Episode 4: Can renewables help local councils beat austerity?
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I want to find out whether the UK’s local authorities could use renewable energy as a means of generating alternative income and protecting vital public services.
To start my investigation, I’m in North West England to talk to Councillor Janet Henshaw of Warrington Borough Council.
The council’s strategy involves investing in solar farms and the cash generated is not only being used to fund green investment but also help compensate for the cuts that have taken place since 2010 in UK central government funding.
Episode 2: Is there a profit problem for renewables?
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In this episode I visit Professor Brett Christophers at Uppsala University in Sweden to delve further into claims he makes in his new book, ‘The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet’.
Professor Christophers argues that there’s a widespread misconception about what’s needed to expand the use of renewable energy and speed the transition away from fossil fuel generation.
He says that while renewables appear to be cheap and getting cheaper, they may not actually be profitable. The point, he says, is that generating costs are only part of the green energy cost equation and there are other major costs involved, notably the high transmission costs of getting renewable energy from where it’s produced to where it’s used.
The upshot is that the transition to renewable energy generation is less rapid than anticipated and may even slow further if the economics become less favourable and investment more unattractive.
He says that while governments expect the private sector to take most of the responsibility for substituting clean for dirty energy, they must take on at least part of this burden by way of public ownership, public financing, or even by compelling private firms to build renewables.
Episode 3: Factory built modular nuclear power stations
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In this episode I meet Alan Woods, the Director of Strategy and Business Development at Rolls Royce SMR which stands for Small Modular Reactors.
Rolls Royce plans to use tried and tested small nuclear reactor technology as the heart of a factory built series of standardised modules which can be transported by road and then rapdily assembled into complete working power stations. It’s an approach in sharp contrast to existing nuclear plants which are built on site and face delays due to weather and many other variables which can all contribute to rising costs.
If it gets government approval, Rools Royce will build at least one SMR a year, each costing £2.8 billion and able to generate 470 Megawatts of electricity, enough to power a city the size of Leeds, or over 60,000 electric cars.
The WeatherPod AI Special, Episode 3: ECMWF's strategy for using AI predictions
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The guest this episode is Florian Pappenberger, Deputy-Director General & Director of Forecasts at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the ECMWF.
Hosts David Rogers and Alan Thorpe delve into the ECMWF’s use of AI and how this may impact it’s future products and services, especially when it comes to their use in the developing countries by meteorological services and other customers.
Florian leads the ECMWF’s Forecast Department which is responsible for the production of weather forecasts, forecast quality control, and the development of novel forecast products.
ECMWF has for a while been experimenting with using deep learning to produce a data-based AI weather prediction model and last October Florian played a key role in the launch of the Artificial Intelligence / Integrated Forecasting System. This is the ECMWF’s first forecasting system incorporating a machine learning prediction module.
The WeatherPod AI Special, Episode 2: Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence
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In this special AI Episode, hosts Alan Thorpe and David Rogers invite Amy McGovern into the studio to discuss the meaning of “trustworthy AI”.
Amy is Director of the National Science Foundation AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate, and Coastal Oceanography – or AI2ES for short.
She’s also a Professor at Oklahoma University’s School of Computer Science and School of Meteorology.
Working under the University of Oklahoma’s leadership, AI2ES brings together researchers in AI, atmospheric science, ocean science, and risk communication. The thinking is that accelerated AI research in the environmental sciences can improve understanding of the rapid changes taking place in weather patterns, oceans, sea level rise, and disaster risk.
Amy’s research focuses on developing and applying machine learning and data mining methods for real-world applications, with a specific interest in high-impact weather.
Much of this work involves weather analytics or physical data science and she and her students are developing physics-based trustworthy AI methods as well as explainable AI. Their aim is to apply their work to high-impact weather phenomena, including tornadoes, hail, severe wind events, flooding, drought, and aircraft turbulence.
A key aim is to help build a diverse and flexible science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workforce. Amy’s thinking is that diversity will bring new ideas to the forefront, while flexibility is crucial to dealing with rapid changes in technology. To help this process, Amy and her team have developed outreach projects to encourage students to pursue STEM careers.
This work aside, Amy also directs the Interaction, Discovery, Exploration and Adaptation – or IDEA – Lab at Oklahoma University. The Lab’s focus is on developing and applying data science, AI and machine learning techniques for high-impact real-world applications.
The WeatherPod Episode 27: A Global Interactive Forecasting System
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In this episode of The WeatherPod, hosts Alan Thorpe and David Rogers invite David Richardson of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts – the ECMWF – into the studio.
About David Richardson
David Richardson has over 35 years’ experience in weather forecasting research and operations at the UK Met Office and, until recently, as Head of Evaluation at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts or ECMWF.
His work on ensemble prediction includes the configuration of ensembles to represent the uncertainties in the initial conditions and modelling systems, development of products and tools for forecast users, and evaluation of forecast performance.
Previously, he worked for the WMO where he played a key role in establishing the THORPEX Interactive Grand Global Ensemble or TIGGE project on global ensemble forecasting – a project which led to improved understanding of predictability and also to improvements in forecasting skill.
David has chaired several WMO committees, and is currently chair of the WMO Standing Committee on Data Processing for Applied Earth System Modelling, Prediction & Projection (SC-ESMP). SC-ESMP leads and co-ordinates the WMO Integrated Processing and Prediction System (WIPPS) which facilitates the provision of numerical earth-system model forecasts, including ensembles, to all WMO members.
Can we avoid conflict between local residents, developers, landowners and farmers?
In this opening episode of Road2Zero we take a look at one major consequence of decarbonising the electricity supply – this is the growing number of applications to construct utility scale solar farms in the countryside.
A typical example of this is Woolpots Solar Farm which is located in North Yorkshire next to the North York Moors National Park and the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Following that we look into two of the issues raised by such developments. Firstly, are there better places to locate solar power facilities than on productive agricultural land? We talk to Professor Mark Barrett of University College London.
Secondly, is there a better process for selecting sites for solar farms which averts conflict between developers, local communities and farmers? We talk to Chris Stratton OBE, an experienced land use planner.
AI Special Episode 1: Using AI for weather forecasting
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In this episode of The WeatherPod, hosts Alan Thorpe and David Rogers open a new series of discussions which focus specifically on the use of AI across the weather enterprise. In this first discussion, our hosts invite Professor Kirstine Dale of the UK Met Office into the studio.
In this special episode of the WeatherPod, hosts Alan and David have invited into the studio Irene Amuron of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, Paul Davies of the UK Met Office, and Terrence Fernando the University of Salford, to debate the question: “How do we improve outcomes for everyone at risk from the impact of hydrometeorological hazards?”
