Tom

These subdisdy levels make it very worthwhile and with the curent hysteria around gloabal warming there’s never been a better time to cash in – well done ecotricity, true arbitrage at it’s finest!

I consider the primary virtue of microgen in most cases to be in making people think about generation and consumption and conservation and seeing other people doing it, and seeing the whole thing as potentially positive and interesting and not just annoying crap from those damn hippies, ie FiTs may be a relatively *cheap* way of getting attention and mindshare.

Now I’m actually doing extensive solar PV myself, the most expensive but the only microgen currently available to me in suburban London, and will be generating twice what we consume and will be getting my house close to zero carbon, and all largely without subsidy (I get some, but it has been trivial so far). I’m lucky to be able to afford the capital cost without needing a clear financial payback; most people can’t.

And local microgen will have benefits in terms of grid sizing and stabilisation, especially in conjunction with storage as it becomes available…

Rgds

Damon

I’m sorry – maybe I should have prefaced my last post with an “irony alert”. However, I would not be surprised to see this sort of venture reported in the media in the years to come.

My point is that the flawed logic underpinning the new feed in tariff regime appears to have nothing to do with truly greening the nation. It seems to be a shallow attempt at appealing to the baser instincts of the British householder and avoids what could have been a genuine policy to promote renewables – directing a similar amount of money towards big wind, for instance.

I know you are a close observer of these things – so correct me if I am wrong – but I am under the impression that the energy payback period on nearly all grid-tied microgen installations is vastly longer than on any wind farm of the sort that Ecotricity own and operate.

Shouldn’t this be the only criteria on which any supposedly green subsidy is judged?

Best regards,

Jonny.

None of that impossible to swerve past, but mugging OAPs would probably generate you more revenue per annum.

Rgds

Damon

As was widely predicted, Feed In Tariffs for microgen have now appeared in the UK – just as they are being cut in Germany.

Read this, from George Monbiot:

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/03/01/a-great-green-rip-off/

I am thinking of setting up in business making fake solar panels (a la burglar alarm boxes) to satisfy the market that will emerge among people who want to buy power from the grid at 7p/unit and sell it straight back at 44p while appearing to have a legitimate means of doing so.

After all, why should I even bother with the expense of the real thing if my only interest is money?

Does anyone else want to join me in this lucrative venture? It is a sure-fire investment.

Best regards,

Jonny.

Just saw this on Engadget:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/02/lotus-outs-wild-evora-414e-hybrid-plug-in-concept-car/

It’s an announcement from Lotus about an electric hybrid. They must really like what you’re doing with this! (Especially with the glass engine cover).

Matt

Now I want to see that AD methane flowing in to match our cooking, etc! B^>

Rgds

Damon

Thanks!

-Dina

“If you suspend a cow in the air with buckets of grain, then it’s a bad guy,” Harttung explains. “But if you put it where it belongs — on grass — that cow becomes not just carbon-neutral but carbon-negative.”

Read more: http://bit.ly/bQKPso

Cheers
Jenny

Hope you’re well.

When exactly does your eco-supercar record attempt take place?

I may know of some media interest…

Best, Nick

We put this to our facts and figures bod, and he says:

“Hands in the air Paul, you’ve spotted our deliberate mistake.

Basically, the slurry produced over a year by six cows is enough to generate sufficient biogas to meet the heat needs of an average household, around 20,500kWh. We arrived at this figure using an assortment of Defra cow slurry facts and biogas generation figures. Somewhere along the way this morphed into the same 6 cows now producing enough gas to not only heat the house but also to generate the electricity to light it.

This was one of a number of stats that we came up with in the early days of this project to help illustrate the benefits of biogas. As we don’t support the idea of biogas generation from commercial cow slurry this fact really is a bit redundant, interesting but redundant, so we’ve gone back and removed it from the site to avoid any further confusion.

Thanks for pointing it out to us.”

Hope that clarifies things? Thanks again for your comment..

Paul

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gY_9zthQIXN8etDM3tZF4b0O6uSQ

Derek

From a methane point of view I understand that 95% (or so) of the methane emissions of slurry occur during storage on farms, as opposed to spreading on the land – when it’s out in the air it doesn’t make methane it’s only when air is excluded that that happens. I thought that was interesting to know.

Could we and if so should we utilise farm slurry is how I see your question.

First ‘could we’ – It takes a great deal of waste to feed an AD plant big enough to make enough gas to be worth scrubbing up and grid injecting. For example the scheme we’re working up for Stroud would take all the food waste in the whole of Gloucestershire and more.

The amount of slurry on a farm, even a large farm is not going to be sufficient I think, for an AD plant with gas injection (as a rule). Add to that the fact that many or most farms are quite remote from the gas grid. It looks unlikely.

Farms can harness their BS and other stuff and (mini) AD it for use of the gas on the farm though – that’s a neat and pretty economic way to go.

Coming to the ’should we’ – I get what you’re saying, maybe we have the opportunity at ecotricity to tackle a problem, even though we oppose the roots of the problem should we not intervene? I think not. The problem is agri farming, it’s an offence against nature even before you factor in climate change – it’s bad practice and it has to stop. it will stop in time of that I’m sure.

Even if we could use slurry for our green gas (which doesn’t look so likely) – we wouldn’t. Farming could and should clean it’s own act up – first thing would be to stop storing the stuff anaerobically – that might be an easy enough step to take and would deal with the methane problem, without vegan intervention……:).

Cheers.

“Mr Vince, who employs 164 people, usually pays himself about £70,000 a year from Ecotricity’s main holding company, a modest sum by the standards of successful UK entrepreneurs. Records at Companies House show he has not paid himself dividends in recent years.”

What I found interesting is that you have not paid yourself any dividends recently, only the salary. Is that an ethical decision? My (limited) understanding of these matters is that it is not the most “tax-efficient”, and that paying yourself a combination of salary and dividends would reduce the total amount of income tax and national insurance you pay to hmrc. I suppose you have decided not to take that route?

Regards
Jeff

Maybe in the folder named ‘BIG FAT SHAREHOLDERS ONLY’

Cheers.

Britain faces ‘oil crunch’ within five years, Richard Branson warns

The North Sea is producing half as much oil as it was 10 years ago, that’s the real issue that gets totally avoided in the political debates about energy!

1999 ~3 Million barrels per day
2008 ~1.6 Million barrels per day

oops-a-daisy EDF!

http://www.nce.co.uk/major-projects/london-2012-olympics/olympic-park-turbine-was-not-in-doubt-says-oda/5214037.article

Not exactly – my real point is more about the polluting properties of methane emanating from the slurry and your fortunate position of being able to mitigate the harmful effects on the environment and climate. The embodied energy content of slurry, though evidently important from a power generation point of view, is secondary to my main concern.

I fully understand your moral reticence about having anything at all to do with industrial agribusiness. However I think there is this other moral issue to be considered. If any person is in a position to do so, should they not act to alleviate the problem?

Does the one moral imperative trump the other?

Best regards,

Jonny.

I looked at the BG duel fuel discounts and obviously they have several but I’m presuming it’s along the lines of their ’standard’ discount.

Would it not be possible to actually price match the British Gas standard duel fuel price, rather than just the discount? I’m guessing with such small margins it’s not possible?

Anyway – this is excellent news and I’m just impatient to get cracking with it!

But there’s no way EDF were pressured into going public on this. They failed to win the tender (having tried) 12 months ago, this announcement makes no sense other than as face saving news manipulation.

Cheers.