week ending 8 January 2010
Pay-as-you-save
You’d think the energy efficiency of existing homes would be hard to ignore, but politicians have managed it at least until now, when they’ve suddenly come up with an embarrassment of schemes. Here Building Magazine examines Pay As You Save.
Building 8th Jan 2010 more >>
North East Micro
The New and Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) in Blyth, North East England, has launched a project to help small and medium-sized enterprises exploit micro-renewable opportunities after receiving nearly £1 million in EU and regional funding.
New Energy Focus 7th Jan 2010 more >>
Heat Pumps for Refurbishment
At Ecobuild 2010 ICS Heat Pump Technology will be launching their new commercial 80kW packaged heat pump which will deliver 65 C output temperatures even in ambient temperatures as low as -12 C without any supplementary heating being required. This packaged unit is geared towards retrofit applications where output temperatures of 65 C will allow heat pump based renewable heating systems to be installed with minimal replacement work on the existing installed radiator system.
ICS Heat Pump Technology 7th Jan 2010 more >>
Micro-CHP failure
Government dithering is threatening the future of 20,000 British jobs and the country’s global lead in the design and development of new highly efficient boilers, according to manufacturers of the new technology. British companies have led the way in developing micro CHP boilers. The Government promised in the summer to set a tariff at which households could sell surplus power from “micro-generation” devices such as rooftop wind turbines and solar panels. However, the industry fears that CHP boilers may be left out because they do not use renewable power. The Government closed its consultation on the issue in October but has yet to respond, even though the tariff is due to come into force in April to cover the next three years.
Times 7th Jan 2010 more >>
Concerned industry bodies have written to Energy Minister Lord Hunt asking him to confirm that microCHP will be supported at a level “adequate” to safeguard green jobs and maximise the environmental benefit the technology offers.
New Energy Focus 8th Jan 2010 more >>
Geothermal
Geothermal Engineering hopes to have 10MW of generating capacity in Cornwall by 2013.
Power Alternatives 6th Jan 2010 more >>
Scrappage and renewables
Microgeneration technology could be taken up in a number of households after the government’s boiler scrappage scheme was launched. Households in England with G-rated boilers - thought to number some 125,000 - can apply via the Energy Saving Trust for a voucher giving them £400 off the price of an A-rated boiler or a renewable energy heating system.
Rapid 6th Jan 2010 more >>
Scottish Boilers may miss out
Thousands of Scots will miss out on a scheme to give them money towards a new central hearing boiler, it was claimed last night. Downing Street launched a boiler scrappage scheme yesterday similar to the one launched earlier in the year for old cars. Labour claimed up to 12,000 Scots will miss out however, because the SNP has failed to match the promised grants. Labour MP for Edinburgh North and Leith Mark Lazarowicz said: “There is no reason why the SNP should exclude Scotland. Labour is prepared to help families though the winter by upgrading old, polluting boilers.
Press and Journal 6th Jan 2010 more >>
Southern Biogas
Southern Water announced last Wednesday that it had been given the Carbon Trust Standard, which is awarded to companies that reduce their carbon footprint. The company is currently producing renewable energy at 11 wastewater treatment works in the South East in Combined Heat and Power Units. By taking bio gas created during the digestion stage of treatment, the units use it to provide 80 per cent of the power used on site. Any surplus is exported to the National Grid.
Gravesend Reporter 6th Jan 2010 more >>
Fuel Poverty
Green campaigners also stepped up calls for a “bold” approach to tackle fuel poverty - and in doing so, meet climate change targets for reducing carbon emissions. WWF Scotland organiser Elizabeth Leighton urged the Scottish government to build on Westminster’s Warm Front scheme in England which offers grants of up to 6,000 for pensioners and single parents on benefits to insulate their homes. And she insisted: “A bold, local authority-led, street-by-street approach with free loft and cavity wall insulation for all is the most effective means to make all homes low-carbon.”
Morning Star 6th Jan 2010 more >>
Boiler Scrappage
The boiler scrappage scheme is designed to help cut Britain’s carbon emissions and aid the beleaguered heating industry, which has been hindered by a collapse in housebuilding. Some in the industry yesterday dismissed the Government’s plan as a “drop in a bucket” and “half-hearted”, because it will offer support for only 125,000 households in England out of an estimated 4.5m in the UK with the eligible G-rated boiler . The £400 incentive must be spent on a top-of-the-range band-A boiler, which are 90pc more efficient than the G-rated models. Band-A boilers accounted for 85pc of the 1.5m boilers sold in the UK last year. The leading sellers in the UK, and therefore most likely to benefit, are German-owned Worcester Bosch and Vaillant, and UK-based Baxi and Ideal.
Telegraph 6th Jan 2010 more >>
Moneywise 5th Jan 2010 more >>
Guardian 6th Jan 2010 more >>
New Energy Focus 5th Jan 2010 more >>
By changing a G-Rated boiler to the more recent A-rated model the average sized house could save over £200 per annum.
Youcouldsave 5th Jan 2010 more >>
British Gas is profiting from the Government’s boiler scrappage scheme by failing to pass on the full value of the grants. The company is refusing to offer its usual discounts to customers who apply for a £400 grant.
Times 6th Jan 2010 more >>
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband will today kick start a national scheme to upgrade household heating systems to cut carbon, save money on fuel bills and sustain work for the heating industry. Up to 125,000 households in England with working “G-rated” boilers can from today apply through the Energy Saving Trust for a voucher which will entitle them to £400 off the price of a new, modern “A-rated” boiler or a renewable heating system like a biomass boiler or a heat pump.
DECC Press Release 5th Jan 2010 more >>
Energy Crops
Farmers venturing into energy cropping this year are now eligible for half-rate grant funding from a scheme administered by Natural England. The Energy Crops Scheme (ECS) provides grants to landowners for the establishment of biomass crops such as miscanthus grass and short rotation coppice, primarily willow. From 1 January 2010 the rate of funding available has increased from 40% to 50%.
First4Farming 5th Jan 2010 more >>
North East Training
People in the North East could kick off 2010 by enrolling on a course to teach them to make green energy. The course has been set up by Community Renewable Energy (CoRE) following what the group describes as the disappointing Climate Change summit in Copenhagen in December.
Newcastle Journal 5th Jan 2010 more >>
Scottish Scheme
Every home in Scotland should get free loft and cavity wall insulation as part of measures to make all homes low carbon, according to WWF Scotland. The group announced today (January 5) that free insulation is part of a ‘bold three-pronged approach’ set out in response to a Scottish Government consultation on Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Action Plan which ends today. According to the WWF Scotland ‘urgent’ action is needed as by its own admission the Scottish Government states current policies will deliver at best only a 9% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 - far short of the 42% it’s aiming for.
Edie 5th Jan 2010 more >>
Solar Newcastle
Kingston Park Primary School in Newcastle now has state-of-the-art solar panels on its roof, which will make the building more environmentally friendly, as well as allow pupils to learn about renewable energy.
Newcastle Evening Chronicle 5th Jan 2010 more >>
Tees Valley Small Hydro
Water power will be used to generate electricity in the Tees Valley, officials have announced. A hydroelectric station is to be built at Selset Reservoir, near to Barnard Castle, County Durham, now that a power partnership has been signed by Northumbrian Water and RWE npower renewables. It will generate up to 750 kilowatts of electricity.
Hartlepool Mail 5th Jan 2010 more >>
Newcastle Journal 5th Jan 2010 more >>
New Civil Engineer 6th Jan 2010 more >>
Liverpool CHP
Greater-Manchester-based renewable technology provider ENER-G is set to install an advanced combined heat & power (CHP) system at the newly built £72 million Museum of Liverpool. The museum is the largest newly-built national museum in the UK for more than a hundred years.
New Energy Focus 4th Jan 2010 more >>
Tory Blueprint?
A green revolution in Yorkshire would require a reduction in our dependency on coal and a huge increase in renewable energy and energy efficiency. About 27 per cent of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions are the result of domestic energy use. Mr Cameron should follow the example of Kirklees Council’s award-winning Warm Zone scheme.
Yorkshire Post 3rd Jan 2010 more >>
Shell & Solar
Shell has become embroiled in a major row with the World Bank and green energy companies after allegations that it is unfairly refusing to honour warranties on solar power systems sold to the developing world. A widespread breakdown of its equipment in Sri Lanka and elsewhere has left the oil firm accused of abandoning a responsibility to impoverished communities while damaging the prospects of the wider renewable power sector in a world desperate to reduce carbon emissions following the Copenhagen climate change summit.
Observer 3rd Jan 2010 more >>
Micro-CHP
Letter from the CHP Association: Adair Turner is right that the government has a key role to play in creating green-collar jobs, and in highlighting the need to cut carbon emissions from Britain’s homes. However, for at least one green technology that can be used in the home, micro-CHP, current government indecision is threatening the future of 20,000 UK jobs, and a industry with a potential value to the UK economy of £1.5bn. Government officials are in the final stages of setting the subsidies in a key environmental policy, the feed-in tariff (FIT) which is intended to provide financial incentives to householders for the generation of renewable and low-carbon electricity. But with just a few weeks before the government’s internal deadline to set the FIT tariffs from April for the next three years, the UK’s emerging micro-CHP industry still has no idea what tariff rate the technology will receive. Support from the FIT for micro-CHP at 15p per kilowatt hour could mean a saving of up to 10 million tonnes of CO2 per annum from Britain’s buildings by 2020.
Guardian 2nd Jan 2010 more >>
Conference
We have been asked to organise the speakers and subjects for a conference at the “Independent Power & Energy Europe” NEC Birmingham 8 10 June 2010. by the publishers of World Wide Independent Power, a leading industry magazine about mainly non central power stations, although they do cover grid issues form time to time.
Claverton Energy 1st Jan 2010 more >>
Devon AD
THE firm behind plans to build a renewable energy plant close to Tiverton has admitted the original scheme was “too ambitious” but claims a new scaled-down version can provide waste management solutions, farm diversification, jobs and economic regeneration.
Middevon Gazette 31st Dec 2009 more >>