Eight of 2017’s strange but true energy stories

 In News

With the end of 2017 days away now is a good time to look back at this year’s strange but true energy stories.

Ron Fox, of Noreus Ltd at Keele, Staffordshire, picks the eight green stories that made him smile this year.

  1. Sydney and Rachel Saunders are having a clearout and updating their household appliances for the first time in more than 50 years. The couple bought their washing machine for £60 in 1956, the year they were married; a Baby Belling cooker the same year for £19; their Burco tumble drier purchased in 1963 for £52 and a five gallon boiler for £15 in 1959. Sydney, aged 83, a retired accountant from Exeter, Devon, said: “Things were made better in those days, they were more durable and stronger. I think a lot more care was taken in the olden days.”
  2. Qatar thought its Middle Eastern temperatures of up to 50 degrees Centigrade were ideal for solar panels. But their plans for renewable energy backfired when the heat was too hot and the desert country too dusty causing the efficiency of the photovoltaic panels to fall by 50 per cent. Research work is continuing.
  3. The number of ice cream vans has fallen from 250,000 in the 1970s to fewer than 2,500 today, partly because of council green environment regulations, including triple glazed windows, mean children can’t hear the chimes. Now the owners are developing a smart phone app, VanToot, which alerts youngsters with an electronic jingle when the vans approach.
  4. Wind farms have been blamed for a jellyfish epidemic after scientists found that the offshore platforms provide an ideal home for polys, the organism that grows into jellyfish, as they prefer downward facing solid surfaces.
  5. Buses could run on coffee beans after inventor Arthur Kay of Bio-bean created a new biofuel made from coffee grounds, the waste product from brewing the drink, blended with diesel. Engines don’t need to be modified and the fuel can save 6.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions for every tonne of recycled coffee used.
  6. David Pike, aged 53, and Karin Sode, 47, were so fed up with the big energy companies that they raised £500,000 by crowdfunding and launched People’s Energy. It offers renewable power and promises to return 75 per cent of the profits to customers in an annual rebate. It pre-registered more than 4,500 customers.
  7. A plan by the Mayor of London to ban wood-burning stoves to improve the capital’s air quality has angered pizzeria owners who said they could go out of business if the scheme went ahead.
  8. A £16 million trial will be launched by the Department for Transport to power huge ships and ferries with wind and “spinning sails” to cut over the next decade harmful emissions, which are choking Britain’s coastline by a third.

“If you want any energy advice contact me on 01782 756995 or go to www.noreus.co.uk – but in the meantime have a green and happy New Year,” said Ron.

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