Business & Finance Information

Comment by Laurence Green on March 27, 2009 at 7:48

UK ENERGY SUPPLIES

The UK currently derives the bulk of its energy from gas, coal, nuclear power, oil, and some renewables in the form of hydro-electric and wind power. There are also other sources such as biofuels, fuels derived from waste, and solar power.

Gas is sourced directly from local gas fields, imported through pipelines from Norway and Denmark, and by ship in liquified form. There are gas storage fields.

The basic materials for nuclear fuel are imported. With our oil fields in decline, the UK is now a net importer of oil. Coal can be both imported and sourced locally.

Electricity is generated mainly from gas, coal and nuclear power, with a limited amount of renewables. There is a two-way link to continental Europe and some pumped storage facilities.

Supply costs are controlled by market forces. Gas and electricity prices on the wholesale markets are heavily influenced by the price of oil. Over half of domestic prices and a quarter of business prices are made up of wholesale energy costs. Less than 20% of consumers switch suppliers proactively, so competition is not fully effective.1

Several monopoly companies operate the energy transmission and regional distribution networks. Transmission costs currently make up about one fifth of a household customer’s bill and are controlled by Ofgem using 5 year price control periods. 2

Petrol and diesel are supplied to domestic road users by nine distributors and their franchisees, including four supermarkets. Tax made up of over 70% of the retail price in 2007.

Comment by Laurence Green on March 27, 2009 at 7:53

A DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY

The following approach is based on a lecture to Stanford University by Amory Lovins, (www.rmi.org) and is applicable to many areas of endeavour.

When designing for breakthrough energy efficiency, rule of thumb is abandoned. Creative thought and detailed analysis dominate.

Reducing demand is always considered before improving the efficiency of supply. The application is carefully analysed, before consideration is give to how to support it. Why does the application exist? What is creating the demand? (For example, instead of replacing an old power hungry server with a more efficient model, one might ask whether it could be filled with rarely used, legacy data removed from other servers, and then switched off).

Energy is lost in each step of any process. No step is one hundred percent efficient. By eliminating a step or reducing its size, both the energy used and the energy lost are reduced.

Therefore designing starts at the downstream end of a process and progresses upstream. Energy savings are then compounded as each step is designed (eg. shorter pipes require less powerful pumps).

Task elimination, which reduces energy, is considered before task creation, which requires energy (eg permaculture before horticulture). Similarly the use of passive elements is maximised (eg the insulation of a house) before active elements are considered (eg energy efficient heating).

We design each component to have as many functions as possible. This reduces the energy needed to build and maintain the process or structure, (eg an internal wall might provide structural support, create separation and store heat).

Where applicable, attention is paid to mechanical tolerances and workmanship. These can improve energy efficiency. (For example: the greater efficiency of the high tolerance Lexus engine and the reduced heat loss from well sealed buildings).

By designing and creating in this way, most waste and harm is eliminated, and capital expenditure is minimised.

Comment by Rowena on March 29, 2009 at 23:39

Pretty much agree with all that you say here Lawrence but I'm not sure what the purpose of this is - is it basically an 'informing' post?

Comment by Laurence Green on April 18, 2009 at 0:18

HOW TO MAKE MONEY AND SAVE THE WORLD - a book promotion talk on sustainability in business by Gary Hirshberg of the highly successful Stoneyfield Farm in New Hampshire. 70 minutes including questions.

Comment by Laurence Green on April 18, 2009 at 0:23

HOW TO MAKE MONEY AND SAVE THE WORLD (correction) - a book promotion talk on sustainability in business by Gary Hirshberg of the highly successful Stoneyfield Farm in New Hampshire. 70 minutes including questions.
fora.tv/2008/02/20/How_to_Make_Money_and_Save_the_World#chapter_00

Comment by Laurence Green on May 18, 2009 at 19:09

INSPIRING TALK BY THE FOUNDER OF A MULTINATIONAL AIMING FOR COMPLETE SUSTAINABILITY
In 1994, Ray Anderson set a new direction for his carpet tile company Interface: to achieve zero environmental impact. He reckons he is over half way there, with among other statistics, an 82% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, while sales increased by two thirds and profits have doubled. It has been extremely good for business. Watch this16 minute presentation at
www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ray_anderson_on_the_business_logic_of_sustainability.html

Comment by Laurence Green on May 18, 2009 at 19:14

INSPIRING TALK BY THE FOUNDER OF A MULTINATIONAL AIMING FOR COMPLETE SUSTAINABILITY
The Ning software cut off the end of the web address. To access the talk, go to www.ted.com and type Ray Anderson into the search field or try this link

Comment by Laurence Green on July 24, 2009 at 23:54

BROADWAY THEATRES CHANGE THEIR LIGHTBULBS
See New York Times article at this link.

Comment by Laurence Green on April 8, 2010 at 15:19

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF GLOBAL ENERGY RESEARCH
This is from a New York Times Opinion Blog 'The world is not remotely engaged in the kind of energy quest that would be required to fill the (energy) gaps' The graph is very revealing. See this link

Comment by Mike Grenville on April 8, 2010 at 16:55

Indeed it isn't - crunch time is coming soon....

Love the delusional comments under the article about Tar Sands and nuclear...

This is the correct link
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/on-the-energy-gap-and-...

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