Renew On Line (UK) 70

11. In the rest of Renew 170

Microgeneration may have got off to a bad start, and some see the idea as flawed, urban micro-wind turbines especially. However new, hopefully better technologies are emerging- including Derek Taylor s Aeolian roof covered in our Feature. But some people say bigger is better and that it makes more sense to catch the sun where its most available, using CSP- concentrating solar power tower mirrors, dishes or troughs- to drive generators and then transmit the power produced back to the north via high efficiency HVDC grids. In our Technology section we take a look at the latest CSP development in Spain and the USA- and also at long distance transmission of power from geothermal in Iceland!

Others say that we should simply learn to love fossil fuels and recycle the carbon dioxide produced when they are burnt into new synthetic fuels. More sensibly perhaps, you can use biomass and other renewables sources to provide the feedstock (carbon and hydrogen) to make synthetic biofuels. See our Technology section. While the chemists and biologists fight that one out, the marine engineers are still working away on novel wave and tidal power ideas- including some multi-MW projects. See Technology.

Whether projects like this will get going depends crucially on the funding regime, and a new book from the Word Futures Council argues strongly for the REFIT approach- see Reviews. That idea was of course ignored in the new UK Energy White Paper- our Review section looks at the implications: perhaps, only at best 15% from renewables by 2020. And even that may get undermined by energetic lobbying by climate change deniers (see Groups and Reviews)- as well of course as by the deflection of funding and resources to nuclear power - assuming the UK government decides to go that way. We should hear the results of the consultation (see Editorial and Groups) shortly.