Zero emission homes

According to the BBC the first zero emission home has been unveiled. This two bedroom house (see above) is insulated to lose 60% less heat than a normal home. It also features solar panels, a biomass boiler and water efficiency devices such as rainwater harvesting.

According to the report "The home generates all its own energy - and when you're away on holiday can send electricity back to the National Grid. The company says its annual energy bill would be £31, as compared to £500 for the standard new home of this size."

This is all great news but I guess the important thing is how quickly this sort of design and technology get incorporated into all new homes.

Worlds largest wave farm

Scottish ministers have announced funding for what has been described as the world's biggest wave energy farm. Apparently the Pelamis device (shown above) has been tested at the European Marine Energy Centre on Orkney and Scottish Power wants to commission four more at the same site. Scottish Power say this could create enough power for 2,000 homes.

According to the Lib Dem Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen "This will be the world's biggest commercial wave project - significantly bigger than the major Portuguese scheme". He went on to say "Scotland has the potential to generate a quarter of Europe's marine energy and kick-starting the sector is vital if we are to create a significant industry based in Scotland and meet our long-term renewables targets."

Windpower milestone

The UK has become only the seventh nation in the world to have more than two gigawatts of operational wind power capacity. This milestone was passed when the Braes O'Doune wind farm, near Stirling, began producing electricity.

The government has set a target for 10% of electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2010 and 20% by 2020 but surely we could do better than that given the amount of wind we get. No doubt someone will tell me that it is the wrong type of wind but when you realise that Germany has more than 20GW of wind energy capacity, 10 times as much as the UK you have to think we could do a lot more

Greenpeace victory on nuclear power

Apparently Greenpeace has won its High Court bid to make the government rethink its programme to build a new generation of nuclear power stations. The judge ruled that the consultation process before making the decision last year had been "seriously flawed" and "procedurally unfair".

Greenpeace complained that there had been a failure to present clear proposals and information on key issues, such as disposal of radioactive waste and building costs.

The Trade and Industry Secretary contested the judicial review but Mr Justice Sullivan took a different view. He said "something has gone clearly and radically wrong" He went on to say that "the consultation document contained no actual proposals and the information given to consultees had been wholly insufficient for them to make an intelligent response" and that"the information given on waste had been not merely inadequate but also misleading".

Of course the DTI say (correctly) that this is about the process of consultation and not about the principle of Nuclear Power. The point they omit to make is that of course with full, correct and accurate information the consultation paper might have led both the consultees and the DTI itself to a different conclusion!

Mixed messages on energy

Blair wants nuclear although his statements appear to prejudge the governments own energy review due out in July. Elliott Morley the former environment minister wants renewables and I tend to agree with him. Meanwhile perhaps the best news of all is that Yvette Cooper minister of state at the new Department for Communities and Local Government is to announce plans to revamp designs for a new town of 10,000 near Cambridge and according to this article in the Guardian "among the ministerial demands for the buildings are good insulation, solar energy devices such as roof-mounted collectors for hot water, large windows on south-facing walls, water recycling, water-efficient fittings, and porous paving to keep rainwater in the ground rather than running into drains". Good news indeed but I just wish the government would stop taking baby steps and start to make some serious inroads into this issue by making these sorts of things compulsory in all new build.

Cheaper Fuel Prices? Maybe

The more observant of you will have noticed a new button on my sidebar just below the Lib Dem Blogs button. This button takes you to Pipeline which claims to now have 340,000 members and is attempting to negotiate a discount with a major fuel retailer with the aim of offering its members a discount of between 5p and 7p a litre. While this scheme is getting off the ground it may be worthwhile visiting petrolprices.com to see what the best deal is in your area. All in all worth considering as I start my 400 mile round trip to Elland Road for the play off semi final tonight.

Lead needed for people to live a greener lifestyle

I will admit that I have never heard of the Sustainable Consumption Roundtable. Apparently it is a joint initiative between the Sustainable Development Commission and the National Consumer Council and has been funded by Defra and the DTI.

Anyway they have produced a report entitled "I Will If You Will" which recommends that the government needs to take the lead if significant progress is to be made. It also concludes that people are generally happy with measures which bring positive environmental benefits as long as those measures are applied fairly. They also specifically recommend two things which I have banged on about here before namely;

• Making on-site energy generation common in homes and public buildings
• Rolling out "smart" meters to raise awareness of energy consumption

If anyone wants to download the report then go here

Britain is eating the planet

Rather like the day on which we start earning money for ourselves as opposed to for the tax man today is the day on which the UK stops living off its own resources and starts depending on imports from elsewhere. This is according to a report from the New Economics Foundation showing how dependent we are on resources from elsewhere in the world. Fairly stunning if not totally surprising and fairly indicative of the sorts of things we as a nation need to do if we are to change this. Growing and selling more of our own food and supplying it locally would be a good start. As would make use of natural sources of energy.

Tag Environment

UK offshore wind at crossroads or should that be sea lane?

At least according to this article on BBC news online

Offshore wind energy is unlikely to reach its full potential unless there is additional support from the government. Well what a surprise.

The study says the fledgling industry is at a "critical stage" and economic and environmental opportunities could be lost without further assistance.

According to the article the study warns that "only about 2,000 MW is likely to be built without further support from the government" but then goes on to say "There is a huge amount of activity in the sector with more than 8,000 MW of schemes in development"

Confused - I certainly am.

Whatever lets hope that the government takes this sector seriously in its energy review and presumably offshore is better than onshore as it may keep the turbines further away from the nimbys.

Tag Environment

Emission Targets and Renewable Energy

Various things got me thinking about this one having posted about the pathetic attempt to improve things contained in last weeks budget.

So the government admits that we will not make the 2010 target at the current rate of progress.

The budget adds a few tweaks but clearly more needs to be done.

Meanwhile in Mondays Guardian there was a report that Britain's wind energy is set to exceed expectations with 50% more wind farms powering British homes and industry by 2010 than predicted four years ago.

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1740698,00.html

So if exceeeding expectations won't do it then we clearly need to do more

There was a positive report in the Sunday Observer about Planning policy statement 22 which gives local authorities the right to insist that new housing schemes get 10 percent of their energy from renewables.

According to the article the first authority to integrate PPS 22 into its policies is Surrey County Council.

I know I would like to see it compulsory in all new houses nationwide but this looks as if it might at least be a start.

I do not know how many local authorities have done this or are in the process of doing so but perhaps we should all start checking this out. I know I shall and then if it has not be done I will be asking some questions.

Tags Environment Politics

A start but not enough

The budget had some interesting ideas but did not go far enough on environmental issues as far as I am concerned.

£20m on promoting and incentivising the greater use of low-energy light bulbs, better insulation and improved central heating and an extra 250,000 subsidised home insulation packages over the next two years. Ok I guess but more could be done in this area surely. And the sooner these issues are tackled the greater the benefits which will be reaped.

£50m was added to the government's Low Carbon Buildings programme to help fund a small number of micro-generation projects such as solar heating, heat capture and small wind turbines. Again ok as far as it goes but at some point the UK government is going to have to think much bigger. How about setting a deadline (3 years say) after which all new properties will have have Solar Energy built in at the time of construction?

Tags Politics Environment