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
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 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
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 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
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
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
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
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 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
