Huge gas discovery
February 25, 2008 at 2:17 pm
It might not have been as dramatic as some of the oil finds in the US at the dawn of the last century, but this year has brought with it a methane gas discovery that could provide Britain with enough natural gas reserves to last ten or more years.
In between the small towns of Port Talbot and Pencoed in South Wales, the drilling company based in Bridgend, UK Onshore Gas, has found millions of tonnes of the hugely profitable methane gas locked in air-tight coal mines and to say they are rather excited about it would be an understatement. The area is no stranger to such coal mines but this particular find is proving quite an exciting venture for the company and indeed the whole industry, due to its size and huge business potential.
A great deal of the trapped gas below ground in South Wales is not always economically worth unearthing. The cost of drilling is huge and the companies need to be sure they are going to reap what they sow. But this discovery isn’t one that has required a great deal of consideration. The chairman of UK Onshore Gas Group, Gerwyn Williams, has said, “We are looking at big, big reserves. Ticora (a US geoscience group) are experts in modelling and measuring this type of gas, the company is the world leader in fact… This is big. At the moment we have targeted end users for our gas, such as in Port Talbot and ultimately we envisage it going into the national gas supply.”
In order to extract the gas, vast drilling plants will be installed and gallons of gas will be pumped out daily. The process is already in use here in the UK and in the nearby areas in South Wales but it is the Australians who have proved just how successful and financially rewarding this process can be. Roughly a third of all Australian gas is found in coal mines. There have been reports in the last few years of a shortage here on British soil of natural resources such as gas and oil, but such a find as this one near Port Talbot is sure to crush such rumours.
Conservationists and local residents are very concerned about the safety procedures and side-effects of the drilling methods. Mr Williams is once again confident with this, saying, “We have spent around £2 million on this drilling and testing and the next stage will be a pilot production programme, which will need around £20 million investment. There are definite benefits in this for the householder of South Wales from a cost point of view and a security of supply point of view”.
If UK companies continue to find UK based energy sources as vast as this one, then there have been suggestions that renewable energy resources will never get off the ground properly. It seems the only thing likely to get off the ground in South Wales at the moment is methane gas.
20% of UK families can't pay their gas bill
February 18, 2008 at 2:08 am
A cold home is an unhappy home. UK households seem to suffer from the cold, year in year out. The elderly are often in the news for being the ones to suffer the costs of heating bills, but this time it is the young who are at serious risk from the cold.
A report this month from the charity Save the Children has outlined a serious concern for the welfare of the UK’s families, due to parents being unable to pay for their heating. 19% of families with children under the age of 17 are having serious trouble keeping their homes warm. This equates to roughly 1.4 million families. Just under half of the very poor families, who are living off an annual income of less than £15,000, are in dire straits. Cut backs are being made in order to meet the costs of these energy bills and many families are having to go without food and clothing.
One of the causes of the intimidating gas and electricity bills is the way these families make their payments. The vast majority of the poorer families are forced to pay by a pre-pay method because they can’t manage a monthly direct debit. The difference in price between the two is staggering. British Gas charges their customers an extra 11% if they pay by pre-pay on the meter.
The poverty spokeswoman for Save the Children, Phillipa Hunt, said in relation to the report that “Fuel poverty is an outrage, particularly for children. It means that they are experiencing the effects of cold on a daily basis. Children find it more difficult to do their homework in a cold home, and are more likely to suffer ill-health.”
All of the main energy companies are increasing their prices at a rate of knots. The big household names such as British Gas, EDF, Npower and Eon have raised their tariffs in the last year at a rate beyond inflation. Scottish Power alone have increased their bills this month by a whopping 15%.
Save the Children are trying to make new ground on this problem and Phillipa Hunt went on to say “The government is well behind schedule in its promise of halving child poverty by 2010 and ending it by 2020. To achieve the 2010 target the government needs to invest £4 billion to help the poorest families. As part of the Campaign to End Child Poverty, we are calling on the government to use this Budget to invest a significant proportion of this money.”
The regulator for the industry, Ofgen, are urging people to contact their energy suppliers for advice on how they can manage their bills better and avoid being cut off. The main suppliers claim to have special tariffs in place for those who need them most. If you are struggling, there is a free helpline number (Home Heat Helpline 0800 336699) where you can get advice on your bills.
A new boiler that helps the planet
February 13, 2008 at 10:50 am
Warming up our homes doesn’t mean we have to warm up our planet. In days gone by, every house on the street would be pumping out smoke from coal and wood. Nowadays we have gas and electric boilers, but for many years these devices haven’t been a great deal better for the environment. Pretty soon though, this will all be a thing of the past.
A company called Ceres Power designs and manufactures green boilers, and I’m not talking about their colour. These groundbreaking little devices are powered by solid-oxide fuel cell technology. Unlike old-fashioned boilers that lose heat easily in their actual heating process, and in the transportation of power, these new green boilers use electrochemical reactions to generate electricity and heat. If they take off they could cut our household carbon emissions in half.
In the last few months British Gas has struck a deal with Ceres Power and has pumped vast amounts of money into the company to help develop and distribute these new earth-saving boilers to their millions of customers. The Director of British Gas New Energy has said, “If the government’s target to reduce CO2 emissions is to be met, households and property developers must look at ways of reducing emissions and this technology will play an important part in doing this.”
The hope is that in the next couple of years, over 30% of the UK will have these new green boilers. In 2003 a mere 20% of household boilers here in the UK were what is called A-B rated, which is ‘green’ to you and me. Around 95% of all newly fitted boilers are this grade now, which is a staggeringly impressive statistic. The problem is that many people have the old ‘non-green’ ones and are reluctant to replace them if they are still working satisfactorily. The good news for the environmentalists out there, though, is that these boilers only have a limited shelf life and many are on their way out and will need replacing. When they do, it’ll be for a green one.
The Chief Executive of Centrica (which owns British Gas) commented, “Fuel cell technology has the potential to transform the domestic central heating market, enabling our customers to generate cheap, reliable and low-carbon electricity in their own homes. The Agreements with Ceres Power will help us deliver our strategy of investing in low carbon technology development.”
