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Author Archives: Admin
Climate Positive Development Project in Elephant & Castle
June 2012: “The Elephant and Castle project is one of the original developments in the C40 Climate Positive Development Program, which was created to meet the pressing dual challenges of rapid urbanization and climate change.” Read more on the C40 blog here.
Merton’s Low Carbon Zone report
June 2012: Merton have just published their final report detailing the work undertaken in the Wandle Valley Low Carbon Zone. The zone is an area in a small part of South Mitcham and was one of ten zones across London that were set up as part of the Mayor’s RE:CONNECT programme “to radically reduce CO2 emissions at community level using novel routes to engagement. The aim was to make a 20% cut in Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by March 2012 for the whole area.” Download the report here.
Sutton Zero Carbon Resources
June 2012: The results of a project undertaken to help define a zero carbon retrofit strategy for buildings within the suburb of Hackbridge in the London Borough of Sutton has recently been published. The project was undertaken by BioRegional, with funding from the Sainsbury’s Family Charitable Trusts’ Climate Change Collaboration and the three key outputs – the authors say – have been “designed to be replicable in other areas.We hope that you will find them useful for your own projects.”
The area based strategy for zero carbon buildings report seeks to determine:
- How many and what type of buildings would need to be retrofitted.
- What different approaches could be taken to retrofitting, e.g. energy efficiency, building integrated renewable energy technologies or district heating.
- What would be the cost and delivery plan for the preferred approach, which may encompass a range of technologies.
- To develop an approach for formulating a zero carbon strategy for an area that other organisations, such as Local Authorities, Housing Associations and community groups could adopt.
The Retrofitting District Heating Systems study interestingly found that “district heating (using a variety of heat sources) achieved considerably more carbon emission savings than the full traditional retrofit option (whereby a building’s energy efficiency is improved by improving the building fabric and installing energy efficient or renewable sources of heat and electricity in the building itself) and at a lower cost.” A heat map for Hackbridge has also been produced.
And finally, an Energy retrofit tool for buildings spreadsheet tool which allows users to “input information about the domestic building stock in your area and the tool will then help decide on the best approach to retrofitting it using an area-wide approach.”
Posted in Library, News
Tagged Community Heating, Community Initiatives, Decentralised Energy, Heat Maps, Retrofit, Sutton
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Factsheet on Energy Bills
June 2012: Ofgem factsheet providing a useful update and breakdown of what makes up an average energy bill.
Information in relation to the ‘supplier margin’ – that is the profit made by energy customers per customer made across different fuel types – is also published on a regular basis by Ofgem in their ‘Electricity and Gas Supply Market Indicators‘ paper. This highlights that Ofgem’s “estimates also show that for the 12 month period from June 2012 up to and including May 2013 the total indicative net margin for a typical, standard tariff dual fuel customer will be approximately £30 per customer.”
Camden Green Deal Questionnaire
June 2012: Camden have issued a questionnaire to canvas residents opinions about the forthcoming Green Deal to help decide whether this scheme would work in Camden and if the Council should lead on delivery of the Green Deal in the borough.
Camden Energy Efficiency Planning Consultation
June 2012: Camden have issued a draft of new planning guidance to provide advice and information to householders who are considering making energy efficiency improvements to their homes in Dartmouth park Conservation Area.
This guidance aims to “provide residents with clear information about how these improvements can be made to homes without harming the character and appearance of the conservation area. It explains which measures require planning permission, and then gives guidance on which works are likely to be granted permission. The measures considered range from small DIY interventions to larger building projects. Some of the measure will change the appearance of buildings in the area.”
The guidance has been produced as part of a pilot project and is a precursor to guidance for all homes in Camden conservation areas. The conservation runs to 15 July 2012 and can be viewed here.
Posted in News
Tagged Camden, Energy Efficiency, insulation, Planning, Solid Wall Insulation
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Fuel Poverty per Constituency
June 2012: The Energy Bill Revolution website – which campaigns for the Government to direct more of the billions it raises from environmental taxes to be directed to improving the energy efficiency of UK households – includes an excellent resource to identify the number of fuel poor households in your constituency, and, also generates a letter for you to inform your local MP on the EBR campaign. Find out more here.
Hackney Green Deal Project
June 2012: Acrola Energy are leading a training and employment project linked to the start of the Green Deal later this year to:
- Provide free training for trades people in Hackney on the requirements for work under this new scheme.
- Provide trades people with the opportunity to meet architects, suppliers and main contractors in order to win new business.
- Bring together Hackney trades people with the people living in the area who are interested in having building work done through Green Deal or otherwise.
Further information at www.acrolaenergy.com
External Insulation for London Semis
June 2012: South Kenton and Preston Park Residents Association (SKPPRA) recently obtained a grant from the Local Energy Assessment Fund (LEAF) to externally insulate a pair of semi-detached houses on the estate to show residents how this will make the houses warmer and easier to heat. Under the ‘warmhouse’ project two houses in Wembley were clad in external wall insulation and a series of detailed reports of the project have been published and are available to download from the ‘warmhouse’ website, which will provide some valuable learning for the roll out of the Green Deal in London.
Some points of interest:
- Detailed photographic records of the retrofit are posted in the first document, setting out the level of work undertaken to externally insulate these two homes.
- The second report provides a useful ‘scope of works’ document, which sets out the requirements of the insulation project to the contractor – a helpful template to any other similar project being considered.
- The fourth report highlights that, via a survey of local residents applying for to have their homes insulated, annual gas bills are shown to range from just over £400 to just under £1400 (presumably down to occupation levels rather than energy efficiency levels of the various homes?) with the majority of gas bills between £850 to £1100.
- The average annual gas consumption across residents submitting information is 21,500kWh of gas (hot water and space heating)
- Actual energy consumption modelling over the year hasn’t been undertaken(the project timeline most didn’t allow for this) and page 33 of this fourth report sets out a modelled indicative spread of space heating (only) consumption over the year
- Page 34 of the report then provides an indicative idea of how space heating consumption will be reduced as a result of the using external insulating walls, suggesting a >50% reduction in energy use in the home
- However, the FAQs set out however that “Utility bills and monthly gas readings will be required after the work is done so that the effect of the insulation on your energy consumption is recorded. As part of the preparation work a forecast will be made of the effect of the insulation on your heating energy consumption and the monthly gas readings will help to assess the accuracy of the forecast computer model.”
- Unfortunately, the project will not undertake a full fabric approach, the FAQs saying “No your windows will not be replaced – the grant is for the external insulation only”, but it’s possible the homes were already double-glazed…? However, it’s not immediately clear if this is the case with the two homes insulated
- Both external (and internal) wall insulation – and also replacement glazing (see Annex 1 of the Government’s recent response to the Green Deal and ECO consultation on the full list of qualifying measures) – will be subsidised under the forthcoming £1.3 bn a year Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, which starts in October 2012
- It will be interesting to see how the houses perform in their new insulated state, and hence post-occupancy evaluation reports from the project will be of great value.
Posted in Library, News
Tagged Brent, Community Initiatives, Green Deal, insulation, Solid Wall Insulation, Wembley
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New Government Community Energy Strategy
22 June 2012: Energy Minister Greg Barker tweeted (copied below) from the ‘LEAF Experience Event’ held yesterday in London that DECC is to develop a new Community Energy Strategy, which is to be launched within months.
Further information on the Local Energy Assessment Fund (LEAF) on the LEAF EST pages, and DECC’s Community Energy Portal. Details of London LEAF projects on an earlier post.
Update on RE:NEW
20 June 2012: A quick update on progress under the Mayor’s home energy efficiency retrofit programme, RE:NEW:
- The Mayor recently reported that the 67,568 homes have been treated under the RE:NEW programme to date.
- The overall ambition for RE:NEW is set out in Policy 6 of the Mayor’s Climate Change Mitigation and Energy Strategy which states that “The Mayor will work with partners to use public funds to develop commercial models that catalyse markets to offer appropriate whole-house retrofitting of energy efficiency, energy supply, and water efficiency measures to 1.2 million existing homes in London by 2015, and all homes in London by 2030.” DECC has recently pointed out in its latest Green Deal projections paper, that this number “is equivalent to 100% of the total number of homes expected to be retro fitted in the national Green Deal”
- The Climate Change Mitigation and Energy Strategy also states that “The Mayor’s ambition is for energy and water efficiency measures to be installed in 200,000 homes by the end of 2012 across London’s energy efficiency programmes.” [p128]
- In August 2011, the Mayor set an interim 55,000 homes target to be delivered under RE:NEW by March 2012, which was achieved ahead of the May 2012 election
- In February 2012, the Mayor’s then environment advisor Kulveer Ranger outlined to the London Assembly’s Environment Committee the Mayor’s longer term ambitions for RE:NEW and that achieving the 200,000 homes “was always subject to the Green Deal helping to make that happen” and that the “figure , going forward, is subject to what happens with the Green Deal. We know the Green Deal timetable is slipping somewhat and it is not where we originally thought it was going to come in so we have to look at that figure and see what we can do. I am in discussion with Government right now, with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), with Ministers there, to say, ‚What do we do to ensure that we can continue more homes being retrofitted while we wait for the Green Deal to come along”
- The Mayor’s manifesto in the run-up to the May 2012 election introduced a new pledge, stating “By the end of March, 55,000 homes had been helped… I will continue this drive by extending the programme to retrofit a further 20,000 homes through RE:NEW, with a further £3 million from the GLA budget. I will prioritise households over the age of 60 for the scheme” – which appears to suggest that 20,000 more households – over the 55,000 interim target – will be retrofitted through the GLA RE:NEW programme – but no mention is made of the 200,000 original target.
- Building magazine reported only last week that “London mayor fails to secure funding for retrofit plans” stating that the Mayor “lacks funding for 86% of the energy efficiency retrofit work on London’s housing stock that he planned to deliver this year, after failing to secure financial backing from the government. As part of his election campaign, the mayor pledged to complete 20,000 retrofits of London homes this year under his RE:NEW energy-efficiency programme. But he said this would rise to 145,000 if he secured central government funding for the scheme. But the Department of Energy and Climate Change has now confirmed that while “informal discussions” took place, no funding was agreed.” Read the full article here [subscribers to Building only].
- The Mayor has announced recently that he is undertaking a formal evaluation of RE:NEW which will include full details of the programme and that these will be published in July, and the same time that Phase II of RE:NEW begins
- The programme spend for RE:NEW to date has been £7.8m
Energy & Climate Questions to the Mayor
June 2012: This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to: whether the Mayor will look to establish a London energy cooperative; an update on the Mayor’s carbon reduction policies; whether the Mayor will move to developing a single environment strategy; the Mayor’s activities on supporting electric vehicles in the capital; list of buildings under the RE:FIT scheme; an update on the number of homes treated under RE:NEW; delivery of RE:NEW to the over 60s; and jobs created under the Mayor’s RE:NEW and RE:FIT programmes.
Previous questions to the Mayor can be found here.