Mobile access to the website

28 Dec '10: DNC writes: I just discovered that it's possible to view this blog (and the others that I do) using a Mobile device. Normally, you need a phone with a large screen and very good reception to pick up a full web page. Most of the heavily used sites like the BBC, Eurosport, Guardian have Mobile versions.
   Well thanks to Google blogger, we have too! If you have a mobile phone, try this site with your iPhone or Android phone. (I hope it works for you).
  I already use my iPhone as the hand held device for my PV roof, now it is even more useful, for checking my various blogs!

John a Stephens, largest PV in the E Mids

23 Dec '10: John a Stephens, one of the East Midlands largest builders merchants have gone one better by having the largest PV array in the East Midlands, as reported in a Nottingham Evening Post.

It is reported here, not only because it's the largest, but it's  installed by EvoEnergy, one of the Rushcliffe Solar sponsors, and because the managing director of Stephens lives in Rushcliffe and had his house done first, with 21 panels.

Misleading headline in the Telegraph

16 Dec '10: I was listening to the Today programme and hearing Chris Huhne (Energy Minister) rebutting a leading article in the Telegraph claiming that Green Energy would add £500 to everyone's bills. Thankfully, he did a good job, and I hope it will have allayed fears.
On the Good Energy website, Julia Davenport writes a good article, rebutting this scare-mongering:
http://good-energy.typepad.com/greenenergyrepublic/2010/12/the-true-cost-of-greening-uk-energy.html

If you see a previous article on the Rushcliffe Solar blog, you see that price rises in electricity were nil or reversing during the 80s and 90s due to abundant finds of oil and gas - but they have nearly trebled in the 9 years since 2001.
 Any country that does not invest in green energy is going to face even higher price rises as oil gets more scarce. Does not the Telegraph consider the larger societal costs that have already been incurred in Carbon capture research, and that will be incurred in future in Nuclear station building and decommissioning?
  Even the Saudis at Cancun 2010 were making that case that their oil were finite and were asking the developed world to promise support for the Saudis once it gets to the point that the last remaining oil has to be left in the ground for longer term needs - a bit like preserving pockets of Indonesian rainforest. What a sick joke!  
   They and the Qataris presently have the highest per capita consumption of oil, burning almost 40% of their own oil, even though they have a tiny fraction of the population compared with the USA - showing no signs of conserving the oil in their own economy.

How does electricity change in 25 years?

5 Dec '10: When people consider payback, they look at the price of energy and the time scale, and then relate back to initial cost. If future prices rise, your payback gets quicker - because you are using your own power and do not have to buy in. The amount you paid a few years back seems less as time helps the painful memory on the installation costs recede.
   Electricity has tripled in the last 10 yrs, and the rate of change was slowed by the cheapness of North sea oil and cheap Columbian coal in the 80s and 90s which kept the price level until 2000 - in fact the realistic price adjusted for inflation became considerably cheaper because the RPI continued to rise during those times, but 5p remained 5p throughout. That ended with the turn of the century.
You can be sure that with no more discoveries of local cheap fuel likely, power costs can only go up faster. Here is a typical list of prices in the last 25 years.

Southern Electric:
1984 Aug 4.900 + No VAT
1985 Aug 5.070
1986 Aug 5.360
1987 Feb 5.090
1988 Aug 5.700
1989 Nov 6.040
1990 Aug 6.590
1990 May 6.040
1990 Nov 6.590
1991 Aug 7.330
1992 Aug 7.490
1993 Nov 7.270
1994 Feb 7.170
1994 May 7.170 + 8% VAT
1995 Aug 7.000
1996 Nov 6.720
1997 Jul 6.160
1997 Nov 6.160 + 5% VAT
1998 Aug 6.040

Independent Energy:
2000 Mar 5.350
2000 Sept 5.200

npower:
2001 Mar 5.200
2001 Aug 4.630
2001 Nov 4.770
2003 Aug 10.190 / 5.910 (£13.41/quarter standing charge gone, first is on first 182 units)
2003 Nov 10.600 / 6.140
2004 Aug 12.650 / 6.140
2005 Feb 13.700 / 6.140
2006 Feb 15.530 / 7.200
2006 May 17.780 / 8.240
2006 Nov 19.540 / 9.060
2007 May 17.400 / 8.440
2008 Jan 12.060 / 11.510
2009 Feb 14.570 / 13.900
2009 Mar 13.190 / 12.580
(I am indebted to an 'energy historian' on the Navitron forum who has kept all his bills for the last 25 years.)

Green Deal - it could help you

1 Dec '10: All the energy pundits agree on one thing - that for all the small number of new ecohouses there are, there are thousands or even millions of homes in the UK that are poorly insulated or have inefficient boilers - the cumulative effect from them is more harmful than the good we might get by focusing only on New build.
The Green Deal is addressing the issue of existing homes and business premises. There is financial support for energy saving measures, including insulation, and energy generating schemes such as PV.

See the page on the DECC website that explains more.

See also the leaflet from the Energy Saving Trust.