Saturday 13 December 2014

A Natural Grid?

Here are the details of the "Natural Grid" which the TEP will debate in January. Note the rather scathing response from Waterwise right at the bottom of this post.

1. The Natural Grid - David Weight and Andrew Cripps, AECOM

Wednesday 14th January 2015 – 18:00-19:30 pm
G6 Lecture Theatre - UCL Institute of Archaeology
Managing UK water shortages with a gravity-driven supply by canal from the north to the south following a natural contour.
The ambition is to create a long-distance supply that could carry water from where it is abundant, to where there are shortages. By following the 301m contour that amazingly runs all the way from north to south, and by incorporating a slight fall in altitude along the course, water can be moved by gravity alone without pumping.

Although the conveyed water could serve water companies along the route the primary aim is to enhance food security by helping to satisfy an immense unmet water demand for agriculture it may also convey waste which cannot be usefully used in England, from recycling centres to the north-west of London, by canal around the north of London to one of the Thames Estuary ports for export.David Weight will discuss the multiple additional benefits from the scheme.
There are multiple additional benefits from the scheme:

  • The canal would also include some spurs to link to and top up the existing canal network and other waterways and rivers.
  • It would facilitate freight transport, which would include biomass from the North of England and Scotland, serving large inland power stations to the south.
  • Waste might also be carried directly toward the ports of Tilbury and London Gateway thus removing many lorry loads form Britain’s roads.
  • The canal would incorporate a compartment for high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) power lines, which could save billions of pounds compared with alternative plans for laying undersea cables. Additionally, the water cooling of these power lines by water from the canal would improve the transmission efficiency of the cable and enable more cables to be added as generation supply increases.
  • A large fibre optic cable under the towpaths would enable the placement of data centres in cooler northern locations while still maintaining fast linkage to the South East.
  • The AECOM project team think it would be possible to take the waste heat from power stations like Drax and Ratcliffe-on Soar to provide district heating for cities like Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham.
  • Additionally, the canal would be a great tourist attraction and would help to generate increased rental values from nearby properties. The various basins and arms around the canal would be good sites for eco-villages and eco-towns, and a portion of the resulting uplifts in land values could help fund the scheme.


The AECOM team have used advanced Graphical Information Systems (GIS) software along with in-house knowledge of existing and potential freight transportation to find some of the best and most economic routes, but have not decided on a particular route at this point.


Links
Independent - Canals plan revived as answer to Southeast's water shortage
Construction manager - AECOM floats 14 billion canal idea to ministers
The Natural Grid - Download PDF plan
Global Media Publishing - Water and Power Superhighway


About the Speaker
David Weight has a very long and varied career in construction, including land surveying, quantity surveying, as an architectural technician, and as a sustainability consultant. In the last 15 years, he has become increasingly interested in energy and sustainability, and is fairly active with Friends of the Earth. David co-wrote a book ‘Feasibility Studies in Construction’ in the 1980s, and has written many articles for ‘Building’ and other magazines, as well as academic papers. In 2012, he won the James Watt Gold medal for a paper concerning the embodied energy of timber products.
Though David has retired from full time work, he still works part-time for AECOM’s sustainable design group where he continues to work on embodied carbon assessments, and related issues such as recycled content, recyclability and waste reduction.


About the Thames Estuary Partnership Spring Seminar Series
The Get in touch with the Thames series is for both the general public, and for UCL staff and students.
Taking place in UCL the seminars are a good chance to learn more about the tidal Thames, its estuary, flood-plains, tributaries, communities, and commerce. Speakers will highlight the kinds of work and research that goes on here, whether in the cultural, economic, engineering, or environmental spheres of academic and professional interest.
Viewing the Thames as a system as much as a location the lectures are intended to stimulate conversation and the sharing of new approaches to understanding, managing or enjoying the river’s urban and rural hinterland and similar riparian and maritime landscapes in the south-east.
Each talk will last for around an hour including time for questions and will be followed by a chance to further discuss the issues raised over a glass of wine.


Source: Thames Estuary Partnership


###

Canals plan revived as answer to South-east’s water shortage

The 370-mile 'natural water grid' would cost about £14bn to construct but would provide a boost to jobs and local economies on its route

Engineers have revived a 70-year-old plan to move water from the rain-soaked North to the drought-prone South East, saying it is the only long-term solution to the chronic water shortages faced by Britain’s most densely populated region.
The plan, which was first mooted in the 1940s, would involve a network of canals built along the 310-foot contour of the land running from Kielder Water in Northumberland – the biggest man-made reservoir in the UK – to the Midlands and the South-East.
Civil engineers believe the water could be moved by gravity alone down a gentle natural gradient to avoid the need for expensive pumping operations, and could even be extended to take water from the reservoirs of North Wales and the southern uplands of Scotland.
“It looks good from a transportation perspective and would be relatively economic as it follows the 310-foot contour from the Scottish Borders to the South-East,” said David Weight, a senior consultant for the engineering company Aecom which has submitted a report on the scheme to the Government.
“Water shortages in the South-East are being driven by three factors – a rising population, climate change and the loss of river-abstraction licences by the water companies,” Mr Weight said. “The Government can encourage things like water-saving measures but over the coming 20 or 30 years these will begin to run out of steam and so it will have to think of new and more reliable water sources.”
A cubic metre of water (1,000 litres) weighs a tonne which means that gravity will have to be used to move it around economically.

Dr Weight said the network of canals and rivers could also be used for transporting other heavy goods and could be used to distribute electricity through a national network of water-cooled, high-voltage cables.
The Aecom study estimates that a canal with a cross section of 25 metres would need to flow at an average speed of 1kph. If the canal was 600km long it would store 68 million cubic metres of water, equivalent to a reservoir 7.5 metres deep, 3km wide and 3km long.
Dr Weight said the “natural water grid” would cost about £14bn to construct but it would provide a boost to jobs and many of the local economies on its route, as well as providing potential savings for other industries such as agriculture and transport. “While the plan may be economically and environmentally advantageous, it may be difficult to finance,” the Aecom plan concedes.
However, other civil engineers poured scorn on the idea, saying it was an outdated Victorian approach to a 21st century problem exacerbated by the wasteful use of water.
“It would be phenomenally expensive. Water is heavy and shifting it around the country would cost a fortune. It’s not all downhill from the North,” said Jacob Tompkins, managing director of Waterwise, a water consultancy. “A much better approach would to increase water efficiency. At the moment each person in Britain uses on average 150 litres of water per day while in other parts of Europe the daily average is nearer 100 litres.
“There are other problems to do with water chemistry,” he added. “Generally, water from the North is acidic and if you start mixing it with the more alkaline water of the south you get ecological problems.”

Source: The Independent

Wednesday 3 December 2014

Fossil Free Aachen

Fossil Free Aachen?

It's going to happen sooner or later. Check out:

http://gofossilfree.org/de/

And get involved!

Or email: bluecloud@gmx.org for details.