Britain planning laws may be revised to make it easier for micropower generation.
In an interview with The Observer, Planning Minister, Yvette Cooper said, “It is patently absurd that you should be able to put a satellite dish on your house, but have to wrestle with the planning process for small-scale micro-generation, which is no more obtrusive and can have a real impact on tackling climate change.”
Sir Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat leader, has branded the move by the UK government towards a new generation of nuclear power stations unaffordable, unecessary and a bad deal for taxpayers.
“Taxpayers are already liable to pay up to £90bn to clean up after the existing generation of nuclear power stations.
“The taxpayers are picking up the tab because when the last government privatised British Nuclear Fuels, investors refused to shoulder the risk.
“There is no indication that they are any more willing to take on that risk this time.
The Guardian reports that Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet president, has written to Tony Blair in an attempt to stop him pursuing nuclear power in the United Kingdom, telling him that it is not viable solution either socially, environmentally or economically,… Read More »Gorbachev Urges Tony to Forget Nuclear
The government has said that British schools must become more “carbon neutral” by 2020. To start with they will encourage children to walk to school to reduce pollution, try to reduce water and energy consumption in schools, and fit some… Read More »Britain’s Schools Green By 2020
BSkyB, Sky News’ parent company, is the first major media company to go “Carbon Neutral”. The company will also be spreading the green message to its growing base of more than 8.1m customers, helping them to become better informed and… Read More »(The) Sky Turns Green
Tumelo Ramolefi is an inner-city hawker in Johannesburg, but what makes him different is that he isn’t selling “smileys” and “runaways” (boiled sheep heads and pigs trotters), t-shirts and socks, or even black bags and coathangers. Tumelo’s stall , on a pavement in Joubert Park, is selling innovative renewable-energy gadgets and his gadgets are proving very popular with Jo’burg’s working class.
Mr. Ramolefi’s best-sellers are ethanol gel stoves and lamps, a greener, healthier and safer option than the parrafin and coal that is used by so many of Johannesburg’s people. His ethanol gel products and appliances are supplied by GreenHeat in Durban, who make the stoves and ethanol gel locally. The cost of the stove is R160 (roughly £15) and the lamp is R50 (about £5).
This stove is number one, said Maria Ndlela, who works in a recycling centre in Joubert Park and has owned her stove for two months. She says it is easy to use and, while paraffin is cheaper than the gel, the gel is more cost-efficient in the long run. Five litres of gel costs R60 and paraffin costs R21,99 for the same amount. Gel lasts. If you dont use it too much, five litres of gel takes you a month to use, but five litres of paraffin lasts only three days.
Read More »Greener, Healthier Energy Options for South Africans
Mackie’s of Scotland make ice cream with fresh milk, cream and renewable energy. They have installed a single Vestas V52 wind turbine and aim to become Britain’s greenest company by making more energy than they consume. In the past year,… Read More »Mackie’s Make Wind-powered Ice Cream
I believe this to be the first of its kind, an environmentally friendly FREE online email service, powered by green energy. Communitymail.net is a ThinkHost socially responsible project, offering FREE webmail. Choose from yourname@communitymail.net, yourname@activist.cc, yourname@hippiemail.com or yourname@globaluprising.com and email… Read More »Eco-Friendly Email
BP Solar and Spanish bank, Santander, are joining forces to launch a project that will involve the building of 278 small power plants throughout Spain that will be able to power 12,500 homes. To read more, see this Guardian article.… Read More »Massive Solar Energy Project in Spain