Big annoucements!

Big announcements in the news! Well, at least quite big anyway...

Of course the most Earth shattering announcement is the double whammy that the NERN members' database is now searchable and that the Carbon Crucible online application is now open.

Coming a close second is a triumvirate of proclamations. Firstly, Mayor London Boris Johnson has broken his silence on environmental matters with a double announcement. Firstly, the London's Climate Change Adaptation Strategy has been launched. The strategy proposes to prepare London for warmer, wetter and drier climate as well as extreme weather events. In addition to an adaptation strategy, London also has a target to reduce carbon emissions 60% by 2025. In order to assist the Mayor in achieving these goals, Isabel Dedring has been appointed as a new environmental advisor. Secondly, it appears that Germany has taken the lead on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) with commissioning of a 30MW oxyfuel coal fired power plant complete with CCS. It is a lot smaller than the UK CCS competition , which aims to demonstrate the capture of 90% of the CO2 emitted by the equivalent of 300-400MW generating capacity. UKERC's Stuart Haszeldine was on hand to explain to the BBC how carbon storage works . Finally, we might soon be seeing giant 'eco-rigs' in the coastal waters around Japan. These 'eco-rigs', which may be up 1.6 square kilometres in size, are essentially floating 300MW renewable energy power stations bristling with wind turbines and hexagonal photovoltaic cells exporting energy to the mainland. In a clever addition, some of the power will be siphoned off to shine LED arrays under the platforms onto special seaweed beds promoting biomass growth. Not only is CO2 absorbed as the seaweed grows but the seaweed also provides food for fish and plankton. In a final innovation essential minerals for the seaweed will be pumped from deeper water using the renewable power. It all sounds terrifically futuristic!

A few other news snippets piqued my interest this week. My favourite was the title 'Charge an iPod with Vodka?' – this is about a direct ethanol fuel cell used for educational purposes. Norwich-based Trident Performance Vehicles, has managed to produce a car it claims can do 60mph in 3.9 seconds and achieves 70 miles per gallon and is capable of travelling 2,000 miles on a single tank of biodiesel. Impressive stuff! Elsewhere Greenpeace has challenged ten European countries including the UK to develop a North Sea high voltage grid connecting 10,000 wind turbines together. Finally, it seems that eight out of ten Brits are annoyed with the Government forcing green values upon them and would rather be green on their own terms.

No energy animal news this week although I was amused to see the headline 'Bumblebees outwit robotic spiders' on the BBC News website.