Ideas 28-2...Zero Carbon Requires Drastic Change In Lifestyle

Ideas 28-2...Zero Carbon Requires
Drastic Change In Lifestyle

August 2023 saw the Singapore headquartered, Vietnamese based EV VinFast automotive company, listed on the Nasdaq at $85 billion, valued at more than the US automotive companies Ford $48 billion and GM $46 billion. The plethora and speed of technological advancement, plus the huge amounts of money involved in this global revolution in transportation is astounding. Will it end like the dot com bust? Read on.

Zero polluting dual use taxi-vans driven by computers appear to be the main transportation vehicle for the world's roads at present. Such vehicles will be too expensive, too difficult to maintain, and impossible to recharge if you live in a terraced house with no garage, making private ownership impractical. As large conglomerates like General Motors bite the dust because they have failed to innovate, it is a clear warning to the world's automotive sector of what awaits them if they do not switch to the latest technology, but their competitors do. In 2009 General Motors filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Assets were sold off. It was saved as GM through a troubled asset relief program. Recent advances in fuel cells, where nitrogen deposition replaces expensive platinum as a catalyst, clearly shows that a hydrogen based transport system is still a contender for clean transportation, although lithium ion and graphene are the present leaders in electric battery/capacitor technology. This assumes there is enough lithium in the world to discourage the formation of a price cartel. Graphene batteries however, could be incorporated within the bodywork of the vehicle, or would be recyclable. With advances in technology (CCTV, radar, lidar, sonar, GPS, KIM control computer, database, internet link, photo-voltaics, regenerative thyristor motors), a cost effective taxi-van would be able to compete with existing public transport systems.

This of course beggars the question, 'just how much of this technology is manufactured in our country?' Take photo-voltaics for instance. All of these basic poly silicon makers are located in the People's Republic of China, United States, Taiwan, Germany, Japan and South Korea. As for electric motors and carbon fibre the situation is similar, with none in the UK. In 2021 we are faced with a shortage of integrated circuits, which are mainly made by TSSMC in Taiwan and Samsung in South Korea, with a new factory planned for Texas. Due to political ideology the UK makes very little. The UK has become nothing more than a screwdriver operation. Even many of our raw materials have to be imported. Lithium is imported from Chile and the PRC, Cobalt is imported from the DRC and PRC, whilst graphite is imported from ....yes you guessed it...the PRC. Incredibly, the UK was once the sole producer of graphite. As for the 17 rare earths, used in batteries, computers and magnets, they also come from the PRC but could be imported from Greenland along with uranium if it wasn't for the fact that the 40,000 voters there have decided not to pollute the region by mining spoil heaps, in a vote in April 2021; as if anybody would notice. How can the UK pay off its debts since much of what it exports it imports? Our lithium deposits in Cornwall are miniscule compared to those in south-west Australia. If there was ever a war in the Far East, our industries would be rapidly brought to a stand still.

Other costly metals used in batteries are rhodium, palladium, platinum aluminium and copper. In March 2021 Tesla bought an interest in the GoRo nickel mine in New Caledonia, which currently produces 26% of world supply. Much of the world's lithium comes from the PRC, which was responsible for the dramatic price fall that month. Rare earths are also mined largely in the PRC which accounts for 58% of output. The only other place at the moment is Malaysia. There are plans to be less dependant upon the PRC by opening facilities in Australia, India and Texas, the latter assisted by the US Department of Defence because private companies are fearful of repercussions from the PRC if they get involved. Rare earths are not rare, but since they are found in minute quantities, it is necessary to process huge amounts of material in order to extract them. This generates huge piles of waste, which is not welcome in the west. Rare earths such as yttrium, neodymium, scandium, samarium, promethium and praseodymium are found in batteries, electronics and magnets. Unlike traditional vehicles employing reciprocating engines made from steel and other cheap components (apart from platinum catalyst exhausts), the cost of EVs is largely dictated by material costs. Large fluctuations in the price of these materials is not a good thing when continuous flow of production is essential for cost effectiveness. There needs to be an organisation where mining companies, battery manufacturers and vehicle assemblers can meet to make strategic decisions in order to smooth over costs. Until then EV ownership is likely to stay largely in the hands of taxi companies. In 2022 the price of lithium went through the roof. This does not bode well for domestic electricity producers since a lithium iron batteries warranty only lasts ten years (3000 cycles). What will the price of these batteries be in ten years time? Battery technology is advancing rapidly, so with cheap electricity from HB11 nuclear fusion reactors, which can be mass produced in tens of thousands per annum, super batteries will be made from far cheaper materials. This should be a warning to third world countries with large deposits of lithium, such as Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, plus the USA and Australia. Mine it now if you want your national wealth fund to get off the ground. And will HMG now back the lithium mining industry in Cornwall in a big way? Technology is advancing. Sodium ion batteries require no expensive elements in their design, whilst a battery made from a layer of carbon (graphene) just one atom thick, engraved onto the bodywork of a vehicle, and take just seconds to recharge, maybe less than a decade away.

Mining on land often requires the removal of huge amounts of rock and soil lieing above commercial deposits of ore. This consumes a huge expense in energy to power mining equipment, time to do it and of course you need a safe place to deposit all that spoil. The mining of manganese (polymetallic) nodules, consisting of copper, nickel and cobalt, on the world's ocean floor therefore has its attractions. With the near collapse of the Canadian sub-sea mining company Nautilus Minerals, of Toronto, Canada, in 2015, it has managed to survive due to backing from the government of Papua New Guinea to mine the Bismark Sea, then bought out by Deep Sea Mining Finance Ltd. Competition comes from SubSea Minerals based in Falmouth, UK. Meanwhile the United Nation's International Seabed Authority announced in May 2013 that companies can now apply for licences to extract seabed nodules from 2016. Norway's Loke Marine Minerals formerly Lockheed's UK's Seabed Resources may eventually mine the north-east Pacific Ocean floor for copper and gold nodules. This may involve the destruction of black smokers at a time when scientists can barely reach these enclaves, never mind study them 24x7. Will the exploration of space be any different? Not unless we have a world technocracy to promote a civilisation based upon scientific research. If we don't have it, will aliens welcome us with open arms into their federation?

Polymetallic nodules exist in their trillions on the ocean floor, just a centimetre or two apart. They are deposits formed in clearly defined layers around large objects such as a shark's tooth. They form at depths from 4,000 to 8,000 metres over millions of years. Their formation is not fully understood, whilst why they don't get buried by sediment is unknown.

As of November 2019, undersea testing of sea floor mining vehicles was underway off the coast of Portugal. In 2021 the small nation of Nauru announced that it wanted a deep sea mining agreement within two years. The United Nations may come to an agreement in 2025. Disturbing the ocean floor sediment, may release nutrients across large swathes of these abyssal plains, that benefits oceanic life forms. Only time will tell, but there is no doubt that these metals are needed for batteries to power a cleaner world. Obtaining them from the ocean floor, maybe cheaper and less environmentally destructive than extracting them from mines and salt pans. Recycling of batteries may make mining of these minerals unnecessary. Only time will tell. Meanwhile the future of deep sea marine life and coral reefs remains in the balance. Just how do you protect these vulnerable ecosystems when they are being discovered all the time, is a ponderable problem. Since 1999 five reefs at depths up to 400m have been found off the coast of Norway for instance. Whilst these reefs are protected by legislation, that needs to be enforced, how do you do that when there is no legislation to protect newly discovered finds, a reef, black smoker or otherwise. Cold water coral reefs are associated with the upwelling of hydrocarbons from the ocean floor. This upwelling is also associated with the production of rare earths. Areas associated with cold water corals are subjected to deep sea trawling, where legislation is not being enforced.

On December 10th, 2021, as the International Seabed Authority (ISA) met in Jamaica, to listen to 622 experts from 44 countries present information on subsea mining, Greenpeace protesters scaled the hull of the Hidden Gem, a ship berthed in Rotterdam. It still remains to be seen if and when subsea mining will begin.

In May 2023 it was disclosed that in a deep sea survey of the Clarion Clipperton zone of the Pacific Ocean floor, 5000 different animal species were found, including worms, sea cucumbers and corals. This area is potentially the most productive, for polymetallic nodule mining, in the world. There are thought to be about 500 billion tonnes of polymetallic nodules on the world's ocean floor. Over one thousand times more than what the human race needs. Sea bed mining could therefore be restricted to a very small area of ocean floor, where there is little or no current to carry the disturbance away, that could otherwise choke filter feeders.

There are about 1.2 billion road vehicles worldwide. A driverless zero polluting taxi-van would probably do the work of four cars, but in a world where AI is stealing jobs, there would be fewer commuters. Taxi-Vans would maximize use, delivering parcels one minute and taking people on commutes or days out the next. They would be competing with unmanned air vehicles, air-taxis. These vehicles would have to be of a modular construction with power harnesses embedded into the body, and control via bluetooth, to enable damaged parts to be replaced by less dextrous androids, since human vehicle mechanics will not be available in a leisure orientated AI dominated world. Perhaps only one hundred million vehicles would be needed in total. The horse and cart was replaced by the automobile, mainly electric, inside ten years, accelerated by the needs of the Boar War, and the public revulsion to horse dung piling up in city streets. It is likely therefore that the conversion to dual use driverless vehicles will be completed by the year 2035. Once the technology is established, pressure groups will ensure that government and insurance companies effectively ban manually driven automobiles, thereby reducing road mortality rates further. The Cruise Origin taxi-van is designed by Cruise in San Francisco and built by GM in the USA. Because of their expense and complexity, they're not conducive with private ownership. Cruise use 'Starfleet' to monitor these vehicles to determine when maintenance should be carried out. This is probably similar to how Rolls-Royce monitors its aircraft jet engines when in use. Alphabet backed Waymo also produce and test in public an autonomous driving vehicle, the Waymo One, whilst Tesla's autonomous robotaxi called Cybercab, and a twenty passenger vehicle called Robovan, maybe out by 2026, manufactured by Tesla's Optimus android.

Tandem commuters carry all the problems associated with taxi-vans, except that they have to be no wider than about half a metre. This is so that a traffic lane can accommodate two of them side by side during the rush hour. These electric vehicles are balanced using gyroscopes, and can usually accommodate one adult and one child. In reality the commute may have to be spread over a longer period, say 6 to 9 am and 3 to 6 pm, to ensure a smooth and more energy efficient journey. Lorries would only be allowed on public roads from 9am to 3pm and from 6pm to 10pm. Of course, all this assumes that our roads would otherwise be jammed with commuters. There is as yet no way of knowing whether doing office work from home, or office work done by AI, will be the norm in the near future. In either case, office blocks will be converted into apartments, where presumably there will be little need for transport of any kind.

Since Taxi-Vans and tandem commuters will be operated by franchises and financed in much the same way as international shipping containers, there would be little or no advertising in newspapers and on television for AA, RAC, insurance and car sales promotion. The media (newspapers, radio and television) will have to downsize onto the internet, reduced to the size of a (folding) mobile phone screen. Due to the reduced number of cars manufactured and the use of androids on the assembly line, there will be an enormous reduction of people employed within the automotive industry. The DARPA urban driving trials in California in October 2007 clearly show that the technology exists, where three teams successfully completed the one hundred mile plus course, including Volkswagen. Such vehicles could result in dramatic changes in tax gathering, since eco-cars currently do not require road tax, and neither would they generate fuel tax if they were powered solely from mains electricity. It spells disaster for traditional bloated, bureaucratic government. Will this generate a blind acceptance for a minimalist world technocracy?

Toyota have already stated that it may pull out of the UK if it leaves the EU, where 90% of its production goes, or fails to install enough street charging points or fails to develop a home grown battery cell manufacturing facility. As I write, exploration drilling is on going in Cornwall where it's thought mining for lithium will commence in 2023. Here are a few concepts from Toyota, the taxi-van from Cruise, Jaguar-Landrover, Auto-X and of course Tesla, and not forgetting tandem commuters:

Replacing the steering wheel with hand movements requires total concentration all of the time, whilst a steering wheel allows the hands to relax momentarily, whilst taking 10 seconds to switch on the car ventilation via a touch screen whilst driving, may not be the best solution, even if it is the latest technology.

Whilst the Audi AI:CON looks great and has an impressive technology spread, such is the rate of technological advancement that the new kid on the block is now the Aptera. Whilst the company is based in sunny San Diego, California I can see from data on its website that if I had one in the dull UK, then I would only have to charge it three times per year if I drove it 30 miles per day. Its teardrop shape underlines the new manufacturing technology employed. Out go the press tools and in comes the carbon fibre, kevlar and 3D printing. The vehicle has photo-voltaic panels on the roof giving it a 45 mile range, whilst additional panels on the bonnet and boot can extend this to 1000 miles per day. It has three wheels and two seats, with production starting in 2021. The performance is better than the Tesla S car, whilst Tesla's new plant in Brandenburg, Germany is held up due to the hibernation of lizards, snakes and bats. The automotive industry appears to be suffering from the same business laws as the software industry. You must use the latest technology, innovate, or go under. With such an inflated share price, for how much longer can Tesla survive? And whilst Tesla wasn't prepared to invest in a battery gigafactory in the UK, no sooner had Toyota threatened to pull out of the UK if no battery factory materialized, than British Volt announced a 2.6 billion pound investment in a 95-hectare battery gigafactory in the port of Blyth, Northumberland in north-east England that would create 3,000 jobs by 2027. With advances in materials technology due to research at the Diamond Synchrotron, etc. it beggars the question, 'will this investment be superseded by graphene batteries, etcetera.? Such is the pace of technological advancement.

5...UK Electric Drive Development

The Manchester prize was set up to encourage research in the UK. Technological advancement is driven by materials research. Its importance demonstrated here in this hyperlink.

6...Eco-Towns

HMG's insistence on building eco-towns with eco-friendly homes, and hopefully with local food production and eco-friendly power generation and public transport systems, is the right decision. HMG has decided to cut CO2 emissions completely by 2050, although some local authorities have already decided to become carbon neutral by 2030, by banning cars from city centres, etc. The government's of the world must be shown the way forward in eco-friendly living. However, this concept should not be looked at in isolation. Details of family sized biomes for these eco-towns appears elsewhere on this web site. In addition, a report in October 2019 indicated that an existing home could cost at least 20,000 pounds to upgrade. If the entire population were relocated to a warmer climate, then surely factory built homes, employing new materials and techniques such as vacuum forming, would probably provide better value for money, if the entire zero carbon bill were taken into consideration. In the 1960s I watched the BBC TV series Tomorrow's World. The most interesting invention I saw was that of a bungalow which came out of a shipping container. It had a pitched roof, fitted kitchen and bathroom. Today, I fail to understand why refugee camps are not set up to this standard. It reinforces a depressing realization that even though an invention exists, it does not mean that it will be used.

One of the nation's gravest economic problems is the constant devaluation of the pound, compared to the euro and US dollar. The pound devalues due to the following:

(I) HMG and companies do not invest enough in R&D, either because the workforce are negative thinking, negative bias by financial institutions, or the organisation has insufficient vision and lacks a risk taking culture.

(II) Too much UK based R&D is financed by foreign companies who take abroad the jobs and profits from these innovations.

(III) A currencies value is often determined by supply and demand. If we export less than we import, then the pound is in less demand, and over time it will fall in value.

(IV) It does not attract foreign investment because its constitution/legal system is considered antiquated and time consuming, or it pulls out of a trading partnership like Brexit, causing the currency to fall in value, due to lack of confidence.

(V) Money going abroad, to buy second homes, retirement homes, migrants in UK supporting families abroad, outside of the pound sterling zone, will all cause the pound to lose value over time. In my lifetime I have seen the pound fall from four dollars to the pound, to just one dollar fifteen cents.

If the PRC can have an effective and secure electronic money supply based upon facial recognition, then clearly so can we. Should we declare this money invalid, on the grounds that it must have been illegally acquired, as did Russia and India? It's plainly obvious that no one is managing the British economy. All that HMG wants to do is SPEND SPEND SPEND SPEND SPEND, AND SPEND WELL BEYOND IT'S MEANS. I swear that most of them can't tell the difference between a million and a billion. It's a disgrace. A blatant indicator that our political system is unfit for purpose. I get the strong impression that some banks, desperate for a financial return in a world of zero interest rates, are investing in cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is increasing in value at a rate well beyond that of any currency, or gold for that matter, matched only by the rise in Tesla shares, both of which saw dramatic falls of 20% in February 2021 when Elon Musk bought $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency. This is at the rate of a pyramid selling scheme. Left to itself, it will absorb monies previously deposited in the stockmarket and commodities. A switch to negative interest rates will only exacerbate the situation. Why is HMG and USG spending so much on the Covid-19 pandemic, knowing that these two factors will cause more harm than the pandemic itself? Is there a conspiracy? If there is then it's likely to trigger WWIII. It will cause the stockmarkets of the world to collapse. Eventually the number of people prepared to invest in anything traditional will dry up. Banks will be obliged to buy into the stockmarket to avoid a global banking collapse, financed by quantitative easing. By then it will be too late for governments to intervene. They will be faced with the options of a dark age or a totally new financial system that will remain forever untainted by greed. There is of course only one such system and only one person capable of implementing it. And all I was looking forward to was a quiet retirement in the sun.

So where is this money coming from? Take illegal immigrants for instance. They're let in by border guards who couldn't give a damn, or they tell immigration officials that they're only here for a holiday, or they've borrowed the British passports of their relatives in order to get into the UK. So what do they do when they get here? Well they work in the family business, the rag trade or running a restaurant. Every week I get business posters pushed through my letter box advertising some restaurant, takeaway or taxi service. They probably live in their relative's attic, cellar, garage, toilet or garden shed. Then of course there is prostitution. Just about everyone is at it these days. There's the money laundering for businesses in the black economy; mainly banks by the sound of it. Money obtained illicitly from drug dealing, or bribes to company directors for instance, has to be laundered, to get it into an unsuspecting account. Drugs money can be invested in the illicit rag trade manned by illegal immigrants. The clothes are then sold to retail outlets stating it's all from Bangladesh or Vietnam. Who checks? Other manufacturing companies can sub-contract services which involve dubious expensive insurance, etc. How else can small companies afford a luxury corporate box at a sport's stadium, or even a race horse? And of course there's the oligarchs from eastern Europe and China, desperate to get away from state control and all that electronic money; desperate to join the freedom loving capitalists in the west. But UK money laundering laws now forbid the purchase of homes and businesses in the UK without proof that the money was acquired lawfully. At least that's the theory. In practice it is thought that 5 billion pounds of property in the UK has been bought with laundered money, much of it from Russia. Personally I have no objection to oligarchs purchasing our stock of crumbling castles and stately homes provided they repair them to the satisfaction of the authorities, for not less than ten million pounds. And just who do they buy them from, English Heritage, National Trust, Crown Estates, HM Treasury, who? At least then they would not be purchasing homes that local people want to buy but find unaffordable, due to foreign buyers. And HMG could get the police to turn the screw in that direction, couldn't they? So what's our guv in the Bank of England going to do about it? Has it ever occurred to them that if our currency went electronic all this hot money would suddenly flood the market in a rush to buy dollars or what have ya, causing the pound to plummet in value. Should the euro, US dollar and UK pound all become electronic at the same time?

It is plainly obvious to me, though obviously not to our government economic advisors, that UK citizens should buy second homes and retirement homes within the pound sterling zone (operation EPSZ), which is also where the social care establishments should be. (cheap food, less heating required, pleasant warmer climate, abundant staff). The expanded pound sterling zone (EPSZ) could emerge from, the British Virgin Islands, Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territory), Barbados, Bermuda, Guyana, Cayman Islands, Gambia, Fiji, Gilbert & Ellis, Maldives, Mauritius, Nauru, Pitcairn, Seychelles, Turks & Caicos, Western Samoa, Montserrat, Windward Islands (Dominica, Granada, St Lucia, St Vincent, Grenadines), St Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago. All of these countries have their own currency or use the US dollar. Most are small islands however. An alternative to consider would be Madagascar. A former French colony, it is large, geographically isolated and poor. Most of its citizens originate from Indonesia. It is not in the British commonwealth. Australia and New Zealand are unlikely to join a pound sterling zone. Australia suffers from a lack of water, whilst neither wants our ex-cons, and certainly don't want to lose their independence. Other islands are either too small or too cold. The alternative would be a floating city, or like the Chinese, build one on a coral atoll (South China Sea). Such a project would boost the British construction industry enormously, which is already engaged in large construction projects abroad, notably in the Persian Gulf region. Even if the UK managed to eliminate its carbon footprint, it should be realised that it only amounts to one per cent of global emissions. Our extreme climate would continue to be more volatile, to the point where it would not be possible to live here, nor anywhere north of the Pyrenees and Alps mountain ranges.

The British Isles has decent weather for only four months of the year, at most. Over one century I can see the attitude of the British people changing. They will not see any reason for staying there, and will therefore want a higher quality to their lives in a warmer climate. For economic reasons, a place in the Sun must be in the EPSZ, not the EU. Government must foresee this and plan accordingly. There should be no government expenditure on upgrading the UK housing stock as a result, but there should be intense research into finding a way to mass produce modern homes and furniture, quickly and cheaply for such development abroad. At the time of writing, political parties are promising to spend hundreds of billions of pounds insulating British home. This is irresponsible, whilst the British construction industry does not appear to be investing in advanced materials research and subsequent design. If the diabolical iron clad beetle can build a tough home for itself, I can see no reason why the human race cannot, assuming the vision, will and finance was there. It can withstand a force of 149 Newtons, thirty-nine thousand times its own body weight, so the material and its jig-saw structure must also have aerospace applications. Also in October 2020 came the news of an external building coating that could reduce HVAC running costs. This calcium carbonate particulate paint can reduce building temperatures by 1.7C by rejecting 95.5% of sunlight.

The Chinese Communist Party has effectively turned the PRC into a police state, and that includes Hong Kong. The psychological impact of having one's life monitored by a perpetual array of CCTV is being ignored. With the introduction of electronic currency controlled by the People's Bank of China, which of course is controlled by the government, there is in effect nothing to stop the state from turning a millionaire into a beggar at the press of a mouse button. HMG says that the issuing of British passports to Hong Kong citizens will result in only 300,000 of them coming to the UK. I beg to differ. The figure is likely to be in its millions, and not just from Hong Kong. As usual HMG is sucking its thumb whilst looking the other way. Current problems in the Far East could result in the greatest exodus ever. 99.999% of Chinese only want peace and prosperity. All the decades of sacrifice they have made to bring their country into the modern world, only to see a few misfits in Beijing risk trashing it all, simply beggars belief. As for HMG, all it wants are expensive warships which take years to build, are too complex to maintain and operate, have limited range and have no AI fire control system, to defend an empire that no longer exists. So what's wrong with my non-nuclear global defence system? No matter how good the system, you still need intelligent people with guts to operate it. Mismanagement of the pandemic clearly shows that we have neither. Therefore our housing stock in the 21st century will remain an overpopulated disgrace, whilst a biome based metropolis will be for others to construct.

7...Hydroponics

In November 2020 HMG announced its ten point green industrial revolution plan. A similar publication emerged one year later.

In the above plan there is no mention of zero polluting, computer driven taxi-vans, whilst buses will not become extinct. Uneconomic carbon capture is the word, so fossil fuel burning power stations live on, until when? Will planting 30,000 hectares of trees each year mean that we will no longer need to import wood pulp for the manufacture of toilet paper? No mention of fuel cell powered trains, and its hydrogen, not formic acid, all the way. OK guv, where are the biomes fit for the twenty-first century, with a free mealie maestro thrown in, or maybe a cheaper Miele M Chef? And there are currently no plans to stop the annual Bonhams London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. Just think, one day you may have to refine your own fuel, and where are you going to get the insurance? I looked at HMG's green homes grant, only to find that there was no mention of, electric radiators powered by off peak electricity. The tariff still exists but new customers may not be accepted, presumably due to our already extensive off peak pump storage and hydrogen fuel cell storage facilities, but will they be enough when we dispense with natural gas? With the termination of the common agricultural policy when the UK leaves the EU at the end of 2020, why is HMG not concentrating on research into hydroponic based agricultural production (in city factory farms) and the bioengineering of artificially produced foods? The UK imports half of its foodstuffs, so it make sense to try and reduce this dependency on imports, thereby reducing our carbon footprint.

I scoured the internet for images of the home I had in mind. I couldn't find a home+hydroponic biome. I've concluded therefore that there should be a contest amongst architectural firms to determine the best design for such a biome. In the meantime, here's the next best thing.

The American cartoon promoter Walt Disney had a vision of a future world he called EPCOT. Unfortunately he died before it could be created. What is clearly needed now is another billionaire with a clear and responsible vision of the future, along with the necessary determination, to illuminate the way forward for the civil engineering sector.

And finally here's a note from Bing AI Chat:

That’s an interesting question. It seems that bio engineering is a discipline that applies engineering design and principles to biological systems. There are some examples of nature inspiring technology, such as spider silk, gecko tape and lotus leaves. However, I could not find any conclusive evidence that bio engineering can be used to grow a home for humans. There are some visionary ideas of using synthetic biology to create living, breathing houses, but they are not yet feasible or practical. There are also some low-tech energy efficient houses that use solar power and natural materials, but they are not grown from bio engineering. Perhaps in the future, bio engineering will be able to change our world in more ways than we can imagine.

So, if you're looking for a career or challenge in life, there it is. Just think of it. There are at least 8 billion people on this planet, hardly any of whom live in the zero carbon home described here. Fame and fortune awaits thee who can bring this about.

8...Severn Tidal Barrage

This is a very adventurous project which should incorporate tidal, coastal wave, photo-voltaic and wind generators, whilst also providing a motorway toll road, and permit the growth of electricity and water national grids. It must control flooding and also withstand a tsunami. Technology in design (CAD, CAM, CFD, BOM, FEA), accurate costing and generation efficiency, has improved greatly since the last review, as has the inability to build nuclear fission power stations. The barrier itself could be made at North Sea oil production yards in Scotland, from steel recycled from disused oil production platforms, being quick to fabricate compared to a reinforced concrete structure. There are hundreds of platforms that need recycling, at an estimated cost of 24 billion pounds to HM Treasury in tax rebates.

The French nuclear company EDF is building Hinkley Point C 3.2GW (7% of UK needs) nuclear fission power station for £23 billion, taking 8 years to build, and last 60 years. The nearby Severn Barrage would cost £30 billion, take 4 years to build and last 120 years, and generate 8 to 20 GW depending upon where it was located, and include energy storage with no expensive and dangerous waste to dispose of. It would be built at numerous shipyards and employ 100,000+ people during the construction phase. It would generate up to one third of the UK's needs. Together with other tidal barrages constructed along the UK's coastline, the nation could supply substantial energy to the continent of Europe, to obviate the need to purchase Russian gas at inflated prices. The UK would become the Saudi Arabia of Europe, paying off it's national debt in the process. As it is HMG's renewable energy investment published by BEIS on 7-7-22 amounts to 93 projects generating only 7GW. The UK consumes 335 terawatt hours of electricity per annum. The rate has been falling during this millennia as heavy industry relocates to the far east and eastern Europe, but is likely to increase as space heating and automotive power become electric. Tidal barrages have been proposed for the Hunstanton (Wash), Grimsby (River Humber), Liverpool (River Mersey), West Kirby (River Dee), Southerness (Solway Firth), Cardiff (River Severn), with ocean current generators at Port Askaig (Sound of Islay) and Thurso (Pentland Firth). Meanwhile HM Treasury has just worked out that all electric cars don't generate taxes from the sale of fossil fuels. Well if they take the trouble to read this chapter they'll see that some electric cars won't be buying electricity either. Over time products and services are becoming cheaper, generating less taxation, so just how is the world going to pay off the debt they now have?

The most cost effective proposed barrage, is on the Energy Matters website, and is as follows: The 19km long Severn Barrage located from Nash Point in the north, to Hurlstone Point, with a water depth of 20 metres and tidal range of 10 metres would cost £30 billion, and take four years to construct. It would generate electricity employing bi-directional water turbines to produce 20% of UK demand over a lengthy lifetime. Alternatively, a smaller barrage further to the east, from Lavernock in the north to Hinckley Point, Somerset, could generate 10% of UK needs at a cost of £25 billion. The Severn Estuary bore would cease to exist. Lock gates would serve shipping to Cardiff, Bristol/Avonmouth and Newport, etc. The barrage would be linked to pump storage lakes on Exemoor to even out the electricity supply to the national grid. The overall cost is peanuts compared to Hinkley C or HS2, whilst unlike HS2 it is definitely needed, to provide a cost effective replacement to natural gas. Competing designs should be tested in tanks with wave making machines and tide simulating pumps, plus wind tunnel, fatigue and corrosion tests, etc. before any contracts are signed. There is a danger that a tidal barrage too small to satisfy the energy demands of Europe will be built. Will the UK become the Saudi Arabia of the European Union?

These costs are far lower than that of a nuclear power station, but that would no doubt provide the necessary materials for nuclear weapons. It could be built as quickly as the Mulberry harbours in 1944. This would be a far less risky project than that of Hinkley Point C nuclear power station nearby, whose life span is only a quarter that of a barrage. With low borrowing costs, the electricity produced would be competitive. Other forms of clean electricity generation and storage, if practical, such as deep sea current and reverse electro-dialysis power cells, should also be explored. At a time when steel prices have plummeted and the UK steel industry is on its knees, this project is an obvious saviour, although only temporary. Due to cost and time over runs on UK construction projects, offers to tender should be global. The steel may have to have a nickel content to ward off corrosion, whilst repeated battering from waves, swell and the occasional flotsam and jetsam, could be limited by constructing a funnel to the seaward side of the barrage. This would direct waves and hence air to a bi-directional vertical axis turbine wave generator. A wind farm could be located on the estuary side of the barrage to catch the strong funnelled winds coming off the barrage. The dual carriageway located on the sheltered estuary side of the barrier, would provide access for mobile cranes when the replacement of turbines inevitably becomes necessary. The carriageway would be split in two, so that the top half would be shut off to traffic during maintenance periods, the bottom half then switching to counterflow.

As a draughtsman I worked at Anglesey Aluminium and on the coke ovens at Redcar steel works, both of which are now closed. As I write, the future of TATA Port Talbot steelworks is on a knife edge. In this age of advanced technologies like 3D printing, it is perhaps hard to appreciate that basic metals are still an essential part of an economy, for they provide the materials with which to build machines, structural steelwork and cladding for buildings, utility pipes, bombs, etc., and without these plants, the cost of importing such materials is likely to be much higher. These essential industries must not be allowed to go to the wall. If they do, then many other concerns, that are dependent upon them, will also close, or relocate abroad, thereby increasing our import bill.

In my opinion the cost of the Severn Tidal Barrage (Bristol Channel) should have been paid out of the 70% tax relief and rebate for the decommissioning of North Sea oil platforms, amounting to £24 billion, which is being handed back to oil companies. But that opportunity has come and gone. Should this project be a barrage, or one or more of the alternative technologies listed here? It took 45,000 men eight months to complete the two Mulberry harbours installed along the coast of Normandy during world war II. In late December 2021 the price of natural gas had increased ten fold from May of that year. HMG appeared to be oblivious to the capabilities of Britain's shipyards and its workers, by doing nothing. A government with a low tax policy means minimal investment in science, technology and jobs, ultimately leading to an even larger national debt.

Details of these power generating projects are found here: