The Week in Energy
Scottish Power to Raise Energy Prices (Again) Scottish Power is to raise its standard variable gas and electricity prices from 8 October. It is the second price increase announced by Scottish Power this year. In April, it said it would…
Can The Loch Ness Monster Power Scotland?
An enormous 2.4 gigawatt-hour pumped storage hydroelectric project has been proposed for construction at Loch Ness, with the potential to double the capacity of Scotland’s renewable energy output. What is pumped storage hydroelectric power? Pumped storage hydroelectric power is a…
Why Was The Swansea Tidal Lagoon Rejected?
What is the Swansea Tidal Lagoon? Tidal lagoons work in a similar way to tidal barrages, but differ in that they do not form a barrier all the way across a coastline or estuary. They can be sited offshore, and…
How Britain Is Going Coal Free
Last week Britain set a new record for coal-free energy. For the first time since the 1880’s we went 3 full days without generating any power from burning coal. The environmental effects of coal Cheap, reliable, and convenient – you…
Apple Goes Fully Renewable
Tech giant Apple announced last week that it’s operations are now running on 100% renewable energy, with further projects set to more than double their energy production in the coming years. Apple’s Energy Use From their data centre in Reno,…
5 Energy Technologies That Prove We’re Already Living in the Future
Solar advancements Solar power isn’t new, solar power is the source of life itself. From growing our food to lighting our homes, humans have been harnessing solar power in one way or another for millenia. What is new, however, is…
A Beginners Guide to Fuel Cells
Wikipedia helpfully informs us that “A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen fuel with oxygen or another oxidising agent”. Now I don’t know about…
Passive Houses vs Sustainable Living
Passive Houses Passivhaus. Trust the Germans to come up with a suave, cool sounding name for everything, am I right? In this case though, the concept itself just as great as the word implies. A passive house (or Passivhaus, depending…
The future of building – Passiv kit houses
The idea for a PassivHaus, known as a Passive or Passiv House in English, originated in Germany as the brainchild of Bo Adamson and Wolfgang Feist in 1988. Desperate to put together a concept for houses that could be as…
Upgrading the UK energy system
The government recently announced big changes to the way the UK will generate and manage its energy, but it has been light on specifics so far. We had a look at Ofgem’s report on ‘Upgrading our energy system‘, to get…