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Community Energy Online Updated

16 February 2012: DECC announced yesterday that it has been revising its  Community Energy Portal with updated content on the following web pages:

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Transforming the energy market through local energy production

13 February 2012: New ‘Green Paper’ from think-tank ResPublica – Re-energising Our Communities: Transforming the energy market through local energy production – focuses on opportunities for  ‘community energy,  referring here to the “means of generating and distributing energy that is owned and led by communities, rather than by individuals or private businesses. Community energy vehicles are democratically accountable to community members and participants and may deliver a financial return to investors, or reinvest surplus profits back into the project and wider locality.”

The study makes a number of recommendations including:

  • DECC should recognise the need for a co-ordinated support programme for community energy
  • DECC, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury should conduct a cross-departmental review to examine the potential for community energy projects
  • Through forthcoming changes to local government finance, local authorities may retain a share of uplifts in local business rate income which could in turn be used for community investment
  • DECC and DCLG should work together to produce guidance on how the new ‘rights’ within the Localism Act 2011 could be used to support community energy.
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Fuel Poverty in Hendon

13 February 2012: A recent Parliamentary Question by Hendon MP Matthew Offord asking for DECC’s latest estimate on the number of fuel poor households in his constituency and more widely.

Mr Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many households in (a) Hendon constituency,(b) London and (c) the UK are in fuel poverty. [93222]

Gregory Barker: In 2009, the most recent year for which data are available, the number of households in fuel poverty for these areas was as follows:

Area Number of households in fuel poverty
(a) Hendon constituency 5,400
(b) London 402,000
(c) UK 3,964,000

Estimates made by Government of fuel poverty at the regional and local authority area were last published by DECC in 2011 using 2009 data (download spreadsheet here) hence the answer to the above question.  DECC’s latest issue of Energy Trends also issued an article on this data. More recent non-governmental estimates have been made (however not at the local authority level) and can be seen here.

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Community Energy Master Class – London event

February 2012: Friends of the Earth are to hold a Community Energy Master class stating “If you are considering setting up a renewable energy project in your community, or helping others in your area to set one up, come and meet other people in the same boat. Meet our experts who will take you through the process – from the big ideas to nitty gritty of making it happen. 31st March 2012 St Ethelburga’s, 78 Bishopsgate, London, EC2N 4AG . 9.30am – 4pm.

Places are free of charge and details on how to book a place are via the following flyer.

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Converting English Housing Survey Data for Use in Energy Models

February 2012: Before data from the English Housing Survey can be used in a SAP‐based model like the Cambridge Housing Model (CHM), it has to be both cleaned and converted to align it with the inputs needed for SAP. A sequence of conversions is needed, and this document summarises an approach to such conversions.This document is necessarily detailed and technical. It will interest readers who have themselves worked with the EHS to do stock modelling work. Other people may be more interested in the outcomes of this modelling work, including Energy Consumption in the UK. Download report here.

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South Kilburn decentralised energy system

February 2012: Brent Council has recently issued a tender for a major new decentralised energy heat and power system in South Kilburn. The tender outlines that “It is envisaged that c. 2 000 new homes, a new school, a healthy living centre and new commercial units will be built in the area. This site will have a high proportion of new build, medium rise social housing blocks and as such is well suited to a heat network. London Borough of Brent is procuring the services of an energy service company to finance, design, build, manage and maintain a decentralised energy system which will provide heat with a combination of CHP and boilers to the new residential and non-residential units for a period of 40 years.”

The Council is looking to a company to install the necessary infrastructure including heat pipes to establish a linked network and to distribute the heat to each building via the network. The investment required to realise the scheme is estimated by the Council to be of the order of £67m.

Additional information on the project including a timeline for the approval for the contract are provided in the following Brent Council document.

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‘Mayor Boris urged to stop Treasury from ‘pouring used cooking oil down the drain’

February 2012: Business Green story: “The Mayor of London has been urged to confront the Treasury over its plans to change the way it subsidises fuel made from used cooking oil, warning the move could severely disrupt the capital’s businesses and force many taxi drivers to return to using fossil fuels.  Under plans put forward by Chancellor George Osborne in the Budget 2011, biodiesel made from used cooking oil (UCO) will no longer receive a 20p duty differential, and will instead receive double certificates under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) from the start of April this year.”

Read the full story here. Previous posts on the use of recycled cooking oil as biofuel in London here.

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‘London 2012: ‘Lack of energy saving plan’ criticised’

9 February 2012:  A BBC story has reported that: “London 2012 organisers still do not have an energy-saving strategy despite a pledge to make it one of the greenest Olympics, a watchdog has said. It missed its target to source 20% of energy from renewables and now a bid to cut CO2 emissions through energy conservation instead may not be met.
The Commission for a Sustainable London (CSL) 2012 said these issues needed to be addressed urgently.” Read the full BBC story here.

The CSL’s report ‘Sustainable Games Preparations review’, which can be downloaded here, makes two key recommendations in relation to energy:

That LOCOG produce an energy management and conservation plan demonstrating how it willreduce carbon emissions by at least the amount that would have been avoided through therenewable energy target, in sufficient time for its recommendations to be implemented.

That LOCOG calculates the carbon that would have been saved through the renewable energytarget and demonstrates how this carbon will be saved through reducing Games time energy use.

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Reductions to Warm Front Grants in West Ham and Newham

10 Feb 2012: London has historically fared poorly under the Government’s Warm Front programme, as has been detailed in earlier posts here. There’s been some criticism of Warm Front in recent weeks (see here and here) that, despite Government cuts made  in 2011, there has been a significant underspend to the programme this year.

NEA have reported that London has seen a 67 per cent reduction in applications over the period March – December 2011 when compared with the same period in the previous year (a similar reduction has been seen in other regions).

West Ham MP Lyn Brown has recently asked DECC a Parliamentary Question about the level of Warm Front grants provided in her constituency and in the wider Newham area. The full answer can be seen here (scroll to column 274).

In summary:
West Ham saw a Warm Front spend-high in 2008/09 of £517,913 with 540 homes assisted.
Similarly Newham saw a Warm Front high the same year with a spend of £1,369,686 and 1340 homes assisted.

Provisional figures for 2011/12 are only available at the moment but they serve to  illustrate the level of reduction:

West Ham has seen a spend of £94,736 with only 32 homes assisted.
Newham has seen a spend of £219,503 and 70 homes assisted.

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London Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Case Studies

8 February 2012: DECC have just posted case studies highlighting the efforts participants in the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) have made in managing their energy and improving their energy efficiency. Examples of London organisations include:

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Thermal Imaging of London’s skyline

7 February 2012: Daily Mail article on how “‘New thermal images show huge amounts of energy being wasted by UK firms” with pictures taken of  The skylines of London, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham as part of the Business Energy Insight scheme that will help firms with their energy bills.”

It’s not really clear how much these pictures actually reveal in terms of energy wastage – however above is the picture of London in case of interest!

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London LEAF Winners

7 February 2012: DECC yesterday announced on their Community Energy Online website that 155 community energy projects across the country have won a share of £5.1 million of funding from the Local Energy Assessment Fund (LEAF). The full list of Local Energy Assessment Fund (2nd Round) projects can be downloaded here. Only scant details of the winning projects are provided in the list however  zooming on London in DECC’s ‘interactive map showing winning community projects‘ provides further information on the 14 winning projects in London. A summary of this information follows below:

  • South Kenton Preston Park Residents Association who will run
    a local home energy assessment of the energy consumption in
    the area. Further information www.skppra.co.uk
  • Community Education Forum who will deliver a community-led energy
    saving programme aimed at the Bangladeshi, Somali and African and African Caribbean communities around Hammersmith and Fulham. Further information www.cefuk.co.uk
  • Sustainable Merton will train community members to carry out
    a community energy efficiency survey and train local champions already engaged in energy reduction to work on implementation. Further information at: www.sustainablemerton.org
  • EcoLocal based in Merton will work to create a mobile home energy
    efficiency demonstration with models of wall insulation, and many other home energy saving devices, to go to engagement events as means of communicating the Green Deal to householders. Further information at: www.thecei.org.uk
  • Zero Carbon Hackbridge in Sutton will set up an energy saving network with local community groups. Volunteers will be trained to enable them to spread the word about energy saving to their friends and neighbours and offer free appointments with an Energy Doctor. Further information here.
  • Hyde Farm Climate Action Network near Tooting will conduct a feasibility study for retrofit community heating and CHP into the neighbourhood. Further information at: here.
  • Brixton Energy Co-op will develop the Brixton Energy Solar 1, a flagship community investment project in the Loughborough Estate in Brixton, deploying an 80kw photovoltaic array on the roofs of the estate. They will also conduct feasibility studies, engage with the community and lay the groundwork for the further renewable energy cooperatives across South London. Further information at: www.transitiontownbrixton.org
  • Transition Peckham’s,Repair, Re-build, Renew, will deliver solid wall demonstration projects to five households, targeting those at risk of being in fuel poverty. Further information at here
  • Shrinking the Footprint is the Church of England’s national environment campaign. They will run the project in three Dioceses around Southwark where no work has yet been done using the sMeasure and iMeasure on-line energy management software tools developed at the University of Oxford. Further information at: www.shrinkingthefootprint.org
  • Waterloo Community Development Group will develop a youth-led programme to empower trained home energy assessors to lead on efficiency and sustainable retrofit, including the Green Deal and ECO, through an awareness and engagement programme in Waterloo. Further information at: www.wcdg.org.uk
  • Camden and Westminster Refugee Training Partnership (CandWRTP) will work with refugees, asylum seekers, BME individuals especially women and organisations to identify and collect data on current energy saving measures and behaviour through a survey and a public consultation event. Further information at: here.
  • Local Space Housing (LSH), based in Islington, will aim to develop a 2 year tenant-led energy efficiency strategy for the association.
  • The Sustainable Home Survey Company C.I.C. aims to create three Green Deal Ready community groups Further information here.
  • The London Borough of Tower Hamlets will work on resident engagement and discuss setting up an Energy Co-Op. This will lead on to a feasibility survey for such a Energy Co-Op and creation of a working group to take it forward.
  • Poplar HARCA and Tower Hamlets manage c.10,000 homes in Poplar. They will purchase home energy management systems to link energy data for analysis.  Further information: www.poplarharca.co.uk
  • St. John on Bethnal Green will undertake energy surveys here and in other local faith buildings as well as domestic properties and prepare a report on findings. Further information at: www.faithintowerhamlets.com
  • Hackney Co-operative Developments CIC will provide external wall and roof insulation to a large managed workspace building used by charities, social enterprises, co-operatives, cultural entrepreneurs and locally-owned start-ups. Further information at: www.hced.co.uk
  • The Arcola Theatre Dalston Energy Angels project will work in Hackney to create a network of members with different needs, skills and offers who can support each other to create and service demand in for energy efficiency and renewable energy. They will use the Theatre to educate people about electricity consumption and create a Waste Wood Heating Network to run a wood-fired boiler. Further information here.
  • The HEET Project works with older and vulnerable people across the
    borough of Waltham Forest in north east London. They research, develop and pilot innovative ways to achieve higher energy savings for fuel poor households. Further information at: www.theheetproject.org.uk
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