News

London’s largest solar array

20 February 2012:

After a three year refurbishment, Blackfriars station has re-opened. As part of the station’s refit, Network Rail has installed 4,400 solar panels on the roof of Blackfriars station. Accounting for 50% of the station’s energy needs, they will form London’s largest solar array. Further information here and here.

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Lessons from the Community Sustainable Energy Programme (CSEP)

February 2012: BRE are holding a series of events on ‘Lessons from the Community Sustainable Energy Programme (CSEP)’ – not to be confused with CESP!

CSEP provided Big Lottery Funding for community-based energy efficiency and renewable projects (NOTE: the programme closed in 2010 – however very recently a new funding round has opened with a deadline for applications of 29 February 2012).

No specific London workshop took place, however, a session earlier this month at BRE’s HQ includes a detailed (8MB) presentation on CSEP, and also a case study presentation on the Brixton Solar project. Download both here.

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The Green Deal in London: Borough Challenges

February 2012: Future of London are holding a series of events on the challenges boroughs face in implementing the Green Deal and ECO in London. The first of these “focused on how London Boroughs can be “Green Deal Friendly” and drive demand for the mechanism in their area.” Presentations from the session from local authority representatives from Croydon, Merton and others are available to view as well as a summary of the workshop – Borough Challenges Briefing Paper.

The session was well attended  by 12 London boroughs and makes interesting reading. Included amongst the comments:

1) Participants from across the majority of participant Boroughs were concerned about the feasibility of the Green Deal – particularly relating to levels of local demand and the costs of implementing retro-fit programmes in London

1) General doubts over feasibility of the Green Deal
a) Several doubts were expressed from a number of different sources about whether Green Deal will work under current arrangements
b) In particular, concerns were raised about levels of demand locally for the Green Deal, the impact this could have on the Golden Rule, and the particular costs associated with delivering energy efficiency in London.
c) One borough noted a free eco-refurbishment scheme had only been successfully completed on one property
d) It was felt that further incentives are likely to be required to boost participation.

d) At the moment there is a reluctance amongst the majority of Boroughs represented at this seminar to act as Green Deal providers – there is too much uncertainty surrounding the mechanism
e) There is a risk that Boroughs who don’t take on a meaningful role in the delivery of Green Deal will disengage from the Green Deal altogether, because they have less stake in its success

The Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) consultation finished a few weeks ago and  Government are now considering the 600+ responses. Further updates on the Green Deal are available here.

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Tube Cooling Update

17 February 2012: Transport for London (TfL) have issued a news release providing an update on measures being implemented to help ‘cool the tube’.  The release reports that “At Green Park station borehole cooling technology will be used. London Underground has already successfully drilled wells to source naturally cool water from deep below Green Park and will now install air cooling units that will use the water to cool the Victoria and Piccadilly line platforms.” A similar ground water cooling scheme already operates at Victoria station.

The Mayor’s 2010 Transport Strategy (Chapter 5 – Managing and enhancing the transport system) highlights the challenges in providing ‘coolth’ to the underground:

High tunnel temperatures during the summer months are one of the biggest challenges facing the Tube, particularly for the deep tunnelled sections of the Underground,such as the Victoria line. These are generally closed systems where the major proportion of the energy that enters (for example, train motors) is released as heat, which in turn raises temperatures in the tunnels and on the trains. As a result of increased train service capacity (primarily through higher train frequencies) and reduced journey times (mainly through quicker acceleration and faster maximum speeds), electricity use on the Underground is anticipated to increase by 2020, resulting in more heat being released in the tunnels. This will be exacerbated by increasing passenger numbers and possible increases in air temperature due to climate change.

More recently, the Mayor’s 2011 Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (p104) details that:

London Underground’s aim is to minimise the heat generated by the existing network and planned upgrade of the service, so that further energy is not required to offset the heat that is generated. The interventions to cool temperature increases caused by the line upgrades will also help to manage the higher external temperatures caused by climate change. Optimising the energy efficiency of the service through driving the trains more efficiently will reduce the heating contribution from the operating regime.

Despite these efforts, temperatures on the Underground will continue to be uncomfortable in hot summers … projections suggest that on a summer day by the 2030s, there is a 24-27 per cent probability of temperatures being warmer than 24°C.  By 2050s, this rises to 62-75 per cent and 70-91 per cent by 2080s. This compares to 11 per cent probability today.

A recent (2 February 2012)  TfL Board Paper (page 21) also provides a summary update on Phase 1 of the Tube Cooling programme.

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Urban Design and Carbon Reduction

20 February 2012: “The importance of urban design compared to the value we put on it has been brought home to me again this week. In working in Tottenham, to try to maximise the impact on regeneration of the efforts to reduce carbon by 40% by 2020, urban design keeps appearing as a critical element.” Interesting comment piece by Chris Brown at Regen.

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New funding available from the BIG Lottery Fund

February 2012: The Community Sustainable Energy Programme (CSEP), an initiative sponsored by the BIG Lottery Fund (BIG), has recently announced that it has opened for one more capital funding round. Applications will be accepted for heat generating technologies and energy efficiency measures only. Deadline for the receipt of completed applications will be 5pm Friday 29 February 2012.

The Community Sustainable Energy Programme has to date awarded £8.5 million – through 11 previous rounds up to the end of 2010 – to community-based organisations for the installation of microgeneration technologies, such as solar panels or biomass boilers and energy efficiency measures including loft and cavity wall insulation. It has provided £1 million for project development grants that has helped community organisations decide if they could benefit from a microgeneration and energy efficiency installation.

Full details of how to apply are posted www.communitysustainable.org.uk.

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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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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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