Google blows $39m into wind power

Google has added another string to its bow: wind farms

The internet search giant, which has expanded into mobile phones and maps of world, the ocean and the stars, has invested $39m (£25.6m) in two North Dakota wind farms.

It is Google's first direct investment in a large-scale green energy project. The company said the windfarms, developed by NextEra Energy Resources, will generate enough electricity to power 55,000 homes.

The move is a shift in strategy for Google, which previously sought to invest in renewable energy via start-ups.

Rick Needham, Google's green business operations manager, said: "To reach a clean energy future, we need three things: effective policy, innovative technology and smart capital. Through our philanthropic arm Google.org, we've been pushing for energy policies that strengthen the innovation pipeline, and we've been dedicating resources to developing new technologies, including making investments in early-stage renewable energy companies such as eSolar and AltaRock."

He said bigger projects such as the windfarms will help "accelerate the deployment of the latest clean energy technology while providing attractive returns to Google and more capital for developers to build additional projects".

Google is one of the world's largest users of electricity via its data centres, which house millions of servers.

Earlier this year Google began trials of its own high speed fibre broadband network in the US.

Source - Telegraph

China amendment to boost renewable energy

China adopted an amendment to its renewable energy law Saturday that requires utilities to buy all the power produced by generators of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

Power enterprises that refuse to do so will face fines up to an amount double that of the economic loss of the renewable energy company, state-run news agency Xinhua reports.

The amendment also requires the Chinese government to set up a special fund for renewable energy scientific research, finance rural clean energy projects, build independent power systems in remote areas and islands, and build information networks to exploit renewable energy.

The fund would be managed by finance, energy and pricing sectors of the state council.

China's renewable energy law, which took effect in January 2006, covered subsidies, pricing management and supervision measures and was aimed at "optimizing the country's energy structure and safeguarding energy security."

China, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, last year relied on coal for nearly 70 percent of its total energy use. But its goal is to increase use of renewable-energy sources to 15 percent of its total by 2020, from 9 percent last year.

Last month Chinese president Hu Jintao announced a separate target ahead of the Copenhagen climate-change summit to reduce the country's carbon emissions relative to economic output by 40 percent to 45 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

Yet China's emissions will continue to grow as its economy expands.

The amendment "strengthens the confidence of achieving the target" and "contributes to the global fight on climate change," said Wang Zhongying, director of the renewable energy development center of the Energy Research Institute under China's National Development and Reform Commission, Xinhua reports.

According to Xinhua, renewable resources supplied 9 percent of China's total energy consumption last year, equal to reducing carbon dioxide by 600 million tons. It said China used more hydro and solar power than any other country and ranked fourth worldwide for its use of wind power.

But industry experts estimate that one-third of China's wind-generated electricity could not be well transmitted to the grid. The new legislation requires grid companies to improve transmitting technologies and enhance grid capability to absorb more power produced by renewable energy generators.

Xiao Liye, director of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, suggested using "smart grids" to enhance grid capability. He said "smart grids" and renewable energy should be developed in tandem like "twin brothers."

Source - Solar Daily

New Jersey Completes 100 MW Of Solar Capacity

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has announced that New Jersey now has over 100 MW of solar capacity with more than 4,340 projects statewide. The ground-breaking achievement is the latest example of New Jersey's renewable energy leadership and commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"This monumental achievement only serves to further strengthen New Jersey's position as one of the fastest growing solar energy markets in the United States," said Governor Corzine. "Our leadership is credited to our commitment to environmentally responsible action and a competitive market-based initiative."

New Jersey's solar success is particularly remarkable for the rapid progress it has made in reaching the 100 MW milestone. Seven years ago, the state had only 6 solar installations. Since that time New Jersey has established a model program that incorporates both energy efficiency and renewable energy.

New Jersey's integrated approach to solar development includes a strong Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) with a solar electric set aside, excellent interconnection and net metering standards that have made it easier for systems to connect to the distribution system, a Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) financing model that provides energy credits and additional long term financing for those who invest in solar.

"As we strive to meet Governor Corzine's comprehensive Energy Master Plan goals, the NJBPU is continually looking to efficiently increase our renewable energy generation while reducing New Jersey's greenhouse gas emissions." said Jeanne M. Fox, President of the NJBPU.

"The innovative SREC financing model combined with federal tax credits and New Jersey's Renewable Energy Portfolio requirements provide the incentives needed to continue to spur New Jersey's solar growth."

New Jersey's Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) financing model is one of the State's newest initiatives to develop a vibrant solar market in the state. Representing all the clean energy benefits of electricity generated from a solar electric system, one SREC is issued for each 1,000 kWh (1MWh) generated.

SRECs are then sold or traded, separately from the power, providing solar system owners a source of revenue to help offset the cost of installation. In most cases, SRECs replace State rebates, which fueled solar growth in the early years of the State's solar program. New Jersey is the first government globally to adopt the use of SRECs to help finance solar projects on a broad scale.

The BPU also recently approved innovative financing programs at three of the State's electric utilities: Jersey Central Power and Light, Atlantic City Electric, and Rockland Electric Company. In addition, earlier this year the Board approved Public Service Electric and Gas's "Solar 4 All Program" to expand solar generation in its service territory. Under these programs, the State's electric utilities may enter into long-term contracts with customers for the purchase of SRECs, which facilitates long-term financing for solar projects.

Solar panels are the new designer kitchen

Investing in solar panels or a wind turbine could add to the resale value of a property and could be as attractive to house hunters as a new kitchen or solid wood floors.

When arriving at a market value for a property, there are a variety of factors that can add value to a home. Improvements such as a conservatory or designer kitchen, can convince a purchaser to pay more for a home.

However, with an ever increasing emphasis on the environment, it would appear that buyers are willing to pay a premium for a house that has a renewable energy source.

The Energy Saving Trust has just released the results of a poll that they commissioned recently. Over a third (35 per cent) of those polled said they would be prepared to pay more for a home where some of their energy supply came from renewable resources such as wind, solar or hydro-power.

Philip Sellwood, chief executive of the Energy Saving Trust, said: “It seems Britons are willing to pay more for a home with a renewable energy source so investing in a solar panel or a wind turbine could add to the resale value of a property and could be as attractive to house hunters as a new kitchen or solid wood floors.”

The term ‘feed in tariff’ is a direct translation from German. In Germany, the state has for several years encouraged the development of renewable energy sources such as anaerobic digestion plants, by paying the producer a premium per KwH for power generated from renewable sources. This has been a very successful model and is now being copied in the UK.

The poll also indicated that over half (53 per cent) of those polled were put off from installing a domestic renewable energy source by the high initial cost. The Energy Saving Trust can suggest grants that are available for certain green technologies. They feature case studies of people who are acting as “Green Ambassadors” by installing renewable energy sources in their homes.

An analogous situation would be vehicles converted to run on liquid petroleum gas (LPG). This is not only more environmentally friendly but actually costs less than half the price of petrol. Logically, any such vehicle should command a premium price over an identical petrol car. The reality is that neither an insurance company nor a retail purchaser will pay a penny more for an LPG vehicle over and above its petrol driven equivalent.

The research was done across 2696 adults in the UK in March this year. Unfortunately, like most polling exercises, it is deeply flawed. Asking respondents if they would be willing to pay more for a green home is one thing and many people will answer “yes” and bask in the warm, fuzzy glow of “helping the environment”.

Source - Property Confidential

The UK government hates solar panels

Politicians, like the rest of us, are always being urged to “think big”. But, for me, the most interesting issue over the next week or so is going to be rather different: is Ed Miliband big enough to think small?

The question arises because our precocious young Energy and Climate Change Secretary is about to publish plans for a tenfold increase in renewable energy in Britain in little over a decade. The strategy will show whether Mr Miliband has more faith in the British people or in (and I fully realise that this is saying something) possibly the most incompetent and obscurantist collection of civil servants in Whitehall.

Let me explain. For decades, Britain has generated its energy from big installations: whopping great fossil fuel power stations that belch out carbon dioxide to add to global warming; mammoth nuclear power stations with a shocking record of construction delays and cost overruns; oversized wind farms, sometimes plonked down in wholly inappropriate places.

But it’s becoming clear that an excellent way to generate renewable energy is on a small – even household – scale, through rooftop solar panels. Despite the initial cost, the “fuel” is distributed free by nature, without the need for long pipes or power lines, and costs little or nothing to tap once the installation has been paid for. Families gain greater independence, and possibly some income from selling the surplus to the grid.
Last year, a report backed by Lord Mandelson’s Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (as was) concluded that, with proper encouragement, nine million British homes could be using such “microgeneration” by 2020, producing the same amount of electricity as five nuclear power stations. After just another decade, it went on, this could prevent the emission of as much carbon dioxide as taking all of the country’s buses and lorries off the road.

Sounds great? Not to the official ear. Civil servants in successive energy departments have always hated the idea of microgeneration, and done all they could to stifle it.

And why? Because it means someone else – worse, millions of someone elses – make decisions instead of them. And, as every mandarin believes, the man from Whitehall knows best.

In fact, as Daily Telegraph readers know, the man – and (let’s not be sexist) the woman – from Whitehall usually knows worst. After all, these people who trust you so little are the same bunch of dunderheads who pressed unrelentingly for the building of the mixed-oxide nuclear plant at Sellafield.

This white dinosaur, which has cost the taxpayer £1 billion, was supposed to produce 120 tons of nuclear fuel a year, but managed only a total of 6.3 tonnes between its opening in 2001 and April this year. (But never mind – there are proposals to build another one to make up for it.)

There might conceivably be some excuse for all this arrogance, if ordinary people took irrational, random decisions. But, of course, they don’t.

Other countries have easily devised measures that have ensured a rapid expansion of microgeneration. Germany guarantees generous “feed-in tariffs” for selling home-generated solar electricity to the grid; as a result, in 2007, 130,000 solar roofs were installed, compared with 270 in Britain.

Even in Bangladesh, more than 200,000 poor families have installed solar cells with the help of microcredit loans, bringing power to their villages for the first time and making money by selling it to their neighbours.
British ministers condemned Germany’s successful scheme as “a regulatory nightmare”. Instead, they reluctantly offered families grants to help towards the cost of installation – slashing them back to below incentive levels as soon as they started to be taken up. But now, in a U-turn, Mr Miliband is poised to introduce feed-in tariffs.

Will they be good and generous enough to work? Not, I’ll bet, if the officials can help it: they could well scupper microgeneration again.

A Tory minister would not let them do it: David Cameron understands the importance of this, and the self-reliance and individual initiative it encourages fits in well with his party’s values. But does perhaps the most promising Labour politician of the same generation get it, too? We’ll soon know.

Renewable energy is just the job

Is this an encouraging straw in a chill wind? In the South West, it seems, green firms and jobs are growing “at a dramatic rate”.

A new report – snappily entitled the Economic Contribution of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Sectors in the South West of England – surveyed 100 firms and found that their turnover had almost doubled over the last, recession-hit year, with the number of staff increasing by 40 per cent.

South Korea this week announced that it planned to create 1.8 million jobs over the next five years by developing solar power, hybrid cars and energy-efficient lighting. Barack Obama has promised to provide work for five million by investing in renewable energy, while David Cameron says: “Decarbonising Britain will help create hundreds of thousands of jobs.”

But will it work? Environmentalists brandish studies, like one from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that concludes that investing in green technologies employs nearly four times as many people as traditional investment. Sceptics repeatedly refer to a Spanish report that says that 2.2 jobs are lost for every new green one created.

In truth, no one knows. But green measures, like insulating buildings, are often particularly labour-intensive.
Renewable energy seems to provide at least three times as much work per dollar (or pound) as fossil fuels; recycling rubbish employs 10 times as many people as dumping it. So we may soon have a new term: “green-collar jobs”.

Green day? More like dirty brown
Sacré vert! Yesterday, as you may have noticed, was Green Britain Day. Except that it was actually organised by a nationalised French company, which boasts of being “one of the largest participants in the global coal market”.

The day aimed to urge us to “start living low-carbon lives” and to “start making changes” to “be part of a movement to reduce Britain’s carbon footprint”. Yet EDF proudly reports that it “imports around 30 million tons of physical coal a year”.

I don’t know if there is a French word for “greenwash”, but the firm might care to look it up.
Just to add injury to insult, EDF’s logo for the day – a green Union flag – is remarkably similar to one used by a genuinely green energy company, Ecotricity. Dale Vince, its chief executive, says he asked the French company to stop using it.

As a result, he received a phone call from an Andrew Brown, followed the same day by a message from a lawyer saying it would cost £6 million to do so. So he’s now taking the French giant to court.
Andrew Brown? Doesn’t that ring a bell? Yes, it’s the Prime Minister’s brother – the First Sibling, we might call him – who just happens to be EDF’s PR chief.

So here’s an idea for the company. Why doesn’t it “start making changes now” by getting out of coal, the world’s dirtiest fuel?

Otherwise, it could try colouring the flag Brown.

Source - Telegraph

Renewable Sources Soar To Over 11 Percent Of US Energy Production

According to the latest issue of the "Monthly Energy Review" by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, production of renewable energy for the first third of 2009 (i.e., January 1 - April 30) was six percent higher compared to the same time period in 2008.

Moreover, in April 2009 alone, renewable energy sources accounted for 11.1 percent of domestic energy production and exceeded the amount contributed by nuclear power.

More specifically, domestic energy production for the first four months of 2009 totaled 24.394 quadrillion Btu's (quads) of which renewable sources (biofuels, biomass, geothermal, solar, wind, water) accounted for 2.512 quads.

In April 2009 alone, though, total U.S. energy production was 5.980 quads with .664 quads (11.1%) coming from renewable sources; nuclear power provided .620 quads (10.4%).

For the first four months of 2009, U.S. renewable energy production was comprised of hydropower (34.6%), wood + wood wastes (31.2%), biofuels (19.0%), wind (9.3%), geothermal (4.7%), and solar (1.2%).

Most of these sources grew compared to the first third of 2008 with wind expanding by 34.5%, biofuels by 14.1%, hydropower by 8.2%, and geothermal by 2.6%. The contribution from solar sources remained essentially unchanged while wood + wood waste declined by 4.9%.

Total U.S. energy consumption fell 5.7% during the first four months of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008 with fossil fuel use accounting for almost the entire decline.

"As Congress continues to debate energy and climate legislation, it would do well to take note of the clear trends in the nation's energy mix," said Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign.

"Fossil fuel use is dropping sharply and nuclear power is barely holding on to its market share while month-after-month the mix of renewable energy sources continues to set ever-higher records."

Source - Solar daily

The future is bright for solar panels

The future is looking greener for investors as ambitious government targets for generating renewable energy are providing fund managers with new opportunities.

More than 30 per cent of the UK’s electricity could eventually be derived from renewable sources, according to the latest estimates, compared with just 5.5 per cent today. This would be twice the government’s legally-binding target of 15 per cent by 2020.

Much of this is expected to come from wind power but other sources, including biomass and tidal power, will also increasingly be drawn upon. The government plans to invest £100bn in the renewable energy sector, which could involve the creation of as many as 500,000 jobs. It has also set out new plans for reducing carbon emissions to help tackle climate change.

Fund managers say this increased commitment, together with a similar focus from the US, plus stronger moves towards clean energy from China, is welcome news for an industry that has been slow to take off – and has suffered more than others in the recent downturn.

Edward Guinness, one of the managers of Guinness Asset Management’s Alternative Energy Fund, says green energy companies were trading at a premium to the market before the downturn but were hit hard last year, particularly as funding dried up.

His fund lost 40 per cent in the year to the end of June, according to total return figures from Lipper.

A number of other renewable energy funds, most of which have been set up in the past couple of years, have had an equally difficult run. Lipper’s rankings show that, over the same period, BlackRock’s New Energy Investment Trust, the Premier Renewable Energy trust and the Jupiter Green Investment Trust all saw negative returns of at least 30 per cent.

But new opportunities now look to be arising, particularly in wind power .

“The area where government policy is really having an impact on our investing is on the wind side,” says Guinness. “The UK has much better resources in this area than in solar, and the government wants to make it easier to get planning permission.”

His fund typically invests in companies that derive at least 50 per cent of their business from either the manufacture and development of renewable energy generation or the improvement of energy efficiency.

Guinness says solar stocks performed well last month as demand started to pick up following a difficult 18 months, in which the prices for solar panels halved. The lower prices should trigger stronger growth, he says, while providers should also receive a boost from cheaper raw materials, lower manufacturing costs and improved subsidies.

Luciano Diana, portfolio manager of the Pictet Clean Energy fund, says wind power is more attractive than solar because it is much cheaper. He claims that, for the first time, there is a real push to new energy around the world.

“For a long time, it has just been Europe supporting it but now there is a big push from the US and also Chinese packages dedicated to cleaner energy,” he says.

Fund managers say much of the new government investment will be captured by the large utilities.

The Association of Investment Companies argues that moves to combat climate change should prove beneficial to some of the big utility and infrastructure investment companies.

John Murray, chairman of Ecofin, which invests in the utility and infrastructure sectors, says utilities have been largely oversold in recent months as investors have moved back into cyclical and recovery stocks. As a result, some companies in the sector are looking the cheapest they have been since 2003.

But, he points out: “Unlike in 2003, the fundamentals of the global utility sector are generally sound. Balance sheets are in relatively good shape and the utilities are proving that they are able to access long-term capital markets.”

Source - Financial Times

Chartering the green revolution

Ed Miliband’s 1,000-page opus is big on aspiration but short on detail, say industry chiefs, and Labour’s low-carbon dreams will remain just that without investment.

Ed Miliband, the former Cabinet Office minister and confidant of Gordon Brown, was given one of the hardest jobs in government. Chosen to head the new Department for Energy and Climate Change, he was tasked with charting a path to revolution.

New Labour has long spoken of a future in which Britain would be ringed by thousands of windmills, turning in the breeze to create pure, pollution-free power.

Dirty old coal-fired power stations would bury their harmful exhaust deep underground; underwater turbines would draw energy from the tides. Our homes would be kitted out with smart meters to give us by-the-minute updates on our energy use and carbon footprint.

The vision was there. What was missing was the detail, and it was up to Miliband and his team at the cutting-edge energy department to provide it.

Last week, he revealed the fruits of that labour. The documents comprising the latest iteration of the government’s plan for a green future weighed in at more than 1,000 pages.

They contained a few firsts. The government finally admitted in stark terms that energy bills will have to rise – by 17% for business and 8% for households – to decarbonise the economy.

It broadly laid out how the £150 billion investment required over the next 20 years will be distributed (offshore wind looks like the biggest winner).

Every government department was given a carbon budget. More than 400,000 “green jobs” are expected to be created and no fewer than half a dozen quangos will be set up to oversee the transition to deliver an 18% cut in carbon emissions from present levels by 2020.

Industry, however, was sceptical. It has seen targets come and go before. This is Labour’s fourth energy white paper since Creating a Low Carbon Economy was published in 2003. It is by far the most comprehensive but many of the hardest questions remain unanswered.

Solar at micro level, payments to homeowners to feed power into the grid could stimulate investment in solar photovoltaic (PV) The current scheme is not nearly generous enough. “It might stimulate the market but it’s not going to push it toward the explosive growth rates seen in countries like Germany,” said Leggett.

With solar PV, the UK could be generating 5% of its electricity needs by 2020. The EU intends to generate 12% of all its electricity from PV by 2020. The government’s Renewable Energy Strategy, by contrast, assumes that solar PV will contribute only about 2% of the UK’s renewable electricity by that date.

Recognising the size of the task, the government has relaxed a previously recommended timeline for achieving the transformation. The independent advisory Committee on Climate Change said this year that the power sector should remove virtually all emissions by 2030. This has now been pushed to 2050.

What is certain is that it is all going to be very expensive – and we will be footing a big chunk of the bill, either through public subsidies or higher energy bills. The government predicts an 8% rise in household energy bills, and 17% for industry.

Source - The Telegraph

Ready to pay £200 a year extra for green energy?

The stark admission by Ed Miliband, the UK energy secretary, that UK energy bills will rise by an average of £200 a year as the UK looks to bring in more renewable energy is sure to catch the eye of many. Claiming that “no matter which route we go down” Mr Miliband has warned UK consumers and businesses that energy costs are certain to rise in the short to medium term.

The UK government has already signed up to a carbon reduction programme which will see an 80% reduction in carbon emissions between 1990 and 2050 with up to £100 billion spent on renewable energy by 2020. At a time when many in the UK are struggling to make ends meet the government is set to introduce a 20% tariff on the average energy bill to cover the £100 billion investment programme.

It seems that the UK government has acted on behalf of UK consumers in signing up to a program which will increase energy costs by 20% a year for the foreseeable future. History has shown us that even in periods of short-term fundraising it is highly unlikely that energy bills will fall after the initial fundraising period is over. So the UK consumer and UK businesses need to get themselves ready for a significant increase in energy bills, aside from any future increase in the price of oil or other commodities.

Source - New Energy Focus

UK slow to benefit from solar panels

The amount of money pouring into clean energy technology has now overtaken investment in fossil fuels according to United Nations figures - a clear signal of which way the wind is blowing in terms of the world’s future energy generation.

And as governments around the world continue to crank up legislation in the area, investors are being drawn to the opportunities on offer in both the renewable energy generation and energy efficiency markets.

Environmental legislation has mushroomed over the last couple of years and this year is set to be no exception as the world builds up to December’s UN convention on climate change in Copenhagen from which the successor to the Kyoto Protocol is likely to emerge.

Catalyst Corporate Finance partner Mark Wilson said the intensification in new legislation was being driven by two key issues.

“One of them is climate change, which is indisputable now, and the second is energy security.

“This means there is an increased sense of urgency and a political will that we have to change the way we operate.”

In terms of energy security, the global market has seen huge volatility in the prices of oil and gas recently.

Combined with the fact that the UK’s current generating capacity is set to shrink in the next decade as a generation of coal-fired power stations start to come offline and a number of nuclear power stations are decommissioned, this means there is an urgent need to find alternatives if the UK is to avoid becoming increasingly dependent on fossil-fuel rich states in the Middle East and Russia.

Last year saw the introduction of the Energy Act which brought in measures such as a feed-in tariff to encourage small-scale renewable energy generation and a renewable heat incentive.

At the same time as the Energy Act was passed, the Climate Change Act also came into force which introduced the world’s first long-term legally binding framework to tackle the dangers of climate change. The act committed the UK to reducing greenhouse emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050.

This year will see the publication of the Government’s Renewable Energy Strategy which sets out the details of how it plans to meet the UK’s EU targets of 15 per cent of energy from renewables by 2020.

And the Government has just finished consulting on the Heat and Energy Saving Strategy which sets out

an aim for emissions from existing buildings to be approaching zero by 2050.

Later this year world leaders will meet in Copenhagen to thrash out the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which will undoubtedly unleash another round of targets which should increase expansion in the low-carbon sector.

Mr Wilson said in terms of the renewables sector, the UK had two key areas of strength - wind energy and energy from waste.

“There is, we believe about £82 billion worth of investment to be invested up to 2020 in offshore and onshore wind.

“However there are issues with wind as it’s not constant. Therefore you can expect 35 per cent efficiency in certain circumstances whereas for a coal-fired power station you can probably expect 90 to 95 per cent.

“The area of investment that sits alongside that is energy from waste. There are already very established and well-proven commercial technologies in this area.”

Although at the moment most of the energy from waste plants are traditional mass burn incineration fitted with energy recovery systems, there are a number of other technologies that can address different aspects of the waste industry.

“The problem with mass burn incineration is that it is high capital but there are other technologies which are more modular and are employable on a smaller scale and can be used for microgeneration.”

One of these is anaerobic digestion - a process where micro-organisms break down biodegradable material such as wastewater sludges and organic wastes to provide a source of renewable energy.

Mr Wilson said: “What’s really exciting about this industry is the possibilities are quite substantial - we are seeing waste businesses transform themselves into energy businesses and we are seeing others coming into the sector who are traditionally not investors into it.

“There is a lot of government support and that has become attractive to investors because of some of the incentives that the government has put into place.”

Bioenergy benefits from the Renewables Obligation, the Government mechanism to support renewable energy by requiring electricity suppliers to source a proportion of their electricity from renewable sources.

Renewable energy generators receive Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) for each MWh of electricity generated which can then be sold to electricity suppliers who need to make up their shortfall.

Mr Wilson said that many technologies in the waste-to-energy sector were eligible for double ROCS

“That really makes the economics of this sector very attractive,” he said.

Mr Wilson pointed to the strength of the Midlands in this area, citing companies such as Monsal, an environmental technology company specialising in digestion technology and Enpure, a process engineering business in the environmental sector, which is working on the Greater Manchester waste PFI, one of the largest waste PFI projects in Europe.

Advantage West Midlands business development manager, environmental technologies cluster Ralph Hepworth said that owing to the region’s status as a large generator of waste, energy from waste very important in the West Midlands.

“If you go to Germany and stand on a car park and look in both directions like I did recently the first thing you will see is an indecent amount of wind turbines and also in the other direction the factory that makes the wind turbines.”

Mr Hepworth said the West Midlands had a similar potential for a closed-loop system in terms of energy from waste, where waste generated in the region can be converted to energy locally which can then be used in the region.

Another division of the cleantech market which holds potential for companies in the West Midlands is the supply of components to the wind industry.

Advantage West Midlands (AWM) has been helping the region’s engineering firms use their expertise gained from more traditional sectors by reapplying it to the cleantech sector.

Mr Hepworth said there was a wealth of smaller engineering firms, many of which supply the oil and gas sector and electrical engineering market, who are repositioning themselves as suppliers to the environmental technology companies.

“A wind turbine has four tonnes of bolts in it and they are not the sort of bolts you buy at B&Q. There are four or five companies that come to mind in the Black Country that supply this area.”

He pointed to companies such as nuts and bolts manufacturer Doran Engineering in Willenhall and bolted joint solutions and machining services firm Hydratight in Walsall.

However Mr Wilson said that the UK had been slow to move into this area and the region’s firms were playing catch-up with their European counterparts.

“In terms of the wind sector the Midlands should be a great starting point for a lot of the components that go into wind farms.

“But the problem has been that we are so far behind the eight ball in the UK that there are European companies already have an established hold on supplying into renewable sector. There’s a lot of catch up to do.”

Hugh Goulbourne, an environmental campaigner and solicitor at Cobbetts, said that although Germany had done a good job in supporting its solar and wind sector, the UK should look to different technologies to expand its cleantech sector.

“Yes we need to catch up but do we want to catch up with the same technologies? Possibly not.”

“The UK is second behind Portugal in terms of wave technology and that’s something the renewable energy strategy is currently proposing some ambitious targets on.

“Then if you look at energy efficiency it’s probably is Denmark that is the leading nation in Europe. I think that the Heat and Energy Saving Strategy will put us on a pretty good footing for that.”

Source - Birmingham Post

China launches green power revolution to catch up on west

China’s ambitious wind and solar plans represent a direct challenge to Europe’s claims of world leadership on cutting carbon emissions.

China is planning a vast increase in its use of wind and solar power over the next ­decade and believes it can match Europe by 2020, producing a fifth of its energy needs from renewable sources, a senior Chinese official said yesterday.

Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice-chairman of China's national development and reform commission, told the Guardian that Beijing would easily surpass current 2020 targets for the use of wind and solar power and was now contemplating targets that were more than three times higher.

In the current development plan, the goal for wind energy is 30 gigawatts. Zhang said the new goal could be 100GW by 2020.

"Similarly, by 2020 the total installed capacity for solar power will be at least three times that of the original target [3GW]," Zhang said in an interview in London. China generates only 120 megawatts of its electricity from solar power, so the goal represents a 75-fold expansion in just over a decade.

"We are now formulating a plan for development of renewable energy. We can be sure we will exceed the 15% target. We will at least reach 18%. Personally I think we could reach the target of having renewables provide 20% of total energy consumption."

That matches the European goal, and would represent a direct challenge to Europe's claims to world leadership in the field, despite China's relative poverty. Some experts have cast doubt on whether Britain will be able to reach 20%. On another front, China has the ambitious plan of installing 100m energy-efficient lightbulbs this year alone.

Beijing seeks to achieve these goals by directing a significant share of China's $590bn economic stimulus package to low-carbon investment. Of that total, more than $30bn will be spent directly on environmental projects and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

But the indirect green share in the stimulus, in the form of investment in carbon-efficient transport and electricity transmission systems, would be far larger.

HSBC Global Research estimated the total green share could be over a third of the total package.

China also believes the price reforms that will take place in its economic recovery programme will lead to more efficient use of resources and an increased demand for renewable energy.

"Due to the impact of global financial crisis, people are all talking about green and sustainable development," Zhang added. "Enterprises and government at all levels are showing more enthusiasm for the development of solar for power generation, and the Chinese government is now considering rolling out more stimulus policies for the development of solar power."

He said the government would also plough money into the expansion of solar heating systems. He said the country was already a world leader, with 130m square metres of solar heating arrays already installed, and was planning to invest more. The US goal for solar heating by 2020 is 200m square metres.

Zhang was speaking in London on a day China came under increased pressure from Washington to do more cut its emissions.

David Sandalow, the US assistant secretary of energy, said the continuation of business as usual in China would result in a 2.7C rise in temperatures even if every other country slashed greenhouse gas emissions by 80%.

"China can and will need to do much more if the world is going to have any hope of containing climate change," said Sandalow, who is in Beijing as part of a senior negotiating team aiming to find common ground ahead of the crucial Copenhagen summit at the end of this year.

"No effective deal will be possible without the US and China, which together account for almost half of the planet's carbon emissions."

Zhang said China was pursuing "a constructive and a positive role" in negotiations aimed at agreeing a deal in Copenhagen. As part of that agreement, he said developing countries would have to pursue "a sustainable development path", and said Beijing was open to the idea of limits on the carbon intensity of its economy (the emissions per unit of output).

"We have taken note of some expert suggestions on carbon intensity with a view to have some quantified targets in this regard. We are carrying out a serious study of those suggestions," Zhang said.

Zhang told the all-party parliamentary China group in Westminster yesterdaythat Beijing's stimulus package was already showing signs of re-energising the Chinese economy. He said it grew by 6.1% in the first quarter of this year, and growth in the second quarter would be stronger than the first. He predicted that China would meet its target of 8% growth this year.

Source - The Guardian

The UK fails to meet it’s renewable energy obligations

The UK is failing to green its economy, according to reports from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

The internal forecasts show that by 2020 the UK will be sourcing only 5% of its energy from renewables, far short of the 15% target we signed up to with the European Commission.

The data, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, will be highly embarrassing for Gordon Brown. The prime minister signed up to the legally-binding target and, if Britain fails to meet it, the government will be liable for substantial fines from Brussels.

Greg Clarke, the shadow energy minister, said the figures revealed the “fundamental failure” of Labour’s climate-change policies. “This amounts to an admission that the government is going to fail not just marginally but abjectly. For the past 10 years we have lacked a credible and comprehensive energy policy. Labour’s piecemeal approach is clearly not working.”

Today Britain is one of the worst performers in Europe in terms of renewable energy, sourcing only 2% of its needs from non-fossil-fuel sources such as wind and landfill gas.

The prime minister has called for a “green revolution” and in the budget last month Alistair Darling put the sector at the centre of his plans to revitalise the economy.

The chancellor introduced subsidies for biomass and wind generation but fears persist in industry that many projects are uneconomic. The DECC’s own forecast, based on present policies and subsidies, seems to support that view.

A DECC spokeswoman said the department would soon announce proposals to help bridge the gap. She said: “We are not relying on existing policies. We consulted last summer on measures to take us to our binding 15% renewable-energy target and will be publishing our strategy this summer. This will set out how we intend to meet our share of the 2020 target.”

The largest portion of renewables is expected to come from wind followed by hydro power, biomass and sewage processing.

The Tories advocate greater use of micro-generation and building a bio-gas network, but it is unclear how the party would deal with planning restrictions that make it hard to get such projects off the ground. It opposes a Labour-created commission that would take away the power of local councils to assess large infrastructure projects but has not yet announced any alternative.

Source - The times

US And China Threaten European Solar Supremacy

Increased competition and the global economic crisis have cast clouds upon the Western European solar energy market. Falling polysilicon and solar module prices have the potential to cement China's role as a solar manufacturing hub.

In terms of installed capacity, the United States is playing a greater role as more and more states are putting the renewable energy standards into existence.

Despite these market developments and the current economic crisis, the future of Europe's solar energy market continues to appear bright as new emerging markets within Europe may turn into strong performers.

Europe and Japan were the original trailblazers of the solar energy industry; thus they have historically held the strongest positions.

Europe, specifically Germany, has been by far the most important player and manufacturing hub in the global solar market. Its position has recently started to weaken as other countries have been gaining a stronger momentum in the solar energy business.

The European market is now facing two major competitors. The Chinese industry is forcing the rest of the world to reduce manufacturing costs as they are in a position to manufacture solar modules at the lowest cost.

The US, having adopted a pledge for energy independence, which increased political support for renewable energy, is giving a boost to its solar energy industry.

"When solar cell and module manufacturing come into play, Asian producers have been on the aggressive expansion curve eating into Japanese and European manufacturer's market shares. Low costs and increasing technological acumen will help them further expand their presence in the global solar markets," says Frost and Sullivan Green Energy Research Manager Alina Bakhareva.

"The US, having utilised only a fraction of its immense solar potential, has all ingredients to breed a strong and well-diversified solar market."

In spite of these new competitors' entrance onto the global playing field, Europe is expected to retain a strong portion of the market share. The region stands out on a global solar landscape as one of few that have been successfully developing the three major components needed to build a well-rounded domestic solar industry: research, a strong manufacturing base, and government support.

"Given the difficult macro-economic situation globally, tight credit markets, and reducing level of government support in comparison with 2008, the retail and residential solar markets may suffer the most with the demand taking a plunge on low consumer confidence and unwillingness to spend," continues Bakhareva.

"The large-scale projects with secured finances are likely to go ahead, while new ones may struggle to attract investment at a reasonable cost in the near term. In these turbulent economic times, a shakeout will make the industry stronger by leaving only players that are able to offer the best products at best prices. A harsh truth for many smaller European manufacturers is that they are likely to fall prey to the globalisation of the solar industry as companies with stronger balance sheets begin to acquire their less fortunate counterparts. Despite the big challenges ahead, the long-term sentiment towards renewable energy, and the solar industry in particular, remains optimistic."

In regard to individual markets, the German solar power industry continues to be one of the European market's strongest sectors. The retail segment is currently suffering due to lack of consumer confidence and unwillingness to spend.

Commercial scale projects, however, offer a ray of sunlight amidst the gathering clouds. Many major manufacturers have made announcements to increase capacity or build new plants, and the construction has begun for Germany's largest solar PV station with 63 MW of installed capacity.

France has been traditionally in favour of Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) technologies, an application which enjoys the highest tariff of up to euro 0.55/kWh.

"While the country has shown quite reasonable growth rates over last five years," adds Bakhareva, "the overall feeling is that solar market would have developed to a greater extent if the policy had been equal to various types of installations."

Since enacting a new feed-in tariff in spring 2007, Spain has turned into a vital source of demand for solar markets worldwide. Developers rushed to install as many systems as possible before September 2008 to take advantage of a generous feed-in tariff of euro 0.42 per kWh, which led to the government being swamped with applications, causing severe delays.

After approving 392 projects, the government capped installations and lowered tariffs. As a result, the 2009 newly installed capacity has a very slim chance of matching that of 2008.

Italy and Greece have the potential to become successful emerging markets due to attractive tariffs, but administrative barriers cause them to remain a sleeping giant.

Another emerging market, the Czech Republic, kick-started its solar power industry in 2007 by installing 4.5MM of solar power. The Czech Republic may turn into one of the strongest performers in 2009 in terms of growth rates.

Source - Solardaily

Europes green energy future

It is a dazzling vision of a clean energy future. An entire continent powered by solar panels, wind and wave turbines, geothermal and hydroelectric power stations — and all stitched together by a European “supergrid” stretching from the sunbaked deserts of the south to the windswept North Sea, from the volcanoes of Iceland to the lakes of Finland.

It may sound like the stuff of science fiction but this is a vision that the European Union wants to make a reality. The concept is gaining ground among policymakers, including leaders such as President Sarkozy and Gordon Brown, who are concerned about Europe’s carbon emissions and its steadily growing dependence on Russian gas.

Adam Bruce, chairman of the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), is convinced that a European supergrid that could eventually banish polluting fossil fuels altogether, is only a matter of time.

“We are only limited by our own ambition,” he says. “The capacity is there. There is the potential for wind alone to supply 50 per cent or more of our energy needs.”

Gregor Czisch, a German academic at the University of Kassel who developed the concept, claims it would cost €45 billion (£40.5 billion) to build. The numbers add up, he insists, and all of Europe’s electricity supplies could eventually be harvested from the wind, water and the sun.

Such dreams of renewable energy certainly catch the imagination but for Britain, which generates just 1 per cent of its electricity from renewables — the least in the European Union after Malta and Luxembourg — the gap between ambition and reality seems particularly stark.

The truth is that, despite the Government’s talk of a green energy revolution, Britain’s renewable energy industry is in crisis.

About 40 per cent of the UK’s power stations were built before 1975 and urgently need to be replaced. But the combined impact of the credit crunch, falling oil and coal prices and the weaker pound now threaten to hold up wind projects just as the UK has raised its commitment to green electricity.

“The economics a year ago were already tight but the cost of capital and the foreign exchange movement have made it much harder,” says Sarwjit Sambhi, director of power generation at Centrica, one of Britain’s Big Six power companies, which is trying to build a 250 megawatt (MW) wind farm off Lincolnshire, big enough to supply 170,000 homes. “We are not going to make investments below our return on capital so my goal will be to spend as little as possible until the economics improve,” he said.

In last week’s Budget, the Government announced incentives designed to bolster investment in huge offshore windfarms and ensure that Britain hits its target of raising the share of electricity produced from renewable sources to 35 to 40 per cent by 2020.

So will they work? Not according to Jim Skea, director of the UK Energy Research Centre. He has just undertaken a big research project into how the UK can slash its carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. “In none of the scenarios we looked at were renewables picked up nearly fast enough to meet the 2020 targets,” said Professor Skea. “It will be a big struggle. We are not spending nearly enough.”

Wind power, easily the most economically attractive form of renewable energy in the UK, remains hugely expensive when compared with gas and coal.

A recently approved gas-fired station in Pembroke will cost £1 billion and will be the largest in the UK, producing 2,000MW. It would cost six times as much to build a windfarm of similar capacity.

While a strengthened subsidy regime and up to £4 billion of extra funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced in the Budget are welcome, Professor Skea believes that far more radical action will be required, including huge increases in research spending to accelerate the development of better technology, and a dramatic rise in the price of traded carbon emissions, up from £13 presently to £200 a tonne.

But that is not all. Sceptics scoff that wind, wave and solar power are inherently unreliable. A solution could lie in back-up gas and nuclear plants and a far smarter grid that includes technology to balance the load at moments of reduced supply.

This could range from sophisticated centralised networks right into homes, where chips embedded in non-essential appliances could force them to switch off for brief periods as and when the grid demanded it.

Such technology exists but it is a world away from today’s grid, some of which dates back to the 1930s, and it will require vast investments and sweeping regulatory change to accomplish.

Until Europe’s governments grapple with the fine detail of these issues, the Continent’s dreams of a supergrid and a future free of fossil fuels are likely to remain in the realms of science fiction.

Ultimately, according to Professor Skea, an international deal at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December will be critical to achieving the political momentum required to achieve all of this.

Nevertheless, the BWEA’s Adam Bruce remains upbeat: “It’s certainly a challenge but these problems are not insurmountable. The more renewable energy you create the less it costs. People focus on the upfront capital cost but not the longer-term benefits.”

Source - The Times

Schwarzenegger’s optimistic solar panel forecast

THE world’s economy and its glaciers are experiencing a simultaneous meltdown for many of the same reasons. The solutions to our economic and climate change challenges are also intertwined, and present us with a fantastic opportunity for a century of unparalleled growth and prosperity for everyone — if we start by changing the way we think about energy.

Did you know that enough sunlight falls on the Earth every hour to power all of humanity’s energy needs for a year?

Or that there’s enough hydrogen in the water discharged by sewage treatment plants to power all of our cars, trucks, trains and aeroplanes?

Add to these the potential of biomass, geothermal, tidal power, wind and other renewables and it’s clear that there are enough clean, renewable energy resources — if only we deploy the technology to use them, especially technologies that make more of what we already have.

We’ve done it in California — for example, setting energy efficiency standards for appliances and buildings that now make us 40 per cent more energy efficient than average Americans.

Source - The Sun

Millions promised to raise recycling rate in Manchester

A £640 million private finance initiative intended to push Manchester’s recycling rate to 50 percent was signed yesterday in one of the biggest deals of its kind.

The deal, to create a state-of-the-art recycling centre to help increase the city’s recycling rate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent by 2015 and should see significant reductions in the quantity of rubbish sent to be buried in landfill sites.

An estimated 5,000 jobs will be created during the construction stage and a further 116 permanent jobs will be created within Manchester’s waste network which handles 1.3 million tonnes of municipal rubbish a year.

Among the technologies that will be introduced are a Materials Recovery Facility to increase recycling, and anaerobic digestion units to reduce the quantity of organic material sent to landfill.

Solid fuel produced at five new mechanical biological treatment facilities, four of which will be supported by anaerobic digesters, will be sent to a combined heat and power generator at Ineos Chlor in Runcorn. Methane extracted during the process will be used as a fuel.

The PFI was agreed between a consortium led by the companies Viridor and John Laing, the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) and nine distict councils and will account for 5 per cent of Britain’s municipal waste over the next 25 years.

Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, welcomed the PFI: “Diverting one million tonnes of waste through these world class waste facilities will be a major step in reaching our 2013 and 2020 landfill targets and play an important role in battling climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions created by landfill.

“But it’s not only the environmental benefits we should be celebrating. The creation of 5,000 new jobs in the North West is a boost for the regional economy at a welcome time.” Colin Drummond, Chief Executive of Viridor said: “This iconic project is a very important component of the UK’s waste management and renewable energy strategies.

“It is designed to bring world class recycling, waste management and renewable energy infrastructure to Greater Manchester. It is a concrete example of major investment in the green economy and will be a showcase of what the UK can offer.” By diverting waste away from landfill sites, where they attract tax at £32 per tonne rising to £48 by 2011, the PFI should reduce the future cost of disposing of rubbish.

It was calculated that the deal will put £1 per week on residents’ council tax bills but without the landfill reductions being brought about they would have had to have paid an extra £2 per week to cover landfill taxes.

Councillor Neil Swannick, of the GMWDA, said: "There are lots of different technologies that are being brought into play. We believe we have the best anywhere in the world.”

He said one of the main drivers for the deal was the impact of waste on greenhouse gas emissions especially methane which is at least 20 times more powerful in warming the atmosphere than carbon.

By extracting methane and reducing carbon emissions the authority believes it will have taken preventative action against climate change.

The integrated waste system will serve 3 million people in 1 million households.

Source - The Times

Team California Begins Construction On 2009 Solar Decathlon House

Tool belts and hard hats have replaced the backpacks and the laptops of some students at Santa Clara University and California College of Arts in San Francisco.

While thousands of students have been away on spring break, a handful of them stayed behind to begin construction on their solar-powered house for the U.S. Department of Energy's 2009 Solar Decathlon.

The Solar Decathlon is a biennial, international competition that focuses on a crucial global problem-the ever-increasing need for energy. The contest, which takes place in Washington, D.C., October 8-16, gives students the opportunity to offer real solutions, including renewable energy sources and ways to use energy more efficiently.

Santa Clara University is competing in the Solar Decathlon for a second time. The collaboration with California College of Arts in San Francisco has created Team California. The partnership combines SCU's strength in engineering and CCA's expertise in architecture.

On Friday, April 3, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the multi-purpose room of Bannan Engineering Laboratories at Santa Clara University, Team California will present their plans to the public. Students will share the blueprints and show the green building materials and the state-of-the-art solar technology that together minimize the environmental impact but maximize comfort and livability.

Students will also provide models, full scale mock-ups, and give tours of the construction site and of the 2007 house that won third place. Students will also explain how they came up with the unique shape of the house and how they're planning to bring the outdoors in.

Media Preview
Friday, April 3, 2-3 p.m.

Santa Clara University

Tours, demos, and interviews with students and faculty will be available for reporters/photographers on deadline.

Speakers
+ Chuck Reed, San Jose's mayor

+ Mike Splinter, chairman and CEO of Applied Materials

+ Michael Engh, S.J., president of Santa Clara University

+ Godfrey Mungal, dean of SCU's School of Engineering

+ Allison Kopf, SCU student project manager

+ Kyle Belcher, CCA student project manager

Solar Decathlon
The U.S. Department of Energy selects 20 university and college teams from around the world to compete in the Solar Decathlon.

There are ten areas of the competition: architecture, engineering, market viability, communications, comfort, appliances, hot water, lighting, energy balance, and transportation.

The house must not only produce enough electricity and hot water to perform all the functions of a home, but it must also power an electric car.

Statements
"Our design is based on the 'California lifestyle' of indoor/outdoor living and spaces that function as much to frame the outdoors as to shelter the interiors," said Raphael Stargrove, CCA architecture student.

"We're trying to show that you don't have to sacrifice the beauty of your home to have an energy efficient house," said Allison Kopf, SCU sophomore and student project manager.

"Silicon Valley is on its way to becoming the world center of clean-tech innovation, and solar is at the core of this effort," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed.

"Young innovators like the Solar Decathlon team from Santa Clara University and California College of the Arts showcase the talent and creativity that this region fosters. The 2007 team showed the world how solar homes can be practical, livable, and attractive. I'm looking forward to another successful effort in 2009."

"As Silicon Valley's clean-tech ambassadors, these students will show Washington, D.C., and the world that our region has the leadership, technology, and talent to drive the global, clean energy economy," said Mike Splinter, chairman and CEO of Applied Materials.

"By creatively incorporating solar and energy efficient design into buildings, the students are demonstrating how we can improve the environment and the way people live."

Source - Solardaily

UK energy news update

Britain’s energy policy is in crisis, the successive failure of the UK Government to take any meaningful action on its innovative 2003 Energy Policy and its subsequent watering down in the 2007 Energy Bill has now been further compounded by it’s recent inability to make any decisions at all about anything argues Naturalchoices Editor Peter Shield.

On the upside the United Kingdom is blessed with a tremendous amount of wind power, both on and off shore wind, according to the Sustainable Development Commission, “The UK has the best and most geographically diverse wind resources in Europe, more than enough to meet current renewable energy targets”, in their report ‘Wind Power in the UK’ they find, “Onshore wind is one of the cheapest forms of renewable energy and increasing supply to 20 per cent by 2020 would present only a very modest increase in cost for consumers that compares well with other energy sources. Indeed, as fossil fuel prices increase and wind turbines become cheaper to build, wind power may even become one of the cheapest forms of electricity generation over the next 15 years.”.

After 3 years of total inaction, they undertook another re-look at their energy policy, maybe this time with the idea of actually doing something about it, the 2006 Energy Review lead to the 2007 Energy White Paper which reinserted the nuclear option.

Big energy companies have always had an on off relationship with renewables. They understand ‘traditional’ fossil fuel and nuclear plants, you put fuel in at this end it creates electricity at a fixed ratio, it is plugged into the grid in such as fashion and it yields ‘x’% return on investment over ‘y’ years. They know how to build them, run them, promote them and very importantly how to get funding from their banks, and tax breaks from governments for them. Renewables are altogether a different ball game, they involve R&D, they work with the national grid differently, they require demand side changes as well as supply side changes: In short they are a much bigger challenge, banks don’t understand them and are reluctant to fund them, and the civil servants who like the power companies themselves, were brought up on mega generators equally like to stay within their comfort zone. Last week alone we say Shell say it was going to sell its solar division, EDF and E.ON try and blackmail the British Government into lowering its commitment to renewables, and Scottish Power back away from its commitments to renewables. The UK Government is relying on these power companies to pay for its renewable commitments, and now they are saying no. Unless the Government take a firm stance both we regards to negotiations with the power companies and a renewed commitment to financially supporting renewable energy then the whole edifice could come crashing down.

The Government promised a decision on the rolling out of smart meters in May last year, they then delayed until November, they still haven’t made a decision. Dave Robinson, market development manager at smart meter developer Landis+Gyr, told The Guardian: “We’re still waiting for a decision on how this will be done and a start date for the roll-out. It’s very frustrating.”


Source - Heatmyhome

Consumers face £4.7bn bill for expansion of National Grid

Hard-pressed energy consumers face a "worryingly high" bill of £4.7bn to pay for the cost of hooking up wind farms and new nuclear power stations to the UK's electricity grid network over the next decade, it was made clear today.

A report from a joint government, industry and regulatory group said that 1,000 kilometres of new cables were needed in what would be the biggest expansion in the network for half a century.

The Electricity Networks Strategy Group (ENSG) said the shake-up would allow Britain to move towards a low-­carbon energy supply with the potential for 30% of electricity generated from renewables by 2020. It advises that work should start immediately on the project, which includes two high-voltage sub-sea links between Scotland and England.

Mike O'Brien, the energy and climate change minister, said it was vital to build a grid that was "fit for purpose" so that Britain could cut carbon emissions and make supply more secure. "This is a massive long-term investment opportunity and this upgrade work will help support jobs across the low-carbon economy," he added.

Department officials said that there was no intention at this point of the government picking up the tab, which would be an issue for the energy companies and their consumers. This suggests that higher bills are likely at a time when households have already been under pressure over ­rising energy bills, helped only recently by lower oil and gas prices.

The National Grid, which runs the transmission system in England and Wales and will pay for the bulk of the programme in the first instance, said it was government's role to provide the right framework of policies rather than pay directly for it. "We can recover the costs in the same way that we do all our other investments," said a Grid spokesman, who admitted it could need to spend as much as £9bn overall on changes to the network.

The Grid would bill utilities such as Centrica, EDF and E.ON, which generate the electricity and then supply it to customers using the Grid's network. These companies can be expected in turn to pass on the extra costs to the householder.

Chris Stubbs, director at environment consultancy WSP, said the £4.7bn bill highlighted the "worryingly high cost" of embracing new energy generation and that the consumer or taxpayer would end up paying.

"It is important to consider that offshore wind is particularly expensive when compared with onshore wind, as the laying of underwater cabling is costly, as is the building of the turbines," he added.

Friends of the Earth's executive director, Andy Atkins, welcomed the report as forward-looking. "Up to now the short-term attitude of the energy regulator Ofgem and lack of strategic ­thinking have stood in the way of the massive expansion of renewable energy needed to tackle climate change and bring hundreds of thousands of new jobs to this country," he said.

Source - The Guardian

Roofers queue up for solar panels training

Roofers are looking to prepare for diversification in 2009, according to Solar4U which said its new two-day training courses were proving a success.

It’s solar panels team has trained dozens of roofers from 15 companies on how to market, specify and install solar hot water rand slates as part of their standard contracting service.

Driving the demand for roofers to acquire solar skills is the Code for Sustainable Homes, the Government’s support of renewable energy, and consumer demand.

Roofers are keen to get trained up in solar skills as photovoltaic (PV solar) technology, or solar electric and solar panels for hot water, is proving to be one of the easiest and cheapest ways to meet CO2 reduction requirements in building regulations such as the Code for Sustainable Homes and the Ecohomes standard.

According to the Government’s Department for Business and Regulatory Reform (DBERR), more organisations are choosing PV solar panels than all other renewable energy technologies put together, making it the most popular renewable energy for the trades to diversify into.

Recent research has shown that this is a global trend, with up to 6.3 million jobs in PV solar panels expected by 2030, 75% of this in installation. In the UK, the public sector and charities are entitled to a 50% saving on the costs of installing micro generation technologies under the Government’s Low Carbon Buildings Programme, and individuals up to £2500.

Chris Hopkins, a recent trainee and Managing Director of Ploughcroft Roofing said: “This training for the system installation underpins our position in the vanguard of the roofing revolution.

“Last year we became the first company in the country to offer certificated National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) training in the fitting of solar panels on roof tops, and this is a great step forward.

“The new solar panels slates are very relevant for us because there are so many slate roofs in the area where we work. In fact we have already had a number of requests for the product from local authorities and schools.”

Despite the economic downturn, social housing providers need to continue investing in the UK’s housing needs. Because of this, the public sector is leading the way in demonstrating how innovations such as solar PV can contribute to the design of homes that meet the demands of the Code for Sustainable Homes.

“Without employing renewable energy technology such as PV solar panels, there is no way that levels five and six of the Code are possible. Roofing contractors who recognise this have the opportunity to maximise their business opportunities, as the market shifts towards trades which can deliver renewable technologies.”

Source - Property Talk