November 23, 2009 By paul
Filed under: EnergyHiya all,
Just a quick heads-up – Dale is just about to take part in this week’s Guardian Environment ‘You ask, they answer’ Q&A session – could be interesting… If any of you fancy chipping in your 2 penneth, dive on in – the water’s lovely! 🙂
EDITED TO ADD: The Q&A session is now closed now but it’s still worth reading.
This blog is about answers to the big questions - how will we keep the lights on, what kind of cars will we drive (will we drive?) and how will we feed ourselves - in a post oil world, and a world where we can't afford to keep burning things and throwing things away. Energy, Transport and Food are the three big issues.
I think it’s great that you’re innovating with green gas too. One question, though: when I signed up to “New Energy Plus”, why did your sales staff try to get me to sign up to the other tariff, i.e. where not all the electricity sourced is green?
Hey Ben
Just a guess on this one, but I imagine that it’s more expensive for Ecotricity to buy existing green electricity, therefore they possibly wouldn’t be able to put as much towards new turbines from that tariff?
Hi Ben, I’ don’t know why but I’m going to ask. Our 100% tariff is a bit more expensive as Xena says, but it’s only £20 a year for a typical house, so I’m not sure that was the reason. But I’ll ask. Cheers.
Thanks for your replies. I look forward to hearing whether Xena’s theory turns out to be right.
Hi Ben, sorry for the delay, I’ve spoken to our people about this.
Our sales team does not have a policy (or any instruction) to try and sign people to any tariff other than the one they ask for – that’s been confirmed to me. And so I can’t really offer a certain explanation to you.
It might have been that the person you spoke to just wanted to save you the extra cost of our New Energy Plus (the 100% tariff), although since it’s only an extra £20 a year it’s perhaps not such a big deal – you’d think.
Other than that I can only think it might have been part misunderstanding.
I have double checked though and we freely sign people up to either of our two tariffs.
Sorry not to have a definitive answer for you.
Cheers.
Dale
When do you expect to build your first Anaerobic Digestion Plant?
Derek
Hi Derek, we think the first plant may be built in the UK in 2010, there are a few consented already. Other obstacles like economics are probably the main ones right now. We’re looking now for projects and partners so that we can make something happen ASAP. Cheers.
Would getting the permission to build these plants come under the same daft process that the wind turbines suffer? or do they ‘qualify’ for a similar process as Nuclear power plants etc?
Hi TR, same daft process as windmills for sure but likely to be treated very differently by planning committees, that’s my guess anyway based on conversations I’ve been having already.
Cheers.
dam u stole my idea but o well im only 16 but im sorry to say my disigns are way better
dam u stole my idea o well im only 16 sorry to say but my disigns are way better
dam u stole my idea but o well im only 16 sorry to say but my disigns are way better
OK OK we hear you……:)
Hi Dale
As a consultation junkie I just noticed this on the http://www.communities.gov.uk website, it seems to speak to your proposal on wind powered vehicles with green charging points on motorways. Are you responding formally?
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/planningandbuilding/microgenelectriccars
Thanks for the heads up Tim, I’ll get someone to take a look see how it sits with our own plans.
Cheers.
I’m seemingly unable to post on the guardian site even after registering and signing in etc, so I’ve given up and decided to write my question here!
I noticed the relentless attack on the guardian website by Peter North, and he even included a threat to erm… take down one of your turbines.
Most people (including myself of course) are all for your proposals and ideas, but there are always going to be people who are opposed and shout about it.
So my question is, Dale, how do you deal with threats and opposition like this? Both as an individual and as a company?
I am of course wondering about methods of debating etc or techniques for dealing with people who obviously have very entrenched views or vested interests…
Hi Xena, Mr North makes himself pretty ridiculous in the things he says and the ways in which he tries to twist what others say – and what things mean. So ridiculous in fact that I think he has no credibility. He’s a bit like a US radio shock jock – or our own dear Christopher Booker (with whom I hear he may have family links).
So as far as Mr North is concerned he makes me smile.
And generally the way I try to deal with people like this is with cold facts a degree of tolerance and then I ignore them.
Cheers.
Hi,
Your idea is fantastic, and I wish that we could have it here in Spain. Here, as a matter of fact, some companies charge you more for buying green electricity, which as a matter of fact, verges on the ilegal.
BTW have you any plans to internationalise your firm?
And other question, I’ve seen that you are working on a green car, while at the same time other companies like Tesla or BYD are already making good progress in that line. Have you thought of partnering with them?
And another question, I see from your site that you supply Ford, who don’t produce any “green” automobile. Aren’t you afraid of helping them greenwash as usual?
Hi inigo – Thanks for your comments on our green gas plans, great to hear your support.
We’re looking into the possibility of taking our (Ecotricity) model overseas, France and Spain would be ideal first places for such a move. It’s early days but we are looking/thinking on this.
On the car front we haven’t thought of partnering with Tesla or BYD and doubt they would think of that either. I see no benefit to do so really, we have our own ideas and I think that a diversity of approaches is a good thing for the sector as a whole. We’ve been able to move very fast with the development of our car and it is looking certain to yield some ‘spin off’ developments.
With regards Ford, we built two large windmills at their Dagenham site many years ago and these power their diesel engine factory 100% – it was a big step for Ford at the time and has led them to plan further projects like this in other parts of the world.
In that respect it has helped them down a path that all consumers of electricity need to travel down. They’ve not really advertised this work though and I don’t think they could be fairly accused of greenwash, it’s a very real measure they’ve taken and it’s the first or many steps.
Cheers.
This is just a little test comment, as someone tweeted that you need JS to post on here (and to them that is unacceptable)… so I disabled JS using webmaster toolbar in FF, and am now posting a comment without JS…. 😉
ETA: posting a threaded comment does require Javascript however
Will Ecotricty actually be building and owning the anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities, buying gas from others or both?
As a local authority recycling officer I can tell you that food waste recycling is very much the next big thing. Unfortunately to save money a lot (and to simplify collection arrangements) many councils are now co-collecting food with green (garden) waste which makes it less suitable for AD.
Will Ecotricity partner with councils to provide the food waste feedstock?
Hi Mike the answer to your first question is ‘both’ – Ecotricity intends to develop and own AD plant (or green gasmills as we like to call them) and we intend to also buy green gas from others.
And we are def interested to partner with local authorities in this. It makes great sense given their responsibilities for waste collection, and desire/need to increase recycling/reduce CO2 and so on. In fact I think local authorities are probably ideal partners in this.
Not sure about the garden waste thing, I’ve been told the opposite (that it helps) – but it’s early days for our knowledge of these things.
Cheers.
My comment about co-collecting with garden waste is not necessarily that it makes the mixture less suitable for AD but that it makes it less likely to be AD treated and in vessel composted instead (which depending on process) is aerobic so doesn’t generate methane and is actually a net energy user.
I would have though that whether garden waste improves or reduces AD depends on the the type of garden waste. Lawn mowings which are nitrogen rich and high moisture would be good but twiggy material or autumn leaf fall is high carbon low moisture so not so great.
AD is however currently very much in favour with the government so there is definitely support for this out there. The worst problem is overcoming the anti recycling sentiment of our right wing press – the Daily Mail called food waste recycling containers “slop buckets”!
Good old Daily Mail!
Recycling is still not promoted enough. For instance, on my street there is not a single recycling box to be seen! Or even in my area.
People are however still expected to recycle… keep everything in separate boxes/carrier bags and take it to the local recycling centre. I am happy to do this of course, but it comes down to space in my flat. Most of the people in my area live in a flat of a similar size to mine (barely 20m squared) so no-one wants to have smelly bags full of dirty tin cans etc in their kitchen/living room
Anyway, I’m going a bit off the point here but this is something that really gets my goat
I’ve often wondered whether garden waste should be “mass-composted” and spead over fields? Always we’re hearing about places where the soil is no longer useful for growing crops, especially in warm climates where tribes are consistently having to move on after each season to find suitable earth to grow food. Would this be an option? Would help the earth and the people trying to live from it.
Damn me and my tangents… sorry!
Think yourself lucky Xena… I don’t even have a wheelie-bin, let alone recycling options. 🙂
Rubbish bags have to be placed outside to face the weather & wildlife until they’re relocated for collection.
It’s strange, because back when I lived in Manchester I had a standard bin and separate bins for glass, paper and “decomposables”. All were managed to be sorted and collected regularly.
I’m not a huge admirer of the amount of plastic that’s used nowadays but surely some (recycled?) plastic can be formed to make bins (that usually last decades)… and getting people to traipse to the nearest, rat infested Tesco’s bins seems slightly counter-productive.
And burning petrol on the way as well!
Councils really don’t do enough… it’s not like we’re even asking for council tax discounts or massive benefits elsewhere… we just want a darn recycling box and some scruffy blokes in a big truck to come and empty it once a week!