Tag Archives: Funding

Supporting the Green Deal in Social Housing

March 2013: A paper presented at the most recent GLA Housing Investment Group meeting has set out of the opportunities and challenges in expanding the Mayor’s housing retrofit programme, RE:FIT under the new landscape of the Green Deal and ECO. The paper sets out a proposal for additional funding for 2013/14.

“This paper seeks approval to allocate up to £150,000 for interim support to deliver early Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) projects through the existing RE:NEW framework.

“To avoid a slowdown in delivery during this period, we intend to procure interim support to help manage the early pipeline of projects that have been developed through our work with social housing landlords.

Response to this project has been very positive and currently there are over £10m of potential projects currently being reviewed which could be ready to tender in the next 3-6 months, with a further £77m of identified projects under review. The total pipeline includes over £950m worth of potential projects and over 100,000 dwellings.

Additional information is available in Appendix A- RE:NEW project pipeline and Appendix B- Pipeline projects currently under review – status update

The process to identify projects was kicked off in a workshop at City Hall in December 2012: a great paper on Financing retrofit in London social housing by Verco was presented – and post workshop Verco have also prepared a summary of proceedings. Amongst the outputs  the key points for future success in attracting funding for energy efficiency retrofit in the social housing sector included:

  • Senior leadership buy-in (e.g. to overcome barriers)
  • Economies of scale
  • Get dedicated lead
  • Accurate stock data
  • Build relationships with suppliers and contractors ASAP
  • Know your stock – to be able to negotiate
  • Data – Tower Hamlets have a database of all properties in the borough (do surveys, get EPC data from DECC, not HEED – automatic calculation of Golden Rule) and;
  • There are wide differences in the helpfulness of planners in different London boroughs – if planners are less cooperative, try a multi-prong approach via sustainability officers or ward councillors (!)
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Energy and Climate Questions to the Mayor

February 2013 This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to:

the Mayor’s position on nuclear and its role in securing London’s future energy supplies; the number of ‘low carbon generators’ currently helping power Transport for London’; the Mayor’s application to DECC’s  Fuel Poverty and Green Deal Pioneer Places funds; European Investment Bank (EIB) funding for energy efficiency retrofits in housing; the amount of energy consumed by The Shard; the potential for the Green Deal in London; further funding for the Mayor’s RE:NEW home energy efficiency programme; promoting the Green Deal to Londoners over-65; publication of the latest TfL Environment report; GLA environment publications; hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles; the number of fuel poverty households treated under RE:NEW; revised publication date of the RE:NEW evaluation report; the total number of homes treated under RE:NEW; funding and evaluation of the RE:CONNECT Low Carbon Zones programme; zero carbon developments on the Greenwich Penisula; the Mayor’s Low Carbon Prize; the RE:FIT Schools initiative; the number of jobs created under RE:FIT; progress on the LED traffic lights initiative.


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Energy and Climate Questions to the Mayor

December 2012: This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to: the delay in the publication to the Mayor’s evaluation report of his home energy efficiency programme, RE:NEW;  a response to the recent report that London experienced the largest increase in the number of Excess Winter Mortality of any region; the number of low carbon and renewable energy installations installed in fire stations currently threatened with closure; on the Mayor’s recent statement that the “energy policy of the country is in chaos“; the Deputy Mayor’s views on renewable energy; the representation of decentralised energy generators on the Mayor’s High Level Electricity Working Group; the Energy Bill and its support to the attainment of the Mayor’s 25 per cent decentralised energy target

Progress on the Mayor’s DE targetCHP capacity in London; TfL arrangements to secure electricity supply for the London Underground ; TfL energy costs; TfL procurement of electricity from London-based low carbon and renewable energy generators
progress being made under the London Energy Efficiency Fund (LEEF); the UK’s attractiveness to clean energy investment; discussions with energy companies over recent price hikes; a London target under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO)
job losses in the insulation industry in London; Mayor’s liaison with the Insulation Industry Forum; the slow take up under the Green Deal and the January launch of the Green Deal; London bid to the Green Deal Pioneer Places fund and here.

Energy efficiency improvements linked to home extensions and conversions; the 2018 energy efficiency requirement for the private rented sector (and here); that there will be no zero carbon homes developed on the Greenwich Peninsula; checks on the standard of work completed under the RE:NEW programme; future energy consumption related to London’s future population growth; the anticipated energy output from the 25 decentralised energy schemes currently being supported by the Mayor; funding directed to the Mayor’s decentralised energy programme; papers from future meetings of the Mayor’s High Level Electricity Working Group; and the potential for anaerobic digestion in London and the number of future AD plants in London.

Previous months questions to the Mayor can be found here.

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LEAF Projects Funding Details

March 2012: Table provided by DECC showing a) Phase One and b) Phase Two projects receiving funding from the Local Energy Assessment Fund (LEAF) including region and funding granted. Details of 11 London projects provided – which are:

  • Arcola Theatre Production Company – Dalston Energy Angels
  • Camden and Westminster Refugee Training Partnership (C&WRTP)
  • Glyndon Community Group
  • Hackney Co-operative Developments CIC
  • Hyde Farm Climate Action Network
  • Hyde Martlet Housing Association
  • Local Space Housing (LSH)
  • Poplar
  • Shrinking the Footprint Campaign (Church of England)
  • St. John on Bethnal Green, LB Tower Hamlets
  • The London Borough of Tower Hamlets

See an earlier post for fuller details of London LEAF winners.

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The Community Generation Fund

March 2012: A new fund by a fund management organisation called the FSE Group, has been launched to support  communities seeking to develop renewable energy generation infrastructure.

The website for the Community Generation Fund states that the fund “will provide commercial but creative loan funding for communities at the pre-planning (“development”) stage of their projects, as well as the construction (post-planning) stage:

  • Development Loans: Contingently-repayable loans for design, environmental and other external costs involved in achieving the required planning and other consents/licenses
  • Construction Loans: Long-term loans for equipment, construction & commissioning costs (post planning consent) either stand-alone or alongside bank finance.

The Fund will consider project sizes from 25kWp capacity upwards, subject to assessment of technical viability, financial viability and social impact. The level of project typically is likely to involve total feasibility/pre-planning costs of £20,000-£150,000 maximum (depending on technology and scale) and construction costs of £250,000-£2,000,000 maximum.” The invitation for communities to submit “pre-applications” has a closing date of 16 April 2012.

This fund follows on from the recent announcement by the Co-operative’s Community Energy Challenge which has recently closed (29 February – and has received 123 applications) and also the next round of the energyshare fund (which has a deadline by the end of March for applicants), as well as recent Government-funded community energy grant schemes, CSEP and LEAF.

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Update on LEEF

February 2012: A quick update on the London Energy Efficiency Fund (LEEF)

  • The Fund has £100m to invest in energy efficiency retrofit to public sector-owned / occupied buildings
  • LEEF is also able to invest through private / joint venture entities (such as ESCOs or landlords) delivering energy efficiency works
  • Loan rates and terms are extremely flexible and competitive

You can benefit from LEEF if:

  • You are undertaking a refurbishment programme / retrofit project in a London-located public / voluntary sector building (such as a university, museum, hospital, school, local authority, social housing provider, etc)
  • Your works will deliver in the region of 20% energy saving / carbon benefits
  • Your funding requirement is at least £1m; ideally between £3m and £20m

Further information at www.leef.co.uk

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Renewable Heat in London

21 February 2012: Angie Bray, MP for Central Ealing and Acton, asked the following  question in Parliament on the extent of the operation of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) in London:

Angie Bray: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many organisations in London have received support from the Renewable Heat Incentive to date. [94815]

Gregory Barker: None of the five installations accredited to date by Ofgem for support from the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme are based in London. Payments under the scheme will be made on a quarterly basis following submission of eligible heat usage data. We expect to make the first payments in March.

The RHI tariffs are paid for 20 years to eligible technologies with payments being made for each unit (kWh) of renewable heat which is produced. The second phase of the RHI scheme will see it expanded to include more technologies as well as support for households. Further information is posted on the DECC website.

The RHI is to be introduced in two phases. The scheme opened for non-domestic applications on  28 November 2011 and, as the answer outlines, only  a few schemes have been accredited to date, none of which are in London.

In the interim to Phase 2 being launched, the Government also introduced a grant funding programme, the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme, which will run from 1st August 2011 to 31st March 2012. As detailed previously (here and here), the grants will be focused on ‘non-gas grid’ sites, and hence London will miss out on receiving any support for the installation of technologies such as heat pumps, solar thermal panels and biomass boilers.

The RHPP is managed by the Energy Saving Trust (EST) who produce weekly statistics on the grants given out. Disappointingly they do not provide detail of the  grants given out by county or local authority, only by country. The latest (15 February) statistics can be seen here.  It’s interesting to note that with just over a month of the scheme still to go, only £3.9m of the £15m RHPP funds appear to be allocated.

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Lessons from the Community Sustainable Energy Programme (CSEP)

February 2012: BRE are holding a series of events on ‘Lessons from the Community Sustainable Energy Programme (CSEP)’ – not to be confused with CESP!

CSEP provided Big Lottery Funding for community-based energy efficiency and renewable projects (NOTE: the programme closed in 2010 – however very recently a new funding round has opened with a deadline for applications of 29 February 2012).

No specific London workshop took place, however, a session earlier this month at BRE’s HQ includes a detailed (8MB) presentation on CSEP, and also a case study presentation on the Brixton Solar project. Download both here.

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New funding available from the BIG Lottery Fund

February 2012: The Community Sustainable Energy Programme (CSEP), an initiative sponsored by the BIG Lottery Fund (BIG), has recently announced that it has opened for one more capital funding round. Applications will be accepted for heat generating technologies and energy efficiency measures only. Deadline for the receipt of completed applications will be 5pm Friday 29 February 2012.

The Community Sustainable Energy Programme has to date awarded £8.5 million – through 11 previous rounds up to the end of 2010 – to community-based organisations for the installation of microgeneration technologies, such as solar panels or biomass boilers and energy efficiency measures including loft and cavity wall insulation. It has provided £1 million for project development grants that has helped community organisations decide if they could benefit from a microgeneration and energy efficiency installation.

Full details of how to apply are posted www.communitysustainable.org.uk.

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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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The Community Energy Challenge

1 February 2012: The Community Energy Challenge is part of The Co-operative’s Clean Energy Revolution campaign and  will provide 12-18 months of enterprise development, mentoring, technical advice and community facilitation for six to eight communities, enabling them to initiate co-operative renewable energy projects at a significant scale (e.g. valued at £1m to £3m and/or rated in excess of 500kW). The Community Energy Challenge will operate a competitive bid process. All applications will be carefully evaluated and the final selection made by an expert panel. The deadline for expressions of interest is 29 February 2012.
For full details, download the Guidance for Applicants from the Centre for Sustainable Energy’s website.

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Funding for London biomass schemes

January 2012: DECC’s Bio-energy Capital Grants Scheme supported “biomass-fuelled heat, and combined heat and power projects in the industrial, commercial and community sectors in England.” A spreadsheet has just been released providing details of projects supported by rounds 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the scheme.  Projects are not listed with any specific geographic information however from a quick review it appears that only 4 of the 215 schemes supported appear to be in London, which are:

  • Hale Village in Tottenham (entry 161 on the spreadsheet)
  • A school in Sutton (entry 178)
  • An unspecified London fire station (entry 180)
  • East Barnet School (entry 197)
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