Sustaining the future - making it happen01 August 2006

Ever a practically-minded body of men and women, the SOE's annual conference in Birmingham was particularly well worth attending, because it was not so much about the threats to the world environment and the nation's energy supply as it was about looking at the options, practical and financial, for doing something about it and, hopefully, making a little money along the way.

Clive Mitchell, head of climate change, energy and transport at the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), kicked off the day by insisting there was, "no need to panic" and that "the answer is not nuclear power." The SDC sees the future in terms of a more decentralised energy system using waste heat, much greater energy efficiency, expansion of a diverse range of renewables, micro generation and reducing emissions from transport, including aviation.

Jane Pendleton, from the UK Climate Impacts Programme in Oxford, spoke about the likely adverse impacts and threats of climate change on UK business. However, she also asked whether we should regard climate change as a great opportunity to start up new businesses, create a cleaner global environment, deliver security of energy supplies to all, and improve lifestyles nutritionally, physically and socially.

Professor Tony Day, from London's South Bank University, spoke about using the planning system to encourage building integrated renewables. His presentation was based on experience to date with the London Plan implemented in 2004. He said that the policy has succeeded in achieving significant CO2 savings, while take-up of combined heat and power (CHP) uptake is increasing, although he later admitted that so far "CHP has not been financially viable despite much promise". He said the most popular solutions so far were solar hot water heaters, photovoltaics and ground source heat pumps.

Dr Simon Watson, director of the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology at Loughborough University, spoke of government hopes that wave power will become commercially viable by 2025. If wind turbines were installed, "all round the UK", there would not be a single hour during which the wind would not be blowing at a suitable speed to generate power somewhere. In answer to questions, he admitted that the current 60- to 80-year payback times for solar photovoltaics were too long and the £1500 cost of a 1kW Windsave turbine too high; and there are issues in relation to resource, noise, health and safety and electrical connection.

In his talk on inspecting wind turbines, Andrew Fitzpatrick of Royal & SunAlliance Engineering, stated there are 1,557 wind turbines now in service in the UK, and Royal & SunAlliance inspects more than half of them. As wind turbines fail to generate useful power at low wind speeds and are shut down at high wind speeds, actual average output is only about one third of the rated output. Design life is 20 to 25 years.

Richard Brooks is head of business development in the DTI's 2010 Target Team, the date being that by which 10% of UK electricity is to be generated by renewable methods. He noted that ocean power delivery (OPD) has now delivered three 750kW 'Pelamis' wave power generators to Portugal at a price of £8.1million, the world's first order for a wave farm. OPD has a letter for a further 28 machines to complete the plant, once the first phase has been installed and commissioned. On the DTI's roadmap, wave and tidal power was not expected to start 'coming through' until 2020. The department estimates there were around 8,000 renewable energy-related jobs in 2004, rising to 35,000 in 2020. Graham Jellis, director of research and development for the Home Grown Cereals Authority, saw opportunities for biodiesel, bioethanol, biopolymers, biolubricants and various new biologically-derived feedstocks for the chemical and household care products industries. UK produced biodiesel and imported bioethanol as blend additives or replacements for fossil fuels already offer savings at pump prices, mainly because of a 20p per litre reduction in duty. At present, 8% of UK agricultural land is set aside, but he considered this was likely to disappear in the "next few years" and revert to being cultivated. He envisaged Bio-Refineries analogous to present-day oil refineries to extract maximum value from all parts of agricultural products.

Even more positive was a paper given by Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, on the opportunities offered by improving energy efficiency in buildings, whether new or already existing. He said that "almost all building energy efficiency measures provide highly cost-effective measures," with payback times of one to five years. He complained of a lack of incentives (especially fiscal), non-existent or inadequate regulations (especially for existing buildings) and the disinterest of energy supply utilities in promoting energyefficiency measures that would reduce sales.

Finally, Dave Sowden, chief executive of the Micropower Council, talked about public interest in generating its own energy, saying, "it's like growing your own vegetables". While small-scale power plants are presently expensive, he predicted that 1kW wind turbines should come down from £1,500 each to nearer £500 each, once production reaches a critical mass.

SOE

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