EDITORIAL
Incentivising quick fixes may backfire
www.cibsejournal.com
Editorial Editor: Bob Cervi Tel: 01223 273520 Email:
bcervi@cibsejournal.com
Reporter: Carina Bailey Tel: 01223 273521 Email:
cbailey@cibsejournal.com
Senior designer: David Houghton Technical editor: Tim Dwyer
Advertisement sales
Sales manager: Jim Folley Tel: 020 7324 2786,
jim.folley@
redactive.co.uk
Sales consultant: Mark Palmer, Tel: 020 7324 2785,
mark.palmer@
redactive.co.uk
Sales executive: Darren Hale Tel: 020 7880 6206,
darren.hale@redactive.co.uk
Recruitment sales: Paul Wade Tel: 020 7324 2762
paul.wade@redactive.co.uk
Advertising production: Jane Easterman Tel: 020 7880 6248
jane.easterman@redactive.co.uk
For CIBSE Publishing co-ordinator: Edward Palmer Tel: 020 8772 3697,
epalmer@cibse.org
Editorial advisory panel George Adams, engineering director, Spie Matthew Hall Laurence Aston, director, Buro Happold
Annabel Clasby, mechanical building services engineer, Atkins
Patrick Conaghan, partner, Hoare Lea Consulting Engineers Rowan Crowley, director, einside track James Fisher, e3 consultant, FläktWoods David Hughes, consultant Philip King, director, Hilson Moran
Chani Leahong, senior associate, Fulcrum Consulting Nick Mead, group technical director, Imtech Technical Services
Christopher Pountney, graduate engineer, AECOM
James Rene, engineer/acoustician, Max Fordham Alan Tulla, independent lighting consultant Ged Tyrrell, managing director, Tyrrell Systems Ant Wilson, director, AECOM Terry Wyatt, consultant to Hoare Lea
CIBSE Journal is written and produced by CPL (Cambridge Publishers Ltd) Tel: +44 (0) 1223 477411.
www.cpl.co.uk 275 Newmarket Road, Cambridge CB5 8JE.
Editorial copy deadline: First day of the month preceding the publication month
The opinions expressed in editorial material do not necessarily represent the views of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE). Unless specifically stated, goods or services mentioned in editorial or advertisements are not formally endorsed by CIBSE, which does not guarantee or endorse or accept any liability for any goods and/or services featured in this publication.
CIBSE, 222 Balham High Road, London SW12 9BS Tel: +44 (0) 20 8675 5211.
www.cibse.org
©CIBSE Services Ltd. ISSN 1759-846X
Subscription enquiries If you are not a CIBSE member but would like to receive CIBSE Journal, subscribe now! Costs are £80 (UK) and £100 (international). For subscription enquiries, and any change of address information, please contact Edward Palmer at
epalmer@cibse.org or telephone +44 (0)20 8772 3697. Individual copies are also available at a cost of £7 per copy plus postage.
The 2011 US annual subscription price is £100. Airfreight and mailing in the US by Air Business, C/O Worldnet Shipping NY Inc, C/O Air Business Ltd / 155-11 146th Street, Jamaica, New York, NY11434. Periodical postage pending at Jamaica NY 11431. US Postmaster: Send address changes to CIBSE Journal, C/O Air Business Ltd / 155-11 146th Street, Jamaica, New York, NY11434.
Cover courtesy of Network Rail
ABC audited circulation: 19,139 January to December 2010
I
nnovation, innovation, innovation. Some believe that this is what is needed to shore up both a secure and a green energy future. A recent report from the Royal Academy of Engineering looks in
this direction (see News, page 10), as does Professor Colin McInnes, writing in this issue (Opinion, page 20).
In a very important sense, this viewpoint hits the nail on the head
(or, more appropriately, has its finger on the nuclear button). It’s no good simply relying on established renewable solutions, however high- tech they may be. Heat pumps and photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, for example, offer an important shorter-term fix, but will they actually get us where we need to be – meeting those tough and necessary carbon targets in the UK? So, is it far better for the money to follow the innovation, rather
In our industry, the money should be following the truly innovative rather than subsidising the status quo
than subsidising the quick fixes? In other words, rather than providing incentives for (largely middle-class) households to install money-saving PV panels (with help from feed-in tariffs) or efficient but complex and expensive boilers (helped by renewable heat incentives), should we not instead be concentrating all our efforts and funds on incentivising innovations to produce greener energy supplies (this is where the nuclear button arises) and renewable technologies that do not rely on gas-fired heat? (Subsidies might also be directed more at alleviating fuel poverty.) In an ideal world we would fund all the short-, medium- and long-term fixes needed to meet
those carbon targets. But this won’t be happening any time soon. We need to go back to fundamentals and ask: what types of innovation should government, central and local, be incentivising and promoting? Should it really be PVs and heat pumps? Or should the money follow technologies that will make a genuinely major difference in terms of greening our energy supply and promoting heating (and cooling) solutions that don’t rely on traditional fuel sources? I don’t have the answers (and I’m not convinced that traditional nuclear power stations is one of them), but we must not be side-tracked by the status quo and avoid asking fundamental questions. Perhaps we should adapt the advice of Deep Throat in All the President’s Men: ‘follow the money’. In our industry’s case, the money should be following the truly innovative.
Bob Cervi, Editor
bcervi@cibsejournal.com
www.cibsejournal.com
February 2012 CIBSE Journal
5
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72