Brexit fallout – video interview
Energy, Food, TransportHere’s an interview I did with ITV a couple of weeks ago, discussing the EU referendum result.
I still believe that a 4% margin for leave over remain is too small for such a dramatic change in our country’s relationship with the EU – especially because the pledges made by Johnson, Farage and Gove about the NHS and immigration have turned out to be lies.
We’re going to end up with a worse deal by leaving rather than remaining in the EU, so I hope that once the Brexit plan has been finalised, a second referendum will be called and people can decide if that’s really what they want for our country.
Guest Post: 120 days with a BMW i3
Transport
One of our customers and member of Climate Friendly Bradford on Avon shared his experience of driving an Electric Vehicle with us and we thought you might like to read it.
Things have moved on greatly since this blog started posting about EVs, not least Ecotricity’s national network of Electricity ‘Pumps’ – the Electric Highway – it’s great to read some real-world experiences of production cars.
Anyway, over to Adrian…
On Sunday I was listening to the relaxing hum of electricity filling my electric vehicle (EV) while thinking how much my motoring life had changed in the last 12 months. This time last year, I was standing at a petrol station in Canada filling my V8 Mustang with 60 litres of dirty fossil fuel. Now I am “filling” my car with green electricity at an Ecotricity fast charger. (more…)
Our 2030 Vision
Energy, Food, TransportIf you missed it the first time, you can watch Dale discuss Ecotricity’s 2030 Vision for a Green Britain with the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee.
You can view the 2030 Vision document along with the accompanying Cambridge Econometrics report over on the Ecotricity website.
Guest Post: Dave and the Nemesis
Transport, Wind Car
Here’s a guest post for you from Ecotricity staffer Dave. He was recently asked to put the Nemesis to the test as a commuter vehicle! Here’s his thoughts:
A few weeks ago I was asked if I would mind driving the Nemisis for a few weeks. We apparently needed to get a few miles on it and test it in ‘normal’ daily use – whatever that means?
I work in the Ecotricity offices in Stroud and live in Worcestershire, a daily commute of about 51 miles in each direction, assuming that I take no detours on the way home. My normal mode of transport is either a diesel VW or a motorcycle that each do around 50mpg for the journey (over £12 per day in fuel).
Well, the chance to drive a car like the Nemisis was too good an opportunity to miss so of course I welcomed it with open arms, I mean the chance to drive a super car that would do 0-100mph in 8 seconds doesn’t present itself every day! (more…)
Fuel Crisis, What Fuel Crisis?
Transport
I’ve been without a car for the last two years or so – I don’t count the Nemesis since I rarely seem to drive it lately, it’s always out at a show or away being tweaked – my daily transport has been my Motorbike. Until about three weeks ago, when I got myself a Nissan Leaf.
Nissan had lent me one for a while and I was impressed, so impressed I wanted to get one. Partly to use myself, for trips my motorbike isn’t so suited to, partly also to get a better idea of how life with a mainstream all-electric car can be, and I wanted to see how realistic it might be to replace ecotricity pool cars with electric cars, anytime soon.
Several weeks later and I have to say I love it. It’s a really cool car to drive, and I simply love driving without burning anything.
My son Rui (4 now) loves it too. He plugs it in for me, works the Sat Nav and all that stuff – you know like four year olds do these days… 🙂
In stark contrast, Kate, my other half – hates it (or she did). I was just saying one day what a great car it was and she just went all Clarkson on me – “as long as you don’t want to go anywhere” she said in a rather strident and mocking tone, strikingly reminiscent of the old fossil himself. Ouch.
Then along comes the ‘Fuel Crisis’…. and next thing I know, Kate is boasting on Facebook, about not needing to get in garage queues, oh yes – she went from Clarkson to Swampy in a heartbeat. That made me smile… 😀 (more…)
2012 – the Year of the Electric Car..?
Transport
One Saturday, mid-November 1896, a small group of pioneering motorists set off in some of the first horseless carriages – their plan was to drive from the Metropole Hotel London to the Metropole Hotel Brighton. We know this now as the London to Brighton run.
Their aim was to demonstrate and promote the recently invented motor car. In addition, they celebrated the new Road Act, which that year raised the speed limit from 4mph to 14mph and removed the need for a man to walk in front of each motor vehicle waving a red flag. Quite a breakthrough for drivers of the day.
The cars taking part that day included those powered by electricity, steam and the internal combustion engine (petrol): back then it was a three horse race, technology wise. The internal combustion engine eventually won out of course. Fast forward to today and we take for granted the quite incredible travelling capability of modern cars. We Britons collectively drive 250 billion miles a year in our 30 million cars – all but 2,000 of which have internal combustion engines. (more…)
Today we launched our Electric Highway
Transport
It’s actually the world’s first national charging network for electric cars. That may sound a bit grand, for something quite wonderfully simple – a series of charging posts installed at motorway services up and down the country. Charging stations, for electric cars, that are easy to access and free to use (yes free). Enabling Britain’s electric car drivers to drive the length and breadth of the country – with all the convenience of simply pulling into a motorway service station to top up. We’re pretty chuffed with it, truth be told.
You may have read about already it in the Sunday Times this weekend. You shouldn’t have, but they broke the embargo on our story three days early for some reason – perhaps they’re a bit keen for stories that don’t involve phone hacking. Bless…. 🙂
Anyway – Why are we building this Electric Highway? There are after all only some 2,000 electric cars on the road today. In fact that’s a big part of the reason – a lack of demand.
It’s often said that one of the reasons more people don’t buy electric cars is because of a lack of charging facilities – while the reason more charging facilities aren’t built is said to be because not enough people are buying electric cars – classic chicken and egg stuff. We’re hoping to break that impasse.
And at the same time another barrier to the faster take up of Electric Cars – is something called ‘range anxiety’ – the fear of running out of juice when doing any kind of serious distance. (more…)
The Nemesis has landed
Transport, Wind Car
Finally. About two years after we started – the Nemesis is ‘finished’.
I’ve been meaning to post something before now, but the last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. Here’s a quick heads up, some stuff you might know already from the news, some you probably won’t.
The car arrived in Stroud nearly three weeks ago now (Tuesday the 28th Oct) looking simply awesome. It was the first time I’d seen it in it’s finished form, complete with grey and black union jack paint job and all sorts of other bits and pieces – it really is transformed from the car that was here in the summer of 09 – for a few months.
Wind Car Update – 13 of 6
Transport, Wind Car
Video production: TWA Productions
A day at Bruntingthorpe
Two weeks ago now we took the Nemesis to Bruntingthorpe, for it’s first real track day.
We had two purposes, to test safety followed by speed.
Another kind of Wind powered car
TransportHopefully you will remember the Greenbird? A project we were involved in with British engineer & adventurer Richard Jenkins, which successfully smashed the world land speed record for wind powered vehicles… Richard just sent me an email about another wind powered vehicle project that is quite a mind boggler. Here’s Richard’s thoughts on it – we’d be interested to hear yours…
So, one night, I was happily drinking my beer and tending to my inbox of endless boring emails that had be answered but were of no real consequence, when Lester, my landsailing buddy texted me a link to fasterthanthewind.org. Lester knows a lot, and if he says this needs my attention, then it gets it. I am not sure if it was how many beers I had had, or simply the inane nature of the quest, but I laughed enough to email all my friends to share the absurdity of their mission. My heart is split between belittling idiots, and saluting eccentrics, and this downwind quest lay somewhere in the middle. These loonies were pursuing a pointless goal, doomed to failure, but there was some genuine merit in the myth and their enthusiasm.
I dismissed it as utterly impossible. Travelling through zero apparent wind, with no stored power? Impossible. Why would you even attempt it? (Though I’m no stranger to that question myself!) But had I been asked to bet at that moment, I would have just lost a lot of money.
A few months later I actually met the idiots in question and, to my surprise and concern we not only have a few mutual friends, but they seemed to be rather technically credible. But, everyone makes mistakes, and I let them off as decent people with a blinkered view of fundamentally flawed engineering….
A few months later they were claiming success and if it was not for another great friend, Bob Dill, advising that they were actually correct, I would have discarded their claim as an April fool. I thought about the possibility that I was wrong, and then considered that as Bob was getting on a bit and had a bit of a shake with his stopwatch finger, maybe it was he who was mistaken. There was, however, a growing momentum of technical people (who should have known better), saying that these idiots have actually proven that it is possible to travel faster than the wind going directly down wind.
Not content, I had to witness this myself. When I heard it was on for the official record at El Mirage, I jumped on a plane and went to check it out.
The video speaks for itself. These guys are not idiots, but sincere, genuine, technical people who took a myth and made it real. It works. It starts from rest, trundles to true wind speed, then powers to a multiple of about 3 times the true wind speed. Bob will confirm the final number I am sure.
To all fellow skeptics, start baking that humble pie, or eat your hat. Your choice
Here’s a video Richard shot on the day he visited.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CcgmpBGSCI
Check out the Faster Than the Wind site for more info.
ETA: Just in case you are wondering at the strange tone in Richard’s post (and references to ‘idiots’ and such) – this story has a lot of history, so Richard is referencing the often heated debates about whether this DDWFTTW idea is actually possible or not. As Wired magazines puts it “The concept known as DWFTTW can cause world-renowned physicists to throw their Nobel Prizes in fits of rage.”
You can check out some of those lengthy & heated discussions in the links below:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/propulsion/ddwfttw-directly-downwind-faster-than-wind-25527.html
http://forum.mythbustersfanclub.com/index.php/topic,12948.0.html
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=128483
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