Honda Joins Delaware Vehicle to Grid Project

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Earlier this year we reported that the University of Delaware were running a pilot project in which a fleet of BMW Minis were actually earning money by providing a useful service to PJM Interconnection‘s electricity grid over the pond in North America.

Now comes news that Honda are taking part in the self same project. According to their press release:

Honda has joined a demonstration project for experimental vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology aimed at providing a potentially valuable energy storage resource to the nation’s electrical grid while providing for more cost-effective ownership of plug-in electric vehicles.

The Honda technology builds off of the research conducted by the University of Delaware and now supported by NRG Energy, Inc.  NRG and the University of Delaware, through their eV2g joint venture, came online early in 2013 with the world’s first revenue-generating vehicle-to-grid project, demonstrating the controls, regulatory requirements, and market participation rules for selling energy storage from vehicles into the PJM Interconnection Regulation Market. Honda is supplying an Accord Plug-In Hybrid with added V2G capabilities to the University’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus to jointly investigate the potential of this technology to benefit the electrical grid, vehicle owners and society.

There were of course also a number of quotes from senior managers of the companies involved. Steven Center, vice president of the Environmental Business Development Office of American Honda Motor Co., Inc said that:

This technology has the potential to support both a cleaner and more efficient power grid and a more positive ownership experience for EV customers. With V2G technology, a network of PEVs becomes essentially a distributed energy storage system. It makes for an even stronger value equation for plug-in vehicles, with benefits for both the community and the vehicle user.

Willett Kempton, professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment and Research Director of the University of Delaware’s Center for Carbon-Free Power Integration said that:

The participation of global automakers like Honda will help demonstrate and refine the technology. The University of Delaware has been developing the technology so that vehicle batteries can be used not only for mobility but also for grid services.  It is a big step toward a future with widespread availability of the technology to have Honda join our demonstration with their V2G-capable car.

Finally Denise Wilson, NRG Executive Vice President and President, New Businesses said that:

As the U.S. adds more intermittent resources to the grid, finding a lower cost energy storage technology that also benefits electric vehicle drivers is a great opportunity. We see this demonstration by Honda as an important step in the development of vehicle to grid technology.

Much the same sort of sentiments apply here in the UK as we too “add more intermittent resources to the grid”. However I could not help but notice that once again nobody mentioned international standards!

Electric Land Rover Defender Starts Work at the Eden Project

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Land Rover have recently announced that:

The first Electric Defender started worked work at the Eden Project near St Austell in Cornwall this summer in an inaugural real world trial of its capabilities. Unveiled at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, the Land Rover Electric Defender is a pioneering research project into the electrification of an all-terrain vehicle.

The project forms part of Land Rover’s overall sustainability objectives which have included the move to aluminium platforms in the latest all-new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport as well as the forthcoming Range Rover hybrid products. The innovative 4×4 is a rolling laboratory to develop new ideas, and investigate electrification in a real-world environment. A fleet of six vehicles will be placed with organisations where their performance can be assessed.

Here’s what both the Electric Defender and The Eden Project look like:

An Electric Land Rover Defender poses for a picture at the Eden Project

An Electric Land Rover Defender poses for a picture at the Eden Project

The press release also reported the opinions of senior managers involved in the project. Jeremy Greenwood, Principal Engineer on the Electric Defender project, said that:

The car has been modified so it now includes a second battery. That will allow it to work a full day at the Eden Project, but also improves weight distribution and stability. In addition, we’ve linked the land-train’s air brakes to the foot pedal of the Land Rover, enhancing safety.

Gus Grand, Climate Change Lead for the Eden Project, said:

We’re very pleased to be working with Land Rover on this exciting project. It will be a great talking point for our visitors and proves that electric vehicles can be every bit as tough and rugged as their fossil fuel counterparts, while being much quieter, cheaper to run and with zero emissions at the point of use.

Here’s a video of an Electric Defender in action, driven by Robert Llewellyn of “Fully Charged” fame. Feel free to ignore the Ecotricity advert at the end if you so wish:

I wonder if Jaguar Land Rover have any plans for retro-fitting V2H and/or V2G technology to an Electric Defender in their R&D pipeline?

Fort Carson Microgrid Adds Bidirectional Chargers

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Burns & McDonnell say they are “a full-service engineering, architecture, construction, environmental and consulting solutions firm” and they have announced that:

A team of Burns & McDonnell engineers, along with subcontractor Coritech Services, has developed a system of bidirectional, fast-charging stations for a fleet of plug-in electric vehicles at Fort Carson, Colorado. This first-of-its-kind system will push power back to the base microgrid when needed to meet installation demand or improve overall power quality.

On Aug. 29, the team successfully commissioned five bidirectional chargers and the aggregating control system as part of the Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security (SPIDERS) microgrid project at Fort Carson. Commissioning was performed using both Boulder Electric Vehicle and Smith Electric trucks, which are being provided for use on SPIDERS under separate agreements with the U.S. Army’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) and Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC).

Commissioning of the vehicle charging stations represents an important milestone of the Fort Carson SPIDERS project, which is nearing completion. The project is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Omaha District, and includes technical guidance from CERL and TARDEC.

The bidirectional charging units are capable of providing up to 300 kilowatts (kW) of power to plug-in electric vehicles and also can discharge a like amount of stored energy from the vehicle batteries to the grid or microgrid via Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) standard J1772-compliant bidirectional charging cables. The vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging includes power factor correction, which is a growing concern at locations such as Fort Carson that are experiencing a growth in on-site solar power generation, resulting in utility rate penalties.

Here’s what a Smith Electric Vehicle looks like, both inside and out:

Europe’s PowerUp Project Releases V2G Conformance Testing Suite

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Almost exactly a year since they first released their V2G interface specification the EU funded PowerUp project has now released a V2G interface conformance testing suite. According to the announcement on their web site:

The PowerUp project has published the TTCN-3 based implementation of the conformance test cases which it has developed for testing ISO/IEC 15118-2 protocol implementations, i.e. the V2G application protocol.

With this publication, a V2G standards compliance testing suite has been made available for the first time. The PowerUp team believes that this testing suite will prove to be valuable for the validation and maturing of V2G system implementations which incorporate the ISO/IEC 15118 standards.

Further extensions of this TTCN-3 suite, along with its incorporation into the ISO/IEC 15118-4 V2G testing standard are possible.

The conformance testing suite and associated documentation can be downloaded from the PowerUp web site.

In Delaware at Least, Electric Vehicles Earn Money From the Grid

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Vehicle to grid technology is making money at last, and it’s mainstream news too. In a press release earlier today NRG Energy said that:

Joined by government and industry leaders, the University of Delaware and NRG Energy are celebrating an important milestone for its eV2g project today: becoming an official resource of PJM Interconnection and proving for the first time that electric vehicle-to-grid technology can sell electricity from electric vehicles (EVs) to the power grid.

Cameras were on hand to record those celebrations, and here is the resulting video:

According to NRG’s press release, Delaware Governor Jack Markell said that:

Moving innovative ideas out of the classroom and into the marketplace is critical to growing our economy. The partnership between NRG and University of Delaware perfectly illustrates the potential for research institutions to spur economic development

whilst NRG Executive Vice President Denise Wilson said that:

This demonstrates that EVs can provide both mobility and stationary power while helping making the grid more resilient and ultimately generating revenue for electric vehicle owners.

and University of Delaware President Patrick Harker said that:

I thank all of the industry and policy leaders who have come together around a project that incorporates clean transportation, stable energy and profitable sustainability. And I thank Prof. Willett Kempton and his fellow scientists for leading the way. It might be a few more years before a grid-integrated vehicle sits in every American driveway, but I’m excited to continue the journey.

Personally I suspect it might be a few more years before a grid-integrated vehicle sits in any American driveway, let alone in any British driveway. One of the reasons I say that is covered next in the press release. NRG briefly mention the raison d’être of V2G:

For grid operators, the technology serves as an innovative new approach to energy storage. It has the potential to balance the power provided by intermittent renewable resources such as wind and solar. Energy storage, such as large-scale batteries or those in a fleet of vehicles, can take the wind’s power generated at night and store it to use when demand is higher.

Whilst that potential may well exist, here’s the rub when it comes to reality. Michael J. Kormos, who is senior vice president of operations at PJM pointed out that:

PJM changed rules for participation in the regulation service market to decrease the minimum amount of power needed to participate and we implemented new rules that recognize and compensate faster, more accurately responding resources, such as batteries. We knew that by doing so would attract innovation and would find potential for energy storage or other technologies. We’re glad to be a part of this project and hope that this inspires continued innovation among our partners and others in the industry.

How many other “grid operators” like PJM, whether in the United States or over here in Europe, are going to be willing to change their rules and lower their thresholds for entry into wholesale electricity markets to include an EV sat in a driveway overnight, or even a fleet of 15 Mini EVs as in this project? If the answer turns out to be “none”, then who’s going to do the necessary aggregation and sit in the middle between the EVs in every driveway and the PJM’s of this world?

Be all that as it may, and no doubt having read the same press release as me, the New York Times put a slightly different spin on the story. They point out that:

The scale of this project, using 15 two-passenger Mini E models, donated by BMW, is indeed minuscule compared with the task of keeping the grid system that serves two-thirds of North America in balance, making sure that supply matches demand as precisely as possible.

and quote Michehl Gent, former president of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (or NERC for short) as saying that:

The Delaware idea is tiny but promising. If we can get our electric vehicles to do more than just be electric vehicles, it will be very well received.

It would certainly be well received by your humble author, although at this juncture in history I cannot help but wonder which of all the currently competing international standards will ultimately ensure that all the electrical, mechanical and financial components of a future smart grid, produced by a plethora of international vendors, will all happily co-exist. There are still a long list of hurdles to be jumped before the realisation of Professor Kempton’s vision of:

[Seeing] the electric car and the wind machine as complementary tools for a low-carbon energy system.

is turned into electrical, mechanical and financial reality.

The Nissan LEAF – Now Built In Britain

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The very first British built LEAF electric vehicle has recently rolled off the production line at Nissan’s plant in Sunderland. British Prime Minister David Cameron was there to celebrate the event, as were some cameras. Here’s what one of them recorded:

Commenting on Nissan’s £420 million investment Mr. Cameron said that:

This plant, all of the people who work here, the cars being produced behind me, are the best possible rebuke to those who say “In Britain we can’t design things any more, we can’t make things any more or we can’t export things any more. You’ve shown here at Nissan in Sunderland that we can, and we can do it brilliantly.

As the reporter points out:

The new LEAF boasts over 100 improvements and uses an advanced lithium-ion battery, which is also manufactured at the Sunderland plant. Updates include an increased driving range of 123 miles or 199 km, and the ability to recharge in half the time of the first generation LEAF.

 

More than 54,000 LEAFs have been sold worldwide. Nissan says the new LEAF is the first in a number of pure electric vehicles that it plans to launch over the next few years.

Unfortunately no mention was made of the “vehicle to home” technology that Nissan have been trialling back home in Japan, let alone fully fledged V2G. Maybe Mr. Cameron will announce some significant Great British investments in the design of such esoteric devices in the near future?

Andrew Neil Tilts at “Windmills”

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In my capacity as a member of the FIX Protocol Limited working group on electrical energy pricing (now inactive) I attended the FPL EMEA Trading Conference at Old Billingsgate in London on Thursday. The keynote speaker at the event was Andrew Neil. Publisher, writer and broadcaster according to the delegate guide. As you might expect Andrew had many insightful and/or amusing things to say about the current state of the global economy in general, and the no longer AAA British economy in particular. It’s probably not much consolation to most of my readers when I say that he was far more optimistic about prospects for the United States than for the United Kingdom and Europe.  I’ve been waiting for someone to post a comprehensive overview of Andrew’s musings, but nobody seems to have done so as yet, so it looks as though I will have to pick up the baton. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it!

Neil Ainger over at bobsguide has briefly covered the first part of Andrew Neil’s speech, but for some reason neglects to mention the considerable amount of time he spent offering his different prognoses regarding the future energy security of us over here in Europe compared to our cousins over in the United States.  According to Neil:

In his opening speech, Neil [the other one] outlined the UK and European economic and political situation for the audience of traders, investors, technologists and financial market participants, warning that loose monetary policy in the UK has the potential to incubate a low wage, high inflation economy. In recent years, wage rises have not kept pace with the cost of living in the UK, depressing demand and creating a downward economic cycle in the country.

You get the idea! Please feel free to read the rest of Neil’s article should you feel the need to experience a pain in all the diodes down your left side. My ears really pricked up however, when Andrew start talking about what he described as an imminent “major geopolitical change” based upon the much improved outlook for United States energy security. He thought that the exploitation of large deposits of shale oil in North Dakota will, almost literally, change the world overnight:

When Mr. Obama was re-elected for a second term in November 2012 only 10% of US oil was imported from the Middle East.  When he leaves office not a single drop of oil will come from the Middle East.

Mr. Neil predicted that in the comparatively near future the US will actually become a net exporter of both Liquified Natural Gas and oil. Consequently Mr. Obama would become “the first Pacific President”, and the United States’ strategic interests and military muscle would move away from Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA for short) towards a “Pan Pacific Pact“. As Mr. Neil put it:

Once that has happened who will keep the Strait of Hormuz open if not the Americans. Even the Chinese cannot do it. They don’t have enough planes.

With that sobering thought still ringing in our ears, Andrew offered to take a few questions from the floor. I waved my arm hopefully in the air, and was the second lucky recipient of the precious microphone. After announcing my name and affiliation I continued as follows:

You’ve already answered most of the questions I had about energy policy, but I do have a couple of supplementary questions. Tar sands, Keystone XL, renewables in the US and renewables in Europe?

Mr. Neil seemed convinced that both gas and oil would be flowing towards the Gulf of Mexico for export in significant quantities. However he didn’t seem optimistic that “windmills” as he called them would save our bacon over on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. I still had hold of the mic at that point, and took the opportunity to gently point out that the correct terminology is “wind turbines”. According to Mr.Neil renewable energy in general, and wind in particular, is far too variable to ever be more than a peripheral supplier of electrical energy, either in Europe or the United States.

By this time I had already handed the microphone back, so I had to bite my tongue while Andrew answered another question or two. After a well deserved round of applause he sat down.  At this point I stood up, jumped onto the podium, handed him my business card and suggested he get in touch at a more convenient time.

Here’s the thing. If Andrew knows anything about what the FPL EEP working group got up to, or what the rest of the United States smart grid working groups and committees are endeavouring to achieve, he gave a very good impersonation of someone who hasn’t got a clue.

Mr. Neil seemed to be similarly unaware that no less an authority than George Osborne recently suggested that low cost energy storage is vital to the UK’s future economic well being. As George succinctly put it last year:

Electricity demand peaks at around 60 GW, whilst we have a grid capacity of around 80 GW – but storage capacity of around just 3 GW. Greater capability to store electricity is crucial for [renewable] power sources to be viable. It promises savings on UK energy spend of up to £10 billion a year by 2050 as extra capacity for peak load is less necessary.

 

 

Google Gives UK Schools Piles of Raspberry Pi Kits

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Last year Google chairman Eric Schmidt warned that Britain was throwing away its “great computer heritage” by failing to teach programming in schools. Mr. Schmidt also promised some funds to teach teachers how to use the Raspberry Pi “microcomputer” to teach programming. Now Google has taken the next obvious step, and promised more money to put piles of Pis in UK classrooms. According to the BBC:

Schools around the UK are to be given 15,000 free microcomputers, with a view to creating a new generation of computer scientists. Funded by Google, the Raspberry Pi Foundation hopes the free devices will inspire children to take up coding.

Eric Schmidt put it this way:

Britain’s innovators and entrepreneurs have changed the world – the telephone, television and computers were all invented here. We have been working to encourage the next generation of computer scientists and we hope this donation… to British school pupils will help drive a new wave of innovation.

Not everybody appears to be happy with Google’s initiative however. The National Union of Teachers said that:

Schools are increasingly being used as marketing venues by companies promoting their own brands in return for teaching resources, books, sports equipment or computers. Commercial sponsorship of school resources and equipment and their involvement in training can actively undermine teachers’ efforts to educate children about the dangers of manipulation and commercial exploitation.

Somewhat surprisingly it seems that Microsoft are at least partly in agreement with Google on this issue. According to Steve Beswick, their Director of Education:

Computer science is something that we have been calling the ‘fourth science’ for some time. We believe that it is every bit as important as physics, chemistry and biology. By formally introducing children to computer science basics at primary school, we stand a far greater chance of increasing the numbers taking the subject through to degree level and ultimately the world of work.

Perhaps Microsoft will soon also be providing NUT members with free hardware around which to develop cross-curricular “fourth science/dismal science” lessons on modelling the benefits of increased knowledge of computer science to the Great British Economy?

Whether that comes to pass or not it seems that the Great British Government agrees with Google and Microsoft that such benefits will in fact occur. Education Secretary Michael Gove has just announced that computer science will be added to the English Baccalaureate syllabus. According to a Department for Education spokesperson:

We need to bring computational thinking into our schools. Having Computer Science in the EBacc will have a big impact on schools over the next decade. It will mean millions of children learning to write computer code so they are active creators and controllers of technology instead of just being passive users. It will be great for education, great for the economy, and will help restore the spirit of Alan Turing and make Britain a world leader again.

Here’s Eben Upton and Eric Schmidt explaining “Google’s secret plan” to some Great British Schoolchildren:

Long live the spirit of Alan Turing!

Bankrupt Battery Maker A123 Sold In Bits

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On October 16th US lithium ion battery manufacturer A123 Systems announced that it had:

Entered into an asset purchase agreement with Johnson Controls, Inc., which plans to acquire A123’s automotive business assets, including all of its automotive technology, products and customer contracts, its facilities in Livonia and Romulus, Mich., its cathode powder manufacturing facilities in China, and A123’s equity interest in Shanghai Advanced Traction Battery Systems Co., Alpha’s joint venture with Shanghai Automotive. The asset purchase agreement also includes provisions through which Johnson Controls intends to license back to A123 certain technology for its grid, commercial and government businesses. A123 also continues to engage in active discussions regarding strategic alternatives for its grid, commercial, government and other operations, and has received several indications of interest for these businesses.

To facilitate the transaction process, A123 and all of its U.S. subsidiaries have filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. A123’s non-U.S. subsidiaries were not included in the filing.

Whilst A123 were working their way through Chapter 11, they did manage to find the time to make “the business case for grid energy storage” in Energy World magazine, concluding that:

Utilities and power producers all over the world continue to deploy systems that demonstrate the versatility, reliability and efficiency of energy storage. The applications that advanced energy storage technology can provide combining multiple functions, can create multiple revenue streams and further enhance the economic benefits of energy storage as an integral grid asset.

Matters have moved on since then however, and A123’s own revenue streams seem to have proved sadly inadequate. In a new press release A123 now say that:

It has reached agreement on the terms of an asset purchase agreement with Wanxiang America Corporation (“Wanxiang”) through which Wanxiang would acquire substantially all of A123’s assets for $256.6 million. The agreement was reached following an auction conducted under the supervision of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Court”). A hearing at which A123 and Wanxiang will seek the required Court approval of the sale is scheduled for Tuesday, December 11, 2012.

Excluded from the asset purchase agreement with Wanxiang is A123’s Ann Arbor, Michigan based government business, including all U.S. military contracts, which would be acquired for $2.25 million by Navitas Systems, a Woodridge, Illinois based provider of energy-enabled system solutions and energy storage products for commercial, industrial and government agency customers.

According to Pin Ni, the president of Wanxiang America:

We believe that A123’s industry-leading technology for vehicle electrification, grid energy storage and other industries complements Wanxiang’s strong R&D and manufacturing capabilities, so we think adding A123 to our portfolio of businesses strongly aligns with our strategy of investing in the automotive and cleantech industries in the U.S. We plan to build on the engineering and manufacturing capabilities that A123 has established in the U.S. and we are committed to making the long-term investments necessary for A123 to be successful.

Pin Ni may have to put the champagne on ice for while though, since the deal isn’t all signed and sealed just yet however:

The completion of the sale to Wanxiang is subject to certain closing conditions, including approval from the Court as well as from the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States (CIFIUS). Because the total purchase price for A123’s assets would be less than the total amount owed to creditors, the Company does not anticipate any recoveries for its current shareholders and believes its stock to have no value.

This doesn’t sound like wonderful news for the hard pressed U.S. taxpayer either. A123 don’t refer to this aspect of things, but according to Reuters:

The U.S. Energy Department will not give A123 Systems Inc. the balance of a $249 million grant. Republicans lawmakers, meanwhile, renewed criticisms that the White House’s clean energy grant to the maker of lithium ion batteries for electric cars had wasted taxpayer money. The company had received about $133 million of its $249 million grant when it filed for bankruptcy protection in October.

Pin Ni, president of Wanxiang America, said his company would respect the decisions made by the DOE.

A123 declined to comment.

George Osborne Invests in Energy Storage

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George Osborne, the United Kingdom’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave a speech at The Royal Society yesterday, extolling the benefits of scientific research for the British nation.  He said that:

I want to begin a debate about eight future technologies where we believe we can be the best – where we already have an edge, but we could be world-leading.

Number 5 on Mr. Osborne’s technology shopping list he described as:

Energy Storage for the Nation: Stockpiling Electricity

More specifically he mentioned three particular areas of British expertise:

First there are the batteries in all our personal electronic devices. These use lithium ion batteries working on a chemical reaction developed at Oxford in the early 1980s. Thirty years on that basic technology is still central.

Second there is the development of battery-powered vehicles. One reason Nissan decided to produce their new all electric LEAF car here in the UK in Sunderland was the continuing support for research on innovative batteries for cars.

Third there is the challenge of storing more electricity for the Grid.

Mr. Osborne then expanded on the why and the how of the UK Government’s support for grid scale storage research and development:

Electricity demand peaks at around 60 GW, whilst we have a grid capacity of around 80 GW – but storage capacity of around just 3 GW. Greater capability to store electricity is crucial for these power sources to be viable. It promises savings on UK energy spend of up to £10 billion a year by 2050 as extra capacity for peak load is less necessary.

The Research Councils’ energy programme is investing over £500 million over this Spending Review period in energy research, including energy storage. However, urgent action is needed to accelerate translation of research into new technologies and products so that global market opportunities are realised by UK companies – and ensure the UK is established as an international focus for energy storage research and innovation.

Research projects are delivering but the UK currently lacks the test-bed demonstrator capacity and dedicated R&D facilities to take the next step in developing and testing new grid-scale energy storage technologies. We need to create them. We are funding the Energy Technologies Institute jointly with industry partners – including BP, Caterpillar, EDF Energy, E.ON, Rolls Royce and Shell – to accelerate new technologies for producing clean, reliable and affordable energy. And we are now investing £800 million with industry to maximise the funding of low carbon energy technology innovation.

Mr. Osborne ultimately concluded his speech by saying that:

It is right that, even at times of fiscal restraint, we find the resources to enable new scientific breakthroughs, to bridge the gap between discovery and commercialisation and to spread the economic and social benefits of scientific research. The prize is not just our future wealth but our health and quality of life, and our commitment to intellectual enquiry.

No one can know what the future holds. But we can discern those areas where we have particular strengths and which scientists themselves believe have the most potential. Let us identify what Britain is best at – and back it.

We have great science in Britain. We are backing it. And we will do more.

Let’s hope so! Mr. Osborne may not know what the future holds, but personally I predict a rather grim one if the UK (and indeed other nations) doesn’t get its energy R&D and broader energy policy sorted out in a hurry. Do you suppose the forthcoming Energy Bill will achieve that? Whilst we wait with bated breath to find out here’s a video in which David Clarke, Chief Executive of ETI, explains his views on “the real issue of avoiding the cost of having to upgrade our distribution network for electricity” in general, and Isentropic’s “pumped heat” thermal storage in particular: