Renewable Energy

£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.

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Underground technology could heat thousands of UK homes

July 2011The Environment Agency have produced a  good practice guide and position statement for ground source heating and cooling schemes. Environment Agency research indicates that there are around 12,000 ground source heat and cooling systems in the UK and that this figure could increase to more than 300,000 systems by 2020..
There are many challenges to the wide-spread use of GHSP in domestic sites in London, however, there are some excellent examples of commercial scale schemes operating in London, as the EA points out. These include the Sainsbury’s Crayford store in Bexley, and also the One New Change development in the City, which operates the largest GSHP installation in Europe (Land Securities press release from January 2011 at the opening of the development, providing details of the system).

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Microgeneration Case Studies

July 2011: DECC has published a series of microgeneration case studies on their website, providing some useful project and cost information on a number of renewable technologies (both heat and power types). None of the projects are in London from what I can see – which is a shame – but useful nonetheless.

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Sky cuts ribbon on Europe’s greenest studios

4 Jul 2011: Business Green article providing details on Sky’s new broadcasting studios in Osterley, West London, which include on site a wind turbine, natural air cooling systems and also a “a biomass-fuelled combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) plant which will supply at least 20 per cent of the energy needed for the building’s electricity and heating systems.”

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National Renewable Energy Statistics

30 June 2011: Short article in latest issue of DECC’s Energy Trends quarterly journal, published today, providing the latest national renewable energy statistics for the UK. The analysis finds that “Renewable energy provisionally accounted for 3.3 per cent of energy consumption, as measured using the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive methodology. This is an increase of 0.3 percentage points from the 2009 position of 3.0 per cent.” The UK’s 2020 target is for 15 per cent of UK energy needs to be supplied from renewable energy sources.

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Renewable Heat Incentive Guidance

24 June 2011: Back in March, DECC announced details on the launch of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). Some of the key points of the announcement included:

  • The regulations to introduce the RHI are currently going through Parliament  and are anticipated to be approved by summer 2011
  • The RHI would then be introduced “shortly thereafter” (anticipated  30 September 2011)
  • The scheme will be introduced in two phases with  non-domestic sectors targeted first – that is larger heat users in the industrial, business and public sectors. Tariffs for the various technologies within this phase (ie non-domestic scale projects) were announced in DECC’s March RHI press release.
  • Household sector support through the RHI would be introduced in October 2012, to tie in with the launch of the Green Deal however…
  • …In the meantime, up to 25,000 household installations will be supported by a £15m “RHI Premium Payment” to help people cover the purchase price of green heating systems and help encourage take-up of renewable heat technologies
  • The likely levels of support (set out in the DECC press release) for the RHI Premium Payments were: Solar Thermal – £300/unit; Air Source Heat Pumps – £850/unit; Biomass boilers – £950/unit and Ground Source Heat Pumps – £1250/unit
  • Details of the Premium Payment were originally said to have been issued in May, for a July 2011 start,  but as yet no information has appeared (the Ofgem paper released today – more of which below – simply says “Further information on the Renewable Heat Premium Payment will be available later in the year from DECC.”
  • Regulations around the October 2012 domestic/household phase of the RHI will be consulted upon next year.
  • Further details on the RHI are on DECC’s website.

Ofgem, who will administer the scheme, have today launched a detailed (two volume…) consultation on the eligibility criteria for installations wishing to apply for the RHI, including requirements such as the regular submission of heat data, meter readings and fuel data for certain bioenergy installations.

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Which guide to photovoltaics

24 June 2011: A Which? undercover report shows how some solar panel companies are using dodgy sales tactics and are giving poor advice to people looking to buy PV panels. Further information on their survey as well as  Which’s online guide on how to buy solar panels, which includes information on solar PV costs and payback times here.

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Microgeneration Strategy

22 June 2011: DECC have today published an updated Microgeneration Strategy focussing on non-financial barriers to the deployment of microgeneration technologies.  Chapter 5 specifically considers community scale generation opportunities with the Government stating it will take forward activities on helping provide guidance on planning (see PlanLoCaL for further information), finance, sharing best practice, and identifying barriers and possible solutions to the uptake of microgeneration. Dissemination of information will be through a series of events and through DECC’s Community Energy Online portal.

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Review of Renewable and Decentralised Energy Potential in South East England

15 June 2010A review of the potential for renewable energy development in the South East developed using DECC’s methodology. The work was intended to inform the SE Regional Strategy. Due to the revocation of RSS and ending of regional planning, the reports have been tailored as far as possible to be useful to planning authorities in developing their own assessments and evidence base for local policy

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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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Islington seeks partners for solar panel drive on council stock

31 May 2011: Islington is seeking one or more partners to install photovoltaic (PV) panels on roofs of council properties for a 25-year period, at no cost to the council or taxpayers.

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East of England renewable and low carbon energy capacity study

May 2011: Report prepared for DECC using the Government’s standard national methodology for conducting renewable energy capacity assessments to examine the potential for renewable energy generation in the East of England.

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