About energypolicy.co.uk
This site has his documents on energy saving and supply from renewable sources, the dangers of nuclear power, and the climate impacts of energy.
It also has links to topical articles in the energy arena, with his comments.
My career has had four phases :
- Automobile engineering from 1961 to 1975, including 15 years with Ford Motor Company
- Writing and consulting on energy from 1975 to 1984, including one and a half years with Granges Metallverken
- Writing on and marketing computers from 1984 to 1996, including six years with Computer Concepts
- Writing and consulting on energy in buildings and transport from 1996 to date.
In addition to earning my formal qualifications, I have gained substantial experience during my employed phases. I have also taken myself on several study tours - mostly overseas. I have written a number of professional papers. Then, during my freelance phases, I have written several reports for clients, and published a large number of articles - on energy and on computing.
I have long been interested in energy conservation in buildings and appliances, and in the use of solar energy for space and water heating in buildings. This dates from before my first degree, for which the thesis was entitled "The Use of the Heat Pump for Domestic Heating". Energy conservation and solar energy have also featured in many of my study tours. Since buying my own home in 1974, I have applied a large number of energy-saving measures. In 1998, I started making measurements on my heating system, and the results have helped when designing heating systems for myself and others. The measurements continue, along with analysis to determine the thermal performance and efficiency. With my current condensing gas boiler, the annual average thermal efficiency is about 96 percent.
I have also long been interested in cars, and have learnt a lot from working on them, including those I have owned. In December 2000, I bought a Toyota Prius, the world's first hybrid-electric car to be produced in quantity. This is consuming petrol (gasoline) at about 51 miles per UK gallon, or 5.5 l/100 km. Having done extensive research on it, mostly on the web, I created and gave a presentation on the Prius to a car club. I have also done some translation from German on various automotive topics, including aerodynamics. More recently, I have extended my research in vehicles and technologies for low emissions and fuel consumption. This was in response to a UK Government discussion document on Powering Future Vehicles
In February 2002, the Performance and Innovation Unit of the Cabinet Office of the UK Government published an Energy Review. I greatly extended my previous work on vehicles to include all four sectors - Domestic, Services, Industry, and Transport. This lead to working more than full time right up to the deadline of 13th September 2002 (and beyond). As well as submitting my study 'Energy Solutions for 60% Carbon Reduction' as a response to the PIU, I sent copies to a number of individuals and organizations interested in energy policy.
Having used computers since 1961, I have seen a lot of what is now history. I bought my first computer in 1977, and in 1982 acquired the first of eight different Acorn computers, which were designed and made in the U.K. I still have an Acorn Risc PC - now fitted with RISC OS 4. However, I also have several PCs, sharing a 10/100 Ethernet network. One runs Windows 98 SE, and is dedicated to logging data from my heating system. Another runs Windows 98 SE, and is used for tabulating and plotting the data from the heating system, and for most of my research and writing. I first connected to the Internet in March 1996, and use it extensively for email and web access -especially for research. In November 2002, I suffered a virus infestation, which necessitated saving my data files, and reformatting all the hard discs. As a result, my third PC, which runs SuSELinux 9.1 Professional, is now set up with a firewall, and is used for all email and some web browsing, and as a gateway to the Internet connection, which is via an ADSL broadband router.
Many of my leisure interests reflect my work activities :
For example, I have since extended my interest in cars to the history of transport - canals, railways, road vehicles, and aircraft- through books, and visits to various museums. I have also taken up cycling again, and become interested in the history and technology of bicycles. I am particularly impressed with the Moulton SpaceFrame bicycles, which are designed and made in Britain - especially since owning a Moulton APB-14, and using it regularly. I have also studied the history of computing through books and visits to museums.
For relaxation, I watch certain movies(on television and from video), and some television drama. My all-time favourite is the BBC's 1995 production of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". Having read little fiction since my schooldays, this encouraged me to buy and read almost all her novels.
This site has his documents on energy saving and supply from renewable sources, the dangers of nuclear power, and the climate impacts of energy.
It also has links to topical articles in the energy arena, with his comments.
Recent articles
2024-09-17 Britain’s Atomic Bomb Scandal (Channel 4 programme)
Channel 4 made a multi-part series of programmes with this title.The sub-title was: The dramatic, shocking story of Britain’s race for the nuclear bomb, the devastating fallout for the servicemen at the tests, and the veterans’ long fight for justice'. I watched all the parts, and made notes.Then I typed up the notes and followed up mentions and links to produce this document.2021-09-29 Nuclear Power and the EU Taxonomy
Around September 2021, the European Commission considered the inclusion of nuclear power in the taxonomy for future investments in energy. This was based on a single report from the European Joint Research Centre, which still has close links with the nuclear industry and is widely perceived as playing a promoting role for nuclear energy within the European Union. The JRC Report ignored the report of the German Ethics Commission for a Safe Energy Supply of 2011, which had lead to Germany phasing out nuclear power by 2023. The European Commision also ignored 'Sustainability at risk, A critical analysis of the EU Joint Research Centre technical assessment of nuclear energy with respect to the "do no significant harm" criteria of the EU Taxonomy Regulation, of 2021-09 by Dr. Christoph Pistner, Dr. Matthias Englert and Dr. Ben Wealer, for the Heinrich Boell Foundation.2023-06-06 Nuclear Power Has No Future
The UK government proposes to build nuclear power plants totalling 24 GW.This implies Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C and about six more of similar size.The Labour party proposes to include nuclear power in it’s new ‘green’ energy policy.Yet nuclear power has no future, as shown in this document of 3 pages with 52 references. The first section shows that nuclear fuel may be effectively exhausted before 2050, when the climate targets should be met. The second section shows that the costs of nuclear power have risen over time, and are now uncompetitive. So nuclear power must be replaced by sustainable and affordable options such as energy savings and renewables like wind, solar and storage. The third section shows that nuclear power conflicts with energy savings and renewables, so impairing the business case and deterring investment.So the UK should phase out nuclear power and join the rest of the world in deploying energy savings and renewables.Although this document is published after the latest Government and Labour Party proposals,I have published many earlier documents on nuclear power, dating from 2006-0-19. (See below).Most notably, my report on the Fukushima disaster was published on 2012-04-11, with copies sent to several MPs and Ministers.2022-10-05 Nuclear Nonsense
The new UK government appears to support the previous government’s proposal of building new nuclear power plants. The Labour party proposes to include nuclear power in it’s new ‘green’ energy policy. However such nuclear proposals are nonsense, as shown in this 4-page due diligence assessment.2022-08-13 Nuclear Power And Weapons Are Killing Us
The Manhattan Project in the US covered every stage of the production of nuclear weapons. This included the mining and refining of uranium, enrichment to 80 to 90% U235 for uranium bombs, fuelling nuclear reactors with uranium to produce plutonium, and reprocessing the spent fuel to extract the plutonium for plutonium bombs. It was recognised from the beginning that these processes and plants would give rise to radioactive releases that would be harmful to the plant operators and the general public, yet they were never informed. This continues to the present day, when the nuclear weapon and power industry does everything in its power to deny and understate the many and extensive harms done to all living things. To this has been added the use of uranium in bunker-breaking bombs and tank-busting shells, that spread the dust so formed over their own forces, the enemy forces, and innocent bystanders, harming them all for generations to come. The human harms include many and extensive cancers, and also non-malignant diseases such as stillbirths, deformities and mental impairment and heart disease. With so much harm already done to humans that will take up to lifetimes to express, and so much nuclear debris laying in wait to harm even more humans, it is essential to identify every strategy and measure that can reduce the total harm.This document covers the first warnings of nuclear harms in the 1950s and - following studies beginning in the 1960s - five books of evidence by Dr Ernest Sternglass in 1981, Mr Harvey Wasserman et al in 1982, Dr John Gofman in 1990, Mr Paul Zimmerman in 2009, and Professor Chris Busby et al in 2010.2022-08-12 Stopping Sizewell C and all nuclear power in favour of a rational energy policy
Among the last acts of the Johnson government was the approval of a new nuclear plant - Sizewell C. The claim was that it would increase energy security and reduce carbon emissions. But the invasion of Ukraine has underlined that all nuclear sites are targets, and reduce national security. Also nuclear power would be far more costly than energy savings and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, with storage, and could not be generating electricity before 2030. They need uranium for fuel, yet almost half comes from Russia and Kazachkstan, so that the money and carbon costs would increase twice as fast. Moreover, they require huge amounts of energy to manufacture and build, so reducing energy security until construction is complete, and this energy repaid. Yet Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C are coastal sites, at risk from flooding by sea level rise and storm surge by 2100. As decommissioning and site clearance would take at least 50 years, they would need to be shutdown before 2050. Many reasons for stopping Sizewell C and all nuclear power are given in this collection of five documents.2022-06-14 Energy Transition Technologies
This is prompted by the Energy Hierarchy of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. From the most to the least sustainable, Tier 1 is Energy Demand Reduction, Tier 2 is Energy Efficiency, Tier 3 is Utilisation of Renewable, Sustainable Resources, Tier 4 is Utilisation of Other, Low-GHG-Emitting Resources, and Tier 5 is Utilisation of Conventional Resources as we do now.2022-06-18 Nuclear Insecurities
This is a three-page re-cast of 2016-08-09 Nuclear Insecurities (below).It includes 16 criteria under the original 10 headings, supported by 21 references.2021-06-09 The Futility of Fusion - A Dream Too Far
For the Presentation, Conclusions and a document with references, click on Read More. Nuclear fusion power on earth poses extreme technical challenges. One is the attainment of at least 100 million degrees C for long enough to produce net energy. Another is that any power plant fuelled with Deuterium and Tritium must 'breed' enough Tritium to sustain itself. Yet fusion power is futile because it cannot be deployed at a meaningful scale before 2050. This is the target date for Zero Carbon - hopefully limiting Global Warming to less than 2 C. So by this date all energy must be supplied from proven renewable sources such as Solar Photovoltaics, Wind Power, Hydro Power, sustainable Biomass and Solar and Deep Geothermal Heat.2016-12-19 Limiting Global Climate Change
Global climate change is the most urgent problem faced by humankind. Professor Will Steffen of the Australian National University and co-authors have shown that the earth is liable to many tipping points, several subject to positive feedbacks.Unless there is a rapid transition to 100% renewable energy, humankind will lose control of climate change, with the planet entering the Anthropocene era. Severe global warming of 4 - 8 C would disrupt world food supplies, leading to mass starvations, migrations and war.
