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UTILITY WEEK | 18TH -24TH DECEMBER 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; Assistant editor (insights): Jane Gray, t: 01342 332087, e: jane.gray@fav-house. com; Associate insights editor: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathew.beech@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; Saffrom Johnson. e:saffron.johnson@fav-house.com, t: 01342 332050; Business development manager: Richard Powell, t: 01342 332062, e: richard.powell@ 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 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2014 Membership subscriptions: UK £577 per year. Overseas £689 per year. Email: paultweedale@fav-house.com Top Tweets Let it snow, let it snow… Ho ho ho! It's Christmas! We could do with a bit of the white stuff to make it feel a bit more seasonal, especially for the energy companies. The weather has been ridiculously mild for mid-winter, which is great for keeping the fuel bills of the hard-working families of Great Britain down, but for the same reason it is not so great for energy suppliers. Which is not to say we haven't had bad weather, of course. Storm Desmond has ravaged large parts of the coun- try. No, the weather has been bad all right – it just hasn't been very cold. It leaves the water com- panies looking a little out of touch in the timing of their annual effort to encourage homeowners to lag their pipes. These campaigns are organised months in advance, so it's not Cambridge Water's fault that while it's urging its customers to "Give your home a hug this winter", its customers are still picking daffodils from their gardens. That said, the weather is so unpredictable these days (as the great man is sure the Met Office can vouch for) that by the time you read this the coun- try could be shivering under Cold Front Tina (have they started naming cold fronts yet? Not sure they have – Ed). Let's hope so. Y'know, for the sake of Christmas, that is… Another pair of socks So what do you buy the man who has everything for Christ- mas? Why, socks of course. Not any old socks of course. Disconnector is referring to a pair of socks that generate electricity using urine pumped around a network of microbial fuel cells using muscle power. Scientists at the West of England University in Bristol built the contraption that har- nesses the power of walking to drive two heel pumps that pump fresh urine over 24 cells and provides enough electricity to power an transmitter capa- ble of sending a text message. While the Bristol team has the honour of being the first to accomplish this, Disconnector is not sure exactly how many others were in the race. So now you can send a text message without the inconvenience of having to rely on a battery, as long as you don't mind sloshing around in your own piss for a few hours. He who laughs last Regular readers of this column will know that Utility Week likes nothing better than following the exploits of the world's biggest critic of wind- farms, Donald Trump – the owner of a golf course in Scot- land (coincidentally soon to be overlooked by a windfarm) and the frontrunner in the race to be the Republican nomination for the White House. Donald has a considerable fortune to tap into should he get the nomination, and he may have to spend a good deal of it to persuade mid- dle America that he's one of the good guys. Most recently, of course, he asked that the country be "locked down" to prevent Muslims getting in. But he's been pretty even-handed in his prejudice, having earlier demanded that all illegal Mexi- cans be deported, and most of them are Catholic. Surely the Americans wouldn't be mad enough to vote him in, even if he did by some fluke win the nomi- nation? Disconnec- tor is not sure such complacency is jus- tified. Ronald Regan was a B-movie actor who was caught out more than once recounting poignant anecdotes from his own life that later turned out to have been film storylines. He was one of the most popular presidents the US ever had. And what about George W Bush and his "mispronouncia- tions". The guffaws were still echoing around the room while he was being sworn in. Disconnector Utilita Energy @UtilitaEnergy LED Christmas lights use a whopping 90% less energy than incandescent. #Christmas #EnergySavingTip #RT Callum McCaig MP @callum_mccaig Asked the Leader of the House about carbon capture and storage. He seems to think it is renewable energy. Explains a lot. GasNaturally @GasNaturally In the US, switching from coal to gas has reduced CO₂ emissions in power generation by 212m tons. Ted Jones @TJinDC #India plans 63GW #nuclear capacity by 2032 (up from current 5.3 GW)—and has pledged at least 10GW, on two sites, for US technology. American Wind Energy @AWEA #Windpower fact of the day: In 2014, $100 billion-worth of new windfarms were installed around the world. #windwork William Marchant @richonlyinname On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me: two scary NISMs and a new-build CCGT. Jon Proctor @Jonproctor_23 Here we go again… Ukip candidate links flooding caused by #StormDesmond with Syrian refugees. #idiots HaveIGotNewsForYou @haveigotnews Climate change campaigners to push argument that two degrees can make an enormous difference – unless they're both in media studies. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders As we transform our energy system, we must act to help fossil fuel workers transition to new clean energy jobs. Julia Groves @juliasgroves 'How is it you build a renewable energy future? You do it street by street." President of Iceland. #WCS2015