Site search:
-
What’s new?
Energy for London Tags
Brent Buildings Camden Carbon Emissions CHP Cities Climate Adaptation Community Heating Community Initiatives Croydon Data DECC Decentralised Energy Distribution ECO Energy Costs Energy Efficiency Enfield FIT Fuel Poverty Funding Green Deal Hackney Haringey Housing Islington Lambeth Library Local Authorities Mayor Newham Ofgem Olympics Photovoltaics Planning RE:FIT RE:NEW Renewable Energy Retrofit Southwark Tower Hamlets Transport Waltham Forest Waste WestminsterEnergy Archives:
- February 2021 (1)
- January 2021 (15)
- December 2020 (15)
- November 2020 (9)
- October 2020 (3)
- August 2020 (5)
- July 2020 (3)
- June 2020 (4)
- April 2020 (10)
- March 2020 (5)
- February 2020 (2)
- January 2020 (3)
- October 2019 (1)
- September 2019 (4)
- August 2019 (2)
- July 2019 (1)
- August 2018 (1)
- November 2016 (8)
- October 2016 (8)
- September 2016 (2)
- August 2016 (8)
- July 2016 (14)
- April 2016 (12)
- March 2016 (16)
- February 2016 (8)
- January 2016 (4)
- December 2015 (1)
- November 2015 (1)
- October 2015 (16)
- September 2015 (3)
- June 2015 (1)
- May 2015 (1)
- April 2015 (1)
- March 2015 (1)
- February 2015 (1)
- January 2015 (1)
- December 2014 (18)
- November 2014 (4)
- August 2014 (8)
- July 2014 (7)
- June 2014 (25)
- May 2014 (8)
- April 2014 (4)
- March 2014 (12)
- February 2014 (7)
- January 2014 (13)
- December 2013 (11)
- November 2013 (15)
- October 2013 (15)
- September 2013 (18)
- August 2013 (5)
- July 2013 (20)
- June 2013 (33)
- May 2013 (8)
- April 2013 (16)
- March 2013 (25)
- February 2013 (14)
- January 2013 (20)
- December 2012 (23)
- November 2012 (23)
- October 2012 (25)
- September 2012 (14)
- July 2012 (12)
- June 2012 (43)
- May 2012 (20)
- April 2012 (8)
- March 2012 (40)
- February 2012 (39)
- January 2012 (40)
- December 2011 (22)
- November 2011 (40)
- October 2011 (33)
- September 2011 (48)
- August 2011 (40)
- July 2011 (58)
- June 2011 (41)
- May 2011 (80)
- April 2011 (38)
- March 2011 (33)
- February 2011 (25)
- January 2011 (24)
- December 2010 (3)
- November 2010 (7)
- October 2010 (6)
- September 2010 (7)
- August 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (2)
- June 2010 (4)
- May 2010 (1)
- March 2010 (3)
- February 2010 (3)
- December 2009 (5)
- November 2009 (2)
- October 2009 (3)
- July 2009 (3)
- June 2009 (1)
- April 2009 (1)
- March 2009 (1)
- February 2009 (1)
- January 2009 (1)
- December 2008 (2)
- October 2008 (1)
- September 2008 (1)
- July 2008 (1)
- March 2008 (2)
- January 2008 (2)
- October 2007 (1)
- September 2007 (3)
- July 2007 (1)
- March 2007 (1)
- February 2007 (3)
- November 2006 (3)
- August 2006 (1)
- February 2006 (1)
- May 2005 (1)
- February 2004 (1)
Tag Archives: Renewable Energy
Thames Water to become Britain’s biggest solar power generator
August 2011: Thames Water is aiming to become Britain’s biggest on-site solar power producer after signing a deal to install photovoltaic systems large enough to cover 15 football pitches at three key sites in London. A 450kW array of solar panels, commissioned last week at Beckton (Newham), will generate 385 MWh a year on average, while 150kW arrays installed at Crossness (Bexley) – where a 2.5MW wind turbine is also planned to be installed – and Walton will each generate 133 MWh a year on average, enough to power 140 average-sized homes.
Once the Crossness array is expanded to its full potential of 1,700 kW, it will generate an additional 1,400 MWh a year on average. And once the Walton array is expanded to its full potential of 3,000 kW, it will generate an additional 2,500 MWh per year.
Air Source Heat Pumps – Friend Or Foe?
August 2011: The AECB have posted on their website a really useful survey of Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP), a technology which is increasingly being installed in London buildings. The article addresses many of the common questions raised about ASHPs and looks “at possible reasons why the reality seems to have fallen short of the claims, reveals some common pitfalls and advises how to avoid (or remedy) them, and offers some pointers to assessing when a heat pump might be good option – and when something else might be the better option. “
Latest Guidance for FIT Generators
August 2011: Ofgem document for renewable generators with a capacity over 50kW up to 5MW that want to benefit from the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme. It provides an overview of the scheme’s eligibility criteria and explains the process of seeking accreditation.
Olympian effort made to get utilities ready for the Olympics
In the market for green energy
July 2011: As highlighted previously, fruit and vegetable traders in Ridley Road market, Hackney, are collecting their green waste to feed into an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant as part of a trial between the AD specialist Biogen Greenfinch and Hackney, which is about to be rolled out across more of the council’s markets. More detail on this project is provided in this interesting article just published by edie waste news and available here.
Posted in News, Renewable Energy
Tagged Anaerobic Digestion, Hackney, Renewable Energy
Leave a comment
Recycling Cooking Oil in London
July 2011: The Committee on Climate Change are currently undertaking a review of bioenergy and took a trip to have a look at the work of Uptown Oil who collect used cooking oil from about a thousand sources in London – including Young’s pubs, Selfridges and Hackney Borough Council – to produce biodiesel.
A Business Green article published last week highlighted that Carluccio’s Restaurant chain – which has around 20 cafes in London – announced that it has signed a deal with biofuel firm Convert2Green to be converted into biofuel. Other biofuel suppliers in London include:
Uptown Oil based in Borough
Pure Fuels based in Edmonton
Proper Oils who work with a Croydon Council collection scheme
Uptown have also been selected to supply biofuel to PWC’s new HQ whose energy will be partially supplied by a trigeneration scheme (combined heat and power with cooling) – one of London’s only biofuelled CHP schemes.
Figures for the amount of cooking oil collected in London and be turned into biofuel do not appear to be available, however, a study reported on by the London Assembly in 2009 indicated that 37,000 tonnes of used cooking oil is available in London and the DfT’s latest biofuel statistics state that the “largest single feedstock for UK biofuel was used cooking oil (314m litres, 26% of total biofuel supplied)“. London’s Draft Waste Municipal Waste Strategy commits that the “Mayor will, through his Food to Fuel Alliance, aim to catalyse at least five exemplar food waste projects in London…the Alliance will support food waste projects that generate renewable heat and power (including transport fuel), and compost material for local use.”
Posted in News, Renewable Energy
Tagged Biofuels, Croydon, Enfield, Renewable Energy, Southwark, Waste
Leave a comment
Energy and Climate Questions to the Mayor
July 2011: This month the Mayor answered London Assembly questions in relation to energy efficiency funding of Mayoral programmes RE:NEW and RE:FIT; an update on the forthcoming Renewable Energy Capacity study; the number of solar panels installed on London Underground properties; the amount of carbon emitted by the lights at Piccadilly Circus; and whether the New Bus for London meets the ‘Low Carbon Bus’ standard.
Previous questions to the Mayor can be found here.
Posted in News
Tagged Lighting, Mayor, Photovoltaics, RE:FIT, RE:NEW, Renewable Energy
Leave a comment
A Simple Guide to the Renewable Heat Incentive
July 2011: Ofgem have just issued a leaflet setting out the key aspects of the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme for prospective participants. DECC have yet to announce the start of the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) – a subsidy for a range of renewable heat technologies that can be used in homes – which will be used as a bridge until the full domestic-sector RHI kicks off in October 2012 alongside the Green Deal. This Ofgem brochure just mentions that “DECC will release further information about the RHPP shortly.”
Renewable Energy Roadmap
July 2011: Alongside the publication of the White Paper on Tuesday [see story below], the Government also published a ‘Renewable Energy Roadmap‘ which “outlines a plan of action to accelerate renewable energy deployment – to meet the target of 15% of all energy by 2020 ” – now said to be a four-fold increase over current levels of renewable energy consumption.
Government has highlighted before the importance of local authorities in helping support the growth of renewable energy and has also recently changed legislation to ensure that local authorities can themselves play their part as renewable energy developers (see letter from Chris Huhne to all leaders and chief executives of local authorities) .
The 100 page Roadmap is, however, incredibly ‘lite’ on the contribution that local authorities can play, pointing only to the work funded by DECC to produce nine regional studies to help “identify and maximise opportunities for the deployment of renewable and low carbon energy technologies in their area.” The Roadmap goes on to state that “Local Authorities and communities will be able to use the results of these assessments to inform development of their local and neighbourhood development plans.” [page 24]
and that:
“While the focus of the project has been to present the results at sub-regional and sub-national scales, much of the original data can be interrogated down to Local Authority level. This original data is available to Local Authorities to undertake their own analysis.” [page 25]
DECC goes on to say that one of their priority actions will be to:
” …Reform the local planning system in England to ensure that it supports economic growth, give communities a greater say and stake in development, and help local authorities and communities to identify opportunities for the deployment of renewables using analysis from regional studies.” [page 30]
Seven of the nine assessments for England are now available through the DECC web site – London’s renewable energy assessment study is awaiting publication, anticipated to be sometime later this year.
Posted in Library, News, Renewable Energy
Tagged DECC, Local Authorities, Planning, Renewable Energy
Leave a comment
£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
Leave a comment
Underground technology could heat thousands of UK homes
July 2011: The 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).
Posted in Library, News, Renewable Energy
Tagged Environment Agency, GSHP, Renewable Energy
Leave a comment
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.