from the Guardian, as they generally research carefully what they print and wouldn’t print anything that was parroting government PR.
Until they or another trusted source says otherwise, I’ll believe that we’ll be getting cheap wind-generated electricity.
There is another fact about this announcement; the timing!
Did the government deliberately time, something that even The Guardian would feel is good news to appear on the day when everyone is travelling to the Labour Conference in Brighton?
North Sea Wind Power Hub
I have just found the web site for the North Sea Wind Power Hub.
The Aim
This introductory paragraph details the aim of the project.
A coordinated roll-out of North Sea Wind Power Hubs facilitates an accelerated deployment of large scale offshore wind in the North Sea required to support realizing the Paris Agreements target in time, with minimum environmental impact and at the lowest cost for society (urgency & cost savings), while maintaining security of supply.
There is a lot to read on the site, however this article on the Daily Mail gives a good summary with lots of drsawings.
This is the sub-headline.
The world’s biggest wind farm? ‘Crazy’ artificial power island in the North Sea that could supply renewable energy to 80 million people in Europe is set to open in 2027.
Crazy comes from this paragraph of the article.
In an interview at the time, Torben Glar Nielsen, Energinet’s technical director, told the Independent: ‘Maybe it sounds a bit crazy and science fiction-like but an island on Dogger Bank could make the wind power of the future a lot cheaper and more effective.’
Another quote sums up the engineering problems as the Dutch sea it.
Addressing the engineering challenge ahead, Mr Van der Hage said: ‘Is it difficult? In the Netherlands, when we see a piece of water we want to build islands or land. We’ve been doing that for centuries. That is not the biggest challenge.’
Having spoken to one of the engineers, who planned and developed the Dutch sea defences after the floods of the 1950s, I’ll agree with that statement.
Nuclear Option Has Been Blown Away
The title of this post is the main title of Alistair Osborne’s Business Commentary of today’s copy of The Times.
He is referring to the government’s announcement about new wind farms, that I discussed in Climate change: Offshore Wind Expands At Record Low Price.
I particularly liked his final paragraph.
And nuclear’s not even green: it comes with a vast clean-up bill. True, it brings baseload energy that wind can’t yet match. But storage technology is advancing all the time. So why’s the government persisting with last century tech that comes at a radioactive price? Yes, offshore wind might endanger a seabird that’s forgotten its specs. But, luckily, it’s a bigger threat to another species: nuclear white elephants.
Climate change is so serious, people won’t believe it’s happening and take action unless the medicine is delivered with a spoonful of humour.
University Of Birmingham Leases HST For Alternative Fuel Tests
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Magazine.
This is the first paragraph.
A High Speed Train is being leased by the University of Birmingham to help analyse and test what alternative fuel could be used to power long-distance passenger or freight trains.
It will be interesting to see what results from the research.
A few of my thoughts.
Suitability Of A HST For Research
It must be suitable for research purposes, otherwise the University wouldn’t have obtained the train.
If you look at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education web site, they list the Research Areas.
- Railway Control and Operations Simulation
- Data Integration and Cybersecurity
- Condition Monitoring and Sensing
- Centre of Excellence in Digital Systems
- Power Systems and Energy Use
- Aerodynamics
- Climate Change and Weather Impact
There must be a lot of scope for the use of a real train, especially one which has a lot of free space in the engine, where test equipment can be mounted.
Porterbrook’s Interest
I can think of several reasons, why Porterbrook might need to partner with the Research Centre, for sound commercial reasons.
Most will probably seem small in the eyes of the general public, but might be based on Porterbrook’s feedback from customers about their extensive fleet.
Understanding The HST’s Success
The HST or InterCity 125 has been an undoubted success with passengers, drivers, staff and train companies for forty years and understanding the reasons could be invaluable in improving rail transport in the future.
Education
I suspect too that the train will be used to educate students, especially those, who want to work in train or railway design.
When I left Liverpool University with my Control Engineering degree in 1968, I was one of the few, who’d worked on bg heavy machinery in a factory environment.
These days, with Heath and Safety rules much tighter, I doubt, today’s students can gewt the same experience.
Conclusion
I do hope that Porterbrook and the Research Centre, when they look back in a few years, feel that this venture has been a success.
Toyota Fuel Cell Buses Expected To Be Big Seller Of Hydrogen At 2020 Tokyo Olympics
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Hydrogen Fuel News.
This is the first paragraph.
Toyota fuel cell buses are likely to be the clean transportation to take center stage at the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. The Japanese automaker intends to roll out 100 of these buses at the event to shuttle visitors between venues.
It would appear to be an exercise to publicise their technology.
If you read the Wikipedia entry for hydrogen fuel cell buses, no-one has yet built and deployed a fleet as large as Toyota’s for the Olympics.
The UK has two major deployments of hydrogen fuel cell double deck buses, under development, that I wrote about in the following posts.
- London To Have World-First Hydrogen-Powered Double-Decker Buses
- New Facility To Power Liverpool’s Buses With Hydrogen
In 2012, I went to a lecture about the New Routemaster Bus at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, which I wrote about in The Development of the New Bus for London.
Wrightbus had obviously done their research and I got the impression, that designers can put heavy and bulky components all over the place in a modern double-decker bus.
On the New Routemaster components are placedas follows.
- The single traction motor is under the floor.
- The battery is under the front stairs.
- The Cummins diesel engine is half-way up the back stairs.
As the New Routemaster is based on a specially-designed chassis and not a standard one from Volvo or Mercedes, I wonder if to be successful, a hydrogen-powered bus needs a custom-designed chassis, to properly accommodate the various components.
- Traction motor
- Hydrogen tank
- Hydrogen fuel cell
- Battery
It certainly looks like Toyota have gone down this route. But then they can afford to for the Tokyo Olympics.
The Anonymous Widower 