OK The Problem
We all know that the UK needs to reduce it’s carbon emissions and beyond that the whole world needs to. In the grand scheme of things the UK is but a drop in the ocean when it comes to population, energy production and therefore carbon. If we became a carbon neutral country it will be fabulous but if other countries with greater populations and flourishing economies do not see things the same then we are indeed screwed, no pressure!

Sooooo….83% of global CO2 emissions are from energy production. Of this energy 82 % is generated from fossil fuels. The top 10 emitting countries emit 2/3rds of the world CO2 emissions, these being:

China
US
Russia
India
Japan
Germany
Canada
UK
Korea
Iran

But this is all skewed because of population. The US has 5% of Worlds population but emitted 20% of CO2 in 2007, conversely India has 17% World population and emitted 5% of the CO2. (International Energy Council)

So yes, indeed we need to sort this out globally.The UK is supposedly cutting emission by 20% by 2010, (that’s next year!!) 34% by 2020 and 60% by 2050. The latter two targets are legally binding with the government of the day supposedly being taken to court if we don’t reach them, (yeah right!!). Anyway, I’m getting side tracked. We need to reduce emissions and the aim of this blog is to suggest some of the lesser known alternatives. Not for big scale production but I think people need to take more responsibility for the amount of energy they consume which should involve lots of smaller scale stuff, (microgenration)to reduce the demand on the grid. This is especially important with growing population and greater demand generally caused by the increase in popularity of the electric car, (I’m just guessing that will happen). And I just want to talk about some newer bigger scale stuff too.

Righty dokey…
First Geothermal, not a very ‘alternative’ alternative I know but in the UK I think it could be regarded as being a little out of the ordinary. I remember hearing about geothermal power in Cornwall when I was first at uni, (the first time around) . Basically the rocks under parts of Cornwall have a steep thermocline, (they get hot quickly just below the surface). Anyway, it looks like things have moved on a bit and Eden Projectwant to install some geothermal to power the domes and 4,000 homes. This will involve drilling two 4,000m, (yes that’s 4km) wells to get to the hot rocks. Not as naturally occurring as the old Iceland geothermal but well done all the same. This would be good as a community based scheme I imagine.

Wave power, not to be confused with tidal power. The action of waves is used to turn turbines in various guises. I wrote a paper on this freaking years ago so was very interested to see how things have progressed. Pelarmis is the major addition made by the Scottish company Pelarmis I mentioned in my previous blog. Pelarmis is a long hinged thing and as it moves up and down in the waves it’s hinges bend pumping hydraulic fluid into it’s turbines. Pelarmis now have a commercial wave power station in Portugal called Agucadoura Wave Park , 3 snakes make enough power (2.25 MW) for 1,500 homes. There are lots of smaller scale wave power jobbies such as the duck and the LIMPET which I wrote about in the aforementioned paper , I’ll comeback and finish this off in the next few days as i would love to see if things actually have progressed.

Ahh now small-scale hydropower which encompasses Pico, Micro and Mini. Pico refers to tiny tiny schemes generating less than 5kW which isn’t really enough to run a modern day house. Pico hydropower has quite a following, it is quite an effort to go to produce such a small amount of electricity but go for it guys. It is very important in some rural developing areas, (I should put a reference here but I actually do just know this shit) where instead of hydro turbines waterwheels are used, (yes she had to get to in somewhere). Now a UK charity makes a low cost efficient waterwheel called a Pedley Wheel. Now not meaning to blow my own trumpet but, Spencer (2006) did a study into the feasibility of using old watermill sites in the UK for the production of electricity. I focussed on very small scale stuff and developed a methodology for assessing whether a site would be feasible or not. I’m not going to link to it as I think Cranfield actually own the rights to it, (I won’t vent my anger here at that, actually I shall email Cranfield and ask if I can link to it). But let’s just say some of the larger sites really are feasible especially if newer more efficient water wheels are installed. It should be made easier for such installations to take place especially where in-river schemes are proposed.

Just for Spex.. the solar chimney, I believe this would only really be feasible in hot countries. Basically a big chimney is built in a hot area, air is sucked in and warmed up in a kind of greenhouse at the bottom of the chimney, it rises up the chimney dragging in more air at the bottom and turning the turbines. Another dude has proposed the Solar Nozzle, (tee hee I said nozzle) which sort of works the same but instead of a chimney a cylinder with a wide base and narrow top is proposed, this works the same but the air rises quicker due to the narrowing. Ok not at all feasible in soggy old Blighty and they supposedly aren’t particularly efficient anyway. But as small scale producers in very hot countries it may in fact work. The Botswanan government is thinking about giving permission for the first ever commercial solar chimney power plant

Currently Botswana only has 1 coal fired power station producing 132 MW of electricity, the rest of their energy is purchased from South Africa. The Botswanans have discovered that there one and only power station does not really operate very efficiently at high summer temperatures so have decided to take complete advantage of what their country has to offer, this being high temperatures and 70% of the country being taken up by the Kalahari desert. So they have plenty of room, high temperatures and little history in a particular type of energy production, they have therefore ploughed loads of dosh into research. It’s almost a fresh faced innocence that I think should be applauded. They have taken advantage of what their country has to offer and very much seized the day. I think we could learn a thing or two as we are an island with over 19,000 miles of coast when the bigger isles are included; and also an estuary with the second highest tidal range in the world you’d think we really would be able to harness tidal or wave power to some degree. I know the tidal barrage is controversial but really if there is no freaking salt marshes left because of rising sea levels what on Earth have we actually achieved by not letting the barrage go ahead. I wrote ages ago about a scheme called ECOSTAR that could possibly generate 25% of the UKs demand for electricity!!

But what about using these of ordinary chimneys and cooling towers…., as the air isn’t be constantly replaced at the bottom the chimney and therefore not a great deal of pressure will be generated I’m not sure this will be enough to turn a turbine with an electric motor attached although i will do some more research I promise.

I’ve done a tad more research and I can’t find any info on using normal chimneys I’m afraid Spex. It would seem if it could be used then it would have been by now. I did however find all that stuff on Botswana that I have just added to my dear little blog.

Once again that is enough but I will add more about wave power soon.

Hey hey!! Bimbo is back and full of beans. Not literally, if I was going to be literal I’d have said Bimbo is back and full of pita bread and banana smothie but that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. I did have some beans in my pita bread earlier but I’m certainly not full of them, and anyway…….

Right ok in a return to form I’m about to get really cross about something but it involves energy production instead of cancer, (now I bet that sentence has never been used before in the whole history of everything).
The go ahead has just been given for 10 new nuclear power stations, (see the little linky). The governments arguments (Department of Energy and Climate Change) are just all wrong, so yes we need to do something now I do agree with that. We need to reduce our carbon emissions big time. One way is to give this freaking country a shake-up. We need to reduce our energy consumption but no government is ever going to encourage that too much as it would involve making unpopular decisions, can you remember the furore created by getting rid of non energy efficient light bulbs?! If such a fuss can be caused by something that I had been whinging about for about a decade then imagine what the following will do to the small minded idiotic Daily Mail readers. New build homes should all now have to adhere to the code for sustainable homes not just certain councils, and the code needs to be stronger. Solar water heating should now be fitted as standard, solar panels for lighting where feasible, wind turbines in new housing estates, (and none of your NIMBY crap, you use electricity it has to be produced somehow so deal with it and personally I think wind turbines are beautiful). So in my humble dizzy opinion that should have been the first step in making us a more efficient country in the first place, but no the governments decides it’s first action will be to commission new nuclear power stations that take a freaking eon to build and make safe. The first should be producing electricity by 2018 and that’s if it’s fast tracked!! What also worries me is if we go further along this path there will be no way back. The cost of nuclear is huge and it is a very long-term commitment. I can’t see renewables featuring much if this addition to our nuclear family, (see what I did there!) happens.

Secondly instead of ploughing money into nuclear how about a bit of cash for the lesser known alternatives? What about Pelamis, (the sea snake hisssss) And my personal favourite which if perfected could actually be an end to coal/oil and nuclear power stations; harnessing the power of Osmosis. In this country with our huge amount of coast line it could just be immense. It would also mitigate the problems that the proposed Severn barrage would cause by blocking the estuary as no barrage would be needed, they can even be built underground to keep the NIMBYs happy, not that I am pandering to them. Also and I do appreciate that the effect of this will be minimal but how about installing small scale hydropower, (yes indeed I had to get hydrogeekery in somewhere) on sewage work outfalls. Even if it just powers the plant itself, that’ll reduce power consumption and should also bring water bills down. And while you’re at it submergible hydro generators should be more accepted, I can’t get into the details of this as it would clash with my job but .. actually no, I’m going to save this for another blog as it is my particular forte, bet you can’t wait!

Credit where credit is due however, Ed Miliband has suggested changes to the planning system to make it less tedious although this does incorporate planning for all types of power station.

Ooh that felt good. I apologise if it is lacking the usual Bimbo edge but give me time.

I nipped down to Romford at the weekend. Actually can it be called ‘nipping’ when it takes 3 and a half hours to get there? I have absolutely no idea. Sarah came to pick me up from the station, my goodness that was a shock. She is 8 months pregnant, the whole point of the visit being to see her before baby decides to make an appearance. Last time I saw her and Lisa was on my birthday but the less we say about that the better, let’s just say this was a much happier occasion. She is definitely defying gravity, I have no idea how those things stay in there, surely it can’t be completely down to pelvic floor muscles?

Lisa cooked us dinner and daddy Jazz put in an appearance also. I lounged about on the floor causing trouble whilst being told stories of the unusual bohemian pregnancy, apparently some hospitals just aren’t really happy with 4 parents putting in an appearance during scans etc whereas others don’t mind at all.

Lisa and I got quite merry and talked quite a bit of rubbish. Oh hang on… no that was just me. I do apologise. Actually no I don’t, I think it is just expected of me. We watched a bit of TV whilst I balanced on Sarah’s birthing ball, oh and Tim Minchin was on Jonathan Ross, I love a man in eye makeup. To stop being shallow he is a very talented antipodean and has such an expressionful, (did I make that word up?) face. I wanted to get tickets to see him but he is in Brum this weekend coming and I am otherwise engaged.

I have a vague recollection of going to be quite late but I really couldn’t tell you. Anyway, I slept really well and wandered downstairs about 8.30 to clatter about for a bit and talk to the cat. I watched a bit of Question time on Iplayer but got too cross and had to turn it off before I threw the lap top through the window, as it wasn;t my lap top or indeed my window I thought this may not be a wise plan. Now I could have written an entire blog about QT as would have been the norm back in the regular blogging days but I don’t want to give the BNP any of my time, I’ll just say I hope that is political suicide Mr Griffin. Oh and there is no such thing as an indigenous people in this country. We are all descended from Romans, Angles, ‘Celts’, Picts, Saxons, Vikings and Normans to name just some random invaders from the top of my head. So stop spouting half true’s and disguising them as ‘history’ to people too stupid to realise what you are trying to do you stupid, arrogant racist tosser. So much for not getting cross! I haven’t got that cross about stuff for ages though, it’s like the return of my life force. Sigh.

I was joined by the girlies who managed to calm me down with coffee and a bacon sarnie, (why do people always try and feed me up, oh yes I remember, thanks chicks). The paper arrived and I attempted the crossword. I freaking hate you Times crossword. I swear I’m getting more stupid and you and Jeremy Paxman have been put on this earth to prove it to me. Leave me alone!!!!!!
Sarah and I waddled into town and when we got back Benner and Mer had arrived, yay!! ( By the way Benner, could you send me some of the photographs so I can shove some in?) We waddled off to see Nori and Roger who had a baby boy about 6 weeks previously, oh my god babies everywhere!! Benner got hassled into holding little Kai whereas I managed to busy myself constructing an activity centre type thing for Kai whilst not making eye contact with anybody whilst they were holding the sprog. You see I’m more at home with screwdrivers than babies. We waddled back and more dinner was cooked and wine consumed. Papa Gay turned up and we talked about some really serious shit before I drew a map of Britain on the aforementioned Times, (that’ll teach you for irritating me newspaper, ha feel my geographical ability) to show Gaiton where various places in Britain are. He drew France underneath to show me where he was from, I have to say France was a little out of proportion but good effort. (Geek!) We posed for lots of silly photographs and I do believe I started licking Mer’s arms before telling Ben quite a lot that I was going to sleep with his girlfriend, in a Southern States accent. Yeah, sorry about that. I promise I won’t lick her arms if we go to Paris, (Bimbo really is returning to normal if she is licking and biting people as well as refering to herself in the third person)

Next day I actually did watch the rest of QT and read an article mentioned in it by some other hatemonger about Stephen Gately. My freaking god I hate the Daily Mail. Anyway, shhh before I go off on one again. We all lay on the big sofa bed in the living room reading the paper and watching Sarah’s tummy wriggling about. Then we finally managed to get up properly and headed off in our various directions homewards. Lovely, just lovely. Good luck Sarah, Lisa, Gaiton and Jazz. And thanks Ben and Mer.

One of the chicks I went to Cranfield with is currently on an epic journey around south America. I spotted she had uploaded a load of photos today from various places. I really need to get away. I ended up scanning loads of old photos of my travels from the days before digital cameras, (you remember those? no?)
So here are a few of the more stunning ones, some the quality isn’t that good. It certainly hasn’t helped my wanderlust in the slightest but then again I was very foolish to think it might.

Yeah so I deleted last nights post. Sue me!!

Oooohhh dear blog avoidance!!!!!
Best not write or I’ll break my new rule.
I did have a lovely time in Brighton the weekend just gone but I won’t discuss that just yet.
The dark is rising I fear.

That’s it. That’s it that’s it!!! Really that’s it. I’m fed up with it being so freaking gloomy, (my blog). I tried to just ignore it for a while but having the most recent blogs just hanging there being all gloomy and melancholy is just a constant fucking reminder. SO, no more. No more freaking gloom*. Something extra special nice happened this weekend just gone so here goes.

After a right old palaver I drove down to Ebby’s on my own on Thursday night. We stayed up late drinking far too much and talking about stuff which I won’t mention or I’ll be breaking my promise in the first sentence of my story.

She had to go to work the next day so I drove over to Lamer Tree Gardens on my own to the End of the Road festival. I wandered around in a bit of post hangover daze taking in the sights of the stunning setting. I had an Indian head massage which involved also a shoulder rub. The chick told me my stress heads could be caused by my ridiculously tight shoulder muscles, (NB for future reference don’t have an Indian head massage on the first day of a festival unless you want to walk around looking like an oil slick.) At about 3ish the tunes started and I headed over to the garden stage to see Mumfod and Sons before indulging my Scanda love with Loney Dear, a very energetic Swede who is so impossibly talented I can’t even find the words to describe it. His happy tunes bought a smile to my face as being alone I was able to sway and jig around as much as I wanted too. At one point he got us all singing except my side of the crowd decided they were too good to sing for the little fella, well apart from me and he returned his love by blowing kisses at me, well certainly in my mind that’s what he was doing.

I wandered around some more until finally meeting up with Ebby, (that is a long story). We went to get our stuff and bumped into James, (Ebby’s lovely chap) so we all headed off and pitched our tents in a nice quiet corner in an attempt to lessen my insomnia. We saw some more bands, (Dirty Projectors were not good) before I started to get stupidly excited. Explosions in the Sky, oh my god. We swigged vino from a plastic bottle, (have I ever mentioned how utterly classy I am) and I stood there with an inane grin on my stupid face. Just then a huge guy stood in front of me, it always happens. A voice behind me commented saying it always happens to him. I turned and smiled at quite a short dude with a nice smiley face and a bit of a beard then carried on swigging vino and being swayey and cheerful. Then a tap on the shoulder and he asked who these guys were coz they were really good. I said “explosions in the sky!!” a little too enthusiastically and may have got a bit of spit on him. Ebby slurred at him, “do you want some vino I just ate hoummus so it might have garlic backwash.” He smiled and took the vino. (I must just interrupt this blog to say how stunningly pretty the sunset is tonight, the sky has turned lilac to peach to pink and then mauve). We jabbered wholeheartedly for a bit before Ebby and James decided they wanted to see something else and wandered off leaving me with my new friend Pally. My first proper festival friend. He turned out to be a bit of an oddball so that may be why we got along so well. He stayed with me whilst I swayed about some more watching EitS and generally being quite bad company I should imagine. We had a bevvy afterwards at the Somerset Cider bus, (ahhhh the other place). Selling mulled cider at a September festival is a genius idea. We sat and chatted for ages and then got joined by some very drunk girls who amused me a lot.

Next day James had to work so Ebby and I wandered around the site looking at peacocks, (or peatwats as Ebby now calls them) and the outdoor library. We saw Darren Hayman who was rather good and then the Low Anthem. I didn’t know what to expect but the first song had me completely captivated. It was about someone dying of cancer, well that was my interpretation and I can’t freaking find it!! It’s so annoying. Anyway, it was stunning and I had a bit of a moment. At the end of the song Ebby just put her arms around me and told me the song had been written for me. Later in the set it was Ebbys turn to get emotional when a song brought back some nasty memories for her too. We staggered off drained and emotional at the end. We met up with Pally and squeezed our way into the Tipi tent to give me a spot more Scanda love and watch First Aid Kit, two Swedish teenage sisters, (bitches being that talented at such a young age). Boy it was hot in the tent. Ebby had to go and meet James and Pally left before he melted but I just couldn’t move. The song universal soldier made me cry once again. Pally was still with me at that point but I think I managed to hide it before he realised what complete nut job I am. A little aside, Kev begins his trek back on Saturday and will be home on the 20th. Really thank fuck for that.

I got out of the impromptu sauna and found Pally waiting outside. Now the rest of Saturday is a bit of a blur as I was having a few food issues. I only had half a cider to drink but I felt like I was wasted. I know a lot of time passed when I told Pally some of my many issues, (shh don’t break the rules) whilst sat drinking tea in a double decker bus, now how much more English do you want to be!? Anyway, I think we saw Okkervil River and we definitely saw Fleet Foxes who were amazing. Then we went for a bit of a wander to the library in the woods and accidently happened upon an impromptu comedy set. Yay!! There were all sorts of goings on. Apparently the ‘twat’ factor was higher at EotR this year, it must be because I was there!

I slept really well Saturday night, so well in fact that when Ebby checked that I had actually got back to my tent at 6.30am by speaking to me and unzipping my tent I didn’t hear her, now that is really odd for me. James went home to pick up his boys and Ebby and I went to see Bear Driver followed by The Tallest Man on Earth, (Scanda love!!). I took a few snaps of the little Swedish dude and got a tap on the shoulder from a guy asking me to send the pics to him. He gave me his email address and then told Ebby how stunning he thought the Tallest man was. He was amazing and properly blew me away. Afterwards Justin asked us for a drink with his mates Ben and Sebastian. Sebastian had just met them too and was young whiper snapper who flattered me greatly by telling me I looked 25. Ooohh great. Not that I have an age obsession but Pally had also thought I was younger than my days. Whoop whoop. We drank and chatted nonsense then Justin who until this point I had assumed was gay decided he was going to sniff me, then suddenly all of them were sniffing me apart from Ebby she just licked me instead. How we managed to suddenly be having an afternoon of borderline debauchery I don’t know. Pally arrived and left quite quickly afterwards to see William Elliot Whitmore, (I really don’t blame him). Justin soon lost interest however when he found out I was married. Pally arrived back and Ebby thought we best leave to watch Steve Earle who was really good but not my bag at all.

Ebby left to meet up with James and we followed soon after. We had some booze and Pally told me his story, I won’t repeat as this not my place to do so but his suffering has been brought on by other people not just the world. I find it hard to understand stuff like that. I think I may have cried again. Jesus what’s wrong with me?! Oh yes that’ll be the grief finally coming out. We went to see the Hold Steady and saw the famous song before getting bored. We met up with Ebby and James to say goodbye before going in search of more booze and chatted more about stuff.

Next day I said goodbye to End of the Road and the lovely Pally before packing up my stuff and driving back in a half zombified state. I slept most of the afternoon and really well last night too. I’ve laughed and cried but for the first time in a long time I have done more of the former. Thank you Ebby, (and James) and thank you Pally, I felt like I had known you a million years. You probably don’t realise but I have begun to see the light again. The beauty in things the return of the proper Bimbo. I won’t dwell, I had to go through it to heal. I’ll always be me always be dark but that has to do with what life throws at you. That’s what makes me me.

*Bimbo may retract this offer at anytime without prior warning especially if the red nectar has been consumed.

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I’m quite upset about Teddy Kennedy dying. Another one succumbs to the joys of brain cancer. Well at least he had a relatively good innings, especially compared to his brothers.
In my opinion he was president material. Unfortunately his reputation took a bit of a battering when he drove a car off a bridge and killed his female passenger. And supposedly he never wanted the job. But who can blame him after his brothers got assonated. Which reminds me, how famous have you got to be before you become assonated instead of just shot?
RIP Mr Kennedy, I hope your memory lives on.

So here I am on a Saturday having a really dull day as Bob has been at work all day and I really couldn’t be arsed to do owt. Well the day just got a lot more interesting.
I was trawling Itunes looking for random tunes, (I downloaded the theme tune to the Channel 5 cricket coverage, some Australian pop rock group which is going to ruin my recommendations for a while) when I noticed the nice Muse symbol at the top of the page. You can listen to 30 second snippets of all of the tracks off their forthcoming album “The Resistance”. I have already heard Uprising and United States of Eurasia but was very happy indeed, (small understatement) to hear the rest. There is a 3 part Symphony at the end which sounded particularly amazing. I REALLY CAN’T WAIT!!!! I want to hear the soaring melodies and apocalyptic rock that Bellamy et al seem to have perfected. Bring it on.

Ok so now I have more details about the post below and felt compelled to add some more.

I might have known that ignorant cow Sarah Palin would be behind this. So the NHS is evil is it? How do you justify that? Something that saves people’s lives, yes saves people’s lives based on how ill they are not how much money they happen to have!!!! And you know what Sarah, I’m not a communist and I think I would be correct in saying a very small percentage of the British population is. We just happen to have a welfare state the NHS being part of it. You’re just making stuff up to try to scare people into not agreeing with Obama, well listen to me undecided yanks, my family has had more than it’s fair share of illness and therefore I consider myself a coniseur of medical treatment. There is NO rationing! It is true that for non urgent matters you may have to wait but if you are desperately ill then I would not want to be anywhere else in the whole world than here. Bless you NHS.

Gordon Brown, I don’t particularly like you as PM but I totally agree with you for once,
“ The NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there.”