Earth Notes: Diarycast - Blue Skies PV High (2020-04-22)

Updated 2024-04-11.
Coronavirus-lockdown low-pollution blue skies maybe make for good PV generation! #podcast #coronavirus
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Transcript:

Hi, I'm Damon Hart-Davis, and welcome to Earth Notes podcast on all things eco and green and efficient @Home!

22nd April 2020.

Another brief diarycast from EOU Towers, on blue skies and PV and self-consumption, cemeteries and mains. (Sorry, Lewis Carroll!)
[00:24]

Last Tuesday (the 14th) when I went out for my daily walk at a gentle 08:30, it certainly felt more like 6am or even earlier on a 'normal' weekday, so few people were about. But not zero. The 'A', 'B' and 'C' arks hadn't somehow left without me, nor had the Triffids struck!

Allegedly (on Twitter) The traffic is back, and so is the pollution ... It's definitely not just trade vehicles though - plenty of Chelsea tractors. Maybe the Citymapper index for London at 9% today vs 8% last week supports that, or maybe not. I haven't seen lots of traffic when I've been out and about.

[01:04]

The reduced pollution from lockdown generally, including private cars, may be be gifting us bluer skies, warmer days, and warmer mains water here at 15°C — which is on the high side for April.

The blue skies also seem to be bringing good solar PV generation. For example edie said UK smashes solar generation record at 9.68GW on the 20th. Here in EOU Towers I think it's probable that our usual ~15kWh/day in April will be beaten.

[01:31]

I aim to air a regular 'statscast' on the energy and related numbers at EOU HQ, with some interesting national and global numbers stirred in.

Other good news is that though it shut a little while ago on seemingly spurious grounds, our next-door cemetery is opening up again tomorrow for walking. As one of the larger and more interesting green spaces around here, that's good for people near it such as me, and takes a little pressure off other parks and outdoor spaces too.

[01:56]

Oh, and more! On the Radbot side we are busily working towards a patent application before our coming funding round, and having my name on a patent as inventor is one of my bucket-list items. (Along with my name on a scientific paper — done, and getting a PhD and becoming a prof — not holding my breath!)

If you listened to the last (metacast) episode, you may notice that this one is constructed with the new standard intro/outro, and uses compression rather than 'Normalize'. What a time to be alive!

There's more on my "Earth Notes" Web site at Earth.Org.UK.