• Home
  • News
  • In-depth
  • Opinion
  • Energy
    • Wind
    • Marine
    • Solar
    • Biomass
    • Nuclear
    • CCS
    • Infrastructure
  • Policy
    • Politics
    • Legislation
    • Taxation
  • Management
    • Marketing
    • Risk
    • Skills
    • Incentives
    • Carbon Accounting
  • Technology
    • Waste
    • Recycling
    • R&D
    • Efficiency
    • IT
  • Investment
    • Carbon Trading
    • Offsets
    • Venture Capital
  • Net Zero Now
  • Events & Awards
  • SDG Hub
  • Industry Voice
  • Newsletters
  • Sign in
  •  
      • Newsletters
      • Account details
      • Contact support
      • Sign out
     
    • You are currently accessing BusinessGreen via your Enterprise account.

      If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

      If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

      Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

      Email: [email protected]

      • Sign in
  • Follow us
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Newsletters
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
  • Free Trial
  • Subscribe
  • Events & Awards
    • Upcoming events
      event logo
      NZF Pathway - Finance

      This exclusive half day online event will investigate how all businesses can support and accelerate the transition to low and net zero carbon buildings, while maximising the financial and productivity opportunities that will result.

      • Date: 16 Mar 2021
      • Online Event
      event logo
      Net Zero Festival 2021

      Net Zero Festival is the world's first business festival dedicated to exploring, advancing, and celebrating the global transition to a net zero emission economy. Join us at BusinessGreen's Net Zero Festival – for leaders who won't wait until 2050 to build a better business, and a better world.

      • Date: 29 Sep 2021
      • Worldwide
      View all events
  • SDG Hub
Business Green
Business Green
  • Home
  • News
  • In-depth
  • Opinion
  • Energy
  • Policy
  • Management
  • Technology
  • Investment
  • Net Zero Now
 
    • Newsletters
    • Account details
    • Contact support
    • Sign out
 
  • You are currently accessing BusinessGreen via your Enterprise account.

    If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

    If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

    Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

    Email: [email protected]

    • Sign in
  • Hot topics
  • Carbon offset markets
  • Green aviation
  • Deforestation
  • Net Zero Finance
  • Technology

The end of the beginning...

  • Will Nichols
  • Will Nichols
  • @WillN_BG
  • 17 July 2015
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
0 Comments

Will Nichols takes a look at the seismic changes that have occurred in clean tech during his time at BusinessGreen

Almost a year after I'd started at BusinessGreen, I met a man named Paul Day. During an hour's conversation at a bistro on Old Compton Street, Paul told me his plan to power everything - ships, buildings, and, pretty much the entire global economy - with glycerine, a clean burning, bio-degradable by-product of industrial processes.

Not only could diesel engines be reconfigured to burn glycerine, but the stuff itself could be produced using algae, avoiding the sustainability issues that have dogged other renewable fuels. "An algal pond the size of Switzerland would cover global energy demand," Paul told me.

Related articles

  • The steel industry will soon have little use for Cumbrian coal
  • Boris Johnson: 'Climate change is a threat to our collective security'
  • If the Green Homes Grant fiasco is any indicator of the government's climate action, we are in trouble
  • Fiscal policy must support the UK's net zero heat ambitions

Just think, I later wrote, glycerine could decarbonise transport at a stroke, without any radical changes to the global economy - this British start-up is surely at the forefront of the clean energy revolution.

But then I never heard anything more from Paul and his world-changing company.

A few months later, I wrote a recklessly optimistic piece declaring 2012 'really will be the year of the electric car'. With a swathe of new models coming onto the market, the government covering up to £5,000 of purchasing costs, and charging stations dotted the length and breadth of the land, how could they fail, I penned.

Then at the end of the year we checked the figures and electric car sales had indeed soared 112 per cent! But to just 2,237. Clearly, the market was nowhere near being fully charged.

Both of these articles came to mind as I wandered to Battersea Park last month for the grand finale of Formula E's first season. Alejandro Agag, Formula E's charismatic chief executive, had said a fortnight before that the idea of a zero-emissions series racing around the heart of the world's most iconic cities existed only as a powerpoint presentation three years ago. I'd first heard of it when Lord Drayson mentioned it in passing in 2012. Now here in 2015, were 10 teams each with four cars that had competed in one of the closest-fought championships in motorsport, racing in Beijing, Malaysia, South America, Miami, Moscow, Berlin, Monte Carlo, and now London.

What's more, these cars were being powered by glycerine generators designed by Paul's company, Aquafuel. The world-changing idea was genuinely happening.

And, by the end of that month 34,126 electric cars had been sold under the government's plug-in grant scheme. In fact, more electric cars were sold in June this year than the entirety of 2012.

This has been one of the joys of working at BusinessGreen - watching start-ups and emerging technologies grow, some in partnership with established players, others blazing their own trail, to create a sector worth more than £122bn that employs 1.5 per cent of the UK workforce.

And in many ways, it's only just getting started. Sure, more often than not, these things fall from view: I know the team here was devastated not to hear more about the solar-powered bikini, for instance.

But then we already have renewables powering data centres, record-breaking solar planes, trains running on wind energy, and solar panels leading the fight against malaria. New investment models are capturing the power of crowd-funding to finance green energy projects, convincing banks to invest in more efficient ships, and property owners to make improvements that not only lower energy bills, but enrich the health and productivity of the people using them. Around $66bn of green bonds have been issued since the first in November 2013.

Yes, as ever, this is a delicate time for the sector. Moves to curtail subsidies for wind farms and large solar projects risk derailing the huge progress made in the UK; although you could, if feeling generous, argue ministers are offering a backhanded compliment in thinking these technologies are now ready to compete without subsidies.

Of course, there will always be nay-sayers. People who doubt transition can be made or simply don't fancy the investment, the hassle, the abrupt shift in mentalities required.

But the last few years have shown these challenges can be met by companies driving technology further, making it more efficient, cheaper, more applicable. There is no doubting the sector's ability to adapt and thrive even in the most testing of circumstances.

As the great George Bernard Shaw declared, "people who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it". (Thanks to Ben Ainslie Racing's new sustainable HQ for that one.)

So with Paris on the horizon, China's green revolution surpassing continued steady growth in Europe, and clean tech investment soaring in developing nations, the years ahead promise to be incredibly exciting.

And I'm sure, like me, you'll be reading all about the next part of the story on BusinessGreen.

  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
  • Topics
  • Technology
  • Energy
  • Policy
  • BusinessGreen
  • Low Carbon Economy
  • Electric Vehicles
  • Sport

More on Technology

A new business network will aim to build resilience to the climate crisis and other potential economic shocks of the future
    • BusinessGreen
'Survive and thrive': Over 600 top businesses launch new network in bid to bolster climate resilience
    • BusinessGreen
    • 25 February 2021
    • Supply chain
The steel industry will soon have little use for Cumbrian coal
    • Supply chain
    • 25 February 2021
The two rival firms are vying to produce greener tyres | Credit: Michelin
    • Automotive
Michelin and Bridgestone accelerate green tyre innovations
    • Automotive
    • 24 February 2021
Homes in some parts of the UK could take 30 years longer to meet energy efficiency goals, according to Kamma
    • Buildings
Report: £43.3bn of investment needed to meet 2030 greener homes goal
    • Buildings
    • 24 February 2021
The government has pledged to pursue a sustainable approach to agriculture policy following Brexit
    • Policy
Autumn pilot scheduled for Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme
    • Policy
    • 24 February 2021
    • Investment
Net Zero Finance: Full speaker line-up confirmed
    • Investment
    • 24 February 2021
    • Policy
REA: Half of UK electricity generation could be produced by renewables by next year
    • Policy
    • 24 February 2021
    • Energy
Inside the UK's largest domestic vehicle-to-grid project
    • Energy
    • 24 February 2021

More news

Ad Net Zero climate initiative unveils supporters and working groups
  • Work
Ad Net Zero climate initiative unveils supporters and working groups

An initiative to reach net zero in the advertising industry by the end of 2030 today provided further details of how it will enact its action plan, which was published last year

  • 25 February 2021
'Survive and thrive': Over 600 top businesses launch new network in bid to bolster climate resilience
  • BusinessGreen
'Survive and thrive': Over 600 top businesses launch new network in bid to bolster climate resilience

A new group bringing together businesses with revenues totaling over $3tr and around 10 million employees has pledged to work to build resilience to the climate crisis and other potential economic shocks

  • 25 February 2021
Boost for biofuels as E10 petrol given green light across UK
  • Supply chain
Boost for biofuels as E10 petrol given green light across UK

Government claims using higher proportion of bioethanol in petrol can help cut car CO2 while boosting jobs across the biofuel sector

  • 25 February 2021
The steel industry will soon have little use for Cumbrian coal
  • Supply chain
The steel industry will soon have little use for Cumbrian coal

Global market forces and the impending shift towards greener forms of steel manufacturing will likely render plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria redundant, writes Andrew Warren

  • 25 February 2021
blog comments powered by Disqus
Back to Top

Most read

Bulb co-founder steps down to focus on battery storage venture
Bulb co-founder steps down to focus on battery storage venture
Judge overturns approval for 1.8GW Norfolk Vanguard project
Judge overturns approval for 1.8GW Norfolk Vanguard project
HSBC, Barclays, NatWest join Prince of Wales' net zero banking task force
HSBC, Barclays, NatWest join Prince of Wales' net zero banking task force
HSBC hires PwC climate change lead Celine Herweijer as group chief sustainability officer
HSBC hires PwC climate change lead Celine Herweijer as group chief sustainability officer
Labour slams 'shambolic delivery' of Green Homes Grants, as reports suggest scheme could be axed
Labour slams 'shambolic delivery' of Green Homes Grants, as reports suggest scheme could be axed
  • Contact Us
  • Marketing solutions
  • About Incisive Media
  • Terms and conditions
  • Policies
  • Careers
  • Cookie Settings
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

Incisive Footer Logo

© Incisive Business Media (IP) Limited, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5QR, registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 09177174 & 09178013

Digital publisher of the year
Digital publisher of the year 2010, 2013, 2016 & 2017
Loading