Big GREEN Apple at Heart of the State of Empire

The news that the Empire State Building is to retrofit in an environmental way is great news and a great example. If the world's most iconic tall building can do this and produce 40% energy savings why can't the rest of the US and the World for that matter.

For the refit all 6,514 windows are to be stripped out, before being renovated with a insulating film and a mixture of inert gases. This will make them 4 times better at heat and coolness retention. At the high tech end the world largest wireless network will be set up allowing valves and vents to be controlled centrally. The four central chillers have been replaced with a smart air circulation systems installed.

The net effect of the 40% savings, which is what is being focused on for households on a smaller scale in the USA is 100,000 metric tonnes of carbon off their footprint over the next 15 years. The equivalent of taking 20,000 cars off the road. If this was replicated across just one fifth the large buildings in the USA it would amount to 2.3bn metric tonnes, or the amount of greenhouse gas pollution produced by the whole of Russia in a year.

Can it be done. Yes it can.

Scotland Capable of 700% Renewables

There is a report which shows that Scotland is capable in the next 40 years of providing 7 times the energy requirements it needs through renewable energy.

In the report from the Offshore Valuation Group that by harnessing 20,000 offshore wind, wave and tidal devices would acheive this. There would be an export of surplus energy to the rest of the UK or Europe and 50,000 jobs created.

Of course such benefits need investment as much as £4bn a year just in Scotland.

Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said:

"There has never been a clearer and more dramatic picture of the scale of the renewable resources around our seas and coasts.

"Not only does this offer a huge potential cut in carbon emissions, this is the biggest single economic opportunity for Scotland in coming years."

We can with the combination of renewables on offer be a fully renewable powered nation with reliable supply by 2050, as the Liberal Democrat manifesto promised. It is reckoned that 11,400 giant offshore wind turbines, about 4,000 wave machines and 5,000 tidal generation devices would deliver this potential.

Longannet Not Receiving CCS Development Funding....Yet

At the end of last week the EU were distributing £160m of funding to a number of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) facilities around Europe. One of the potential bidders for the funding was Longannet power station in Fife. This is one of the first coal power power stations to install the technology to reduce the amount of CO2 it uses while providing power.

One UK plant was amongst the successful bidders Hatfield in Yorkshire, which was one of the few pre-combustion projects in the running. But supporters of Longannet are not that disheartened as a pioneer in the field they are hopeful of future funding from a second trance of EU support coming next year to take the process further.

One such supported was Lib Dem MEP George Lyon whose Facebook update late last week read:

"Still waiting for CSS funding news for Scotland. So far Compostilla has won the Spanish bid and Vattenfall has the German CSS project."

I asked George what his view was now that the final news of the successful bids was out. He said:

"I launched my European election campaign at Longannet power station confident in the facilities available and the ambition to put Scotland at the forefront of carbon capture and storage technology. This decision has not changed my view and I remain confident that Longannet has a vital role to play in the development of CCS technology.

"Despite what the SNP claim, Scotland's oil wells are drying up. Through CCS technology we can look to the future and begin to fill them up again, this time with harmful gases. Developing nations like India and China are fuelling the growth of their economies with coal. I want Scotland to be in a position to take advantage of these emerging markets.

"Longannet's bid was a good one, and they have already taken steps towards introducing CCS technology. When the next round of funding comes round Longannet will be in a strong position and I will continue to work with Willie Rennie MP to see this pioneering technology in Fife."

Other supporters of the work going on at Longannet include Richard Dixon, director of WWF, whose organisation recently said it through the Scottish plant was the best option in the UK competition for funding. He said:

"It is disappointing Longannet has not been chosen this time around. We sincerely hope it will get some form of support to properly test this technology soon, whether it is from Europe or as a winner of the UK government's own CCS competition.

"The world urgently needs technology that will reduce our climate emissions and Scotland is well placed to take a global lead in this important field.

"The power sector is responsible for more than a third of Scotland's emissions, most of it from burning coal. CCS is a potentially important technology which could help reduce emissions around the world."

Here's to the future and further research in this way of cutting emissions at Longannet and other locations, especially in China who are building so many coal fired power stations we need them to utilize CCS on a large scale.

Fisking the Car Scrappage Extension

Cars and vans like all consumer products have built in obsolescence, in other words there is a time frame at which they are expected to run down. I don't know about many of the rest of you but I have successfully driven, looked after and nurtured cars that are over 10 years old.

The fact that Peter Mandelson announced government plans to extend the car scrappage scheme to an additional 100,000 cars and vans, may be good news to the car manufacturers, but not to environmentalists or young, poor, first-time motorists. The thing is seen as a greening up of the economy, but cars at 10 years old are only slightly more polluting than new vehicles, and the carbon cost of scrapping them offsets any advantage of taking them off the road.

The shortage of second hand cars as a result of the initial scheme has pushed second hand car prices up due to the scarcity of the remaining cars of a certain age. Its simple supply/demand economics. What the car scrappage scheme is doing is in essence pricing the lowest paid out of car ownership. They cannot afford to pay the price of a new car even with the scrappage payment and cannot afford the inflated price for the second hand market.

As for the environment by placing an arbitrary lifespan on vehicles of 10 years (and the motor industry actually wanted this lowered) the government is going contrary to the British culture of make do and mend. Young men who used to buy older cars to do them up, keep them running are no longer able to do so. Are finding newer cars which need less maintenance are all that is available.

So the only net gainers are the manufacturers and retailers of cars. The Government is paying out with our money, yet we and the environment are suffering. Of course Lord Mandelvort of Hartlepool and Foy's reputation is enhanced as a result, do his dark arts know no bounds.

Buildings Fail to Green Up to Expectations

Many of the Scottish Government buildings have failed to come up to the expected standards for their Energy Performance Certificates it has been revealed. Many including the Scottish Parliament had also failed to meet the deadline of yesterday to display their certificate.



St Andrew's House and Victoria Quay in Edinburgh were found to be massively energy inefficient and creating a far larger carbon footprint than they should. On the scale of A for best and G for worst the Scottish Government set out to get its buildings audited by the start of this year but many have fallen short of their expectations. While the scale goes from bad to worse it must also be noted that different building types based on possible achievable energy saving and restrictions of building face different levels of which they are deemed to be good.


Victoria Quay which has only been open for 12 years and the older St. Andrews House both achieved an E+ rating well below the C rating that would have been considered good. The Scottish Parliament Building itself at Holyrood was only displaying its draft certificate of a B yesterday, to be considered good the modern building required a B+.

However, some public buildings did meet the deadlines for displaying their certificates they include Edinburgh city council's chambers, which scored an E+, and Glasgow city council's chambers, which achieved an E. The National Museum of Rural Life near East Kilbride scored an E, while the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh was given an F+.