Going Green

Power in the UK is either Electric or gas and a small amount of Oil and LPG. Gas widely used for Heating and Cooking and is used Electricity for everything else. The bulk of our energy needs or demand is about 30 - 40GW. 

Where does our electricity come from ?

Nuclear 15% ranges from 10% - 20%, Biomass 5%, Coal is now < 1%

Gas 47% Gas is scaled to fit the Wind and Solar. Wind and Solar vary  Wind 10-50% Solar up to 15% depends on the day. Some is imported/exported to Europe. France not supplying as much electricity, there is no IC1 because of damage from a wildfire. So presently only IC2 is working.

With Gas prices rising because of increasing Global demand and having a poor year for wind and solar in this country, the situation is looking very uncertain. We need more renewable options like wave and tidal and hydroelectric power. Much of the data for this episode came from Gridwatch.co.uk

I did an experiment in the classroom yesterday making some hydrogen and it was colourless,  but that isn't what the colours of hydrogen are all about. Most of all our hydrogen - a safe clean gas to burn for energy is called Brown Hydrogen, made from Fossils fuels and in the manufacture of this lots of Carbon and other toxic substances like sulfur are produced and typically these are left as pollutants into the air. So although you may be using a clean fuel - hydrogen - its manufacture certainly wasn't clean and green and efficient in any way.

Blue Hydrogen is made in exactly the same way as the Brown Hydrogen, but some of the Carbon and Sulfur are recovered and stored, usually in the ground. The exact amount varies so some hydrogen made this way is very blue and some much less so.

The last type of hydrogen is Green Hydrogen - made from the electrolysis of water using electricity from renewable sources - Wonderful - but it still isn't as Green as it could be because how much Greenhouse gases were using in the manufacture of the renewable energy machines and for the transport and storage of the hydrogen. Perhaps we should call this Cyan Hydrogen. Hydrogen is notoriously difficult to store as being a very small molecule it can escape a solid pipe and in some gas lines as much as 10% of the Hydrogen escapes.

Scientists are calling for emissions in Carbon Dioxide to be cut by 7.6% per year. This means that by 2030 the Carbon Dioxide emissions will be cut by half. The scientists are also calling for a 3% a year cut in extracting coal, oil and gas - effectively leaving the reserves in the ground. But at present rather than a drop in production, the production has actually increased worldwide. During the pandemic most people thought that there would be a cut in emissions with few cars and planes travelling, but with people at home more emissions were produced.

Philip and Paul also look at "Orca", the name of Climeworks' new direct air capture and storage plant in Iceland. It will take carbon dioxide removal to the next level by combining direct air capture technology with the underground storage of carbon dioxide. Orca will capture 4000 tons of Carbon Dioxide per year - making it the world's biggest climate-positive facility to date.

Decarbonising the world isn't about getting rid of the carbon - that’s impossible, but it all about managing the resource. Carbon Taxes can be applied to industries to push them in the right direction allowing the more efficient companies to trades carbon credits with other companies by setting caps and allowing trade. Carbon Coins are used to reward companies for not emitting carbon. The systems all come down to money. Either raising money in the form of taxes for those companies who must make carbon  dioxide as part of their business like the cement industry and paying  other companies who might be investing in wind and solar power. Generating this revenue means that the money can be spent on research and infrastructure and justice. Changing what we do needs to be done, and it needs to be done quickly.

Reduce, Repair, Rethink, Recycle, Reuse or Reimagine

If you can buy from a different manufacturer who makes a longer lasting product, perhaps one that can have parts easily replaced or upgraded, then this helps stop the throwaway culture we live in. If you can buy a product in recycled packaging, then this also helps. Slowly manufacturers  are going back to products that can be repaired and upgraded because of legislation.

Local recycling depends on your council but it doesn’t have to - much you can do for yourself

Target for recycling in the UK for 2020 was 50% didn’t make it. The UK as a whole made just over 44% and that was several years ago then we stagnated. We as a world need to do better.

Philip and Paul talk about Mr Trash wheel a googly eyed river trash remover and other in other countries. 

Should we stop all oil production. Should we turn to electric cars powered by wind power. Should we get rid of the coal mines and only use clean wind and tidal power.

Sounds great but … What would you wear? Plastics are made from Oil. No oil - no clothes, no glue, no spectacles, no computers, no cars, no phones - no kitchens units, no tea bags, no batteries!!

We could be stuck in the 1870's - We might have to go back and use lead pipes for water, Wires would need hazardous lacquer rather than the plastic, There would be no semiconductors, and no phones, no toothbrushes, there would be no paint.

So what are the alternatives to plastics made from Oil. Can we cope with plastics made from plants in a batch process?

Can we dispose of plastics in a better way - Wax worms - eat plastics

Some bacteria can digest plastics and help landfill - even biodegradable plastics take a while. Now we could use plants as a plastic feed stock - these are not biodegradable but  57% more energy is needed in the production. Philp and Paul talk about the alternatives and what we can do.

The IPCC report comes out the week we get the hottest day ever in Europe. In the week that there are fires in Italy, Greece and Turkey. In the week when floods are also swallowing up Turkey and the USA California fires have been going on for a month. Philip and Paul look at just a few headlines from the report which blames all the current global warming on the people and paint a grim picture for the future it we don't start now. The 1.5 Celsius temperature rise is going to happen whether the world does something or not, it is just too late.

This week's topics were wide ranging from Green Games to Concrete. Moss is a wonderful substance holding up to eight times its weight in water and storing carbon for centuries as peat. This system is being used to slow down the water that rains in the centre of the country and releasing it slower so that large towns on rivers are not so easily flooded. Philip and Paul then talked about the new green games appearing like Anno 2070 and the soon to be released Anno 1800 expansion which teaches the gamers the advantages of going green. 

Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants growing to be able to be used in 14 days to make items like cutlery. It can be used as paper replacement after growing for a few years. After 5 years it can be used to replace iron in reinforced concrete - having similar properties to the metal. Replacing plastic with bamboo can do similar to mpb.com who by replacing the bubble warp with paper can save up to  1200 football pitches worth of plastic.

Lastly Philip and Paul talked about carbon dioxide in concrete. Much noise is being made by the press about low carbon concrete but it is just ordinary concrete made using slightly greener processes, Paul suggested infilling the bamboo with waste plastic.

Over the past few weeks we have seen, Wildfires, Floods, extremes of heat in the Northern Hemisphere and Snow in Brazil. The Met Office in the UK has confirmed that the 10 hottest years have occurred in the last 20 years. Is climate change already here?  Have we reached the tipping point already? - The climate has become more chaotic. The Number of methane producing ruminants (herbivores) is far greater than the number of humans . In Madagascar there is a food crisis because of back to back droughts with Thousands starving. So have we reached a point of no return - many scientists as painting a very gloomy picture with COP26 just 3 months away. Philip and Paul talk through these points.

Over the past few days we have seen extreme temperatures in the USA along with Wildfires A large Heat Dome bottling in the heat. Canada too has had extreme temperatures along with Siberia and northern China. These have all been record breaking. In contrast some of Europe and  China have had record breaking rain leading to vast flooding and loss of life. China's floods were caused by a once in a 1000 year rainfall when 20cm in one day. Europe had this in three days.

With the Heat and the wildfires in Siberia, the Permafrost is also melting releasing 10,000 year old biological matter into methane and Carbon Dioxide.

Much of the world is experiencing global climate change now. The time to act was yesterday. We don't need to cut the rise to 1.5 Celsius, we need to reduce by 1.5 Celsius.