Gordon Brown’s currently giving what is likely to be his last budget speech. The preamble in the media suggests that the environment should feature. So far the key points are:
When I was an undergrad, I remember going to the gym with my housemate and the two of us trying to work out just how much electricity you might be able to generate from all the stairmasters, rowing machines, bikes etc. I hear you now, ‘silly engineers…’, but this recent Wall Street Journal article shows that a gym in Hong Kong is taking the idea to heart. Unfortunately the article says that 13 machines give only 300 watts total, though the rowers figure you might be able to average around 200 W on an erg, which is a bit better.
I was recently invited to speak on a microgeneration panel at the Science Media Centre. The idea of these briefings is to provide the media with an opportunity to ask experts about scientific issues making the news. There’s been a lot of interest in microgeneration recently and so this particular briefing was well-attended with representatives from the Times, Mirror, Daily Mail, New Scientist, Guardian, Reuters and BBC (one each from radio, TV and online – don’t they check first to see whether someone else is going too?).
This research project has now finished. The primary outputs are available below.
