Piggy Bank or Guinea Pig?

Pig farmers considering setting up a poo-eating anaerobic digester might want to reconsider their motives.  It could be an attractive proposition to generate your own heat and power at the moment, with energy prices what they are, you’d be investing in something that could save you cash in the future, a bit like an enormous piggy bank.

But the cost of a reasonably small-scale AD plant is pretty steep, and may take a long time to pay back.  There is another option, which is becoming more attractive to a certain farmer of my acquaintance.  That is to look at a larger digester which takes “feedstock” (what you put into the digester) from other sources, and turns the digester into a pig-poo-powered money generator (or “guinea-pig” as I call it).

One of these sources could be food waste, diverting grotty smelly stuff away from landfill sites and turning it into energy.  Our farmers could then not just cover their own heat and energy costs, but make that tantalizing transition from food producer to electricity generator.

Breaking Wind

So what’s the deal with wind power? On 10th December 2007 – the Guardian declares ” Thousands of new offshore wind turbines could power every home” echoed by the BBC “10 Dec 2007 … All UK homes could be powered by offshore wind farms by 2020″

Roll the clocks forward, and in May 2008, Shell sells it stake and backs out of the London array.

Meanwhile, in April, the Crown Estate steps in and buys the world’s largest wind turbine for deployment in UK waters, its representative saying It is widely recognised that offshore wind energy will provide the majority of the required contribution needed to ensure that the UK meets its demanding renewable energy target to supply 15 per cent of our consumed energy from renewable sources by 2020.

We’re getting some mixed messages here. Are we breaking records in wind power – or on a heading to breaking our promises?

Some consistency in our approach to wind power would be welcome. All this to-ing and fro-ing makes investors nervous – and nervous investors don’t like to take risks on any project.

It’s not just up to the Government to make the renewables targets achievable, we all have to do our bit to make these projects happen. Sometimes that means seeing things through. Sometimes that means taking a risk. Let’s not make this setback put us on the back foot with our renewables targets. Deep breath. Dust off. Start again. I wish the remaining partners of the London Array luck as they push forward with their plans, and hope they will find the extra support they need to deliver this project without too many delays.

Water water everywhere?

The thing about adapting to climate change is that it’s very personal.

If you live in Bangladesh, for example, you may find the projections of sea level rises provoke you to move, if you can, to much higher ground.

Those of us in Oxfordshire, however, won’t necessarily want to move house to escape floods.  Let’s face it, it’s a beautiful county.

There are things we can do to gain some level of control, however.  The first step in this is to produce your Household Flood Plan.  This may or may not include buying products that give you an early warning or protect your property.  The main thing is that you have thought about it before it happens.  Make your choices now, rather than be left with no choices, and only consequences, after a flood has happened.  Would it make sense to move those sentimental photos into the loft?

Last night I took part in a flood planning introduction workshop and was surprised at how few people came along.  The events of last July and – for some – even January of this year seem to have already slipped the minds of some of us.  So I urge anyone who has suffered flooding, or who is concerned about that little stream running close to their house, to check out whether they live in a projected flood risk area.  Go to the environment agency website and enter your postcode to see if you are at risk.  If it turns out that you ARE – and this surprises you, i recommend you contact your house insurers and find out how they categorise your property.  Best to do this now, rather than wait for the flooding to get worse, as the experts predict it will.

Gain control.  Make a flood plan while the sun is shining.

Indigestion

Recently, I met a pig farming couple based near the M40. Pig farmers are struggling to survive with the recent increases in the price of grain and feedstock.

The opportunity they have of using pig slurry as part of the fuel for anaerobic digesters has been made all the more obvious to those who listen to Radio4’s The Archers where two of the main characters are investigating installing a digester on Home Farm.

The opportunity here in Oxford appears obvious. In Banbury, we have a number of food manufacturers; waste from which could be included in the fuel for the digesters.

The government is making enormous efforts to encourage the production of biofuel crops, providing financial supports. Energy Crops Scheme provides grants for establishing short rotation coppice and miscanthus under the new Rural Development Programme England (RDPE), which will run from 2007-2013 and planning (subject to EU approval):

• £1,000 per hectare for short rotation coppice
• £800 per hectare for miscanthus

But why is there no direct support for anaerobic digesters? This type of local energy generation should surely attract its own focused scheme? Asking DEFRA and the digesters companies themselves, and you are pointed to the diversification programme.

Look on DEFRAs website under grants for livestock farmers, and you will see the words “Scheme now closed” in most of them. The setting up of an anaerobic digester facility can cost millions, so how the pig farming community is expected to fund this is a mystery.

So come on, DEFRA, give the pig farmers a break – and help them survive and thrive by providing interest free loans – payable once the renewable energy starts to earn cash.

Artistic License

I met an artist who produces works from Bronze. Her sculptures sell for thousands, but she has a worry.

The artist is concerned about the environment, and bronze has a rather polluting production method. She would love to move to a beautiful, resinous, material which is much more climate-change friendly, but is concerned customers won’t pay the same price and will deem it an inferior material.

Then I went to Potato Day in Ryton in early February. In one of the tents, there was a large group surrounding a stall selling pure copper gardening tools. They were beautiful. But it made me think – copper is getting more and more scarce – should we be buying so much of it to use on our spuds?!

Perhaps beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps now it is time to value art or artisan products in a new way. Recycled, renewable and non-polluting materials may have had a crusty, left-over image in the past, but I think it is time they became chic and desirable. After all, doesn’t the true artistic beauty reside in the creativity of the artist, rather than the materials themselves?

No Laughing Matter

The Appleton Space Conference on 6th December was full of space scientists, of course. The keynote speaker was from Virgin Galactic, who aim to make space tourism a reality sometime later this year.

The propellant to get the spacecraft from the mother ship, to the outside of the atmosphere is currently a combination of rubber and nitrous oxide – AKA laughing gas. Now those of you who have visited climate secrets or read my earlier postings, will know that CO2 is not the worst greenhouse gas, by unit volume. In fact Nitrous Oxide’s radiative warming effect is substantially less than CO₂, but its persistence in the atmosphere, when considered over a 100 year period, per unit of weight, has 296 times more impact on global warming than CO2.

The good news from Virgin Galactic is they are trialling biofuel as a replacement propellant. Roll on that day. Now all I need is $100,000 and I can sign up for a guilt-free trip into space!

Clutching at Straws

Doing a little market research recently has left me flabbergasted.

One of the questions was  “do you think climate change is happening?” Only a third of the people replying said Yes – and these are MDs of companies.

Regardless of the vast amounts of evidence and scientific consensus, how do they explain the weather chaos we’ve seen with our own eyes this year?

On a recent Radio4 “Any Answers?” slot, person after person phoned-in to say that climate change was all a load of rubbish (”that channel 4 programme got it right…”).  Did they not realise that the scientist to which they referred in the Channel 4 programme was also the last one to cling to the view that smoking doesn’t cause cancer?

The thought that some climate change is inevitable is a bit scary, so it is understandable that people are clutching at straws in this way.

But if two thirds of business leaders are still not believing that it is already starting to happen, what incentive is there for them to bring innovative products to market to help people with the problems such as flooding and travel disruption?

Can’t we use our emotional energy to do something positive, rather than stay in denial?

Carbon’s bad – but watch out for perflourocarbons

So what’s with the Carbon focus? CO2 reduction, Carbon Trading, Carbon Trust carbon footprinting. Companies looking at climate change often have carbon on the brain. Why is this?

Well, the scientists tell us that carbon dioxide contributes to 80% of the problem of global warming, mainly because CO2 is so prolific. That’s why we are so bothered with it. But watch out – the other 20% comes from other greenhouse gases – some of which are evil incarnate.

Take perflourocarbons. If carbon has a warming potential of 1, perflourocarbons have a warming potential of 6,500 – 9,200 over a 100 yr time horizon. That’s a nasty gas.

Should we be bothered, if the quantities of these gases are relatively small? Well, if we are all busy inventing new ways of reducing carbon, we need to make sure we don’t produce something that emits perflourocarbons instead…

…that’s why Ems2’s name contains the word “Emissions” (as in all greenhouse gases), rather than “Carbon”. Let’s keep our eyes open folks.

Dangers of politicising Climate Change

With the recent floods raising the profile of climate change even higher, can direct action be justified to help combat climate change? Is the direct action involved in the camp planned at Heathrow on 14th August reasonable? Here’s a quote from the climate camp website “This is the only way to stop the actions of those vested interests that watch the planet burn while counting the money they make from the fire.“

Ok, here’s my point. Does demonising business leaders get results? Does aligning yourself with the acts of political extremists get you public sympathy? I don’t think it does. I think those who politicise climate change and promote direct action (a phrase which can mean much more extreme things than peaceful protest) need to realise they may be risking alienating exactly the people who they need as allies.

Do these people want to overturn the capitalist system that currently governs the way the world operates? I’m not just talking fat cats here, I’m talking about interest rates and pensions, things many of us rely on for our financial security.

Now I understand the issue with climate change, yes we need to act. Businesses of all sizes, people wherever they live, need to change how they emit greenhouse gases like CO2. That is why I set up my business, Ems2. The best way to make this change is to find ways of doing profitable business that reduces GHGs, or those of others. This keeps our futures safe in more ways than one. We don’t need anarchy, we need to work with people.

Even corporate CEOs are human beings. Those of us trying to help organisations take positive steps to combat climate change need to relate to them as such. Let’s stop radicalising people into extremist behaviour; it’s the climate change we need to fight, not each other. Let’s allow the police to spend their time on more useful stuff than dragging people away from the outskirts of Heathrow because of some misguided sense of doing the right thing.

A good place to think creatively

I’m originally from a city as close to Cornwall as you can get without being in it, and have always been a fan of its breezy coastline and fabulous surf and sand. The South West Development Agency have been busy transforming Cornwall’s economy from lowly-paid seasonal hotel jobs into clusters of highly-paid year-round businesses.

One of the clusters is environmental technologies, and the northern coastline has a dramatic skyline of wind turbines.

I met with the Eden Project and told them my vision to help businesses to think positively about their approach to climate change, and they agreed Ems2 can use their new-ish Core building for creative workshops and strategy development. Thankfully, there is public transport and a fantastic local hotel…

Nice one chaps!