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timprobert

Freelance Journalist & Owner, Millicent Media
timprobert has written 65 posts for millicentmedia

UK gives backing for fracking: What’s next?

After an 18-month hiatus, the Department of Energy and Climate Change has given the green light to resume shale gas exploratory ‘fracking’. Tim Probert explores the next steps towards the UK’s ambition to create a shale gas revolution. This article was first published in the February 2013 issue of Materials World. There has been no end … Continue reading »

Making dumb European rollouts SMART – Three golden rules of consumer engagement

THE EUROPEAN UNION’S (EU’s) AMBITIOUS plan to rollout smart meters to 80 percent of its 500 million population by 2020 is not going as well as hoped. This article was first published in the January/February 2013 edition of Intelligent Utility magazine. Europe has enjoyed notable success with smart meters. In 2006, Italy became the first … Continue reading »

Mike Hill on Shale Gas Regulation excerpt

Mike Hill is an independent chartered engineer and director of Gemini Control & Automation based in Lytham St Annes, close to Cuadrilla Resources’ shale gas activities in West Lancashire. Having worked as an oil & gas engineer, Hill is concerned about potential environmental damage from ‘fracking’ and has spent much of his time and money … Continue reading »

Biomass Industry Outlook 2013: Dogged by Regulatory Uncertainty

One word will suffice to summarize the outlook for the biomass industry: uncertainty. Concerns are fourfold: the EPA’s Boiler (Maximum Achievable Control Technology) MACT, Non-Hazardous Secondary Material (NHSM) and Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rules, and the Federal Production Tax Credit. This article was first published on RenewableEnergyWorld.com Boiler MACT Rule Boiler MACT would classify boilers as … Continue reading »

Shale gas cowboys could ‘lose’ toxic water without checks, warns engineer

Shale gas firms could find the temptation to save millions by falsely under-reporting volumes of ’fracking’ flowback fluid too strong to resist without strong regulation, according to a Lancashire-based engineer familiar with the industry. To extract natural gas from shale rock a technique called hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is used. Millions of gallons of fluid comprising … Continue reading »

Ten things DECC told journalists at the Energy Bill press conference

Energy journalists were treated to not one but all three DECC (Commons) ministers – Secretary of State Ed Davey, Energy Minister John Hayes and Climate Change minister Greg Barker (plus two senior civil servants) at today’s Energy Bill press conference in the bowels of Whitehall Place. Here are the juicy bits. 1. On nuclear strike … Continue reading »

Whatever happened to the nuclear renaissance?

The UK’s record of building nuclear plants is dismal. Yet, as Tim Probert explores, previous exercises may seem like a walk in the park compared to building a new fleet of reactors in a liberalized power market. This article was first published in the October 2012 issue of Energy World magazine. Few would disagree that … Continue reading »

Big and small: Bringing marine energy to market

The British city of Bristol is arguably the spiritual home of marine energy.  Tim Probert visits two companies at differing stages of development: Marine Current Turbines, recently acquired by Siemens and Offshore Wave Energy, a start-up struggling to raise finance, to find out how marine energy will be brought to market. This article first appeared … Continue reading »

Cutting costs for offshore wind farms

With an eye on its ambitious Round 3 offshore wind programme, the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change is targeting a 50 per cent technology cost reduction by 2020. Tim Probert explores how the industry is working to reduce the cost. This article was first published in the September 2012 issue of Energy World. … Continue reading »

The quest for the Holy Grail: Top takeaways from energy storage seminar

The first law of thermodynamics states energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one type of energy to another. The second law of thermodynamics states when an energy transformation is made, some of the energy lost as heat. That is why there can never be a perpetual motion machine and why energy storage … Continue reading »

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