Climate Change: Report Warns Of Growing Impact On US Life
The title of this post is the same as this article on the BBC.
This is the first paragraph
Unchecked climate change will cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars and damage human health and quality of life, a US government report warns.
So what is Donald Trump’s reaction?
This is another paragraph.
During a blast of icy weather in Washington this week, Donald Trump tweeted, “whatever happened to global warming?”
The sooner he has to leave the US Presidency to someone with an unprejudiced brain, that understands how things actually work, the better!
The Three Smallest Books In The World
In the 1970s, when we were on holiday in Crete, a South African, who was probably Jewish told me a joke about the three smallest books in the world.
They were.
- The Biafran cookbook.
- The Israeli book of Arab human rights.
- The Afrikaans book of humour and culture.
Politically incorrect they may be, but what would the three books be today?
- The Yemeni cookbook.
- The Middle East book of human rights.
- Donald Trump’s book of courtesy and sense.
Technology and wealth may have progressed in the last forty years, but some things only change for the worse!
Spark Energy Supply Ceases Trading
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
The important thing in the BBC’s post is this section.
Ovo Energy has confirmed it has entered into a conditional agreement to buy the company and take on its customers.
Ofgem said the energy supply for Spark’s 290,000 customers would continue as normal.
It advised customers to take meter readings, and said outstanding credit balances would be protected.
It appears that the safety-net is working.
Incidentally, I am a customer of OVO and I have had no problems, except with getting my smart meter installed.
I also have several friends, who chose OVO independently of me, who don’t seem to be having problems.
So hopefully, Spark Energy Supply’s customers will be looked after professionally.
Conclusion
My advice to anybody affected by the failure of Spark Energy or any other energy company, is make sure you have all your information with the meter numbers together.
Then sit tight for a few weeks and see how it all goes, before choosing a new supplier if you feel you need one.
It might also be a good idea to listen to Paul Lewis on Radio 4’s Moneybox today.
China-Backed Coal Projects Prompt Climate Change Fears
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
These are the first three paragraphs.
As levels of greenhouse gases reach a new record, concerns are growing about the role of China in global warming.
For years, the increase in the number of Chinese coal-fired power stations has been criticised.
Now environmental groups say China is also backing dozens of coal projects far beyond its borders.
I have been against coal as a fuel for at least fifty years.
Initially, it was for three reasons.
- Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, there regularly seemed to be a serious coal-mining disasters like Aberfan and Katowice.
- My health had been seriously affected by London’s domestic coal fires.
- I also believed that nuclear power could supply us with affordable energy.
Also at Liverpool University, I met so many students, who were from mining areas, with horror stories of the health of miners.
Over the last couple of decades, I’ve gone very much against the building of large nuclear power stations, although I do feel that small modular nuclear reactors may have a place.
But the growth of wind and solar power has convinced me that with the addition of energy storage, we can manage without coal.
Obviously, the Chinese and Donald Trump think differently.
It should be noted that we are an island and if sea levels rise we will suffer, whereas China and the United States are large land masses with plenty of places to develop.
Trump and Xi Jinping need to be reeducated.
Morecambe’s Eden Project North To Feature Giant ‘Mussel’ Pavilions
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the first three paragraphs.
A new Eden Project will feature five giant mussel-shaped domes inspired by local marine life, plans have revealed.
Morecambe’s Eden Project North will include “performance spaces, immersive experiences and observatories”, the charity behind plans for it has said.
The Eden Project, which runs the Cornish attraction of the same name, said the new site would also feature “re-imagined lidos” and gardens.
It appears that the next stage is to obtain the funding.
I must admit, that I was sceptical about the Eden Project in Cornwall, when it was announced in the late 1990s. But it is now a popular visitor attraction, which attracted over a million visitors iin 2017.
Could Hydrogen Replace Natural Gas In Domestic Properties?
This post was suggested by this article on the Chronicle Live, which is entitled Thousands of Tyneside Homes Could Be Fuelled By Hydrogen Under £22bn Plan.
This is the first three paragraphs.
Thousands of homes across Tyneside and the wider North East could be converted to run on hydrogen in an effort to hit climate change targets.
The H21 North of England report, published today, has called for more than 700,000 homes across Tyneside and Teesside to be converted to run on hydrogen by 2034.
The moves have been proposed by Northern Gas Networks, which supplies gas to the North East, and its North West and Midlands counterpart Cadent, in association with Norwegian energy company Equinor.
It would be feasible to convert houses from natural gas to hydrogen.
In fact, there is a small proportion of hydrogen in natural gas anyway.
But just because it is feasible, it doesn’t mean it is a good idea.
Who Pays?
Consumers would feel, that they shouldn’t pay any more.
Conversion
I remember being converted from town to natural gas in the 1970s.
We only had an ancient gas cooker and conversion was not a problem, but what will happen, if your boiler or cooker is not convertible?
New Technologies
I don’t like gas cookers, so in my current house, I only have a four-year-old modern boiler, so houses like mine wouldn’t be a problem.
Also according to various people, I’ve met, the trend in cookers is to go to induction appliances, which would take a variable out of the conversion equation.
I see lots of new housing and other construction, advertised as low energy, with high insulation levels and solar panels everywhere.
Add in innovative district heating systems and I can see new housing being built without the need of a gas supply.
This must surely be safer, as gas does seem to cause a lot of deaths in homes.
Just Say No!
So what happens, if you say no and your area is being converted to hydrogen?
Do you lose your gas supply?
Creation Of The Hydrogen
This article on the Internet is entitled Northern Gas Networks: One Company’s Ambitious Plan To Cut Carbon Emissions For An Entire Nation.
This is said about the creation of the hydrogen.
The first step is getting access to enough hydrogen. The most widely used method to produce hydrogen is steam-methane reforming, which involves reacting methane (CH4) with high-temperature steam (H2O), which creates carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2). But hydrogen isn’t a clean fuel if that carbon dioxide is put into the atmosphere. So the reactor which produces hydrogen will have to be paired with carbon capture and storage, a process where carbon dioxide is captured before it enters the air, and then pumped underground for safe, permanent storage.
Companies, politicians and academics have been waffling on about carbon capture and storage for decades and I believe at the present time, it is one of those technologies, which is akin to burning large numbers of fifty pound notes.
I do think that at some point in the future, a clever chemist will design a chemical plant, where carbon dioxide goes in one end and sheets, rods or components of carbon fibre, graphene or other carbon form come out the other end.
In my view it is much better to not create the carbon dioxide in the first place.
The obvious way is to use surplus wind power to electrolyse water and produce hydrogen. It is a clean process and the only by-product is oxygen, which no-one has yet flagged up as dangerous.
Conclusion
The objective of this project may be laudable, but there is a lot of development and thinking that needs to be done.
Is Spain Looking Both Ways On Brexit?
This article on the BBC is entitled Spain Brexit: PM Sánchez Threatens To Vote No Over Gibraltar.
The title says it all.
On the other hand, Spanish rail companies seem to be very keen to invest in the UK and also create new and innovative trains for the British market.
- Amey, which is a subsidiary of the Spanish public company Ferrovial is heavily involved in big projects all over the UK, including the South Wales Metro.
- The train builder; CAF, is supplying lots of trains and coaches for UK operators and building a factory at Newport in South Wales.
- Another train builder; Talgo, is on the short list to build the trains for High Speed Two and is proposing to open a factory at Longannet in Scotland and a research centre at Chesterfield
It does appear, that big Spanish companies see the UK as a place to do business.
In connection with the Longannet factory, there is a feature article about the factory in Issue 866 of Rail Magazine.
This is the last paragraph.
As for Brexit, which is known to be a concern for other firms, Talgo said in a statement that its plans were “Brexit-free”, claiming there is a huge potential UK market as well as export opportunities.
The article also says that Talgo need more manufacturing capacity and the brownfield Longannet site, with its space and excellent access by rail and sea, fits their needs.
I also suspect that manufacturing in Scotland will help them secure sales in important English-speaking markets for their innovative high speed trains.
Like Norman Foster’s Gherkin? Meet His Cocktail Cornichon
The title of this post is the same as that of this article in The Guardian.
It has the following sub-title.
The Tulip, Foster’s strange proposal for a Mini-Me Gherkin on a stick, is a parody of architectural hubris he’s hoping will get the billionaire owner out of a pickle.
The article is the best I can find about The Tulip, which if it gets planning permission could be a new addition to the skyline of the City of London.
I’ve been to the top of the Gherkin and I took this picture.
The View From The Gherkin At Night
If someone else is paying, I recommend you go!
Lord Foster is 83 and like David Hockney, who is a couple of years younger, they have built their reputation and are at an age, where they can do things that amuse them and have fun!
And if someone pays them for it, it’s a bonus.
I would certainly like to see The Tulip erected in the City of London.
But I doubt, it will get through the planning process.
My Ruined Saturday Mornings!
Since, I moved to Dalston in 2010, my Saturday morning routine has been something like this.
- Take a 30 Bus to St. Mary’s Church.
- Visit the Carluccio’s and have a gluten-free breakfast, like a full English or an eggs benedict.
- Visit Waitrose for half my shopping.
- Visit Marks and Spencer for my gluten-free shopping.
But things have changed.
Egyptian Buses On Route 30
A few weeks ago, new buses started on route 30.
I don’t use them, except as a last resort.
They were built in Egypt. Now, I’ve nothing against Egyptians or their country, but we make very good buses in this country and we should have British buses for British bottoms!
The new company running the route seems to not provide the same frequency anyway, so catching a 30 bus, would often involve a longer wait.
Carluccio’s Has Closed
But the need to take a 30 bus decreased, a few weeks ago, when Carluccio’s in Islington closed.
As there is no other place in Islington to get a quick gluten-free breakfast, that put a big hole in my Saturday mornings. I could go to Bill’s or Cote, but they take a lot longer and are much more expensive.
Waitrose
Waitrose too, are annoying me.
They have redone their self-service tills and they are useless for my way of shopping.
I have a large reusable M & S bag, that folds into my man-bag and although it was fine for their original tills, it’s too big for their new tills.
So to shop in Waitrose, I put the bag in the trolley, load my purchases onto the till without a bag and then after payment move them into my shopping bag. How inefficient is that?
I now limit my purchases at Waitrose by using the much-more customer friendly Sainsburys next door.
Anyway, Sainsburys have a much better gluten-free selection, than the terrible range in Waitrose, where no care is taken to make ranges of foods like sausages and burgers gluten-free.
In fact, I wouldn’t trust Waitrose on their allergen philosophy. The labelling might be correct, but it’s all about how different product types and ranges are handled.
You wouldn’t shop in Waitrose if you were a family with one member who was coeliac or gluten-free!
Marks And Spencer
Marks and Spencer at the Angel carry on as normal, as they have done since my paternal grandmother shopped there ibefore the First World War and, when C and I used to shop there in the 1970s.
But they have competition in that I am ringed by others of their stores in Dalston, Finsbury Pavement, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street and London Bridge.
Yesterday, I ate breakfast in Leon at Kings Cross and then roamed the shops before doing my Saturday shopping in their Finsbury Pavement store. That one is now opening on Saturdays and I can get two buses directly from the store to the zebra crossing by my house.
Conclusion
All of these factors are combining to make me use Islington less.
What the Angel needs is a Leon, so I can have a fast gluten-free breakfast on the go.
One of the great things about breakfast in Leon, is that there is often time and space to layout your tabloid-sized newspaper and eat a leisurely breakfast.
Huge Solar Farm Plan
The title of this post is the same as that of a small article in today’s copy of The Times.
This is said.
Plans for Britain’s largest solar farm have been submitted to the government. Cleeve Hill Solar Park between Whitstable and Faversham in Kent would be five times bigger than the present largest solar farm, in Wiltshire, and provide enough clean energy to power more than 91,000 homes. A ruling is expected by the end of 202.
According to this page on the OVO Energy web site, the average household in the UK used 3,940 kWh in 2014.
This is 0.45 kWh per hour.
On this figure, the 91,000 houses would use 358.4 GWH
Compare this output with the 240 MW of the world’s first nuclear power station at Calder Hall, which opened in 1956, which in a year would generate 2104 GWH
Cleeve Hill Solar Park has a web site, which together with other sites gives more details of the project.
- The project has an area of 360 hectares.
- The project will be connected to the grid using an existing sub-station, that is used to connect the London Array wind farm in the Thames Estuary to the grid.
- The solar panels are laid close together to create the maximum amount of electricity.
On this information it looks like a solar farm in the UK, which is the size of 360 football pitches, can generate a sixth of the power of the world’s first and admitted small nuclear power station.
The web site also includes this informative schematic of a typical solar farm.
Note that battery storage is included, which I find significant.
- Battery or some other form of energy storage would be used to smooth the peaks and troughs of generation and use.
- Is it significant that it shares a sub-station that is used to connect wind turbines to the grid?
- So will the solar panels charge the batteries and then this energy will be sent to the grid, when the wind isn’t blowing?
The battery would be sized accordingly and calculating the size required is a the sort of problem that needs some comprehensive mathematical modelling.
- Using past sun and wind data, it would be possible to predict likely weather on a day-to-day basis.
- This data would be fed into a mathematical model of the wind and solar farms, with different sizes of batteries.
- A battery size would be chosen, that didn’t allow 91,000 houses in Kent to be without power.
But don’t worry, if you live in Kent, as there are other power stations nearby that could step in.
Having run mathematical models for complicated systems since the late 1960s, I know that this problem is within the capabilities of today’s mathematicians and computers.
The Potential Power Of The Cleeve Hill Solar Farm
The Internet entry for Solar Power In The UK has a section called Solar Potential, where this is said.
London receives 0.52 and 4.74 kWh/m² per day in December and July, respectively. While the sunniest parts of the UK receive much less solar radiation than the sunniest parts of Europe, the country’s insolation in the south is comparable with that of central European countries, including Germany, which generates about 7% of its electricity from solar power. Additionally, the UK’s higher wind speeds cool PV modules, leading to higher efficiencies than could be expected at these levels of insolation.
I’ll start by looking at December.
The solar array at Cleeve Hill will be 360 hectares, which need to be converted to square metres. A hectare is roughly the size of a football pitch like Wembley or 100 metres x 100 metres.
So I can say the following.
- The area of the Cleeve Hill solar farm is 3,600,000 square metres.
- If I assume that Cleeve Hill gets the same amount of sunlight as London, I can say that on each day in December the solar farm will receive an average of 0.52 * 3,600,000 kWh or 1872 MWh of solar energy.
- I have found web sites that say that the best solar panels are twenty percent efficient, which means that on an average December day 374.4 MWh will be generated.
- This is 4.11 kWh for each of the 91,000 households.
Looking at July, I can say the following.
- If I assume that Cleeve Hill gets the same amount of sunlight as London, I can say that on each day in July the solar farm will receive an average of 4.74 * 3,600,000 kWh or 17064 MWh of solar energy.
- Using the same twenty percent efficiency, which means that on an average July day 3412.8 MWh will be generated.
- This is 37.5 kWh for each of the 91,000 households.
I have created an Excel Workbook, that shows the energy generation for a 360 hectare solar farm, through a year.
- I obtained the insolation rates from this page on the Contemporary Energy web site.
- Other data came from Cleeve Hill Solar Farm.
- All parameters can be changed are and at the first part of the workbook.
- It is in Word 97 format
Click this link to download.
The Anonymous Widower 