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Dispatches

Latest reports on energy

Taking stock

The trauma of gas supply blips — such as last year’s dispute between Russia and the Ukraine that led to a cut-off in gas supplies to Europe for 15 chilly days — could soon be a thing of the past.  

Several gas storage initiatives are on the drawing board, such as a hugely ambitious attempt to convert a Black Sea gas field (an initiative by Bulgarian gas utility Bulgargaz and Melrose Resources plc), plus various empty salt caverns and depleted aquifers. 

Probably the biggest project in Europe, however, is the plan to convert a depleted gas field at Bergermeer, 35km north of Amsterdam into a storage facility. TAQA, 75%-owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, along with Russia’s Gazprom, the Dutch government and other partners are involved in the project, which conforms to plans by the Dutch government to create a ‘gas roundabout’ to serve the growing need for imported gas in the UK and to serve customers throughout Europe. The project, which could cost more than €1.5bn, will probably be joined by small gas storage units inside salt caverns.  

The financial crisis and the vagaries of future gas demand are not the  only factors in play. Other EU-baiting uncertainties include an unknown future gas tariff regime, plus the need to evolve a way to depreciate the cost of ‘cushion gas,’ used to maintain pressure in a storage facility, which can account for up to 50% of the total volume. Until these issues are resolved at an EU level, the future profitability of gas will remain uncertain, jeopardising the economics of storing the stuff. 

Power point

You can’t drive it, fly in it or store every episode of The Wire on it, but the most powerful machine on the planet is officially here. The $4bn National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California has a power of 500 trillion watts — about 3,000 times the average electricity consumption of the whole of Earth — and is designed to create conditions that cause stars to shine and hydrogen bombs to explode. In theory, by bombarding matchhead-sized frozen hydrogen pellets with lasers, the US will be able to carry out nuclear-weapons tests without actually testing any weapons. Naturally, there is a nuclear weapons testing arms race of sorts: creating a sustained nuclear-fusion reaction that could generate power is the goal of another colossal experiment, the International Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor, now being built in  Cadarache, France.

Seeing the light

If you’ve ever been blinded by the bi-xenon (gas-discharge) headlights fitted to large, luxury cars, you know why ever-more dazzling car headlamps are controversial. Faced with an escalating light war between drivers trying to out-bright each other, the car industry is developing a new generation of ‘smart’ lights that automatically adjust to conditions to maximise the safety of all road users.  

The concept is not new — the 1967 Citroën DS had self-swivelling headlamps while a 1952 Cadillac had a rudimentary device that auto-dipped the headlamps- but it is about to go mainstream and upmarket, aided by new technology.  

While Lippstadt, Germany-based Hella develop on-all-the-time LED auxiliary lighting, Michigan-based Gentex is developing a ‘smart’ headlamp that throws an infinitely variable pool of light, intelligently generating glare-free zones around oncoming cars as they converge.  

Soon, the day will have passed when crossing  to the UK means applying an ugly, beam-deflecting stiker to your headlamps to comply with left-hand drive legislation. Instead, lights will adjust themselves. 