Going Greener

It's not strictly a caravan issue, but certainly of great interest, relevant to the issue of greener power, and how it's developing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0938p7z
Radio 4  "Costing the Earth" programme about very positive and exciting developments in Cornwall. And yes, batteries do come into it!
Truly one for those who shake their heads and say "It can't be done, we really need fossil fuels and nuclear power".

Happy listening :-)

I'm not going to use my data allowance to listen to a radio program but presumably this is about extracting lithium from the old South Crofty tin mine.

If only I had a quid for every time I'd heard of the latest plan for reopening South Crofty. 

To save your bandwidth, TW,  here's a synopsis of the programme's points, and yes, they did mention the lithium, but read on...

Programme looked at existing places, eg large holiday park, already combining solar & biomass boiler to drastically cut use of grid.

Then Vanadium Redox “energy storage machines” - big & heavy, so not a caravan possibility! but they don't degrade like ordinary batteries, and are already improving with research. Holiday cottages able to run on combination of solar & these. Plans to have 2 lorry container sized units to power entire holiday complex,

 Energy Academic accepts that we're not there yet by a long way, and currently still need power stations, but in long term, between wind, wave and sun, more localised small-scale generation and storage plants, complete sustainability without them is a real possibility within decades, even in the face of electric vehicles needing re-charging.

Basically, it's all about intelligent planning and thinking in a different way from status quo.

Something I hadn't realised is that the national energy system structure is now coming up to needing renewing anyway, so planning for long term now rather than simply replacing what's already there again seems far better.

Stresses need for politicians to realise long term goals above the next election – surely the stumbling block!

Then indeed programme moves onto lithium - didn't hear a place name, just "central inland Cornwall". Proposal to use modern bore hole extraction rather than re-opening old mines, using on-site geothermal energy power for extraction, which operators reckon will work.

 So lots of things which are still goals rather than already in action, but many of them seem realistically possible if only politicians can be persuaded of the need. Hopefully the increasing momentum will persuade them.... all except the ones with vested interests in nuclear and fracking, of course!

Hope this helps!

Richard.

Yes, very interesting Hedge. Not only interesting but very exciting about what is possible now and in the future. Rather than large power stations there will be millions of small generation facilities and isn't this what we with SPs are doing on a much smaller scale? It's the same thing- we are powering our holidays with sunlight- I wish I was 40 yrs younger to see what the developments would be!! I was very interested in the energy storage unit- sounds really good with being able to store during the day and release it at night when the holidaymakers come back from their day out. The Lithium part was interesting too. Just shows you how necessity is the mother of invention. Lithium batteries I understand  have a less than perfect track record for safety but even this is being, or rather has been,  solved. Apparently the problem was that if you wanted the battery to be powerful and hold a good charge, the electrolyte was made of a certain material - and it was this that had the potential safety problem- they can be made of safer materials but of course the battery power was reduced. Now, I believe, they have cracked the problem where you have a safe electrolyte and good power- but I read, it won't be commercially available for about 5 years- watch that get reduced! Yes, the future is bright for renewables- not sure I believe all this CO2 balony though - I happen to believe that the world is in a natural cycle and the carbon thing is just another way the political class has of doing its own extracting- money from our pockets! 

This may get moved as strictly speaking unless you use your caravan at home for a cuppa  (which I do sometimes) it isn't really relevant :-  In an attempt to help my daughter save some of her hard earned cash on bills I have been wondering if it would be better for her to use an electric kettle or a kettle on the gas.  Per Kw her gas is about 1/3 of the price of electricity.  I asked an electrician and he said it depended how quickly the gas boiled the water - well that would depend on which ring I chose - small medium or large?  Anyone any helpful answer?  I am pretty confident that my Safefill gas would work out cheaper than electricity but am I right? 

On UK mains gas and electricity, even if boiling the kettle on gas is only 50% efficient, it will still be cheaper to use gas.  In winter when you are heating that area by other means, even the other 50% is not wasted as it will to a tiny extent reduce the heating demand  ..... assuming efficient temperature controls.

I actually went through the exercise of comparing the use of bottled gas versus metered electricity when in Spain.   At the (regulated) price for butane of EU14 for 12.5kg;  and the campsite metered rate of 30cents/kWh  ..... using bottled gas works out a fair bit cheaper. (In Spain lpg at a filling station is actually more expensive than exchange bottles ...so I'm afraid SafeFill would be no advantage!)

Of course as far as boiling a kettle is concerned, the biggest waste of all comes from people boiling far more water at a time than they actually need

Thanks Vic I thought I was correct and the large gas ring on her cooker is pretty quick.  Yes I am always on at her not to boil too much!  However its really annoying if you boil too little as I have done this week twice!  But it doesn't take long for the top up to boil in a hot kettle I suppose! 

I have LPG heating and cooking in winter - a Rayburn - at home I suppose I should really use it for cooking in Summer as well but last time I asked the price to run a pipe was ridiculous. 

That’s very interesting Vic- bottle gas is cheaper than refillable gas!! If they can do it in Spain.........

Far more users in Spain though, paricularly of smaller sizes such6as 6kg

I'm amazed that with all the electric used on sites (and that's without charging cars and bikes more in the future) that the Caravan club hasn't put solar panels on all of it's buildings. There are so many toilet block roofs out there that are bare tiles. If they committed to using more solar power I'm sure it would have a massive effect on costs as well as making the club more green.