The UK prime minister has said fighting climate change will require business, Government and individuals to work together, and last week he launched a series of initiatives to make UK homes greener. But in my mind there is very little there for the individual, and very little concrete action from Government and no clear strategy around which to build a business.
There will be money to launch an “Act on Co2″ advice line, which will apparently offer free advice, and a green neighbourhoods initiative which will aim to reduce CO2 in 100 neighbourhoods throughout England. So there is money for talking and some sort unclear initiative providing a bit of money here and a bit there. The green neighbourhoods initiative is supposed to encourage local alliances of residents, community groups, local government and businesses to build consortia that will be able to bid for funds from a measly £10 million. It is unclear who will lead these consortia, and seems to be an unnecessary complex way to go about it.
A much simpler and clearer way forward might to be use grants to push energy efficiency coupled with an effective “feed-in tariff” approach such as that used with great success by Germany, to provide a real drive towards micro generation. This would reduce the pay-back period from over 60 years to under
20, making it economically as well as environmentally worthwhile for
homeowners to invest.
Provide incentives that make it economically sensible for individuals and businesses to invest in energy efficiency and micro-generation and by and large most people will, and once things get going the costs will decrease further, bringing on even more people. You know it makes sense!
Written by ashleys on April 5th, 2008 with no comments.
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For a country to be completely carbon neutral is a lofty and admirable goal and one on which a number of countries are presently focused. Iceland, Norway, Costa Rica and New Zealand have all declared goals of ultimately becoming carbon neutral. Most of these countries with the exception of Costa Rica actually generate a lot of their energy from renewable sources already, mainly hydro electric or geothermal. It is the reduction of the emissions that is their real challenge, one that Costa Rica for instance is planing to meet through a huge tree planting programme.
The challenges that these countries, with their already well developed renewable energy generation programmes, to reduce their reliance on technologies and fuels that produce carbon emissions, shows how far other countries have to go, and the vital role of energy efficiency in trying to become carbon neutral.
Written by ashleys on April 1st, 2008 with no comments.
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UK Energy and power companies are to be forced to rob the rich, i.e. their own shareholders to pay the poor or at least to help the poor. UK government plans to force these companies to use a portion of their profits to help poor and vulnerable groups like pensioners, increase the energy efficiency of their homes. It is hoped that this will help in reducing carbon emissions from the homes, and help make savings on heating costs.
What is more interesting is that the plans are also expected to aid households who micro-generate, to sell power back to the national grid. Now I want to hear more about that! When I have more information I will share on this site!
Written by ashleys on March 30th, 2008 with no comments.
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In another symbol of how much better Germany is approach the whole concept of renewable energy and micro-generation is the news that the Reichstag is to run entirely on renewable energy from this summer. Due to a fairly recent refurbishment the building is already very energy efficient. The building houses biofuel generators in its basement which are already providing 40% of its energy needs. The remainder will now be supplied by renewable outside sources.
As I said at the beginning it is purely a symbol , but I’m impressed by what Germany have managed to do in pushing renewables forward especially their tariff based support of micro-generation. All of which has but them way ahead of the UK and other countries.
Written by ashleys on March 29th, 2008 with no comments.
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The search engine giant Google has announced that it is going to look at ways to develop cheap and clean sources of energy, and that it would invest hundreds of millions of dollars to do so. Their focus will initially be on solar thermal, wind and geothermal technologies. Larry page co-founder of google stated;
“We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centres. We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at a globally significant scale.”
First seen on Guardian Unlimited
Written by ashleys on December 9th, 2007 with no comments.
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The Guardian reports on the group of MPs led by the Conservative Michael Fallon who are introducing a private member’s bill to parliament this week in a bid to prevent the government back-pedalling on rules that require construction companies to fit renewable energy sources to new buildings.
The bill is designed to ensure support for the so-called Merton Rule, introduced by the London borough of Merton four years ago and since copied by more than 100 local authorities. The rule requires developers to source at least 10% of any new building’s energy from renewable sources. The rule is seen as an important part of trying to get the UK to catch up with the rest of Europe on the micro-generation of renewable energy.
Written by ashleys on December 3rd, 2007 with no comments.
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