E is for Energy

I have been posting about David Cameron’s lack of Green credentials for some time. Yesterday we saw again how Cameron is willing to put the full weight of his government and the media behind a destructive and needless energy policy that helps Big Oil and not you.

All the environmental damage that will be done can be avoided. Previous posts here have shown clearly how fracking creates earthquakes and environmental damage.

Supporting renewable energy technologies like solar wind and Hydrogen can solve our energy problems and get us off oil and gas dependency.

Cameron and his Big Oil cronies would rather bribe your local council to get access to that gas regardless of the destruction that will happen.

Don’t let him do this to our great and pleasant land! Write to your MP now and tell them to ‘STOP the madness and back renewable energy now.’

From The BBC 11 October 2013:

France’s constitutional council has rejected an attempt to overturn a ban on fracking, the controversial method of extracting gas from rock. France’s Energy Minister Philippe Martin said the ruling meant the law banning fracking, in which pressurised water, chemicals and sand are pumped underground to release gas trapped in shale formations, was now safe from other legal challenges.

From The BBC 11 January 2014:

French oil and gas company Total is to invest in the UK’s shale gas industry, it is to be announced on Monday. Total will be the first of the so-called “oil majors” to invest in shale gas in the UK, the BBC has confirmed. The process has attracted anti-fracking protests in the UK, with environmentalists fearing the technique could cause small earth tremors, water contamination and environmental damage.

When will Our voices be heard in Parliament?

76% of the people do not want fracking in the UK. David Cameron is not listening to us. He is working to make sure that your back yard or your common green spaces can be drilled by Total and other Big oil companies.

Write your MP today and let them know they can not destroy our environment for profit.

Step 1 was gaining ownership of the electric and gas grid in the UK. The national grid is, like any corporation, looking to make a profit. The cost of these profits adds 25% to the cost of your electricity and gas bills. If we buy back the grid then these costs can be reduced or eliminated.

Buying back the Grid will also stop corporate fleecing of the public by making the consumer pay for system upgrades that should be paid for by the owners of the grid system:

An Ofgem spokesperson told the BBC that over half of the £12 bill increase was not due to physical investment in the network, but was instead because of a change in accounting rules which would mean that energy firms could no longer claim back tax on the cost of replacing parts of the network.

Step 2 is to start building the grid system we need for a renewable energy future, today. The first step is to increase the grid storage capacity. In California new legislation is forcing the grid operators to build these new storage systems. We must have the ability to store excess energy produced using renewable energy. The ability to store and then use this energy is key to creating our renewable energy future today.

Ask your MP why we are not doing this now.

OFGEM has finally started showing us how the energy companies are ripping off the British public. In an article found on the appropriately named ‘Ripped-Off Britons’ cartoon Blogsite, operated by the Guardian, we get to see a bit more about how we are being fleeced.

OFGEM data for the period September 2011 to October 2013 shows that since September 2011

• Wholesale electricity price has gone up by just over 2%. NPower and British Gas have raised prices by nearly 30%
• Wholesale gas price has gone up by 8%. NPower and British Gas have raised prices by up to 35%.

The Big 6 buy from themselves at an inflated rate then say the cost of energy has gone up. What a ripoff.

If you are looking for a way out of higher energy bills, write to your MP now.

72 communities have already bought back their Grid systems. This has allowed the local community to decide how their energy is produced.

In Germany municipal utilities allow communities to focus on energy efficiency, renewables, and distributed co-generation without the need for nuclear and coal power. The study found that 60% of the installed capacity of municipals was co-generation in 2012, followed by 28% thermal capacity (fossil) and 12% renewables – putting municipals at half the national level for renewables but also as the main driver for co-generation in the country.

Here is the whole article: Recommunalization in Germany

In the UK wee need to take a first step by buying back our national grid. I have posted several times about the costs added to renewables by grid connections and the lack of energy storage capacity in the UK.

Owning the grid allows Us to decide how and where energy will be produced.

I’ve started the petition “Parliament: Stop the construction of any new nuclear electricity plants in the UK.” and need your help to get it off the ground.

Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here’s the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/parliment-stop-the-construction-of-any-new-nuclear-electricity-plants-in-the-uk

Here’s why it’s important:

Nuclear energy is dangerous and a source of pollution and radiation all over the world. The money spent building new nuclear plants can be spent building our renewable energy systems NOW! Stop wasting money on old and dagerous energy and start spending money on our future and our childrens future.

You can sign my petition by clicking here.

Thanks!

For longer than I have been walking the planet we have had the ability to make anything we want. In the first ten years of my life we went from no space program to man walking on the moon. The same companies that built the US Space Program were busy building other things. We used these companies to build weapons that were destroying a nation state and a people in the name of democracy. This proves that there are good and bad applications for our skills.

Now we have the ability to tap into an endless source of energy that can provide all the power we need for the entire planet. It is called the Sun. There were companies that  employed many British people and payed a fair share of taxes. They are no more. Sharp is yet another company to quit the solar industry because of a lack of support from the UK government.

Maybe it is time we committed to making some changes in the way we design and build our world. Time is running out.

Maybe we should start supporting Hydrogen cars.

Perhaps we should invest in Storage for Excess Power.

Creating energy with the sun can help us turn pollutants like CO2 in to Methane or e-Gas.

We can end our dependency on fossil fuels and the Big 6 energy suppliers by creating a revolution of Solar energy for rooftops.

Write your MP now and tell them this is what you want.

The largest problem with nuclear power is that it produces waste products that need to be stored for hundreds or thousands of years in a safe environment. It must be stored in containers that will not leak for hundreds or thousands of years. The political and social changes that occur over these time spans is immense. Finding a way to warn the future generations about this stored waste is at the top of the list of problems facing any government trying to find a storage location. Security of the stored waste is also a problem as this waste has the potential to destroy all life on earth if released into the environment.

This radioactive waste is presenting a big problem for the energy industry. The government of the UK is happy to let nuclear power plants store this dangerous waste on their plant sites until a better location for storage is created. The problem is that no one wants this waste stored in their back yard

Here is an excellent article and a gold mine of information on why we don’t want any new nuclear plants in the UK.

No2NuclearPower:

In January 2013 the Government’s plans to undertake preliminary work on an underground radioactive waste dump were rejected by Cumbria County Council. The county and its western district councils Allerdale and Copeland were the only local authorities in the UK still involved in feasibility studies for a £12bn disposal facility.

Write your MP now and tell them not to waste money on more nuclear power!

I have just seen a posting that must be shared with all interested parties.Visit Peter Lux’s Blog

The Generic Design Assessment (GDA) is a process which was set up in order to examine the designs for new power stations and iron out any flaws in them before the power stations are constructed. The GDA for the European Pressurized Reactor, or EPR, was carried out by the Health and Safety Executive between 2007 and 2012. This is the reactor design chosen for the Hinkley C power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

Allowing the regulators to get involved with designers at the earliest stage was supposed to ensure an open and transparent process resulting in several competing designs with all significant design issues fully resolved.

The work was was undertaken in order to prevent the construction problems that have plagued the two reactors currently being built in Europe from being repeated in the UK. The two European Pressurized Reactors (EPR’s) are being built by Areva, a company which, like EDF, is largely owned by the French State.

This mess will not secure our energy future. This new plant design will cost billions more than expected, and still have design flaws that are dangerous to our environment.

Write your MP NOW! and tell them to stop this madness.

I talk about renewable energy all the time to any who will listen. Many of these conversations eventually come to a point where the skeptic is asking what happens when the sun doesn’t shine, or the wind doesn’t blow. It seems as though few people have learned about the many different methods currently used to store energy for when it is needed.

Stored hydro is but one of many methods that are used across the world to keep electricity that has been generated in excess or when it is not wanted. one of the latest methods is using solar energy to feed a Hydrogen electrolisizer. This method is used in England today to help balance the grid curing peak energy demands. The trial system is getting energy from the Sun through solar panels not from the electric grid. So Solar Panels make Hydrogen which makes electricity when needed and its all green renewable energy.

This is a future energy system I can believe in. This is a future design that YOU can help create now

Write your MP and tell him to support more renewable energy. Write him and say we don’t want a new nuclear plant, not one not eight, NONE. Lets get our government to sup0port green renewable energy by writing them today.