Monthly Archives: June 2013

Heads of Terms Signed for Funding Enfield Biomass Project

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Admin

June 2013: News reports provide an update on progress being made by developer Kedco of their 12MW biomass heat and power plant planned in Enfield. The article states that “Kedco plc, the renewable energy developer and operator focusing on the production of clean energy in the UK and Ireland, is pleased to announce the appointment of the Foresight Group (“Foresight”) as the preferred funding partner in relation to its 12 MW Enfield Biomass CHP project located in North London. Kedco has signed a non-binding heads of terms with Foresight for the provision of debt and equity facilities which will part finance the construction and operation of the Project.” See previous posts here for detail on the scheme.

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Belgravia Energy Saving Experiment

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Admin

June 2013:  “A scientific experiment to prove or disprove green-building theories is to be undertaken by Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster’s property company. Two almost-identical grotty hotels in Belgravia are the test bed.

Two weeks ago, Grosvenor obtained permission to rebuild 119 Ebury Street using the latest energy-saving materials. The Grade II-listed shell will be converted into three rented flats, and the energy use monitored.

Number 125 Ebury Street was converted into two rented flats last November. The five-storey listed block was rebuilt to meet present energy-saving standards. The apartments will be monitored to provide benchmark data.”

“Number 125 meets the current 40% carbon-saving target,” says Starr. “At number 119, we hope to meet the 2050 target of an 80% saving. That should translate into a 40% saving on the energy bills.” Those wishing to double glaze their listed home or flat in Westminster will have to be patient. Work on 119 will not finish until 2015. The two addresses will then be monitored for two years to prove the case — either way.”

Read full Evening Standard story here. Further information on technologies to be employed at 119 Ebury St – which include solar PV, solar thermal, air source heat pump and ‘phase change’ internal wall insulation, can be found on the following planning report by Westminster Council – and a lot more detail can be found on the development’s sustainability planning application reports here.

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Camden Applies for Gas Supply License

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Admin

4 June 2013: Camden has applied to energy regulator Ofgem for a gas supplier licence. Camden’s application to Ofgem highlights an extensive property list in the borough that the council has management responsibility for-  all of which requires gas supply.  The council’s budget code book points to a total spend for the borough’s  gas supply of over £12m in 2013/14. The council’s current central purchasing body for gas supply is a company called Laser – this is an energy-buying group providing energy procurement and contract support for 106 local authorities – including many of London’s councils. Laser is a commercial service provided (and established) by Kent County Council.

It’s likely that with this application to Ofgem, Camden is looking for new options with regard to the gas supply to its residents – with an eye on opportunities on how energy cost savings can be made and passed through.

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Fake Green Deal advisors

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Admin

3 June 2013: The Haringey Independent reports that the local council have issued a warning to residents as it has been reported that “fake Green Deal advisors [are] coming door-to-door touting for business in the area. In some cases, callers claimed to be working on behalf of the council and tried to enter people’s homes to carry out assessments. They then pressured people to commit to having energy efficiency works carried out.” Full story here and Haringey Council news release here.

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Boris to ‘Green Deal With it’

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Admin

June 2013: Last week’s release of answers to Mayoral Questions revealed that the Mayor was going to have a Green Deal assessment undertaken on his home.

To the following question from London Assembly member Murad Qureshi:

“Will the Mayor consider signing up personally to the Green Deal in order to lead by example and spread the word about energy efficiency to Londoners?

The Mayor responded “I intend to have a Green Deal Assessment to see if my property is suitable for a Green Deal Plan. We are working to support the implementation Green Deal in London and I encourage Londoners to engage with their local authorities and the energy saving advice service to see if Green Deal would be suitable for them.”

If the Mayor’s quick – he may well still qualify for the Green Deal cashback.

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RE:NEW Evaluation Report published

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Admin

June 2013: A RE:NEW roll-out evaluation summary report has just been published by the GLA (direct link to document here).  RE:NEW is the Mayor’s home energy efficiency programme originally launched in April 2009. The scheme has had various targets in place and currently RE:NEW Phase II is in operation. Much past detail on the Mayoral flagship carbon programme can be found from previous posts here.

The evaluation report sets out that:

  • Following technical trials the roll out the programme across London operated from July 2011 – April 2012 and the “aim for the roll-out stage of project was to develop a ‘pan-London’ approach – with at least one RE:NEW area in every borough. This is the phase evaluated in this report”.
  • 50,683 homes were visited under the RE:NEW programme and offered energy efficiency advice, energy and water saving devices, referred to as ‘easy measures’ [see footnote 4 of the report for the full list of easy measures offered]
  • However, the proportion of homes visited for the  installation of further measures energy efficiency measures from Government programmes such as CERT & CESP was only 3.05%
  • The report goes on to say that “The focus of RE:NEW is saving carbon emissions and so for RE:NEW to be a success it is vital that referrals for installing further measures are made…It was anticipated that cavity wall, loft insulation and heating measures would be funded through the Carbon Emission Reduction Target, Warm Front or other funding levered in. …Whilst the take-up of easy measures and advice was high and a real success for the scheme overall, referrals for further measures, such as loft and cavity wall insulation were low.” p5
  • Page 6 of the report is useful in setting out the common reasons for the low take up from referrals to installations – these included: discrepancies between identified measures and referrals reported from sub-contractors – where delivery agents felt that further training of their advisors would prevent discrepancies between identified measures and possible installations. Additionally, drop-outs occurred due to not all residents granted access for the follow up visit. Also contributing was the significant lag time between referral to installation
  • “These issues affected the conversion rate from home visit to further installation measures, causing consistently low numbers across the programme. Almost all boroughs recorded a conversion rate of less than 3% and a number of boroughs did not progress beyond installation of easy measures.” p6
  • P8 of the report onwards sets  out a comprehensive series of programme recommendations which make interesting reading. Included is that the GLA spearhead a  pan-London marketing campaign  as a way to warm up residents.

Much more detail is set out in the report, included borough-level data tables in Appendix 1.

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FOE Cities & Carbon briefing

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Admin

May 2013: Short briefing from Friends of the Earth entitled: ‘Cities – a synthesis of literature on the topic’ – which includes an outline of recent work undertaken on the impact of cities on carbon emissions (direct link here).

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GLA ‘license lite’ to allow opportunities for London DE

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Admin

May 2013: A recent question to the Mayor provides some useful information on the Mayor’s application to the energy regulator Ofgem for the Greater London Authority to be classed as ‘license lite’ under the electricity supply regulations (see previous post for background). Asked what the process would be if the GLA were successful, the Mayor response was as follows:

“Following grant of the licence the Greater London Authority will enter into agreements with the owners /operators of decentralised electricity generating capacity in London for delivery to the GLA of the electricity to be supplied under the licence, supply agreements with the parties who will consume it and an agreement with a fully licensed electricity supplier for the provision of the necessary technical electricity market services to enable the licence to be operated.”

All of this is conditional however on internal approval within the GLA for the organisation to take on electricity supply operations:

“Acceptance of the licence and commencing operations is conditional on a positive and commercially prudent business model being approved by Mayoral Decision .”

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Energy & Climate Questions to the Mayor

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Admin

May 2013: This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to:

whether the Mayor had signed up to the London Big Energy Switch; whether the Mayor had signed up to the Green Deal; making Greenwich Power station a low-carbon generator;  the London Energy and Greenhouse Gas Inventory (LEGGI); discussions with DECC over increasing levels of fuel poverty in London; the Mayor’s response to the Government’s consultation on a new definition for fuel poverty – (link to actual response document here); the growth of fuel poverty in London’s private rented sector; a new power station for London; energy and climate issues in Transport for London’s business plan; decentralised energy and the London Infrastructure Group; meetings with energy supplier companies on the ECO in London; the impact of rising energy prices on London’s economy; the poor uptake of photovoltaics in London; renewable energy supply to London Underground; the use of recycled cooking oil in London’s bus fleet; the number of job losses in the insulation industry in London; how the London Enterprise Panel’s Skills & Employment Working Group will promote green jobs; the number of ‘green’ double decker buses in London; the number ‘green’ single decker buses in London’; emissions related to the ‘New bus for London’; the Shoreditch Heat Network; the Citigen CHP scheme; Guidance on Low Carbon Cooling systems; zero carbon heating at the Tate modern; minutes of the High Level Electricity Working Group; future changes in London’s weather; climate change in the national curriculum; petition to remove climate change from the national curriculum; carbon emissions and projects supported under the Growing Places Fund the RE:NEW evaluation report and an update on the Mayor’s electricity ‘license lite’ application.

Previous months questions to the Mayor can be found here.

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