Electricity

Nuclear Fusion power – how long will we have to wait ?

Brendan Heading on December 29, 2022, 2:42 pm | Readers 2076

Just before Christmas, it was announced for the first time that researchers at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US had successfully achieved “ignition” within a nuclear fusion reaction. This generated a lot of excitement in the press, not all of it well-informed, so I thought it might be interesting to explore this topic in more detail. What is nuclear fusion ? Why was this news so significant ? When will we begin to benefit …

Revisiting Nuclear Power : Part 3 : Can it be weaponised ?

Brendan Heading on August 29, 2022, 12:24 pm | Readers 1015

Following on from my previous articles on how nuclear power works, and why we need to rethink the dangers posed by it, it’s time to talk about the other safety-related concerns that are often raised in the debate about the viability of nuclear power. Can a nuclear power station explode like a nuclear bomb ? What happens if a nuclear power station finds itself in the theatre of military conflict, as is currently happening in Ukraine ? To deal with …

Revisiting Nuclear Power : Part 2 : The Danger

Brendan Heading on August 7, 2022, 7:00 pm | Readers 1219

A couple of weeks back, I wrote a little about how governments are reconsidering their attitude to nuclear power, and talked about the mechanics of how a reactor works and how it can solve the problems of getting us to net zero carbon emissions and securing energy supply in the long term. But we can’t gloss over the bad reputation that nuclear power has. Can’t it blow up, like a nuclear bomb ? And haven’t there been a number of …

At several stages over the past few days over 90% of NI energy needs came from renewables…

Brian O'Neill on February 21, 2022, 10:47 am | Readers 2942

A stunning example of the potential of renewable energy. Yesterday at 11am wind generation peaked at 1048MW while this isn't a new wind generation record it is still a terrific achievement. At that time wind power was fulfilling more than 90% of Northern Ireland's demand for electricity. (1) pic.twitter.com/GUPOT1LYKx — SONI Ltd (@soni_ltd) February 17, 2022 Currently over half of our energy needs is being met from renewable power, here is today’s fuel mix from SONI. Obviously, this is due …

#InConversation Podcast with Professor David Rooney from Queen’s about renewable energy and electric cars…

Brian O'Neill on August 29, 2020, 9:48 am | Readers 943

David Rooney is a Professor in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast. In this podcast, we chat about improvements in battery technology and how this will affect the growth of electric cars. We also discuss Hydrogen as a fuel source for transport. Already nearly 50% of the electricity generated in Northern Ireland comes from renewable sources and this figure will continue to rise. We discuss new ways of generating electric such as anaerobic digestion and …

With no power comes no responsibility – Northern Ireland sleepwalking towards an electricity crisis

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on July 30, 2018, 7:56 pm | Readers 11055

When Kilroot power station failed to win an auction to supply the all-island Single Electricity Market (SEM) held in December last year, its owner AES announced that the facility was to close. Despite announcing that the power station was to close in May 2018, at the time of writing it remains open. The closure of Kilroot, and the already scheduled closure of part of Ballylumford power station, means that Northern Ireland will lose over 900 MW worth of electricity generating …

Northern Ireland gets a new electricity company

David McCann on June 25, 2015, 10:35 am | Readers 1417

Northern Ireland will have a new electricity supplier from this August. Open Electric pledges to be the most “socially aware” power company with promises to reward its customers with a share in any profits made. The company will be run by local entrepreneur Marc Norris who set out his rationale for wanting to set up electricity provider; For far too long, energy customers in Northern Ireland have found themselves at the mercy of suppliers which have put their own interests …