BT's Electric Vans

Openreach has begun testing four electric vans in Milton Keynes and East London, and, if successful, plans to roll them out more widely across the fleet of 23,400 vehicles. 

BT’s fleet management division has worked with green vehicle manufacturers to convert four zero emission vehicles that will be tested for a number of things, including suitability for engineers’ work patterns, battery life and energy usage.  As well as being trialled in Milton Keynes (one of the first cities and towns that are piloting charging points for electrical vehicles) the vans will also be tested at Openreach’s Stratford telephone exchange and nearby Olympic Park.

The vans have a restricted top speed of 70miles per hour and can cover up to 100miles between battery charges, considerably more than average 60 to 65 miles per day covered by an Openreach van, on a normal day.

Battery Power from a good shake?

Japanese electronics has been showing off a new breakthrough in ‘green energy’ as Brother Industries introduces a vibration-harvesting generator that could replace standard AA batteries.



The Vibration Energy Cell batteries deliver power after a vigorous shake. It works in a similar way to a bicycle light dynamo, the only difference is that with the battery, movement from just a few shakes provides energy to power.


"Because of its low output this type of cell is designed to be used for things such as TV remote controls and LED devices, which consume low power and do not consume electrical power continuously." A Brother Spokesman said.


Despite the low power output this seems to be receiving a lot of interest from the industry as a significant breakthrough with bucket loads of potential.


UK mobile operator Orange has also been ‘getting green’ recently as they have revealed their Power Wellies, created in collaboration with renewable energy experts GotWind.