Madeira Consorcio

144 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 22.6.2024

We met in the Gallery as usual and saw an uplifting Talk on new ways to store electricity as heat: “Can a simple brick be the next great battery?”

The Speaker (https://www.ted.com/speakers/john_o_donnell) introduced his company’s idea to store electricity in form of bricks and as heat. This could help to de-carbonize the industry which is responsible for about a quarter of CO2 emissions.

The group was a bit sceptical about the bricks (not like in construction work, strangely shaped and in sealed containers). If and once oil producers and other big industries get the idea that they can make money with this new way of energy storage, and switch from fossil fuels, this would be very positive for the environment and humankind’s survival.

There is also an interesting Spiegel article this week (“The fight for clean energy”) by a German reporter that we are on a good way to lower CO2 emission a great deal (hydropower, geothermal energy, biomass, with wave and current power plants, with green hydrogen, with e- and recycled fuels). Many such initiatives are not being seen and reported on, but they exist.

We also talked about our non-existing ferry and the political cha-cha going on behind the curtains, and decided to go to dinner early.