It's Go Green Week this week at Warwick, which means lots of interesting talks, events and workshops!
There's plenty of information on the website here.
I'm personally helping out with a Engineers without Borders workshop: a bike-powered projector on Friday. I'll hopefully take lots of pictures and report back on it when it's done! There's also a leaflet to go with the workshop that I'm working on- I'll upload that when it's finished.
Exciting stuff!
Monday, 20 February 2012
Monday, 6 February 2012
Interesting articles
Since there is so much information out there at the moment about renewable energy, I thought I would highlight a few things I've found recently. Hope it's useful!
This week's New Scientist (dated 28th Jan) is a very interesting read. The cover story is about "How clean is green energy?" and essentially discusses the long term issues of large-scale renewable energy gathering. For example, if we put up wind farms everywhere, that will take the energy out of the air and so slow weather systems travelling across the world. Interesting stuff.
There is also a special report explaining "fracking"- a controversial technique for extracting gas. I personally didn't know much about fracking, so it was useful to get a brief explanation, as well as an opinion piece from Mike Stephenson explaining the risks. Definitely worth reading.
The book "Sustainable energy- without the hot air" is one of my favourite books for its clarity and simplicity in explaining our energy problems and how to solve them. There's now another similar book out about sustainable materials: I can't wait to read it! You can access it online for free too, so there's no reason not to.
These are just a few things which will keep me busy for the next few days. There is a huge amount of news and information about renewable energy now, such that it's difficult to keep up. Particularly while doing a full time MSc and looking for a job..
This week's New Scientist (dated 28th Jan) is a very interesting read. The cover story is about "How clean is green energy?" and essentially discusses the long term issues of large-scale renewable energy gathering. For example, if we put up wind farms everywhere, that will take the energy out of the air and so slow weather systems travelling across the world. Interesting stuff.
There is also a special report explaining "fracking"- a controversial technique for extracting gas. I personally didn't know much about fracking, so it was useful to get a brief explanation, as well as an opinion piece from Mike Stephenson explaining the risks. Definitely worth reading.
The book "Sustainable energy- without the hot air" is one of my favourite books for its clarity and simplicity in explaining our energy problems and how to solve them. There's now another similar book out about sustainable materials: I can't wait to read it! You can access it online for free too, so there's no reason not to.
These are just a few things which will keep me busy for the next few days. There is a huge amount of news and information about renewable energy now, such that it's difficult to keep up. Particularly while doing a full time MSc and looking for a job..
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
The Future of Energy
Yesterday, I went to a fascinating series of talks as part of "One World Week" here at Warwick. The event was called "The Future of Energy: A Power Struggle". The speakers included heads of large energy companies, a lawyer specialising in energy and an American researcher into energy systems.
It was really interesting to see where the emphasis was put in the different talks, in terms of the "future energy mix". For example, Kevin McCollough (NPower) thought that nuclear was an inevitable part of our future, whereas David Hone (Shell) focussed on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a technology to push, so that we can keep using the current fossil fuels that we do currently. Adrian Gault (Committee for Climate Change) suggested that it would be very difficult to meet our emissions targets for 2050 without significant bioenergy and CCS contribution, with all the new cars sold in 2030 being electrically driven. Mark Jacobson (Stanford) put forward an ambitious model based on Wind, Water and Sun (WWS) which the rest of the panel thought was too lofty a goal.
It was really interesting to see where the emphasis was put in the different talks, in terms of the "future energy mix". For example, Kevin McCollough (NPower) thought that nuclear was an inevitable part of our future, whereas David Hone (Shell) focussed on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a technology to push, so that we can keep using the current fossil fuels that we do currently. Adrian Gault (Committee for Climate Change) suggested that it would be very difficult to meet our emissions targets for 2050 without significant bioenergy and CCS contribution, with all the new cars sold in 2030 being electrically driven. Mark Jacobson (Stanford) put forward an ambitious model based on Wind, Water and Sun (WWS) which the rest of the panel thought was too lofty a goal.
Friday, 13 January 2012
Wind Turbine on Campus: getting involved!
I've recently been getting involved with the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) society at Warwick, and went today to have a closer look at their wind turbine; I went there before and had a look, but this time I got the chance to look at the whole system up close, including the data logger and inverters!
It was great to see it up close, although it wasn't turning at the time, and I'm hoping to get involved on the data logging side. At the moment, the output power (and other data) is stored within the inverter for 10 days or so, and needs to be downloaded onto a computer. This would be a good starting point for a data report (perhaps weekly), where a graph of performance over the week, average power output, percentage of uptime and total energy generated could be put online.
It was great to see it up close, although it wasn't turning at the time, and I'm hoping to get involved on the data logging side. At the moment, the output power (and other data) is stored within the inverter for 10 days or so, and needs to be downloaded onto a computer. This would be a good starting point for a data report (perhaps weekly), where a graph of performance over the week, average power output, percentage of uptime and total energy generated could be put online.
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Electric cars: now come in desirable?
There seems to be a new breed of electric cars (or at least concepts) that are around at various motor shows at the moment. Instead of looking like a child's car, they are starting to look absolutely amazing- to the point where I really want one. This is a step in the right direction for getting electric cars into the mainstream: not many people would claim to own a G-wiz but I for one would brag about owning something that looks like this.
The example I am particularly thinking of is the BMW i-series. As well as all the clever work that has been done in reducing weight and improving the drivetrain/battery, the design guys have done a fantastic job. The i8 in particular is just jaw-dropping. BMW are not the only ones doing this- the Tesla Roadster was the first to go down this route, and there are many others making electric supercars or just well-designed (aesthetically) electric cars. Obviously the G-wiz and the Tesla (for example) are in different price ranges and for different purposes, but the fact that people are making electric cars that could replace the Ferraris and Lamborghinis on young boys' bedroom walls is a good sign.
Hopefully, when I start looking at getting myself an electric car in a few years, I will have plenty of choice of desirable ones!
The example I am particularly thinking of is the BMW i-series. As well as all the clever work that has been done in reducing weight and improving the drivetrain/battery, the design guys have done a fantastic job. The i8 in particular is just jaw-dropping. BMW are not the only ones doing this- the Tesla Roadster was the first to go down this route, and there are many others making electric supercars or just well-designed (aesthetically) electric cars. Obviously the G-wiz and the Tesla (for example) are in different price ranges and for different purposes, but the fact that people are making electric cars that could replace the Ferraris and Lamborghinis on young boys' bedroom walls is a good sign.
Hopefully, when I start looking at getting myself an electric car in a few years, I will have plenty of choice of desirable ones!
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Wind Turbine at University of Warwick
This post is a continuation of sorts of my post yesterday about how "green" the University of Warwick is.
I found out that a friend from school of mine, Andrew Wooldridge, was involved in the setup of a 1kW wind turbine on campus, only a few minutes away from my room!
I went to go have a look at it just now, and took a few photos. It's quite a still day so it wasn't spinning, but it was interesting to see. It really isn't that big, I was slightly surprised- but then, 1kW is not a huge amount of energy to produce.
Photos below!
I found out that a friend from school of mine, Andrew Wooldridge, was involved in the setup of a 1kW wind turbine on campus, only a few minutes away from my room!
I went to go have a look at it just now, and took a few photos. It's quite a still day so it wasn't spinning, but it was interesting to see. It really isn't that big, I was slightly surprised- but then, 1kW is not a huge amount of energy to produce.
Photos below!
Saturday, 19 November 2011
University of Warwick: Green?
The other day, I went shopping in a hired car (we had hired it to go to a 1-day X-ray workshop in Didcot), and I realised how much I missed having a car, just for the convenience of going to the shops and back; I wouldn't really need it for much more than that. I appreciate that my situation of living on campus is not normal, as I essentially live at my workplace and within walking distance of shops and so on. Still, even if I did live a few miles from where I worked, an electric car commute would be entirely possible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)