An environmentalist author whose South London home is powered by a variety of renewable energy devices and lead the way in installing urban wind trurbines with the first domestic turbine in London has now dismissed wind as an efficient technology in the search for "green" power sources, saying that it was “an experiment that’s not working”.
Donnachadh McCarthy, who wrote the book Saving the Planet Without Costing the Earth, said he thought the technology was not mature enough as yet. “It’s not there for urban wind at the moment,” he said.
McCarthy was happier with the other renewable technologies, such as solar thermal, photovoltaics, a wood-burner and a rain-harvester all of which he has installed at his house, a Victorian terrace two-bedroom property in Peckham, south London.
The use of these has led him to declare the house “climate positive”. “I am in negative equity in terms of carbon dioxide by 115 kilograms.
McCarthy called for the Government to make two main changes to encourage microgeneration amongst other householders:
Make all new building have a south facing roof, which are ideal for photovoltaics. “That’s crucially important,” he said
Offer better incentives for householders to sell power back to the grid. “I’m getting 6p a unit for mine which is half the national grid price. In Germany they pay five times the price. There are a lot of disincentives to do this sort of thing right now. We have not even got to the starting line in the UK yet.”
McCarthy’s house was on show at the Open House event held in London last weekend as part of an eco-trail organised by the Sponge Network.
Donnachadh McCarthy, who wrote the book Saving the Planet Without Costing the Earth, said he thought the technology was not mature enough as yet. “It’s not there for urban wind at the moment,” he said.
McCarthy was happier with the other renewable technologies, such as solar thermal, photovoltaics, a wood-burner and a rain-harvester all of which he has installed at his house, a Victorian terrace two-bedroom property in Peckham, south London.
The use of these has led him to declare the house “climate positive”. “I am in negative equity in terms of carbon dioxide by 115 kilograms.
McCarthy called for the Government to make two main changes to encourage microgeneration amongst other householders:
Make all new building have a south facing roof, which are ideal for photovoltaics. “That’s crucially important,” he said
Offer better incentives for householders to sell power back to the grid. “I’m getting 6p a unit for mine which is half the national grid price. In Germany they pay five times the price. There are a lot of disincentives to do this sort of thing right now. We have not even got to the starting line in the UK yet.”
McCarthy’s house was on show at the Open House event held in London last weekend as part of an eco-trail organised by the Sponge Network.
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