I was recently asked: do I truly care about climate change or not, and why?
Yes, I care – enough to forego 4 years’ earnings (out of 6.5 years working at this job) and still be earning less than I would in another job, as well as working long hours. I do it because, through it, I can make a difference for the benefit of mankind and of the planet and all creatures in it.
I care because I want this world’s climate to be liveable for the whole of my lifetime (and the changes will happen in the next 20 years, and get worse thereafter).
I care because I want my children to enjoy this world as much as I do.
I care because the last 5 times the climate changed this much (though never this fast), 75–97% of all creatures went extinct, and I don’t want either me or my children to live through that.
I care because otherwise up to a billion people will lose their livelihoods due to encroaching deserts and rising sea levels by 2100, maybe even by 2050 if we do nothing about it.
I care because of the mass migration and security instability this will cause.
I care because those most affected are the poorest and most powerless of this world.
I care because what’s at stake is not this planet – that will survive and recover as before – but our lives, lifestyles and civilisation in it.
I care because we don’t own this planet: we are stewards of it for the next generations. I care because this planet is all we have.
I care because God gave this planet into our care, to use and not to abuse, to rule and not to tyrannise. About Storelectric
Storelectric (www.storelectric.com) is developing transmission and distribution grid-scale energy storage. Innovative adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage (TES CAES). Our 500MW, 2.5-21GWh installations have zero/low emissions, operate at 68-70% round trip efficiency, levelised cost significantly below that of gas-fired peaking plants, and use existing, off-the-shelf equipment. Their CCGT CAES technology converts and gives new economic life to gas-fired power stations, halving emissions and adding storage revenues. Addresses the entire energy trilemma: the world’s most cost-effective and widely implementable large scale energy storage technology, turning locally generated renewable energy into dispatchable electricity.
The potential to store the entire continent’s energy requirements for over a week; potential globally is greater still. In the future, Storelectric will further develop both these and hybrid technologies, and other geologies for CAES.
About the Author
Mark Howitt is Chief Technical Officer, a founding director of Storelectric. He leads Storelectric’s technical and operations, minimising technological risk, maximising efficiency and environmental friendliness, and speed to market. He focuses on technologically simple solutions using proven technologies wherever possible.
His degree was in Physics with Electronics. He has 12 years’ management and innovation consultancy experience world-wide. In a rail multinational, Mark developed 3 profitable and successful businesses: in commercialising a non-destructive technology he had innovated, in logistics and in equipment overhaul. In electronics manufacturing, he developed and introduced to the markets 5 product ranges and helped 2 businesses grow strategically.
