Project Details...
ENERGY INNOVATORS ------------------------------ It is easy to get depressed about climate change. We are told that it is the greatest challenge that faces mankind. To save our planet, we are being asked to change the way we live our lives, reduce our carbon footprint, stop flying, buy locally, change our light bulbs, put down our car keys and pick up our bikes. No matter what your viewpoint is about climate change, and whether or not you believe we are damaging our planet irrevocably, one thing is certain, we face some tough choices about energy. And like it or not, energy connects us all; where we buy our food, what we eat, how we travel and how we choose to heat and light our homes. This is a short series of portraits of 'energy innovators', people who are taking a positive outlook on the challenges that lay before us. They are striving to come up with new and innovative ways of either generating or conserving energy, and they are recognised as individuals who are sure to influence the way we power our planet in the future.
Seth Grae, CEO, Lightbridge Corporation.
Through Lightbridge, Seth Grae is pushing forward the idea of using thorium as an alternative nuclear fuel to uranium. Thorium is less radioactive, cheaper and more abundant than uranium. It is also non-proliferative and does not produce plutonium in the fuel cycle. Therefore it is not suitable for the production of weapons-grade materials. www.ltbridge.com
Dale Vince, Ecotricity
Dale is the founder and owner of the energy company Ecotricity. Dale Vince left school when he was 15 and was a self proclaimed 'new age traveller' before he founded Ecotricity in 1995. He claims it was the World’s first green electricity company. Ecotricity has installed over 50 windmills and has more than 65,000 customers. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, he has a net worth of £85m pounds. In 2010 he finished building a 'wind-powered' super car called the Nemesis and he now has hopes of building a 'wind-powered' tractor. He was appointed OBE for services to the environment in 2004 www.ecotricity.co.uk
Alvin Smith, Inventor of Searaser.
Alvin spent most of his life working as a motor engineer at his family-owned garage in Surrey. He took an interest in wave energy back in 1997. Then in 2006 he decided to start work on a new wave energy device, named Searaser. Searaser is different from other wave energy devices as it acts as a double action pump that sends water up into a storage reservoir on land. When required, the water is released through a turbine to generate electricity and therefore provides on-demand energy. www.searaser.net
Dr. Gerhard Knies, founder of Desertec
Since 2002, Dr. Knies, has pushed forward the idea of using the World's deserts as primary locations for solar energy. He has set up an organisation called Desertec which promotes the construction of Concentrated Solar Power plants in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East. The plants would not only supply 'green' electricity to domestic markets, but could also be sold and cabled to European nations. Photographed in Hamburg, Germany www.desertec.org
Peter Fraenkel, Marine Current Turbines
Peter is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Marine Current Turbines (MCT), which is based in Bristol, UK. He is a chartered mechanical engineer and has worked on renewable energy technologies since the mid-1970s. MCT has taken the lead in marine current and tidal stream energy. In May 2003, MCT installed the world’s first offshore tidal turbine near Lynmouth off the coast of Devon. Then in 2008, they completed installation of the world's first commercial scale tidal turbine, SeaGen, in Strangford Narrows in Northern Ireland. www.marineturbines.com
Gehan Amaratunga & Florin Udrea, CAM SEMI
Gehan Amaratunga & Florin Udrea, Co-Founders of Cambridge Semi-Conductor, UK. CamSemi is a developer and worldwide supplier of power management integrated circuits for lower cost and more energy-efficient power conversion. Their products are helping manufacturers of mains-powered electronics meet challenging energy-efficiency regulations, while reducing their system costs and accelerating design cycles. In short, they help lower the electricity consumption of many household appliances, such as mobile phone chargers. Although their products are very small, they have a huge impact on cutting energy wastage and therefore will help lower our overall energy needs. www.camsemi.com
Pooran Desai & Sue Riddlestone, Co-Founders of Bioregional.
Pooran and Sue set up Bioregional in 1992. The goal of which is to develop new ideas, concepts, projects and businesses as models that can be taken into the mainstream economy. Bioregional became a charity in 1994. In 2002, with the help of the Peabody Trust, Bioregional built a zero emissions community in Beddington, south London. The development is called BedZed and it has become a benchmark for sustainable communities in the UK and abroad. Bioregional developed the principle of One Planet Living in conjunction with The World Wildlife Fund. www.bioregional.co.uk