By Julian Singer The UK government’s recently published Energy Security Plan opens by stating that “This Plan sets out…to ensure that the UK is more energy independent, secure and resilient”, and continues “We want our energy to be cheap, clean and British”. It is therefore surprising to read thirty-five pages later that the government is [...]
By Julian Singer On 11 April Harbour Energy and BP announced that the latter had taken a 40 per cent stake in Harbour’s Viking CCS project. It is not the only CCS project in which BP is involved: it is a leader of the East Coast Cluster, which aims to capture and store CO2 from [...]
By Julian Singer ZeroAvia’s mission is to place a hydrogen-electric engine in every aircraft. The company was formed in 2018 and in January this year flew a 19-seater Dornier 228 fitted with one hydrogen-electric engine and one standard engine for ten minutes from its base on an airfield near Cirencester. In the intervening period it [...]
By Julian Singer Sea Twirl is a Swedish company with a novel approach to floating offshore wind farms. The basic idea is to use a vertical axis wind turbine rather than the more conventional horizontal axis. Small versions of the vertical axis wind turbine are occasionally seen on the roofs of buildings. The Sea Twirl [...]
By Julian Singer Hydrogen is often considered as a means for storing electricity, using electrolysers to make the hydrogen and fuel cells to convert it back to electricity. However, there are two downsides to using hydrogen for storage: it has very low density, so that in practice you either need a large underground cavern or, [...]
By Julian Singer The desperate need to store electricity has stimulated the development of some surprising techniques. One of these is based on the rusting of iron. The basic principle is that electrons are produced when iron rusts in the presence of water and oxygen. Conversely, if an electrical current is applied to rust the [...]
By Julian Singer Greenbarrel last examined the performance of AIM-listed renewable energy stocks in April 2022. Since then, we have had the continuing disruption of the war in Ukraine with its effect on energy prices, at the same time as much of the world is facing high inflation and higher interest rates. Closer to home [...]
By Julian Singer Carbon Capture Use and Storage (CCUS) has had a rocky history in the UK. Ten years ago the coalition government offered to provide £1bn to support the winner of a competition between two proposed projects, but this was later cancelled. The Energy White Paper of December 2020 then committed to spend £1bn [...]
By Julian Singer Nuclear power plants currently generate about 15 per cent of the UK’s electricity supply. The government’s Energy White Paper, published in December 2020, predicted that nuclear would supply between 16 and 23 per cent of the total by 2050. In the same year the Climate Change Committee, an independent public body, predicted [...]
By Julian Singer The large second quarter profits generated by Shell and BP again raise concerns that too little investment is being made in renewable energy compared to oil and gas. A quick look at the FTSE listings highlights the concern: of the 145 companies listed in the Energy sector (Main Market and AIM), only [...]