Five years ago this week, we installed 13 solar panels on our roof. The array, with a capacity of 2.47 kilowatt hours (kWh), cost us £7,862. Today I would have to pay less than half that. Take the real example of the Guardian’s Patrick Barkham, writing in 2015. His 4kWh system of 16 panels cost £4,630 to… Continue reading
Browsing Category Green Technology
Pavegen more than a walk on part in renewable energy generation
Could renewable energy start-up Pavegen become the Tesla of walking? Most of us, unless we have lost the use of our legs, walk some distance every day. Some of us are walking more, to meet health and fitness targets, with 10,000 steps a day one popular challenge. So perhaps citing a company that could soon… Continue reading →
Could perovskite power the next generation of renewable energy?
Perovskite. It took from the early 1960s until just a few years ago for the conventional solar panel to get about as far as is going to go with current technology, where panels, made up of silicon-based solar cells, can turn 20-22% of the energy in sunlight into electricity. So that’s about 50 years. Scientists… Continue reading →
Bike to the future – the electric cycling revolution
Another observation on e-bikes from Peter Kimpton at The Guardian – November 30th, 2017. Could the electric bike (e-bike) open cycling to the masses, and reduce our use of the car for short distance journeys? The cycling revolution has only half begun. There is no turning back the flood of serious long-distance cyclists, now visible in large numbers… Continue reading →
Pavegen’s major walk-on part in renewable energy
In 2015 renewable energy start-up Pavegen broke its crowd-fiunding target and was able to fund expansion and product development. Pavegen’s latest development in its renewable energy-generating technology (announced on May 11, 2016) is a triangular tile, the V3, said to be far more efficient than the company’s previous models, generating 5 watts per step. It… Continue reading →
Nissan Leaf is on a road near you – but did it sell enough?
Sales of all plug in cars almost doubled, world-wide, in 2015 to around 1 million. But they still represent a tiny proportion of the cars on the road, less that 1%. The Nissan Leaf was launched six years ago this week, going on sale in 2011. It has sold 200,000 world-wide and is an important… Continue reading →