Client News-Marine Current Turbines are selected in the top ten of the Guardian Manchester Report on Clean Energy Technologies

Marine energy

Marine turbines are like underwater windmills than can extract energy from fast-flowing tides or deep ocean currents

A huge amount of energy is stored in, on and above the oceans. Strong sea winds can be exploited with offshore windfarms, while waves can be converted into electricity using articulated snake-like generators. Scientists and engineers are also exploring how to create electricity from the salinity difference between rivers and oceans and the temperature difference between the sea surface and the colder waters below.

One of the most promising marine energy technologies is the tidal turbine, which was advocated in Manchester by Peter Fraenkel of Marine Current Turbines (MCT). These devices act like underwater windmills, with blades that rotate as the tide flows through them. Tidal turbines create large amounts of power in those countries with very fast-flowing tidal streams – such as the UK and Canada – and in the future similar devices could be used to extract energy from deep ocean currents such as the Kuroshio in north-west Pacific.

Compared to wind and solar energy, tidal generation has the advantage of predictability. Being driven by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun, as opposed to the weather, their timing and strength is known in advance to a high level of certainty. A further advantage is the high energy density of the tides. With as much as a thousand tonnes of water passing through a turbine's blades in a single second, a relatively small device can create a relatively large amount of electricity.

Producing devices robust enough to withstand these forces is a formidable engineering challenge, but MCT's flagship device – the SeaGen – has already been proven to work on a commercial scale. Positioned in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, the first SeaGen turbine has generated more than 100 megawatt hours of electricity.

Click here for the full article and to see a video of Peter Fraenkel presenting the technology

Political News-Speculation grows around Miliband energy plans

Green Jobs, Bill Increases, Speed and Clarity are the order of the day

Speculation is growing around the details of Ed Milliband's, renewable energy package which is due to be announced on Wednesday. This will be the third time in five years that the government will attempt to make clear their proposals on cutting green house emissions and their ideas for energy generation in the UK.

The UK government is committed to cutting carbon emissions by 34 per cent by 2020. The UK is also bound by the European Union to produce 15 per cent of the country’s energy needs from renewables by the same year.

The question is how the government intend to fund the estimated £100 billion needed for development of the renewable sector and the upgrade of the national grid to a ‘smart grid’. The fear among politicians is that the costs will and can only be met by an increase in energy bills for the voter.

An increase in bills in economic tight times will do nothing but increase voters ire and is a dangerous move in an election year. Ed Miliband and his advisers will be very aware that discussing bill increases of a pound or two are fine and may go somewhat unnoticed at the end of a heatwave in the summer months. However the political repercussions will be felt in the winter months when demand for energy increases and the prices start to spike again. But if it is not the consumer that will shoulder the burden of the government meeting its renewables target then who will?

The private sector has already claimed that there is not enough available money or investment in bringing new technologies such as marine, biomass and wind to the energy mix at the speed at which is required. Investing in the smart grid, transmission points and further storage all come with a high cost which over time will dwarf the money that was pumped into the banking crisis.

Dieter Helm, an energy expert at New College Oxford was quoted in the Financial Times as saying “the enormous investment needed in renewables would have been hard to finance even when financial markets were strong, and would be even more difficult following the credit crunch” The return to investors would need to come from the public through higher energy bills.

This echoes the opinion outlined early this week by David Milborrow in his paper Managing Variability where he claims that “The UK can meet its targets of generating more than a third of its electricity from wind by 2020 without raising the risk of blackouts at an additional cost of £2 for every £100 electricity bill”.

The uncertainty over returns on investment in wind and solar power has already seen some large energy groups such as BP and Royal Dutch Shell from pulling back from the renewable sector. The government’s former chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, sites this hesitancy by the private sector to invest is a result of the government’s failure to come up with a plan and stick to it.

In the Sunday Times he is quoted as saying “you can’t keep adjusting the energy policy, businesses need a clear signal that any investments they make now in low carbon technology and infrastructure in the UK will pay off in the future”.

On the positive side Miliband is expected to announce the creation of up to 400,000 green collar jobs. These jobs are expected to focus across the renewable sector of wind, solar, marine and biomass. But there will be funding for the nuclear sector also.

Whatever, the finer details of this weeks’ announcement Miliband must make speed and clarity as being the essence for the growth of the sector and creation of green jobs. Earlier this week Dr. Keith Maclean, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Scottish & Southern Energy in the APPCCG Westminster Debate noted that “the uncertainty that there is around small projects because of issues in relation to transmission charges.

Smaller developers need to be able to show the bank that they can make a return on their investment and for this to be done DECC will need to use their powers under the energy act very quickly to make this happen”. His fear is that unless action is taken in this area soon there will “be no investment for more small to medium generators going into the market”.

If the government are to find a solution to the two challenges of climate change and creating new jobs the time is to act now.

Media News - Briefing by Evening Standard editor Geordie Greig

On the 22nd of June 2009, Geordie Greig the new editor of the London Evening Standard hosted a briefing for journalists at the Foreign Press Association. Over the course of his speech he covered the background to the recent sale of the paper and the strategy that he is following.

At the start of 2009 it was announced 75.1% of the London Evening standard was bought by Alexander Lebedev for a reported figure of £1 with a promise by the new owner to invest a further £25m to return the Evening standard to profitability.

The sale of the paper by the Rothermeres created a degree of consternation and intrigue as the new owner is a Russian oligarch and former KGB lieutenant colonel. Commentators and politicians raised questions as to whether the new proprietor, “a former Spy”, was deemed fit to own a news paper in the UK. Would he be a force for good or for evil? These are questions that the new editor of the Evening Standard Geordie Greig must answer day in and out about his employer.

Regardless of past histories and the career choice of Mr. Lebedev, buying the Evening Standard was an interesting move. The paper, for a long time ,had ceased to be the paper of choice among Londoners.

The editorial had grown tired and the paper was facing competition from free papers. To add to these troubles the rise of digital media and the credit crunch were adding to the falling circulation of the paper. In a sense it had lost touch and was rudderless. The paper had got itself a name for being politically partisan and biased.

So why or what could Lebedev hope to make good from such a deal?

To make it work the new owners chose Geordie Greig as the Editor in Chief of the news paper. In many ways Greig can be seen as an inspired choice with a varied career that ranges from working in local newspapers such as the South East London and Deptford Mercury news papers, moving to the Daily Mail, The Sunday Times and then in 1999 becoming the editor of Tatler for ten years.

In a wide ranging speech he covered many topics and looked confident and competent in fielding questions. The topics included: the first time he met with the Lebedevs, the strategy for the ‘new’ standard, digital v’s print media and his views on free news papers.

Greig believes that we are in a, “dual carriageway”, between digital and print media and does not see an immediate end to what he calls the “rust belt industry” of printed newspapers. One will complement the other and they will mirror and interface across the two platforms.

The re-launch of The Evening Standard he believes has been a good success and greeted by many across the spectrum. The aim was to make it more modern, more vibrant and alive and that would bring with it a new sense of engagement. He wryly notes that the re-launch took six weeks in comparison to the Guardians two years.

The advertising campaign that re-launched the Evening Standard was focused on drawing a line under the old and the new standard. The campaign focused on adverts that said ‘sorry’. ‘Sorry for not listening, sorry for being complacent, sorry for being perceived as negative’. These were all things that Greig says he and the staff at the Evening Standard knew were the problems.

He describes the malaise that the standard had found itself in as being similar to a marriage that had broken down. His key focus for the launch campaign and for the future of the newspaper is to re-engage with Londoners. This is a point that he repeated on several occasions and something as he sees as being key to the future success of the paper.

The fact that the Evening Standard had become politically biased is something that Grieg is very aware of. One of the first things he did when he started in his new position was to have lunch with Ken Livingston. The Evening Standard under his control promises to be politically independent and will watch, listen and report on politics in London in a balanced and unbiased manner.

Grieg believes that free papers have done nothing for news paper readers or media industry in London. He believes that “by giving out free papers in London you make the average reader think or question are they all the same”. The essence of debate, investigation, in depth reporting and campaigns that newspapers, like the Evening Standard, carry out are in his view, “central to the fabric to a great democratic society”.

The new management have employed three hundred new sales agents for tube stations across London. They now sell the paper later in the evening at a reduced price so more people are able to buy the paper on the way home.

His ambition for the Evening Standard is clear. He wants to make the print and the digital versions the place where people who want to find out anything about London from the city, business, news and the arts will look. He openly admits that he thinks London is the best city in the world and is a city that should be celebrated. This is what he will do in the pages of the newspaper.

Given his experience working on a different range of publications he is possibly well placed to make the Evening Standard into a news paper that will have something for all the capitals residents.

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