House Prices And Stations
I clipped this from the Evening Standard.
Enough said!
I purposely chose my house to be within ten minutes walk from the two Dalston Overground stations, that would open a couple of years after I moved in.
- It is also within walking distance of twelve major bus routes. All the routes can carry wheel-chairs, if I should ever need one!
- Five routes have stops, within a hundred metres, serving Bank, British Museum, Euston, Harley Street, Kings Cross, London Bridge, Manor House, Moorgate, Piccadilly Circus, Shaftesbury Avenue, St. Pauls, University College Hospital and Victoria.
- I’m only fifty metres from a major cycling route between the City and White Hart Lane.
- I even have a garage, that opens onto the street! But no car!
- My road is wide and there is usually plenty of parking space for visitors or on-line deliveries.
- A taxi ride from Euston, Liverpool Street or Kings Cross is usually under fifteen pounds at all times.
It will get even better!
- When Crossrail opens, I will have 10-12 buses per hour to the Moorgate/Liverpool Street station.
- Dalston Junction station will get a frequency of twenty trains per hour to and from Canada Water, Shoreditch and Whitechapel, that fan out to a selection of places in South London like Crystal Palace, Clapham Junction, Peckham and Penge.
- Dalston Kingsland station will get a frequency of twelve trains per hour to Stratford in the East and Camden, Clapham Junction, Hampstead and High Speed Two in the West.
- I will probably get a series of electric car charging points in the parking spaces in the road, where I live.
- I could put a personal electric car charging point in my garage.
I’m told the value of my house has risen well in the almost ten years, I’ve owned it.
Did somebody once say, that the location of a property, were the three most important things about it?
Conclusion
Make sure your next property has good access to public transport.
How To Go Mining In A Museum
This article on Active Investors is entitled Government Backing Lined Up For Cornish Lithium As It Partners With Wardell Armstrong And The Natural History Museum To Advance UK Battery Capabilities.
These are the first few paragraphs.
Cornish Lithium is now moving in some pretty august circles in its quest to put the UK on the lithium map.
Lithium is essential in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles.
“It’s been a huge voyage of discovery,” says Jeremy Wrathall.
“An absolutely amazing journey.”
In the past year the company he created, Cornish Lithium, has been transforming rapidly from a concept conjured up from the pages of old documents hidden in half-forgotten library vaults into a well-funded exploration vehicle with 10 geologists and some serious-minded partners providing additional funding and know-how.
The article goes on to give the full story of lithium in Cornwall and how by looking at old documents in the museum’s archives, Jeremy Wrathall may have found where to mine for the valuable mineral.
Now his company; Cornish Lithium, who are partnered with Wardell Armstrong, who describe themselves on their web site as.
An Engineering, Environmental and Mining consultancy with over 180 years of international service and experience.
And the Natural History Museum, who need no introduction.
They have been backed by £500,000 from the Government’s Faraday Battery Challenge fund.
It is a must-read tale, that I hope, very much has a successful conclusion.
Cadent Launches Report Mapping Out Routes To Hydrogen Fuelled Vehicles On UK Roads
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Gasworld.
This is the first paragraph.
A roadmap using hydrogen to decarbonise transport, particularly commercial transport, in the North West of the UK, has been unveiled by the country’s leading gas distribution network Cadent.
The article makes some points about hydrogen-powered transport.
- Using Cadent’s network to deliver hydrogen, rather than tube trailers, massively reduces the cost and makes fuel cell electric cars (FCEVs) available to the general public for around the same price as a battery electric vehicle or a conventional diesel car.
- FCEVs can travel further than battery electric vehicles and take the same time to refuel as a conventional petrol car.
- Grid-supplied hydrogen is the most cost-effective way of supplying hydrogen transport fuel at the required volume – up to six times cheaper than if delivered by trailer and 70 per cent cheaper than electrolysis.
Cadent‘s interest in all this, is not about selling gas, as their interest and income is totalling in transporting gas from producers to end users. So they don’t care whether they transport natural gas or hydrogen.
Hydrogen Storage
The article also discloses plans of INOVYN, a wholly owned subsidiary of INEOS, to develop a grid-scale hydrogen storage facility.
It will be in salt caverns in mid-Cheshire.
It will be able to hold 2,000 tonnes of hydrogen.
It is cheaper to store hydrogen in salt caverns, than on the surface.
The salt caverns have been used to store gas for decades.
This is a quote from the INOYN spokesman.
Storage is a vital component of delivering a viable hydrogen energy system in the UK.
I only had an indirect quick glimpse underground, when I worked at ICI in the area around 1970, but ICI’s salt expert, said they had enough salt in Cheshire to last 9,000 years at the current rate of extraction.
Salt in Cheshire, is a unique geological formation, that is very valuable to the UK and it looks like in the future, thar could enable hydrogen power.
Hydrogen Generation
The hydrogen will still need to be produced. Wikipedia has an entry caslled Hydrogran Production, which is fairly dismissive of electrolysis.
But in my view, hydrogen could be produced by electrolysis using wind power, as other methods like steam reforming of methane produce carbon-dioxide.
I particularly like the idea of building wind farms in clusters around offshore gas platforms, that have extracted all the gas from the fields, they were built to serve.
- Instead of running electricity cables to the wind farms, hydrogen is produced by electrolysis on the platform and this is transported to the shore using the same gas infrastructure, that brought the natural gas onshore.
- This could enable wind-farms to be developed much further offshore.
- If carbon capture is ever successfully made to work, the existing gas pipe could also be used to transfer the carbon dioxide offshore for storage in worked-out gas fields.
- The pipe between platform and shore could easily be made reversible, carrying hydrogen one way and carbon dioxide the other.
All of the technology required would also appear to be fully developed.
Conclusion
I am convinced that in the next few years, a hydrogen gas network can be created in parts of the UK.
The North West has advantages in becoming one of the first parts of the UK to have an extensive hydrogen network.
- It has the means to produce hydrogen gas.
- It has large wind farms in Liverpool Bay.
- There are worked-out gas fields, that might in the future be used for carbon storage.
- If INOVYN can store large quantities of hydrogen, this is a big advantage.
The biggest problem would be converting large numbers of houses and commercial premises from natural gas to hydrogen.
But, we’ve been through that process before, when we changed from town gas to natural gas in the 1960s and 1970s.
Should We Remove Gas From Our Houses?
I only use gas for heating.
- I feel that naked flames are not a good idea to have anywhere near people, as they can produce oxides of nitrgen, that causes health problems.
- Gas cookers are also a major cause of household fires.
- Technology is moving against cooking with gas, as more more to electric induction hobs.
- If you are fitting a new gas boiler, make sure it can be connected to hydrogen.
When I buy my next property, it will be all electric.
Mayor’s Plan For Shopping That’s Right Up Your Street
The title of this post, is the same as that of an article on page 48 of Saturday’s Times.
This is the precis.
The former John Lewis boss is using his retail experience to help to rejuvenate Walsall.
|According to the article, Walsall town centre is in a bad way with large numbers of empty shops.
The article is positive about Andy Sreet’s plans and feels, that if anybody can bring about a transformation, then he can with his retail experience.
I wish him and Walsall luck!
Will 5G Be Another Way To Rip Off The Poor?
My late wife was a barrister, who specialised in family matters, like divorce, custody of children, adoption and money.
She had this career for about thirty years before she died in 2007.
As the years progressed, she’d talk about the latest expensive must-haves of her clients.
- First it was video recorders and then it was mobile phones.
- Various game consoles arrived! Whatever they are? I’ve never played a computer game in my life!
- Then came Sky Television and large screen televisions.
- Every child had to have the latest phone.
And now we have 5G, which promises to be the next unaffordable addiction, to go along with alcohol, drugs, pay-day loans, junk food, on-lne subscriptions and gambling!
It will drive the poor and low-paid even further into poverty.
On the train recently, I was talking to a guy with nine children.
As he was going to Court to get custody of one of the nine, and from other things he had said, I felt that the nine weren’t of the same mother.
He was living on benefits and caring for one disabled child.
How will he be able to afford nine 5G phones?
It’ll all end in tears!
Politics Just Got Even More Interesting!
I don’t know about politics, but I like to think I know about data and I have a long and deep memory.
We now have two immovable and possibly unstoppable forces on opposite sides, which have almost equal support.
- Those that want to leave the European Union without a deal.
- Those that want to remain in the European Union.
They are irreconcilable positions.
I remember an acrimonious takeover attempt by Imperial Chemical Industries for Courtaulds in the 1960s. Not so much, at the time but because I later worked for ICI and became friends with a guy, who had worked for British Nylon Spinners at Pontypool.
Later I became aware of Frank Kearton and his part in the stopping of the takeover.
At the time he was the Engineering Director of Courtaulds. In a Press Conference, the CEO of Courtaulds was floundering and giving a rather bad impression. A question was asked and Frank Kearton stepped in and answered it so well, he took over the Press Conference.
He became CEO and the takeover was defeated. Kearton went on to have a respected career.
I may have remember the story wrong and I suspect it’s Kearton’s version, that I’m repeating.
In the UK are in a similar position to Courtaulds in the sixties. Both major parties are almost leaderless and none of those at the top of the Tory, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties are better than the average run-of-the-mill MPs, who generally do a good job.
We need someone to step forward to unite this country and sort out the mess.
Will he or she be one of the following?
- Jeremy Corbyn – Anybody that far left and over seventy would be unacceptable to well over half of the population.
- Boris Johnson – You might employ him as a salesman, but you wouldn’t employ him in any management position.
- Vince Cable – Too old and he’s sensible enough to know it.
- The herd of Tory leadership candidates – Perhaps one might have the qualities, and they would need to show amazing style, intelligence and oratory to even get on the final ballot.
- Nigel Farage – The other side believe he’s the cause of the problem, so wouldn’t follow him.
- Caroline Lucas – Green policies are anathema to perhaps seventy percent of the country, who still fly too much and don’t buy zero-emission cars?
We need someone with amazing qualities to step out of the shadows, just as Frank Kearton did at Courtaulds.
Conclusion
I’ve put a small bet on my choice for the next Tory Leader and Prime Minister.
Egypt To Power Europe By Underwater Cable
The title of this post is the same as that of a short news item on page 32 of today’s Times.
Egypt appears to be using gas from four new offshoregas fields to generate the power.
But surely, they could also use solar, as I’ve heard Egypt gets a lot of sun!
I do think though, that countries like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco, which are all reasonably close to Europe could generate substantial amounts of solar power, which could then be exported to the North, through undersea cables, which are not very long using today’s technology.
I also think, that solar power will grow Southwards from the countries bordering the Mediterranean.
Will these basket case countries like Sudan, Mauritania, Somalia and Chad, acquire both an income and the electricity they need to improve the lot of their people?
Whether, their people will benefit, is another question, but Europe’s need for green energy could be the need, that these countries will fill, using unproductive desert.
I also think, there’s scope to combine solar farms with agriculture in the shade to create the food they need.
Read Solar Farms And Biodiversity on Solar Power Portal.
Research Shows UK Capital Is Europe’s Most Connected Business Hub
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Conference And Meetings World.
Crossrail and Brexit aren’t even mentioned. So we must be doing something right!
But then I always believe that London is the Capital of the World!
The Jeremy Kyle Show Axed By ITV After Death Of Guest
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
I won’t make any comment about the show, as I’ve never seen it.
That is not because I object to programmes of this type, but because I rarely watch programmes with advertising.
The only exception I make is with sport.
I’ve never for instance seen an episode of Downton Abbey.
The Crick Institute In The Evening Light
I took these pictures of the Crick Institute in the evening light tonight.
The colour of the stone comes through and matches that of the nearby St. Pancras station.
