PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 4/02/05
The key to meeting the world’s immediate energy and
environmental needs lies not in new wind, wave and solar power
installations, but in existing technologies that are available
now.
Many renewable energy technologies are either still in their
infancy, or do not deliver sufficient amounts of energy. Covering
whole countries with wind turbines would not meet the world’s
needs. However, based on technologies that are already well known
and available, measures can be put into place in the next ten
years at reasonable cost to meet our immediate energy needs,
without damaging the climate and environment.
In the UK, this would be sufficient to meet not only our
greenhouse gas reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol,
but also the government’s stricter self-imposed target,
which the Prime Minister recently said he believes we are
unlikely to reach.
These arguments are detailed in the cover story of the latest
issue of Plant Engineer, written by Dr Tom Shelley FSOE, the
magazine’s technical editor.
The most significant measures relate to the UK’s existing
coal-fired power stations:
* Re-equipping power stations with supercritical boilers, which
run at higher temperatures and pressures
* Increasing the proportion of biomass used as fuel
* Using waste heat of combustion to preheat boiler feed water.
These measures alone would save 11.7Mtc (million tons of carbon),
which would get us more than halfway towards the government’s
own target.
Other suggested measures include:
* Switching homes and offices to use heat pumps, which take heat
from the ground. Their use is well established in Sweden and
Switzerland
* Building more nuclear power stations. The UK’s nuclear
regulatory regime has for decades been more stringent than that
of most other countries
* Burning fugitive methane emissions from disused coalmines.
While this does produce carbon dioxide, it does eliminate
methane, which has 23 times the greenhouse effect of carbon
dioxide.
Dr Shelley says that a combination of these technologies is
sufficient to meet our energy needs for the next two decades,
while also meeting our Kyoto requirements. The article concludes:
“There is no need to invent any new technologies.
Large-scale solar and wave power generation, and mining the moon
for helium-3 for nuclear fusion may well be required in the
future, but there is no immediate need for them.”
NOTES FOR EDITORS
1) Plant Engineer is the official journal of IPlantE, a
professional sector of the Society of Operations Engineers. Views
expressed within the journal are those of the writers, and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the SOE.
2) IPlantE was founded in 1946; it provides professional
recognition and supports the personal development of engineers,
technicians and those with an interest in the specification,
installation, operation and maintenance of industrial plant and
services.
3) The Society of Operations Engineers (SOE) is a professional
membership organisation that represents more than 18,000
individuals and companies in the engineering industry. It
supports and encourages best practice and health and safety
initiatives, and is committed to the ongoing growth and personal
development of its members through specialist knowledge-sharing
and professional learning.
4) Plant Engineer is produced on behalf of the Society of
Operations Engineers by Findlay Publications Ltd, the UK’s
premier publishing and communications group serving manufacturing
industry.
5) Dr Tom Shelley MA PhD MIMMM FSOE FIPlantE CEng is group
technical editor at Findlay Publications, as well as being a
Fellow of the Society of Operations Engineers.
Further information
For further information on Plant Engineer, please contact Dr
Shelley at TShelley@Findlay.co.uk
For further information on IPlantE, please look at http://www.soe.org.uk or
contact Andrea Dick on andrea.dick@soe.org.uk