Author Archives: Admin

Discover Community Energy

February 2012: A coalition of organisations met with the Secretary of State for Energy to call on Government to support a dramatic increase in the role of community energy. The project website highlights how “Currently, 99% of the country’s electricity is generated by just six companies. The new coalition, which includes some of the best known and trusted national organisations including The Co-operative Group, The National Trust, The National Federation of Women’s Institutes and The Church of England, wants to start a revolution with communities at its heart which will drive a clean, affordable and secure energy system.” Read the Coalition’s  Vision for community energy in 2020.

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Latest Fuel Poverty Updates for London

February 2012: National Energy Action (NEA) have just published their latest estimates of fuel poverty across the UK, which include regional breakdowns. The briefing document (link here; document here) reports that:

  • There are an estimated 6.6 million UK households live in fuel poverty
  • By October 2011 all six major suppliers had raised their energy prices adding approximately £300 onto the average household energy bill
  • Last winter brought an estimated 25,400 excess winter deaths (page 13 of the paper)
  • Of which provisional figures estimate that 2,500 deaths were in London
  • There has been an increase in the number of fuel poor households in London from 401,859 (13.3%) in 2009 to  564,691 (18.6%) in 2011 (page 15 of the paper)
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Age Concern Highlight Fuel Poverty in London

February 2012: The latest issue of Age Concern London’s quarterly magazine London Age focuses on the problem of older people facing fuel poverty in the capital, highlighting a number of programmes currently underway.

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Evaluating RE:CONNECT

February 2012: Paper presented at the most recent GLA Investment and Performance Board evaluating the progress of the Mayor’s RE:CONNECT programme which established 10 ‘Low Carbon Zones’ across London.

The ten zones are in: Barking Town Centre (LBBD), Muswell Hill (Haringey),Archway (Islington), Brixton (Lambeth), Lewisham Town Centre (Lewisham), WandleValley (Merton), Ham & Petersham (Richmond), Peckham (Southwark), Hackbridge(Sutton), Queens Park (Westminster). The largest zone is in Archway with around 3,000 buildings; the smallest is in Hackbridge with around 300 buildings.

The programme is essentially a series of local scale demonstration projects that seek to deliver a 20% CO2 saving across the buildingsin a neighbourhood over a three year period (September 2009 – September 2012) and to provide an understanding of the factors that are required to deliver high coverage of energy efficiency measures and more efficient energy usage at a local scale.

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Survey of urban energy projects in the UK

February 2012: The  Challenging Lock-in through Urban Energy Systems (CLUES) project will “critically assess the development of decentralised energy systems in urban areas.” Researchers are currently carrying out a survey of urban energy initiatives which is to be carried out in two stages between February and April 2012.  Each stage requires around 15 minutes and can be completed at a convenient time. A summary of the results will be made freely available.

Who should take part?
Planners, policy makers, and urban designers as well as individuals working in the third sector who have been involved with projects or policy to develop energy generation (electricity and renewable heat) and/or increase energy efficiency in UK towns and cities.

How can you take part?
Simply go to the website http://www.tinyurl.com/urbanenergyclues1 – before 13th February. Please contact Graeme Sherriff at the University of Manchester for more information.

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‘Croydon Council approve plan which would allow for the planned incinerator’

2  February 2012: The Croydon Guardian reports that “Croydon Council approve plan which would allow for the planned incinerator.” Read full story here. Earlier Croydon Guardian coverage here, here and here.

Further information on this scheme also available on an earlier post.

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CSE set for return match at Wimbledon

2 February 2012: The Centre for Sustainable Energy are to undertake an energy audit and carbon footprint for the All England Club. More here.

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Energy and Climate Questions to the Mayor

January 2012: This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to:
Renewable Electricity used by London Underground;  Energy and CO2 emissions associated with lighting tube stations; the Budget spend for energy efficiency programme RE:NEW; the level of  payments to assessors of energy efficiency programme RE:NEWcarbon savings achieved by the ten easy measures used in the RE:NEW programme; the carbon savings achieved to date by the RE:NEW programme; the Mayors records in raising key London issues with energy companiesthe growth of renewable energy over the Mayor’s term; the borough roll-out of RE:NEW; an update on the numbers of homes treated under RE:NEW; a breakdown of the RE:NEW programme budget; the success of RE:NEW energy efficiency programme;  CO2 savings achieved through planningGuidance on low carbon cooling systems; Fuel Poverty in East London; an update on the capacity of combined heat and power (CHP); an update on the Mayor’s Hydrogen Action Plan; and Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) funding in London boroughs.

Previous questions to the Mayor can be found here.

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Grassroots green projects ‘are way to low-carbon UK’

1 February 2012: Guardian article highlighting how a ‘Coalition of groups representing 12 million people hails localising of energy generation, but bemoans lack of state support…the coalition wants ministers to come up with new ways to ensure that community energy is prioritised, for instance by letting local people share in the profits from renewable energy projects.’ Read the full piece here.

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The Community Energy Challenge

1 February 2012: The Community Energy Challenge is part of The Co-operative’s Clean Energy Revolution campaign and  will provide 12-18 months of enterprise development, mentoring, technical advice and community facilitation for six to eight communities, enabling them to initiate co-operative renewable energy projects at a significant scale (e.g. valued at £1m to £3m and/or rated in excess of 500kW). The Community Energy Challenge will operate a competitive bid process. All applications will be carefully evaluated and the final selection made by an expert panel. The deadline for expressions of interest is 29 February 2012.
For full details, download the Guidance for Applicants from the Centre for Sustainable Energy’s website.

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Hackney Winter Warm Up protest

31 January 2012: Hackney Gazette news story on a protest outside Hackney Town Hall against rising fuel prices and the increase in fuel poverty. The Independent additionally highlighted how “Events organised by the Fuel Poverty Action Group at the weekend took place in Lewisham, Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge, Haringey, Hackney, the City of London and elsewhere as anger at energy firms’ high prices took to the streets. The campaigners say their demands are simple: they ask for a fair energy system which provides warm housing for all and a safe climate for our future.

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Local authority action for energy efficiency in housing stock

25 January 2012: This paper presents the findings of analysis of energy efficiency data supplied by landlords with bids for funding from the Decent Homes Standard Backlog programme administered by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

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