week ending 31 May 2013
Helping Consumers
As Good Energy has recently argued, the Government can and should be doing more to put the consumer centre stage in the decarbonisation of our energy market. The simplicity of renewables technology is key to delivering this, because that quality makes it more accessible to a far greater number and wider range of people and organisations than any type of electricity generation technology that has gone before it.
Business Green 31st May 2013 more >>
Solar Future
Overcapacity and poor margins have bankrupted a multitude of solar suppliers and forced corporate investors out of the market over the past two years. However, according to Lux Research, the industry is set to recover quickly thanks to converging supply and demand.
EE Times 31st May 2013 more >>
Cavity Collapse
The number of households insulating their homes has dramatically fallen this year, threatening to torpedo the Government’s energy efficiency drive and push utility bills even higher. According to industry figures obtained by The Times, cavity wall insulation was fitted in 1,138 homes last month, compared with almost 40,000 in April last year. About 47,000 installations need to be carried out each month until the end of the decade to meet targets to reduce energy consumption and cap household bills. Cavity wall insulation is regarded as the cheapest and most effective mass-scale energy efficiency measure available to households. The slump underlines the lack of consumer interest in the Government’s Green Deal programme, which ministers have billed as the biggest home improvement programme since the Second World War.
Times 29th May 2013 more >>
Business Green 29th May 2013 more >>
Guardian 29th May 2013 more >>
Telegraph 31st May 2013 more >>
Community Wind in Hampshire
EDF Energy Renewables has submitted a planning application for a new wind farm to be established on land at Bullington Cross, to the west of Basingstoke and south of Whitchurch in Hampshire. Comprising of 14 turbines at 126.5 metres high, the site has a capacity of 28MW, capable of powering around 13,000 homes energy use and could contribute to the offsetting the annual release of 26,000 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide. Hampshire Energy Group supports the Bullington Cross Wind Farm, on the basis of 10% local ownership, which would be formed as a co-operative that benefits the Hampshire community. HEG are in final negotiations with EDF Energy Renewables to ensure that will be the case.
Hampshire Energy Group (accessed) 29th May 2013 more >>
Stamp Duty
MSPs are to be asked to replace stamp duty on house purchases with a system that has financial incentives to benefit energy efficient homes. Labour’s Malcolm Chisholm, who is proposing the measure, said it would not cost taxpayers anything overall. The Scottish government is formulating its own proposals for when it takes control of the tax. It plans a Land and Buildings Transaction Tax when property tax is devolved to Scotland in two years time. The amount paid would be more closely related to the value of the property, and therefore to the ability of the individual to pay. But Mr Chisholm, a former Labour minister, will call for the tax levied to be varied, depending on how energy efficient the property is. This would be measured by the Energy Performance certificates, which are already required for each house sold in Scotland.
BBC 29th May 2013 more >>
Community Wind in Denmark
Denmark is the great wind power success story. What began as a local, popular, self-help movement during the oil crisis of the 1970s may provide 50% of the country’s electricity consumption by 2020. Electricity generation from wind power is supported by the general public in Denmark and all major political parties. The government has ambitious plans for the sector after 2020. But, big ambitions are no guarantee of success. As this infographic from Leonardo Energy shows, ambitious wind power development plans have fallen short in the past. An attempt to introduce market mechanisms actually stalled the wind industry for more than five years.
Energy Collective 29th May 2013 more >>
Biomass-powered chickens
One Derbyshire poultry producer is receiving an additional income of £250,000 a year thanks to the installation of 11 biomass boilers. The six-digit extra revenue through the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme was enough of an incentive on its own to warrant the £1m investment at Overbrook Farms last October, says farmer David Allsop.
Farmers Weekly 29th May 2013 more >>
RHI
The most common question I am asked by people in the solar heating industry is “when do you think the domestic RHI will launch?” or perhaps more often “do you think a domestic RHI will ever launch?” It is now five years since the domestic RHI was first announced. Proposed launch dates have come and gone. So, is there any reason to hope that it’s different this time? That a spring 2014 launch will actually happen?
Solar Portal 28th May 2013 more >>
Solar Landfill
A SCOTTISH council has unveiled ambitious plans to turn a derelict landfill site into a giant solar power farm. Aberdeen City Council and the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG) are seeking an initial £500,000 in lottery funding to develop proposals to transform the former landfill site at Ness Farm, near Nigg Bay, into a multimillion pound solar energy complex.
Scotsman 28th May 2013 more >>
Solar Trade
Eighteen of the EU’s member states have voted against provisional duties on Chinese solar panels, with four in favour and five abstaining, according to the UK’s Solar Trade Association. Regardless of the two-thirds majority vote, however, the EC can still impose provisional duties ranging from 37% to 67%. A decision is due on 5 June.
Renews 28th May 2013 more >>
CHP in Kent
Renewable power developer Estover Energy has taken a major step forward with plans to build a £65m combined heat and power plant in Kent, powered by biomass. The company announced last week that it would shortly apply to Dover District Council to build the CHP plant at the Discovery science and technology park in Sandwich, from which it will be able to supply 11MW of electricity and 8MW of heat.
Business Green 28th May 2013 more >>
Commonwealth Games
THE Athletes’ Village for the 2014 Commonwealth Games has won a top housing award. The development, by the City Legacy Consortium, picked up the Best Green Initiative at the prestigious Homes for Scotland Awards. The consortium is made up of house building companies Mactaggart and Mickel, CCG, Cruden and WH Malcolm. Around 6500 athletes and officials will stay in the Village during what will be the largest multi-sport event ever held in Scotland. After the Games, the 700 low carbon houses will be re-fitted and made available for sale and rent. City Legacy, in partnership with Glasgow City Council, has delivered homes with an EcoHomes ‘excellent rating’, which produce 60% fewer carbon emissions than traditionally-built homes.
Evening Times 27th May 2013 more >>
Co-op Food Waste
The Co-operative plans to ensure no food waste from any of its 2,800 stores goes to landfill by July, in a “win-win” move the group said should halve food waste costs as well as benefiting the environment. The company will extend the waste back-haul scheme already introduced at 1,500 stores to the remainder, diverting more than 34,000 tonnes of food store waste from landfill every year. waste food and flowers, which will be sent for anaerobic digestion to generate biogas and energy.
Business Green 27th May 2013 more >>
Windcrofting
DOZENS of “windcrofters” are emerging across Scotland under a new drive that offers landowners free power in exchange for allowing developers to erect mini-turbines on their property. The renewables industry scheme Energise Scotland targets smallholders and communities who cannot afford to buy expensive green technology. Under the deal, each property hosts a single small-scale turbine, with investors covering all the installation, planning and maintenance costs. Landowners receive free electricity while developers reap returns in the form of payouts for excess energy, which is sent to the national grid. Anti-wind farm protest group, Scotland Against Spin, said the initiative was more likely to benefit turbine firms and investors than smallholders. But Scottish turbine manufacturer Kingspan Wind, which launched the scheme last month, said windcrofting could help thousands of consumers and was likely to take over from larger, more controversial wind farms.
Scotland on Sunday 26th May 2013 more >>
Call for Community Energy
It seems the only people enjoying a cash benefit from renewables are landowners, writes Lesley Riddoch Scotland is reputedly the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy. I always assumed that was a reference to Scotland’s vast renewable resources – in wind, hydro, biomass and marine. Perhaps though, the most important parallel is rather different. Energy developments in both countries benefit very few people directly because very few own the land.
Scotsman 31st May 2013 more >>
Micro-CHP
German power generation business, E.ON (FWB: EOAN), is entering the European small scale gas combined heat and power (CHP) market at just the right time, according to the director of Edinburgh-based energy consultancy,Delta-ee. Michael Brown, Director at the consultancy says the company is correct to enter the European market for CHP systems under 1MWe, Delta-ee’s projections see annual deployment of around 1.5 – 2.0 GWe for CHP projects in the 0.4 – 5.0 MWe size, and up to 1.5 GWe for projects in the 10 – 400kWe size by 2020.
Cogeneration & On-site Power Production 24th May 2013 more >>
RHI
Consumers can now get more money off renewable heating kits such as biomass boilers and heat pumps, the government announced this week. The government has increased the value of the money-off vouchers available under the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme (RHPP).
Which 23rd May 2013 more >>