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UTILITY WEEK | 19TH - 25TH JUNE 2015 | 31 Community Editor, Utility Week, and content director, Utilities: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellen. bennett@fav-house.com; News editor: Jillian Ambrose, t: 01342 332061, e: jillian.ambrose@ fav-house.com; Associate news editor: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathew.beech@ fav-house.com; Assistant editor (insights): Jane Gray, t: 01342 332087, e: jane.gray@fav-house. com; Research analyst: Vidhu Dutt, t: 01342 332026, e: vidhu.dutt@fav-house.com; Reporters: Lois Vallely, t: 01342 332080; e: lois.vallely@fav-house.com and Lucinda Dann, t: 01342 332083; e: lucinda.dann@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Ed Roberts, t: 01342 332067, e: ed.roberts@fav-house.com; Business development executive: Sarah Wood, t: 01342 332077, e: sarah.wood@fav-house.com; Publisher: Amanda Barnes, e: amanda.barnes@fav-house.com. General enquiries: 01342 332000; Membership subscriptions: UK £577 per year, overseas £689 per year, t: 020 8955 7045 or email membership sales manager Paul Tweedale: paultweedale@fav-house.com. ISSN: 1356-5532. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Printed by: Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE. Published by: Faversham House Ltd, Windsor Court, Wood Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 1UZ 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2014 Membership subscriptions: UK £577 per year. Overseas £689 per year. Email: paultweedale@fav-house.com Leonie Greene @LeonieGreene Ah! So it looks like the USA has overtaken us on #solar roofs now. They expect a record year. *wistful sigh* Edward King @rtcc_edking Apparently #climate negotiators were working on Saturday when they cd have been watching the Champions League Final. Poor things. Guy Stanley @guylenical Experiencing the Ghanaian bucket shower, toilet flush and morning drink. Unparalleled appreciation for water wastage in the west @ Waterwise DECC @DECCgovuk @AmberRuddhr: @IEA #climate report "clearly shows we must seize the economic opportuni- ties and urgently tackle climate change." #WEOClimate Jamie Peters @jamie_pedro_ Planning officers recommend refusal to one Lancs site and approval to the other. In reality we wont allow either to go ahead #DontFrackLancs William Marchant @richonlyinname Anonymous large supplier posturing seems to be that any CMA finding short of a break up of the Big 6 constitutes a clean bill of health. PeterMannionMP @PeterMannionMP So the brown shoes, black trousers, red felt jacket-with-biros-in-pocket wing of the La- bour Party WILL have a voice. #JeremyCorbyn Mark Johnston @mark_johnston People talk about "energy" to avoid speak- ing of dirty fuels by their actual names. #EUSEW15 #energyunion @Carnegie_Europe @boell_eu Jessica lennard @JessicaLennard Autumn CSR looking bad for @DECCgovuk. £££ quangos like NDA shd be reabsorbed, rather than imp. programmes like communi- ties & efficiency cut Top Tweets Disconnector You can't put that there, mate Rich men in Scotland are finding that their millions don't buy them as much clout these days. First Donald Trump failed to stop a windfarm, and now Brendan Clouston, a Canadian telecoms tycoon, has failed in his attempt to force SSE to change the route of the Beauly-Denny intercon- nector so it doesn't impinge on the view from his (admittedly very impressive) Scottish coun- try pile. Clouston's Eilean Aigas estate, situated on an island in the River Beauly, was once used as a summer getaway by prime minister Sir Robert Peel. Clou- ston spent a fortune restoring it to greatness before getting wind of SSE's plans to run pylons across the secluded island. He put it on the market in 2012 for £15 million, but last week was obliged to drop the asking price to little more than the £3 million he originally paid for it –and he blames the pylons. If anyone can afford to take the hit, then Clouston can. He's a billionaire. Even so, losing £12 million because a pylon spoils an otherwise perfect view has got to rankle. I get around The problem of developers or utility companies coming along and spoiling the view is not one that will ever trouble the owner of an Ecocapsule – a port- able, eco-friendly home whose Disconnector Slovakian designers claim is the world's first "truly independent micro-home". The capsule is powered solely by wind and solar energy, while thermal insulation within the structure minimises energy losses. An incineration unit provides heat during the winter months. It is equipped with a composting toilet and its rounded form makes it ideal for collecting rainwater and dew, which are then purified through membrane filters. It offers a self-sufficient life- style for sensitive artistic types who want to get away from it all and live in splendid isola- tion. And if you get bored with the view, you simply move the capsule somewhere else. The only problem Discon- nector can foresee is that if the Eco capsule catches on, there won't be a beautiful landscape on earth not littered by the egg-shaped homes. Still, the inventors will doubtless make a packet, so they'll be able to afford to get away from the things… perhaps to a remote Scottish estate somewhere. A fishy story Humanity may soon have need for self-sufficient portable homes for weightier purposes than trying to get the best view. That's right – to get away from the fish! Believe it, dear reader, for lo, it was reported in the Mail Online that a "bizarre and seemingly super-powered fish" that walks on land for up to six days has been discovered in Australia. Described as an "aggressive perch", it is said to have lungs as well as gills and environmentalists down under claim it could prove apocalyp- tic for native wildlife. Which is all very touchy- feely, but the great man is more concerned about what it might mean to mankind. If a perch can walk on land, what about a shark? Or any other type of deep sea, biting nasty? On that bombshell… As it happens, stay away from the water was also Thames Water's message to dissuade children from messing about in Staines Reservoir when it was drained for maintenance, although it has come in for some ridicule for putting up signs warning trespassers of "quicksand and significant risk of unexploded World War II BOMBS" (the company's capitals). When quizzed by the BBC, it downgraded the risk to "slight" and conceded it hadn't actually found any bombs. Disconnector has no prob- lem with Thames exaggerating a potential danger to try to stop the little horrors breaking in, but the company showed a lack of imagination with unexploded munitions. Walking FISH. That's what the sign should have said. And the word "Beware". That would have done the trick.