Swansea has its second chance to lead the world. Now it’s up to the government? 208 years ago the city launched the world’s first passenger railway. In 2013 a consortium announced a £10m “investment offering” to fund its proposal to build a “tidal lagoon” in Swansea Bay, to produce enough energy to satisfy the domestic requirements of… Continue reading
Posts tagged renewable energy
What sort of traveller am I?
I had breakfast with two travel PR ladies in London yesterday, and in the course of that chat they asked me the routine but important question – what was I really interested in? It’s a useful question to be asked from time to time, because it gives you the chance, after many years of travel… Continue reading →
Masdar – future city in the desert reaches its zero-energy present
This is a revised version of an article I wrote in 2008. A number of the features described have already been built. ———- Imagine a new city about the size of Exeter where they will not use a drop of oil, an ounce of fossil fuel, or produce a breath of carbon dioxide to change the… Continue reading →
African safari camps switch to solar power
To switch an entire tourist operation over to solar energy in one go is quite an achievement. But Wilderness Safaris are beginning to make a habit of it. This spring Mombo camp in Botswana became the latest in the company’s portfolio to become entirely solar powered. Wilderness invested US $860 000 in replacing diesel-powered generators… Continue reading →
Will the world beat a path to the better windmill builder?
To adapt the popular misquotation of Ralph Waldo Emerson – he didn’t actually say the world would beat a path to the door of the inventor of the better mousetrap, but it’s such an optimistic message to entrepreneurs so why waste it? – will the green energy industry soon be looking up the route to… Continue reading →
Don't be a NIMBY – own your own windfarm
It may seem blindingly obvious, but people are more likely to accept windfarms in their backyards when they actually own them. (See my blog on a community-owned wind farm at Watchfield in Oxfordshire – http://bit.ly/kB5qKo) A recent study in Germany showed that acceptance of wind power is very high, and even higher when local people… Continue reading →