Going Green Podcast, Video blog and Daily News

From  tomorrow (1st of April) There will be No vat on energy saving materials such as solar panel installation, heat pumps it the UK. So in this episode we answer is this the right time to invest in renewable energy for your home! But beware the small print - this new scheme only covers new systems, not so much addons to current ones! There are new types of solar panels coming to the market,  that are both solar thermal and photovoltaic. These keep the panels cooler in summer and increase the efficiency.  With the price of Gas going up solar thermal can really effectively cut the hot water bills in the spring, summer and autumn.

Solar and wind and other clean sources generated 38% of the world's electricity in 2021 with some countries like Vietnam making spectacular gains in the renewable production. Other countries that have seen a huge amount of growth include the Netherlands and Australia. Over the past year Gas prices have increased which has meant that now Gas is more expensive than Coal. Therefore, in some countries there has been a large uptake in the amount of coal being used, and the current war in Ukraine won’t help this situation. Although there is a shift towards coal many of the major economies including the US, UK, Germany, and Canada are aiming to shift their generation to 100% carbon free electricity within the next 15 years.

  Peñuelas Lake, which is around 70 miles west of the capital Santiago, which supplied drinking water for nearly two million people in Chile has dried up over the course of six years due to a 12-year drought. With the Lake gone, water has to be tankered into the city to provide drinking water. This is not enough to provide water for the local agriculture, which has virtually disappeared leaving thousands of livestock dead. This area of Chile is no stranger to droughts but this last one has lasted several years with no significant rain to re-stock the large lake that has supplied the city and surrounding region with water.

  Warming across the country has, however, not been even with some regions experiencing more rapid change than others. Heatwave thresholds in 8 counties in a band from Surrey to east Yorkshire are now changing.   Dr Mark McCarthy  is the head of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre, which manages the UK’s climate records. He said: “Climate statistics over time reveal an undeniable warming trend for the UK. Temperature rise has been greatest across parts of central and eastern England where they have increased by more than 1.0°C in some locations, while further north areas of Scotland and Northern Ireland have seen temperatures rise by closer to 0.7°C.” The original  heatwave thresholds  were based on a reference climate period for 1981-2010. The heatwave definition was intended to be flexible and to be reviewed and revised in order to follow our changing climate and represent heatwaves relative to the “current” climate. Therefore the thresholds...

  This is a new plastic material that absorbs mercury has been developed that can coat surfaces such as the insides of pipes. The reaction between sulfur and dicyclopentadiene was optimised to form a shelf stable and soluble low molecular weight oligomer. After a simple curing process at 140 °C the material was rendered insoluble and resistant to acids and solvents. Taking advantage of the soluble oligomer, silica gel was coated with the soluble oligomer and validated in mercury removal applications. The coating technique was also applied to metal, concrete, and polyvinyl chloride to illustrate broad protection from corrosion and solvents. The coating was also repairable, with surface scratches removed through the application of heat. In this way, the coating is active in metal binding, protective against acids and solvents, and repairable when damaged.

  ​ In this Jubilee Year the Queen started Queens Green Canopy which is to Plant a tree for the Jubilee during the months Oct '21 - Mar 22' and then Oct '22 - Mar '23 Tree planting seasons The Jubilee started 2nd February but major Celebrations take place from 2nd June with Street parties and other celebrations Ive seen a few jubilees Silver Jubilee 1977 at Uni studying for exams Golden Jubilee 2002 Diamond Jubilee 2012 Platinum Jubilee 2022 6th Feb whereas Paul has only seen from the millennium. Recycling is ok but what else can you do?  Buy Green energy - fuel prices are going up.  Choose what you buy and how it is packaged.  Holidays Home or abroad?  Cars is electric the only way to go? Could you do a car share? Lifestyle can you change this? Fitter healthier Gym - or walking. Take a bag with you when you go walking collect rubbish  Produced by Philip M Russell Ltd  

  Electric vehicles rely on batteries as the storage medium for their energy, and batteries have a far lower energy density than those offered by the fossil burning cars, which resulted in very low ranges of early electric vehicles. There has been a gradual improvement in battery technologies and this has increased the driving ranges of electric cars to approach acceptable levels. However, despite the vast improvements in battery technology, today consumers of electric vehicles face another difficulty – slow battery charging speed. Currently, electric cars take about 10 hours to fully recharge at home and even using the fastest superchargers at the charging stations the batteries require up to 20-40 minutes to fully recharge the vehicles. Scientists from the Center for Theoretical Physics of Complex Systems have worked out that using quantum charging would lead to a 200 times speedup over classical batteries, which means that at home charging time would be cut from 10 hours to abou...