The Apathy Society At Liverpool University
BBC Radio 5 is talking about unusual clubs.
At Liverpool University in the 1960s, a group of students tried to form the Apathy Society. In the end, it folded as no-one could be bothered to write the constitution!
The problem was if you didn’t have a constitution, you couldn’t get funding.
Largest Offshore Wind Project In UK Reaches Development Milestone
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
An application to build the up to 4.1 GW Berwick Bank, the UK’s largest offshore wind farm, capable of providing enough electricity to power more than five million homes, has commenced determination, SSE Renewables said.
These two paragraphs outline the current status of the project.
Located roughly 38 kilometers off the East Lothian coast of Scotland, Berwick Bank is the largest offshore wind farm planning application to be submitted in the UK to date and one of the largest globally.
The consent process for the onshore elements of the project has now opened, which is being considered by East Lothian Council.
This process runs alongside the offshore consent process, which kicked off in December 2022 and is being considered by the Scottish Government. A final decision by authorities is expected later in 2023.
SSE Renewables hope to deliver first power by 2027.
Centrica And UK Infrastructure Bank Announce Significant Investment Into Sustainable Electricity Funds
The title of this post is the same as that of this press release from Centrica.
This is the sub-heading.
Funds set to help supercharge UK’s transition to cleaner, greener energy
These four paragraphs outline the investment.
Centrica and UK Infrastructure Bank have today announced they are investing up to £265 million in sustainable energy storage to help drive the country’s transition to a cleaner, greener and more resilient electricity network.
The proposed investment will support the development of new energy storage, following the Bank’s expression of interest to find innovative ways to fund and increase the nation’s storage capacity.
The Bank will invest £75 million on a match funding basis into the Gresham House Secure Income Renewable Energy & Storage LP (SIRES) alongside a £65 million investment from Centrica.
UK infrastructure Bank has committed to invest £125 million on a match-funding basis into Equitix UK Electricity Storage Fund.
Note.
- Centrica describes itself on its web site, as an energy services and solutions company.
- The Wikipedia entry for the UK Infrastructure Bank, says it is a British state-owned development bank.
- The Equitix web site has a mission statement sating it is a responsible investor, investing in, developing and managing global infrastructure assets, which materially contribute to the lives of the communities they serve.
By supporting two energy storage funds, it is to be hoped that more electricity storage is added to the UK electricity network.
This is a paragraph in the press release.
Currently National Grid forecasts show that up to 29 GW of total storage could be needed by 2030 and up to 51 GW by 2050. This is a huge increase on the 5 GW currently available and means there is a clear need to accelerate deployment of capital and investment in new storage projects.
I doubt there will be any problems deploying new energy storage.
The press release then has a paragraph on what each fund will do with the money.
Gresham House Secure Income Renewable Energy & Storage LP (SIRES)
I will pick these important points from the paragraph.
- Centrica and the UK Investment Bank will invest on a matched funding basis.
- Centrica will be a cornerstone investor, and this marks the first time the business has invested in such a fund.
- Collocation of renewable generation and short duration electricity storage facilities to help maximise grid connections.
- The seed asset will be a collocated solar and battery energy storage project in Hartlepool, County Durham, with 50 MWp solar capacity and 75 MWh of battery energy storage.
- Centrica will seek to provide a route-to-market for the assets in the fund once they become operational.
You could almost consider this a When the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine fund.
Equitix UK Electricity Storage Fund
I will pick these important points from the paragraph.
- The Bank will support the launch of the fund by committing to invest up to £125million on a match-funding basis.
- The fund will focus on a combination of innovative business models across both short and long duration storage. Short duration strategies may include installation in households and at underutilised commercial premises, as well as co-location.
- The fund will also aim to deploy a range of long duration storage technologies, such as pumped-hydro.
Does a range of technologies mean that they will support new storage technologies?
Hulam Farm, Hartlepool
This page on the Lightsource-BP web site is entitled Proposed Solar Installation At Hulam Farm.
This is the first paragraph.
The proposal involves Lightsource bp funding the development of a solar installation that will connect into the local electricity network, with an output power capacity of 49.9MW (Megawatts).
Could this be the solar part of the Hartlepool project mentioned in the press release?
- Lightsource BP are experienced funders of solar farms.
- Gresham House have built many batteries of the size needed.
- I don’t think technically, there will be too many problems.
I shall watch this development with interest.
What’s In It For Centrica?
I have to ask this question.
Consider.
- Centrica is part-owner of the 270 MW Lincs offshore wind farm, which was commissioned in September 2013.
- Centrica is half-owner of the 194 MW Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farm, which was commissioned in March 2009.
- Both these wind farms have separate substations in Lincolnshire.
- Centrica also have interests in two onshore wind farms in Scotland, that have a combined capacity of 98 MW.
I wonder how many times these wind farms have been shut down because of too much electricity?
Will Gresham House pit batteries on these sites?
UK Launches GBP 160 Million Floating Wind Funding Round, Industry Not Satisfied With Investment
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
The UK Government has announced that up to GBP 160 million in grant funding will be made available for certain investments for the floating offshore wind sector
These three paragraphs outline the scheme,
The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has established the Floating Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme (FLOWMIS) to distribute GBP 160 million in funding to support critical port infrastructure that could enable the delivery of floating offshore wind.
Through this scheme, the government hopes to enable the delivery of the country’s 5 GW 2030 deployment ambition by securing additional suitable port capacity necessary to scale up and accelerate floating offshore wind deployment in the UK, as well as to increase capability in the UK floating wind supply chain, drive cost reduction, and the commercialisation of floating offshore wind technology.
In addition, the government hopes that this scheme will deliver industrial growth and associated regional economic and social benefits (for example, quality jobs and increased GVA).
Note.
- The scheme is called FLOWMIS.
- It seems to be geared to improve port infrastructure.
- It looks like some of these projects will be needed to support ScotWind and INTOG.
- This page on the Government web site, gives the latest state of FLOWMIS.
FLOWMIS could bring forward some interesting projects.
Riding The 112 Bus Between Brent Cross And North Finchley Bus Station
To continue on the route of the Superloop, I needed to get to North Finchley bus station, so I took a 112 bus from Brent Cross to North Finchley. I took these pictures.
Note.
- The bus was only a single-decker.
- The route was along the North Circular Road and then North on the A1000.
- The North Circular Road was grade separated but quite congested.
- The North Circular Road has a 40 mph speed limit.
- Strangely, we didn’t pass a train, Underground or Overground station.
- Both Brent Cross and North Finchley bus interchanges have reasonable amounts of space.
The journey took about 20 minutes.
I have one thought.
Creating A Route Between Harrow And North Finchley Bus Stations
This would not appear to be difficult.
- Between Harrow bus station and Brent Cross, the route would be a simplified version of the 182 route, that I wrote about in Riding The 182 Bus Between Harrow Bus Station And Brent Cross. A more direct route would be taken between Wembley stadium and Brent Cross.
- The bus would just pop in to the large bus interchange at Brent Cross and then go straight back onto the North Circular Road.
- The North Circular Road is two lanes both way.
- The A1000 from the North Circular Road to North Finchley didn’t seem too crowded.
I suspect little work will need to be done to allow Superloop to run successfully between Harrow And North Finchley bus stations.
BP Launches Plans For Low-Carbon Green Hydrogen Cluster In Spain’s Valencia Region
The title of this post is the same as that of this press release from BP.
These are the four bullet points.
- Aims to make Valencia region a leader in green hydrogen production
- Cluster to include world-scale green hydrogen production at bp’s Castellón refinery of up to 2GW of electrolysis capacity by 2030
- Supports transformation and decarbonization of the refinery, together with tripling biofuel production
- Transformation of Castellón could see bp invest up to €2 billion
This is the first paragraph.
bp today launched the green hydrogen cluster of the Valencia region (HyVal) at its Castellón refinery. Led by bp, this public-private collaborative initiative is intended to be based around the phased development of up to 2GW of electrolysis capacity by 2030 for producing green hydrogen at bp’s refinery.
It certainly is a big hydrogen-friendly project and is a roadmap of how to decarbonise an oil refinery.
This massive commitment to hydrogen makes me more certain, that bp’s offshore 50 MW wind farm twenty miles from Aberdeen, is designed to produce hydrogen for the granite city.
Are bp putting together a strategy to bring hydrogen to the world?
After all hydrogen is the only zero-carbon fuel, that can directly replace fuels like natural gas, diesel and many hydrocarbon fuels in a large number of applications.
BAE To Produce Batteries For Electric Passenger Plane
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This is the first paragraph.
BAE Systems is stepping back into the world of passenger aircraft manufacturing by partnering with a Swedish electric planemaker.
I must admit, that I’m not surprised about BAE Systems’s decision.
Aviation needs batteries for many purposes including drones, starting aircraft and auxiliary power sources, so I wouldn’t be surprised that BAE Systems know their batteries.
In The Big Beast In Your Electric Bus, I described the company’s involvement in providing batteries for electric buses in the United States.
As a former private pilot, I’m watching electric aviation with interest.
I am also an applied mathematician and control engineer and feel that electric aviation will always be playing catch up against planes powered by hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel.
Look at some of Airbus’s ZeroE designs, which use hydrogen fuel.
Discover the three zero-emission concept aircraft known as ZEROe in this infographic. These turbofan, turboprop, and blended-wing-body configurations are all hydrogen hybrid aircraft.
Although saying that there are large numbers of orders for electric airliners like this Swedish design and the Eviation Alice.
Riding The 182 Bus Between Harrow Bus Station And Brent Cross
I did this journey, which could be part of the Superloop, in good weather, and was able to take these pictures.
Note.
- The roads were not bad and were partly two lanes each way, with large roundabouts at junctions.
- I suspect the bus was going at between 30 and 40 mph most of the way.
- There was still quite a lot of traffic.
- It is a distance of about 7 miles.
- The timetable says that buses run every 10-13 minutes.
- Harrow-On-The-Hill station is next to Harrow Bus station.
- Harrow-On-The-Hill connects to the Metropolitan Line and Chiltern
- Northwick Park Hospital is on the route.
- Sudbury and Harrow Road station connects to Chiltern.
- South Harrow station connects to the Piccadilly Line.
- Wembley Central station connects to the Bakerloo and Watford DC Lines and National Rail.
- Wembley Stadium station connects to Chiltern.
- Wembley Park station connects to the Metropolitan and Jubilee Lines.
The journey took about 70 minutes, mainly because of the traffic at the road works.
I have a few thoughts.
The Route Of The Bus 182 Could Be Part Of The Superloop
I feel my journey today, proved that this would be part of a feasible Superloop leg between Harrow and North Finchley bus stations.
A Chiltern Metro
Wikipedia says this about a proposed metro service between Marylebone and West Ruislip stations.
- The Metro would have a frequency of four tph.
- It would call at Wembley Stadium, Sudbury & Harrow Road, Sudbury Hill Harrow, Northolt Park and South Ruislip.
- The service would require a reversing facility at West Ruislip.
- There would need to be passing loops at Sudbury Hill Harrow, and Wembley Stadium.
Given that the Chiltern Metro was first proposed over a decade ago, perhaps the concept could be increased in scope.
- Housing and other developments along the route may suggest that a station further out like High Wycombe might be a better terminal.
- ERTMS in-cab digital signalling is likely to be installed at some time, which would decrease headways between trains and allow more services.
- Electrification is likely in some form before 2040 and this will improve train performance.
- If Neasden station were to be rebuilt, as a comprehensive transport and residential development, I believe that this Metro service should also call at Neasden, as it would complement the West London Orbital Railway.
I believe that a review of the Chiltern Metro may mean, that an improved version is worth creating.
TfL Needs More Elizabeth Line Trains Because Of HS2 Delays At Euston
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Ian Visits.
This is the first paragraph.
Transport for London (TfL) is warning that delays to the HS2 railway may require it to buy more Elizabeth line trains to cope with the thousands of people dropped off at Old Oak Common needing to get into central London.
Given, the way they got the project management and the cost and schedule so wrong, I wonder if we can rely on this assertion.
I certainly find fault with this statement.
In an ideal world, TfL would be able to send some empty Elizabeth line trains stabled in a depot to the west of Old Oak Common station, but the location of the main depot rules that out.
The Wikipedia entry for the Elizabeth Line says this about the future service.
In May 2023, it is planned to allow trains to run from both eastern branches to west of Paddington. This will allow both more flexible, and higher frequency, services: 24 tph peak, 20 tph off-peak, and direct services between Shenfield and Heathrow. In the longer term, when Old Oak Common opens, all trains will serve Old Oak Common, with those not serving the Reading or Heathrow branches reversing there.
The service changes for 21 May 2023 were confirmed in February 2023. The peak timetable will increase to 24 trains per hour. Off-peak service level will remain at 16 trains per hour, with two Shenfield–Paddington trains extended to Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 and two Abbey Wood–Terminal 5 trains switching to Terminal 4.
Consider.
At present 8 trains per hour (tph), pass through the site of Old Oak Common station.
By reversing the trains at Old Oak Common, rather than Paddington, this will surely mean that after the 21st of May 2023, 24 tph in the Peak and 20 tph in the Off Peak will pass through Old Oak Common.
If eight tph, still go on to Heathrow, Maidenhead and Reading, 16 tph will be turned in the Prak and 8 tph in the Off Peak.
This would give more capacity, as more trains would be running between Old Oak Common and Whitechapel.
If TfL have collected the right statistics, I’m sure they can predict the number of trains needed.
It seems to me, that the most important thing that TfL can do is make sure they can turn all the trains they need to at Old Oak Common station.
How Are Trains Going To Be Reversed At Old Oak Common?
The Victoria Line can handle 33 tph between Brixton and Walthamstow Central and the Elizabeth Line could use a similar method to handle the 16 tph, it needs to turn at Old Oak Common.
A process called stepping-up is used on the Victoria Line.
- On arrival in the terminal platform, the driver shuts the train down and leaves the cab.
- A second driver gets in the cab at the other end of the train and readies the train for departure.
- When instructed by the signalling, the new driver initiates the process by which the train leaves the station.
The original driver of the train, walks to the other end of the platform, to get themselves ready to be called to step-up to another train, at an appropriate time in the future.
I suspect to use stepping-up at Old Oak Common for the Elizabeth Line will need four platforms; two through platforms for services beyond Old Oak Common and two adjacent bay-platforms for services to be turned.
In Crossrail Trains Cleared To Use The Heathrow Tunnel, I gave this detailed description from Ian of the Class 345 trains‘ Auto-Reverse feature.
Around half of westbound trains will terminate at Paddington, but to head back eastwards, once all the passengers are off, they carry on westwards to Westbourne Park, then return back to Paddington on the eastbound line.
Normally that means the train driver would drive to Westbourne Park, stop, walk through the train to the other end, then drive back. But with “auto-reverse”, as soon as the train leaves Paddington, the driver switches to automatic and starts walking through the train to the other end. By the time the train arrives at Westbourne Park sidings, the driver will be sitting in the drivers cab at the other end of the train ready to head back into Central London.
I suspect that the Elizabeth Line will use Auto-Reverse or some other nifty piece of automation at Old Oak Common.
Superloop – Will It Be The North Circular Road Most Of The Way Between Harrow And Royal Docks?
This draft map from TfL illustrates the concept of Superloop.
In this post I am considering the section of the the North Circular Road (A406) between the Hangar Lane Gyratory System, where it crosses the A40 in the West and the roundabout , where it crosses the A13 at Beckton in the East.
- This section is a grade-separated dual-carriageway all of the way between Hangar Lane and Beckton.
- Hendon, North Finchley, Arnos Grove, Edmonton, Walthamstow, Ilford and Royal Docks are not far from the A406.
- Several bus routes already run on the A406.
The large Brent Cross Shopping Centre is also just outside the A406 and a new Brent Cross West station will be opening soon.
I’ll now look at the three Northern and North-Eastern sections.
Harrow And North Finchley
This section is shown in orange.
- It calls at Northwick Park hospital and Hendon. both have rail connections.
- Brent Cross Shopping Centre could be on the route, if the A406 is used.
- London Bus 182 runs between Harrow bus station and Brent Cross Shopping Centre via Northwick Park hospital.
Could the 182 bus be extended to North Finchley, where there is a new bus station?
This Google Map shows the stations around the Brent Cross Shopping Centre.
Note.
- The railway running between the North-West corner of the map and the bottom of the map is the Midland Main Line.
- The road running between the North-East corner of the map and the left of the map is the North Circular Road.
- The road running down the right hand side of the railway is the M1, which joins the A406 in the large junction.
- The other major road to the right of the map, is the Hendon Way.
- The station in the North-West corner of the map is Hendon.
- The station being built in the bottom of the map on the Midland Main Line, is the new Brent Cross West station.
- The station in the North-East corner of the map is Brent Cross on the Northern Line.
I am certain that a Superloop bus could run from Harrow bus station and Northwick Park hospital, and visit the required number of the stations around the Shopping Centre, before trundling on to the new North Finchley bus station for some refreshment before returning to Harrow.
I feel that the Superloop bus could use the North Circular Road from the shopping centre and then turn North on to Finchley High Road (A 1000).
North Finchley And Walthamstow
This section is shown in red.
- It calls at Arnos Grove and Edmonton.
- London Bus 34 runs between Walthamstow bus station and Barnet. It runs for some of the way along the North Circular Road and passes Arnos Grove, Silver Street and the North Middlesex Hospital.
I am certain, that a Superloop bus could run between Walthamstow bus station and North Finchley, using a similar route to the 34.
Walthamstow And Royal Docks
This section is shown in lime.
- It calls at Ilford for the Elizabeth Line.
I am certain, that a Superloop bus could run between Walthamstow bus station and Royal Docks, using a the A406 and the A13.
Conclusion
After this simple analysis, it looks possible to use the use the North Circular Road between Harrow and Royal Docks.
The Anonymous Widower 