We’ve just submitted the quarterly meter reading of the electricity produced by our solar PV system so we can receive our Feed In Tariff (FiT) payments. The good news is that – thanks to a sunny April – the system is on track to meet its design output for the year.

The bad news is that each payment takes six weeks to process! Why? according to Good Energy:

When companies claim the FIT from Ofgem on behalf of customers, it is called the ‘Levelisation Process’. This occurs quarterly and requires all electricity suppliers to pay an amount into a central fund. The amount they pay is determined by their share of the electricity supply market. Once Ofgem (the regulator) has received information from each supplier, including the total FIT claim they are making for their generator customers and the amount of electricity they supply, it calculates how much each supplier must pay to meet the total amount of FITs being claimed. Ofgem then instructs the suppliers to pay their share into the central fund. Once received, this money is then redistributed to the suppliers according to the FIT claims they submitted (on behalf of their customers), then the supplier makes the FIT payments to those customers.

This is something the government wants to encourage … just think what the bureaucracy would be if they wanted to discourage it …

During my time working in IT in big corporates, I would occasionally come across places where the use of open source software was ‘against company policy’ for one reason or another. I refrained from asking them to investigate their firewalls, routers, digital cameras, printers, photocopiers, etc. etc., but I did occasionally ask them which webservers they used. There was a good chance that IBM shops would be using IBM Websphere Server, and Oracle shops OHS (Oracle HTTP server). Both of these are of course re-badged versions of the Apache Software Foundation’s Apache HTTP Server – “the Apache webserver” – one of the flagships of the open source world.

Indeed, the ASF has achieved two amazing success stories – it produces the world’s most popular webserver, despite competition from commercial giants likes Microsoft; and it has succeeded in straddling the gulf between the open source communities and commercial software houses without upsetting either camp. For this reason, the announcement yesterday by Oracle (with a little help from IBM) that it was putting forward OpenOffice.org for adoption by the ASF is a fascinating development.

History lesson: Oracle acquired the OpenOffice.org software as part of its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Within a few months, the volunteer community (which had been such a feature of OpenOffice.org) upped sticks and announced the formation of The Document Foundation as a home for the continuing OpenOffice.org project – which they had to rebrand as LibreOffice as Oracle had hung on to the OpenOffice.org trademark. TDF has succeeded in establishing credibility, releasing new versions of LibreOffice, and raising substantial funds in an appeal to supporters.

So, this latest move by Oracle could be seen as a move to wrong foot the volunteers in TDF. Alternatively, it could be seen an eminently sensible step for them to take. If OpenOffice.org passes the ASF adoption process, then there will be no question about whether it is a ‘genuine open source project’. You can’t get much more open source street cred than ASF branding. Oracle and IBM can continue to release commercial derivatives of OOo for their customers (as they do with the Apache Web Server), and might even persuade Red Flag to join the party. And the ASF can make the leap from the world’s server rooms to the world’s desktops.

But what about the folks at The Document Foundation? they have invested huge amounts of time and energy in establishing their new baby. It would not be easy to get back into bed with Oracle and IBM, as their initial response suggests. But maybe it’s time to set aside history, set aside the personality issues on all sides, take a deep breath, and decide which route is most likely to create great software that can continue to challenge Microsoft on the desktops of the world.

Unless you’re well versed in Irish history, it’s hard to appreciate the significance of the Queen’s visit to Ireland that ended yesterday. The history of Britain’s occupation of Ireland goes back four centuries, with many of the familiar elements of colonial domination: the seizure of land by settlers with an alien language and religion; callous disregard – sometimes approaching genocide – of the native population, viewed by the occupiers as a lower form of humanity; mass emigration; an armed struggle with atrocities on both sides leading to partition and a two state solution; and eventual peaceful coexistence.

Palestine has been much on my mind over the past few months, and it is tempting to try and see a parallel between the situation there today and the situation in Ireland a century ago. Will we ever see Shimon Peres or one of his successors bowing his head in respectful memory of Palestinian fighters killed during the intifadas? yet that is equivalent to what the Queen did this week in Dublin.

I have a small piece of family history tied up in this. My Irish grandfather was shot dead by the Black and Tans, possibly the greatest scoundrels ever to wear a British uniform. He was completely innocent, just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It would have been tempting for my grandmother, widowed with a small baby (my mother) to seek some consolation in her grief by honouring her late husband as a martyr to the cause, and pledging never to forget. Fortunately for my mother, she didn’t – she got on with her life, remarried, had another five children, and brought all six up to stay well clear of the paramilitaries and all their hangers-on. She didn’t live to see one of her grandchildren have a successful career in the Royal Ulster Constabulary – a highly dangerous career choice for a Catholic – but I suspect she would have understood.

I found Palestine full of memorials to ‘martyrs’ for the cause – everywhere from market squares to living rooms. I don’t consider my grandfather a martyr, a hero in the struggle for Irish independence. He was just an ordinary guy on his way to do another day’s work blending tea for the people of Sligo. However, I do consider my grandmother, in her own small way, a heroine in the struggle for peace. Peace in Ireland came when the heroes and heroines for peace finally overcame those seeking martyrdom and victory through the armed struggle. I trust and pray it will not be another century before the same victory happens in the Middle East. May what has happened in Ireland be a small beacon of hope for the world.

Well, not exactly, but the unseasonal run of unbroken sunny weather we have enjoyed recently has been good news for the solar pv system we had installed last November. In the preceding year, our electricity usage averaged out at about 350W, or 8.5kWh every day. Our system – with a theoretical rating of just under 4kW – has been generating between 20-24 kWh every day over the past week or so – more than twice what we need.

So does this mean we are completely self-sufficient in electricity? Unfortunately not, as there is a mismatch between when we produce it and when we use it. With all the good weather, Mel likes to get a load of washing in first thing in the morning – just before our system wakes up. Our electric kettle consumes 3kW – the system generates 3kW only between about 1pm and 4pm, so any cups of tea outwith those hours means relying on the grid. And of course our fridge and freezers run 24×7; we need lights on in the house at night, and so on.

All these issues could be solved if only there was an efficient means of storing for our own use the electricity we generate during the middle of the day. We also waste a lot of electricity by having to boost everything to mains voltage (240v), and then transforming it back down again (e.g. for this laptop, LED lighting, etc.). As solar PV becomes more accepted, we need serious investment in low voltage domestic systems, so that electricity can be stored efficiently and used effectively for normal household purposes. Maybe defining a standard voltage for domestic use (24V?) would be a start.

Apr 17th – Israel lifts its news blackout and announces that two Palestinian youths have confessed to the Itamar murders – Hakim Awad on April 5th, and Amjad Awad (no relation) five days later. The news shocks villagers in Awarta but the families of the arrested men refuse to believe the two committed the massacre.

Any right thinking person would agree that  “Scenes like these – the murder of infants and children and a woman slaughtered – cause any person endowed with humanity to hurt and to cry.” (Mahmoud Abbas). If the IDF and Shin Beth have caught the murderers, then they are to be congratulated. But if the way they have conducted their investigations over the past month has sowed the seeds of hatred in another generation of Palestinians, then they have not done their cause any favours in the long term. Or maybe compensation will be forthcoming for all the innocent people whose houses have been trashed, etc. in the course of the investigation?

Read the story so far from the New York Times (or see my previous posting) about the tragic events in Awarta, a Palestinian village under Israeli military occupation. It’s still not over:

April 5th – The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) search homes and detain six men

April 6th – IDF storm Awarta shortly after midnight, imposing a curfew and rounding up over 100 women

April 10th – IDF enter the village in the early hours and detain nine, including a mother, father and daughter. The military return in the evening and impose a curfew

April 12th – 71 villagers including a teenage girl and two elderly women continue to be held in Israeli custody without charge, and official visits to ensure their well being are prevented by Israeli forces

April 13th – Extended family of 20 including women and children are held for 11 hours without food or water. A left-wing Israeli activist describes the state of the village (the Israeli authorities have imposed a news blackout)

How long can this continue?

During our recent expedition along a short section of the Abraham Path, we stopped overnight at the town of Awarta, home to some 7,000 people, where we enjoyed the hospitality of the local people. Less than a week later, disturbing news began to emerge about what was happening in the area.

11th March – in a gruesome attack, five members of an Israeli family, the Fogels, are found hacked to death in the nearby settlement of Itamar. Itamar is an illegal settlement built on 3,000 acres of land belonging to Awarta

12th March – Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) close off Awarta, conduct house to house searches and detain 20 men

12th March – in response to the murders, the Israeli ministerial committee on settlement affairs approves the construction of hundreds of housing units in several West Bank settlements

13th March – Israeli forces maintains the curfew on Awarta. Sources in the town said Israeli forces broke doors of houses, shops and cultural centres in the town. They added that Israeli soldiers were using police dogs in searches and described the situation in the town as “really bad; the soldiers are acting in a barbaric, violent way with the residents.”

13th March – the Israeli government releases scene of crime photographs to “show the world what and who the State of Israel has to deal with” according to Minister of Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein

14th March – The curfew in Awarta remains in force.  Soldiers tour the town, calling over loud speakers for all residents aged 15-40 to gather in the yard of the community’s school. Palestinian security officials told AFP that two Palestinian Authority intelligence officers were among over 300 residents detained by Israeli soldiers. International observers reported how soldiers had entered families’ homes, arrested young men and left the homes completely wrecked from the inside.

14th March – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemns the murders: “A human being is not capable of something like that. Scenes like these – the murder of infants and children and a woman slaughtered – cause any person endowed with humanity to hurt and to cry.”

14th March – Dozens of Israelis position themselves on the road between Itamar and the nearby Palestinian village of Awarta on Monday, hurling stones at local residents. Palestinian sources reported that two residents are lightly wounded in the incident.

15th March – In Awarta, the siege enters day four. No one is allowed in or out of the town and residents must stay in their houses (Awarta does not have mains water). “The children are out of bread and milk…even the water is almost gone. Electricity has been cut off from several homes…ambulances and medical staff are denied entrance into the village”

15th March – Settlers bulldoze olive groves owned by Awarta residents and erect mobile homes as a new ‘settlement’

15th March – Rumours circulate locally that a Thai migrant worker had threatened to kill members of the Fogel family over unpaid wages

16th March – After five days, the curfew in Awarta is lifted at 9am.

17th March – Israeli media complain that western media haven’t given enough prominence to the Fogel massacre

22nd March – at 3am the IDF re-impose a curfew on Awarta, ransack houses, and  upwards of 60 individuals are detained and forced to give DNA samples. According to the head of the Awarta village council, Qays Awwad “they raided every house, sabotaged the floors, windows and doors and brought in police dogs for inspections which Palestinians regard as defiling their houses. We can’t describe the fear in women’s eyes or the children’s terror after being locked for hours in closed rooms or in the cold during each raid which was accompanied with dogs” The curfew was lifted at 8pm.

As of today, no-one has been arrested or charged with the murder of the Fogels. However, one Palestinian town has suffered collective punishment, which has been largely unnoticed by the rest of the world. If we hadn’t happened to stay there, I’m sure we wouldn’t have heard a thing about it.