Community Energy Literature Review

Plans to capture solar energy from “solar farms” in space and beam it to earth were reported by Pallab Ghosh in a recent BBC news report (Ghosh, 2022). The article anticipated approval of a three-year feasibility and economic study aimed at eventually sending gigawatts of power to earth from space to help address future energy shortages. A few days later Olivia Allen reported that ESA, the European Space Agency, had approved plans for further research into Space Based Solar Power, SBSP (Allen, 2022). The project, known as SOLARIS, “will carry out research with the aim of developing huge orbiting satellites fitted with solar panels that can collect the sun’s energy and wirelessly beam it down to Earth.” Allen traces the concept back to the 1970s, but regards the technology as only now close to what is needed to realise the idea. Orbiting solar panels would receive continuous sunlight and so provide continuous power to receivers on earth, transmitting energy over a distance of 36,000km...

The draft agenda for a forthcoming conference of the Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum suggests some areas of concern regarding the future of the UK’s climate change policy (WEF, 2022). The three main agenda sections are “The Net Zero Strategy”; “Reducing emissions across key sectors”; and “Priorities for policy and governance in delivery at the domestic and international level”. Within these broad headings are some topics which will be considered here. They are the new energy windfall tax; The Climate Change Committee’s 2022 Progress Report to Parliament; Outcomes from COP27; the Environment and Climate Change Committee report; and the High Court ruling on the Government’s net-zero strategy. The new energy windfall tax The Prospect trade union commented on the windfall tax on electricity generators announced in the UK government’s autumn statement, describing it as a severe deterrent to new renewable energy projects ( Prospect, 2022). Renewable electricity gen...

An article on the effects of war in Ukraine written early in the conflict opens with the statement that the “first and most serious tragedy of any armed conflict is its direct effects: every war brings with it a heavy burden of civilian and military casualties from warfare” (Dumčiūtė and Tecleme, 2022). The authors refer also to indirect victims such as refugees, the impoverished, and those who suffer malnutrition and loss of work and education, but they note as well that there are environmental consequences which may in time cause more deaths than the war itself. These effects and some other possible future developments are explored in the papers cited below. Khan (2022) discusses the war in Ukraine in the context of other post WWII conflicts, such as the bombing of Kosovo, the conflicts in Afghanistan, the Iraq-Iran War, the Gulf Wars, the Yemeni civil war and the war in Syria. She refers to the use of Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals by US forces in Vietnam and claims that t...

A press release dated 3 August 2022 shows a map of South Wales and South West England with an account of how this region is to become the UK’s first Hydrogen Ecosystem (GW4, 2022). The article comes from the GW4 Alliance, described as a collaboration between the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter. These universities are in partnership with Western Gateway, whose website describes the partnership as “the UK’s first pan-regional powerhouse to span two countries”, these being England and Wales (Western Gateway, 2022). An aspirational video stresses the resources and facilities of the area, the opportunities it offers, and its potential for economic growth and for research and development in areas such as nuclear fusion and a hydrogen economy.   A series of articles supports these ideas and gives details of related economic research and publications, outreach activities, the region’s potential to become a world-leading green energy cluster and   innovator in new tec...

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted much discussion of energy supply issues and the possibility of energy rationing.  Earl (2020) cited the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, on the risk of energy shortages and rationing in Europe in the coming winter and the need for governments to reduce consumer demand and secure alternative energy supplies. The IEA had earlier called for restrictions on driving and air travel.  An article on the economic aspects of the situation points to the increasing risk of recession (Bakkum, 2022). The author considers it likely that “Russia will cut off more gas supplies to Europe” and notes that “Germany and the Netherlands have already moved to an emergency gas plan” prioritising energy security over climate ambitions. An opinion piece from Euromoney argues that energy price caps are unlikely to solve the problem for Europe which will be “running on empty by March”: it advocates testing the systems and pra...

‘Carbon Ruins’ is an exhibition of the carbon era which invites the visitor into an imagined future where the transitions to post-fossil society  have already happened. The future date is 2053, three years after global net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide were reached, and recognizable objects in the exhibition bridge the gap between daily life and the abstract impacts of climate change. These objects may include a 2014 cookbook which speculated on the possibility of cultivated meat, a piece of black coal from 2020, a sample of plastic grass from 2024, a diary of the 2025 milk riots in Brussels, the last toys made from plastic (an iconic material of the fossil fuel age), a recycled steel water bottle from 2034, and a 2038 picture of the last fast-food hamburger. The exhibits vary with the form taken by ‘Carbon Ruins’: since its beginning in 2019 these have included a mobile exhibition, audio presentation, educational material for schools, and part of the Human Nature exhibit at the...

  Three of the papers cited below address aspects of climate change mitigation in relation to supply and demand.   A conference paper by Clora and Yu (2021) concentrates on decarbonizing the European economy, which will require interventions on both the supply-side and the demand-side in many sectors.   As examples of action on climate change, the authors list the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, changes to agricultural production systems, more energy-efficient buildings and production processes, and the movement towards low carbon diets and greener modes of transport. They point out that these actions change both demand and supply, and patterns of production and consumption between different sectors and countries. This can have the effect of altering trade flows and the carbon emissions which traded goods embody. The term carbon leakage is used to describe the way in which decreased carbon emissions in one country may lead to rising emissions elsewhere. Th...