Fiona a is h £t Jo Tomlinson

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Hannah: 
You know, Mike, I’m afraid I don’t share your opinion. This text here ta lks about the likelihood of 
improved technology increasing the am ount of energy and reducing the costs in the future. 
Louise: 
Yes, but th a t’s not enough proof to be sure of the relationship between the costs and the benefits.
Mike:
Hannah:
Track 05
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Phil:
Jackie:
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Track 06
Phil:
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Exactly, the evidence seems incom plete to m e.
Well, that's som ething we can fo llo w up on w ith the rest of the group in the se m ina r on Thursday.
Good m orning, Phil, Jackie. I hope your project is going w ell.
M orning, M r Jackson.
Hi M r Jackson. Well, w e ’ve made a s ta rt on analysing the d ifferen t form s of renewable energy, but 
u nfortunately we don’t really agree on some points.
OK, why don't we ta lk about it?
Well, Jackie believes th a t a ll fo rm s of renewable energy are beneficial econom ically, whereas I doubt 
that that's tru e fo r a ll of them .
Such as?
Such as w ind, wave and s o la r energy because they're less re lia b le .
That's a valid point but I don't th in k that's a large enough fa cto r to disregard it completely.
Exactly, that's w hat I said.
However, another drawback is that they’ re generally very expensive to produce.
Yes, you're right. And that 
is
a concern when evaluating th e ir usefulness in future.
I agree w ith you to a point, but it's likely that the cost w ill come down. I read a report in the 
Journal of
Environmental Science
that estim ates the cost would fa ll by tw enty per cent over the next ten years, 
which is significant, is n 't it?
Absolutely, Jackie. But you need to th in k about how d iffic u lt it is to predict the fu tu re cost of non- 
tra d itio n a l energy sources before you believe the report. Rem em ber: in vour project I w ant to see 
evidence of c ritic a l analysis. Make sure you’ve analysed a ll the inform ation ra th e r than just accepting 
the inform ation that you agree w ith . Also it ’s very im p orta nt th a t you dem onstrate wide reading 
around the subject.
I know, it's ju s t th a t I’ m not convinced that it ’s going to continue to be th at expensive, especially if 
th e re ’s a demand from consum ers.
Well, w hat about if we analyse the costing process as part of o ur project?
That's an excellent idea, Phil. OK, so let's im agine th a t we w ant to forecast the cost of producing solar 
energy. How could we do that, Jackie?
Um, w ell, I th in k w e ’d have to s ta rt by w orking out how many hours of daylight there are in the UK per 
year.
The M eteorological Office would have data on that.
Then estim ate the num ber of hours of sun to get a rough total.
And then I suppose w e ’d need to w ork out how much it would cost to supply the average home w ith 
so la r power, and then extrapolate 
that
to get a num ber fo r the w hole country.
Good, and don't forget the price of power conversion stations - th is w ill have a significant im pact on 
overall expenditure. And there's one more fa cto r you haven't taken into account yet, regarding the 
consum ers.
Um ... w h e th e r they w ould change from tra d itio n a l to renewable energy?
No, but th in k about w hat m ig ht make them change?
Oh, yes. How much thev w ould be w illin g to pay.
Exactly. W ell done.
So, our project is going to cover three main areas. Firstly, com paring the main fo rm s of alternative 
energy: solar, wind, wave, and bio fuels in te rm s of production costs. Secondly, w e ’ll take so la r 
energy as an example and do a cost prediction, and lastly w e ’ll analyse w he th er they’re likely to 
replace tra d itio n a l fo ssil fuels in the fu tu re .
That sounds like a com prehensive project w ith a good focus. Now, w hat data are you going to use and 
w hat approach w ill you use fo r the analysis?