> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://wiki.greatcollaboration.uk/knowledgebase/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://wiki.greatcollaboration.uk/knowledgebase/events/banter-sessions-inc-table-of-all-sessions/banter-135-02sep26-engineering-our-way-out-intro-by-graham-stoddart-stones.md). # Banter 135: 02Sep26 Engineering our Way Out - Intro, by Graham Stoddart-Stones {% embed url="" %} #### Video Timeline: 00:00 - 25:00 Presentation\ 25:00 - 54:47 (end) Q & A *** #### Presentation: {% embed url="" %} You are very welcome to view this presentation (click on slide numbers) or to download it (click on menu icon, second from right-hand end, above). A markdown (text-only) copy is at the bottom of this page *** #### Meeting Summary: Sep 02, 2026 11:49 AM LondonID: 834 5460 8536 #### Quick recap The meeting focused on a presentation by Graham about current and emerging technologies to address climate change, framed as "Engineering Our Way Out." Graham covered a range of topics, including methane leak detection, rotor sails for ships, composting, contrail reduction, fusion energy, direct air capture, geothermal advancements, and innovations in solar panels and batteries. He also discussed the role of trees and timber in carbon capture and the potential of local energy communities for resilience. Participants like John, Stuart, Tristram, and Maureen engaged in discussions about the challenges of implementing these solutions, the influence of vested interests, and practical local issues such as street lighting reduction. The conversation touched on the need for behavioural changes, community resilience, and the potential impact of new technologies like plug-and-play solar panels. #### Next steps #### Graham * * Research and provide an answer to Tristram's question about why contrails are considered bad for the climate. * Share the title or details of the book on transition towns in the chat or with interested participants. * Consider developing the presentation into a series titled "Engineering Our Way Out" based on the reception and interest from today's audience. #### Maureen * Investigate options for reducing street lighting in her village, including motion-sensing lights and partial shutdowns, and gather experiences or information from other towns or villages. #### Summary ### Weather Challenges and Resilience Discussion John discussed recent weather challenges in his village, including road closures due to climate instability and a mini tornado that caused power outages. He noted a difference in perspectives about resilience and sustainability between himself and other villagers, with some being more dismissive of ongoing geological issues. Graham and Maureen coordinated meeting logistics, with Graham agreeing to send a Zoom appointment after receiving Maureen's email. The meeting appeared to be starting with Graham preparing to discuss his research on engineering and global trends, which had expanded significantly from his initial plans. ### Climate Change Technology Solutions Graham presented a series called "Engineering Our Way Out" focusing on climate change technologies and initiatives. He discussed current solutions including satellite monitoring of methane leaks, AI for pinpointing gas leaks, Maersk's order of a rotor sail for ships, and large-scale food waste collection and composting. The presentation covered existing technologies, upcoming developments, and ways individuals can make a difference, with particular emphasis on how stopping methane emissions is one of the most effective immediate actions. ### Environmental Initiatives and Impacts Graham discussed various environmental initiatives and their potential impacts. He explained that reducing aircraft altitude by a few hundred feet only requires a small fuel increase and could help with contrail formation, though Tristram questioned whether contrails are actually beneficial due to their dual role in reflecting sunlight and trapping heat. Graham also highlighted the potential of seaweed additives to prevent animal methane production, advancements in fusion energy approaches, and improvements in direct air capture technology driven by sustainable power sources. ### Carbon Capture in Timber Construction Graham discussed the carbon capture potential of trees and modern timber construction techniques, highlighting examples of tall wooden buildings including a 25-story structure in Chicago. He explained how trees absorb CO2 during growth and can be processed into laminated timber for construction, with the advantage that captured carbon remains locked in the material. Graham also touched on forest management improvements and mentioned composting as a low-cost, infrastructure-free action that can reduce methane emissions from landfills. ### Environmental Technology Solutions Discussion Graham discussed various environmental solutions including composting toilets, which generate compost for gardening and agriculture, and the benefits of using off-peak hours for appliances like dishwashers. He highlighted new technology developments including sodium batteries with zero fire risk for large installations, advanced aircraft propellers, and MIT's electron-conducting carbon concrete supercapacitors that can power homes and provide structural support. Graham emphasised that these technologies demonstrate the path to a cooler planet is no longer theoretical and individuals can contribute by adopting these solutions today. *** #### Chat: Tristram asked the question: Why do aircraft contrails, merged into clouds, tend to increase the earth's heat rather than cool it by reflecting the sun's rays? Answer: the thicker, lower, clouds such as cumulo-nimbus do tend to reflect sunlight. Thinner, higher clouds such as cirrus and contrails act more as a blanket than as reflectors Breaking News: 03Sep26 (day after this presentation) ### New Direct Air Capture facility: [https://interestingengineering.com/energy/us-plant-captures-450-tons-of-airborne-co2](https://interestingengineering.com/energy/us-plant-captures-450-tons-of-airborne-co2?utm_campaign=13508169-The%20Blueprint%20Daily%20Subscription\&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9DRN3u-2JHn-ZZaQsd2l1DeYXkoJu85hde72nG-bHcuDtAMDAInYKjFw64Ij8tzTU7CFHAtkicpoz0sCRjxAowGjMfqg&_hsmi=437283880\&utm_content=437283880\&utm_source=hs_email) *** #### Markdown of presentation: #### Slide 1 — Title **THE ENGINEERING OUR WAY OUT SERIES** ### An Introduction *What's happening now, what lands next, and the free wins anyone can start today*\ September 2026 *** #### Slide 2 — Why This Series Exists **WHY THIS SERIES EXISTS** ### We already know how to do this. Every one of the biggest sources of global warming now has a real technology fighting it — plus a set of free, common-sense fixes that don't need to wait for engineers at all. This series is a tour of both. ✓ **NOW** — deploying today · 🧭 **NEXT** — 1–3 years out · 🌳 **TREES** — a special feature · 👥 **YOU** — free, right now *** #### Slide 3 — How to Read This Deck ### Four lenses, used throughout * ✓ **NOW** — Already being deployed at real scale — not a prototype, not a promise. * 🧭 **NEXT** — Working today in pilots and labs, credibly 1–3 years from wider rollout. * 🌳 **TREES** — A special feature: growing at small scale now, with a much bigger next act. * 👥 **YOU** — Zero new technology required — just habits, choices and a bit of common sense. *** #### Slide 4 — A Quick Reminder ### The shape of the problem, in one slide | ⚡ Energy supply & use | 🌱 Agriculture & land use | 🧱 Industrial processes | 🗑️ Waste | | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | ---------------------------- | --------------------- | | **73%** | **18%** | **5%** | **3%** | | power, transport, buildings, industry | livestock, soils, deforestation | cement & chemicals reactions | landfill & wastewater | *This series drills into thirteen specific activities within those categories — plus one cross-cutting idea: trees.* *** #### PART ONE — NOW: Already Happening *Real hardware, real deployments, real emissions cuts — running today, not on a roadmap.* **Slide 6 — Hunting Methane From Space** **NOW · OIL & GAS METHANE LEAKS**\ Fugitive methane is \~6% of global emissions and among the easiest to fix — it's pure waste. Satellite constellations scan infrastructure continuously; AI pinpoints leaks to the exact valve, days after they start rather than years. > **80x** — methane traps roughly 80x more heat than CO2 over 20 years.\ > **Status: Deploying now** **Slide 7 — Cargo Ships Growing Sails Again** **NOW · SHIPPING**\ Rotor sails and rigid wing sails are being bolted onto ordinary cargo ships. Retrofits are already sailing on hundreds of vessels. > **5–20%** typical fuel savings per voyage from a single rotor sail retrofit.\ > 📰 **Stop Press:** Maersk announced today that it has ordered a rotor sail from UK company Anemoi for an 8,700 TEU container ship.\ > **Status: Early commercial** **Slide 8 — Composting, at City Scale** **NOW · WASTE**\ Cities from Milan to Seoul now run large-scale food-waste collection and composting. > **39–84%** lower methane emissions from composted food waste vs. landfill.\ > **Status: Mature, expanding** **Slide 9 — Cleaner Take-Offs** **NOW · AVIATION**\ SAF is blended into jet fuel today; American Airlines and Google trained an AI to predict contrail-forming flights and nudge pilots to fly a few thousand feet higher or lower. > **54%** reduction in contrail formation in the trial.\ > **Status: Scaling up** **Slide 10 — Teaching Cows to Burp Less** **NOW · AGRICULTURE & LIVESTOCK**\ A small daily feed additive disrupts the methane-producing microbes in cattle digestion, no change to animal or farm needed. > **Up to 90%** methane reduction in early trials of the most effective additives.\ > **Status: Early commercial** *** #### PART TWO — NEXT: One to Three Years Out *Working in labs and pilot plants today — credible, funded, close enough to matter this decade.* **Slide 12 — Fusion's First Sparks** **NEXT · FUSION POWER**\ Commonwealth Fusion, Helion and TAE are racing toward first net-electricity demonstrations before the end of the decade. > **2028+** target window for first fusion demonstrations.\ > **Status: Prototype / demo** **Slide 13 — Vacuuming Carbon From Thin Air** **NEXT · CARBON REMOVAL**\ Climeworks and Heirloom already run working DAC plants at modest scale. > **5–10x** cost reduction needed for mainstream viability.\ > **Status: Pilot / early scale-up** **Slide 14 — Drilling for Heat, Anywhere** **NEXT · GEOTHERMAL POWER**\ Enhanced geothermal borrows shale-drilling techniques to unlock clean power almost anywhere. Fervo Energy's first commercial project is already selling power under contract. > **24/7** firm, round-the-clock clean power.\ > **Status: Early commercial, scaling** **Slide 15 — Rock Dust That Eats Carbon** **NEXT · CARBON REMOVAL**\ Crushed basalt spread on farmland locks carbon away as stable minerals while improving soil. > **1000s of years** — how long the carbon stays locked away.\ > **Status: Field trials** **Slide 16 — Solar Cells That Stack** **NEXT · SOLAR POWER**\ Perovskite-silicon "tandem" cells stack a second light-absorbing layer on standard silicon. > **34–35%** record lab efficiency vs. \~22% for a typical panel today.\ > **Status: Pre-commercial** **Slide 17 — Further Out, But Moving Fast** Three more bets: **Precision Fermentation & Cultivated Meat** (regulatory & cost stage) · **Ocean-Based Carbon Removal** (early pilots) · **Space-Based Solar Power** (concept/demo) *** #### A SPECIAL FEATURE — TREES: Grow It, Then Build With It *The oldest carbon capture technology on Earth, paired with modern engineering.* **Slide 19 — A Tree Is a Carbon Capture Machine** Tree grows → Carbon stored (**\~1 tonne CO2 per m³ of wood**) → Engineered into timber → Built into buildings, carbon locked away for the building's life. A new tree is planted in its place, and the cycle starts again. **Slide 20 — From Forest to Steel-Beating Beam** **TREES · ENGINEERED TIMBER**\ CLT and glulam glue thin wood layers at alternating angles into panels with steel-like strength-to-weight. None of the tree's captured carbon is released — it just changes shape. > **\~1 tCO2** locked per cubic metre of engineered timber used in place of concrete or steel. **Slide 21 — Skyscrapers Made of Wood** **TREES · REAL BUILDINGS, TODAY**\ Mjøstårnet, Norway — 18 storeys, 85.4m, since 2019. Ascent, Milwaukee — 25 storeys, 86.6m, world's tallest timber high-rise. > **25** storeys — the current record.\ > **Status: Proven, scaling** **Slide 22 — Turning Skylines Into Carbon Sinks** **TREES · HOW BIG COULD THIS GET?**\ Potsdam Institute research: buildings could flip from a major carbon source to a genuine carbon sink if timber replaces concrete and steel at scale — but only with careful, sustainable forest management.\ **Status: The scale is real — so is the responsibility** *** #### PART THREE — YOU: The Free Fixes *No breakthrough required. Just habits, choices, and common sense.* **Slide 24 — Change Altitude, Cut Warming** **YOU · AVIATION POLICY**\ Roughly one in ten flights causes most contrail warming. Flying those flights a few thousand feet higher or lower avoids it entirely. > **$5–25** per tonne CO2-equivalent avoided — one of the cheapest climate levers there is.\ > **Status: Ask for it — the tech already works** **Slide 25 — Composting, Wherever You Live** **YOU · AT HOME OR IN THE COMMUNITY**\ A kitchen caddy, a garden heap, or a shared community scheme all work. > **39–84%** less methane than landfilling the same waste.\ > **Status: Zero-cost, start this week** **Slide 26 — Composting Toilets** **YOU · WATER, NOT JUST CARBON**\ A composting toilet uses little or no water, with no sewer connection needed. > **\~25%** of household water use typically goes straight down the toilet.\ > **Status: Available now** **Slide 27 — A Few More Everyday Wins** **Cut Food Waste at the Source** (free) · **Shift to Off-Peak Hours** (free) · **Draught-Proof Before You Electrify** (low-cost) *** #### Slide 28 — Bringing It Together ### None of this waits on a single breakthrough **54%** contrail cut in trials · **84%** max methane cut from composting · **25** storeys of the tallest timber high-rise · **10/10** top emitting activities with a credible technology in play *Real risks remain around cost, scale-up speed and policy — but the engineering path to a cooler planet is no longer theoretical, and everyone in this room can start on part of it today.* *** #### Slide 29 — Coming Up In This Series ### Thirteen deep dives, one topic at a time * **Now, in depth:** Oil & gas methane leaks · Shipping · Waste & composting · Aviation & SAF · Agriculture & livestock * **Next, in depth:** Fusion power · Direct air capture · Enhanced geothermal · Enhanced rock weathering · Tandem solar cells * **Further out:** Precision fermentation · Ocean-based carbon removal · Space-based solar power · Trees & mass timber (full feature) *** #### Slides 30–34 — New for today: five "stop press" teasers These five are your own additions since I last built the file — screenshots pasted in, so here's what's on each: **Slide 30 — Sodium batteries pass the safety test**\ *"Some new ideas to whet your appetites:"* UniGrid's sodium battery has just passed thermal tests under full load — zero fire, zero thermal propagation risk for grid-scale batteries. *(Photo: a UniGrid sodium battery pack on a production line.)* **Slide 31 — Hybrid-electric regional aircraft**\ *(Image only — no on-slide caption text.)* Screenshot of an Interesting Engineering article: **"MIT startup to build 1,200-mile range hybrid-electric aircraft for regional travel"** — a fixed-wing Electra aircraft, \~200 mph cruise, pictured in a hangar. **Slide 32 — Concrete that stores power**\ *(Image only.)* Screenshot from MIT's Concrete Sustainability Hub: **"Concrete 'battery' developed at MIT now packs 10 times the power"** — a carbon-cement supercapacitor arch prototype powering an LED. **Slide 33 — Flexible solar that bonds to anything**\ Quote: *"ElectroFlex is an ultra-thin, ultra-lightweight, flexible solar product available today for manufacturers, bonding directly to flat and curved surfaces without racks, frames, or mounting hardware, across transportation, marine, aerospace, agricultural, infrastructure, and specialty vehicle applications," said SolarWindow.* *(Photo: flexible solar cells wrapped around a pipeline.)* **Slide 34 — Passive cooling from waste heat**\ *(Image only.)* Screenshot: **"Scientists build cooling system that turns waste heat into cold without electricity"** — no electric motors, runs on ambient warmth, waste heat, or sunlight. *** #### Slide 35 — Thank You ### Now: happening. Next: coming. **You: free to start today.** *See you at the next session in the series.* *** #### Slide 36 — Sources & Further Reading Our World in Data/CAIT · IEA Global Energy Review 2026 & Renewables 2025 · American Airlines & Google contrail trial · Waste360/EPA composting studies · EPA/Princeton PSCI toilet water-use · GHGSat · Commonwealth Fusion/Helion/TAE · Climeworks & Heirloom · Fervo Energy · LONGi · Firstplanit/CTBUH (Mjøstårnet), ENR/Dezeen/Timberlab (Ascent) · Churkina et al., *Nature Sustainability* (2020) *Note: slides 30–34 aren't sourced on this list yet — want me to add the UniGrid, Interesting Engineering, MIT CSHub, and SolarWindow attributions?* *** #### Audiotranscript of the session: 103 \ 00:15:02.520 --> 00:15:18.800 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: All right, so I started this, really as an idea of raising everyone's spirits by showing the sorts of ideas that are being introduced around the world in the field of climate change and what we're doing to save the planet. 104 \ 00:15:19.150 --> 00:15:31.699 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And as I got into it, it became an ever larger topic, and then we had to sort out what's happening now, what's happening next year, and what's happening in five years' time, and so forth. 105 \ 00:15:31.950 --> 00:15:39.979 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And then you had to break it down into, well, what field of topic are we talking? Are we talking energy? Are we talking transport? Are we talking farming? Whatever? 106 \ 00:15:40.020 --> 00:15:52.699 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And so I think this may grow, depending on how people receive it today, into a series, which I've called Engineering Our Way Out, and we'll see. 107 \ 00:15:53.020 --> 00:16:04.269 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And the idea was to get people enthused in the local parishes and communities from today's audience about what can be done starting right now by anybody. 108 \ 00:16:04.750 --> 00:16:07.209 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So we'll get into that as we go through. 109 \ 00:16:08.370 --> 00:16:14.370 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So… I think one of the great 110 \ 00:16:14.780 --> 00:16:24.789 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: good piece of good news that I have was that, basically there is technology now for every one of the sources, the big sources of global warming. 111 \ 00:16:25.900 --> 00:16:34.629 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And we have got ideas in place that are actually working on it, but every technology that I've been looking at has got something 112 \ 00:16:35.180 --> 00:16:42.360 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: better, cheaper, quicker, more efficient, in the labs and coming on, which I think is very exciting. 113 \ 00:16:42.680 --> 00:16:45.380 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So… In the… 114 \ 00:16:45.590 --> 00:16:54.539 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: presentation today. We sort of… we cover what's out there right now, what's due to happen, what do we think, 115 \ 00:16:54.800 --> 00:17:06.319 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: trees are going to do for the planet. What are you going to do for the planet? And then right at the very end, I've just thrown in a few ideas of what's new or what's coming, just to spice things up a bit. 116 \ 00:17:08.369 --> 00:17:17.399 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So, we're going to be looking at these things, more or less as we've been talking. You know, what is, in place, what's coming shortly, 117 \ 00:17:17.579 --> 00:17:25.579 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: What's growing very smartly now, but may grow much larger, like trees do? And what can you do to make a difference? 118 \ 00:17:26.950 --> 00:17:36.130 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So, everybody knows these details. Roughly 73% of our pollution comes from energy supply and use, which is a sort of a 119 \ 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:43.590 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: an overall… Grouping, if you will, of power transport billings industry. 120 \ 00:17:43.950 --> 00:17:59.359 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So that's put a very large amount into one little topic. But then there's lots of… nearly a fifth of what we're doing comes from agriculture and land use, and then the rest is smaller stuff, but still has a major impact on the planet. 121 \ 00:17:59.720 --> 00:18:04.359 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So… At the moment, I'm looking at, 122 \ 00:18:04.860 --> 00:18:12.830 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: 13 activities within those categories, but they may, they may grow or shrink depending upon reaction. 123 \ 00:18:13.860 --> 00:18:20.870 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Alright, so we just take a look at what's there at the moment, just to remind people, in case there's anything there that we're not familiar with. 124 \ 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:26.040 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So… Satellites doing a wonderful job of 125 \ 00:18:26.180 --> 00:18:33.289 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: really, showing us where methane is leaking within a day or two. So, 126 \ 00:18:33.360 --> 00:18:49.340 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: it's quite easy to fix, it doesn't cost any money, people just need to go out there and stop whatever is leaking, and I was rather impressed to see that AI is pinpointing leaks down to the exact valve or flange, which is extraordinary. 127 \ 00:18:49.790 --> 00:18:57.959 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And CO2 is, roughly 1 80th of the killing effect, if you will, of methane. 128 \ 00:18:58.300 --> 00:18:59.720 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So… 129 \ 00:19:00.110 --> 00:19:12.309 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Stopping methane is one of the most important things that we can do, and it should be simple and cheap, which is not necessarily what you hear about when you're talking about climate change. So I thought that was good news. 130 \ 00:19:14.740 --> 00:19:27.329 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Stop press today. I just saw an announcement today that Maersk has announced it's ordered a rotor sail from a British company, which is great news, for one of their medium-sized ships. 131 \ 00:19:27.530 --> 00:19:33.630 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So that's an indication of where things may be going, that we're going to be using the wind again. 132 \ 00:19:33.890 --> 00:19:38.819 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And they're looking at up to 20% of fuel savings, which is pretty solid. 133 \ 00:19:39.660 --> 00:19:40.690 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Good stuff. 134 \ 00:19:41.510 --> 00:19:43.680 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: We had a… 135 \ 00:19:44.660 --> 00:19:50.499 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: discussion a couple of weeks ago about composting toilets, which I'll get onto in a second, but… 136 \ 00:19:50.860 --> 00:20:04.119 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: There is a lot that we can do to run large-scale food waste collection and composting, which turns the waste problem of generating methane and CO, 137 \ 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:09.109 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Rotting, sort of, landfills into 138 \ 00:20:10.150 --> 00:20:17.490 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: something that is quite effective. If you can reduce methane commission by 84%, then that's pretty impressive. 139 \ 00:20:17.670 --> 00:20:25.939 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And I love the line that this is one of the most boring, most effective climate technologies there is, so… Boring winds. 140 \ 00:20:26.440 --> 00:20:28.669 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So maybe there's hope for Mr. Burnham yet. 141 \ 00:20:29.650 --> 00:20:34.190 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Everyone knows, I'm sure, that, 142 \ 00:20:36.140 --> 00:20:43.690 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Aviation fuel is being treated to turn it into something a bit more efficient, or a bit more, or less polluting. 143 \ 00:20:44.110 --> 00:20:51.449 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: One of the more recent discoveries, which again is using satellites is to… 144 \ 00:20:51.970 --> 00:21:09.000 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: prevent aircraft from creating contrails. So, contrails, depending on the wind, can either just sort of evaporate and disappear, or I've watched and you can see the contrails being blown together to form cloud, and then that cloud, traps Earth 145 \ 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:15.070 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: heat, and raises the temperature. So getting rid of contrails Is a good idea. 146 \ 00:21:15.220 --> 00:21:29.249 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And again, it's one of those things that is simply a matter of applying science. You can see at what altitude contrails have been generated, and just get the aircraft to change their height. 147 \ 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:32.890 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I mean, yes, you've got to, sort of, liaise with 148 \ 00:21:33.060 --> 00:21:48.200 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: air traffic control, and so forth, but it doesn't cost anything much in the way of fuel, just about a 2% increase, apparently, to come down to a lower height. On the other hand, we're only talking about a couple of hundred feet, so… 149 \ 00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:50.270 \ tristram cary: Graham, can we ask questions as we go along? 150 \ 00:21:50.270 --> 00:21:51.369 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Yeah, please do. 151 \ 00:21:52.310 --> 00:22:08.880 \ tristram cary: I was… I read that about contrails, but can I let somebody explain to me why contrails are bad? Because I thought clouds reflect sunlight, so clouds actually reduce the amount of energy hitting the Earth from the sun, and you would have thought contrails would do the same thing, they'd act as mini-clouds and reflectors. 152 \ 00:22:09.670 --> 00:22:13.160 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I think there are two issues that the… 153 \ 00:22:16.100 --> 00:22:29.580 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: clouds are dual, purpose, aren't they? Yes, they, reflect some of the sunlight, and yes, they trap some of the heat, so I don't know which is the more important factor. It's a good question, I'll make a note of it, just to… 154 \ 00:22:29.580 --> 00:22:29.960 \ tristram cary: Thank you. 155 \ 00:22:29.960 --> 00:22:31.089 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Complain your nonsense. 156 \ 00:22:31.350 --> 00:22:32.290 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Thank you. 157 \ 00:22:33.010 --> 00:22:39.679 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Anyway, I thought that was a fun topic. Again, one of those cheap things that we can do to make a substantial difference. 158 \ 00:22:40.340 --> 00:22:43.520 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I was fascinated by this figure. 159 \ 00:22:43.660 --> 00:22:55.740 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Just a small daily additive can prevent the animals from burping methane, which is a huge issue. So, roll on our production of seaweed. 160 \ 00:22:56.090 --> 00:22:59.690 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And this is, happening right now. 161 \ 00:22:59.870 --> 00:23:15.639 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I have no idea what the cost is, but it would seem to be, if it's just grams per animal per day, or you wouldn't have thought it was that expensive, and it can make a colossal difference. Again, it's reducing methane, which is one of the more potent gases. 162 \ 00:23:16.790 --> 00:23:18.930 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Alright, so what's coming next? 163 \ 00:23:21.290 --> 00:23:38.349 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Everyone talks about fusion being available in 30 years, and fusion's been available in 30 years for the last, sort of, 70 or 80 years, I think. But they really do think that this time, they're getting it together. And some of the more fascinating stuff, if we get into this more deeply. 164 \ 00:23:38.350 --> 00:23:51.549 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: is that different companies are now taking different routes to fusion. So, in the old days, it was just the old tuckamack Donut that people were trying to get to work, but there's a lot of new approaches now being taken. 165 \ 00:23:51.670 --> 00:23:57.250 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So I think that… We may indeed be getting towards, 166 \ 00:23:58.360 --> 00:24:06.799 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: The ability to generate stable, load, base load, very cheaply, and, without any oil pollution. 167 \ 00:24:08.610 --> 00:24:10.930 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Deep… 168 \ 00:24:11.610 --> 00:24:28.170 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: direct air capture is going to be a big thing, because obviously, we've all seen the People's Emergency Briefing that says even if you stop all carbon emissions now, there's still so much already in the atmosphere that the place is going to heat up anyway. 169 \ 00:24:28.230 --> 00:24:37.260 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So what we need to do is start taking it out. At the moment, direct air capture is hugely expensive in terms of the power needed. 170 \ 00:24:37.400 --> 00:24:52.530 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And the efficiency. But, like, in the same way I think that solar cells sort of are now something like 90% less cost than they were when they first came out, I think people are hoping that direct air capture is going to be 171 \ 00:24:52.630 --> 00:24:58.840 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: much more efficient in due course, and of course, if you've got Fusion or other 172 \ 00:24:59.010 --> 00:25:05.849 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Sources of sustainable power to drive it, then the cost of electricity becomes less important. 173 \ 00:25:09.740 --> 00:25:23.099 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: This one fascinated me. We all know about geothermal, and how you can generate electricity from it, but now they're saying they can do it anywhere in the planet by just drilling further, deeper, and, 174 \ 00:25:23.100 --> 00:25:38.899 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: more effectively. And I just saw that recently there's a couple of new techniques being developed that will enable us to drill more deeply, more narrowly, so we don't need such huge pipes, but less expensively. 175 \ 00:25:39.050 --> 00:25:43.419 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So, different ways of doing things, it's good to know that it's coming. 176 \ 00:25:43.740 --> 00:25:54.760 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And there is already a commercial-scale project running under this, as opposed to the volcanic hotspot power stations, which has been in place for quite a while. 177 \ 00:25:58.730 --> 00:26:12.770 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Again, we all know about solar cells, but now somebody has found a way of doubling the production of a standard panel, and of course, everybody who's already got solar cells in place will now have to work out whether they want to replace them all with the new system. 178 \ 00:26:12.990 --> 00:26:17.289 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: But that's the price of progress, I guess, but I thought it was good news. 179 \ 00:26:19.190 --> 00:26:31.699 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: All right, well, lots of people are trying to complain that people who eat meat are causing us to have cattle, which have all sorts of problems. It's the most inefficient use of land space that there is, and so forth. So… 180 \ 00:26:31.850 --> 00:26:44.249 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: perhaps this time, the people who are trying to generate meat in the lab will be more successful. There's also a company up in 181 \ 00:26:44.740 --> 00:26:50.250 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Sweden, I think, which is generating… I think… Stuart, you, not… 182 \ 00:26:51.430 --> 00:26:56.710 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Put me onto this, that they're generating, protein 183 \ 00:26:56.990 --> 00:27:05.500 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Very cheaply, that can be bought into regular food to be much more, energy-based for the human body. 184 \ 00:27:07.090 --> 00:27:24.400 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I'm not sure I like the idea of changing the alkalinity of the ocean. It seems to me that we're making a big enough mess of the ocean as it is, but I guess someone might have worked out that we can do… I like the idea of sinking seaweed. I think that sounds like a much more sustainable route. 185 \ 00:27:24.860 --> 00:27:34.439 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And, I think lots of science fiction writers have talked about sticking solar panels up in space to beam power down to Earth. 186 \ 00:27:35.940 --> 00:27:42.329 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Or mirrors, I think it's been in the past, but now they're suggesting that we can just pipe the power down. 187 \ 00:27:42.520 --> 00:27:45.519 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So, again, I'd love to see that in practice. 188 \ 00:27:46.260 --> 00:27:53.640 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Alright, this is deliberately put in to satisfy Tristram, because this is one of his favourite topics. 189 \ 00:27:54.080 --> 00:27:56.549 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: But… Trees represent… 190 \ 00:27:57.760 --> 00:28:11.359 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: in one way of thinking, the oldest carbon capture technology on Earth. I would argue that actually oceans have been around a bit longer than the trees, but never mind. Obviously, trees are there in huge numbers, and they absorb a huge amount of 191 \ 00:28:11.480 --> 00:28:15.560 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: carbon dioxide. So… What can you do? 192 \ 00:28:16.370 --> 00:28:25.150 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So here's the cycle. The tree grows, and as it grows, it absorbs CO2, and the older it gets, the more it locks up in place. 193 \ 00:28:25.370 --> 00:28:29.790 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So eventually you've got a ton of CO2 in every cubic meter of wood. 194 \ 00:28:30.120 --> 00:28:40.789 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Then with modern techniques, you can, produce leminated timber, which is immensely strong. It's the same strength for weight as you get in steel. 195 \ 00:28:41.140 --> 00:28:48.520 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And of course, you generate it without any of the pollution involved in steel or the electricity required. 196 \ 00:28:48.820 --> 00:28:52.009 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And now we can build it into buildings. 197 \ 00:28:52.380 --> 00:28:57.799 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And the new technique means that we can start, building skyscrapers out of wood. 198 \ 00:28:58.190 --> 00:29:10.450 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So here is an example. I think they're up to 25 storeys now in Chicago, although there is a 24-storey building that's been up in Stockholm for a while. 199 \ 00:29:10.570 --> 00:29:15.569 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: But the one in Chicago is another floor higher, so that's another 10 feet up. 200 \ 00:29:15.930 --> 00:29:23.590 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So that makes it, what, 250 feet, at least, which is getting to be very skyscraper-type numbers. 201 \ 00:29:24.120 --> 00:29:30.690 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And none of the carbon that the tree has captured is released, it just changes shape. 202 \ 00:29:31.400 --> 00:29:36.240 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And it's got all sorts of advantages over concrete and steel. 203 \ 00:29:38.710 --> 00:29:46.940 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And here we are, some numbers, sorry, I… 18 stories in Norway, 25 stories in Milwaukee. 204 \ 00:29:54.830 --> 00:29:56.029 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And then… 205 \ 00:29:58.420 --> 00:30:15.830 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: the problem of timber, of course, is you need lots of it, and growing it requires lots of space, but I think lots of people are very keen on tree planting, so it should be a much better idea. And I was reading another day an either article about Britain's Forestry Commission, which, of course, after the Second World War. 206 \ 00:30:17.350 --> 00:30:31.290 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: planted huge, forests of pine trees, which are dark and dismal and dull, because they needed the wood. But now, they're replacing the ones that they cut down with much more, 207 \ 00:30:32.380 --> 00:30:38.710 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: different trees. They're sort of mixing them up to get a much better, a… 208 \ 00:30:38.730 --> 00:30:53.099 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: growing session, much more biodiverse, happy to support more birds and insects and so forth, and the plants that can grow underneath. So, again, the more we learn, the better we are doing the things that we've been doing for a long time. 209 \ 00:30:53.150 --> 00:30:56.119 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: It's not very glamorous, but it is effective. 210 \ 00:30:59.720 --> 00:31:09.659 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Alright, so here's where common sense comes into play, and as I was discussing earlier with John, there isn't always a lot of common sense around available, but never mind, we can try this. 211 \ 00:31:10.870 --> 00:31:11.810 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So… 212 \ 00:31:16.060 --> 00:31:25.280 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I seem to have jumped, don't I, to a new topic. Anyway, just, I think, amplifying what I was saying earlier about the getting rid of the contrails. 213 \ 00:31:26.300 --> 00:31:32.449 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Composting, we've discussed briefly. Here's a little bit more information about it. 214 \ 00:31:32.620 --> 00:31:39.230 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: But it's one of the few climate actions that costs nothing, needs to know your infrastructure, and gives you something useful back. 215 \ 00:31:39.620 --> 00:31:48.060 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And, a major reduction in methane if you can compost stuff rather than stick it into a landfill. 216 \ 00:31:49.040 --> 00:31:59.310 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And we did talk about composting toilets a couple of weeks ago. It was the percentage use of water that I thought was very interesting. 217 \ 00:31:59.620 --> 00:32:13.220 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: If 25% of all the water that we use is just a drinking water standard used to carry our waste away, there has to be a way that we can improve that. And the composting toilets, 218 \ 00:32:13.330 --> 00:32:32.139 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: solve that problem. They also generate compost that you can use not only in your garden, but if you did this on a community scale, then of course you can start using it in aquaculture as well. And the person giving us the composting toilet speech was very, 219 \ 00:32:33.090 --> 00:32:46.260 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: insistent that there is no smell or downside from it. I mean, she had a problem initially with urine, but she found that adding citric acid to the urine container removed that problem. 220 \ 00:32:46.260 --> 00:32:55.960 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And she's now convinced that everybody should be doing this. I thought it was a good point, and if it's such a huge user of water. 221 \ 00:32:56.100 --> 00:33:03.939 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Then, if we're not using it in the first place, we're going to resolve some of the problems that the water companies have in getting rid of the water that we're using. 222 \ 00:33:08.020 --> 00:33:16.690 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So, I don't think there's anything new here about how we can improve things. Food waste has been the topic of the conversation for a long time. 223 \ 00:33:17.130 --> 00:33:24.359 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Changing to off-peak hours for running our dishwashers and, our, 224 \ 00:33:24.690 --> 00:33:27.869 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Other devices at home makes a lot of sense. 225 \ 00:33:28.290 --> 00:33:32.169 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And of course, we've all known about draft proofing first. 226 \ 00:33:33.500 --> 00:33:34.420 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So… 227 \ 00:33:39.280 --> 00:33:44.730 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I don't think this needs reading out. Basically, I'm just boringly repeating myself. 228 \ 00:33:45.790 --> 00:33:50.590 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: But the… the path to a cooler planet is no longer theoretical. 229 \ 00:33:50.950 --> 00:33:57.039 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And we can all start contributing by whatever we choose today to do today. 230 \ 00:33:58.580 --> 00:34:02.760 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So, this is just where I thought we could go in the future. 231 \ 00:34:03.130 --> 00:34:09.989 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: In… Talking about, other… 232 \ 00:34:10.380 --> 00:34:16.209 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: products, this is just one topic that we're looking at, but we could go into future topics as well. 233 \ 00:34:16.980 --> 00:34:21.230 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And then this was the… I came up with some ideas just to cheer people up. 234 \ 00:34:21.449 --> 00:34:34.679 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So, lithium-ion batteries have a problem of bursting into flame, particularly when they're under big loads or they're working at, sort of, grid-scale size batteries. Sodium batteries, on the other hand. 235 \ 00:34:34.830 --> 00:34:40.890 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: remove the problem. So there's zero fire risk and zero thermal propagation. 236 \ 00:34:41.199 --> 00:34:44.510 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And the beauty of sodium is that, 237 \ 00:34:44.920 --> 00:34:58.850 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: it's used for these big installations, you know, the batteries are larger, they're much heavier, and therefore not so good for lightweight devices like telephones and calculators and things. So… 238 \ 00:34:58.970 --> 00:35:04.520 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: big devices should become, many more… I'm sorry, going the wrong way. 239 \ 00:35:04.720 --> 00:35:06.760 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Sodium-cooled batteries nowadays. 240 \ 00:35:09.300 --> 00:35:18.719 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I thought this was fun, that just you can now travel halfway across the United States on one battery charge, 241 \ 00:35:18.890 --> 00:35:22.220 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And presumably that will also increase as we get going. 242 \ 00:35:22.580 --> 00:35:26.200 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So I was very impressed about the fancy propellers on these aircraft. 243 \ 00:35:26.860 --> 00:35:29.499 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: That just shows what modern technology can do. 244 \ 00:35:31.870 --> 00:35:48.260 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I've mentioned this before, but the new news from MIT is that with one year of development, they've now managed to get 10 times the power out of their carbon cement supercapacitors. So. 245 \ 00:35:48.340 --> 00:35:56.440 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: In the picture, the black bit is the carbon arch that is supporting the weights placed on top of it. 246 \ 00:35:56.800 --> 00:36:01.630 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And that little arch is enough to power the LED light underneath. 247 \ 00:36:01.760 --> 00:36:06.359 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And they find that the more that the load is put on it. 248 \ 00:36:06.500 --> 00:36:13.560 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: The system is also able to report where it's failing, so if the concrete is developing cracks. 249 \ 00:36:13.640 --> 00:36:26.719 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Or there's an issue with too much load being placed upon the… then the system can also warn you about that, so you may not get so many of these big disasters where bridges collapse and dams crash. 250 \ 00:36:26.830 --> 00:36:29.870 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: to the ground, and so forth. So, good news there. 251 \ 00:36:31.080 --> 00:36:49.950 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: This was fascinating to me, just taking a regular pipeline, coating it in this transparent… well, not transparent, but this film, and you got, a major battery, a major source of electricity, just using your existing infrastructure. So, I thought that was really fascinating. 252 \ 00:36:50.750 --> 00:36:56.269 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Let me just go back a pitch to this… MIT thing. 253 \ 00:36:56.420 --> 00:36:58.160 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: What they've said is. 254 \ 00:36:58.540 --> 00:37:04.040 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: You could put in your basement of your house, if you build the walls of their, 255 \ 00:37:04.940 --> 00:37:12.660 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: EC cubed concrete, which is electron conducting carbon concrete. One… 256 \ 00:37:13.770 --> 00:37:28.499 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: basement wall will support the amount of power needed to run the house in non-generating hours. So, if you've got solar panels on the roof, they can pour electricity during the day into the battery. 257 \ 00:37:28.500 --> 00:37:34.649 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And the basement, if you will, and the basement will be enough to keep you going during the evenings when the sun's gone. 258 \ 00:37:34.760 --> 00:37:49.609 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And of course, if you tie that in with wind power as well, you get even more of a plus. But again, I just thought that, interesting numbers, you can now build houses from the ground up, which are self-supporting electrically, electrically. 259 \ 00:37:49.980 --> 00:37:51.490 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So… 260 \ 00:37:51.490 --> 00:37:52.040 \ tristram cary: Doop! 261 \ 00:37:52.170 --> 00:37:53.290 \ tristram cary: Grimm. 262 \ 00:37:53.630 --> 00:37:53.980 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Yep. 263 \ 00:37:54.100 --> 00:38:00.429 \ tristram cary: So, can you just explain that again? Are they batteries, or are… is the structural load creating power? 264 \ 00:38:00.840 --> 00:38:19.130 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: No, the structural load isn't doing anything. They're putting carbon black into the concrete, and it is… it's chargeable much in the same way as you charge a capacitor. So it's not really a battery, they call them super… supercapacitors. So you're discharging the stored electricity 265 \ 00:38:20.840 --> 00:38:30.130 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: just in the same way as a capacitor does, but you're doing it over a period of time. Capacitors tend to be quite quick discharging, but I think nowadays. 266 \ 00:38:30.280 --> 00:38:31.710 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: You can go for slow. 267 \ 00:38:31.880 --> 00:38:36.110 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And then I think this is my last one of the new stuff that's coming along. 268 \ 00:38:36.330 --> 00:38:54.039 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I mean, amazing, you can create an air conditioner that doesn't use any electricity. So, as the climate increases its temperature, and as we all feel that we need air conditioning, then there's now a way of reducing air conditioning without 269 \ 00:38:54.360 --> 00:38:56.330 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Electric… electric supply. 270 \ 00:38:56.750 --> 00:39:03.979 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So I just think, that's one of the more fascinating pieces of good news. This is just in the… 271 \ 00:39:05.370 --> 00:39:21.020 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: laboratory stage at the moment, but if they can scale it up to commercial practice, then that would be just sheer genius. And of course, every piece of equipment you have that isn't running on electricity from a grid is reducing the need for grid electricity perfect. 272 \ 00:39:22.830 --> 00:39:24.700 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Okay, so… 273 \ 00:39:27.510 --> 00:39:39.069 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I'm going to stop here and just find out if there are any questions or comments or thoughts about whether we need to re… go into more depth in each of those topics in the various 274 \ 00:39:40.340 --> 00:39:46.100 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Categories, if you will, of, you know, transport, energy, food, farming, whatever. 275 \ 00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:48.100 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So I'll stop. 276 \ 00:39:48.290 --> 00:39:51.200 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And see if anybody has brought any interests. 277 \ 00:39:53.370 --> 00:39:55.039 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: Can I ask one quick question? 278 \ 00:39:55.450 --> 00:39:56.539 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Go on, John. 279 \ 00:39:59.330 --> 00:40:07.380 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: the… batteries. If the world ended up Let's say, 25 years' time. 280 \ 00:40:07.760 --> 00:40:16.569 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: A battery state where we're not using batteries at the moment as storage, except for remote controls and portable devices and cars now. 281 \ 00:40:17.840 --> 00:40:21.160 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: Is that going to be a problem in 25 years' time, where… 282 \ 00:40:21.270 --> 00:40:26.030 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: Where we're… we're storing batteries and the way that we're… 283 \ 00:40:26.320 --> 00:40:30.830 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: We're making it, constructing them. What impact will that have? 284 \ 00:40:32.540 --> 00:40:33.840 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So… 285 \ 00:40:34.420 --> 00:40:53.039 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I'm puzzling a little bit over what you're saying. There are ideas out there at the moment, which is one of the things I want to look at when we start looking more at electricity, where you can plug your car in and have it recharged by the main central system, whatever it's going to be. 286 \ 00:40:53.070 --> 00:40:57.750 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: say, your local power grid, or whatever. But then. 287 \ 00:40:58.130 --> 00:41:10.080 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Tens of thousands of cars across the country, all plugged into the same system, can be the overnight storage, the battery, if you will. So they're looking at using the system in two ways. 288 \ 00:41:10.230 --> 00:41:24.380 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So you can charge it with cheap electricity when electricity is available, and you can use the batteries in the cars as a major source of power for the grid, should that be necessary. But I don't really think that was what your question was, was it? 289 \ 00:41:25.560 --> 00:41:36.020 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: It's more of the sustainability, and, you know, we've got this, we've got this history of inventing things, bringing it into the world, and then it becoming a problem. 290 \ 00:41:36.420 --> 00:41:50.950 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: And sort of eliminating that problem side of it. So, is it something that's going to be caused a problem climately, globally, in 25 years' time from now? Or is it something that's going to be good for 25 years from now? 291 \ 00:41:52.250 --> 00:42:01.050 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Yeah, I do see what you mean. So all that lithium and concentrated in used batteries, where's it going to go, and what's it going to do? Or where's our nuclear waste going to go to? 292 \ 00:42:01.170 --> 00:42:09.670 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I think… My answer would be, and I'm not knowledgeable particularly in this area, Richard, is that 293 \ 00:42:10.110 --> 00:42:11.610 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: There will be… 294 \ 00:42:12.460 --> 00:42:23.650 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: technologies that develop that come along and use the result of what we've generated. So, for instance, I was reading today that there's a company in the United States 295 \ 00:42:23.740 --> 00:42:30.580 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: That is saying that, we've buried 95,000 tons of nuclear waste. 296 \ 00:42:30.660 --> 00:42:39.780 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Most of it low-level waste. I mean, the high-level waste is different, but the low-level waste, which is by far the most volumetric problem. 297 \ 00:42:39.860 --> 00:42:55.380 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: They've now worked out that they can, recycle it into batteries that last for 30 years. So the appeal of a battery that can go into my torch for the next 30 years sounds marvelous, and it's been created from, a… 298 \ 00:42:57.070 --> 00:43:12.779 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: a technical issue, nuclear power, that generated the waste in the first place. So, I'm hoping that that sort of circular activity, which is being looked at by a lot of people, so that everything is a circle, and you should be able to use up what you're generating. 299 \ 00:43:12.800 --> 00:43:27.130 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: or creating, will be more and more applied across industry as a whole, and I'm hoping that it will apply, exactly as you're suggesting, that we will be generating problems, I'm sure, but I also think that industries will… will… 300 \ 00:43:27.220 --> 00:43:29.710 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Jump up to take advantage of them. 301 \ 00:43:30.520 --> 00:43:36.499 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: Well, I mean, that will certainly go towards net zero and 100% recyclable, from… 302 \ 00:43:36.690 --> 00:43:42.529 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: From production to the end, so that would obviously… that would be really good if they can do that. 303 \ 00:43:42.530 --> 00:43:55.339 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I hope so, yes. I think as we… as more and more people climb on board the bandwagon, I think more and more ideas will come up, but there'll also be more and more voting pressure, if you will. 304 \ 00:43:55.400 --> 00:44:08.500 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: for industry not to start something unless they can see a way of resolving it at the end. And that's that circular thing that you were referring to. I think that's almost going to become a sort of a regulatory requirement. 305 \ 00:44:08.670 --> 00:44:20.389 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Talking about regulation, and I'll get… John, I see you've got your hand, and Stuart, you've got yours up, I'll come to you, but there was the most extraordinary statistic I came across in looking into nuclear power. 306 \ 00:44:20.940 --> 00:44:37.860 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: In the first years of nuclear power in the United States, they had the Atomic Energy Commission in charge of everything to do with nuclear power, and in a period of about 30 years, they built 150 nuclear power stations in the US. 307 \ 00:44:38.010 --> 00:44:41.670 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Then, somebody took the Atomic Energy Commission out of 308 \ 00:44:41.830 --> 00:44:59.529 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: existence, and replaced it with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, whose job was precisely that. And in the next 30 years, they built precisely two nuclear reactors, and they'd only built those because they were already commissioned and underway when the NRC took over. 309 \ 00:44:59.610 --> 00:45:15.840 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: But the regulation that they created effectively killed all nuclear power stations in the United States. They haven't built any in the US in the last 30 years, which is, I think, mind-boggling, and a classic example of how 310 \ 00:45:15.840 --> 00:45:27.159 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: The bureaucracy or the health and safety bunch have really destroyed what was an extraordinary creation in the first place. 311 \ 00:45:27.270 --> 00:45:38.070 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So I'm sure there's lots of opinion and controversy that can come around that, but I just found it the most amazing figure that you see a chart of, construction of a… 312 \ 00:45:38.300 --> 00:45:44.689 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: power stations in the US, and it just stops dead when the AEC goes out of business and the NRC comes in. 313 \ 00:45:44.970 --> 00:46:00.340 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So, I think in the same way that we're suggesting that maybe we can regulate our way into circular economy, there's also a grave danger that we'll kill all activity going ahead. Anyway, Stuart, you are next up with your hand, please. 314 \ 00:46:01.220 --> 00:46:11.969 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Yeah, I was just gonna say thank you very much for a very interesting talk, and it is really nice to see these technologies and techniques coming along. 315 \ 00:46:12.290 --> 00:46:17.890 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: But, I think that there's sometimes too much vested interest in… 316 \ 00:46:18.210 --> 00:46:23.699 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Carrying on with what we're doing. Like the big fossil fuel companies. 317 \ 00:46:24.710 --> 00:46:28.690 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: They would be doing their best to stymie a lot of these new 318 \ 00:46:29.460 --> 00:46:35.630 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Inventions or ways of doing things, because it's going to affect their business. 319 \ 00:46:36.360 --> 00:46:45.150 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: And I think until there's more political, regulatory stuff in place, That is gonna continue. 320 \ 00:46:46.480 --> 00:46:55.050 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Well, I think you're right, but I think there's also going to be a… And what's the, 321 \ 00:46:55.330 --> 00:47:02.899 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: the word the insurers use when they say something has happened from the power of God, 322 \ 00:47:03.440 --> 00:47:07.170 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I'm trying to think of an external source that you can't prevent. 323 \ 00:47:07.210 --> 00:47:08.439 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: an act of God. 324 \ 00:47:09.220 --> 00:47:12.939 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Yeah, yes, but I'm thinking of that… 325 \ 00:47:13.500 --> 00:47:23.269 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: business of… if Maersk puts rotating sales on all of their container ships, and that saves them 5% of fuel. 326 \ 00:47:23.270 --> 00:47:41.419 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: then that 5% of fuel that Maersk would have bought from the fossil fuel companies isn't going to be bought. And I think that as we generate more and more of our electricity sustainably, and with regenerative systems, then the oil companies are going to be faced with a policy that nobody wants the bloody stuff. 327 \ 00:47:41.830 --> 00:47:56.509 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: that at the moment, we need it, and yes, they've got a powerful lobby to say that we need to… I mean, there was a point when someone was going to start up coal mines in the UK again, because somebody brought pressure to bear, but I think that 328 \ 00:47:56.650 --> 00:48:14.649 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I would like to think that popular demand, whereby there isn't any need for petrol because the cars are all driven by electricity, and there isn't any need for diesel because the trucks are all driven by electricity, then what are the oil companies going to sell? To whom? Because we don't want it. Thank you very much. 329 \ 00:48:15.010 --> 00:48:16.080 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So I just… 330 \ 00:48:16.080 --> 00:48:23.659 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: But they do seem to be in positions of power. I mean, certainly, in the States, there's the… 331 \ 00:48:23.900 --> 00:48:30.529 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: ex-head of, Exxon, as someone becomes, vice President or something. 332 \ 00:48:31.930 --> 00:48:38.470 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: The state's an interesting organization, because there isn't any climate change there. It doesn't exist. So there… 333 \ 00:48:38.470 --> 00:48:42.240 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: No, and Trump's backpedaled on the methane leaks. 334 \ 00:48:42.240 --> 00:48:42.800 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Yeah. 335 \ 00:48:43.040 --> 00:48:59.090 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: But I think that that's all… I see that as being short-term, Stuart. I mean, I agree with you that it'll be 20 or 30 years before all of this climate change stuff comes into being, but I think at the end of it, force majeure was the term I was looking for. 336 \ 00:48:59.090 --> 00:48:59.689 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Oh, that's true. 337 \ 00:48:59.690 --> 00:49:01.259 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I think that, 338 \ 00:49:01.440 --> 00:49:11.070 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I think that the people like the oil companies, who've got massive amounts of power and lobbying support at the moment, will discover that they've just lost their market. 339 \ 00:49:11.410 --> 00:49:21.029 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: BP, for instance, saw their way out of this, didn't they? They sort of tried a few years ago to go for regenerating, and then they completely made a hash of it, and they've now. 340 \ 00:49:21.030 --> 00:49:23.820 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Yeah, and they've completely, sort of, backed away from it. 341 \ 00:49:23.820 --> 00:49:30.700 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Yes, they have, but I think that that's because they were a first, what's the word? First, 342 \ 00:49:31.290 --> 00:49:38.769 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: prior… first user, and they got it wrong, or the world wasn't ready for their products, but I think, in time it will be. 343 \ 00:49:39.550 --> 00:49:43.740 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I think there are lots of other examples. I mean, there, there was… 344 \ 00:49:44.270 --> 00:49:50.019 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I think, again, it was Exxon who were making biofuel using algae. 345 \ 00:49:50.730 --> 00:49:58.780 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: And that was a big, sort of, selling point for them. It turns out they actually spent more on the advertising for 346 \ 00:49:59.030 --> 00:50:01.160 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: the non-existent product. 347 \ 00:50:01.320 --> 00:50:03.979 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: And now they dumped it completely. 348 \ 00:50:04.730 --> 00:50:11.560 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Wonderful. Okay. Well, I think there's… you're absolutely right about the present day. 349 \ 00:50:11.690 --> 00:50:18.790 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: But I think that these companies are going to find that the world is turning against them. 350 \ 00:50:19.520 --> 00:50:21.479 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I would hope so. 351 \ 00:50:21.680 --> 00:50:22.780 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And, exactly. 352 \ 00:50:22.780 --> 00:50:28.080 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Do we have 30 years to, turn things around, though? 353 \ 00:50:28.200 --> 00:50:45.589 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Well, that's where I think that engineering our way out of the issue is going to be a major factor, that if we can find ways of reducing our carbon pollution and taking stuff out of the atmosphere, that will help. 354 \ 00:50:45.620 --> 00:50:55.829 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: But yes, I agree. I mean, it's very, very worrying. I think if you look at what's going to happen if we get consistent 2 degrees above current levels, then it's very, very nasty. 355 \ 00:50:55.930 --> 00:50:58.290 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So, the more we can do, the better. 356 \ 00:50:58.700 --> 00:51:01.119 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: John, I'm sorry, you've had your hand up for a while. 357 \ 00:51:01.740 --> 00:51:17.570 \ John Payne: Yes, thank you. These are very good, discrete sort of solutions to energy problems, but my issue, which is personal experience, is that how do you organize those changes in a world that's increasingly become involved in chaos? 358 \ 00:51:18.450 --> 00:51:32.940 \ John Payne: And here I'm thinking about climatic instability, which is astonishingly quick and sudden, really, if you look at the weather we've had recently, the rainfall we've had recently in the last winter. And I think we should be looking at 359 \ 00:51:33.410 --> 00:51:39.940 \ John Payne: Not technological changes, but behavioural and, 360 \ 00:51:40.930 --> 00:51:47.280 \ John Payne: Responding much quicker to… to real crises in both the 361 \ 00:51:47.520 --> 00:51:57.319 \ John Payne: The natural world around us, and also the economic and political uncertainties that force us to live in a very dangerous and changing world. 362 \ 00:51:59.540 --> 00:52:05.840 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Yes, so it's your issue of how do you persuade people to start getting involved in this? 363 \ 00:52:06.310 --> 00:52:07.480 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Or… Nope. 364 \ 00:52:07.690 --> 00:52:10.760 \ John Payne: No, how to be more responsive. 365 \ 00:52:11.430 --> 00:52:17.650 \ John Payne: how to… how to think on their feet, how to come up with… with… with answers, you know, I mean… 366 \ 00:52:18.460 --> 00:52:24.569 \ John Payne: In the village, in the valley I live in, one side faces west. 367 \ 00:52:24.690 --> 00:52:28.259 \ John Payne: And it's really sunny. And I live on the cold side. 368 \ 00:52:28.510 --> 00:52:32.880 \ John Payne: And when I moved to my house on the cold side, in this cottage. 369 \ 00:52:33.030 --> 00:52:43.620 \ John Payne: I immediately noticed that I was… that winter was something to be dreaded, that now, I am the one that's benefiting from the… from the, shading in the summer. 370 \ 00:52:44.070 --> 00:52:48.019 \ John Payne: People around us found it tolerable, the sunny and the temperatures, yeah. 371 \ 00:52:49.420 --> 00:52:52.329 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Well… I think that when you… 372 \ 00:52:53.170 --> 00:53:07.100 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: there was a sentence in one of the slides I put where human habits can make a big difference. I mean, I've, in the past, I've suggested that it's ridiculous that we keep building houses above ground. We should be going underground, where you don't 373 \ 00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:09.280 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Heat them, and you don't have to cool them. 374 \ 00:53:10.350 --> 00:53:31.480 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: You've got to overcome this instinctive reaction that, you know, it's dark, and it's misty, and it's full of spiders or whatever, but the underground houses I've been to are anything but. In fact, they're much more sunlight lit than most above-ground houses, as far as I can see. But it's a question of 375 \ 00:53:31.480 --> 00:53:34.059 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: educating people, and I think that 376 \ 00:53:34.630 --> 00:53:56.490 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: That's a whole different topic, which is extremely controversial, but I think if you can make education fit for purpose, so instead of uselessly learning Latin or Greek, because AI can do that for us now, but also teaching people what their role in the world should be, or how they can be a decent parent, or whatever, which is all stuff that the education world doesn't cover at the moment. 377 \ 00:53:56.490 --> 00:54:03.799 \ John Payne: Can I just put my own solution, which… then I'll be very quiet, which is basically, 378 \ 00:54:03.800 --> 00:54:20.489 \ John Payne: the communities we live in have to change. You know, we have… I'm in the Forest of Dean and on the Welsh border, and we have several resilience hubs. There are some… there's one funded by the Welsh Government, you know, which people can benefit from, particularly last night when there was a complete power cut. 379 \ 00:54:20.560 --> 00:54:33.699 \ John Payne: In the two villages. And, it's that sense of being in it all together, and having to share knowledge, having to share solutions. But I think we should concentrate on, 380 \ 00:54:34.580 --> 00:54:40.499 \ John Payne: Because otherwise, we won't be able to pick and choose between these various technological fixes, which you've very… 381 \ 00:54:40.910 --> 00:54:42.660 \ John Payne: Expertly given to us. 382 \ 00:54:43.560 --> 00:54:54.939 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Well, I think that, again, we're talking about changing human habits, and I mean, I look… I like to look at transition towns, which are basically saying, we want to be self-sufficient, we want to do things our way, we don't want. 383 \ 00:54:54.940 --> 00:54:55.330 \ John Payne: Okay. 384 \ 00:54:55.330 --> 00:54:58.659 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: What to do by a nanny state. And basically. 385 \ 00:54:58.660 --> 00:55:18.260 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: we're going to get on with it in our own way. And what started off as a single idea in Totteness is now being used over the 150 cities across the world. And much to my astonishment, I discovered the other day that the whole of the Isle of Wight is a transition town. 386 \ 00:55:18.610 --> 00:55:24.640 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I didn't see any evidence of it, but it… the fact that it is one came as a shock. 387 \ 00:55:24.640 --> 00:55:27.309 \ tristram cary: Sorry, can you define a… what is a transition term? 388 \ 00:55:27.860 --> 00:55:51.919 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Well, basically, it's a community getting together, saying, we would like to work together in the best possible way for our future as the way we want it. So, we want the education process to cover these topics. We want to, not be dependent upon your money. Totteness created their own sterling, their own pound, which they could use only within, you know, the environment. 389 \ 00:55:52.690 --> 00:56:12.100 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: But it's got a lot to do with sustainability, it's got a lot to do with regeneration, it's got a lot to do with people saying, we do want to live in a different way, and we'd like to enthuse our community to do the same, and some communities get together and agree to do it, and some think it's a lousy idea, but it depends on… 390 \ 00:56:12.100 --> 00:56:15.849 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And then perhaps you move to one that does suit you, or whatever. 391 \ 00:56:16.460 --> 00:56:28.170 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: But, well worth looking at. There's a great book on transition towns, which I'll send you the topic later, or I'll put it up in the chat afterwards. I can't remember what it's called at the moment, but, 392 \ 00:56:28.280 --> 00:56:29.300 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Good reading. 393 \ 00:56:31.910 --> 00:56:40.710 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Are we done? Is there anybody else, raising a hand that I haven't seen? John, yours is still up, is that… Oh, sorry, I put it down. Yep, tristram, okay, go for it. 394 \ 00:56:40.710 --> 00:56:45.010 \ tristram cary: I just thought I'd say that, I like… I very much like the idea of 395 \ 00:56:45.240 --> 00:56:51.310 \ tristram cary: Communities being independent in terms of their… or self-sustaining in terms of their energy use. 396 \ 00:56:51.750 --> 00:56:57.450 \ tristram cary: So, and David and I are working on, you know, local energy community projects. 397 \ 00:56:58.140 --> 00:57:02.019 \ tristram cary: the huge benefit is, first of all, resilience. You know, if you could make 398 \ 00:57:02.270 --> 00:57:18.430 \ tristram cary: at a district level, communities generate most of their own power, even if not all of it. You're much more resilient to breakdowns and chaos in the grid. And you're also saving a massive amount of money maintaining the grid and developing the grid, which looks like an almost impossible problem. 399 \ 00:57:18.430 --> 00:57:29.030 \ tristram cary: We're talking about now having to invest $100 billion in improving the grid, but the planning constraints make it… it's going to make it 10 times more difficult, and expensive, and late. 400 \ 00:57:29.540 --> 00:57:41.649 \ tristram cary: And Mr. Putin is just waiting to take down our grid, which will be very easy for him to do. So I think the idea of local sustainability for energy development, for energy generation, sorry, is a very important theme. 401 \ 00:57:42.560 --> 00:57:42.990 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: That's. 402 \ 00:57:42.990 --> 00:57:57.879 \ tristram cary: And that's perfectly possible, because the sun shines everywhere, and I think if we did optimize the roof space and the car parks and the industrial buildings, commercial buildings, there's probably enough power to manage the whole of our load at a local level. 403 \ 00:57:58.150 --> 00:58:07.589 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Absolutely right. If you had a mapping system that would show which houses could be developed to do that, then, lo and behold, we'd be in wonderland. 404 \ 00:58:07.920 --> 00:58:08.510 \ tristram cary: We have. 405 \ 00:58:08.510 --> 00:58:10.290 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: As I mentioned. 406 \ 00:58:10.290 --> 00:58:11.510 \ tristram cary: NGD building data. 407 \ 00:58:11.510 --> 00:58:12.710 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: My Italian teak, though. 408 \ 00:58:14.280 --> 00:58:18.170 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: But, no, I agree with you. I think the idea of, 409 \ 00:58:18.340 --> 00:58:29.509 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: resilience is always wonderful on microgrids, and you know, you and David are working with a company that's sort of specializing in developing the software that permits all this to happen. 410 \ 00:58:29.580 --> 00:58:48.459 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: So, I think it's really good news. I haven't touched on today, but I really do think it's going to be making a big difference, is small modular reactors, and how small can you get them, and in the States, they're now talking about burying reactors of a thousand or a couple thousand feet down. 411 \ 00:58:48.460 --> 00:58:58.340 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And still having them generate electricity quite nicely. So I think there's… it's a wonderful world we live in at the moment, if you can keep up with the changes, and you're not too stressed out by them. 412 \ 00:58:58.340 --> 00:59:06.050 \ David Morgan-Jones EwPC: Graham, they've actually developed a nuclear reactor that could be moved by 6 of their Galaxy aircraft, the Americans. 413 \ 00:59:07.100 --> 00:59:10.759 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I've seen one that sits on the back of a truck, actually, but yes, I agree. 414 \ 00:59:10.760 --> 00:59:17.200 \ David Morgan-Jones EwPC: Yeah, no, they, they could, they, they can deploy it, build it, and then, commission it. 415 \ 00:59:17.370 --> 00:59:24.390 \ David Morgan-Jones EwPC: By… by moving these… these components in the back of a… their C… C14s, I think. 416 \ 00:59:25.100 --> 00:59:27.750 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Which is fantastic, isn't it? 417 \ 00:59:28.020 --> 00:59:30.900 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I mean, I think… 418 \ 00:59:31.590 --> 00:59:42.200 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: we're going back to the days of… I think Hinkley Point and Sizewell will be the last big nuclear reactors built in this country. I think everything will have to go to small, local sources of power. 419 \ 00:59:42.520 --> 00:59:44.620 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: And we'll be much stronger for it. 420 \ 00:59:45.600 --> 00:59:51.570 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Gary, you got a hand up. I'm sorry, I've got Maureen as well. Maureen, I'm sorry, you're first. Beg pardon. 421 \ 00:59:51.570 --> 00:59:56.910 \ Maureen Holliday: I was just going to say, I saw this topic, often I'm… I'm busy at the time when you have your 422 \ 00:59:56.910 --> 01:00:21.529 \ Maureen Holliday: talks, but I saw this topic, and I thought, I must listen to this, and I'm really enjoying it. It's really interesting. Also, I mean, in a very small way, we're starting with a request by one or two villagers, to look at street lighting reduction. And I don't know if anybody's had any experience or any information they can offer, etc. 423 \ 01:00:21.530 --> 01:00:28.289 \ Maureen Holliday: it would be really helpful. It's only a tiny thing compared to what you're talking about, but… 424 \ 01:00:28.290 --> 01:00:31.130 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: This is street lighting by solar power, or… 425 \ 01:00:31.130 --> 01:00:55.189 \ Maureen Holliday: No, well, we've got street… normal street lights at the moment on time… on timers. I mean, a lot of people are looking to reduce their usage by shutting down from midnight till 5am. There's other ones, I think I've read about where they're movement-censored, and of course, in our little village, you don't… especially as they've just closed the pub, you don't see anybody wandering around the village after 12 o'clock at night. 426 \ 01:00:55.190 --> 01:01:03.470 \ Maureen Holliday: I just wondered if anybody had any experience or knew of any, towns or villages who've actually done anything on this. 427 \ 01:01:03.860 --> 01:01:08.200 \ Maureen Holliday: Just reducing usage of power, really. 428 \ 01:01:08.380 --> 01:01:20.010 \ Maureen Holliday: And, you know, people… it's obviously a very green issue as well with some people, with animals and wild animals and stuff, but that was it. It's not totally on your topic, but it's something. 429 \ 01:01:20.010 --> 01:01:26.469 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I know the whole of Essex, all the street lighting is LED now. 430 \ 01:01:26.910 --> 01:01:37.660 \ Maureen Holliday: Yeah, ours is LED, but they want to go a bit… this couple of requests from villagers, they want to go to the next stage, which is lights off. 431 \ 01:01:37.960 --> 01:01:43.569 \ Maureen Holliday: Or reduction in electricity, and you don't actually save a great deal, but… 432 \ 01:01:43.680 --> 01:01:48.249 \ Maureen Holliday: Especially as you're on LED already. But, so, yeah, Essex. 433 \ 01:01:48.250 --> 01:01:55.339 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Again, I think they tried that in Essex, and then you find somebody gets attacked in the dark. 434 \ 01:01:55.590 --> 01:02:00.630 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: And everyone's up in arms, saying, oh, we need the street lights on all the time. 435 \ 01:02:01.380 --> 01:02:01.760 \ Maureen Holliday: Hmm. 436 \ 01:02:01.760 --> 01:02:09.750 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Then that's… isn't that where the motion sensing comes in, that if… provided you can not have… avoid them being tripped by foxes and things running around, then… 437 \ 01:02:10.530 --> 01:02:13.810 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Any pedestrian walking along will get his own streetlight inked. 438 \ 01:02:14.580 --> 01:02:15.080 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Yes. 439 \ 01:02:15.250 --> 01:02:29.200 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: I'm fortunate enough to live in a dark village, Maureen. We don't have any street lights at night. I think there's one in the middle of the village, but it's not very bright. People get used to it, it just means that we have to bring torches everywhere we go. 440 \ 01:02:29.710 --> 01:02:31.779 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Leave the house after. 441 \ 01:02:31.920 --> 01:02:34.589 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Well, 5 o'clock at night during the winter, but… 442 \ 01:02:34.590 --> 01:02:35.270 \ Maureen Holliday: Mmm. 443 \ 01:02:35.270 --> 01:02:43.990 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: But yes, it's not convenient, and if, you know, it's easy for us because we've never had it, but if you try and introduce it, you're going to get a lot of kickback, I imagine. 444 \ 01:02:44.340 --> 01:02:58.250 \ Maureen Holliday: And one of the suggestions from one of the counties in the UK is that, you leave certain lights on, like at, junctions, lever crossings, that sort of thing, you know, if there's any 445 \ 01:02:58.980 --> 01:03:06.620 \ Maureen Holliday: crossings and junctions and things, you leave that particular light on, but this is not a very big village, so, more… 446 \ 01:03:06.620 --> 01:03:07.170 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Like I said. 447 \ 01:03:07.170 --> 01:03:09.349 \ Maureen Holliday: About a third of them will be left on. 448 \ 01:03:09.350 --> 01:03:13.710 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, we don't have anything, like I say, like, you know, I think we have one streetlight in the whole village. 449 \ 01:03:13.940 --> 01:03:14.440 \ Maureen Holliday: Hmm. 450 \ 01:03:14.440 --> 01:03:16.010 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Not near the main road, so… 451 \ 01:03:16.310 --> 01:03:17.020 \ Maureen Holliday: Yeah. 452 \ 01:03:17.170 --> 01:03:22.390 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah. You're welcome to come and visit during the night time. 453 \ 01:03:22.390 --> 01:03:25.949 \ Maureen Holliday: Oh, I grew up in a village like that, so… 454 \ 01:03:25.950 --> 01:03:27.680 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Is everyone happy with that? 455 \ 01:03:28.760 --> 01:03:36.220 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Well, we're just used to it, Graham, you know? It's been the situation in the village from the year dot, so, you know, 456 \ 01:03:36.890 --> 01:03:46.340 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: A lot of houses have these, obviously, our own personal Spotlight, kind of, You know… Personal systems. 457 \ 01:03:46.340 --> 01:03:46.700 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: school. 458 \ 01:03:46.700 --> 01:03:51.189 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: So if, yeah, if you walk down the road, you know, you set them off one after another in summer. 459 \ 01:03:51.340 --> 01:03:52.850 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Some are crazy bright. 460 \ 01:03:53.160 --> 01:03:57.269 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: But the village as a whole is dark, and yeah, you know, I mean… 461 \ 01:03:57.670 --> 01:04:05.149 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: I don't know if it gets raised… it gets raised every now and again, but I think, you know, people just are used to it, and just get on with it. 462 \ 01:04:05.840 --> 01:04:25.409 \ Maureen Holliday: I think some… I think some of it also is because so many people have their own driveway lighting now, and it's offensively bright at times. So I'm going to have to combine street lighting with the… encouraging people to reduce their own lighting levels. 463 \ 01:04:26.100 --> 01:04:27.940 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, that's what we'd like as well. 464 \ 01:04:28.170 --> 01:04:34.079 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Personally, but, you know, it's very hard to make people do that, but… but that's the issue that we have in our village. 465 \ 01:04:34.080 --> 01:04:34.900 \ Maureen Holliday: Yes. 466 \ 01:04:34.900 --> 01:04:36.950 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Personal… Lighting. 467 \ 01:04:37.680 --> 01:04:38.340 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Right. 468 \ 01:04:38.910 --> 01:04:40.160 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Richard, please. 469 \ 01:04:40.160 --> 01:04:41.830 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Graham, can I ask my question first? 470 \ 01:04:41.830 --> 01:04:46.770 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I beg your pardon, he's a ghost. 471 \ 01:04:47.030 --> 01:05:06.409 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, well, the point I just wanted to make was, one thing that you didn't have in your presentation was, of course, the brand new plug-in solar systems that are coming to this country, like, imminently. I don't know if you can actually buy them now or not. And I'm just wondering, you know, what kind of impact they're going to have, and what kind of change they're going to make, because they're… they're limited, and 472 \ 01:05:06.840 --> 01:05:15.059 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: how you can use these things as well, but it's an additional engineering solution that's just about to be launched, so it'll be interesting to see what impact they have. 473 \ 01:05:15.900 --> 01:05:25.989 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Yes, I got the impression that they're not very efficient, that they're probably for people who can't do anything else any other way, like people who live in apartments or flats. 474 \ 01:05:26.180 --> 01:05:31.959 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: They don't have a rooftop, they can put solar cells, but they've got a window they can dangle one of these things out of. 475 \ 01:05:32.460 --> 01:05:40.110 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, you can put them in your garden and things like that as well. They're just… they're just easy. You can just buy these things and plug them in. 476 \ 01:05:40.320 --> 01:05:50.699 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: And depending on your electricity use, they can have a greater or lesser… I mean, you can save yourselves £100 probably a year, if you use them effectively. 477 \ 01:05:50.960 --> 01:05:53.039 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Yeah, well, that's a lot of money to help people, isn't it? 478 \ 01:05:53.280 --> 01:05:58.420 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, I mean, it can make quite a significant Reduction in your grid use. 479 \ 01:05:58.890 --> 01:06:11.029 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Even from one… from one panel, so, you know, like I said, it'd be interesting to see what kind of… I don't know what impact they've had in a place like Germany, where they've had them for years, but it will be interesting to see how successful they are, and… 480 \ 01:06:11.390 --> 01:06:12.700 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: And what impact they have. 481 \ 01:06:15.560 --> 01:06:19.499 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: Well, Garry, I can answer that question for you. 482 \ 01:06:20.920 --> 01:06:24.820 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: Argos. Argos sell them for £199. 483 \ 01:06:25.170 --> 01:06:28.910 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: For the, storage unit. 484 \ 01:06:29.070 --> 01:06:38.020 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: the converter unit, the Stream Solar Micro Converter is £199 a Margos, went on sale last week. 485 \ 01:06:38.580 --> 01:06:42.530 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: And $29.99 for the solar panel with magnets. 486 \ 01:06:44.490 --> 01:06:51.609 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, I think those are the smaller ones. I think the big systems, which is, like, the equivalent of one that you put on the roof. 487 \ 01:06:51.870 --> 01:06:54.050 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: They're talking, like, 400 pounds. 488 \ 01:06:55.410 --> 01:06:58.110 \ Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: I think the small ones have been on sale for quite a while. 489 \ 01:06:58.110 --> 01:07:09.939 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: Yeah, I've got one here, 1,649. It's, ex-home social, so that's a massive one that goes on. Well, it's not massive, it's a small box, but it's, 4 panels. 490 \ 01:07:10.280 --> 01:07:11.920 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: Small black box. 491 \ 01:07:12.090 --> 01:07:14.890 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: And then an eco-converter. 492 \ 01:07:15.130 --> 01:07:22.500 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: So, overall, you still need the EPC converter, and I think Argos are the only ones that are actually selling this at a reasonable price. 493 \ 01:07:24.110 --> 01:07:28.089 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Well, thank you for that. We'll see you. Do you have a separate question, Richard? 494 \ 01:07:29.500 --> 01:07:39.530 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: No, actually, I was actually just gonna mention, has anyone, exactly what, Garry was, was actually saying. Was anyone familiar with this new Argos plug-and-play? 495 \ 01:07:39.640 --> 01:07:46.369 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: panel, and is it any good? So, it was… it's pretty much similar to… to Gary's question. 496 \ 01:07:47.910 --> 01:07:51.450 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I don't think we have anyone around who's tried them yet. 497 \ 01:07:53.920 --> 01:08:03.760 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Well, listen, thank you all very much for your time. I'm just making the assumption that nobody else has got any questions they want to ask. And I appreciate very much your input. 498 \ 01:08:03.990 --> 01:08:19.019 \ Maureen Holliday: It's possible that, if I can just say that I live in a conservation area. There's absolutely no way that we can have solar panels, but having a portable one, as you might call it, might be a solution for people in our situation. 499 \ 01:08:21.319 --> 01:08:26.689 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I don't think… Being a conservation area, it rules it out. 500 \ 01:08:26.869 --> 01:08:31.659 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I'm checking out, for our village hall. 501 \ 01:08:31.959 --> 01:08:34.269 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Which is in a conservation area. 502 \ 01:08:34.559 --> 01:08:40.849 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: And apparently… So… panels are permitted development. 503 \ 01:08:41.109 --> 01:08:44.669 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Provided they're less than, I think, 12cm deep. 504 \ 01:08:44.949 --> 01:08:49.259 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: And they're not placed on an elevation facing the main road. 505 \ 01:08:51.500 --> 01:08:52.250 \ Maureen Holliday: Right. 506 \ 01:08:54.590 --> 01:08:56.200 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: I also think there's, 507 \ 01:08:57.300 --> 01:09:03.050 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: what's the word I'm looking for? A sort of a lessening of regulation now, as people… 508 \ 01:09:03.330 --> 01:09:15.089 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: increase the demand. So, I live in a Grade 2 listed house, and we were told for ages that there's no way you can put solar panels on a listed house until Gloucester Cathedral. 509 \ 01:09:15.359 --> 01:09:23.090 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: did the inhaled their roof and said, what do you want to do about us? Which I thought was a wonderful… that's a Grade 1, this… 510 \ 01:09:23.580 --> 01:09:30.360 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Anyway, thank you all for your time, and I'll see you next week, whenever I've worked out what we're going to talk about then. 511 \ 01:09:30.840 --> 01:09:32.549 \ tristram cary: Thank you, Graeme, that was excellent. 512 \ 01:09:32.810 --> 01:09:33.880 \ Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Okay, thanks. 513 \ 01:09:33.880 --> 01:09:35.629 \ Graham Stoddart-Stones -Great Collaboration - IoW: Enjoyed it. Bye-bye. 514 \ 01:09:35.630 --> 01:09:37.069 \ Cllr Richard stuart Mccafferty: Thank you, nice to meet you. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. 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