Southern Electric launched ‘POWERFUEL’ this afternoon their latest energy product tailored specifically for electric car owners.
Customers also have the option to sign up to POLAR new membership scheme giving electric vehicle owners the ability to ‘charge where you are’.
As part of SSE – Southern Electric is hugely involved in the generation, distribution and supply of electricity & gas. SSE is the leading generator of electricity from renewable resources.
Cambridge is often referred to as the “City of Cycling”. Over 20% of trips in Cambridge are made by bike. The question is how other cities in the country can achieve a figure even close to this amidst a primarily automotive backdrop.
At first glance Cambridge just looks like any other quaint tourist town in the UK, lovely views, period architecture and the odd pedestrianised area. That is, until you look a bit closer and begin to see cyclists, bike parking and bike shops everywhere you go. However possibly the biggest shock is the courtesy and respect shown to cyclists by the drivers in Cambridge. There is a distinct lack of aggressive bus drivers or abusive motorists everyone just seems to get along.
Upon touring the city centre bikes truly are parked everywhere; chained to railings, bike stands or even with just a wheel lock. It turns out Cambridge really does have a large amount of dedicated parking for cyclists. There is even an example of a multi-storey carpark which has the ground floor solely for cyclists.
One theory is that the large student population is partly responsible for the number of cyclists as undergrads aren’t allowed a parking permit unless there are special circumstances. Now so you can put that to scale Cambridge has a population of around 120,000 and the student body accounts for approximately 45,000 of that. Thus in broad terms over 30% of the population of Cambridge have no real use for a car.
According to the Cambridge Cycling Campaign spokesperson, Cambridge was extremely fortunate during the 60s and 70s when most cities were in a rush to increase their motor traffic and automotive facilities. Yet the whole thing just seemed to bypass Cambridge and therefore people simply continued to cycle.
However it takes more than luck for an idealistic idea to last this long, credit must also be attributed to the people who teach and encourage the next generation to cycle and continue it as part of normal life. If anything Cambridge should be held up as a model of what we should be trying to implement in any modern city.
Im sure most of you are aware of TED (Technology Entertainment Design) and the myriad of inspirational talks that are available to watch online. Incase you haven’t, TED invites leading thinkers to deliver talks that will ‘spread ideas’ on a variety of subjects. As you can imagine there are some truly great talks on energy, we thought that we would highlight a couple of our favourites.
Bill Gross talks about his new energy ideas
An exceptionally intelligent individual, Bill Gross has been interested in solar power since he was a teenager. Over the years this interest has developed and he has set up several companies, amongst them Idealab.
In this fast paced talk Bill talks a little about where his interest developed, what he is working on now (a revolutionary portable solar power system based on pedals which adjust their positioning to the sun – the pedals cost $1 each), and his thoughts on the future of energy – where he believes that ”we are so casual about energy” – and proceeds to criticise the number of lights on the stage he is presenting on! A great talk, well worth 20 minutes of your time.
The wind energy kits of Saul Griffith
A shorter but no less remarkable talk than Bill Gross – here, inventor Saul Griffith talks about (and demonstrates by video) his incredible giant kite system that could generate wind energy.
These are just two of our favourite talks on energy – there are a great deal more on the TED website. Let us know if you have a favourite!
Yep, more bad news folks, yet another member of “the big six” energy companies has jumped on the price increase bandwagon. This time it’s British Gas raising prices, and by as much as 24% in some areas. Now with their previous history people must be aware, that the rest of the energy pack wont be far behind when it comes to bumping up their prices.
So with people now wondering, are the days of cheap gas and electric a thing of the past. We thought it would be rather prudent of us, to give some information on what is looking more and more like the smart choice. We’re talking about fixed rate tariffs, and you’ll need to be quick as it doesn’t look like they’ll be around on their current terms for long.
Fixed rate energy tariffs are essentially a long term contract (usually around 2 years) whereby the energy supplier, promises to keep the cost of your gas or electricity constant for the length of the contract. The benefit is that your prices stay the same even if the prices across market shoot up. However the flip side is, that if prices drop yours will stay the same.
That being said, its essential to do your sums as you will usually have to pay a slightly higher rate on a fixed tariff. In short you’re gambling that prices will rise above what you pay just now.
So if you’re worried about the rising cost of your energy bills, pretty confident about more increases in the coming year and have done your homework then a fixed rate tariff could be just the thing to save you some money.
In the future, historians will look back to 2011 and see a very different year to the one that we see now. This will be because events that haven’t taken place yet will put 2011′s concerns into context. Will hydrogen replace oil? Will all the planet’s electricity one day be from renewable sources?
For now, all us ordinary mortals can do is listen to the politicians and read the newspapers. It looks right now like Germany could be the first of the nuclear nations to go non-nuclear, meanwhile Alex Salmond’s new government in Scotland look set to make renewables big business and increase green energy production by a very large percentage over the remainder of this decade.
Where do you think the future lies, not just for the UK but Europe as whole? Are we headed for a situation where there’s a mix of nuclear and renewable, or will renewables take over eventually? And what about fossil fuels? How much longer will they be part of the mainstream?
The only thing that will tell is time. until then, let’s share our best guesses as to what the future holds.
The Guardian ran a fascinating energy story towards the end of last week, saying that more people die each winter in the coldest 25% of housing. And not only that, says the report – there are other health problems associated with cold accommodation.
This go me slightly concerned as in some ways I’ve always preferred my living space to be too cold rather than too warm. There have been unpleasant extremes of cold though, ones that I didn’t enjoy – one rented flat I lived in for a while during my twenties was so cold that you’d go to bed wearing jeans, t-shirt, two jumpers, jacket, Timberland boots and a Kangol hat. Yup – real horrible coldness that just makes you miserable.
Of course most of the people whose lives are at risk from cold temperatures are the elderly, but the Guardian piece also highlights that young pople living in cold accommodation are more at risk of mental illness.
The issue here is of course about energy efficiency – making sure homes have modern heating systems and modern means of insulation. And it’s probably about time that we, as one of the richest (but definitely not the warmest) nations, gave some serious thought to making sure that in the name of health and in the name of the environment, all houses are warm enough.
Hi, and welcome to new Energy Watcher. We’ve moved over to our own web space, and got a whole new shiny URL of our own, so be sure to bookmark it if you’ve just found your way across from our Friendster page.
I hope you like the new design – why not drop us a comment and tell us what you think of the new look?
Anyway , this post is really just to say hello (and test the blogging platform) normal service will be resumed in next post.
Well, it’s definitely been a big couple of weeks in the news as far as energy is concerned. The tidal wave in Japan and its effect on the Fukushima nuclear plant have made many reconsider their position on nuclear power. Some people are now against nuclear and some, like george Monbiot in teh Guardian, are claiming that they now are in favour.
For a seasoned energy watcher like myself it was difficult not to think back to Ukraine 1986 but of course these are very different incidents. The Ukrainain plant was from a different era, and the reactor was built from different materials. Comparing Fukushima with Chernobyl isn’t enlightening.
What is the likely outcome? Well, in situations like these, valuable lessons are learned. One of the reasons that Japanese construction is as safe as it is comes from centuries of earthquakes. Japan is highly unlikely to pull the plug on nuclear power just yet.
Nuclear will remain part of the mix for some time yet, I think. Probably even for the rest of our lifetimes to one extent or another. But this doesn’t mean that nuclear was anything other than a transitional technology. It’s just that transitions take time.
Have you ever wondered how they make sure the UK has enough power supplied to it over the course of a day? Managing the grid means taking decisions to keep supply levels up, but not generating too much electricity – a fine balancing act. Modern technology means that extra electricity can be created at the push of a button, (and release of lots of water from a dam).
The electricity supply is obviously vital to the country, so it’s interesting to see this device that gauges the current state of the grid. Although as it states on the site – the ‘danger zones’ at either side are in reality much further away = they’ve just been squeezed in so that you can see that they’re there.
There’s been some talk lately about how the internet is moving towards being mobile. This means big change in terms of the way we interact with the net. Where once it was a matter of sitting in front of a big screen, with a PC plugged into the mains, people are – in greater numbers all the time – accessing web pages via a wide range of portable and mobile devices.
Just look at the travellers on any commuter train. Half of them will be staring into the small screen of their Android, Symbian or Apple OS phone. Some will be catching up with the latest news from the website of their newspaper of choice, others (including me) will be trying to figure out how to get three stars on every level of Angry Birds (then giving up and seeking assistance from a YouTube video) and then there will be the people who only ever seem to do the facebook thing on their smartphone. It’s a whole new world…
And it’s a whole new world that’s just gotten newer with the proliferation of tablet computers. Small enough to take on the bus, big enough to use the internet without squinting and magnifying the page.
Unsurprisingly, tablet devices don’t use as much juice as a PC with a disk drive, screen, fans, optical drive and so on. But how green are they?
Well, a quick swatch at the Apple site for the new ipad brings up this information:
