The first Carbon Capture systems were built in the 1930’s but there are still very few examples of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) being applied to coal or gas power stations for the purpose of reducing CO2 emissions. The earliest systems were used to purify streams of natural gas that contained significant amounts of CO2. [...]
We often read that batteries can solve the problem of intermittency in wind and solar sources. Batteries can certainly help and are useful for short-term storage or time-shifting over a few hours. For longer periods of a day or more the size and cost of batteries become prohibitive and other solutions will be needed. To [...]
On 9 January Proton Power Systems (PPS), the maker of hydrogen fuel cells, announced that it had formed a joint venture with two German companies to build heavy-duty trucks powered by fuel cell hybrid engines. The company, called Clean Logistics, will be owned in equal proportions by PPS, Hopen GmbH and Hary AG. The goal [...]
With all the news in 2018 about the transition to electric vehicles it is not surprising that fuel cell companies should jump on the bandwagon. In January AFC Energy (AFC) announced a successful demonstration of what it claims is the world’s first electric vehicle (EV) charger based on a hydrogen fuel cell. The unit, known [...]
Scientists tell us that the earth is warming at the rate of 0.20C per decade because we emit too much CO2. Some people are sceptical while others wonder how one can be so precise about an object whose temperature varies from -500C to +500C in place and time. How far can we trust the scientists? [...]
The year 2018 was good for solar energy companies. With one of the hottest summers in UK history NextEnergy Solar Fund (NESF) was able to generate 7.9 per cent more electricity than budgeted from its 60+ UK solar plants in the six months to 30 September 2018. Measurements of the actual solar irradiation suggested that [...]
On 31 October the PhotonStar LED Group (PSL) announced that it would place its LED fixtures business PhotonStar LED Ltd in liquidation. A month earlier, in announcing the half-year results to 30 June, PSL had been relatively optimistic about its up-market colour-tuneable and circadian LED fixtures which it has been selling since before it listed [...]
At a conference hosted jointly with the International Energy Agency in Edinburgh on 28 November the government announced new plans for evaluating and introducing Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) in the UK. The main goals are to have the first large-scale plants operating by the mid-2020’s and for it to be introduced “at scale” [...]
Bushveld Mineral’s results for the first six months of 2018 make remarkable reading. Revenue was £62million, up from £2.2m for the ten months to the end of 2017, and profits after tax turned a loss of £0.7m into a profit of £21.1m. The reasons for this dramatic change were, first, the decision by Bushveld in [...]
The two previous articles on Decarbonising Heat summarised the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC)’s study of the costs of different solutions and looked in more detail into the most effective but also the most expensive of these solutions – heat pumps. This article will look into the other main contender – the use of hydrogen instead [...]
