Free Download

Download 'Too Hot', an exclusive Specials track from iTunes

Navigation - link to other main sections from here

From The Times

December 6, 2007

Householders ‘can generate power to curb CO2 emissions'

Lewis Smith: Environment Reporter

Homeowners who generate their own electricity would supply 5 per cent of the nation’s needs in little more than a decade under plans to be announced by the Conservatives today.

The party wants small-scale electricity generation to become as popular as mobile telephones as part of efforts to bring climate change under control. Among the measures they would take would be to allow domestic wind turbines and other renewable technology to be installed without the need to seek planning permission, with the exception of listed buildings.

A few large power plants have been the mainstay of electricity generation in Britain since the 1930s. Oliver Letwin, a member of the Shadow Cabinet, said that the system needed to be replaced with an infrastructure that concentrated on small-scale but widespread generation. By encouraging homeowners to install microgeneration sources the Conservatives hope to modernise the system of energy supply and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

Combined heat and power boilers are the favoured method of household generation for the Conservatives. Domestic generators of this type are fuelled typically by natural gas and are 85 per cent efficient, unlike other forms of generation, which are usually only 30-50 per cent efficient. They should be available in Britain in 2009.

Mr Letwin said that by making it easier for householders to install and run microgenerators, at least 5 per cent of the electricity in Britain, the same amount that would be supplied by the proposed Severn Barrage project, could be produced in the home by 2018-22. He said that 30-40 per cent would be possible within 30 years. “We are trying to achieve a revolutionary change in the architecture of generation,” he said.

In a report outlining the proposals, the Tories said: “Our ambition is to revolutionise the electricity sector by enabling every small business, every school, every hospital and every household to generate electricity.”

The grant system for householders would be scrapped and the money used to promote a wider take-up of microgeneration instead. The key to the proposals is the determination of the Conservatives to ensure each householder can agree standard, long-term contracts with power firms to sell the electricity they generate.

Regardles of your view of global warming, CO2 issues or other matters, our real goal should be improving the efficiency of using whatever fuels we have.

1. Decentralized power generation reduces the transmission loss of electric power.

2. Using the waste heat of the engine (whether a microturbine or just a piston engine) to heat water, heat your home, etc. reduces the fuel used for heating.

3. If you live in a warm/hot environment, the waste heat from the engine can be used in a absorption cycle air conditioner (usually only available in a large commercial size, bigger than you need for a single family house, but what you could use for an apartment building).

4. The only real issue is the cost of the equipment. The engine costs, the maintenance costs, the cost of the equipment to capture the waste heat, and changing from freon based air conditioner to an absorption cycle air conditioner.

5. The other issue is, what if supply of natural gas is low (price is high)?

jim, Damascus, MD, USA

I am also sceptical about global warming, but the consequences of the risks of being wrong are catastrophic. I also look upon these energy sources as securing our future - if you do not have to import natural gas from Russia Putin becomes a pointless despot; if you do not use OPEC oil they can all go back to their camels and Islamist terrorists lose their funding. We will not get dragged into pointless wars because new Labour wants to suck up to the USA. We also lose our dependency on huge energy multinationals which are now largely owned by foreigners.
Bring it on. The world - our world - will be a safer place.

Dave, slough,

Domestic wind turbines? How big a fool is Letwin?

Turbines cost thousands of pounds and as 99% of British homes don't have enough wind the payback period is over a century, if at all.

Scott and Pritchard are fools as well. I'm with A N Engineer in Switzerland.

Ian, Chartered Engineer, Solihull,

Oh please. Give it a rest.
Is global warming a fact? Possibly. Is it a man-made phenomenon? Well, the doom-mongers and Carbon Footprint folk would certainly have you believe so. But look a bit deeper than the relentless scary headlines, and you'll see that it's a claim supported by evidence no more substantial than a week-old blancmange.

Tony Pritchard, Cancun, Mexico

It's a pity that the journalists themselves don't have the technical knowledge to challenge the proposals of the defective intellects of the idiots who put forward this nonsense.

A.N. Engineer, Baden, Switzerland

This assumes climate change to be a problem, which it isn't. Therefore it makes no sense to suggest homebrew power generation unless it is more economical than buying it from the grid.

Global warming is the biggest farce going today.

Scott, Durham, NC, USA