Beyond the drawing board
Would a resurgence of plans for a Severn Barrage change the rhetoric around steel, questions Gavin Harper.
There are some enormous infrastructure projects, which require great foresight and courage, often in short supply. Massive projects sit on the drawing board for years and take decades, sometimes centuries of deliberation until someone gets on and does them. Everyone then looks back with the smug glow of retrospection, and the inevitable odd gripe about cost over-runs, but the infrastructure then becomes mundane, taken for granted and part of our everyday lives.Ideas for a Cross-Channel tunnel appeared as early as 1802 after several starts and stops, it wasn’t until 1985 when tenders for promoters were invited and in 1994 the tunnel opened. Crossrail, was first mooted in 1948, after various incarnations and false-starts, in 2005 the Crossrail bill passed through Parliament and the now renamed Elizabeth line will soon be open. The idea of a Panama Canal was mooted in 1534. It took until 1904 with several failed attempts in the meantime for construction to begin in earnest. Big projects take time, and often many incarnations of proposers and delivery firms to reach fruition. ‘Cathedral Thinking’ is required.
The long view tells us that many enormous projects that at one point in time seem incredulous eventually come to pass if the idea is sound. And so, the notion of a Severn Barrage to generate electricity has rumbled on since 1925.
Why revisit these arguments now at a time, when the idea of a barrage is increasingly moot and promoting consortia have since disbanded. Two significant factors have changed in the landscape. Hinkley which Government has long championed as a ‘dead cert’ now looks fairly flaky.
Furthermore, South Wales’ economy faces serious challenges with the recent announcements by Tata. Many call for Government intervention, but many economists question the wisdom of creating more supply of steel when there is oversupply and low demand in the market. A key argument at the moment, is whether there is demand for primary steel making at Port Talbot, or whether the plant should focus on higher value add downstream operations and recycling of scrap.
What if there were a project so great in scale, that it could potentially create demand that would breathe new life into primary steel making in Port Talbot?
In 2010, plans for a Severn Tidal Barrage were scrapped by Chris Huhne. In the same breath, a host of sites for new nuclear power stations were announced. At the time, it was concluded that “other low carbon options represent a better deal for taxpayers and consumers”. With great gusto it was announced that “We are on course to make sure that the first new nuclear power station opens on time in 2018.” That now rings rather hollow. The case for Hinkley Point looks increasingly shaky, EDF’s Finance Director has resigned over Hinkley. EDF now say that they will make the decision over whether to proceed with Hinkley in early May. A prominent Director at EDF has now said that he will vote against the project. All the signs are that may need to start to think of “Plan B” to deliver zero carbon electricity. Political and industrial careers at the highest level are firmly linked to the success or otherwise of Hinkley and despite enormous political pressure for the project to succeed, experience at EDF’s Flamanville and Olikuoto sites does not bode well for power from Hinkley any time soon.
It is said that Hinkley Point will contribute 7% to the UK’s electricity demand, the Severn Barrage 5%. They are projects of a similar magnitude in terms of the contribution they could make to the UK’s electricity supplies. In 2013, Tim Yeo in a report from the Energy and Climate Change Committee concluded that ““We are not convinced that the economic case for the proposed barrage was strong enough.”. However, with the potential for significant job losses in South Wales and the need for industrial regeneration, should we consider the wider benefits of a barrage in terms of connectivity and jobs, as well as the contribution to our energy needs. Peter Hain has long advocated for the transformational impact on South Wales industries the construction of a Severn Barrage would have. Rather than reducing the investment decision down to a “strike price” do we need a more nuanced view of the potential benefits to the region.
At a time when there is such uncertainty around Tata, what might be the impact of a Severn Barrage on investment decisions around the future of steelmaking in Port Talbot were different noises to come from Government about the prospect of a Severn Barrage?
Writing in ‘The Engineer’, Antony Pryor wrote that by far the most critical construction activity would be that of the caissons in Port Talbot. Some early proposals for the barrage suggested using steel caissons, a 1987 report “Steel Caissons for Tidal Barrages” for the Steel Construction Institute, suggested that the barrage should be constructed of sheet steel piles which would then be filled with concrete or sand for strength.
A 2007 Black and Veatch report for the Sustainable Development Concession suggested that the options for caisson construction depended largely on the costs of raw materials. In a market where steel is cheap, perhaps this might be revisited. This plan which was rejected – but even a barrage design using concrete caissons will provide an enormous demand for steel.
Analysing a method of construction using reinforced concrete caissons, In a 2012 paper in the Journal “Energy”, the authors estimate that 900 000 tonnes of steel rebar would be required for the construction of the barrage. Celsa, upon opening their new melt-shop increased their capacity for producing steel rebar from recycled metal from 850 000 to 1 200 000 tonnes of steel per annum. So the barrage would create demand on a scale of Celsa’s annual output. In addition to requirements for rebar, 388 800 tonnes of steel being required for turbines, 200 000 tons of fabricated steel would be required for embankments. There is the potential for a barrage to provide enormous stimulus to South Wales’ steel industry.
Whilst we live in a globalised world, where the market determines the price of commodities and the cheapest supplier invariably wins, for an infrastructure project of this size, scope and scale, there would surely be undeniable logistical and supply chain advantages that would benefit Welsh steel makers were a Severn Barrage to go ahead.
There may also be a futher alignment as the Gupta family, who own “Liberty House” considered one of the prime contenders for a Tata rescue, also have interests in power generation and the Swansea Lagoon scheme. There are of course other options, namely ‘Tidal Lagoons”. Prof. Roger Falconer has argued that Wales would benefit from pursuing both lagoons and a barrage scheme to deliver clean electricity.
For the Severn, Prof. Falconer who has long studied the hydro-environmental aspects of the Severn, has said that a barrage provides “by far and away the most effective means of harvesting the energy” of the Severn.
Sanjeev Gupta’s plans for Port Talbot have been scrutinised from five different perspectives in today’s Western Mail. Professor Calvin Jones of Cardiff Business School is a little less optimistic about the prospects for Port Talbot under Sanjeev Gupta’s plan; he fears a “socialisation” of the clean up costs and liabilities associated with the purchase of the site. Furthermore, without primary steelmaking, the rationale for establishing recycled steelmaking at Port Talbot is thin, over “greenfield” sites. He also notes that Celsa in Cardiff, using arc furnaces to recycle steel into rebar, haven’t turned a profit since 2008.
Lib Dem AM Peter Black also expresses concerns about the loss of Primary Steelmaking which is echoed by Neath Port Talbot councillor Tony Taylor expresses concerns that Gupta’s plan to convert Port Talbot to arc furnaces to process secondary steel, would result in the loss of the deep water harbour for the import of ore. A barrage construction project, would require a dock for the manufacture of caissons before they were floated out into the Estuary. Would it also create sufficient demand for steel that primary steelmaking close to the point of use might still be viable?
Rather than the public assuming potentially open-ended liabilities with the loss of primary steelmaking in a market of low demand, perhaps our money would be better spent creating a project of such enormous scale and ambition, that would create a concentrated local demand for steel, such that the logical option would be to service it using local supply chains. The corollary benefits would be an explosion of jobs and new industrial activity in South Wales, the potential to develop marine technologies with massive export potential, a massive contribution to UK clean energy, and radically improved transport infrastructure for the South West.
The Severn Estuary represents a unique opportunity globally, with the second highest tidal range in the world. For sure, other schemes such as the Swansea Tidal Lagoon also have the potential to benefit the Welsh steel industry – but it is the sheer enormity and scale of the Severn Barrage project that has the potential to create energy, jobs and prosperity on a grand scale.
The arguments about State Aid and government intervention are likely to be well-rehearsed in the weeks and months to come. But what good maintaining additional capacity in an already well-saturated steel market, if there are not over-riding strategic reasons to maintain that supply.
Far better to stimulate demand with a bold, ambitious project of globally significant scale that Port Talbot would be well placed to capitalise upon.
Perhaps in time, we will be able to add the ‘Severnside Turbine’ to the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ and ‘Midlands Engine’.
Wales’ new car industry
In recent months, Wales’ has trumpeted the arrival of new car makers, jobs and industry. The queues for new jobs at a recruitment event for Aston Martin stretch out the door. A spirit of optimism prevailed in the first quarter of 2016 and business in Wales appeared to be on the front foot. Yet before the ink has dried on the newsprint of this great news, Tata’s shock announcement has sent seismic waves through Welsh Industry. The scale of job losses across Tata’s sites has the potential to devastate families, communities and cause untold misery. But in this highly emotive debate about the future of Tata and with the rush to defend jobs at Tata it is important that we do not lose sight of the opportunities present in the greening of Welsh Industry. Professor Garel Rhys writes in the Western Mail, 31/03/2016, that Wales’ burgeoning automotive sector could be threatened by the closure of Port Talbot’s steel industry. He goes on to say that the Government’s interest in green policies has sacrificed the UK Steel industry. I do not believe this to be the case. The firms which the Welsh Government has attracted to Wales offer a potential template for the automotive industry to do things differently. Through lightweight technologies which do not use steel we have the potential to make greener, more efficient vehicles. Alongside developing these new processes and technologies, we also need to seize the opportunities offered by green applications of steel and make cleaner processes our competitive advantage not view them as a burden. Aston Martin has announced its production of new models at St. Athan (based on an aluminium bonded bodywork structure), TVR have announced production of their new vehicle using Gordon Murray’s ‘iStream’ process in Ebbw Vale. Whilst early versions of this process used thin-walled steel, more recently Gordon Murray Design has announced “iStream Carbon” a process based on lightweight carbon fibre tubes for structure. The panels which clad the iStream structure are lightweight composites, not steel pressings. Also, we should not neglect Riversimple, a car maker with a radical new business model for automobility based in Llandrindod Wells. Their unique, small ‘Rasa; vehicle is also based on carbon fibre bodywork. In a very short period of time, the Welsh Government has managed to attract a number of diverse specialist vehicle manufacturers to Wales. What do all three of these companies in Wales’ nascent new “motor industry” have in common? None of them are reliant on pressed steel bodywork. For some time, Prof. Peter Wells & Dr. Paul Nieuwenhuis at Cardiff University’s Centre for Automotive Industry Research have argued that the present automotive industry’s “business model” is based on “pressed steel” bodywork, but that this could be a barrier to future, lightweight, efficient, environmentally sound vehicles. Lightweight vehicles have the potential to be more efficient, cleaner and greener. Whilst the loss of UK steel could affect volume car makers reliant on pressed steel in other parts of the UK, Wales’ embryonic new car industry does not appear to be reliant on this raw material. Similarly, other high-value added, premium marques such as Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley and Rolls Royce have all been looking to aluminium for lighter weight, more efficient vehicles. Around the world, large car makers like BMW are looking at scaling up carbon fibre production. Wales must look at these emerging industries and see the opportunities for industrial development and our National Innovation System as well as reflecting on our existing capabilities and proud industrial past. Steel has not yet had its day and has the potential to play a role in a clean, green future economy – only yesterday Tesla announced the launch of their US made “Model 3” electric car to great fanfare. A clean electric car based on steel bodywork – which is cheap to produce. In other domains of application, Swansea University’s ‘SPECIFIC’ project has looked at how to use coated steel to transform “buildings into power stations”, applying thin film solar cell coatings to strip steel to enable it to generate electricity. The car industry is wedded to steel for the time being; but steel vehicle production requires volume and scale. The new entrants which comprise Wales brand-new car industry are using bodywork technologies which are economic at lower scales of production when used to produce vehicles that sell into premium segments, or where novel business models can amortise the total cost of ownership. Here are great opportunities for Wales to develop knowledge, capabilities and innovative technologies that in time could shape and revolutionise the mainstream industry. The economic case for steel-making in Wales will doubtless be thrashed out in the weeks and months to come. Many are critical of “green levies” that are blamed for making EU steel uncompetitive – yet in clean industrial transformation, Wales must see the opportunities not the barriers. If it is to compete, Welsh steel needs a level playing field; both economically and also environmentally. It is important for our policymakers to factor in the carbon penalty associated with long steel supply chains from China, and also the carbon intensity of dirty production abroad. Whilst tariffs or carbon taxes could allow us to make a fairer assessment of the competitiveness of UK steel; we must not shut our eyes to the potential for innovation, new technologies and new business models. If we do not pursue green policies, we will sacrifice far more than the UK steel industry. Maps showing the sea level rise from anthropogenic climate change show the impact on many coastal villages – climate change is real and it will affect Welsh communities. Wales’ has the long-term foresight to look to firms exploiting new and innovative technologies – and in time that diversity may prove to be the key to the resilience of the new Welsh motor industry. BMW’s Moses Lake Carbon Fibre plant or Tesla’s Gigafactory all point the way to the clean industries of the future and Wales’ should ensure it looks to its future options as well as its proud heritage.Convergence on Zero for Equitable Sustainability
We brought you Richard Burton, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Tom Jones, and Michael Douglas' missus... now we're bringing you a vision of a sustainable future -- what's not to love about Wales? Having led the world into the fossil fuel revolution, Wales is now lighting the path ahead (with metaphorical high-efficiency solar powered L.E.D lights!!) towards a clean future.
Every year, the Smithsonian picks a country to focus on for it's annual folklife festival . This year they have picked Wales. So what can the U.S. learn about sustainability from the country of -- scrub that -- principality of Wales?
There is an eclectic line-up of speakers and will doubtless be some exciting information presented. To give you a sneak preview...
There is a need for a clear blueprint for the world's energy future: Rhodri Morgan, First Minister for Wales, will open the conference by discussing his nation's plan to cut fossil fuel use by 90% over coming years. Here at the HuffPo, we all got really excited about the Pickens' Plan, [here], [here], [here], [here], [here], and [here]... you get the picture! However, ultimately we need to look for durable solutions that will last beyond the very last drop of fossil fuel. CAT who are co-ordinating the Convergence on Zero event have devised an energy strategy called "Zero Carbon Britain" [I worked on the first version and am now taking part in the revision that will draw on expertise from all over the UK and beyond]. Whilst "Zero Carbon America" might seem like fantasy, as the true costs of anthropogenic climate change become clearer, the advantages of decarbonizing our economies will start to stack up in greater number. Colin Hines will be talking about "The Green New Deal," which echoes the tone of Dennis Kucinich's "Works Green Administration" proposal.
It promises to be an interesting event, and for HuffPo greenies in D.C. make sure you swing by!
Quake Shakes Japan Nuke: Facts & Fission
Today it has been reported that thousands of people have been evacuated from the area around the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant with 3000 people from within a 2-mile radius of the plant being moved for their own safety.
It seems very unclear at the moment where this is going to stop; as we go to press one article at Business Insider has stayed on top of the updates and situation.
Speaking today on BBC NEWS; Nuclear Physicist and Expert Walt Patterson provided a summary of today's problem:
It sounds as though they have a serious problem - this is the sort of thing Nuclear Engineers have nightmares about. The problem is that you can shut down the chain reaction in the reactor; but if it has been running for any length of time, it has a huge inventory of radioactive waste material from the reaction, which keeps pumping out heat. Anything up to 10% of the heat in the reactor is from these 'so called' fission products. And you can't shut it down. You HAVE to cool it. They are systems which are designed to fail-safe; as long as they all function the way they are supposed to function - the difficulty is here that we don't have any significant information about the problem in the cooling water. There is a finite probability that it will not be contained. That is the alarming possibility. I am sure that they will be doing everything concievable to ensure that the core is not uncovered."
The problem was; today, the fail-safe systems did not function the way they were supposed to function. Today's events pose the question; are Nuclear Power Stations -- with their many multiple modes of failure -- and reliance on a sequence of complex controls perfectly executed in order to maintain safe operation just too 'complex' to operate with a level of reliability that guarantees acceptable human safety?
What makes today's announcement all the more concerning, is that the future had already been foretold; not only by the critics of the nuclear industry -- but also by past events and the locals themselves. It has been known for some time that the Japan's nuclear industry's safety claims have been based on shaky foundations.
Some of these people will be the same residents, who in 2005 had their lawsuit to the Tokyo High Court thrown out -- after petitioning for the plant to be shut after highlighting the vulnerability of building nuclear power stations on active fault lines. The rejection of their case, highlighted in the Japan Times, now appears gravely flawed:
The court rejected the plaintiffs' argument that an active fault exists near the station, saying that what they claimed to be an active fault did not even amount to a fault and could not cause a quake.
In July 2007, there was the Chūetsu offshore earthquake; with a much lesser magnitude of 6.6 (and remember the Richter scale is a logarithmic scale, so today's 8.9 magnitude quake had a shaking magnitude 100 times greater).
Tepco's own website, even today [viewed after the quake 11AM BST], brazenly states:
Designed for the Largest Conceivable Earthquake: Before constructing a nuclear power plant, the site is carefully studied for previous earthquake records and geological features. This study establishes that there is no active fault under the site.
These claims today, appear downright deceitful -- although arguably Tepco are preoccupied with many more critical issues than managing their website.
Back in 2007 a Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company) representative reported: "We did not assume an earthquake of this magnitude at the time of designing the nuclear power plant,"
(And that was at the time of the much lesser 6.6 magnitude quake!) "After looking at aftershock location data, we have come to realize a fault lies right below the plant."
Greenpeace put it succintly: "The world's biggest nuclear power plant was built bang on top of an active fault line."
Back in 2007, the Mayor of Kashiwazaki, Hiroshi Aida stated that his"staff's own investigation had found that the ground on which the plant was built had been distorted and suffered several cave-ins." Less than reassuring. The 2005 ruling was already criticised back in 2007, when Tetsuji Imanaka a professor at Tokyo University Reactor Research Institute said: "The troubles in the power plant by the latest earthquake (then 2007) revealed that the government's safety checks as well as a Tokyo High Court ruling are not sufficient,"
The grid failed, leaving the plant without power to start the reactor cooling system. It is lucky therefore, that the Japanese are masters at Just-In-Time delivery. In a muddled statement from Hillary Clinton; what was initially thought to be a speedy delivery of coolant, later turned out to be generators to provide power to run the cooling systems in the absence of the grid.
After initially saying there had been no release of radiation and levels were normal, later in the day technicians had to release vapour from the plant in order to reduce the pressure; and levels of radioactivity inside the NPP control room are reportedly 1000 times greater than they should be.
The Onion's 2007 parody now looks terrifyingly accurate: "What a shame. In every other respect, that earthquake zone was the perfect place to build a nuclear reactor."
In 2007, seismologists recommended that a third of the countries nuclear power stations were closed; pending safety inspection. A big ask, as Japan then generated 33% of it's electricity supply from nuclear power; with the aim of increasing it's share further. This now looks like a vulnerable strategy.
Whilst the press release statements today were quick to reassure the public; the nuclear industry's past track-record of pernicious half-truths means that the full extent of the damage may not be revealed for some time yet. In 2007 Tepco reported 'No Harm' had been done, and a mere 1.5 gallons of radioactive water had leaked from the past. The true figure was later revealed to be 243 times more! This was only topped by the fact that despite several orders of magnitude difference in the reporting of the quantity of leaked water; the water was found to be 50 times more radioactive than initially reported.
It later emerged that a hundred or so barrels of low-grade nuclear waste had fallen over in the quake. Luckily only a "mere" couple of dozen lost their lids.
This incident undoubtedly will refocus public attention away from the industry's PR gloss and hollow safety claims. Most likely it will have seismic implications for the nuclear industry. As the spectre of Chernobyl fades in public memory an uneasy complacency has begun to permeate the corridors of power. It is easy to be seduced by the nuclear industry's silver tongue when faced with rising fossil fuel prices and the need to combat climate change - but memories are short. Lack of technical competence amongst politicians in government's worldwide leads to a poor understanding of the problems we face. Coupled with a dangerous Nuclear Amnesia this is a poor recipe for sound policy.
Today's disaster shows the danger of government's ignoring inconvenient facts about nuclear power for their own politicial gain. Japan's over-reliance on nuclear technology now looks like a decision which will cost the country dear.
Never Mind Google Streetview... We Need Google "Heat" View
Larry and Sergey, listen up guys and step up to the plate. Many people out there are asking how you are going to top Google StreetView.
Here's how...
First, take a peek into the future here, here and here....
The state of our built environment is in disarray. If we're going to reduce our energy use and green up our buildings, we need to think about the performance of existing buildings, as new-build only account for a small proportion of building stock. Over half of the world's population now lives in cities, so we can make easy gains by improving the quality of our urban built environment. This isn't the low-hanging fruit -- this is the fruit that has fallen from the tree and is now rotting on the ground.
Google, you've developed a fantastic sophisticated engine for processing imagery;
can we please borrow it to save the world?
Where to start?
If you want to find out how well your building performs thermally, a good place to start is to take a picture of the outside of your property with a thermal imaging camera. It enables you to quickly identify the "hot spots" -- where heat is being transmitted through your walls where, for example, you have gaps in insulation, poor quality windows etc.
The heat that leaks from your house is represented by different color shading. You can then do something smart about it by remedying the problem areas. The only problem is that these pictures are pretty pricey and only occupy a small "niche" in the market, and the chances are you're not going to bother.
How can we scale up a survey of our built environment's assets, and do this on a massive scale? After all, if we do everyone's at the same time and scale up the operation, it's going to be much cheaper in the long-run than taking loads of individual pictures that are never going to get taken in time to avoid catastrophic climate change.
The Google Streetview 'engine' takes pictures that are processed to form 360-degree views, using GPS units for positioning in concert with a trio of laser range scanners. The net result is that you can look down your street in a virtual world, and find a snapshot of your house.
But wait a minute... swap out the photographic cameras for thermal imaging cameras, and suddenly you could survey the energy performance of the built environment really, really, really quickly. Sure there would be some organizational challenges - you'd want to ensure that people had their heating on when you were surveying their area; there might be some issues with seasonal variation that are worked through and you wouldn't be surveying the houses under ideal circumstances, but it would be a great ready reckoner and might encourage people to take further action.
Imagine being able to go on Google Maps, switch from 'Satellite' or 'Map' to 'Thermal' and see how much heat is escaping from your badly insulated house roof? Or... how about walking down a virtual street on Google StreetView, and being able to see that your old single glazed windows have terrible thermal performance compared to your neighbors highly insulated triple-glazed windows.
Many people are blissfully unaware of their buildings energy performance -- the warm heat from inside streaming through badly insulated walls; yesterday's poorly insulated windows and cracks and air gaps. But how many of us actually pay any attention to our building's energy performance?
As well as our own actions as individuals, as a collective we've got scant information about the state of our built environment because we just haven't been collecting the data. Whilst we're now retrospectively trying to do this -- for example in the UK, where I am writing from, by requiring all homes sold or let, come with an "Energy Performance Certificate" -- the scale of the problem is simply immense and the processing power required to make sense of it all beggars belief.
It's not just collecting the data, it's a problem of collecting the right data and knowing how to manage it, as Walt Patterson eloquently described in his Chatham House working paper 'Managing Energy Data'. We've got tons of data, but it's not presented in a way that is readily accessible.
Google's maps and Street-view interface makes Geographical Information Systems (GIS) accessible to the person on the street. It organizes vast quantities of data in a way that is sensible and easy to navigate. Google are the masters' of this type of work and would be ideally placed to deliver some of the tools and techniques that we are going to need to 'manage our energy data.'
The suppliers simply aren't going to deliver effective demand-side management as long as we buy energy by the unit, as Walt highlights, "Poor performance from a customer's technology means more revue for the [energy] company. This perverse incentive has persisted ever since." With a lack of real political ambition, the state won't deliver a solution either. It needs a business that can make money from the exercise to spur innovation on.
I'm sure Google could sell advertising space to manufacturers and installers of insulation and efficient heating products; the near-perfect product placement would warrant premium charges for advertisements.
You would be able to switch between standard and thermal views at the click of a button to make sure that the blob of orange red and yellow was actually your house!
This would have great repercussions all the way round. Homeowners would be able to quickly assess the state of their house and work to improve any energy-sapping, poor thermal elements of their buildings. It would also enhance corporate social responsibility... As casual users browsed the streets of a major city, they'd quickly be able to identify that the xyz Corp building is haemorrhaging heat, and apply pressure to them to clean up their act.
It would also present few privacy problems as number plates wouldn't show up, and amorphous blobs of heat are harder to distinguish than pictures of people.
So... anyone reading this, if you know anyone who works for Google, lobby them to devote their Friday afternoons to get this project off the ground!
First Fuel Cell Tractor to Make its Debut
The recent furore surrounding biofuels and the food vs. fuel arguments, has highlighted to the world how important industrialised agriculture is to maintaining a steady food supply, and how precious our bio-productive land is. When we start diverting land to producing stuff other than food there are serious issues to be considered in terms of equity and social and environmental sustainability. When looking at the "Energy Return vs. Energy Invested" of biofuels, another serious flaw was highlighted - the carbon intensity of our industrialised agriculture systems.
In short, with ever more dire predictions about how much longer oil is going to last, there are some seriously big elephants in the room, when it comes to working out how long we can continue to feed the world's growing population for when our agriculture is so dependent on oil to produce food.
Up until now, no one has given any really serious consideration to post-carbon agriculture, we've seen a few bits of ag-machinery powered by biofuels - big deal, it doesn't take a radical leap in technology to make that work; but now we're seeing something radically different, and really exciting.
New Holland, in partnership with Iveco, look set to debut a Fuel Cell tractor in early 2009. Dubbed the NH2, the fossil fuel dependent Diesel engine, has been replaced by a Fuel Cell, which has the potential to ween farms off their addiction to oil - soon you might be seeing 'zero-carbon' foodstuffs, alongside your Organics and Fairtrade.
The idea of producing Fuel Cell tractors has been kicking around for a bit, Allis Chalmers produced a Fuel Cell powered tractor back in 1959, however, after the demo of ploughing a field of Alfalfa, it ended up in the Smithsonian. What's exciting, is that as a big noise in the tractor business, New Holland has the potential to transform agriculture completely by decarbonising one element of the food supply chain.
Via: Farmers Guardian
A Critique of Rotating Wind Towers
The news has been abuzz the past couple of weeks with news of rotating towers, which will magically extract lots of energy from the wind, and with this abundance of energy, will be able to rotate their individual floors to face any aspect. There are some nice 3D rendered architects drawing on the internet at the moment, which seem to have captured everyone’s imagination. It's a lovely concept in the 3D playground of the conceptual architect, and whilst I can see that the idea might take off in a virtual world such as second life...I'm not sold on the idea.
There are a number of reasons. Gazing into my green ball, I think that the engineering challenge is... not insurmountable - but impractical.
I. I've had the pleasure to visit a few different countries in Eastern Europe. The russians had rather a penchant for building T.V. towers in the capital cities of their satellite states. The tall buildings served as transmitters for Soviet propaganda, and by and large had some sort of observation deck at the top. Take Vilnius, Lithuania, sitting at the top of the tower, eating Cepilinai, our gastronomic feast was disturbed by the creaking of our platform as it rotated on its bearings. (I can only suppose that the reason this video has been dubbed with some music it to blur out the sound of the rotating platform creaking on its rails) It starts of as amusing - then becomes irritating by the end of the meal... so I can imagine sitting in my apartment with the rotating remote in my hand, looking at the view out of the window as the building rotates and I hear the sound of my floor creaking on its bearings.
II. Consider all the unexpected harmonics that will be set up in the central core, by a combination of rotating floors and wind turbines rotating. The Millenium Bridge in London (think Tacoma Narrows) gives us a nice illustration, of what seems like a fairly straight-forward piece of engineering, but soon turns into a nightmare. It turns out, that something as simple as the vibrations induced by people walking on the bridge (the purpose it was designed for) caused the bridge to rock uncontrollably from side to side.
III. Car lifts... The architect of one of these towers, envisages lifts in the central spine of the building, which you can drive your car into be whisked up to your respective floor, where you can park you car and get out onto your rotating room. This is a dumb idea for a number of reasons. I've been living in a block of flats with a car park out back with a pair of car lifts that move cars between two floors. Whilst it looks hi-tech, I am pleased that I have a ground floor parking space. I've had to call the fire brigade to get people out.
IV. The wind turbines. Sandwiched between two floors (which in themselves will likely induce turbulence?) how much wind energy are these turbines really likely to capture? Presumably in order to flow the wind needs to strike the building perfectly perpendicularly - the turbulence created by the adjacent floors - I am sure will disrupt any hint of laminar airflow.
It's a pretty idea, and I'm certainly not a luddite that dislikes big thinking, but what I do object to is fundamentally unsustainable ideas being jazzed up with a bit of EcoGeekery and palmed off on the open-jawed public who look on with wonder as sustainably sound.
There are some wider questions that we need to be asking in relation to tall buildings, and a bit of green window dressing doesn't go far enough to achieve the radical change required.
Environmentally and Technologically Advanced Crappers
Hot on the heels of 'Pee standing up for the Earth' come these bogtastic urinals for Europe. One pint of water per flush might be something to write home about on your side of the pond, but here in Europe, we've already seen our fair share of water-less urinals.
It turns out that the two main problems with not having water run around your loo after each pee are odor and blockage. Odor isn't as much of a problem as you would think, as specially designed traps can pretty much eliminate smells escaping. The other problem is blockage - solids and salts accumulate in the traps of waterless urinals - however, two litres of hot water a week poured down them is enough to ensure they stay clear.
Furthermore, the people at IFO have solutions for times when you just have to sit down. Some of their loos will clear the bowl using as little as two litres of water for less serious matters - whilst effectively clearing the bowl using as little as four litres - a shade over a U.S. Gallon.
Furthermore, taking water out of the equation altogether - with a solution that may seem a little extreme to the average U.S. consumer - but one which might appeal to EcoGeeks is the 'composting toilet' - now being carried at Home Depots - a compost toilet biologically digests waste to produce harmless compost as a waste product. If the balance of biological functions in a composting toilet is maintained at the correct levels then it should emit no odor at all!
Magic Machine Sucks CO2 From Air
We know the hunt for better methods of removing CO2 from the atmosphere has been on for some time now. But a group from Columbia University in the U.S. believes that they have a novel device, which can grab a tonne of carbon dioxide from the air every day in a device that will fit inside a trans-modal shipping container. The technology doesn't come at a knock down price - they estimate a unit will cost £100,000 - but we're sure by the time the Far East has a chance to "rob-n-duplicate" it and engineer out the cost, they could become a useful tool in the fight against climate change.
The group responsible is quick to highlght that there is no such thing as a "magic bullet," but with reports from Mauna Loa that the CO2 concentration in our air has crossed 387ppm (40% higher than before the great industrial revolution, where profligate use of coal turned the wheels of industry), the need for solutions is highlighted.
The team feels they can build a protoype within two years that would successfully capture a ton of CO2 from the air per day - the equivallent of a passenger flying form New York to London. But if a Boeing 747-400 accommodating 524 passengers in a typical two class layout, is flying from New York to London with each passenger responsible for releasing a ton of CO2 into the atmosphere, it would take a whole lot of "magic machines" to off-set the flight. And let's not forget how much CO2 is generated while waiting on the runway.
Moral: Don't stop getting them energy saving lightbulbs...
While it's an exciting development, we at EcoGeek won't be giving up the day-job - climate change is far from solved; however, if this technology can be scaled up, made cheap and stamped out cookie cutter style all over the world, it could be another tool in our armory in the 'War on Climate Change'.... did I sound like G.W.B for a minute there?
..and you can click here for the worldwide patent for the device.
Via The Guardian
Press "Pause" to Prevent Pregnancy
Everyone likes to daintily skirt around the problem of population when talking about sustainability. It's off limits and taboo, and the solutions are hard to get everyone to agree on. Though, we at EcoGeek have always maintained that the condom was the most signififcant environmental innovation in history.
{digg}http://digg.com/gadgets/Controlling_your_fertility_via_remote{/digg}Whilst there are plenty of 'low tech' solutions to stop...err...conception, there is now a preventative prophylactic apropos for an EcoGeek in the works. The remote control, implanted device will allow users to 'press pause' on their sperm. (although it doesn't mention whether a 'rewind' function is in the works). The device has been developed by Australian scientists, and could herald a new dawn of even more convenient contraception for men, which has the potential to keep population growth under control more effectively.
A surgeon inserts a silicon chip into the vas deferens. The fob sends out RF waves, just like the key to your car. The silicon chip converts the RF into acoustic waves, which in turn induce movement in the material, allowing it to expand and seal the tube. Sending another pulse from the key fob lets the material contract allowing sperm to pass.However, to avoid 'cross talk' with say... your cordless phone, WiFi or bluetooth.... ultrahigh frequencies are used, combined with sophisticated coding, to make sure that no mistakes can occur.
All they need to do now, is integrate a button to turn off the lights so you can save electricity.
Via Popular Science
Nanotubes: Good for the Environment...But Bad for You?
Nanotubes.... dontchajustlovethem? As nanotechnology advances rapidly, and appears to be an almost invaluable tool in the sustainable technologists armoury, being employed in a variety of next-gen technologies: Hydrogen storage, solar devices, more efficient semiconductors, and lightweight materials that could result in lighter composites all use nanotubes and other nanomaterials in their construction. They can even help turn CO2 into usable fuel!
However, Liz Borkowski from Grist has picked up on an article in the Journal Nature Nanotechnology, whose authors reckon that there could be a more sinister side to EcoGeek's favourite little allotropes of carbon... and raises the spectre of 'asbestos' - the former wonder-material turned nasty. Previously used in more applications than you could shake a stick at, asbestos was discovered to cause particularly nasty cancers.
Asbestos, is long thin crystals of a natural mineral, whilst carbon nanotubes are long thin constructions of carbon atoms. There is a cautionary tale for the adoption of new technologies, lets keep our fingers crossed that nanotubes are benign. But questions remain about what effects nanotubes have in current uses. While injecting them into rats certainly causes problems, will they really kill if simply coating the faces of solar panels?
We will certainly need to watch out for applications that might shed nanotubes. And anything that would result in inhaling the stuff should be avoided at all costs. But mosts applications should be entirely benign.
Via. Grist
A Drying Rack that Waters Your Plants
We never thought we'd be featuring a drying rack at EcoGeek, but this is too perfect to pass up. A simple design solving a simple problem elegantly.
The goal in this case is water saving - with increasing pressure on our natural resources, it makes sense to make the most of every little drop and not waste natural resources - as producing clean water requires energy, resources and infrastructure.
So designer Erdem Selek's "Planter Dish Drip" is pretty interesting. The design is remarkably simple -- just folded sheet steel the right size for you to put a plant pot into; however, as your dishes drip, the plant gets all the watery goodness rather than the drain...
And there's another incentive for going easy on the detergent.
The Linear Combustion Engine
Hybrid electric vehicles use rotary internal combustion engines to generate electricity. But what if you took the generator, and 'unrolled' it into a line, did away with all that crankshaft and flywheel nastiness, and replaced the lot with a straight bit of tube with a combustion chamber at each end?
That is the idea of researchers at the Czech Technical University who are developing a linear combustion engine, with two opposing pistons at either end of a cylinder.
The design of engine promises greater efficiency than rotary combustion engines paired with generators, however, this efficiency requires sophisticated control electronics to keep the system in check.
Because the compression ration of the system can be variable - controlled by electronics - not fixed as in a rotary engine, there is the possibility to design vehicles that will run on a wide variety of fuels.
Check out the Linear Combustion Engine Project here.
Spinning Blimp Wind Turbine
From Magenn power Inc comes an interesting new design for a wind turbine. This could be a goodyear for renewable energy. Called the 'M.A.R.S' - a fantastic acronym for the Magenn Power Air Rotor System - which promises lower costs, better performance, and enhanced environmental benefit. The turbine is a lighter than air blimp, which rotates around a horizontal axis. A unique design orients the blimp into the wind. One of the interesting facets of this technology, is that as it is anchored to the ground by a 1000 foot cable, the MARS could be anywhere up to 707 ft from its base.
The MARS blimp will come in a variety of sizes. First, in small applications that will produce around four kilowatts of power at roughly 20 cents per kilowatt. These, obviously, are useful only in off-grid situations. However, Magenn plans to create much larger MARS turbines that will produce up to 2000 kw per turbine (twice that of the world's largest wind turbines.) These would likely be cost effective in wind farms and, if implemented correctly, could even be combined with today's current farms.
This device is higher than your average turbine, but lower than other tethered turbines we've seen. Thus, you can neither see nor hear the MARS turbine, and it is able to harness unobstructed higher-altitude wind currents. But, unlike some kite- turbines that we've seen, the MARS turbine won't interfere with commercial air traffic any more than cell tower would.
We see a lot of potential for these blimp turbines in the future of wind power, and we'll be following Magenn closely in the coming months.
Pay-As-You-Go Garbage Tax
Here in the United Kingdom, a nice idea has slowly been introduced by stealth. Some very clever local councils have been dishing out "Wheelie Bins" to residents in their locale. Not just any old mere wheelie-bin. Oh no - these bins are smart. Fitted with RFID microchips, the lorries which come to collect the refuge are capable of weighing the bins to within 500 grams, and identifying the householder by the RFID code.
Although the legal infrastructure is not yet in place to charge householders as they throw refuse, the Local Government Association is poised to make proposals later this year.
By moving to measures of "green taxation", it is hoped that the populace will be encouraged to recycle and be responsible denizens. The Liberal Democrats are the only UK political party that is being proactive and vocal about green taxation - a risky strategy for winning the hearts and minds of voters, but potentially of immense benefit to the environment.
Similar schemes are up and running in Germany, where residents can pay up to 18p per kilo for unrecycled waste.
It seems that some punters are less-than happy with this stealth-technology. One local district warns against removing the embedded microchips. It will be interesting to see how this one pans out in the long run - some say charging for waste disposal using innovative technology such as this is only going to lead to an increase in fly-tipping and illegal dumping. Personally, I think that this is an interesting move in the right direction towards making people realise that disposal has a cost - and that they can help minimise that cost - and hence damage to the environment.
Grimshaw Aerogenerator
A Colossal Wind Turbine
We saw, not so long ago, how the Dutch are trying to bring a different aesthetic to wind generation by ditching the single stem support in favour of "wind trees." Now a radically different slant on the idea of generating energy from the wind comes from Nicholas Grimshaw Architects, designers of the "Biome" domes at the Eden Project in Cornwall.
In the UK, there is a target to meet 10% of the nations energy needs by 2010, at the moment, this target is on shaky foundations as the hoards of "Not In My Back Yard" protesters try and halt the progress of clean, green, generation. No sooner is a wind farm proposed, than a local action group voicing the concerns of the vociferous minority is also founded.
All of these arguments begin to make far-off-shore wind look like the sensible option, and Grimshaw has come up with a pioneering solution that looks the part for a new era of the "white heat of sustainable technology" that we are entering into.
Unlike the three bladed turbines that we have come to know which spin on a horizontal axis, the gargantuan Aerogenerator spins on a vertical axis. It looks more like a gigantic television antennae than a turbine and, when moving, I imagine confused boatmen thinking they may have stumbled upon a secret government teleportation project. And it will be huge, yes...that is a battleship in the background...for scale.
Here's a 1024 x 768 wallpaper version of the grimshaw aerogenerator we made, if you're interested.
More after the jump
Spinning at three revolutions a minute, the Aerogenerator could generate around nine megawatts, a massive amount compared to the average of around two megawatts we have come to expect from horizontal turbines. Because of the larger power output, it would be more economical to build out at sea.
The design is derived from the Darrius style of turbine, which rotates on a vertical axis – and as such is omni directional, accepting wind from whichever direction – not requiring a vane to cock the turbine into the wind.
There is also the potential with this design to harness the power of the waves and tides by sub-surface generators.
If all goes well, we could see these generators in three to five years.
All in all, the Aerogenerator looks to be an iconic design, which if proven, could be a familiar and welcome sight to our coastlines.
Via The Guardian
Wind Turbines Display Moving Images
You might have read about innovative UK consultancy XCO2's innovative quiet revolution urban turbines. Well, they have another trick up their sleeve in the form of their ground-breaking display turbines.
These turbines rely on the theory of persistence of vision – our brains ability to fuse many fast, static, images into a single moving image.
The theory is simple. The wind turbine blade has embedded within an array of light-emitting elements – high powered L.E.D's for example. These are coupled to an embedded processor, which controls these L.E.D's. For multi-coloured displays, the outputs of a red, green and blue L.E.D can be fused by the eye into a single coherent image.
When we finally start to invite wind turbines into the city, they might carry advertisements and information as we've never seen them before.
More after the jump.
pic_wind_lightsThis phenomenon can often be observed in gadget stores which sell P.O.V. clocks, which display the time by flicking a little sprung plastic element to and fro.
This design of turbine has the ability to generate additional revenue, by selling the display space to advertisers – this could result in a much shorter financial payback for the turbines, which could speed their deployment
Also, the turbines present an interesting visual appearance, which might soften the hearts of those who think wind-displays are ugly.
For EcoGeeks that want to check out what a persistence of vision displays built using L.E.D's look like, check out this DIY site, which is a fantastic resource of a collection of projects related to P.O.V displays.
Vertical Axis, Urban Wind Turbine
Innovative British Consultancy XCO2 has come up with an novel design of urban wind turbine that it believes will help wind power acheive better market penetration than other designs.
The aesthetic of the design differs significantly from the traditional horizontal axis turbine that we're used to seeing, but breaks with the tradition of horizontal axis turbines by being both vertically oriented and also helical in shape.
Named the Quiet Revolution 5, to reflect its low noise design features, the turbine incorporates a number of features into its design that are designed to minimise the audible intrusion generated in operation.
The blades of the QR5 are gently tapered, to minimise noise – the blades being constructed from carbon fibre.
The QR5 also adheres to the principles of simplicity, sacrificing the complexity of a gearbox, for a direct-drive motor. The design aims to reduce maintenance costs by making all moving parts sealed units. The design incorporates a 6kW generator, and operates in wind conditions between 4 m/s and 16 m/s.
The design has an operational life of 25 years and has been constructed to be relatively maintenance free during that period.
Assuming an average wind speed of 5.8 m/s, with 10, 000kWh being generated each year, the turbine will have a financial payback period of 15 years – however, as the price of oil continues to spiral, there is no reason why the turbine could not pay for itself in less time.