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.’

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.

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.

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.

What if we could take carbon dioxide from a power plant’s chimney stack and turn it into a useful fuel? That would be a great boxing day present!

Our climate is changing due to man made products such as carbon dioxide. The idea of capturing carbon emissions and storing back underground has bee around for a while. This is called carbon sequestration. This is not an answer that is viable as it will push the pollution from carbon dioxide underground and threaten our drinking water supplies. What we really need is a magical box that we can put CO2 in and change it into something more useful, like say Methane.

*Waves magic wand* Presto! I give you the MAN re-gasification project. MAN is taking CO2 from a power plants exhaust stack mixing it with Hydrogen produced using renewable energy and creating Methane. The methane is stored on the gas grid in Germany for later use.

The design idea of creating synthetic methanation is not new but the method is. Taking excess renewable energy and using it to make Hydrogen is not new either. Combining the two concepts to make more fuel out of pollution and renewable energy is brilliant!

Audi calls this e-Gas and will use it to power a new line of cars that run on methane. Germany sure has some great ideas. Oh, they are using British Designs and engineering expertise too. I wonder why we are not doing this too?

This is a step in the right direction. Mr Cameron? Are you listening? maybe we should let our MP’s know what we think.

The last posting was all about fracking and how David Cameron is selling your environmental future to give away fracking rights. In the last post we looked at who will pay the cost of cleaning up any environmental disaster that occurs due to fracking: YOU!

So what is the alternative? Hydrogen of course. There have been many discussions about Hydrogen powered cars in the news for several years now. The fuel cell uses Hydrogen to make electricity which runs the car. This is the same technology that powered the Apollo missions to the Moon. Astronauts used the only two byproducts of this electricity generator – Fuelcell – to heat their cabin and drink the waste product, Water!

So instead of fracking for more natural gas or methane we can create the fuel for the future today. Hydrogen is normally produced in a petrochemical plant. Big Oil would dearly love to keep it that way. However, New methods of creating Hydrogen are available now that are clean green and use renewable energy.

One of the biggest drawbacks to wind and solar has always been the lack of sun, or wind. Another big drawback to wind and solar is that they produce too much when we don’t need the electricity. In Germany a hydrogen plant is being used to store excess energy created by renewable generators like wind and solar.

Governments are starting to see the benefit of promoting hydrogen. If David Cameron was working for the people he would be pushing these technologies. Cameron works for BIG OIL so he does what they want. Cameron works for BIG Electric companies so he does what they want.

So our environment continues to suffer. Our chance to switch to renewable energy now takes another step back. Feed in tariff cuts, new nuclear power plants, a reduction of support for wind energy, tax breaks and government sponsored cleanups of fracking pollution: Are you seeing the pattern here folks?

Hydrogen is the future, tell your MP to support it now please. The link will take you straight to a site that will help you send an email to your MP in just a few munites.