James Keirstead.ca

The times they are a-changin’

After months of silence, I’ve had two cold calls about the state of microgeneration in recent weeks. I don’t really work on the details of the policy anymore so I did wonder why everyone’s getting excited all of a sudden. However I think it might have something to do with this: another consultation document.

Blogging breakdown

This is a bit of a double-entendre title.

First off, my blogging routine has somewhat ground to a halt and I’m not updating this site as much as I used to (or would like to). Work commitments keep me pretty busy and whatever online time I do have, I tend to contribute over at AcademicProductivity.com instead. So part of this post is to say sorry to those readers who might have been looking for updates on the UK microgeneration scene or other news.

Measuring urban greenhouse gas emissions

I’ve just returned from the 5th Urban Research Symposium in Marseille, which this year focused on cities and climate change. We were presenting our work on the modelling of urban energy systems and it was a great chance to talk shop and see what others were doing in the same area.

The UK to become Newfoundland?!

This article at the London Review of Books is the longest, funniest and best summary of the credit crunch I’ve yet seen. Highly recommended even if it does mean you’ll be facing a week of sleepless nights.

Wolfram Alpha and cities

As you’ve probably heard, there’s a new kid on the search block: Wolfram Alpha. Search is a bit of misnomer actually. Alpha bills itself as a “computational knowledge engine” and although it’s still early days, it does offer a powerful tool – and something notably different from Google. It’s definitely not a search engine.

Read more on Wolfram Alpha and cities…

EU Elections

So, on Tuesday I was in London and coming out of Kings Cross station, I encountered a number of people handing out leaflets, blocking the forecourt like pins on a Plinko board. They were asking commuters not to vote for the BNP, which is sensible enough, but I was curious why they were all wearing RMT jackets. Why should London Underground workers be telling commuters who to vote for?

Prosperity Without Growth

At the end of March, just before the G20, the Sustainable Development Commission released a provocatively titled report: “Prosperity Without Growth“. I didn’t actually hear about it when it first came out but only stumbled across it later via an email newsletter.

Read more on Prosperity Without Growth…

Sellafield

From yesterday’s Observer:

In fact, Sellafield is a classic illustration of the failure of British industry. We were pioneers of nuclear power but in our desire to build our own atomic weapons, failed abysmally when it came to developing and managing our own civil reactors and reprocessing plants.

Crazy idea of the week

Three words: backyard nuclear power.

To be honest, I can’t tell if this is crazy good or crazy bad. On the one hand, compact self-contained nukes would give better output – more of it and more predictable – than similarly distributed renewables. But still, the units are buried underground and every 7 to 10 years, a lorry full of fresh uranium comes round to your house (well more realistically your local factory, industrial estate etc.), digs up the reactor to refuel it, and takes away the old waste. Although the transportation of nuclear materials has been relatively safe to date, I wonder how things change when you start shipping around lots of little containers rather than a few big loads (ignoring medical isotopes).

A promising start

It looks as though the new Energy and Climate department is getting off on the right foot. Buried part way down this article is a quote from the minister saying that the Energy Bill will be amended to incorporate a feed-in tariff for microgeneration. Finally.