Just back from a very stimulating two day tour of sustainable and green energy installations with other councillors and senior officers from the City.
Lots to talk about, but no time tonight.
So I will leave you with a photo of a series of “Hybrolights” – solar and wind powered street lights – and a new word:
Pluvial – pertaining to rain
Niles's Blog 
I had heard of these things but never seen them. They’re rather beautiful, sculptural, aren’t they?
I’m not sure.
They’re a very good statement, and I think I would use them for the most obvious public places, but would they become a bit intrusive on residential streets? If you had to install them around trees you’d need to stick the PVs above the leaf line.
We had a lot of discussion about them on the coach.
I wonder about how green they really are — you’d have to look at the impact of making the system, and the environmental impact of the batteries they need, since they are completely autonomous.
I wonder how vandal-proof they are. Apparently some installations have had their batteries nicked, and would those PVs last under a sustained sling-shot attack?
On the positive side, no-one is making them in great number yet, so you could commission them how you like. Some designs have the more normal vertical axis turbines on them which would be more efficient, but would make more noise.
Autonomous lights are very attractive in a Nottingham context: we have our own staff to install them but have to rely on utility companies to connect them up and in some cases it has taken more than 6 months to persuade the utilities out. (Affixing signs that say “It’s not the Council’s fault these aren’t on, it’s Powergen’s” worked wonders.)
Il pleu is definitely the greatest onomatopoeic French phrase(that I know anyway…)