Recently one newspaper reported that hydrogen based fuel would be available in a few years, it would be capable of using it in existing cars and would sell for about a third of today’s oil based fuel, provided the fuel was not taxed. If you factor in the tax that all governments now place on fuel, then the new hydrogen fuel would be considerably more expensive than fossil based petrol and diesel, but the news report glossed over this aspect. Today oil is trading at just over $95 a barrel for Brent crude, and Mr Jim Rogers who co founded the… Read More »

The world’s largest biogas plant will run on cow manure – surely that’s a natural resource we have plenty of?

Here we are in a crisis with a very simple solution – Independence: energy independence, agricultural independence and economic independence.  We can choose as our single overriding objective to make Ireland self-sufficient: it makes financial, political and ethical sense. Ireland’s independence was brief: no sooner had we become a sovereign state than we deferred to Rome, and now as the influence of the Church collapses we depend on Brussels for our legal system and multi-nationals for our economy. Link to this post!

As a film technician, for me the most noticeable impact of climate change in Ireland has been the increasing wind speeds – in the past 18 months I’ve been on two commercials that were closed down because it was too windy to shoot; that had never happened to me in the previous 15 years. However, there are may be some positive side effects to this new phenomena, energy independence being chief among them.  Link to this post!

Would you like a quick and free way to ‘green’ your electricity? The trick is simply to change when we use electricity. And especially, now that winter evenings are on the way, to avoid the electricity ‘rush hour’ of 5-7 p.m. Let me explain . . . Electricity consumption in Ireland rose so much over recent years — all those new homes, all those new appliances, all those switched-on lives — that demand has almost outstripped supply, and new power plants are planned. (Although Eirgrid’s latest report shows demand down 6% on last year as the recession bites.) Demand is… Read More »

“Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain…” What if our beloved Irish rain was actually a national energy asset? Following on from my last post about piezoelectricity generated from foot and car traffic, brilliant minds at CEA/Leti-Minatec, an R&D institute in Grenoble, France, have recently developed a system that can harvest energy from falling raindrops.  “Our work could be considered as a good alternative to power systems in raining outdoor environments where solar energy is difficult to exploit,” Thomas Jager told PhysOrg.com, and he could be speaking specifically to Ireland, where, especially in winter, we can’t guarantee the… Read More »

Imagine generating electricity with every step you take; that every time you drive or cycle, energy is sent to the national grid; and that even your workout is powering the lights and heat of the gym, replacing fossil fuel – sounds great, right?  Well, piezoelectricity is here. Piezoelectricity is basically the use of certain materials to transform kinetic energy into electricity.  I wrote in another blog about the development of piezoelectric floor tiles that turn foot traffic into electricity; now the first practical installation of this kind is in place at a Sainsbury’s supermarket in Gloucester, England, where “kinetic road… Read More »

How would you like to get your electricity from wind power, and at cheaper rates than the ESB?  It’s really easy to switch to Airtricity online, all you need is your ESB account number (on your bill), and if you have the number of the meter reading to hand it makes things even quicker.  Within 5 minutes you can be finished with ESB and fossil fuels! Airtricity is owned by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE).  The renewable-energy company, established in 1999, was the first independent supplier of green energy to customers both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. … Read More »

The Volvo S40 1.6D DRIVe featuring the new Start/Stop technology has scooped the top honour and been named Green Car of the Year at the prestigious 2009 What Car? Green Car Awards. The Volvo S40 DRIVe beat the BMW 118d and the Renault Megane to the top spot in the Small Family category and then stormed ahead to achieve victory over all the other category winners, including the Audi A8 and MINI Cooper S, to be awarded the prestigious overall What Car? Green Car of the Year title. Offering exceptionally low CO2 emissions of just 104g/km and returning up to… Read More »

Whatever the outcome of the UK government’s strategy for the various proposed eco-town projects (it will probably be late summer before the final shortlist is announced) the eco-town initiative has generated some good ideas that may become standard solutions for future buildings. The principal message (as we all know by now) is that lifestyle European Initiatives …  Architects, engineers, planners and sustainability experts are looking progressively more to the eco-towns on the continent as models of what could be achieved in Ireland or the UK . Projects in Germany (Freiberg), Denmark (Copenhagen) and Sweden (Malmö and Hammarby Sjöstad – suburbs of Stockholm) all… Read More »

What’s a green building?  One covered in solar panels and bristling with turbines?  One that proclaims its greenness by looking different?  One that costs 15% more than a ‘conventional’ building? For British architect Howard Liddell, the answer is none of the above. At a one-day symposium on sustainability in TCD recently, Liddell outlined his ideal green building: it looks conventional, costs no more to build, but is so well insulated and airtight that there is almost no need for heating, and certainly no need for what he calls “eco-bling”. The main problem, as he sees it, is that technologies are… Read More »

We are not a big carpooling nation. Despite high petrol prices, appalling traffic congestion and crazy parking costs, Irish commuters have been slow to embrace the idea of organised car sharing. But with recession upon us, a new site has come on board to help revamp carpooling in Ireland. Tripmi.ie is a new all-Ireland website that connects drivers and passengers for carpooling and drivers with other drivers to car-share: work commutes, school-runs, weddings, music festivals, sports fixtures, conferences – wherever you’re going, chances are someone else is going your way.  Carpooling cuts drivers’ travel costs by at least 50%, reduces… Read More »

If you are planning any eco-building scheme, then you will place green energy somewhere near the top of your list. It is very easy to simply look at the descriptions issued by the manufacturers of renewable energy production systems, but how do you equate the figures with what you actually need? This is a question that I am frequently asked and there is no other way to answer it than to use … …Simple Mathematics …  The following is simply an exercise in statistics and does not address the ethical issues of choosing energy supply, but all the same it is… Read More »

Each week brings some new technological idea for ‘fixing’ the world’s rising CO2 problem. Such as capturing the gas and storing (sequestering) it underground or on the ocean floor. These ideas often strike me as far fetched, costly, and difficult, and I can’t help thinking it would be simpler, cheaper and quicker to find ways of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. But one ingenious idea caught my eye this week. It comes from Iceland where, let’s face it, they need a little good news these days. CarbFix plans to turn CO2 into stone. Powered by Iceland’s unlimited geothermal energy, they… Read More »

The Government and Opposition have welcomed the announcement that up to 3,700 new jobs are to be created by the ESB. The electricity company says the new contract posts will come from the development of new energy technologies. At a media briefing today, the company said it was developing new infrastructure such as smart metering and a system to allow for the recharging of electric cars. ESB also plans to recruit 250 engineers and train 800 apprentices over the next five years. The Taoiseach Brian Cowen welcomed the news saying it was refreshing to see the company’s commitment to the… Read More »

In recent years there has been a proliferation of companies worldwide that will sell you carbon credits.  But what do they do? Where does your money go? Is this not just a scheme for companies to make money out of our eco-guilt?   The theory behind these credits is sound. You buy a carbon credit, and the money you spend goes to a scheme that reduces CO2 emissions. It is essentially a way to channel finance towards the development of green technology, making it a sound investment and therefore encouraging and accelerating its uptake. Examples of projects can include methane… Read More »

Hydrogen cars are not only the future, they are here, now.  And when hydrogen cars become the norm we can finally; lessen our dependence upon oil achieve lower prices at the fuel pumps cut down on the greenhouse gases that produce global warming Not bad hey? The future of hydrogen cars is not just a flight of fancy.  There are already many hydrogen cars on the road.   California and Japan have many hydrogen cars being used as fleet vehicles now. Honda were the first to lease a commerical hydrogen car to a family in California. How Green? Well, unlike many… Read More »

With the hypocrisy of which only thick skinned beasts are capable without understanding the irony you might remember that last December the politicians of the world jetted off to a climate change conference. In order to keep their personal carbon feet as large as possible they went to Bali, in the South Pacific, probably the most inconvenient place they could find in terms of location. Never mind, the politicians and other attendees no doubt consoled themselves in their spare time with the pleasures of that South Sea Island. Once in Bali they started their deliberations about saving the planet from… Read More »

Imagine a new power plant at the mouth of the Shannon, generating clean electricity . . . not from the waves or the tides, nor from the flow of water, but driven by the salt in the surrounding sea. And as a bonus, the system doesn’t disturb the estuary’s environment or get in the way of shipping traffic. How might this be done? By osmosis! A pilot power plant will be opened shortly near Oslo, and the electricity will be generated by harnessing the osmotic difference between fresh and salty water. According to a recent survey of this innovative technology… Read More »

 the past forty years one Brazilian State, Amazonia, has turned land with the surface area four times the size of Wales from tropical rain forest into farmland or waste land. The farmland is used for rearing cattle, to feed the mouths of the ever prosperous world which is what happens when people can afford a richer diet. How does the loss of the tropical rain forest fit into the overall climate change picture? Brazil is not the only place where tropical forest is being lost. If I listed every nation where there is tropical forest, whether rain forest or deciduous… Read More »