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Global News: Search for UK's greenest school

By Mike Swain on Nov 12, 08 04:24 PM in Environment Blue Peter presenter Gethin Jones is searching for the UK's greenest school. He is going to judge the EDF Energy awards which celebrate the school, teachers and pupils who have made significant change to their energy and water use. Here he is talking about his search. Gold medal swimmer Liz Johnson and bronze winner gymnast Louis Smith, the first British gymnast to bring back a medal in 100 years, are fellow judges.

Power cuts will bring anarchy in 2014 -unless we act.

By Mike Swain on Sep 17, 08 04:49 PM in Energy The stark choices we face to keep the lights on beyond 2014 were spelt out by Professor Ian Fells of Fells Associates to a briefing at the Royal Institution. Professor Fells, a bow-tie wearing long-time supporter of nuclear power, and one of the country's leading energy experts, does not mince his words. His message is clear: Unless we take some urgent short-term decisons to fill the looming gap in our energy supply, power cuts will bring a spiral of anarchy and chaos by around 2014. It isn't the first time he has delivered this message. In 2004 he was behind a BBC film called: If the lights go out.

200 million hydrogen cars on US roads by 2050

By Mike Swain on Jul 17, 08 04:32 PM in Environment

Here's a few stats from the US National Research Council on the likely progress to hydrogen cars to put recent blogs in perspective.

The council reckons the maximum number of hydrogen vehicles on US roads by 2020 at 2 million.

By 2023 the cost of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen to fuel them could be competitive with petrol-driven cars.

That would lead to rapid expansion of numbers to 60 million hydrogen vehicles by 2035 to 200 million by 2050.

Cost to the government would be $55 billion by 2023 and $145 billion to private industry.

Up until 2040 the Council reckons more reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could be achieved by improving the efficiency of petrol-driven cars or using biofuels. After that hydrogen would produce big reductions.

Nissan hydrogen fuel cell car shows the future of driving

By Mike Swain on Jul 16, 08 03:27 PM in Pollution More news on the development of a hydrogen car to replace the current petrol-driven model. This week Nissan were showing off their fourth generation Hydrogen-powered X-trail fuel cell vehicle at Imperial College, Kensington, where they carry out leading research into fuel cell technology. The latest Nissan model goes 0-60 in 14/15 seconds, has a top speed of 95mph and can travel 300 miles without refuelling. I was one of several journalists invited to drive it round Hyde Park and in the limited traffic conditions it performed as well as any current petrol car. It uses hydrogen gas and regenerative braking via a Lithium Ion battery to produce electricty which drives a front wheel drive motor and emits just water. So far so good.

Has British scientist solved the energy crisis with home-made hydrogen refueller?

By Mike Swain on Jul 10, 08 04:29 PM in Environment In a week of promised carbon emission cuts at the G8 in Japan and hikes in road tax fees the claim by itm power was pretty huge: The greatest advance in energy production for 200 years and the dawn of the age of hydrogen power. itm power claimed to have found a cheap way to use electricity and water and produce home-made hydrogen to power your house and car. They reckoned their electrolyser could act as a refuelling unit at no more cost than a top of the range boiler which could power your lights, cooking and heating - and fill up your car. The trick is in a piece of plastic which can be produced from liquid chemicals at 100th the cost of current technology ,