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UTILITY WEEK | 29TH APRIL - 5TH MAY 2016 | 31 Community Editor, Utility Week, and content director, Utilities: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellen. bennett@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; Deputy news editor: Lois Vallely, t: 01342 332080; e: lois.vallely@fav-house.com; Networks correspondent: Lucinda Dann, t: 01342 332083, e: lucinda.dann@fav-house.com; Reporters: Saffron Johnson, t: 01342 332050, e: saffron.johnson@fav-house.com and Tom Grimwood, t: 01342 332061, e: tom.grimwood@fav-house.com; 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 enquiries: Peter Bissell, t: 01342 332507, e: peter.bissell@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 2015 Membership subscriptions: UK £637 per year. Overseas £749 per year. Contact Peter Bissell on: 01342 332507 Not an easy sell Sometimes you have to feel for the poor sods charged with ensuring essential infrastruc- ture gets built. Whether it's roads, railways or power sta- tions, we all want easy access (and at a reasonable price) but none of us want anything so… er… utilitarian anywhere near our homes. The political tide has turned against onshore wind, and the days of large solar installations are surely numbered, but you don't need anything so modern and fancy as renewables to get the locals fuming. In some parts, the humble electricity pylon is still regarded as an alien monster bestride the land. Places such as the Lake District, for instance. National Grid plans to erect 75 pylons along the western edge of the Lake District, seven of them around the tiny fishing village of Ravenglass – and the locals are up in arms about it. They say the 160-high pylons will destroy the area's picturesque charm and are demanding that Grid put the 20-mile scheme underground. Grid has offered to bury some 1.2 miles of cabling, on the not unreasonable grounds that burying the lot would cost the best part of half a billion quid, and has asked to meet protest- ers to discuss which part might be buried. Kate Willshaw, policy officer at Friends of the Lake District, says that would be like "being asked which of your children you want to save while sacri- ficing the rest", so Grid isn't getting many brownie points for that one. You have to pity the commu- nity liaison officers Grid sends out into the wilds to try to sell the necessity of such schemes: the fact is that we now regard access to electricity and broadband as a human right, but don't want to be faced with anything as unsightly as a pylon or a telecoms mast. Bring on the three-day week Regular readers will know that Disconnector has at times been sceptical about the research efforts of so-called "scientists". Well, the great man has now revised his opinion of our ven- erable brethren and feels their toil deserves a bit more respect than they sometimes get. He thinks this upon reading research from those fine fellows at Keio University in Australia. They conducted cognitive tests on 3,000 men and 3,500 women to analyse their work habits and found that those working 25 hours a week performed best, while those working 55 hours a week showed results worse than retired or unem- ployed participants. Their conclusion boils down to the fact that a three-day- week gets the best performance from workers aged over 40. Hallelujah, brother! All those water-cooler conversa- tions speculating on when four- day weekends might be made the norm were not the hopeless Monday-morning drivelling of office drones but hard science. Feel free to present these facts to your boss and report back to Disconnector on any success you get in reducing your working week – apart from reducing it to zero, that is. A tall story? Whoohoo! Any discovery of a new source of sustainable fuel is a cause for celebration in Disconnector's book. Hats off, therefore, to SAS Doue-Metha in western France, an enterprise set up to promote the benefits of using giraffe and cattle dung as a source of fuel for biogas. If that sounds a bit random, Disconnector must point out that the company was formed on the back of a trial using, ahem, contributions from the Doué-la-Fontaine zoo in the Pays de la Loire region, which chanced upon what they claim is a particularly potent biogas fuel. Great scientific discoveries are oen made by chance, so if it turns out that giraffe crap is the answer to sustainable biogas, what the heck? Of course, it's the worst animal as far as nimbys across the land are concerned. If they are bothered by a handful of pylons in the distance, wait until they're asked to put up with their neighbours' giraffes peering at them over the fence. Disconnector Fatih Birol @IEABirol #energyhaiku of the week: G7 Kyushu: Investment in energy; For climate and growth JULIE GRANT @JULIEGRANT20 OK, does anyone out there have knowledge of noise disturbance with high voltage direct current (DC) electricity interconnectors please? Natalie Bennett @natalieben Hinkley C not going to deliver energy when we need it – delayed again – time to focus on renewables & energy efficiency! Dalia Grybauskaite @Grybauskaite_LT Transparency and safety of nuclear power plants – the only way to prevent disaster from repeating. 30 years after #Chernobyl ECIU @ECIU_UK Another UK coal-fired power station cuts hours, unable to compete with cleaner energy David Tickner @david_tickner India scrambles to get #water to 330 million people. Minister says it's "pointless to plan in advance" for #drought! Kent Page @KentPage There's enough fresh #water on Earth to meet global demand. But daily, 663 million people go without v/@unicefwater William Marchant @richonlyinname This is your hourly Hinkley update: France finds 13 billion euros down the back of the sofa. Clean Air in London @CleanAirLondon Countdown: 73 days to the 60th anniversary of the first #CleanAirAct. We must ban diesel now as we banned coal then Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole As world signs climate deal we're delivering a tonne of coal to govt urging them to lock fossil fuels in the ground Christiana Figueres @CFigueres Final tally. 175 countries signed #ParisAgree- ment. 15 already ratified. 19 announced intent to ratify this year. Top Tweets