News

‘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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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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