By
Hazel Speed
Like everyone else, over recent years I have been interested in various alternative forms of energy as we learn about the latest options under discussion.
As with everything else in life, there are caveats.
For those who fit wind and solar energy gathering equipment within their homes, some can benefit, but not apparently, those who rent. One has to be the home owner/landlord and then it means any excess energy gathered and not required can be sold back to the Government/National Grid. Grants may be available if certain criteria is met.
Therefore those more in need, such as fuel poverty tenants, get no crumbs from this particular table. Left ‘Out in the cold’, or in this case, Left in, in the cold!
There are many in Britain who detest the wind turbines for their locations mostly, and they can trigger serious medical conditions if too close to those living near, and having to gaze upon them if they are within the field of vision, due to the effect regarding frequency of the blades turning round and ‘catching the eye’ all the time.
Solar panels within a domestic roof seem to provide mixed moments of energy generation.
Having stumbled across details a few years back regarding PowerBuoys, I was very much impressed.
These items may be in operation around our shores of the UK but if so then I have not heard of them being referred to.
Unless there are technical reasons why such PowerBuoys cannot be used off-shore UK, then I think they provide a good source of at least a part of alternative energy for these Islands of ours.
There are a few reasons why I like these PowerBuoys. They float off-shore. They can save lives as buoys. Various options of technology can be linked to the same and they operate in real time.
For those of an older generation, another alternaritive was memorably portrayed in the 1970s TV series “The Good Life” which was about a couple, Tom and Barbara, who kept animals in the back garden of their semi detached, in the suburbs of Surrey, much to the annoyance of their wealthy neighbours Margo and Jerry.
The effluence from Tom and Barbara’s pigs provided the power to drive a Heath Robinson machine in the basement of their home, which, in turn powered the lights !
Hazel Speed
Photo (c) Hazel Speed – used by kind permision to Tuck Magazine