Solutions-IMS' photostream

Solutions-IMS' photostream on Flickr.

Eric and Bob - just for fun

Renewable energy

Introduction - Efforts to reduce pollutants and greenhouse gases are a primary focus in today's culture. Our current rate of fossil fuel usage will shortly lead to an energy crisis. We therefore need to better exploit current renewable energy technology and also work on new ways to extract energy from renewable sources as a matter of urgency.
So what are some of the alternatives?

Wind Power - Harnesses the power of the wind to propel the blades of wind turbines which is converted into electrical current by means of a generator.
There is no pollution however consistent wind is needed for continuous power generation, wind turbines are noisy and if winds are too high the National Grid may not cope.

Water Power - There are several forms of hydroelectricity generation currently in use or development however harnessing the power of moving water has an incredibly long history.

Hydropower is the world's No.1 source of renewable energy. It does not produce pollution and is the most efficient way to generate electricity. Modern hydro turbines can convert as much as 90% of the available energy into electricity.

Solar Power - Can work in many ways the most common way is through the use of photovoltaic (PV) technology, which directly transforms sunlight into electricity.

When exposed to the photons found within sunlight, some electrons of the photovoltaic solar cells are knocked loose. These loose electrons create an electrical current which can be harnessed for electrical needs.

Of course solar power can only be gathered during daylight, however energy can be stored.

Nuclear Power - Is the power created from controlled nuclear reactions. The power source is the heat generated by a controlled nuclear fission chain reaction. The reaction involves uranium or plutonium being hit by a neutron and splitting.

Although nuclear power generation only results in relatively low amounts of CO2 being produced the radioactive wastes generated have considerable associated disposal issues.

Geothermal Power - Is energy in the form of the heat from the Earth. It's clean and sustainable. Resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth's surface.

Although not used for electricity generation geothermal energy systems are increasingly used to deliver forced air space heating through ductwork and a heat exchanger. They can also be reversed to extract heat in the summer.

Conclusion - Energy generation from renewable sources is the way towards a low carbon economy. However, there has been a reported a 12% drop in renewable energy production between April and June which will reopen the discussions about the £1 billion support the industry itself receives from the taxpayers each year.

Solutions-IMS - Hazard spotting

Solutions-IMS' photostream on Flickr.

Spotting hazards is easy, and good health and safety is largely about common sense (sometimes in short supply).

All we need to do once we know what the hazard in is put in place some sensible control measures to lower the residual risk to an acceptible level.

Baptism of Fire (Solutions-IMS, the journey so far)

Well we have finally taken the plunge and moved into larger, self-contained offices and purchased our first company vehicles (well a couple of old vans!) and we are starting to feel a little like a real company (just a little).

When we started up in business a little less than 4 years ago (which was only about twenty minutes before the recession hit), we had no idea what a journey we had ahead us. Since then we have faced several changes including diversification into new sectors and more emphasis being placed on our health and safety provision.

We have certainly had our memorable moments since day one. Employing various family members and paying them with cheese sandwiches and ploughing through copious amounts of goodwill and favours.

As the cash flow dictated, we have been prostitutes to the business i.e. when the phone call came in we said yes and then had very interesting discussion on what exactly we had agreed to and how we were going to deliver it!

We have largely enjoyed the journey to date, managed to establish a bloody good company and I am sure that somebody mentioned profit last month, so we may even pay ourselves - one day!

Thank you to everyone who has supported us and wished us well on our journey and if there is any truth in the saying, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” well then we are in really good shape for the future.