News

Dial-a-Ride vehicles trialling biodiesel

December 2011: Transport for London (TfL)is to use an “environmentally friendly biofuel in 12 of its Dial-a-Ride vehicles in a year-long trial…The biodiesel, which will be supplied by Argent Energy, is a renewable, clean-burning fuel made from used cooking oil from the catering industry and tallow, which is a residue from the meat processing industry.” Further information on TfL press release here.

For further information on the use of  biofuels in London, see the following posts. Further information on Scottish based Argent Energy here.

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‘1m homes in London and South-East hit by fuel poverty’

3 December 2011: The Evening Standard reports on revised estimates released by Consumer Focus on the number of households deemed to be suffering from ‘fuel poverty’. The data referred to in the article doesn’t appear to be available on Consumer Focus’s website as yet, however the following BBC article provides a summary of the estimates which suggests that the proportion of fuel poor households in London has risen from 13.3% in 2009 to 17.8% in 2011.

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Surrey Canal Decentralised Energy Project

December 2011: An article on the Guardian’s website includes some information a major new mixed development (shops, business space, 2,400 homes and a new ‘Sporting Village’ based around Millwall Football Club) planned for Lewisham – Surrey Canal – which is planned to form part of a district heating scheme using waste heat from the nearby SELCHP waste to energy plant.

A proposed heat network route from SELCHP is also being examined by neighbouring borough Southwark, to supply heat to a number of nearby estates (details previously posted here and here): the power station is currently wasting enough waste heat to supply both these routes and more development sites should they come along.

More information on the energy strategy for the Surrey Canal development can be found in the following energy assessment for the site submitted as part of the planning application. (Direct link above – the full planning application can be viewed here – the energy assessment is saved under ‘Supporting Reports Vol.1’).

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Low Carbon Loan Launch

December 2011: Haringey Council will launch the Muswell Hill Low Carbon Loan at on Saturday 3 December 2011. The Low Carbon Loan scheme offer homeowners in the Muswell Hill Low Carbon Zone low interest loans, repayable over 10 – 25 years, to install larger energy saving measures or even a whole house retrofit.

Applicants will receive a free in depth Energy Audit and Retrofit Plan until the end of March 2012. Further information here.

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Haringey DE and retrofit studies

December 2011: As part of the work undertaken for the EST Local Carbon Framework’s pilot, Haringey – one of the 9 pilot areas (the only one in London however) – has developed five areas of study of interest to the borough looking at:

  1. Housing retrofit potential in North London – a detailed report for which can be downloaded here .
  2. Solar Power on Council buildings the outputs of which include:
  3. Green enterprise in the Upper Lee Valley – which produced the Upper Lee Valley low carbon economy report (PDF 6.2MB)
  4. Selling electricity from Combined Heat and Power Schemes – which looks at Haringey potentially acquiring a “Lite Supply Licence” which would allow a district heating operator to sell electricity at retail rates to consumers with fewer risks and complexities (report here)
  5. Producing guidance for Decentralised Energy Schemes – the purpose of which was to gain an understanding of the potential for district heating networks in the borough based on heat loads and likely capital costs and cash flows, and set up organisational structures to oversee a strategic approach to delivering DE networks.
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EST Local authority funding guide

December 2011: Energy Saving Trust funding guide aimed at local authority officers who are considering developing and delivering low carbon schemes and are assessing their options for financing these projects. This guide covers a range of options and aims to highlight theopportunities available. This guide is not an exhaustive list and other options may be available.

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Local Councils and the Green Deal

December 2011: An interim report investigating whether Local Councils could increase the equity of Green Deal implementation, and also how such a role can best be supported. Download here.

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The Green Deal – a Guide for Registered Providers and Local Authorities

December 2011: Low Energy Retrofit experts, Parity Projects, have launched, in collaboration with Keepmoat and Sustainable Homes, a new guide for Registered Providers and Local Authorities on the practical steps they should be taking to prepare for the Green Deal. The guide includes a summary of both the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation, along with information on financing the Green Deal, preparing supply chains, and becoming Green Deal provider.

The Government’s Green Deal consultation was launched on 23 November. Amongst the many documents launched that day, DECC also included a brief Local Authorities and the Green Deal information note.

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South Kensington Heat and Cooling Network

2 December 2011: Article in the latest issue of The Engineer providing detail on a novel new Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) system which will form part of a South Kensington Heat and Cooling Network. The project will potentially include the Natural History Museum, Imperial College, the V&A, the Science Museum, the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Geographical Society and “envisages an underground heating and cooling network beneath Exhibition Road in South Kensington linking some of the buildings occupied by the above list of prestigious institutions – which last year had a combined utility carbon footprint equivalent to five major hospitals.”

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City of London diverts waste to Belvedere incinerator

November 2011: Letsrecycle.com story highlighting how “All residual waste collected from the City of London’s 9,000 residents and street cleaning operations is being processed in Cory Environmental’s £350 million energy-from-waste (EfW) incinerator at Belvedere in Bexley, South East London. The Belvedere EfW plant, known as the Riverside Resource Recovery facility, has the capacity to treat 585,000 tonnes of waste a year… The Corporation of London said the plant was ‘one of the most efficient facilities in Europe’ – and would generate a net of about 66MW of electricity, feeding into the National Grid with enough electricity to serve around 100,000 homes.” Read the full story here.

More on the Belvedere waste to energy plant here.

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Assessment of fuel poverty in London in 2009 and scenarios to 2013

November 2011: GLA Economics note which “examines the current state of fuel poverty in London. It contends that the current, official, DECC measure for fuel poverty (using ‘full income’) underestimates the incidence of fuel poverty in the capital due to the inclusion of housing-related benefits as income under that measure. Using a ‘basic income’ measure (rather than ‘full income’) raises the incidence of fuel poverty in London households from 13.3 per cent to 18.6 per cent.
The paper sets out some simple modelled scenarios which suggest that the incidence of fuel poverty in London households varies between 16 per cent and 24 per cent over the period to 2013 (depending on different assumptions around income and fuel prices).”

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London – What Future for CHP and District Heating?

November 2011: Slides from a recent presentation made by Peter North, Senior Manager of the GLA’s Sustainable Energy Team. Includes information on the GLA’s new Decentralised Energy Project Delivery Unit (DEPDU). Further information on London’s DE plans can be found in Chapter 4Securing a Low Carbon Energy Supply for London – of the Mayor’s recent Climate Change Mitigation and Energy Strategy, as well as in the 2009 report ‘Powering Ahead‘.

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