Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Ceres Power Holdings
Shares in Ceres Power Holdings (CWR.L) rose sharply this morning on the news that Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, has taken a 10% stake in the AIM-listed fuel cell company. The shares are being bought at £3.00 per share, substantially lower than the £3.25 they reached last September when Ceres announced successful trials of their domestic combined heat and power (CHP) boiler. (“Domestic Micro-CHP”)
The total investment is around £20m. Centrica will also pay £5m to Ceres in staged payments to support the development of the CHP units, with £4m conditional upon the achievement of specific milestones. The agreement will grant British Gas rights in Great Britain to market and sell the Ceres CHP unit to domestic customers for four years. Last September, British Gas commented:
“Plans are underway to move from the demonstrator prototype to field trials which will culminate in a commercially available product, but it will be a few years off before we have anything on sale to customers.”
Today’s announcement is consistent with that position, providing a guaranteed investment stream for product development, so no immediate prospect of having our own gas-powered power station. We can only speculate on the kind of take-up BG will get for this product. Those who remain skeptical of the idea that small individualistic gestures can ever change the world will no doubt dismiss it as an irrelevance. And what use will it be when the gas runs out?
These uncertainties don’t seem to bother E.ON, who have today announced a similar agreement, with Energetix Group (EGX.L), to develop a micro-CHP device. E.ON will fund the testing and evaluation of a Genlec micro-CHP system at the Energetix facility in Cheshire. The evaluation, scheduled for completion in the first half of this year, will outline the energy savings achieved during testing of the system and assess its commercial value. E.ON estimates that the device could reduce residential energy bills by up to £150 a year.
London Light Bulb ‘Amnesty’
A flyer in my weekend paper announces that Londoners are to be offered the chance to exchange two traditional light bulbs for two free energy efficient bulbs. From 11th-13th January, take your nasty old incandescent bulb along to any branch of B&Q and trade it in for a lovely new long-lasting, energy-efficient compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL). While stocks last. This is a joint project between B&Q, British Gas and the Mayor of London. According to the Mayor’s web site, the initiative is a “stunt-led PR activity across the city, [involving] above the line marketing, promotional activity, point of sale information packs”. Its purpose is to “help raise awareness of the importance of using energy efficient lightbulbs”.
http://www.london.gov.uk/sponsorship/opportunities/environment.jsp
There are so many issues and unanswered questions raised by this it’s difficult to know where to start.
- Presumably it’s OK to swap a dead bulb, we’re not told. But who keeps dead bulbs lying around just in case of a trade-in opportunity? It’s highly likely that the majority of people participating in this exercise will be presenting perfectly viable bulbs for exchange.
- I never shop at B&Q. My nearest store is about 5 miles away, in an area I never go to. Taking part in the amnesty will require a round-trip of 10 miles.
All of which devalues the ‘freeness’ of the new bulbs. As for the whole idea of phasing out old bulbs, which underlies this initiative, don’t get me started. Oh, I have.
- CFLs are not 100% satisfactory alternatives for incandescent bulbs. They’re subjectively dimmer and the light has a different quality, an effect that becomes more noticeable amongst older people as their eyesight deteriorates. CFLs are not suitable for activities such as reading, sewing or electronics. A 11 watt CFL is not equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent, despite what it says on the box. In practice, users will end up switching to 20 watt bulbs and even installing additional lights to compensate.
- CFLs tend to be longer and heavier than old-style bulbs, so they often don’t fit existing light fittings. Ceiling roses may need to be ‘beefed up’, small lampshades may have to be replaced with larger ones.
- As has been publicised recently, information on disposal is vague, inconsistent and unavailable. While the current health scare about the mercury content has been over-played, people still need to know that CFLs are different and need to be handled accordingly.
Don’t get me wrong, I support the use of CFLs where appropriate. I even have several installed in my house. I do not approve of the current blanket policy of phasing out and banning. I am planning to stockpile incandescent bulbs so that I can continue to find my way round the house in my old age.
Oh yes. Ken, that link on the flyer still doesn’t work, get it fixed.
8th January Update: At last Ken’s found someone to fix that link at www.london.gov.uk/lightbulbs/
There are some interesting snippets of information in there. Good to see that someone agrees with me that CFLs are different.
For technical reasons, the glass used to house energy saving light bulbs has to be opaque – not totally transparent, so shouldn’t be directly compared to clear traditional bulbs.
Nokia Eco Sensor Concept
I’ m grateful to the guys at Ecospace for drawing my attention to this little baby. The boffins at Nokia have come up with a piece of kit that has the potential to extend the capabilities of mobile technology to a completely new level. Or it might prove a complete non-starter that never sees the light of day. Whatever, as with the car industry, it’s a fair bet that what actually hits the shops will be nothing like this prototype.
Nokia’s key concept is to combine a mobile phone and a compatible sensing device, enabling you to “stay connected to your friends and loved ones, as well as to your health and local environment”. Applications in the frame at the moment include the local environment, e.g. weather conditions, UV levels or atmospheric pollution, and the user’s health (blood pressure, pulse rate etc), with more to follow. Perhaps they’ll develop a plugin Geiger counter. According to Nokia “You can also share the environmental data your sensing device collects and view other users’ shared data, thereby increasing your global environmental awareness”. One has to wonder why we would want to, other than giving us something new to put on our Facebook site.
Apart from being a solution in search of a problem, the Eco Sensor Concept is interesting for its ‘green’ credentials, incorporating the 3 R’s of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The use of printed electronics reduces the size of electronic components. Bio-materials such as PLA plastics and elastomers reduce the use of non-renewable inputs and require less energy. The case will be made from 100% recycled steel. The electrowetting display will use less energy than conventional screens. The remote sensor will incorporate solar cells, and may also employ kinetic or heat energy from the user.
http://www.nokia.com/A4707477#stayintouch
And apparently it’s a phone too. Not quite in the “I Want One Of Those” league yet, though.
Renewable Energy
Shares in Renewable Energy Holdings (REH.L) were up today on the news that the green technologies firm has agreed a deal to purchase the Kobylany wind farm site in Poland, which will provide 30 MW of generating capacity with an accompanying off-take infrastructure and transformer station. REH will pay €68,000 per MW of generating capacity, making a total of €2.04m. The agreement allows for an initial lease term of 25 years, with an option to extend for a further 25 years.
The annual lease payment will be €25,000 (plus VAT) with an additional annual payment of €7,000 (plus VAT) for each turbine on the site. It is expected that there will be 15 wind turbines altogether. Construction is expected to start in Spring 2008, financed by REH’s credit facility with Standard Chartered Bank. Good to see the credit squeeze doesn’t apply for renewable projects.
REH is active in wind, wave and biomass. The company owns the CETO wave energy technology, which it is developing in co-operation with Carnegie Corporation.
Home Energy Rules
The Department for Communities and Local Government has indicated that the necessary legislation for a more relaxed planning regime for domestic microgeneration equipment – solar panels, heat pumps, biomass boilers and combined heat and power schemes – will be published in Spring 2008. The results of a consultation paper, on the extension of householder permitted development rights for microgeneration, were published last month.
“The Government wants to encourage the widest possible take-up of microgeneration equipment whilst ensuring the reasonable interests of neighbours, the environment and the wider community are protected.
“In the light of the responses to the consultation, the Government now intends to provide permitted development rights for the following types of microgeneration: solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, biomass and combined heat and power, subject to specific limits and conditions that will ensure that any adverse impact on others is not significant.
“We will be bringing forward secondary legislation to implement these changes for householder microgeneration in Spring 2008.”
84% of respondents agreed with the proposal that there should be no additional permitted development rights for hydropower
microgeneration. The government “does not intend to provide permitted development rights for this type of microgeneration”.