Claims that the costs of wind farms and other low-carbon technology will lead to sharp rises in fuel bills are wrong, government advisers say.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) says increases in bills over the past few years have been largely due to higher wholesale gas costs.
Members said their "best estimate" was that green policies would add ?110 to bills per household in 2020.
It emerged recently that an estimated 1.5m people are in fuel debt in the UK.
The combined gas and electricity bill for typical households could go up from ?1,060 in 2010 to ?1,250 in 2020, according to analysis by the committee.
But further energy efficiency measures - such as loft and wall cavity insulation - could see the projected 2020 bill fall to ?1,085 per household, it said.
CCC chief executive David Kennedy said the committee had analysed the impact of investing in technology including offshore and onshore wind, nuclear and carbon capture and storage.
Mr Kennedy said the cost of this investment was "significantly" outweighed by the benefits - including a reduced reliance on imported fossil fuels.
Looking back, the CCC said an analysis of the average dual fuel energy bills showed an increase of ?455 over the six years 2004 to 2010.
However, 80% of this rise was unrelated to low-carbon measures and the biggest contributor was rising gas prices, which added around ?290 to bills.
Mr Kennedy said that some people had claimed that energy bills were "through the roof at the moment" because of investment in green energy - but the committee's analysis showed this "clearly" was not the case.
A second claim that investment in low-carbon technology over the next decade would drive bills to "astronomical levels" was also untrue, he said.
CCC chairman Lord Adair Turner said: "Over the next decade, we anticipate a rise of around ?100 in the average bill as a result of investment in low-carbon power capacity, which will benefit the UK in the long run."
Fuel poverty
The committee's analysis comes against a background of increased concern about rising fuel costs.
In November it was revealed that the number of people with energy debts had risen by a quarter for electricity and a fifth for gas.
Campaign group Consumer Focus and charity Citizen's Advice say energy prices increased by seven per cent last winter and warn that further rises of 14% this winter could push more people into debt.
An independent report by Professor John Hills published in October found that 2,700 people died each year from problems linked to fuel poverty such as respiratory or cardiovascular disease.
And government figures released over the summer suggested that more than a fifth of all households in the UK in 2009 were affected by fuel poverty - meaning they spend more than 10% of their income keeping warm.
Professor Hills called for a new definition of fuel poverty, which focuses on people with low incomes driven into poverty by high fuel bills.
Judging from the excitement in our inbox and in the Droid Bionic forums, it looks like that major maintenance update is rolling out. Here's what you get, and it's a pretty long list:
E-mail, messaging and data
Improved stability of data on 3G and 4G
Fixed lockup that could occur while browing during the handoff from Wifi to 4G
"Data roaming" pop-up message will display once when roaming in CDMA internationally
Jump to the most recent message after changing the device orientation while in message list view
Device features
Mobile hotspot now supports up to eight devices
Black screen of death fixed
Improved stability to avoid power cycles
Fix lock up and power cycles when connected to Bluetooth headset or HDMI cable
Improved cold SIM card activation speed
"Low memory" warnings when using the Laptop have been reduced
Improved camera autofocus for better shutter response time and better imagery
Location privacy message will display when using location based service setup
Fixed issue where device would power back up after being powered down
Lapdock
Improved stability
Display will not turn off after use
Calling screen will no longer be recreated
Reduced frequence fo the "Low memory" warning messages
You can check for the update now by going to Menu>Settings>About Phone>System Update. And hit the fourms link below to let us know if things are going better for you.
Proton beam experiments open new areas of researchPublic release date: 5-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Anne Stark stark8@llnl.gov 925-422-9799 DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
By focusing proton beams using high-intensity lasers, a team of scientists have discovered a new way to heat material and create new states of matter in the laboratory.
Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego; Los Alamos National Laboratory; Hemoltz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf of Germany; Technische Universitat Darmstadt of Germany, and General Atomics of San Diego unveiled new findings about how proton beams can be used in myriad applications.
Using the Trident sub-picosecond laser at Los Alamos, the team generated and focused a proton beam using a cone-shaped target. The protons were found to have unexpected curved trajectories due to the large electric fields in the beam. A sheath electric field also channeled the proton beam through the cone tip, substantially improving the beam focus.
"These results agree well with our particle simulations and provide the physics basis for many future applications," said Mark Foord, one of the LLNL scientists on the team.
Other Livermore researchers include lead author Teresa Bartal (also a UCSD Ph.D student and Lawrence scholar), Claudio Bellei, Michael Key, Pravesh Patel, Drew Higginson and Harry McLean. The research appears in the Dec. 4 issue of the journal, Nature Physics.
Bartal said the experiments uncover a new understanding of the physics involved in proton focusing, which affects how proton beams can be used in the future -- from heating material to creating new types of matter that couldn't be made by any other means, to medical applications and insights into planetary science.
"The ability to generate high-intensity well-focused proton beams can open the door to new regimes in high-energy density science," Bartal said.
One example includes focusing a proton beam on a solid density or compressed material creating millions of atmospheres of pressure, allowing the study of the properties of warm dense matter found in the interior of giant planets such as Jupiter.
The UCSD team was led by Farhat Beg of Jacobs School of Engineering and several of his students participated in this experiment.
"This work has given a new direction to the conventional thinking of proton beam focusing in short-pulse laser matter interaction," Beg said. "Surely it will impact heating of pre-compressed materials to temperatures observed at the core of the sun and any future applications in proton oncology using high-intensity lasers."
Laser-produced proton beams also are making an impact on medical applications such as isotope production for positron emission tomography (PET) and proton oncology.
###
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (http://www.llnl.gov) provides solutions to our nation's most important national security challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Proton beam experiments open new areas of researchPublic release date: 5-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Anne Stark stark8@llnl.gov 925-422-9799 DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
By focusing proton beams using high-intensity lasers, a team of scientists have discovered a new way to heat material and create new states of matter in the laboratory.
Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego; Los Alamos National Laboratory; Hemoltz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf of Germany; Technische Universitat Darmstadt of Germany, and General Atomics of San Diego unveiled new findings about how proton beams can be used in myriad applications.
Using the Trident sub-picosecond laser at Los Alamos, the team generated and focused a proton beam using a cone-shaped target. The protons were found to have unexpected curved trajectories due to the large electric fields in the beam. A sheath electric field also channeled the proton beam through the cone tip, substantially improving the beam focus.
"These results agree well with our particle simulations and provide the physics basis for many future applications," said Mark Foord, one of the LLNL scientists on the team.
Other Livermore researchers include lead author Teresa Bartal (also a UCSD Ph.D student and Lawrence scholar), Claudio Bellei, Michael Key, Pravesh Patel, Drew Higginson and Harry McLean. The research appears in the Dec. 4 issue of the journal, Nature Physics.
Bartal said the experiments uncover a new understanding of the physics involved in proton focusing, which affects how proton beams can be used in the future -- from heating material to creating new types of matter that couldn't be made by any other means, to medical applications and insights into planetary science.
"The ability to generate high-intensity well-focused proton beams can open the door to new regimes in high-energy density science," Bartal said.
One example includes focusing a proton beam on a solid density or compressed material creating millions of atmospheres of pressure, allowing the study of the properties of warm dense matter found in the interior of giant planets such as Jupiter.
The UCSD team was led by Farhat Beg of Jacobs School of Engineering and several of his students participated in this experiment.
"This work has given a new direction to the conventional thinking of proton beam focusing in short-pulse laser matter interaction," Beg said. "Surely it will impact heating of pre-compressed materials to temperatures observed at the core of the sun and any future applications in proton oncology using high-intensity lasers."
Laser-produced proton beams also are making an impact on medical applications such as isotope production for positron emission tomography (PET) and proton oncology.
###
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (http://www.llnl.gov) provides solutions to our nation's most important national security challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 5-Dec-2011
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