We'd find the money: this is Oxford and we should be setting an example to the world and not succumbing to its fallacies. Let's get on with it.
If we come up with some good plans then through EU grants and fundraising I have no doubt whatsoever that we could raise enough capital, through investors or by generous donations (we could ask the Clinton Foundation to chip in!) to make the Eco Oxford idea work. This is an idea waiting to happen in so many capable people's minds and hands. Let's not let this opportunity slip through our fingers. Let's not roll over to the "inevitable" grinding of the machine. Let's short circuit it or find the 'Off' button and set Oxfordshire on the road to Zero Carbon in the UK.
Ox On!
Thursday, 28 February 2008
Let's have TRAMS in Oxford
Do we really want to fill the city every day with as many cars as there are in Oxford during Christmas Week? Asthma levels are on the rise everywhere and while - according to Sir Richard Peto - it's difficult to prove that this is down to the pollution from cars, inviting in a lot of extra traffic is only going to exacerbate the respiratory problems many people already have. So why not have trams in Oxford? They've got one in Dublin and the people love it there. The air would be left cleaner and the trams could be powered by a wind farm..
In Dublin they took out the original tram and replaced it with a Parry tram that didn't have any cables overhead. This sounds like the one we could use in Oxford as we wouldn't want to obscure the views of its magnificent colleges and churches in any way.
The trams could head out to the Park and rides, down the Iffley road, up to Headington, up the Woodstock or Banbury road and down the Marston road. This would effectively negate the need for most of the cars entering Oxford.
There could be wagons on the back to take goods to shops, although some goods vans would certainly have to have space to enter.
Trams would leave the air cleaner, make it safer for cyclists and shorten the time it takes for the airport and London buses to reach their destination because they could leave from the tram stations on the ouskirts rather than winding slowly through the city centre, smogging up our streets with diesel fumes as they go.
The network could be extended into Oxfordshire or more efficient bus systems could bring people to the tram stations from the surrounding villages and towns, meaning even less cars.
Again, I'm just throwing these ideas up in the air. If you've got any ideas that link up with these in a positive ways or would even like to point out any drawbacks, please leave a comment.
Forum for an Ecobuilding refit of the Westgate Centre
It took a small team of us two days to put solar panels on the roof of the Globe pub in Jericho. A pub that many people were understandably upset about losing will now produce zero carbon electricity (plus the amount of energy used to make the panels which are guaranteed for 25 years).
We installed enough panels to produce 1,700kilowatt hours a year. The average house uses around 3,000 kilowatt hours per year. So with judicious choosing of low energy appliances (LED lightbulbs, low-energy-rated fridges etc), this ex pub should be able to live a carbon free existence for the next 25 years.
Obviously the outlay on these panels was expensive but with energy prices rising and set to rise further in this time, added to the fact that when nobody is in the house the owner will be able to get an increasingly better price for selling power back to the national grid, it will take a lot less than previously expected for the owner to make his money back. Should his panels continue to work after the guarantee runs out then he should be laughing.
Oxford has one of the highest concentrations of environmentalists in the world. We promote and support the environmental message around the world. We have the School for the Built Environment up at Oxford Brookes University. The Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University, thanks to Brenda Boardman, has produced the brilliant 40% House report (available to all) that shows how to bring our energy use in housing down to 40% of its current levels.
There are environmental conultancies like ERM, AEA and Best Foot Forward, that are all able to make studies of the problem of the present massive wastage of energy in the Westgate and do something about it.
The Norfolk Square area where the London Plane trees were tragically felled could, rather than be used for a massive expansion of the Westgate, to position a CHP Boiler room (Combined Heat and Power). This could heat the whole of the Westgate and the waste heat be used to power either turbines or engines to produce electricity, too. This would mean less outlay on solar panels on the roof.
These are just initial ideas. I'm not in any way saying that they are the best ones around. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of brilliant people in Oxford all with small slices of the best plan for the Westgate. Let's get in touch and build something we can be proud of rather than something we will have to endure until the next expansion...
We installed enough panels to produce 1,700kilowatt hours a year. The average house uses around 3,000 kilowatt hours per year. So with judicious choosing of low energy appliances (LED lightbulbs, low-energy-rated fridges etc), this ex pub should be able to live a carbon free existence for the next 25 years.
Obviously the outlay on these panels was expensive but with energy prices rising and set to rise further in this time, added to the fact that when nobody is in the house the owner will be able to get an increasingly better price for selling power back to the national grid, it will take a lot less than previously expected for the owner to make his money back. Should his panels continue to work after the guarantee runs out then he should be laughing.
Oxford has one of the highest concentrations of environmentalists in the world. We promote and support the environmental message around the world. We have the School for the Built Environment up at Oxford Brookes University. The Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University, thanks to Brenda Boardman, has produced the brilliant 40% House report (available to all) that shows how to bring our energy use in housing down to 40% of its current levels.
There are environmental conultancies like ERM, AEA and Best Foot Forward, that are all able to make studies of the problem of the present massive wastage of energy in the Westgate and do something about it.
The Norfolk Square area where the London Plane trees were tragically felled could, rather than be used for a massive expansion of the Westgate, to position a CHP Boiler room (Combined Heat and Power). This could heat the whole of the Westgate and the waste heat be used to power either turbines or engines to produce electricity, too. This would mean less outlay on solar panels on the roof.
These are just initial ideas. I'm not in any way saying that they are the best ones around. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of brilliant people in Oxford all with small slices of the best plan for the Westgate. Let's get in touch and build something we can be proud of rather than something we will have to endure until the next expansion...
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