News

Mayoral Update on RE:NEW programme

22 June 2011: Speaking today at the BASE London Conference the Mayor provided an update on the RE:NEW programme stating a further £6 million will be invested in RE:NEW (announced earlier this year) to retrofit 55,000 more homes across London by May 2012 and “subject to leverage of additional funding a further 200,000 homes are to retrofitted by the end of 2012, which is the Mayor’s target under RE:NEW.

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First CSH Level 5 Homes in London

21 June 2011: According to the Homes and Communities Agency, Croydon is the first  local authority in London to have built and completed Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) level five homes, based in a new brownfield development in New Addington. Croydon’s press release comments that “All of the homes … are fitted with a range of devices like solar panels and low-energy heating systems that mean tenants do not use many resources and the buildings have a low carbon footprint. The green technology and insulation included in the homes is so advanced that tenants could potentially have no energy bills if used correctly.”

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Home Insulation Levels in Great Britain

17 June 2011Statistical release by DECC on the estimates of home insulation levels in Great Britain (April 2011). No regional information is provided unfortunately, however, this release does include an estimate of the number of homes with Solid Wall Insulation (SWI) for the first time – a significant issue for London due to the high proportion of solid wall homes.

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Sutton Launch Climate Change Adaptation Strategy

16 June 2011: As part of the Council’s 2020 Vision of ‘One Planet Living’and promoting the Borough as London’s most sustainable suburb, Sutton’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy seeks to ensure that the location, layout and design of all new developments minimise vulnerability of people and propertyand are fully adapted and resilient to future climate impacts.

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Belvedere Incinerator Briefing Note

14 June 2011: Note of Bexley Council’s Environment Committee’s visit to the Belvedere Incinerator. The note provides the following information: “Testing of the [66MW]  turbine is still under way and it is anticipated it will be fully functioning by the end of May 2011. ..Members discussed the potential for the facility to become acombined heat and power plant. It was reported that the site was built to have the capability to provide heat to a local facility such as hospital if there such demand and Cory Environmental would be keen to explore such an opportunity should it arise.”

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Bexley gives go ahead to large solar project

10 June 2011: News report from solarportal.co.uk that “the Business Academy Bexley has been given the green light for the installation of a 558.6kW system that will generate around 45% of the electricity used by the Academy, cutting an estimated £46,790 off its annual £104,700 electricity bill and reducing its carbon footprint by 457 tonnes a year. The unanimous decision by Bexley Council’s Planning Committee on 9 June followed its planning officer’s recommendation. Work on installing the solar farm, which will cover an area nearly three times the size of the football pitch at Wembley Stadium, is expected to start within days and to be completed by the end of July, meaning it will beat the upcoming feed-in tariff cuts.” Full details on the scheme are set out in  developers application to the Council and Bexley’s report to the Planning Committee (report item 7a) .

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Housing ‘eco-retrofit’ completes

13 June 2011: Gifford engineers have completed a comprehensive retrofit project in Harrow that will now be monitored to see how effectively the country’s existing housing stock can be converted into energy efficient homes to achieve deep cuts in carbon emissions.
“A whole house solution for everyday living” has been delivered by Gifford’s Sustainability Team at a 1960s semi-detached house in Harrow, North West London. The team designed a number of energy efficiency measures for the property, including super insulating the building envelope and sealing it to reduce heat loss, a ventilation system coupled with heat recovery, low energy lighting with specialist LED fittings, solar thermal panels, a room-by-room control system and a ‘last man out’ switch to stop appliances being left on stand-by. Read more here.

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Emissions rise at UK universities

7 June 2011: The People & Planet Green League 2011 assessed the environmental and ethical performance of 142 universities, and has estimated that  carbon emissions at 139 universities rose by 3.9% between 2005 and 2010, even though capital funding for English institutions is now linked to reductions.

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Waltham Forest Home Retrofit Project

June 2011: Profile of a home energy efficiency refurbishment project being undertaken by Waltham Forest. ‘Green Home’ case study available here.

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Heat efficient Holborn

6 June 2011: inmidtown – which represents the interests of 560 businesses in Holborn, Bloomsbury and St Giles – is working with Camden to explore opportunities to increase the use of decentralised energy in the area by linking heat loads together. Further information on their energy sharing initiative here.

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Londoners in the dark over efficiency cost savings

6 June 2011: According to new research from energy company E.ONBrits place saving money on their energy bill as their top household budgeting priority, however, many people are in the dark when it comes to understanding the true savings that can be made“. E.ON’s ‘Energy Saving Savviness‘ survey indicated that only 30% or so of Londoners correctly identified the financial savings from being energy efficient

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London councillors asked to ‘plan local’

2 June 2011: Organised by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) in partnership with Urban Forum, an event was held for London councillors to learn more about different renewable technologies and how they could support their communities in developing locally owned renewable energy projects – and therefore generate local energy and income streams. Further information on the workshop and how to run a similar event locally available here.

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