Will North African Solar Panelled Deserts Result in Cheaper Energy
Solar Panelled Deserts
The deserts of North Africa are now being considered to supply Europe with energy generated by massive solar paneled farms. The idea is now a very attractive one now that the numbers have been crunched to see if harvesting the deserts of North Africa could actually be viable, the answer is yes, the figures are a little pricy but that was always going to be the case on such a large scale project, £337 billion pounds is the estimated to cost to build the infrastructure to transport the vast amounts of energy from Africa to Europe, the answer has still to be found if this will result in green cheap gas and electricity for the European customers.
The plan has the backing of Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown is said to be keen on the idea.
We are going to run a poll on the idea to see who thinks this could be the way forward in supplying Britain and Europe with green energy, Please leave your vote.
There is an excellent movie highlighting the madness of our dependence on fossil fuels out in cinemas the USA at the moment. ‘Fuel‘ from Josh Tickell was the winner of the prestigious Audience Award for Best Documentary award at the Sundance Film Festival. The film has had such an impact that Mr Tickell won an award at the IREO UN Renewable Energy Awards. He has also been named a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador! Not bad work if you can get it……………..
Here is the trailer for Fuel, featuring ex-oil baron JR Ewing (Larry Hagman)!
Sadly, i can’t seem to find anything about a UK release date – so we may have to wait for the DVD to appear in the UK.
We are in the midst of unprecendented economic times. The strain on every household and business in the UK is currently being sorely tested. Monthly bills including telephone, broadband, food and drink are all becoming more and more difficult to manage for many people. With this in mind, where do your energy bills feature in the hierarchy of priorities? and is obtaining your energy from ‘green’ sources as importanat to you now as it ever was?
We thought that you may wish to fill in our poll on this matter, the results could make for some interesting reading:
The upcoming United Nations COP15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is the most vital international climate change conference since Kyoto in 1997. This conference is important for a host of reasons, partly due to its timing and also due to the fact that the climate change sitaution is actually alot worse than was previously thought.
Latest scientific research presented climate scientists in Copenhagen confirms what many had privately feared: we are on track for the worst case scenario set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change two years ago, and the instabilities in the climate system coupled with the fact that many natural carbon sinks are beginning to fail mean that it could be worse still.
All the latest climate science suggests global average temperatures are rising in line with expectations, but carbon emissions are rising faster than anticipated and natural systems are responding more dramatically than expected to even modest temperature rises.
The Copenhagen conference also comes at a prescient time for the world economy. Since Kyoto in 1997, there have been many changes to the world climate change scenario. The USA has been replaced by China as the largest greenhouse gas emitter (Brazil and Inonesia aren’t far behind), and oil prices have soared – reminding us that fossil fuels are a finite resource that require a sustainable replacement.
We can only hope that this time of crisis brings the various governments of the world together, and provides us with a wide ranging and comprehensive agreement which will provide a framework within which to develop a sustainable green energy future.
What would you like to see agreed in Copenhagen this December?
It is being reported that the gods at Google are planning on looking into green and cheaper energy solutions, at Google they understand that they have a large part to play in the future development of renewable energy, after all they do dominate most of the internet market, just think how many computers they are linked up to not including their internal structure, hats off to them for taking the responsibility, I think it will be interesting to see what they come up with over the coming years, they have proved to be the most intelligent of the internet search engines and are known for attracting the best in the business so it will be interesting to see who they employ to take charge of their climate changing challenges.
Of the renewable energy sources Hydropower is the most established of them all. Hydropower has been used for centuries when the likes of water mills where used to generate power but in the last couple of decades turbines have been used to convert the flow of water into electricity, generally the modern systems is a dam across a valley that holds back a river until the water builds up to a certain level then it gets released through the water will turn the turbines, the movement of the turbine gets passed through to the generator and creates green energy.
Renewable energy is the way forward if the world is going to survive, We can try and predict the future but to be honest nobody knows what kind of stage our planet is coming to in its life, We can blame this and that but the truth is it might have happened anyway – probably not, but we never know, the only thing we can try and do is reverse the mess we think we caused, we have been polluting the air in a massive for around 300 years now and if what we are being told is correct then the planet has had enough. There is many renewable energy sources being touted around now that governments are taking action and one of them is Manure. What a great way to recycle. Just one of the places to take this up is a farm in the Green Valley Dairy in Krakow, Wisconsin, USA, It generates around 4 million kilowatts hours, of energy a year and is enough to power up to 400 homes for a full year with green electricity, by collecting manure from 2500 cattle, This helps everyone out and more and more farmers are taking up the idea as the energy prices continue to rise while the costs of generating renewable energy continue to fall – in return the they are cutting Co2 emissions, making money and cutting costs at the same time, No brainer.
Scottish and Southern Energy has put the cat amongst the pigeons by announcing that is is seriously considering price cuts in the new year. There is no indication from SSE as to the level of these reductions, although Price comparison service energyhelpline.com has said it expects energy bills to be cut by between 10% & 20%.
SSE Chief Executive Ian Marchant told Times Online:
“We have now seen three to six weeks of prices coming down on the wholesale market,” he said. “We would expect to be able to pass on cuts to consumers in the new year… If we can get prices lower and still make an acceptable margin, it will reduce the political and regulatory risk.”
Obviously, as consumers, we are delighted by this news. Hopefully, the rest of the big six energy suppliers will follow suit and give us all something to cheer in the new year. After this years hefty price rises and the current economic climate any extra cash in our pockets from cheap electricity has to be welcomed. We will be looking to SSE with interest in the new year.
The sheer stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze us. I came across this story on the BBC website last week – apparently a couple of bright sparks decided to steal part of the base of an electricity transmitter in Middlesbrough. The truly amazing thing is that this is not a one-off occurrence:
……….. in the past 18 months, three copper thieves had died and six others had suffered horrific injuries breaking into an electrical substation.
A number of electricity supplier uk have had to release warnings on the dangers of meddling with electrical equipment. Although, quite how you reach people as flat-out daft as this is anyones guess.
It is being reported that the gods at Google are planning on looking into green and cheaper energy solutions, at Google they understand that they have a large part to play in the future development of renewable energy, after all they do dominate most of the internet market, just think how many computers they are linked up to not including their internal structure, hats off to them for taking the responsibility, I think it will be interesting to see what they come up with over the coming years, they have proved to be the most intelligent of the internet search engines and are known for attracting the best in the business so it will be interesting to see who they employ to take charge of their climate changing challenges. 
