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Author Archives: Admin
Tower Hamlets launches energy co-operative
June 2012: Tower Hamlets council has announced that it has established Tower Hamlets Energy – “a large scale domestic power purchasing co-operative, which comes at a time when residents are facing huge increases in the cost of living.” The news release continues “Once the co-op is established it will provide additional benefits to members, including free and impartial advice on grants, insulation, fuel debt, and energy efficiency to help residents keep their bills down.
It will also offer access to energy efficiency resources and household renovation schemes. These plans go hand in hand with the council’s Decent Homes programme which will see all of the borough’s council homes improved to become more energy efficient and include modern kitchens and bathrooms by 2015.
The scheme is free to join, and residents will only be encouraged to switch suppliers if it offers a cheaper deal.”
To sign up visit my.towerhamlets.gov.uk
More information is available at www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/energy
‘Ending Climate Change Begins in the City…’
June 2012: C40 cities “infographic” on why cities are key to addressing climate change. Click here to view.
Unlocking local leadership on climate change
19 June 2012: The Green Alliance held an event in the House of Commons yesterday launching a new pamphlet, published as part of their Climate Leadership Programme, bringing together the perspectives of three Coalition MPs: Damian Hinds, MP for East Hampshire; Martin Vickers, MP for Cleethorpes; and Julian Huppert, MP for Cambridge. In it they give their views on how government can link two crucial aims: tackling climate change and empowering local areas. Further information and pamphlet here.
A number of examples of community-led organisations to tackle climate change were discussed at the event, including the Greening Campaign which provides some useful online resource material in helping groups engage with their local communities on climate change and sustainability issues.
Planning and the Green Deal
June 2012: Thinktank Future of London has added a further helpful contribution to the issue of introducing the Green Deal in London, with a short paper, building on their recent report ‘Delivering Energy Efficiency in London, highlghting how planning will have a role to the success of the Green Deal.
A number of interesting points are raised including:
- There are around 600,000 homes in conservation areas in London, roughly half the national total (reference cited in paper here)- which will potentially be a significant issue for the mass role out of Solid Wall Insulation (SWI) – a key technology promoted by the forthcoming Green Deal and te £1.3 bn Energy Company Obligation (ECO)…
- …and around 60 per cent of all homes in the capital are solid wall
Download the paper ‘The Green Deal in London: Planning Q+A
Posted in Library, News
Tagged Energy Efficiency, Green Deal, insulation, Planning, Solid Wall Insulation
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‘London’s Picture of Sustainability’ Photography Competition
18 June 2012: ““London is changing; with every day that passes, the actions of people are slowly transforming our city into a more sustainable place. From urban gardens to transforming our homes, remodeling businesses to volunteering in groups, the work to build a sustainable future goes on. Can you capture ‘London’s Picture of Sustainability’ in just one shot?”. Further details of competition at: www.apictureofsustainability.com
Posted in News
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Greenhouse Gas summary reports
15 June 2012: DECC have issued a series of useful summary documents on greenhouse emissions related to key sectors:
- GHG Inventory summary factsheet: energy supply
- GHG Inventory summary factsheet: public sector
- GHG Inventory summary factsheet: residential
- GHG Inventory summary factsheet: transport
- GHG Inventory summary factsheet: waste
- GHG Inventory summary factsheets – amalgamated document
- Carbon dioxide factsheet
- All gas factsheets as single document
Posted in Data Store
Tagged Carbon Emissions, Data, Housing, Local Authorities, Waste
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London and the Green Deal
June 2012: The Green Deal Impact Assessment, launched earlier this week, highlighted how London is proposing to be a key player in the ‘New Green Deal Market’ under the Mayor’s plans for the RE:NEW home retrofit programme:
“The Greater London Authority’s (GLA) ‘Delivering London’s Energy Future’ strategy states its intention to retrofit 1.2m homes in the Greater London area by 2015 (this is equivalent to 100% of the total number of homes expected to be retro fitted in the national Green Deal). The GLA intends to do this by working with all the London boroughs to build on the success of RE:NEW, its refurbishment programme, that has retrofitted 11,000 homes to date. The GLA is working to integrate RE:NEW with new energy efficiency and energy supply funding streams, such as the Green Deal and the Feed-in Tariff, so retrofitting can be offered to all London homes by 2030.” [page 49]
Download DECC’s ‘Final Stage Impact Assessment for the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation’ here.
Mass-retrofitting of a low carbon zone
June 2012 A very detailed piece of analysis undertaken by researchers at Edinburgh University (and published in the June issue of academic journal Energy Policy) which studies the work being undertaken in Sutton on adopting an area wide retrofit scheme in Hackbridge.
The conclusions highlight some really interesting findings relating to Hackbridge which are also very relevant to other areas of London. These include:
- housing built pre-1918 on average consumes 56% more energy and emits 41% more CO2 than houses built post-2001;
- the older housing stock is the worst performer in terms of energy efficiency; the most laborious and costly to improve;
- within the regeneration footprint, this type of housing makes up less than 20% of the housing stock. Nearly 40% of the housing stock having been built post-1970 is already benefitting from many of the measures proposed to save energy and reduce carbon emissions;
- almost one third of Hackbridge residents live in areas which rank within the top 25% most income-deprived in England, renting their homes from the Local Authority, Registered Social Landlords, Housing Associations or the private-rented sector. Homes in the social-rented sector that have been shown to consume less energy and to emit less CO2 than other housing types of a similar age in Hackbridge. Indeed, using the Government’s Standard Assessment Procedure for the energy rating of dwellings (SAP), the local authority housing in question is shown to out-perform the national average ratings across all dwelling types.
The study also includes: “…while policy analysis over the past decade has done much to highlight the potential contribution mass retrofits in the housing sector can make to reduce the rates of energy consumption and levels of carbon emissions, they also serve to illustrate how little is currently known about the institutional arrangements towns and cities are currently putting in place as integrated solutions to the problems climate change pose.“
Unusually for Energy Policy, the article full downloadable free of charge here.
Mayor to encourage community energy projects
June 2012: The Mayor has published revised ‘early minor alterations to the London Plan’ aimed at ensuring that the London Plan is fully consistent with the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (published March 2012).
Page 30 of the ‘Early Minor Alterations’ document sets out a proposed revision to Chapter 5 of the London Plan – which addresses planning and climate change – to support community-led initiatives renewable and low carbon projects through neighbourhood planning. The exact amended text (in bold) follows below:
5.41 The Mayor’s supplementary planning guidance will set out broad guidelines to assist boroughs and, where appropriate,neighbourhoods, to define locations where stand-alone renewable energy schemes would be appropriate. The increased use of renewable heat will also significantly depend on the growth of heat networks. The Mayor and Boroughs will also encourage community-led initiatives for renewables and low carbon energy and examine how they can be supported through neighbourhood planning.” [page 30]
The supplementary planning guidance referred to is on renewable energy (which is also referred to in para 5.40 of Chapter 5 – see link above) and has, as yet, not been published by the Mayor. A major renewable energy study for London has however been completed and was issued in January 2012.
Further information to the background on new neighbourhood plans can be viewed here.
Posted in Library, News
Tagged Community Initiatives, Mayor, Planning, Renewable Energy
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FIT FAQ
June 2012: Confused by all the recent changes to the Government’s FIT programme? Here’s a FAQ document DECC have just posted online which goes some way to help explain…
“London’s carbon reduction and climate mitigation dilemmas are complex and critical…”
June 2012: A new report outlining the imperatives for London’s future success has recently been published and contains views from around 100 leading thinkers about the future of cities into the second decade of the 21st century – including the following:
“While some challenges remain as intractable as ever, others have only surfaced more recently. The major policy area which has moved inescapably to the forefront since London:World City is that of climate change. In 1991 environmental concerns were primarily limited to air pollution, sulphur dioxide emissions, noise and litter. The implications of carbon dioxide emissions for urban life and urban policy had barely registered. Today London’s carbon reduction and climate mitigation dilemmas are complex and critical. There is increasing evidence that world cities will need to introduce rigorous climate-change-oriented provision in order to meet the security and ethical demands of an increasingly environmentally conscious citizenry.”
Use of GIS to determine domestic energy efficiency potential
June 2012: Presentation by the Energy Saving Trust (EST) on helping overcome what EST say is the “disconnect between data managers and delivery teams when delivering retrofit schemes.”