Europe's biggest collection of bricks is being re-drawn, again, and whilst a far cry from the funfair ideas of yesteryear the latest submission has come out green flag waving and sustainability proclaiming... question is... well I guess that is up to you during the public consultation!
Currently the BPS is open for public consultation, and if you would like to take part in a tour or a workshop then make sure you pre-register, all details are as follows:
http://www.battersea-powerstation.com
Officially the Public consultation runs from 25 June - 05 July, on the following remaining dates:
Thursday 03 July noon-8pm
Friday 04 July noon-6pm
Saturday 05 July 10am-6pm
BUT TWO MORE DATES HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED!! Almost like an extended tour for an ageing rocker...
Saturdays July 12th & 19th
The address is Gate 2, 188 Kirtling Street, SW8 5BN.
A walking tour around, and inside, elements of the Power Station building has been set up for adults and children. Persons under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times. Bring sensible shoes and your cameras for this opportunity to get up close and personal with the iconic four chimneys!
Vehicular access can be provided for disabled visitors.
Members of the development team will be on hand to answer your questions. There will also be a series of talks/workshops focused on different aspects of the proposals, for which pre-registration is required.
Book online or call the community information line: 0845 262 2625
On behalf of Wandsworth Cycling Campaign I'm pleased to invite you to any of the local events being organised across the borough by Wandsworth Cycling Campaign as part of national Bike Week...
Starting with their Victorian Cycling Parade in Battersea Park on Saturday 14 June
and ending with Putney Cycle Corner and a 'Three Hills into Kent' train assisted cycle ride, both on Sunday 22nd June.
Full details of their Bike Week programme are listed at:
www.wandsworthcyclists.org.uk/eweek2008.shtml
We look forward to seeing you at a Wandsworth Bike Week event.
With best wishes,
The Wandsworth Cycling Campaign
www.wandsworthcyclists.org.uk
www.movers-shakers.btik.com
Dear All,
I have unashamedly copied all of this from the EST website... but I'm sure they would approve
http://www.energysavingtrust.ogy_technologies
In England, changes to permitted development rights for renewable technologies introduced on 6th April 2008 have lifted the requirements for planning permission for most domestic microgeneration technologies.
The General Permitted Development Order (GPDO) grants rights to carry out certain limited forms of development on the home, without the need to apply for planning permission. The scope of the GPDO in England now extends to the following technologies:
Solar PV and solar thermal (roof mounted):
Permitted unless;
- panels when installed protrude more then 200mm.
- they would be placed on the principal elevation facing onto or visible from the highway in buildings in Conservation Areas and World Heritage Sites.
Solar PV and solar thermal (stand alone):
Permitted unless:
- more than 4 metres in height
- installed less than 5 metres away from any boundary
- above a maximum area of array of 9m2
- situated within any part of the curtilage of the dwelling house or would be visible from the highway in Conservations Areas and World Heritage Sites.
Biomass boilers and stoves, and CHP:
Permitted unless:
- flue exceeds 1m above the roof height
- installed on the principal elevation and visible from a road in buildings in Conservation Areas and World Heritage Sites.
Ground source heat pumps:
Permitted
Water source heat pumps:
Permitted
Micro wind
Due to legal technicalities the current statutory instrument (SI) does not cover micro wind. Once these issues have been resolved, it is expected that roof mounted and free standing micro wind turbines will be permitted at detached properties that are not in conservation areas. Further legislation is expected later this year. Until then, you must consult with your local authority regarding planning permission.
Air source heat pumps
Air source heat pumps are in a similar situation to micro wind. Once the legal technicalities have been resolved, it is expected that air source heat pumps will be permitted developments. Again, further legislation is expected later this year. Until then, you must consult with your local authority regarding planning permission.
Dear readers, this is ok, in fact it's better than ok it is a good way to play the system...
I can't help but agree that this is a really clever bit of banter from a good friend who used to work in City Hall:
... the PINK paper votes for the Mayor. Now whatever your leanings in the Ken vs. Boris debate, listen up. You have a 1st and 2nd choice. If your 1st choice doesn't get at least 50% of the votes, or isn't in the top two, your 2nd choice counts AS A FULL VOTE. What this means is, if so inclined, you can have your Ken vs. Boris battle purely in the 2nd column (as it will, obviously, come down to a head-to-head between the two of them in the end). This frees up your 1st column to help get some more lovely Greens onto the Assembly (determined by a very complex set of mathematical rules - don't ask, I've looked them up) as well as give a moral boost (as there's not a snowball's chance in the Gulf she's getting anywhere near the top two) to the Green lass - Sian Berry.
She has excellent policies - look 'em up at http://www.sianformayor.org.uk/ .
AD
I'll try and put this into a digestible prose, I mean who would really want to sit back and consider the infrastructure of energy for fun, but take it too seriously and the terminology simply alienates most of the population either by inducing instant insomnia cures or by getting overtly techie on our flash-topic appetites... so what's the point of discussing infrastructure unless there is a personal, business or community benefit which people can relate to, topics like this sail to the pages of industry magazines which sit on office coffee tables and boost a few peoples recycling volume... the point is technology, in the words or Dubwya, is actually starting to provide some of the most promising opportunities for new energy we have ever seen - and I'm not talking about new ways to generate energy either - Energy Storage is becoming more and more feasible every year.
Energy storage can mean so many things, so I'm going to focus in on one particular technology, flow-batteries. Flow-batteries are like rechargeable batteries but the chemical systems are different. As such the ones using a particular type of chemical solution called vanadium do not degrade in the manner a rechargeable battery you are used to would, so they can last for decades.
So what's with the headline? Well we use energy storage already in a number of ways, for example we pump water to the top of reservoirs to store water with potential energy to be released when it is needed most, but we have yet to develop a technology which is suitable for the end user to embrace, control and ultimately determine competition - we now have one, this means you can store energy at home, at the office or as part of any community infrastructure.
The fundamental change, the new energy infrastructure era stuff is that:
We now have the ability to store energy efficiently rather than having to store fuel.
This concept is the concept you should take away with you, the rest of it is side-dressing.
So what are the implications? If you can store energy then you can choose your energy source. This means you can choose renewables, local generation, off-peak electricity, whatever is most suitable to yourself, your business or your community, and then you can store this energy to be used as and when you want it - same as a battery allows you to use portable devices. Hence the increased competition, your choice, they compete.
The more you consider this, the more you should realise that this allows us to re-balance the energy market by making those who generate energy become truly competitive, you don't have to use any particular supplier because you can choose to store what you want, when you want, from whom you want.
What else? Well suppose you are considering the possibility of installing your own form of generation, be it at a home, business or community scale, using renewables or otherwise, you are going to be interested in not just providing enough for your use, but also how you can make some money on your investment from the excess by exporting to the grid. Difficulty is that it's not technical safe to have hundreds or thousands of individuals providing intermittent energy input into the national grid, and to become a generator you need to understand the legal and technical issues which arise. These resources can be pooled, storage systems can be used to balance any input, and release it as required to users directly or to the national grid. The management of the intermittent and small scale generation can be undertaken by the storage operator who can also provide the complimentary services and resources required.
The extent to which storage can be integrated into our infrastructure is quite remarkable. Storage can be used at many scales to address many issues. Peak-levelling is where large generators store during low demand periods to supply during peak demand periods, reducing the generating management and fluctuations. Large, intermittent renewables, such as wind farms can become stable sources of energy through a storage system. Local generators can benefit from not only these issues, but they can become reliable contributors who do not complicate balancing and settlement arrangements. Individuals can store energy at home, using cheaper energy supplied by any source they choose, and they can use it to re-fuel electric vehicles, for example (see re-fuel link below). But perhaps most important by taking an active interest in energy use, businesses and private users will start to manage their consumption.
This probably sounds a little to idealistic, but if we take a stock check of the existing systems at use today we can see the following already exist around the globe:
• Large wind-farm storage
• Main generator peak-levelling
• UPS systems which reduce peak demand costs by not only providing back up by but contributing during daily use
• Electric 'recharge' stations (instead of petrol pumps)
• Remote battery systems for military operations
The only point to make now is, that the market is immature, in terms of appreciation and understanding, supply of the technology, understanding the risks and the difficulties, and for the time being the future is a matter of economies of scale and the interest users have in becoming storers.
Here are two links, one to a manufacturer, the other a systems installer. Look out for market opportunities, there are plenty....!
http://www.vrbpower.com/
http://www.refueltec.com/applications.html
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