The Energy Security emails sent to Grant Shapps
1 Introduction sent on 13 Feb 2023.
Congratulations on your appointment to the new Government Department to deal with the critical issue of our time. Your natural communication skills will serve you well. Many simpler mitigations of climate change are available. COPs seem to concentrate on the poorer nations seeking money as their first priority from the richer ones. I wrote a series of emails to Graham Stuart of my thoughts as I had worked with him on a CCS seminar a few years back. Not sure if what I wrote was of any use or interest as he was not in the job very long. I intend to repeat these daily messages to you and hope that they are some help in the challenges that you face.
2 Do NOT waste, WASTE sent 14 Feb 23
Human society has produced waste for millennia, where would archaeologists be without it! But it right that we minimise its creation as much as possible. Also, the recovery of valuable raw materials and there are very sophisticated plants on stream to do that, but a significant residual will remain. So, we should recover all the energy we can for power and district heating. The first step is to ban the lowest step in the Waste Hierarchy, landfill, not just charge for it by the tonne.
3 Water, water everywhere sent 15 Feb 23
Climate change is bringing the UK hot, dry summers on a regular basis. Inevitably drought and water usage restrictions follow. The UK also has many, many miles of coastline. So why not use the hot sun to power micro desalination plants around our coasts to export water into the mains. If this initiative is successful, waste could even be used as the power source to provide a 24/7 year-round supply.
4 Fossil fuels sent 16 Feb 23
Fossil fuels are a no, no in most parts of the developed world. This opinion also causes the burning of wood as a substitute in less developed or remote places, which is clearly counterproductive for carbon capture. Ten years ago, the UK was a leader in CCS. But various Government decisions reduced our R&D. However now the CCS technology is well established throughout the developed world. Professionally designed and installed makes fossil fuel powered plants environmentally friendly if there are no other clean alternatives. Fracking falls into classification, but of course has even more environmental protests.
5 Solar sent 20 Feb 23
Solar power has exhibited the classic development curve of increasing efficiency and decreasing costs. It is now more profitable to farmers to cover their fertile land with solar panels, not very attractive. However, there is a danger that we could be gaining in energy security but losing in food security. Solar energy collection sites should be sited more on roofs and the newly developed special windows.
6 Wind sent 21 Feb 23
Like solar, wind has become ever cheaper per unit of power generated, even though its engineering is far more complex. Continue building around our coasts, but onshore should only happen in the rarest of cases and where there is overwhelming local support, which I suspect is likely to occur only rarely if the inducements are great enough. However, in industrial coastal areas such as ports installations should happen.
7 Tidal sent 22 Feb 23
A lot of effort has gone into make capturing structures for tidal energy strong enough to withstand the enormous forces involved in surface seas. River estuaries also generate more heat than power because of concerns for nature. But what about the neglected area of sub-surface currents. Constant and not so severe, our many miles of coastline should offer many suitable sites. It has been shown that tidal and sub surface are relatively constant 24/7 thus easing the management of the variable renewable sources of solar and wind. Hydro is great, but the UK has few geographical sites for this energy source.
8 Nuclear sent 23 Feb 23.
Do not be distracted by fusion it will still take several decades to be viable. But SMRs are exciting as small, easily manufactured and constructed, power sources to large facilities or areas, hopefully dispelling the emotional anti-nuclear lobby.
9 Biomass sent 27 Feb 23
Biomass is making great advances and has considerable further potential .Biomass technologies are developing and reflect “Do not waste, WASTE.” There should be a time when any medium to large, livestock farms should approach self-sufficiency in energy, with solar panels on south facing roofs, a couple of windmills and biomass energy. Throw in some geothermal on the farmer’s land and they may need to purchase from the Grid only rarely.
10 Geothermal sent 28 Feb 23
There is considerable marketing effort going into this topic on TV. But really the depths that drilling has to go to give a reliable heating in colder periods are just too great to be economic.
The companies are playing on the buyer’s desire to do something for climate change but doubt that the purchasers will be happy the further north you reside.
11 Hydrogen sent 1 Mar 23
Is this the White Night? But its uses should not be stretched into unsuitable areas. It certainly has roles in heavy duty transport where one rapid fill provides fuel for an entire day’s work. There is still the need for a national infrastructure. Replacing town gas has many issues, such as the capacity of the mains and hydrogen’s safety in homes. Its main purpose should be storing clean energy for use when needed when it is likely to be far more efficient than batteries.
12 DFID sent 2 Mar 23
Some messages for your DFID colleagues. . The risks to sending cash to developing countries overseas are obvious. So why not go for win/win/win? Where there is a hot country and a nearby seaboard. Manufacture in the UK and build in the recipients country solar powered desalination plants for the local population to operate. The output could irrigate and produce food and over time grow trees to capture carbon. If water is not needed then use the sun’s power to capture CO2 via a Direct Air Capture Process.