Energy
Podcast – Iceland, the fire island
Iceland has a stunning landscape with glaciers galore … but is more properly fire island. Lava, earthquakes eruptions and volcanoes dominate life and world headlines.Around Christmas 2023, an eruption forced people from their homes in the fishing port of Grindavik. One year and six eruptions later – the townspeople are back. But another eruption nearby is spewing lava into the car park of the famous Blue Lagoon. By the time you hear this podcast, that eruption could be over… or much worse.Yet despite all the risk and uncertainty, many Icelanders say they live here because of their volcanoes not despite them. Why? That’s what this podcast – recorded in October 2024 – is all about. CreditsThanks to Easyjet for flights – direct to Reykjavik each weekday from Edinburgh. I travelled...Read More
Heating homes without gas – the Nordic way
None of Scotland’s Nordic neighbours depends on gas for heating – but 85% of homes in Scotland do. Why the big difference? How did Nordic nations jump the green heating hurdle & should Scotland fix its energy crisis by installing district heating like Sweden and Denmark – or go electric like Norway? These were some of the big climate questions tackled by Nordic Horizons speakers, in our COP26 Verdict event, held straight after COP26 in November 2021. This 50 minute podcast of the COP 26 – Nordic Verdict event tackles all these big questions with contributions from Viktoria Raft, a former energy journalist and co-founder of the gender equality network for women in energy, Kraftkvinnorna; Tore Furevik, Professor in physical oceanography at the Geophysical Institut...Read More
The world’s greenest offices – people-heated Stockholm
The world’s greenest offices – people-heated Stockholm Is Stockholm’s “people-heated” office the world’s greenest commercial building? And can Scotland have one? Monday 28th October 2013 Venue Old College, Edinburgh University Lecture Theatre 175 (far right corner of old quad opp Blackwells on South Bridge) Time 18:00 – 20:00 with Klas Johansson Kungsbrohuset is an office building with a difference. It’s heated by people. Excess body heat produced by 200 000 daily commuters in nearby Central Station is piped in, the windows let daylight in, but block out summer heat. Bike parking is state of the art and tenants are offered changingrooms with showers and lockers. Hour by hour, the building gets automatic digital weather forecast updates to adjust heating and cooling hours in advance ...Read More
Energy from Rubbish
Energy from Rubbish – Event Details Our next speaker will be Kim Olsson from NSR Helsingborg, Sweden Scotland’s new waste reduction targets look ambitious — from 2014 local authorities will have to offer households in urban areas separate food waste collection and food-related businesses will have to separate food waste for recycling (hospitals and others with less than 50kg of weekly food waste have until 2016). Regulations will bring in two different ‘landfill bans’: a ban on materials separated for recycling (from 2014); and a ban on biodegradable material (from 2021). Can Scotland reach these green targets when newspapers reported only this week that £2m of valuable materials are being thrown into landfill or burned every day in Britain? Kim Olsson’s massive recycling plan...Read More