23-04-2018, 06:29 AM
The whole nature of generation and distribution will be shaken up in a big way over the next 20 years or so. As solar and wind become cheap, while large scale storage becomes a reality. As all that starts to become economic, then burning stuff to generate electrcity will start to look very expensive and outdated.
Let's face the fact that none of us really wants to burn stuff to keep the lights on. Except the producers of gas and other burnable stuff. What we want is lighting etc at low cost. When low cost also means not burning stuff it's win all round.
There's lots of embodied energy in concrete. Making cement is energy intensive and appraently there's another problem in the UK as they used to use a lot of blast furnace slag as a cheap ingredient. Now that's in short supply and that pushes up the price of cement. But more architects are using engineered timber solutions for buildings. Precision cut at the factory and slotted together on site. Quick, easy and lower embodied energy than concrete. Feasible for multistorey up to a point. Fire isn't a great problem as once it's charred on the outside large lumps of wood don't burn very well.
(i ought to add that some of this comes from my partner, Ruth, who's a journalist working in the fields of architecture, construction and landscape)
Let's face the fact that none of us really wants to burn stuff to keep the lights on. Except the producers of gas and other burnable stuff. What we want is lighting etc at low cost. When low cost also means not burning stuff it's win all round.
There's lots of embodied energy in concrete. Making cement is energy intensive and appraently there's another problem in the UK as they used to use a lot of blast furnace slag as a cheap ingredient. Now that's in short supply and that pushes up the price of cement. But more architects are using engineered timber solutions for buildings. Precision cut at the factory and slotted together on site. Quick, easy and lower embodied energy than concrete. Feasible for multistorey up to a point. Fire isn't a great problem as once it's charred on the outside large lumps of wood don't burn very well.
(i ought to add that some of this comes from my partner, Ruth, who's a journalist working in the fields of architecture, construction and landscape)
www.borinsky.co.uk Jeffrey Borinsky www.becg.tv
