Origin North West

After bad news in chocolate and steel manufacturing some good news in cars and nuclear engineering. Most of it with the help of government loans.

Nissan announced that their new electrically powered car, the Nissan Leaf, will be produced in Sunderland from 2013. Up to 50,000 cars a year will be made.  Nissan stated that the UK commitment to providing the infrastructure and education to operate these cars helped the decision.  The North East has agreed to fit 13,000 charging points and London 25,000. Also a novel leasing arrangement for batteries will ease the cost of ownership and another plus the batteries will be made in Sunderland as well.  Photographs of the car look quite smart with nothing to make it look different. Ironically the ‘green’ car will be produced next to the Juke urban off-roader which doesn’t sound quite as green.

Ford announced about £1.5bn investment in new efficient engine R&D and manufacturing in the UK.  A significant portion of the money will be loans from the UK Automotive Assistance Programme and the EU. Ford will test 15 electric vehicles as well as work on low carbon engines.  Ford produce 25% of their world supply of engines in the UK.

Sheffield Forgemasters received government loan support to make a 15,000 tonne forging press, making the company one of two companies in the world capable of making specific nuclear components. The government said the UK can produce 50% of the parts for a nuclear power station and the investment will take it to 70%. The government is also to support up to 1000 apprentice places a year in the nuclear industry.

It is a curious business the offering of loans to keep manufacturing in a country. Subsidising has long been illegal in the EU. However such large scale investment is often only possible with government assistance. Vice versa governments often say that infrastructure projects, for such as energy, cannot be afforded without industrial investment.  Does one balance the other out or is it just convenient to make the best of both worlds. No doubt a company has to get the best deal it can so an existing plant must count for something and make the loan required less than it would be from a place without a plant or who didn’t have other incentives to offer such as car power point infrastructure. We can only welcome this as good news.

Being interested in what some call the productive as well as high tech part of the economy it’s worrying that Astra Zeneca are cutting back on their research facilities and closing the Leicester site with the loss of 1,200 jobs.   The company state they are focussing on the Cheshire site for UK research.

I’ve read a few comments saying that a number of pharmaceutical companies are moving their facilities east, usually in smaller numbers than this.  This industry has been held as one of the UK’s torch bearers into the future but appears to be going the same way as the heavy industries.

I was watching Dan Snow with his show about the power of the Royal Navy and it was apparant that the willingness to spend money on the future was the key to Britains success in the 18th and 19th centuries. Even though it was encouraged by the threat of foreign invasion.

This week I read with disappointment that Mr Obama is cutting the US manned moon programme. The disappointment was that the un-inhabited moon will be annexed by who-ever goes and stays. It seems the Chinese and Indian governments are viewing their future power symbolised by moon colonies. Yet the US isn’t. The US will be a clipped wing power by 2050 like Britain is now and as someone who has always seen the US as a beacon of technology it isn’t something I want to see.  Maybe I won’t because I’m too old now.

There are those who might think, sort out things on Earth first and such power plays are hostile and out-dated.  To that the answer is that the wise man invests for the future while budgeting for the present, mankind would be in caves if the cave was to be sorted first. To that end we are always pushing the boundaries and getting better.

Is the Smart Meter going to provide the benefits claimed?  They say the unreliable wind power will mean less peak capability so incentives will be given to turn off power at peak times and that home generators can sell back into the grid.

This sounds good but surely issuing these meters to people with home generators would be a first priority. Then a second priority will be those whose energy use exceeds the norm.

I’d be amazed if having one in our house saved a penny. There must be millions like me who keep an eye on their heating timer and setting. There is a compromise between the budget allowed and how warm the house is.   The opposite might be true as it could encourage energy use if it was cheaper off peak and more expensive at peak time.

Also we have just had our gas and electricity meters changed. What happens to these old meters? Who is making the new ones?  Should they be British made meters or will 26million electricity meters and 21 million gas meters be bought from China so save pounds but cost jobs, well-being and health.

What alternatives are there? If I was to ensure minimal peak power use the biggest savings in our house would be a timer on the electric water heater to ensure it is off at peak (there already is one).  The biggest user of fuel by far in our house is the central heating and that is already on only for a limited time as we’ve gone more into heating individual rooms around the time we use them.

How much incentive are we going to get to improve our energy use. The people on the trials with these units are like the well known Hawthorn experiment where people being watched worked harder and harder.  In reality the meter will soon just be a background item that no-one notices. Surely it will be preferable that  its introduction should come with some cost offsetting incentive like going to a new tariff or buying a wind generator to give you a new meter rather than a blanket change over. 

Who is paying for this?  It seems the government is announcing this when surely if it is so wonderful the utility companies would be launching it. I would imagine the utility companies see it as good business just fitting these new units.  Who wouldn’t with some 50m meters to change sounds like a good earner.

Overall without further education it appears the strategy for rolling out the new meters is flawed and that the benefits of their use are not as great as claimed.