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News
Generation Plant Efficiency Needs to be Improved
12 July 2011: Radio 4’s Today programme coverage of the launch of the Government’s White Paper on electricity market reform (to be launched later today) included a short piece on how new generating plant would have to become much more efficient. The gave an example of London’s Citigen Combined Heat and Power (CHP) scheme, operated by E.ON, as a future example of how power stations would have to operate. Citigen is sited deep underground Smithfield’s market providing heat and cooling to a number of city institutions. Listen to the radio piece here.
Posted in Decentralised Energy, News
Tagged CHP, City of London, Decentralised Energy
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How TIF funding could boost retrofitting in the UK
11 July 2011: The Guardian has published a comment piece today highlighting how “Tax increment financing could be used to fund grants for sustainable improvement to the country’s housing stock“. TIFs provide new borrowing power opportunities for local authorities in England, and was first announced as a Government proposal by the Deputy Prime Minister back in September 2010. The issue of TIFs and business rate retention was also looked at in some detail recently by the City Finance Commission.
Low Carbon London
July 2011: Executive Summary of UK Power Networks (London’s electricity distribution network operator) Low Carbon London bid to the second round of Ofgem’s £500m Low Carbon Networks Fund. Doesn’t reveal a lot – the bid is very ‘techy’ as can be seen from the early submission to Ofgem in November 2010, but parts of the proposal are covered in story below.
Posted in News
Tagged Demand Reduction, Distribution, Low Carbon Networks Fund, Ofgem, UK Power Networks
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London companies to be paid to curtail peak-time energy use
8 July 2011: Industry article highlighting UK Power Networks (London’s electricity distribution operator) plans for demand reduction where “Large companies in London will be paid to curb their energy use during peak demand periods as grid operators plan ways to avoid costly upgrades to the UK capital’s congested electricity networks. This proposal forms part of UK Power Network’s bid into Ofgem’s Low Carbon Network Fund (see ‘Low Carbon London’ story for further information). Business Green also provide further detail on this story.
State of the Environment report for London
July 2011: London’s Environment Revealed is the first joint report on the State of the Environment in London, produced by the Greater London Authority, Environment Agency, Natural England and the Forestry Commission. The report looks at the state of London’s environment today, highlights the improvements that have been made, and the challenges the city faces. The report also features many projects and schemes at a local level that have improved the environment in London in recent years. Data presented for the report is also available as an Excel spreadsheet. GLA press release is available here.
£16 million Waste Infrastructure Fund for London
July 2011: The London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) LWARB has opened its second Waste Infrastructure fund. The deadline for Expressions of Interest (EOI) forms is midday on Friday 30 September for projects that meet the two following criteria:
• An £11 million waste infrastructure loan fund for projects that meet the strategic requirements of LWARB. LWARB has a particular interest in projects located outside of east London* as well as those projects that help to bridge the capacity gap in the capital.
• A £5 million programme which will fund innovative waste solutions, giving London the opportunity to showcase technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells, gas to grid, and waste derived transport fuels. This programme will include brokering partnerships with various parties such as technology providers, off-takers and fuel suppliers.
Preventing Blackouts during the 2012 Games
7 July 2011: Daily Mail story today which highlighted comments from Sports and Olympics minister Hugh Robertson who ” disclosed that London would have to boost its electricity supply to prevent possible blackouts during the Games. ‘There has been some worry that the energy system in London might not be resilient enough to cope with the huge demand,’ he said. ‘We have concluded an agreement to upgrade the energy capacity of all the circuits that service the Olympics so you don’t get a sudden problem.’
£10m Anaerobic digestion loan fund launched
July 2011: Defra Minister Lord Henley has officially opened a £10m Loan Fund that will help finance anaerobic digestion (AD) infrastructure across England. The fund aims to lend up to £10m over the next four years, with individual loans of between £50,000 and £1m. WRAP will open the fund for the first round of applications from today until October 31st 2011. Further details are available in the ADLF Product Information Form. Responses to the Fund’s launch have been critical of Government policy on AD in a number of areas.
Posted in News, Renewable Energy
Tagged Anaerobic Digestion, Renewable Energy, Waste
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Green Deal boost to retrofit market
7 July 2011: H&V news highlight interesting developments in Birmingham in respsonse to the Government’s Green Deal programme:
“Private finance is set to back the Green Deal market as councils gear up to begin the first stages of multi-billion-pound housing retrofit programmes.
Last week, Construction News reported Birmingham City Council is about to tender for a lead partner for its Green Deal retrofit programme, which could see the council use its borrowing to underpin the initial stages of the programme.
With private finance the scheme could be expanded to retrofit about 200,000 homes, spending around £1 billion by 2026.” Read the full article at the link above.
‘Ten Steps to Save the Cities’
7 July 2011: The New Economics Foundation have set out today ten ‘tried-and-tested solutions’ from their work on local economic development to propose a new way forward for UK cities. Included amongst these is to “Invest in local energy. At present only 0.01 per cent of electricity in England is generated by local authority-owned renewables, despite the scope that exists to install projects on their land and buildings. In Germany the equivalent figure is 100 times higher.” Two examples are cited – both in London:
“The London Borough of Haringey has launched their own Haringey 40:20 organisation, involving business and civil society, because of the scale of the challenge – one in four homes will need to improve energy efficiency, 20,000 will need some kind of renewable generator capacity fitted, and 30,000 local homes will need to be linked up with local energy networks.
But if cities generate energy then local people are employed. If local authorities have a stake in the financing of this, then the surplus can be re-invested into the less well-off areas of a city to increase sustainability. If community organisations are able to invest in energy generation, like the pioneering Peckham Power company in London, then there will be an ongoing benefit to local people which has huge implications for local economies.”
Behaviour Change and Energy use
7 July 2011: The Cabinet Office’s Behavioural Insights Team published a report yesterday setting out how behavioural insights can be used to help people save energy and money. The report, Behaviour Change and Energy Use, launches a series of trials and “changes to government policy” (not sure what these are though…) which will make it easier for individuals to green their homes and use less energy. Several of these trials are based in London including:
- How social networks might be harnessed to support the uptake of domestic energy efficiency measures. In partnership with B&Q and Kingston and Merton councils – a trial will run to test the impact of offering energy efficiency products and services at varying levels of discount depending on how many people opt in to the offer. In this trial, homeowners in Merton will be offered a discount on B&Q energy-efficient products such as loft and cavity wall insulation. People will be incentivised to encourage others in their local community to take up the offer with them –discounts for each household range from 10% fortwo households, to 15% for three households and25% for five households.Merton Council will highlight this through community engagement, also raising awareness about the discounted energy-efficient products by marketing the deal in their own local publications. The trial will be conducted between September and December 2011. To determine the effectiveness of this intervention, Kingston Council will act as a control where householders will be offered standard, non-discounted green products.
- Testing the impact of helping to remove the ‘hassle factor’, specifically investigating whether minimising the hassle associated with loft clearance will encourage the uptake of loft insulation. B&Q and the London Borough of Sutton are currently discussing the terms of a trial which will test the effectiveness of offering a subsidised loft-clearing service in conjunction with loft insulation.
How to get the community involved with energy efficiency
7 July 2011: Daily Telegraph piece on energy advisor Jelena Kiselova who created and established an innovative Green Resident programme amongst her neighbours in Borough, Southwark.