China Visit

Visiting China is a great experience, but for me it is made doubly so by my hosts FIL.

As well as developing a product for our company that is world beating, and doing so in a matter of 4 months, they also know how to make me welcome.

The banquet shows a team of electrical, software and electronic engineers second to none in my opinion, Thanks Guys

http://www.bananaguard.com/

I've been too busy at the coal face recently, but I have a whole load of new info for this blog.

Just to lighten your day have a look at http://www.bananaguard.com/

It made me smile, and reminded me that for every wacky inventor there is at least one crazy investor.

Clear Skies Successor announced

The Low Carbon Building Programme (LCBP) has been announced as the £30 million successor to clear skies.

It should be £300 million, there are 23 million homes in the UK so this equates to £1.30 each of funding but still its a start. The real test will be how much of that money is spent on renewables and how much on "administration" ie bureaucracy

Solar Power

A lot of people have asked my opinion on solar power, so here it is.

For the UK at domestic level PV cells (electricity from solar) is a non-starter on payback grounds, the best system I've seen has a capital payback of over 22 years and unless you are very lucky you will need to start replacing cells after 15-20.

Aside from the payback solar cell production is on very shaky environmental grounds, these are excerpts from a recent article in Renewable Energy World:
"the environmental risks associated with PV depend on the specific type of cell being made
Cell type - Potential Hazards
x-Si - HF acid burns, SiH4 fires/explosions, Lead solder
a-Si - SiH4 fires/explosions
CdTe - Cadmium toxicity, Carcinogenicity
CIS,CGS - H2Se toxicity
GaAs - AsH3 toxicity, As carcingenicity, H2 flammability"
additionally all cells have a problem with end of life disposal, no recycling technology currently exists.

Solar Water heating on the other hand either by rooftop panels/ vacuum tubes or underground pipes is a MUST for every green thinking citizen. typical paybacks are 3-5 years and installation is regularly equivalent to installing a new radiator (just on the roof!).

Windsave website down

Hello all the windsave website is down to to hurricane Wilma (the server is in florida) it will be back up soon.

Meanwhile Windsave has announced its floatation plans

Should I be insulted

Somebody sent me this today
http://www.septemberfilms.com/Eugenius.htm

Should I be insulted? It's a little bit of a back handed complimented wouldn't you say?

British Wind Energy Calls for Active Policy for Microgeneration

British Wind Energy Calls for Active Policy for Microgeneration. Whats been needed for some time the government needs to step up with a firm policy.
http://www.newbuilder.co.uk/news/NewsFullStory.asp?ID=976

devolution

I'm not the biggest fan of devolution, it seems to me that the country needs less bureaucrats not more. But ever since Scotland went its own way they seem to have had a succession of good ideas, and much to my surprise acted on them!
The latest comes from the Greens always the best of political parties (can you guess which way I vote)
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1970732005

and a funny picture just for fun

www.getfirefox.com

My good friend Robin over at Riello just sent me this.

Some great statistics on lightning strikes. While I disagree with the concept that every strike means one destroyed computer of course some strikes might wipe out every computer in the office, if anything the damage estimation seems low.

When compared to America we still have a low incidence of strikes but it's definately on the rise and so finding the right solution is ever more important

David Taylor's Stag Night

While most of the photos can't be posted (they are not rude just a pretty ugly bunch of guys) I thought I'd get one up from David's Stag Do.

I'm going to his wedding in finland in a couple of weeks should be fun