Blue Sky Thinking

The problem with wind power is that it stops generating when the wind drops.

If only you could find a consistent, strong source....well, actually, there is such a source: The higher you go, the better it gets.

So-called high altitude winds are the next target for wind turbine designers. No, they're not planning on building even taller turbines, they're looking at ones on mountains and even airbourne versions.

The latter is pretty interesting. They're still just concepts, but the idea is to send up giant kites with turbines mounted on them (see picture above). Weird, but at least one company (Joby) thinks they can do it. More here.

UK Government Cuts Investment In Renewables

The Tories came to power a few weeks ago promising to be the greenest government yet. Now they've announced they're cutting investment in green energy by £34m! Nice work, Cameron, where are your green credentials now? It'll take a few more miles on that poser bike of yours to make up for that lot.

This is the time to invest for the future: Green industry will provide jobs and contribute big bucks to our economy; oh, and, by the way, reduce carbon emissions.

More here.

2009: Strong Growth in Green Energy

60% of electricity capacity added in Europe last year was renewable. In the U.S. it was over half. And renewables could outstrip fossil fuels worldwide in 2011.

Green energy finally seems to be gathering momentum inspite of the global recession, failure of Copenhagen and (temporarily) falling oil prices. Looks like we've finally turned the corner on this front. See here for some great background detail.

The next area to see progress may be green cars. I see major change there soon. We just need more choice and there could be a rapid take-up.

Hottest June Ever

Yes, that's right, June 2010 was the hottest June worldwide since records began. By my reckoning that makes 5 out of the last 6 months this year to do that. See here for more.

Climate scientists predicted that 2010 would turn into the hottest year on record and, at this rate, it's going to do that with ease.

Still, an even more sobering thought is that we haven't had a month with temperatures below the 20th century average since 1985....

Nuclear Fusion Anyone?

When we think of nuclear energy, we usually think of nuclear reactors like Sizewell, Dungeness, Chernobyl and 3 Mile Island.

These reactors are often touted as part of the way to reduce carbon emissions by replacing coal, oil and gas powered stations (I believe the UK government is considering them for example).

However, we all know the problem with nuclear plants: Nuclear waste.

Or, at least, that's the problem with the plants so far, which all use nuclear fission.

Now, however, they're working on a fusion reactor in southern France which could pave the way to limitless, clean energy.

The reactor, called Iter, uses the fact that, when you push together atoms lighter than iron, and 'fuse' them, energy is released. No radioactive material is used in the process, so there's no radioactive waste.

Nuclear fission, on the other hand, splits heavy atoms apart to produce the same sort of energy. This involves the use of materials like uranium and plutonium, so the waste is radiactive.

Iter is the first of it's kind in the world and is a joint project between the EU, South Korea, the US, Russia, Japan, China, and India. It's not finished yet, will cost about £12 billion, and it's not even certain that fusion will produce enough energy to justify the enormous costs!

Still, there's obviously a great deal of interest, and with good reason: Limitless, clean, and reliable energy is the holy grail of our times.

The project will probably start producing around 2016.

Still Going Strong!

I've been doing this blog for 6 months now. Not bad going: I didn't think I'd be able maintain the output this long.

It's been an interesting journey. I've learnt a lot about the climate change issue and the exciting things that have been going on it's name.

All sorts of stuff on it's way for solar power, electric cars, fuel cells, possible key climate change bills and more.

I can also see the writing on the wall for carbon emissions: Even if the politicians can't get their act together on a worldwide agreement, economics will do the job anyway as the price of increasingly hard to find fossil fuels goes up and a renewables 'war' breaks out between China and (mainly) the U.S.

Fingers crossed, the economic route is fast enough to cut emissions to required level.

2 Degree C Rise May Be Too Much

A study conducted by Stanford University climate scientists has concluded, amongst other things, that a 2 degree rise in temperature across the globe could be devastating to US health and agriculture (See here).

You might remember that 2 degrees is the upper limit of what most governments of the world are aiming at with their climate policies. Time for a re-think?

Solar Impulse Completes Flight

After 26 hours in the air, the solar powered plane I mentioned yesterday, has landed safely. What's more, after the night time part of the flight, they still had enough stored energy in the batteries to fly another 3 hours in darkness.

The next step will be a transatlantic flight.

Solar Plane Takes Off for 24 hour flight

Solar Impulse, a completely solar powered plane, took off today for the start of a 24 hour test flight. Yes, that's right, they intend to fly through the night. The plan is to charge the batteries during the day part of the flight and use that power to keep it going through the night. More here.

The ultimate aim is to do a round the world trip in a couple of years time and show the potential of solar power to aviation and transport generally.

I think solar powered airliners are decades away yet but this might be a good way of saving fuel in the nearish future.

Let's not forget what an amazing feat of engineering this looks like being: An aircraft that can take off, fly for a day and night, then land again without using a drop of fuel! That's just incredible.

'Climategate' University Exonerated....Again

The third and final inquiry into so-called 'Climategate' has cleared the University of East Anglia (the Uni at the centre of this non-event) of any dishonesty. In other words, claims that the emails hacked from their computers proved that they were fiddling climate change data were wrong. See here for more.

These inquiries have shown Climategate up for what it really is: A cynical, political act designed to scupper any chance that the Copenhagen conference might have had of being a success.

Predictably the climate deniers are already calling "white-wash!" because they didn't get what they wanted from any of these inquiries. There are even plans to kick-off their own inquiry (We can guess the result of that one!). But any reasonable person should believe the findings of 3 independant commitees.