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We hope you enjoy this edition of The Green Issue
The Car Industry under Threat
In another week in which the news has been dominated by economic downturn, job losses and high levels of unemployment, one government scheme that has been created to help save jobs has also been heralded as the beginning of the "reinvention" of the greener motoring industry by Peter Mandelson.
In all of the industries within the UK car manufacturers have been hit particularly hard by the recession we are now all facing. The reason for this is simple: cars are, ultimately, a luxury item. If consumers have a car that works reasonably well and the economic climate is not buoyant, with risks of even more job losses, many people would not choose to spend any extra money they have on a brand new car. People are instead choosing to save the money 'just in case'. Add to this the fact that credit is not as readily available as it once was and the demand for new cars tumbles.
The car industry is often seen as a barometer for the world economy and, as such, is closely regarded by politicians and economists alike. It is startling, then, that during the end of last year and starting in to 2009 manufacturing factories are closing, production is being cut back and jobs are being lost; all of which is causing share prices in car companies to tumble. Add to this the vast amount of people employed by motoring companies and such a turn of events can be devastating.
The 'Credit Crunch' is mainly to blame for the tight squeeze being felt by car manufacturers at present; people often rely on cheap credit to buy cars and, as banks and loan companies are being considerably more stringent about criteria for such loans, cars simply become unobtainable luxuries to many. This decrease in demand means that the supply of cars needs to be reduced accordingly, thus leading to the job cuts and decrease in production we are currently witnessing.
With car manufacturing being such a vital part of the British economy, however, the Government are reluctant to sit back and watch thousands of jobs, and skilled workers, being lost during the recession. These skilled workers being made redundant and finding work elsewhere could, in fact, make it considerably harder for the automotive industry to recover. Therefore Peter Mandelson has announced a controversial rescue package to help the automotive industry through the recession.
The Governments plan for the flailing car industry is this: to guarantee the loans given to help rescue car firms and to make it easier for car buyers to secure credit in order to purchase new vehicles on finance. This tackles the problems faced by the motoring sector from two angles; helping the businesses to stay afloat by guaranteeing loans given to them in order to help
them avoid liquidation, as well as helping to boost profits by giving consumers more spending power in the car forecourts.
Some are calling this latest Government plan a 'bail out', where the Government claim it is simply a means of staving off an ever deepening recession. How successful this strategy will be only time will tell.
Under The Sea
Tidal power is the only form of energy that is reliant explicitly on the earth-moon system as the tidal forces produced by the moon and sun, combined with the rotation of the earth, produced tides and tidal streams to occur within our oceans due to gravitational forces. As tidal power uses the forces of the tides, which are driven by the infinite gravitational forces between the earth, moon and sun, it is therefore limitless and truly renewable.
Marine Current Turbines and Tidal Stream Generators are similar to wind turbines that capture the power of the wind, in that both systems are modular; that is that in order to be most effective both systems operate in groups as is seen in wind farms on shore. However, tidal turbines differ from those that capture energy from the wind as they are significantly smaller than those found on wind farms as water is much denser than air meaning that much less has to pass through the turbine in order to generate electricity.
The technology behind tidal stream generators is, thus far, relatively new and this therefore means that one system has not yet presented itself to be the best possible way to capture the kinetic energy from the marine currents. What has been established, however, is that tidal stream energy is considerably more predictable than other forms of renewable energy on both land and at sea. It is this predictability that is vital when supplying electricity to the grid as it allows more efficient and effective grid management which ultimately means that less power needs to be generated.
So, how can the energy from the tidal stream be captured?
Tidal stream generators work by capturing the maximum amount of energy possible from the fast-flowing tidal currents while at the same time allowing the natural flow of the water to continue.
There are three main types of device that are currently being developed in order to capture energy from tidal currents, although all are based on a similar principle. Generally the machines used to capture the tidal energy feature one of three types of rotor: a horizontal axis, a vertical axis or a reciprocating hydrofoil. These are then either fixed or weighted on to the seabed in order to maintain their position. As they are more often than not positioned in clusters some have referred to these modules as 'underwater wind farms'- which is rather accurate! Electricity is generated from these underwater rotors in the same way as from the giant rotor blades on wind turbines produce electricity; the turning of the blades generates kinetic energy in to mechanical energy which can then be converted in to electricity.
So far, the technology used for capturing the kinetic energy generated by tidal streams is undeveloped. There has, however, been a revolutionary underwater turbine situated at Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland by Bristol cased company Marine Current Turbines (MCT). This company has gained permission to build and operate the SeaGen turbine for five years. This structure is not noisy, will be mostly submerged under the water and will produce zero carbon emissions. Although partly funded for by the UK government this is mainly a private enterprise. Developing and harnessing this technology could, however, prove to not only provide us with up to 10% of the UK's electricity needs but could also attest to be a valuable export.
A longer standing use of the oceans in order to attempt to generate electrical energy is closer to shore; and lies in the waves. Despite humanity having been trying to capture the energy of the waves sine the 1890's event this method of renewable energy is still not widely developed. Wave power is a term used to describe the capturing of the energy generated by ocean surface waves and using this energy in a positive manner; such as for creating electricity.
Waves are generated by wind passing over the sea and the power, height and strength of waves are affected by many different factors including wind speed, duration of winds, the distance of open water that the wind has blown over and water depth. Again there is not one method of capturing this energy that has been proven to be the most effective and efficient; most systems used to capture and convert the kinetic energy caused by the movement of the waves involve buoys and using the rise and fall of the waves and movement of the water to turn a turbine to produce electrical energy in a similar way to that seen in wind turbines.
The use of barrages, or Tidal Range technology, is yet another method that can use the vast amounts of water in our oceans and rivers to generate electricity. There is a significant amount of controversy over this system and the environmental impact it has needs to be balanced against the electricity generation benefits.
Tidal Range Technology aims to create energy by trapping water at high tide behind a structure, such as a barrage or dam. As the tide goes out the barrage gates open and water is channelled through turbines situated within the barrage and this generates power. The main concern with tidal range technologies are the massive structures that would have to be built within our estuaries in order to capture the water at high tide and then pass it through the turbine. It is argued that this would massively affect the natural habitat of the seabed, disrupting aquatic life significantly. These systems also require a great deal of money to set up, and unlike money being spent of tidal range development this is a one-off investment and cannot be used to enhance the technology in other areas.
As has been outlined in this article the sea and oceans that cover much of the Earths' surface do, in fact, hold a great deal of untapped energy. This energy could be harnessed and converted in to electricity in a number of ways, only a few of which have been explored here.
Although the technology for capturing the energy created by the movement in the sea is, as yet, relatively immature, it is definitely an area of renewable energy that, with the correct research and funding, holds a great deal of potential for reducing our carbon emissions by providing an alternative source of energy, moving us away from our reliance on fossil fuels.
