Monthly Archives: September 2011

London Energy Efficiency Fund

13 September 2011: The Lawyer website provides some further background on the London Energy Efficiency Fund (LEEF) – the new £100m loan facility to help energy efficiency retrofits in public sector buildings announced recently by the Mayor.

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Latest Defra Greenhouse Gas Inventories

6 September 2011: Report presenting estimates of ALL six greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventories for the constituent countries of the UK for 2009.
England has a 77.6% share of total net GHG emissions in 2009 and emissions have declined by 29.5% since the base year (which slightly differs for the different gases).
Overall UK CO2 emissions have fallen by 19.7% between 1990 and 2009, mainly driven by the installation of combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) in the power generation sector in England and reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from industry in England, Scotland and Wales.

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Hounslow Climate Change Strategy

September 2011: Hounslow is currently in the process of developing the borough’s first climate change strategy. Consultation on the proposed objectives for the Strategy will take place over a six week period from Monday 5 September to Sunday 15 October 2011.

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Fuel Poverty in London: Evidence Session

September 2011: The London Assembly Health and Public Services Committee will question energy companies, energy efficiency suppliers and national and local government about how fuel poverty can be eradicated in the capital at meeting on Tuesday, 13 September at 3pm. This is part of their ongoing inquiry into fuel poverty in London.  The Committee’s meeting is open to the public details with regard to attending are here. Energy for London was part of a coalition of organisations who submitted evidence to the Committee last month.

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Guidelines tightened to improve heat pump performance

8 September 2011: Industry journal Utility Week reports that “guidelines governing how heat pumps are supplied, designed and installed have been tightened in a bid to improve the performance of systems that have often disappointed those purchasing them. Energy Secretary Chris Huhne today welcome the updated microgeneration installation standard (MIS) 3005 which follows work by his department and the the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) heat pump working group.”

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Businesses investing in renewable energy could generate returns of over 10%

8 September 2011: Carbon Trust Advisory analysis has found that businesses which invest in renewable energy could make average returns of 11-12%, with the potential for returns in excess of 20%. According to the findings, new financial incentives, energy market trends and building regulations are combining to create a compelling case for UK businesses to generate their own renewable energy. With energy prices set to grow by up to 37% by 2020, the opportunity to reduce utility bills is a strong incentive for investigating renewable energy options.

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Latest funding details on RE:NEW and RE:CONNECT

8 September 2011: Details have just been released by the GLA of the funding to two key Mayoral low carbon activities, RE:NEW (improving the energy efficiency of homes) and RE:CONNECT (supporting the roll out of 10 Low Carbon Zones in London). Also recently released are details of the ODA funding to the GLA to roll-out  retrofit projects RE:NEW and RE:FIT across the Olympic boroughs. This is to compensate for shortfall in CO2 emissions as a result of the key renewable feature of the Olympics – a wind turbine – failing to go ahead. The ODA are hence allowing funding of £1.7m to retrofit homes and schools within the host boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, and Waltham Forest. The primary objective of the project is to deliver 1,300 tonnes of CO2 savings per annum through energy efficiency measures persisting for a lifetime of 10 years.

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The Housing Crisis in London

8 September 2011: A report released today by lobby group the Pro Housing Alliance claims that housing conditions in the UK are among the worst in Western Europe and cost the country £7 billion in costs to the NHS, social services and education. Alongside its main report, Recommendations for the Reform of UK Housing Policy, is a supplement focused on the capital called the Housing Crisis on London, where the authors state that the situation is particularly bleak.

The London report lists a long of very significant problems with the housing market here, but the report also highlights that:

  • The condition of the London stock is worse than national in several respects such as state of repair, security and energy efficiency
  • Energy efficiency (SAP) ratings tend to be lower in London than elsewhere
  • Carbon emissions higher; and
  • Summer overheating more of a problem because of the ‘heat island’ effect

These will be issues which the Mayor will need to look at through the current process (launched last week) of revising London’s housing strategy.

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Home Energy Pay As You Save Pilot Review

8 September 2011: The (Pay As You Save) PAYS Review is a summary of the key findings from five pilots – which includes a trial in Sutton – that trialled a range of financing repayment options to incentivise householders to install energy efficient and micro-generation measures in their homes.  DECC report that the Energy Saving Trust (EST) PAYS Review “provides very useful insights into delivering financial packages to encourage energy-saving installations in homes. These insights include householder attitudes and preferences to the various delivery approaches adopted in the pilots. PAYS has demonstrated that innovative solutions can be developed to overcome the barriers associated with delivering energy saving measures into the UK housing stock. While these pilots did not test the Green Deal (to be launched in autumn 2012) – key features like repayment through energy bills and the ability to pass costs on when you move home will only be possible once legislation has passed – PAYS did test some consumer attitudes and types of delivery models. “

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London Councils memorandum on Fuel Poverty

September 2011: London Councils have submitted a memorandum of evidence on fuel poverty to the London Assembly’s Health and Public Services Committee current inquiry on this issue (see item 8 on the agenda).

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Environmental Health – acting to reduce the impact of climate change

September 2011: A useful report released in July by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, highlighing how Environment Health Practitioners (EHPs) across the country are taking action to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The document entitled Our world, our wellbeing showcases 65 EHP interesting initiatives including schemes introduced by Croydon and the City of London Corporation, covering issues such as retrofitting, behaviour change and fuel poverty programmes.

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Camden Using DE to tackle Fuel Poverty

September 2011: Further detail from, energy services company MITIE, on the innovative Combined Heat and Power (CHP) scheme being installed at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, where “surplus heat from the hospital plant will be piped to a new energy centre in the Gospel Oak area of Camden to provide hot water and heat to residents. As a result, up to 1,500 council home tenants will benefit from the Council’s ability to procure energy at a much cheaper rate than would otherwise be available to the council commercially.” See earlier stories on this project here, here and here.

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