When there’s a good movie to look forward to big brands, start thinking creatively about their messaging. Step forward E.ON who worked with PhD Physicists Toby Nonnemacher, Clarence Wret, Wilf Shorrock and the Post-Doctorate Physicist Phill Litchfield at the High Energy Physics Department at Imperial College London to think about dinosaurs and technology.
The team worked out that a dinosaur kingdom island done up as Jurrasic World would have an energy bill in the region of £48million. That’s about 30,000 UK homes.
Scott Somerville at E.ON helped explain why the bill would be so high.
With huge 10,000 volt electric fences and an aviary designed to house pterodactyls to name just two of the Dinosaur Kingdom’s unusual features, we suspected the energy needed to power the whole park would be big – possibly equivalent to powering a whole region within the UK.
“But what our figures show is that it’s actually a massive amount! It’s about the same as powering 30,142 average UK households a year – roughly equivalent to powering half the homes in Harrogate – but by adopting modern solutions, the power requirement and costs could be even less.
“For example, by generating electricity using technology like a biomass fuelled Combined Heat and Power station, park owners could turn dinosaur droppings into electricity. Add on other solutions like solar and battery storage then the park could ultimately benefit from a cheaper, sustainable and more reliable source of electricity instead having to deal with a ‘raptor rampage’ every time the generators that power the electric fences goes down.”
There’s some proper research in this piece. For example, running a dinosaur suitable aviaries was based on the amount of energy to keep the Eden Project in Devon going. That’s about 9,500 MkWh per year or £5,006,500. Ouch! If you want to see more of E.ON’s maths and investigation then pop over to their dinosaur kingdom post and have a gander.
Improving Your Own Energy Use
If you’re thinking about changing energy supplier, there are some handy tools out there you might consider using. Energylinx has some, including a free Meter Point Administration Number Checker so you can examine your MPAN as well as a Gas Meter Point Reference Number (MPRN) tool. Lastly, on EnergyLinks is this comparison tool on suppliers.
Fossil Fuels
Readers of In Pure Spirit will now we care about green issues. While we’re thinking about extinct species and energy we’d have to take a look at fossil fuels.
James Anderson, the joint manager of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, investors who take a long-term view on companies that might change sees a future in alternative energy generation.
…what seems to us to fall into the category of the well-nigh inevitable is that the age of fossil fuels is drawing to an end
In Pure Spirit
Which would you rather have? An island full of dinosaurs – many species brought back from extinction – or free energy for 30,000 homes for a year?
Join the conversation