Over recent years it’s become the norm for large companies to offer at least some staff wellbeing initiatives - from lunchtime mindfulness seminars and yoga classes to free counselling sessions - but doing so in the midst of a pandemic has brought fresh challenges, at a time when wellness needs boosting more than ever.
In celebration of the American Wind Energy Association’s American Wind Week, Geronimo Energy, a National Grid company, announced today that it has established a local charitable giving board, named the Crocker Community Fund Board, for the benefit of the communities connected to the Crocker Wind Farm. Crocker is a 200 megawatt (MW) operational wind energy project located in Clark County, SD. Crocker has executed Virtual Power Purchase Agreements with Walmart and Cargill, utilizes GE turbines, and was constructed by Wanzek Construction.
Traditionally jobs have been split into blue collar (typically manual roles) and white collar (those professions often done at a desk), but increasingly there’s talk of green collar work too. Green collar jobs are all about improving the environment and they’re seen as central to economic recovery and growth in the coming years.
Biomethane has been connected from a farm in Cambridgeshire to the Gas National Transmission System (NTS) for the first time at the end of July.
Murrow Anaerobic Digestion Plant in Cambridgeshire operated by Biocow Ltd produces the renewable gas made from cattle manure and straw.
National Grid will later this month take delivery of 95 tonnes of new underground cable which will run beneath Stockport. The new cable replaces the existing 60-year-old cable which connects the pylons beside Penny Lane, off Lancashire Hill, and at the Trans Pennine trail, behind Powerleague, in Heaton Mersey.
The £10 million project will be delivered by DNV GL, with support provided by the HSE Science Division and academic partnerships with Durham University and the University of Edinburgh and involves building a hydrogen test facility at DNV GL’s site at Spadeadam, Cumbria.
This time next year – at the end of July 2021 – the first T-pylon on National Grid’s Hinkley Connection is due to be constructed.
The new transformer is essential to the delivery of the Energy Superhub Oxford project, led by Oxford City Council and Pivot Power (part of EDF Renewables). This £41 million investment into battery storage, electric vehicle (EV) charging and low carbon heating in Oxford will improve air quality and cut carbon. It aims to save 10,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, rising to 25,000 tonnes by 2032.
When the national electricity network expanded in the 1950s and 1960s, to meet post-war demand, the authorities at the time wanted to achieve electrification as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. This sometimes meant that vital structures, such as pylons and overhead wires, were built where necessary, not where they’d be least intrusive.
The UK’s electricity use has reflected some of the unprecedented changes we’ve experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic – from TV pickups and clapping for carers, to the ‘lockdown lie-in’. We saw the ‘stay at home’ peak in April, followed by staged easing of restrictions from mid-May onwards. Here we reveal four surprising ways that this has impacted our use of energy.