Low Energy Charlbury?

Sat 25 Nov 2017, 19:59

Ahem - yes - text now amended.

Sat 25 Nov 2017, 13:21 (last edited on Sat 25 Nov 2017, 13:22)

I hope you mean a "public" thank you, Mark!

Sat 25 Nov 2017, 09:44 (last edited on Sat 25 Nov 2017, 19:58)

I wanted to give a public "thank you" to Liz and Tim for organising the evening meeting - which was well attended. A range of intelligent and considered views expressed by the audience too.

Sat 25 Nov 2017, 02:10

Tony hi - with reference to the Newhill survey, this development may be changing the economics - and visuals - of wind derived electricity. I've been following this for some years now, but haven't checked anything recently. Really out of touch with renewable energy now (sad 'cos used to do Network for Alternative Technology and Technology Assessment (NATTA) at the OU decades ago, so now a has-been ecotekky :-(
Worth a look though:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_Bladeless

"Vortex Bladeless S.L is a wind energy Spanish startup that was founded in 2013 by David Yáñez, David Suriol and Raúl Martín, exclusively dedicated to the development and marketing of Vortex.[1][1] This multi-patented wind turbine without blades is able to capture the kinetic wind energy by 'vortex shedding' and transform it into electricity.[1][1] The idea emerged in 2002 when David Yáñez, the inventor, saw a video of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster and led him to the idea of a bladeless wind turbine.[2] This new technology seeks to overcome issues related to traditional wind turbines such as maintenance, amortization, noise, environmental impact, logistics, and visual aspects.[1] In April 2015, Vortex relocated to Boston and formed a coalition with representatives from Harvard University, IDEO, TerraForm Power and Dat Venture.[3][4] The improvement of its product has been funded by Repsol Foundation Grant, Spanish Angels Investors and a loan from the Spanish government.[3][4][5] Vortex also launched a crowdfunding campaign on June 1, 2015 to fund part of its commercialization.[4][6] Currently, the company's focus is on the development of small wind products, with mass power generation devices planned for the future.[1]

Fri 24 Nov 2017, 23:08

"[B]ecause the government is struggling to explain why it has banned the cheapest form of renewable energy whilst investing heavily in an increasingly expensive nuclear project"

Because it is necessary to make the materials to make nuclear bombs to go in nuclear submarines. We were saying it at SPRU* - a postgrad alma mater of mine - back in the 70s & 80s and SPRU has said it again in 2017, only this time it made some of the establishment media.

There's a nice project in there for a student or a postgrad research PhD looking into how a largely contained physically seperate (from an urban conurbation for e.g.) area can make a low carbon system work in areas like Charlbury and other distributed settlements around. After all, we're all being told that information technology driven economies and computerised small bespoke style manufacturing are going to fuel a change to more dispersed and distributed economies and growth in exurban locales.

How many solar panels - and probably more important, distributed storage for electricity, like in each-home-a-battery, would that Hinckley Point nuke fund? How many vehicles electrified? how many gas central heating boilers substitued, say, in Charlbury? How many oal and gas fired electricity plants decommissioned upstream of us?

Fri 24 Nov 2017, 22:16

I'm afraid Liz is right, Richard. A few years ago Cornbury carried out an investigation with a tall mast erected on Newhill Plain (one of the more exposed sites around Charlbury) with anemometers and wind vanes at different heights. Lord Rotherwick told me that the results showed that a 'wind farm' there would not be viable.

Fri 24 Nov 2017, 16:58

Liz, you can't possibly post that on this forum with a straight face.

Fri 24 Nov 2017, 16:35

There's not enough wind in Charlbury to make it cost-effective.

Thu 23 Nov 2017, 10:40

Currently on-shore wind projects are effectively prohibited in England. That might change at some point - because the government is struggling to explain why it has banned the cheapest form of renewable energy whilst investing heavily in an increasingly expensive nuclear project - where costs and delivery times continue to increase and extend.

I keep seeing new houses being built in Charlbury. but I'm not sure to what environmental standard they are being built.

Wed 22 Nov 2017, 18:49

It's my understand that at the last election the Conservative Party put a stop to any new onshore wind energy generation in England unless it was already in a Local Plan or within permitted development rights for small domestic turbines.

"The Conservative Party 2015 Manifesto pledged to give "local people" a "final say" on windfarm applications. In a written ministerial statement on 18 June 2015 the Government announced that when determining planning applications for wind energy development local planning authorities should only grant planning permission if:
1. the development site is in an area identified as suitable for wind energy development in a local or neighbourhood plan; and
2. following consultation, it can be demonstrated that the planning impacts identified by affected local communities have been fully addressed and therefore the proposal has their backing".

Certainly I haven't heard about any new schemes proposed. Maybe I misunderstood?

Wed 22 Nov 2017, 16:55

How about a couple of wind turbines on the spare land around the solar farm?

Wed 22 Nov 2017, 09:43

Next time you have an opportunity to switch electricity supplier, switch to 100% renewable. It may not always be the cheapest, but this time for us it was. We've just done so at home and I've just done so for the Curiosities Company too. [low energy hot desking - plug - come and work from here and save energy at home]. Switch out all your old incandescent and florescent light bulbs for LEDs and have a good look at the devices you have to see if they can be switched off rather than left on standby.

Tue 21 Nov 2017, 19:01

How about an electric car club?

Mon 20 Nov 2017, 18:16

I'm inclined to agree, our UK housing stock is particularly poor, and the impact of leaky houses and high energy bills is felt most acutely amongst those with lower income.

Charlbury is unusual in having a green electricity power plant on its doorstep (Southill Solar) and are there ways we can use "our" energy? If not now - at least in the medium term - along the "Energy Local" model.

Food is a major contributor to greenhouse gasses, are there ways we can reduce that?

Fri 17 Nov 2017, 17:25

I'm thinking about the Sustainable Charlbury event next week and wondering what Charlbury residents rate as their priorities - transport, biodiversity, energy, etc.? My hobby horse is low standards in building design meaning that all the heat we put into our houses leaks out of the gaps, the trickle vents and the thin uninsulated walls. What are yours?