I just wanted to thank you deeply for your wonderful presentation. Always measured, calm, considered and well researched. Also, love your little humourous quips that tie it all together so beautifully! Appreciated!
That river hydro installation is especially heartening. Fish-safe designs for baseload river hydro are important, and if replicated across the nation could provide so much of our needs on its own.
Sorry to say it, but England do not have the rivers to supply any substantial amount of the energy needed. A single link to Norway (Sea Link, a 1,400 MW HVDC interconnection) can supply 50% of the installed hydro power capacity in UK (not counting pumped storage). Only 2% of the energy mix is hydro power and because of how unpopular large projects will be, this will not increase.
@@bknesheim not at megaproject scale no. But at smaller scale we have the capacity for many many small hydro plants serving a few local buildings. Just one example the Co-op grocery supermarket in New Mills, Peak District, is powered by a screw-like hydro plant on the nearby River Sett / River Goyt. When running the "Reverse Archimedes Screw" produces power for the shop with a surplus to sell to the grid. It has put back into use the head of water produced by mill owners in the water phase of the industrial revolution. Don't forget that the international industrial revolution started in England. Don't forget that the capital for the steam-driven stage was provided by the earlier water-driven stage. We did it once. We can do it again, but this time round not go for the mega projects which as you say are unpopular and I personally think they are justifiably unpopular. We can certainly get almost every mill-race running again, this time generating electricity rather than grinding corn or spinning cotton. We can and we should. And we can do alonside the gov't or despite the gov't ____ Train to New Mills Central. 5 min walk to the hydro. Look for signs to Millenium Bridge or Sett Valley Trail. The hydro itself is not a day out, but if you are going to be in the area, or you fancy a gentle walk along a converted former railway alongside a lovely river then do take 20 or 30 mins to look at the hydro.
I'm all for democratizing the whole process for most things. Love distributive energy production and distributive power structures. Also love how it helps grow community connection, capacity for local investment and wealthy creation, as well as help reduce costs for those who can't afford to invest.
LOL, "community".....WTF is that? The really social people all hang out together in their own club, while others sit alone and isolated. "Community" is a myth. It's a meaningless word.
Our Coal-fondling Prime Marketer and his merry band of shills here in Oz is actively working against renewables. For them, it's CCUS all the way. I recommend you watch The Juice Media's video, if you want details.
@@paulhaynes8045 Oh, it's quite simple. The Liberal & National Parties are the conservatives. They're in the pocket of our Big Four Banks, the Mines and mutli-national corporations. The Labor party is our supposed worker's party. They're " "centre-left" ". They're beholden to the Union Bosses, the Big Four Banks, the Mines and multi-national corporations (not as much as the other party though).
Exactly. We can’t wait for governments with their bureaucratic processes. In fact, what these folks are doing is the real meaning of leadership: pooling resources, blazing a trail and proving the concept for others to follow.
Mixed feelings about your comment. Yes you are right that we can't wait for the gov't to get around to doing anything like the effort needed. That applies equally to local, devolved-national, and UK-national gov't. So yes I agree local initiatives like this are essential. Where my concern over your comment starts is that in my view we ALSO need political action (at all the levels I mentioned) to get the gov'ts moving. Politics-as-usual is not going to be enough though that, too, is important. We ALSO need the inspired irritation from groups like XR to give the political activists a bit of a heavy shove in the right direction. All three are necessary. Your comment is unclear (to me at least) about whether you think local hubs on their own replace the need for conventional and disruptive political action: hence my mixed feelings. I hope you will say more about what you intended.
@@trueriver1950 Thanks for your comment. What I meant was that since governments are dragging their feet - and it’s their responsibility to lead the way - perhaps if private citizens and groups took the initiative it would shame the government into action. But governments are absolutely crucial, at the very least as policy makers.
The last time we pooled our resources and collective effort to build community infrastructures - like roads, housing, education, healthcare etc, the tories and neolibs sold them off right under our noses. This time, we should lock down all these projects as co-operatives that cannot be sold off to make rich people richer while impoverishing the community.
Thank you! This is great. It's an excellent way to combine both real local impact and scalability. Amazing to see the greenhouse gas savings that have already been achieved. Perhaps you could link to or talk about such hubs in other countries as well? Thanks again.
We have set up Community Investment Company called Brampton 2 Zero (Cumbria). This video describes exactly how we want our community energy project to become. Thanks for this .
I love when people realize the potential of group own projects and enterprises. I'm a companion in cooperative bank, cooperative energy provides, cooperation grocery store chain and housing cooperative. So I enjoy stable and oftentimes cheaper prices
@@Aermydach It's all free market until a big shark offer a load of money to buy the cooperative, and people gladly accept the check. Then it become what everything became today, again. It's all but a loop.
I just wanted to say thanks for this article which is extremely relevant to the work the South Coast Health and Sustainability Alliance (SHASA) has been doing since 2014 on the New South Wales South coast (Australia). The Oxford hub has taken some pathways different to ours, and they've got some great ideas. We're hoping to catch up with them later in the year. What made me pay attention was your comment that really communities are taking the lead on this initiative even though in theory communities shouldn't be needing to act on what is a society-wide urgent priority. Please keep this type of story coming, I love it.
This does sound like a really doable way to get clean energy system rollout, sidestepping centralised planning & possible energy monopolies. Would be really useful to have the low carbon hub coordinators on an Ask Me Anything event where we can get some finer details. Eg. Scale:cost tradeoffs, system governance, how to include poor communities, issue that may arise ...
How dare you sidestep centralized planning! 5 Year plans by central government is the only proven way for all and any country. The examples are everywhere, Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, Cubist Cuba and onward ad infinitum the universe and beyond!!!
I actually designed buildings in the Sims 4 with these principles in mind. I hope to eventually make these buildings into reality as an experience park similar to King Richard's Faire in Massachusetts, USA. Each building is equipped with solar and water collection, there are 2 community farms, and an adventuring guild of sorts that takes community requests and creates temp listings for those requests.
Distributed, green energy production and localized energy storage is the future, and we need to start petitioning local government to enact building standards for new construction to include renewable energy/high efficiency standards. We could either see individual homes producing their own energy, or local renewable hubs based on municipality, much in the same way some cities provide their own internet infrastructure, versus relying on isp's to build infrastructure which is slow, and distribute high speed access unequally. We need to start doing this now. Pay attention. Get involved. Love this channel.
This looks like a good way for local communities of like minded citizens can get the ball rolling in green energy conversion even when our national government is moving too slow to mitigate global warming.
This is a great example of anarcho syndaclism in action. It's a a wonderful instance of developing a duel power structure and allowing communities to manage their own resources!
Dave, hi and thanks for this and other videos and all your good work. I work for a telephone fundraising Co that has a client base leaning towards env charities. The subject of the latest IPCC report and the need to understand it came up at a recent on-line meeting. I was pleased to be able to highly recommend Just Have a Think as source of understanding of both the environmental problems we face and the solutions. I noticed that the manager noted your channel's name for future reference. I hope that some of the 30 or so colleagues who were may become viewers as a result. Keep up the good work
Thank you for putting a name to a face. This model has long been an integral component to my overarching concept. Largely influenced by Jeremy Rifkin’s ‘Third Industrial Revolution.’ Decentralized, distributed clean energy solutions. Small, local, people/citizen/small group/co-op-owned, connected energy infrastructure. Makes perfect sense. And with today’s smaller, more affordable components, it’s - for the first time in history - available to all of us…which makes it feasible, which means possible, practical and attainable. The next 40 years is going to be exciting - or disastrous…it’s truly UP TO US. #ForwardTogether #LocalVillage #MOOVmobility #bkyrd #PeoplePower 💪🏼 🙌🏼
What a great initiative and results! I hope that all communities can learn from this and implement their own hubs. Collectively, we can all move the needle towards a more sustainable future, and present day. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so so so much Dave! Your videos are an inspiration to me and many others. I am a regulatory policy consultant, been fighting (sad to say) the utilities for almost 2 decades here in the US on clean energy policy. (Solar is being killed in places like AZ, and really a battle in almost every state. The utilities seem keen on destroying the future….) Anyway, policies in the US are preventing DER (Distributed Energy Resources) like solar and batteries, and I am working to educate people on how utilities + regulators work (or don’t work) and how we can influence them to get better clean energy policies. There are only 200 public utilities commissioners in the US, and so the problem is solvable - it’s just complex and needs to be addressed one state at a time. If you’d be interested in doing a video on it, I’d love to chat. I can invite you to the education series if you are interested, it’s free and open to the public. Thank you again.
Part of the beauty of distributed power generation is the incredible robustness that comes with redundancy (of suppliers). A more robust grid is a less vulnerable grid. This goes way beyond simple decarbonization!
I live in a housing development in West Texas with about 400 single family homes. Each house could have 10 kW of solar and two Powerwalls installed. That would be enough to be off the grid. Throw in some wind and we'd be good year round. I'm surprised that more housing developments aren't built with this in mind.
Amazing video as always! Thank you so much for describing the work of the low carbon hub. Similar efforts are needed to decentralize food production to whatever degree possible depending on location. Agrivoltaic systems where specific foods are grown in areas with solar panels is an upcoming solution too.
Definitely needs to be community driven, it allows the power to control what you require to live within your own hands. Decentralization makes the whole system more resilient.
Many places have already done this type of thing, but with Water resources. Rural areas where drilling wells are difficult so they pool resources into a single well and cooperatively run the well and distribute the water within their community. I actual do one myself for my neighbors. My well provides water to numerous houses and we share in its upkeep and operations, even though it is on my land. Green electricity and storage is ironically one of our ideas for dealing with the power needs for running our community water. We could follow this model and provide supplemental power to all of our members during power outages from the primary grid in our area. It is something we are actively considering.
@Jeff Johnson so is it a deep well that's fully cased, with passing that didn't start leaking from day one like most oil wells do, anyway just hoping you don't have many Celtic tanks near by and by near who knows from how far away it rains and the water makes it to you. Good analysis several times a year is probably prudent!
@@TheLosamatic It is a deep well. We had a Aqua engineering firm help us determine depth so we could get into clean and good water. We are on a massive limestone ancient sea bed.
What a project! Combine this with elements of permaculture and local communities really could make huge differences across multiple domains of our current climate emergency.
Great video and fantastic information. I am currently building my forever home in a new suburb where I'm going to do roof top solar. But i want to take the suburb further and the low carbon hub is something I'll be looking at to expand my horizons
I’ve often wondered why a simple change in building regulations requiring all new buildings to have solar panels installed isn’t applied? I would presume this would generate a lot of green energy?
The advantage that installing PV has over building energy retrofits is its simplicity. I have spent my career doing the more complex & difficult thing. The situation humanity is in now requires a "both and" approach.
My thought on the solar panels is that roof mounted solar is mounted on the roof with no airflow underneath, whereas ground mounted is almost always on a steel frame allowing airflow all round. The panels work better when not hot somewhat ironically.
Sadly they compared residential rooftop solar with grid scale ground mount projects. Of course both the financial and practical efficiency was better, but you do lose out on the democratization of power generation and the problems associated with a centralized power economy. Though I agree a co-op is much better than a power grid monopoly. But I would still rather see solar panels on commercial rooftops and parking lots than either residential rooftops or in fields. Scale can be similar due to the size of the property, and different mounting technology could be used so the efficiency is there both practically and financially. Also reduces the need for air conditioning in commercial properties. And it leaves natural land natural, only beautifies already in use commercial land. Combined with electrified fleet vehicles for double down green effect. Also gives some democratization of the power monopolies to consumers, corporate consumers having the power are still better than grid monopolies.
I would love to see these kinds of project with an extra feature of distributing money back to people who invest in it or to everyone in a Basic Income Scheme. That way it becomes even more interesting for people investing in such project who build green energy. The profit from decarbinising in a redistribution form of basic income is the ultimate model for positive change because of the win-win-win nature that doesnt even need Government involvement. Once the profit becomes so big they can probably pay out yearly dividends to everyone. That way oild and gas cannot EVER beat gteen energy again if people get actually money by using green energy. People will be proud of it, just the Alaska people are proud of their "Oil Profit Dividend" on a yearly base.
Speaking as someone who's so far below the poverty line that she'd need a long ladder even to reach the darned thing, I'm always wary of anything that sounds positive, progressive, sensible, renewable, or green. Because, sooner or later, one way or another, I just know my electricity bill's going to double. 🤪
I can guarantee that the cost of electricity produced by solar panels on a residential roof is already less than £0.10 per kWh over the lifetime of the system. That £0.10 is fixed and unaffected by inflation over the 20+ year lifetime of the solar panel installation. Average electricity prices from the grid are more than 50% higher than £0.10 per kWh and will only go higher over time. The biggest problem though is having the funds available now for the solar panel installation to make the savings in the future. That's where the local community can help.
Check out the following three electricity firms for their prices: 1. Good Energy 2. People's Energy 3. Ecotricity All of them provide only green electricity. All three are broadly competitive pricewise to the consumer. They may not be absolutely the cheapest but they all seem affordably close to the same prices as the CO2 polluters. No.1 is a classic firm with shareholders who receive/expect dividends etc. No.2 is a community interest company (ie no profits paid out) which was started with a crowdfund. No3 is also set up so that all profits go to create further wind & solar. Any one of them will be doing the planet a big favour and without hammering you on the bills. Check them out and come back to tell me if I am wrong -- or even if I am right.
The drive to low carbon economy caused that UK replaced coal power stations with natural gas power stations. In 2020 gas generated 36.5% - 114 TWh. That caused very quick use of gas from UK's deposit on North Sea. Now UK is covering only 55% of demand and there are only 3 years left of it. The rest, that is 45%, is covered by import mostly from Norway of very expensive gas. Just now the gas prices for heating homes increased by whopping 60% !!!. I have now in September 2021 gas price increase from 2.107p/kWh to 3.3548p/kWh. In 3 years time UK will have to import 100% of natural gas. I can only image how much the gas will rise then. That will be a real shocker. Such a wonderful and cheerful results of the policy.
Thank for another great video. I'm a little unclear on this one though, as it seems to be about a method of community organizing and financing rather than a new technology. I think the devil would be in the details here, as it would depend crucially on the people running your local low carbon hub and the local laws and regulations. But it does sound very promising, particularly if you happen to live in a jurisdiction where the government and utility companies are not friendly to renewable energy. Maybe this could be a way to bypass government and big business inertia and start getting things done. It's incredibly impressive that the Low Carbon Hub has already managed to finance a bunch of solar installations and a hydropower project!
Most Right or Right-Leaning and Independent Americans are all about individual rights. We don't like the government interfering in everything we do, so having a ground-up option where people can get together and actually make a tangible change is something we're all about. More of this please. :)
individual rights huh? you mean the right to spread a deadly virus? the right to demand nobody wears a mask to help further protect themselves or the right to tell a woman what to do with her own body while at the same time you hypocrites demand the right to be a virus carrier at will? oh those rights? got it...
We do have the individual right to stand idly by and watch billionaire corporate oligarchs get richer while the rest of us get poorer. Many, many people are exercising that particular individual right, which is probably one of the biggest problems we have. Change never originates at the top. Those folks are too comfortable with the status quo that got them where they are. So...no forceful push from below, no betterment in living conditions for the masses.
It seems to me though, that what the Low Carbon Hub is doing is social organising but using the principles of capitalism as well, to a degree. It seems that they are more left-leaning though because they are making a profit but it isn't going to corporate shareholders but rather to community stakeholders. Anyway, so, I reckon this is a good mix of ideas from left and right but definitely left-leaning. Perhaps both left and right can meet in the middle in "an ecology" of ideas. (I don't disagree with Michael Fried's comment but I'm not American so that level of general craziness doesn't affect me so much.)
@@michaelfried3123 You really need to do your research, man. We don't demand that no one wear a mask. You wanna wear one, do it. So long as you're not forcing me to wear one or forcing me not to wear one, we're good. Also, most masks do very little to prevent the spread of COVID. There are CDC articles on this. We have no right to tell a woman what to do with her own body, but we have every right to protect the body/life of the tiny human inside of her. They are not one and the same. Different DNA. Do you really think you have any choice if you're a virus carrier or not? News flash: vaccinated people can catch and spread COVID just like unvaccinated people and with the Delta variant, just as easily. I believe the CDC chimed in on this issue as well. Additionally, those who've caught the virus and beat it have better immunity than those who just get the vaccines. There are studies on this, and they are gaining momentum. You really wanna know how effective these vaccines are? Look at Israel. They've been keeping extremely detailed data. So once again, you need to do your research. Without it, you come across like an idiot who only believes what the news tells them to believe.
This is one of the best initiatives I’ve seen recently Looking beyond just those who can afford it and not waiting for the painfully slow political system that always waters things down so much if they do anything at all What proportion of the population is on low income or living in council houses or the modern day equivalent? How can they possibly do anything about the climate without resources if their main goal is to feed their families etc I’d love to participate in helping the climate but have no financial resources to do so Am I doomed to pay more for everything because I can’t afford to change it?
Here in France they have been some tremors with solar power production. The price of the kW bought to private solar has dropped to the point where you can't make a profit, you'll pay back your investment after more than ten years, and when you get the first profit you'll have a drop in efficiency and failures on your panels that became old. This happened to a local farmer who invested 300000€ in an installation to make some benefits off his hangar roof, but now that the price changed he can't make money fast enough to pay his loan. Even if private or communities take the initiative, it can still fail if the government doesn't support a linear price to sustain the investment.
Why assume it's a nuclear power generation being dismantled? I may be wrong but as far as l know all nuclear stations in the UK are cooled by seawater or lake water and do not have the characteristic parabolic cooling towers used for fossil fueled power stations.
Thanks again for a brilliant video :) I would love it if you could do one on data centers, the road we are headed down with uncontrolled increases in data and their centers, use of energy and hopefully solutions to the humongous energy use they stand for.
China says they will continue adding coal plants until 2030 and then will go carbon neutral, which is a farce. The G20 nations subsidize fossil fuel companies multi billion $ per year. Doing your bit as an individual makes you feel better, but that is about it. Liked your program as usual, keep up the good work!
@Terry Foster look up any of the big boys see how much taxes they actually paid! Then figure, oh, it was probably 15-20 years ago that the USofA was spending 50 B $ a year protecting the oil tanker shipping lanes! That should hold you for a while!
What’s interesting is all this has to be done with community initiative programs … while big banks and government have refused to provide the financing in the last 30-40+ years. Hopefully, eventually they’ll get with the program.
Bottom up is great but it won‘t dismantle fossil corporations fast enough. So we also need activism to get more pressure on politics. Eco legislation is required to get the big fossil players off their feet. 🍀
Change needs to be local and probably only ever will be. We now can all see that national governments will fail to lead, due to their capture by the energy sector. The impacts are local, too, and for issues like extreme heat we can save ourselves at least, if we have the seed money. Without government leadership poor and underserved communities will suffer greatly. That's a tragic situation, and so very typical of how we address problems in the Capitalist "democracies". This will not change, I'm afraid. But the winners get to write the history. books, so it will be fine.
Excellent video, great content, really inspiring! But I don't live in the UK. I have an electric car, living in France and I would be really interested to participate to a project like this. 'Community owned solar panels' is my dream !
Interesting that raised solar arrays can increase biodiversity. Could this be a way to help repurpose unused farmland into protected natural habitats and supply local energy at the same time? Could local councils get onboard?
Have you done one on the environmental cost of pet ownership? Rise in dog numbers in uk is enormous, surely this has a significant impact on consumption? Mail order pet food, toys, beds - meat consumption is a problem anyway without double digit growth in pet ownership.
Highly distributed energy networks have problems though. Traditionally, the electrical generators at power plants will be constantly working with one another to ensure frequency and voltage remains within allowable margins, balancing this with demand. But once you get a significant amount of power generation happening outside this careful control, things start to get much more difficult. That said, distributed solar generation and storage is likely one of the best ways to take loads off the grid in general, so once we get something less destructive than lithium ions I’d definitely invest in that.
This is one of the main technological breakthroughs needed, a way to connect hundreds of millions of electricity producers with hundreds of millions of electricity consumers, while solving all the issues you mention, and doubtlessly very many more. But the current technology is, at its core, way over a century old, creaky and fragile, as events have seen. Something better would take an Apollo scale project. But I keep wondering what everyone's waiting for.
Hey, I have a question. Could you maybe in your title cards not make the bottom red? I always think this is the view bar and that I already watched it because it's red :D
I have a question for those interested in efficient uasge of electricity. We've had a "Smart meter (gen 1)" in our house since 2019 and it's unable to recieve/transmit data to our provider. We're no where near any other smart meter users. There's a single mast for mobile phone a few miles away and we get 1 bar on our mobile phones. I've had companys over to our location to test signal boosters etc. to no avail. Who/where do I contact the UK gov to get this situation resolved? Any constructive ideas or information appreciated, thanks.
This is a good though insufficient solution. We need to bring the heat back down which can only be accomplished by replenishing natural habitats on a massive scale, and by reflecting some of the incoming heat until the system is balanced again. I'm still waiting to see you discuss the MEER Reflection Project here.... Use mirrors to save us rather than stare at ourselves like narcissists!
If you think about the electric companies in the US, they're for-profit companies that are legally only allowed to make a limited amount of profit every year. If they reduce their costs by implementing renewables, they wouldn't be allowed to keep the extra money as profit, so there's really no incentive for them to change the status quo. Instead, if we think about community members setting up their own electricity generation, they receive a genuine cost reduction and so they have a good motivation to move forward with these type of plans!
@Aaron Agema state by state regulations. Texas being Texas voted to not connect with the rest of the country then after failing two other times before this last time they still didn't insulate the natural gas well heads. That's right nat gas doesn't freeze but the valves sure the f*** do! So this last polar vortex cold snap, been happening bout every 10 years or so. The petroleum scumbags quickly blamed the solar and wind. Well was really rather funny when the truth came out cause it seems that the operators actually pushed the wind generation up to around (can't remember exactly) a 127% of recommended! Now Florida for once, nah I kid my floridiot neighbors, south Florida has one of if not the largest solar installation in the world!
Thank Dave, very nice video, as usual, and especially useful. I would like to set up a similar scheme in Italy. I am at the very beginning: just vague ideas. Does anybody know if "Low Carbon Hub", or some other association, has an office devoted to help people set up this kind of project?
For sure ground mounted is good - but domestic rooftop solar is owned by those people and the income/energy goes directly to them - it also skips the 10% of energy lost in 'transportation' in a top down centralised grid. A bottom-up 'distributed' grid also needs private money to invest on their own rooftop - as they would when buying a new kitchen. Using energy where it is generated is the most efficient, and will drive a social change, because it doesn't need to make a 'profit' for shareholders & billions will be left in people's pockets instead of going to pay far off shareholders (or local ones).
Distributed grid? For rural and remote areas. I think that concentrated solar power and large-scale wind are better than distributed PV for cities, for example.
After watching several RUclips tutorial videos about trading I was still making losses until Mr Michael started managing my investment now I make $10,567 weekly
Localized energy production would help reduce the risk of widespread power failure in the event of a natural disaster. But please address Jevons Paradox, the idea that energy consumption will increase as it get cheaper. Some environmentalists also fear that money saved by using cheap renewable energy will increase consumption of environmentally destructive goods and services, thereby negating any benefit from low-carbon energy.
I wonder if a mega battery would be a valuable element in such a system. The Hornsdale Mega battery is a money spinner in it's own right and even more so when connected to it's wind farm.
No criticism of these people or their intentions, methods or achievements intended, but what they do in years and with much effort could be achieved many times over at the stroke of a pen/press of a button by government or corporation. We don't have time for piecemeal 'solutions' to global warming - we are in the last minutes of the final hour - only rapid and huge changes can avert very serious problems. And only governments, companies and corporations can make those changes quickly enough. We need to concentrate our energy on persuading these people to take the necessary steps asap. Wonderful as community projects are, they are a luxury we simply don't have time for.
@@planetvegan7843 no question of luck. We either do this - and quickly - or we die. No one has any real idea of when the tipping point is coming or what the consequences will be, but my guess is much sooner than we expect and a great deal worse than we can imagine. We need to mobilise and act and force the governments and corporations to make big changes now - not this percent or that percent by 2030 or 2050, but everything possible, as soon as we can. I am nearly 70, so I probably won't see the worst of it, but I have kids in their 40s and teens and they will have to survive what's coming - if they can.
The train has left the cliff brother. Become the best person you can so you can pass with a clear conscience. Plant based Minimalist Low waste Low emissions Max 2 children.
@@paulhaynes8045 I'm 75 and in basically the same situation as you. I agree with your take on urgency. Lately I have expanded my understanding of our global situation by reading "Overshoot" by William Catton and by watching several RUclips videos featuring William Rees. The subject is the carrying capacity of planet earth, how we have exceeded it, and what would be required to correct course. I would recommend those resources to you, as well as recommend that you be sitting down as you make your way through them.
I just wanted to thank you deeply for your wonderful presentation. Always measured, calm, considered and well researched. Also, love your little humourous quips that tie it all together so beautifully! Appreciated!
Thank you. I appreciate your feedback :-)
Yet no mention of the sterling work by Boris and the front bench... ... odd that. ; ))))))
That river hydro installation is especially heartening. Fish-safe designs for baseload river hydro are important, and if replicated across the nation could provide so much of our needs on its own.
Sorry to say it, but England do not have the rivers to supply any substantial amount of the energy needed. A single link to Norway (Sea Link, a 1,400 MW HVDC interconnection) can supply 50% of the installed hydro power capacity in UK (not counting pumped storage). Only 2% of the energy mix is hydro power and because of how unpopular large projects will be, this will not increase.
@@bknesheim not at megaproject scale no.
But at smaller scale we have the capacity for many many small hydro plants serving a few local buildings.
Just one example the Co-op grocery supermarket in New Mills, Peak District, is powered by a screw-like hydro plant on the nearby River Sett / River Goyt. When running the "Reverse Archimedes Screw" produces power for the shop with a surplus to sell to the grid. It has put back into use the head of water produced by mill owners in the water phase of the industrial revolution.
Don't forget that the international industrial revolution started in England. Don't forget that the capital for the steam-driven stage was provided by the earlier water-driven stage.
We did it once. We can do it again, but this time round not go for the mega projects which as you say are unpopular and I personally think they are justifiably unpopular.
We can certainly get almost every mill-race running again, this time generating electricity rather than grinding corn or spinning cotton.
We can and we should. And we can do alonside the gov't or despite the gov't
____
Train to New Mills Central. 5 min walk to the hydro. Look for signs to Millenium Bridge or Sett Valley Trail.
The hydro itself is not a day out, but if you are going to be in the area, or you fancy a gentle walk along a converted former railway alongside a lovely river then do take 20 or 30 mins to look at the hydro.
Not just baseload, but dispatchable, and also energy storage with pumped hydro.
I'm all for democratizing the whole process for most things. Love distributive energy production and distributive power structures. Also love how it helps grow community connection, capacity for local investment and wealthy creation, as well as help reduce costs for those who can't afford to invest.
LOL, "community".....WTF is that? The really social people all hang out together in their own club, while others sit alone and isolated. "Community" is a myth. It's a meaningless word.
Boris' crew talks a good climate game, but I'm not sure their hearts are in it. That's why the community taking the initiative is so inspiring.
But at least Boris and crew there are better than the woeful Right Wing federal government we have here in Australia. It's embarrassing.
@@Fomites Was about to say the same
Our Coal-fondling Prime Marketer and his merry band of shills here in Oz is actively working against renewables. For them, it's CCUS all the way.
I recommend you watch The Juice Media's video, if you want details.
@@Aermydach Australian politics has always baffled me!
@@paulhaynes8045 Oh, it's quite simple. The Liberal & National Parties are the conservatives. They're in the pocket of our Big Four Banks, the Mines and mutli-national corporations.
The Labor party is our supposed worker's party. They're " "centre-left" ". They're beholden to the Union Bosses, the Big Four Banks, the Mines and multi-national corporations (not as much as the other party though).
Exactly. We can’t wait for governments with their bureaucratic processes. In fact, what these folks are doing is the real meaning of leadership: pooling resources, blazing a trail and proving the concept for others to follow.
Mixed feelings about your comment.
Yes you are right that we can't wait for the gov't to get around to doing anything like the effort needed. That applies equally to local, devolved-national, and UK-national gov't.
So yes I agree local initiatives like this are essential.
Where my concern over your comment starts is that in my view we ALSO need political action (at all the levels I mentioned) to get the gov'ts moving. Politics-as-usual is not going to be enough though that, too, is important.
We ALSO need the inspired irritation from groups like XR to give the political activists a bit of a heavy shove in the right direction.
All three are necessary. Your comment is unclear (to me at least) about whether you think local hubs on their own replace the need for conventional and disruptive political action: hence my mixed feelings.
I hope you will say more about what you intended.
@@trueriver1950 Thanks for your comment. What I meant was that since governments are dragging their feet - and it’s their responsibility to lead the way - perhaps if private citizens and groups took the initiative it would shame the government into action. But governments are absolutely crucial, at the very least as policy makers.
The last time we pooled our resources and collective effort to build community infrastructures - like roads, housing, education, healthcare etc, the tories and neolibs sold them off right under our noses. This time, we should lock down all these projects as co-operatives that cannot be sold off to make rich people richer while impoverishing the community.
Thank you! This is great. It's an excellent way to combine both real local impact and scalability. Amazing to see the greenhouse gas savings that have already been achieved. Perhaps you could link to or talk about such hubs in other countries as well? Thanks again.
We have set up Community Investment Company called Brampton 2 Zero (Cumbria). This video describes exactly how we want our community energy project to become. Thanks for this .
I love when people realize the potential of group own projects and enterprises. I'm a companion in cooperative bank, cooperative energy provides, cooperation grocery store chain and housing cooperative. So I enjoy stable and oftentimes cheaper prices
You could say it's the Free Market at work.
@@Aermydach It's all free market until a big shark offer a load of money to buy the cooperative, and people gladly accept the check. Then it become what everything became today, again. It's all but a loop.
I'm starting my own community driven waste management project.
Our focus is on durable waste, things like electronics, appliances and furniture.
I just wanted to say thanks for this article which is extremely relevant to the work the South Coast Health and Sustainability Alliance (SHASA) has been doing since 2014 on the New South Wales South coast (Australia). The Oxford hub has taken some pathways different to ours, and they've got some great ideas. We're hoping to catch up with them later in the year. What made me pay attention was your comment that really communities are taking the lead on this initiative even though in theory communities shouldn't be needing to act on what is a society-wide urgent priority. Please keep this type of story coming, I love it.
Brilliant as usual. Inspiring and encouraging - and there's precious little of that around these days!
Thank you.
This makes too much sense to actually happen here in Texas.
Oof. I feel you
You folks there keep electing GOP Taliban and you'll be living in the Middle Ages again really soon...
@@michaelfried3123 tricky thing is, who does the Taliban sell out to?
@@michaelfried3123 true: but my sympathy goes to those who don't vote for the Elephant in the Room but get it anyway.
Same here in Australia with our Fed Govt dinosaurs
Unfortunately they are also trying to suppress voting by requiring ID at voting booths.
This does sound like a really doable way to get clean energy system rollout, sidestepping centralised planning & possible energy monopolies. Would be really useful to have the low carbon hub coordinators on an Ask Me Anything event where we can get some finer details. Eg. Scale:cost tradeoffs, system governance, how to include poor communities, issue that may arise ...
How dare you sidestep centralized planning! 5 Year plans by central government is the only proven way for all and any country. The examples are everywhere, Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, Cubist Cuba and onward ad infinitum the universe and beyond!!!
I actually designed buildings in the Sims 4 with these principles in mind. I hope to eventually make these buildings into reality as an experience park similar to King Richard's Faire in Massachusetts, USA. Each building is equipped with solar and water collection, there are 2 community farms, and an adventuring guild of sorts that takes community requests and creates temp listings for those requests.
Distributed, green energy production and localized energy storage is the future, and we need to start petitioning local government to enact building standards for new construction to include renewable energy/high efficiency standards.
We could either see individual homes producing their own energy, or local renewable hubs based on municipality, much in the same way some cities provide their own internet infrastructure, versus relying on isp's to build infrastructure which is slow, and distribute high speed access unequally.
We need to start doing this now. Pay attention. Get involved.
Love this channel.
This looks like a good way for local communities of like minded citizens can get the ball rolling in green energy conversion even when our national government is moving too slow to mitigate global warming.
This is a great example of anarcho syndaclism in action. It's a a wonderful instance of developing a duel power structure and allowing communities to manage their own resources!
7:14 - One of the most pertinent sound bites of our time
Dave, hi and thanks for this and other videos and all your good work.
I work for a telephone fundraising Co that has a client base leaning towards env charities. The subject of the latest IPCC report and the need to understand it came up at a recent on-line meeting. I was pleased to be able to highly recommend Just Have a Think as source of understanding of both the environmental problems we face and the solutions. I noticed that the manager noted your channel's name for future reference. I hope that some of the 30 or so colleagues who were may become viewers as a result.
Keep up the good work
Thank you for putting a name to a face. This model has long been an integral component to my overarching concept. Largely influenced by Jeremy Rifkin’s ‘Third Industrial Revolution.’ Decentralized, distributed clean energy solutions. Small, local, people/citizen/small group/co-op-owned, connected energy infrastructure. Makes perfect sense. And with today’s smaller, more affordable components, it’s - for the first time in history - available to all of us…which makes it feasible, which means possible, practical and attainable. The next 40 years is going to be exciting - or disastrous…it’s truly UP TO US. #ForwardTogether #LocalVillage #MOOVmobility #bkyrd #PeoplePower 💪🏼 🙌🏼
What a great initiative and results! I hope that all communities can learn from this and implement their own hubs. Collectively, we can all move the needle towards a more sustainable future, and present day. Thanks for sharing!
Very inspiring 🙂
Thanks so so so much Dave! Your videos are an inspiration to me and many others. I am a regulatory policy consultant, been fighting (sad to say) the utilities for almost 2 decades here in the US on clean energy policy. (Solar is being killed in places like AZ, and really a battle in almost every state. The utilities seem keen on destroying the future….) Anyway, policies in the US are preventing DER (Distributed Energy Resources) like solar and batteries, and I am working to educate people on how utilities + regulators work (or don’t work) and how we can influence them to get better clean energy policies. There are only 200 public utilities commissioners in the US, and so the problem is solvable - it’s just complex and needs to be addressed one state at a time. If you’d be interested in doing a video on it, I’d love to chat. I can invite you to the education series if you are interested, it’s free and open to the public. Thank you again.
Part of the beauty of distributed power generation is the incredible robustness that comes with redundancy (of suppliers). A more robust grid is a less vulnerable grid. This goes way beyond simple decarbonization!
I live in a housing development in West Texas with about 400 single family homes. Each house could have 10 kW of solar and two Powerwalls installed. That would be enough to be off the grid. Throw in some wind and we'd be good year round. I'm surprised that more housing developments aren't built with this in mind.
Loving the Tim Hunkin style animations!!
Real literal alternative structures of power. Fantastic.
Great segment David! Building Local Stakeholder value and involvement. Bravo
Cheers Tyler :-)
Praised such concepts in Patreon first thing this morning!
Amazing video as always! Thank you so much for describing the work of the low carbon hub. Similar efforts are needed to decentralize food production to whatever degree possible depending on location. Agrivoltaic systems where specific foods are grown in areas with solar panels is an upcoming solution too.
Definitely needs to be community driven, it allows the power to control what you require to live within your own hands. Decentralization makes the whole system more resilient.
This is the exact kind program I would love to see come to my country!
Always makes me smile when i see youve put out a new vid :D
Happy to help.
Very cool. Can't wait to get my green project off the ground.
Many places have already done this type of thing, but with Water resources. Rural areas where drilling wells are difficult so they pool resources into a single well and cooperatively run the well and distribute the water within their community. I actual do one myself for my neighbors. My well provides water to numerous houses and we share in its upkeep and operations, even though it is on my land.
Green electricity and storage is ironically one of our ideas for dealing with the power needs for running our community water. We could follow this model and provide supplemental power to all of our members during power outages from the primary grid in our area. It is something we are actively considering.
@Jeff Johnson so is it a deep well that's fully cased, with passing that didn't start leaking from day one like most oil wells do, anyway just hoping you don't have many Celtic tanks near by and by near who knows from how far away it rains and the water makes it to you. Good analysis several times a year is probably prudent!
@@TheLosamatic It is a deep well. We had a Aqua engineering firm help us determine depth so we could get into clean and good water. We are on a massive limestone ancient sea bed.
Amazing way of doing it!
This is the way.
Thank you for sharing this information 🙋🏼♀️😘
Brilliant. I love it. I really hope a it catches on.
What a project! Combine this with elements of permaculture and local communities really could make huge differences across multiple domains of our current climate emergency.
Great idea. I’ll start raising funds for a local SMR.
Excellent presentation on a very interesting project. Cheers.
Local area network is the way to go; let the grid support industry and the night time customers.
Great video and fantastic information. I am currently building my forever home in a new suburb where I'm going to do roof top solar. But i want to take the suburb further and the low carbon hub is something I'll be looking at to expand my horizons
Good stuff. Forget governments, do it yourself - quicker, cheaper, and without corruption.
I fully agree.
Thank you!
I’ve often wondered why a simple change in building regulations requiring all new buildings to have solar panels installed isn’t applied? I would presume this would generate a lot of green energy?
The advantage that installing PV has over building energy retrofits is its simplicity. I have spent my career doing the more complex & difficult thing. The situation humanity is in now requires a "both and" approach.
My thought on the solar panels is that roof mounted solar is mounted on the roof with no airflow underneath, whereas ground mounted is almost always on a steel frame allowing airflow all round. The panels work better when not hot somewhat ironically.
Sadly they compared residential rooftop solar with grid scale ground mount projects. Of course both the financial and practical efficiency was better, but you do lose out on the democratization of power generation and the problems associated with a centralized power economy. Though I agree a co-op is much better than a power grid monopoly.
But I would still rather see solar panels on commercial rooftops and parking lots than either residential rooftops or in fields.
Scale can be similar due to the size of the property, and different mounting technology could be used so the efficiency is there both practically and financially.
Also reduces the need for air conditioning in commercial properties.
And it leaves natural land natural, only beautifies already in use commercial land.
Combined with electrified fleet vehicles for double down green effect.
Also gives some democratization of the power monopolies to consumers, corporate consumers having the power are still better than grid monopolies.
Thanks
Thanks for your knowledge sharing
I would love to see these kinds of project with an extra feature of distributing money back to people who invest in it or to everyone in a Basic Income Scheme. That way it becomes even more interesting for people investing in such project who build green energy.
The profit from decarbinising in a redistribution form of basic income is the ultimate model for positive change because of the win-win-win nature that doesnt even need Government involvement. Once the profit becomes so big they can probably pay out yearly dividends to everyone. That way oild and gas cannot EVER beat gteen energy again if people get actually money by using green energy.
People will be proud of it, just the Alaska people are proud of their "Oil Profit Dividend" on a yearly base.
Speaking as someone who's so far below the poverty line that she'd need a long ladder even to reach the darned thing, I'm always wary of anything that sounds positive, progressive, sensible, renewable, or green. Because, sooner or later, one way or another, I just know my electricity bill's going to double. 🤪
I can guarantee that the cost of electricity produced by solar panels on a residential roof is already less than £0.10 per kWh over the lifetime of the system. That £0.10 is fixed and unaffected by inflation over the 20+ year lifetime of the solar panel installation. Average electricity prices from the grid are more than 50% higher than £0.10 per kWh and will only go higher over time. The biggest problem though is having the funds available now for the solar panel installation to make the savings in the future. That's where the local community can help.
Check out the following three electricity firms for their prices:
1. Good Energy
2. People's Energy
3. Ecotricity
All of them provide only green electricity. All three are broadly competitive pricewise to the consumer. They may not be absolutely the cheapest but they all seem affordably close to the same prices as the CO2 polluters.
No.1 is a classic firm with shareholders who receive/expect dividends etc.
No.2 is a community interest company (ie no profits paid out) which was started with a crowdfund.
No3 is also set up so that all profits go to create further wind & solar.
Any one of them will be doing the planet a big favour and without hammering you on the bills.
Check them out and come back to tell me if I am wrong -- or even if I am right.
Insulation can be available free
Great video, very informative. Now how to implement this in my city ...
good to hear that!
The drive to low carbon economy caused that UK replaced coal power stations with natural gas power stations. In 2020 gas generated 36.5% - 114 TWh. That caused very quick use of gas from UK's deposit on North Sea. Now UK is covering only 55% of demand and there are only 3 years left of it. The rest, that is 45%, is covered by import mostly from Norway of very expensive gas. Just now the gas prices for heating homes increased by whopping 60% !!!.
I have now in September 2021 gas price increase from 2.107p/kWh to 3.3548p/kWh.
In 3 years time UK will have to import 100% of natural gas. I can only image how much the gas will rise then. That will be a real shocker. Such a wonderful and cheerful results of the policy.
Sounds like your place needs a passive energy upgrade. Time to make a move.
Thank for another great video. I'm a little unclear on this one though, as it seems to be about a method of community organizing and financing rather than a new technology. I think the devil would be in the details here, as it would depend crucially on the people running your local low carbon hub and the local laws and regulations.
But it does sound very promising, particularly if you happen to live in a jurisdiction where the government and utility companies are not friendly to renewable energy. Maybe this could be a way to bypass government and big business inertia and start getting things done. It's incredibly impressive that the Low Carbon Hub has already managed to finance a bunch of solar installations and a hydropower project!
Beautiful !
I am trying to get community solar in my city in Michigan USA. I've tried to find local support on Nextdoor, and there seems to be interest!
Most Right or Right-Leaning and Independent Americans are all about individual rights. We don't like the government interfering in everything we do, so having a ground-up option where people can get together and actually make a tangible change is something we're all about. More of this please. :)
individual rights huh? you mean the right to spread a deadly virus? the right to demand nobody wears a mask to help further protect themselves or the right to tell a woman what to do with her own body while at the same time you hypocrites demand the right to be a virus carrier at will? oh those rights? got it...
We do have the individual right to stand idly by and watch billionaire corporate oligarchs get richer while the rest of us get poorer. Many, many people are exercising that particular individual right, which is probably one of the biggest problems we have. Change never originates at the top. Those folks are too comfortable with the status quo that got them where they are. So...no forceful push from below, no betterment in living conditions for the masses.
It seems to me though, that what the Low Carbon Hub is doing is social organising but using the principles of capitalism as well, to a degree. It seems that they are more left-leaning though because they are making a profit but it isn't going to corporate shareholders but rather to community stakeholders. Anyway, so, I reckon this is a good mix of ideas from left and right but definitely left-leaning. Perhaps both left and right can meet in the middle in "an ecology" of ideas. (I don't disagree with Michael Fried's comment but I'm not American so that level of general craziness doesn't affect me so much.)
@@michaelfried3123 You really need to do your research, man. We don't demand that no one wear a mask. You wanna wear one, do it. So long as you're not forcing me to wear one or forcing me not to wear one, we're good. Also, most masks do very little to prevent the spread of COVID. There are CDC articles on this. We have no right to tell a woman what to do with her own body, but we have every right to protect the body/life of the tiny human inside of her. They are not one and the same. Different DNA. Do you really think you have any choice if you're a virus carrier or not? News flash: vaccinated people can catch and spread COVID just like unvaccinated people and with the Delta variant, just as easily. I believe the CDC chimed in on this issue as well. Additionally, those who've caught the virus and beat it have better immunity than those who just get the vaccines. There are studies on this, and they are gaining momentum. You really wanna know how effective these vaccines are? Look at Israel. They've been keeping extremely detailed data.
So once again, you need to do your research. Without it, you come across like an idiot who only believes what the news tells them to believe.
@@RussCR5187 We do have that right. We also have the right to do something about it. Well said.
This is one of the best initiatives I’ve seen recently
Looking beyond just those who can afford it and not waiting for the painfully slow political system that always waters things down so much if they do anything at all
What proportion of the population is on low income or living in council houses or the modern day equivalent?
How can they possibly do anything about the climate without resources if their main goal is to feed their families etc
I’d love to participate in helping the climate but have no financial resources to do so
Am I doomed to pay more for everything because I can’t afford to change it?
You could even farm mushrooms under the solar farm, or anything else that grows well in the shade.
Here in France they have been some tremors with solar power production. The price of the kW bought to private solar has dropped to the point where you can't make a profit, you'll pay back your investment after more than ten years, and when you get the first profit you'll have a drop in efficiency and failures on your panels that became old. This happened to a local farmer who invested 300000€ in an installation to make some benefits off his hangar roof, but now that the price changed he can't make money fast enough to pay his loan. Even if private or communities take the initiative, it can still fail if the government doesn't support a linear price to sustain the investment.
I hope those projects become widespread.
Why is the low-carbon hub shown dismantling a nuclear cooling tower at 1:39? Nuclear has carbon emissions on par with renewables.
Why assume it's a nuclear power generation being dismantled? I may be wrong but as far as l know all nuclear stations in the UK are cooled by seawater or lake water and do not have the characteristic parabolic cooling towers used for fossil fueled power stations.
Keep up the good work
Hello David, I hope those folks are using perovskite PV panels. Do you have an update on when or if these are presently available?
Thanks again for a brilliant video :) I would love it if you could do one on data centers, the road we are headed down with uncontrolled increases in data and their centers, use of energy and hopefully solutions to the humongous energy use they stand for.
China says they will continue adding coal plants until 2030 and then will go carbon neutral, which is a farce. The G20 nations subsidize fossil fuel companies multi billion $ per year. Doing your bit as an individual makes you feel better, but that is about it. Liked your program as usual, keep up the good work!
Were is fossil fuel subsidised?
Hope Yes or Yes.
@Terry Foster look up any of the big boys see how much taxes they actually paid! Then figure, oh, it was probably 15-20 years ago that the USofA was spending 50 B $ a year protecting the oil tanker shipping lanes! That should hold you for a while!
Paying 50b.to keep shipping lanes open, don't you want free and easy trade around the world for everybody
What’s interesting is all this has to be done with community initiative programs … while big banks and government have refused to provide the financing in the last 30-40+ years. Hopefully, eventually they’ll get with the program.
6:58 personally i think we've quite enough top down action, thank you very much.
Bottom up is great but it won‘t dismantle fossil corporations fast enough. So we also need activism to get more pressure on politics. Eco legislation is required to get the big fossil players off their feet. 🍀
@@achenarmyst2156 bottom up and top down = Ecological.
What about in a rural setting?
Quite interesting and stirring, as always on JHAT. What would be a angel to start something similar in Switzerland?
Change needs to be local and probably only ever will be. We now can all see that national governments will fail to lead, due to their capture by the energy sector. The impacts are local, too, and for issues like extreme heat we can save ourselves at least, if we have the seed money. Without government leadership poor and underserved communities will suffer greatly. That's a tragic situation, and so very typical of how we address problems in the Capitalist "democracies". This will not change, I'm afraid. But the winners get to write the history. books, so it will be fine.
Is is there a way to create a bike trail bar a bike path that is low carbon and doesn't create more carbon?
What's the quote about a few committed people being able to change the world, and indeed being all that ever has?
Interestingly, people have the same NIMBI about solar as they might about nuclear. It is very frustrating.
Luv yer channel
As in so many things, networking will be fundamental. We have become too bound to old-fashioned hierarchical solutions.
unfounded assertion.
Excellent video, great content, really inspiring! But I don't live in the UK. I have an electric car, living in France and I would be really interested to participate to a project like this. 'Community owned solar panels' is my dream !
Interesting that raised solar arrays can increase biodiversity. Could this be a way to help repurpose unused farmland into protected natural habitats and supply local energy at the same time? Could local councils get onboard?
Have you done one on the environmental cost of pet ownership? Rise in dog numbers in uk is enormous, surely this has a significant impact on consumption? Mail order pet food, toys, beds - meat consumption is a problem anyway without double digit growth in pet ownership.
Highly distributed energy networks have problems though. Traditionally, the electrical generators at power plants will be constantly working with one another to ensure frequency and voltage remains within allowable margins, balancing this with demand. But once you get a significant amount of power generation happening outside this careful control, things start to get much more difficult. That said, distributed solar generation and storage is likely one of the best ways to take loads off the grid in general, so once we get something less destructive than lithium ions I’d definitely invest in that.
This is one of the main technological breakthroughs needed, a way to connect hundreds of millions of electricity producers with hundreds of millions of electricity consumers, while solving all the issues you mention, and doubtlessly very many more. But the current technology is, at its core, way over a century old, creaky and fragile, as events have seen. Something better would take an Apollo scale project. But I keep wondering what everyone's waiting for.
Hey, I have a question. Could you maybe in your title cards not make the bottom red? I always think this is the view bar and that I already watched it because it's red :D
I have a question for those interested in efficient uasge of electricity. We've had a "Smart meter (gen 1)" in our house since 2019 and it's unable to recieve/transmit data to our provider. We're no where near any other smart meter users. There's a single mast for mobile phone a few miles away and we get 1 bar on our mobile phones. I've had companys over to our location to test signal boosters etc. to no avail. Who/where do I contact the UK gov to get this situation resolved? Any constructive ideas or information appreciated, thanks.
I honestly thought about something similar with focus on building/action just like the Low Carbon Hub! I just dont know where to start D:
Local government could do more to facilitate communities who want to do this, assuming they don't do burdensome regulation that holds it back.
This is a good though insufficient solution.
We need to bring the heat back down which can only be accomplished by replenishing natural habitats on a massive scale, and by reflecting some of the incoming heat until the system is balanced again.
I'm still waiting to see you discuss the MEER Reflection Project here....
Use mirrors to save us rather than stare at ourselves like narcissists!
Anyone setting one up in Staffordshire?
If you think about the electric companies in the US, they're for-profit companies that are legally only allowed to make a limited amount of profit every year. If they reduce their costs by implementing renewables, they wouldn't be allowed to keep the extra money as profit, so there's really no incentive for them to change the status quo.
Instead, if we think about community members setting up their own electricity generation, they receive a genuine cost reduction and so they have a good motivation to move forward with these type of plans!
@Aaron Agema state by state regulations. Texas being Texas voted to not connect with the rest of the country then after failing two other times before this last time they still didn't insulate the natural gas well heads. That's right nat gas doesn't freeze but the valves sure the f*** do! So this last polar vortex cold snap, been happening bout every 10 years or so. The petroleum scumbags quickly blamed the solar and wind. Well was really rather funny when the truth came out cause it seems that the operators actually pushed the wind generation up to around (can't remember exactly) a 127% of recommended! Now Florida for once, nah I kid my floridiot neighbors, south Florida has one of if not the largest solar installation in the world!
Thank Dave, very nice video, as usual, and especially useful.
I would like to set up a similar scheme in Italy. I am at the very beginning: just vague ideas. Does anybody know if "Low Carbon Hub", or some other association, has an office devoted to help people set up this kind of project?
Thanks Giancarlo. I did not find such and office during my research unfortunately. I really hope you find it though. Best of luck! Dave
For sure ground mounted is good - but domestic rooftop solar is owned by those people and the income/energy goes directly to them - it also skips the 10% of energy lost in 'transportation' in a top down centralised grid. A bottom-up 'distributed' grid also needs private money to invest on their own rooftop - as they would when buying a new kitchen. Using energy where it is generated is the most efficient, and will drive a social change, because it doesn't need to make a 'profit' for shareholders & billions will be left in people's pockets instead of going to pay far off shareholders (or local ones).
Distributed grid?
For rural and remote areas.
I think that concentrated solar power and large-scale wind are better than distributed PV for cities, for example.
*I don't know who needs to hear this but stop saving all your money, invest some of it if you really want financial freedom....*
Investing in crypto is the best way to earn financial freedom
I could invest in Crypto but always got confused by it’s volatility in nature
@@janethoward5833 That won't bother you if you trade with a professional like Mr Michael Wayne
After watching several RUclips tutorial videos about trading I was still making losses until Mr Michael started managing my investment now I make $10,567 weekly
Trading crypto with Michael is life changing moves
Localized energy production would help reduce the risk of widespread power failure in the event of a natural disaster. But please address Jevons Paradox, the idea that energy consumption will increase as it get cheaper. Some environmentalists also fear that money saved by using cheap renewable energy will increase consumption of environmentally destructive goods and services, thereby negating any benefit from low-carbon energy.
you will own nothing and be happy
Leverage?
I wonder if a mega battery would be a valuable element in such a system. The Hornsdale Mega battery is a money spinner in it's own right and even more so when connected to it's wind farm.
No criticism of these people or their intentions, methods or achievements intended, but what they do in years and with much effort could be achieved many times over at the stroke of a pen/press of a button by government or corporation. We don't have time for piecemeal 'solutions' to global warming - we are in the last minutes of the final hour - only rapid and huge changes can avert very serious problems. And only governments, companies and corporations can make those changes quickly enough. We need to concentrate our energy on persuading these people to take the necessary steps asap. Wonderful as community projects are, they are a luxury we simply don't have time for.
Good luck with that.
You've obviously never worked for BNFL... The simplest engineering problem takes a minimum of 3 years to solve.
@@planetvegan7843 no question of luck. We either do this - and quickly - or we die. No one has any real idea of when the tipping point is coming or what the consequences will be, but my guess is much sooner than we expect and a great deal worse than we can imagine. We need to mobilise and act and force the governments and corporations to make big changes now - not this percent or that percent by 2030 or 2050, but everything possible, as soon as we can. I am nearly 70, so I probably won't see the worst of it, but I have kids in their 40s and teens and they will have to survive what's coming - if they can.
The train has left the cliff brother. Become the best person you can so you can pass with a clear conscience.
Plant based
Minimalist
Low waste
Low emissions
Max 2 children.
@@paulhaynes8045 I'm 75 and in basically the same situation as you. I agree with your take on urgency. Lately I have expanded my understanding of our global situation by reading "Overshoot" by William Catton and by watching several RUclips videos featuring William Rees. The subject is the carrying capacity of planet earth, how we have exceeded it, and what would be required to correct course. I would recommend those resources to you, as well as recommend that you be sitting down as you make your way through them.
Governments haven't done much so the people have to do it themselves!!