The Near Future

Since this is the beginning of a new decade, and a decade which I think will set the basis for the near future (for either good or bad), I thought it might be interesting to see what the energy footprint of the communities of the near future will look like.

Biomass electric generators. These of course exist but I think in the near future we will see many popping up in urban areas to provide power for local communities. These run on any waste bio material, woodchips, straw, sawdust, peat and natural gas, the latest models use a sophisticated heat extraction and recovery system using insulated pipes to heat local building such as hospitals. The World's largest biomass power plant will soon open in Port Talbot and will provide enough power for half of Wales.

Part of the gas supplies needed for biomass generators will be supplied by your local sewage works, after treatment the “sludge” can be used to produce bio-methane as well as valuable fertilizers.

In time I believe all new builds and major renovation will have to incorporate solar panels both for heating water and using photovoltaic cell to produce electricity for localised use. The British government have recently put £60 million into setting up the basis for a series of new “eco towns”.

In coastal areas we will see the the building of wave powered generators to supplement electrical generators. These “Pelamis Wave Energy Converter “ are hinged floating snakes 180 metres long in 3 sections using hydraulic rams which produce 750kw and can power around 250 homes. Although a British invention the first installation was in N, Portugal , a new installation in the Orkney's will 3mw.

In tidal areas the sea every 6 hours ebbs and flows. "Tidal stream generators" will extract energy from moving water like under water windmills. It's estimated that in the UK these could produce up to 16% of the nation's power needs.

Of course living in France you can't have missed the arguments for and against éolienne or windmills, what isn't in debate (unlike where they are to be sited and who benefits from the power produced) is that they are one of the most mature of the alternative energy sources and will be with us for the foreseeable future. I would love to have a personal one on land but the initial cost is prohibitive, although I am investigating using the French Government interest free loan for green installations scheme.

In terms of transport the future is already with us, Poitiers and many other towns use LPG powered vehicles, La Rochelle (amongst others) provide free bicycles for visitors to tour the town and also electrically power cars for short local trips. With more people using hybrid cars and the evolution of hydrogen vehicles it won't be that long before our dependence on fossil fuels lessens considerably.

I have recently started to use a a free piece of software called “micromiser”, which when configured cuts your PC's use of electricity by up to 35% which according to the designers is around 30€ per year and around 330kw, just think if we all used it!

On show in San Francisco is the ultimate garment for those concerned about pollution – the EPA Dress – which wrinkles when it detects pollution giving it that just been pulled out of the laundry bin look – who said fashion is a crazy business?