Gravitricity Sets Sights On South Africa To Test Green Energy Tech
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on ESI Africa, which describes itself as Africa’s Power Journal.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Disused mine shafts in South Africa have been identified as an ideal location to test UK-based energy start-up Gravitricity’s green energy technology.
The company announced plans to transform disused mine shafts into hi-tech green energy generation facilities through a system that uses gravity and massive weights.
This is surely a classic fit, as Africa has plenty of sun and some of the mine shafts in South Africa, like the TauTona mine are getting towards two miles deep.
A weight of 1,000 tonnes in a two mile deep shaft would store nearly nine MWh. By comparison, Dinorwig Power Station or Electric Mountain, has a capacity of 500 MWh.
But Electric Mountain was built in the 1970s, cost £425 million and took ten years to construct.
Islamic State ‘Beatles’ Duo ‘should be tried at The Hague’
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Two captured British fighters should be tried in an international criminal court, rather than sent to Guantanamo Bay, a defence minister has said.
Tobias Ellwood told two newspapers it was important that “terrorists from any origin are transparently and fairly held account for their actions”.
I feel that Tobias Ellwood has got this absolutely right.
I suspect that Donald Trump, will not go along with the plan!
Will Some Of The New Buildings For Heathrow Be Built In Scotland?
It’s all explained in this article on the Offsite Hub website, which is entitled Heathrow To Offer Offsite Hubs To Other Mega Projects.
This is the first two paragrahs.
Airport says schemes such as HS2 and Hinkley could make use of planned offsite manufacturing hubs
Heathrow Airport has said it hopes its idea for a series of offsite manufacturing hubs to help with its £16bn expansion plans will be used by other major projects, including the new nuclear power station at Hinkley and the HS2 railway.
Sounds a good idea to me.
A few other points.
- Offsite accounts for 10% of the construction industry.
- Heathrow are aiming for between 25% and 40%.
- It will reduce the peak on-site workforce at Heathrow.
- Offsite was safer, cleaner and less weather dependent.
- Four hubs are plans, with one definitely in Scxotland.
A few months ago I talked to one of the managers building Custom House station, which was largely built offsite in Sheffield.
He told me, that the quality was so much better, than if it had been built traditionally.
The quality certainly wasn’t traditional pre-fab either.
Could this be part of the solution to our housing crisis?
Calculating Kinetic And Potential Energies
I used to be able to do this and convert the units, manually and easily, but now I use web calculators.
Kinetic Energy Calculation
I use this kinetic energy calculator from omni.
Suppose you have a nine-car Crossrail Class 345 train.
- It will weigh 328.40 tonnes, according to my detective work in Weight And Dimensions Of A Class 345 Train.
- There will be 1,500 passengers at 90 Kg. each or 135 tonnes.
- So there is a total weight of 463.4 yonnes.
- The train has a maximum speed of 90 mph.
Put this in the calculator and a full train going at maximum speed has a kinetic energy of 104.184 kWh.
The lithium-ion battery in a typical hybrid bus, like a New Routemaster has a capacity of 75 kWh.
So if a full Class 345 train, were to brake from maximum speed using regenerative braking, the energy generated by the traction motors could be stored in just two bus-sized batteries.
This stored energy can then be used to restart the train or power it iin an emergency.
Out of curiosity, these figures apply to an Inter City 125.
- Locomotive weight – 2 x 70.25 tonnes
- Carriage weight – 8 x 34 tonnes.
- Train weight – 412.5 tonnes
- Passengers – appromiximately 700 = 63 tonnes
- Speed – 125 mph
This gives a kinetic energy of 206.22 kWh
And then there’s Eurostar’s original Class 373 trains.
- Weight- 752 tonnes
- Speed 300 kph
This gives a kinetic energy of 725 kWh.
If a 75 kWh battery were to be put in each of the twenty cars, this would be more than adequate to handle all the regenerative braking energy for the train.
There would probably be enough stored energy in the batteries for a train to extricate itself from the Channel Tunnel in the case of a complete power failure.
Potential Energy Calculation
I use this potential energy calcultor from omni.
Suppose you have the typical cartoon scene, where a ten tonne weight is dropped on a poor mouse from perhaps five metres.
The energy of the weight is just 0.136 kWh.
I’ve used kWhs for the answers as these are easily visualised. One kWh is the energy used by a one-bar electric fire in an hour.
London To Get Three New Market Halls
This article in the Standard, describes the start of an interesting new venture.
This is the first few paragraphs.
Mannequins will make way for food stalls at the former BHS store in Oxford Street as it transforms into a bustling hub for foodies under plans to open as the UK’s largest food hall.
BHS ceased trading in 2016 and the site sat largely empty until Polish fashion label Reserved moved in last year. Now, the remaining space at the beleaguered department store chain will be the flagship branch of a new venture bringing three permanent food markets to the capital.
A disused Tube station ticket hall in Fulham and a former nightclub in Victoria will also be transformed.
Between them the markets will feature more than 50 bars and eateries, including outposts of well-known London restaurants and street food traders as well as a smaller number of start-ups.
The venue in Oxford Street will certainly be handy if I need a spot of lunch, when I’m in the area.
But will it make the streets more crowded? Or will Crossrail and pedestrianisation give everybody a lot more space?
Elizabeth Line Delivery To Top Original Forecasts On New Homes Created With Property Values Expected To Soar
The title of this post is the same as this article on City AM.
This is the first three paragraphs.
The number of homes and jobs created due to the development of the £14.8bn Elizabeth Line is set to greatly surpass expectations, according to a new report by commercial property agency GVA.
The research, commissioned by Crossrail, found that the impact of the new railway on the creation of new homes and impact on property value, is set to be significantly greater than GVA originally predicted in a 2012 report.
GVA expects 90,599 new homes along the route by 2021 – higher than the 57,000 new homes predicted in the previous report. GVA also expects a £10.6bn increase in property values within 1km of an Elizabeth Line station by 2021.
Although, there are lies, damned lies and forecasts from property consultants, the significance here, is that both surveys were done by the same company.
From personal experience, I know that London’s last big railway project, the Overground, had a similar beffect.
I think these and other rail developments will increase property development and values in the next few years.
- Birmingham electrification and new train fleet.
- Blackpool and North-West electrification.
- Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Program
- Exeter local services expansion.
- Hasting’s HighSpeed services from St. Pancras
- Manchester Metrolink expansion.
- Merseyrail’s new train fleet.
- Midland Metro expansion.
- Ordsall Chord
- Southend Branch improvement and new trains.
- Thameslink
- Tyne and Wear Metro’s new train fleet
Before buying a house look at what is happening to the trains and trams.
Why Did I Get The Samsung QLED Television With The Faulty Screen?
These pictures show the screen omn my new Samsung QLED television.
Notethe shadow down the screen.
You don’t expect that, with the price I paid.
I shall be going into John Lewis today.
Kim Quite Dim!
The name was used by Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull in a Radio 5 interview with Rhod Sharp at four o’clock this morning.
Up All Night is always a good listen, when sleep is difficult.
Thoughts On The National Lottery
The phone-in on BBC Radio 5 Live this morning is discussing the National Lottery.
I sent in this text.
The lottery, like religion, is just another way to extract money from the poor. If people need the buzz of gambling, there are much better ways of using sums of surplus money like local charities, crowd-funding bob-sleighers and peer-to-peer lending.
The lottery has served it’s purpose, but no politician dare kill it!
I doubt it’ll be read out!
Open Banking
Open Banking – Not for me.
But as a retired world-class programmer, I can envisage an AI-based computer system, that you can run on your laptop to guide your financial decisions!
In my lifetime, I have come across various pieces of financial advice, that proved to be totally crap.
For a start, I’ve met at least four people, who used the strength of the Icelandic banking system to lose all their savings.
Every financial expert told me not to touch Zopa. But it has paid me five percent before tax on my savings for ten years.
There’s an old City joke.
The best way to make a small fortune is to give a large one to a financial adviser.
Many a true word was spoken in jest.
The Anonymous Widower 