Tag Archives: Haringey

North London Retrofit SME Network

May 2013: Waltham Forest have posted details of work being done to establish a new network for ‘green’ SMEs.

“North London boroughs are working together to develop a network of SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) located in the North London area delivering energy efficient retrofit services and installations. The Council is working to promote uptake of energy retrofit in each borough.

The Council wants to build upon and support existing local supply chains to deliver this work. This will grow the local green economy and develop an SME/labour market that can be exported beyond North London.

The aims of the North London Retrofit SME Network are:

  • Create a directory of SME builders and installers who carry out green retrofit in North London. The North London SME Retrofit Directory is open to any SME delivering retrofit services located in the boroughs of Waltham Forest, Camden, Enfield, Haringey, Islington and Newham
  • Start a forum to hear from local SMEs how Councils can support locally delivered retrofit in North London
  • Create networking opportunities among SMEs working in the area
  • Strengthen links with local training providers
  • Sign post local retrofit SMEs towards the different initiatives offering support and training in this growing market both locally and London wide

To find out more about the North London Retrofit SME Directory and Network please email: minka.mcinerney@haringey.gov.uk

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Haringey issue new energy and carbon planning guidance

April 2013: Haringey fully adopted a new and very useful Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) on Sustainable Design and Construction last month. It’s stated that the “document will be considered in determining planning applications. It does not create new policy, but complements the Local Plan and brings together policy requirements and guidance from national, regional and local planning framework that promote sustainable buildings.” The SPD can be downloaded here.

Two sections are of particular interest.  Section 3: Energy & Carbon – and Section 4: Changing Climate – the latter focused on relevant adaptation issues. Section 3 mentions the following:

“The Upper Lee Valley is one of London’s most exciting areas of change and the opportunity for an alternative energy supply in the area is unique. The core idea of the strategic decentralised energy network here is to capture low-carbon heat from waste-to-energy facilities in the Edmonton area of the Lee Valley and supply the heat to existing businesses and residential customers as well as to new developments.”

The appendices document provides further information on energy requirements related to planning applications to the borough.

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£67.23m of DE projects to be delivered in London

22 April 2013: A useful update on some of London’s key decentralised energy (DE) projects being supported by the Mayor has been produced for the GLA Investment and Performance Board meeting taking place tomorrow (23 April). The Mayor’s Decentralised Energy Project Delivery Unit (DEPDU) is a three-year programme set up in August 2011 with €3.3m funding, 90% of which was secured from the European Investment Bank’s ELENA facility.

The paper (link to paper, direct here) sets out that the GLA has a contractual target with the EIB to deliver £67.23m of DE projects to market before the 3rd of August 2014.   The following projects as of 31st December 2012 have been taken to market through the GLA’s Decentralised Energy for London programme and, as agreed with the EIB as eligible projects. Together, they represent £42.3m, or 64% of the final ELENA target.

Project Eligible CAPEX (£) Construction completed CO2 savings (t/year) Project stage
Islington Bunhill Phase 1 £6,499,107 2011 2,950 Operational
Cranston Estate £7,800,000 2011 1,200 Operational
Crystal Palace CHP £1,490,000 2011 1,850 Operational
Olympic Fringe Extension £1,350,000 2011 960 Operational
Royal Free £6,073,621 2012 4,060 Operational
Brent South Kilburn £17,170,000 Unknown* 835 Procurement
Lewisham Goldsmiths College £1,911,706 2014 947 Construction
TOTALS £42,294,434 12,800

The paper states that when “fully developed and in operation, these projects will contribute with 4.7 MW of installed electrical capacity (and 35.7 MW of installed thermal capacity (enough to provide heat and power to 6,000 homes) to London’s generation from DE sources and will save up to an estimated 12,800 tonnes of CO2 per annum.

“In addition, the DEPDU is also currently supporting the development of an additional 22 projects with a combined value of £304m. Of these, five are in advanced stages of development, and are expected to be brought to market within the following 12 months.”

Project Estimated CAPEX (£) Construction completed CO2 savings (t/year) Project stage
Euston Road £7,025,000 2014 4,594 Procurement
Westminster PDHU / Whitehall £5,480,000 2015 5,500 Business case
SELCHP £6,000,000 2013 3,395 Construction
LSIP £2,000,000 2014 1,584 Procurement
Haringey North Tottenham £8,060,000 2016 5,148 Pre-feasibility
TOTALS £28,565,000 20,200

When fully developed and in operation, the paper states “these projects will contribute with 3.2 MW of installed electrical capacity and 90 MW of installed thermal capacity (enough to provide heat and power to 14,000 and 4,500 homes respectively) to London’s generation from DE sources and will save up to an estimated 20,200 tonnes of CO2 per annum.”
The paper goes on to say that the “paper does not include projections on jobs created. However, it is our intention to incorporate estimates of jobs created for future reporting and we will work with GLA Economics to establish a robust methodology.”
Further information on many of these projects can be found by searching on this website.

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A Haringey Green Deal Diary

April 2013: Great blog of a Green Deal ‘journey’ by sustainability expert Sofie Pelsmakers. Sofie started the process with a free Green Deal energy assessment offered to residents and business in Haringey (which is funded through DECC’s recently Green Deal Pioneer Places funding).  These free assessments are still on offer with the deadline recently extended to 30 April – more here.

Having had her assessment finalised – Sofie appears now to be struggling to secure Green Finance:

DECC issued their latest Green Deal and ECO monthly statistics last week with Greg Barker stating that “It is clearly very early days but the latest figures on the Green Deal show that this new market is gathering real momentum. 9,268 Green Deal assessments taking place in just over two months is very encouraging and shows a genuine interest from consumers.

The statistics do not however provide a breakdown of how many of these assessments came out of activities through the  Energy Company Obligation (ECO) process rather than directly as a result of households taking up the Green Deal. Additionally, the Green Deal Finance Company have stated that it is “yet to sign its first Green Deal Plan with a householder, but suggested it would not be long before it did. “There is one good to go and we are reviewing two others””.

Green Deal statistics for London will be available from DECC in June.

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Solar sector hails innovative move as even more significant than EMR

15 March 2013: A BusinessGreen story today reports on some industry reaction to the Mayor of London’s proposal to enter into the electricity trading market  (details of which are set out here).

“Leonie Greene of the Solar Trade Association said London was taking a “pioneering” step that could encourage other towns, cities, and communities to follow suit. London is the first to apply for a Licence Lite.“We’re much more excited about this than anything else in the Electricity Market Reforms process going through Westminster,” she told BusinessGreen. “People who live near renewable projects often say they want a way of buying the electricity directly, and through this kind of licence they can.”She added that the licence would allow independent generators to sell their electricity at a retail price via the GLA, rather than having to sell it much more cheaply on the wholesale market.”

DECC’s Secretary of State Ed Davey (also the London MP for Kingston) also welcomed the initiative stating: “This is a hugely encouraging development and I welcome the London Mayor’s announcement today and fully support councils such as Haringey with this project.  Opening up our energy market to smaller companies is good news for competition and therefore good news for consumers.  This is a welcome initiative that will make better use of energy produced locally and help Londoners get the best bang for their buck.”

The Electricity Market Reforms – or EMR – refer to the proposals currently going through Parliament in the Energy Bill. These include the introduction of Contracts for Differences (CfDs) for low carbon generators – guaranteed market prices which will be paid for the production of power. The new system proposed has been widely criticised as being overly complex and a significant barrier to smaller power generators (see the following post for more detail).

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Community Energy Strategy Update

February 2013: Energy and Climate Secretary of State Ed Davey said during DECC questions in the House of Commons earlier this week that the Government  “will introduce later this year the most ambitious community energy strategy this country has ever seen, and we will consult on it before we finalise it…We have a rather more ambitious approach to community energy than the previous Government ever had.” As highlighted in previous posts (here and here), a Community Energy Contact Group has been formed to advise DECC on the drafting of the strategy- details of the CECG can be viewed here.

The Community Energy Coalition published a Manifesto for Community Energy late last year which sets out some very good recommendations to Government on what the strategy should include as a minimum. Read the Manifesto here. Haringey Council is amongst the Manifesto’s many supporters.

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£11m awarded to London energy programmes

January 2013: Responding to a competition launched last October, DECC have just announced that 132 projects have won a share of £46 million of funding. The three strands of the funds were  “to help reduce fuel poverty, boost energy efficiency, and encourage collective switching and purchasing in regions across Great Britain.” The full press release is here and boroughs successful (and amounts awarded) can be downloaded here, and shows London did well with a total of £11m worth of projects selected. These were:

Fuel Poverty

  • Barnet (£107,500)
  • Waltham Forest (£97,000)
  • Tower Hamlets (£2,254,000)
  • Camden (£407,500)
  • Brent (£102,000)
  • Hillingdon (£106,500)
  • Hounslow (£706,000)
  • GLA together with 18 London boroughs (£5,360,421)

Green Deal Pioneer Places

  • Brent (£153,000)
  • Camden (£120,180)
  • Hounslow (£262,000)
  • Haringey (£275,200)
  • GLA together with 18 London boroughts (£266,921)

Cheaper Energy Together Funding

  • Tower Hamlets (£37,351)
  • Kingston upon Thames with 16 London boroughs (£686,655)

Little information is available at the moment on what exactly these various schemes will do in their respective areas, however, some  guidance released when the competition was launched provides details of what this funding is supposed to be delivering.

London Councils reports that the last of the collective energy purchasing schemes, where Kingston Council is the lead borough, will help “Vulnerable residents in up to 1.75 million homes across London will be offered assistance by their local council to get a better energy deal and save money.” DECC’s Secretary of State, Ed Davey, is hugely supportive of such collective purchasing deals (see here and here), and promoted such programmes in his former role at the Department of Business (BIS). He’s also the MP for Kingston and Surbiton, so it’s not surprising that his local council undertook a strong role in this competition.

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25 heat network projects being supported in London

November 2012: A recent speech by Ed Davey, Secretary of State at DECC on the department’s emerging policy around heat energy highlighted how the efficient use of heat is being promoted in the capital through its promotion of district heating. Mr Davey stated:

“London contains an example of the potential. The Greater London Authority is supporting 25 heat network projects. These have the capacity to leverage over £230 million of investment.”

A recent Mayoral question provides a little more detail on where these schemes are:

“The Decentralised Energy Project Delivery Unit is currently supporting the development of 25 decentralised projects. The following lists the activities with the boroughs:
Projects at procurement: Brent and Camden;
• Projects at post-feasibility: Croydon, Enfield, Haringey, Waltham Forest and Westminster;
• Projects at feasibility: Southwark, Islington, Hammersmith and Fulham, Newham, Sutton;
• Projects at pre-feasibility/energy master planning: Hillingdon, Ealing, and Westminster.”

Further information on Brent’s South Kilburn DE project can be found here.
Details of the innovative scheme being supported by Camden in Gospel Oak can be found here (and recent October newsletter here), which is using heat from a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant situated in the Royal Free Hospital, to provide low carbon affordable heat to nearby residents.
Other information can be found in the various borough heat map reports posted on www.londonheatmap.org.uk

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Retrofit for the Future – London projects

September 2012: The Retrofit for the Future programme’s Low Energy Buildings database website has recently been updated. The database is a repository of low-energy building information created to help inform the planning and development of low energy new build and refurbishment. The website allows users to browse projects in the database, and create and edit projects if you have a log-in.

projects map highlights schemes funded across the UK and direct links to the 11 London based retrofit schemes follow below.

Eco Hub at Lordship Recreation Ground, Haringey
Hawthorn Road – Metropolitan Housing Trust, Haringey
Focus House
The Muse – Islington
Mayville Community Centre
Tower Hamlets Passivhaus Retrofit
Camden Passivhaus – London’s first certified Passivhaus
PassivHaus Retrofit – Princedale Road
Lena Gardens
Hounslow Passivhaus Retrofit – Grove Road
One Planet Sutton Retrofit

Further information on the ‘Retrofit for the Future’ programme and evaluation of the projects submitted can be viewed here.

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Delays to North London waste processing plant

September 2012: Key to the proposed North London Waste Plan (NWLP) – currently under development – is the development of a new ‘Mechnical and Biological Treatment’ (MBT) plant at the former Friern Barnet Sewage Works at Pinkham Way. An independent planning inspector has however recently ruled that the Plan has not been properly consulted on with neighbouring boroughs and hence developers (see below) for the project  must look again at resubmitting their proposals.

The NWLP sets out the planning framework to 2027 for waste management in the seven North London boroughs – Haringey, Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest – which together are known as the North London Waste Authority (NWLA) . It identifies sites for waste management use and sets out policies for determining waste planning applications.The Plan has been under development now for several years, and the inspector’s decision will now knock the timetable for the adoption of the councils’ proposals.

The planning application for the Pinkham Way is a separate process to the overall plan and is currently on hold. The ‘mythbusters’ section of the NWLA website sets out that the MBT to be based there will be used to manufacture a solid fuel from waste that is left over after as much recyclable material as possible has been extracted; that fuel will then be transported to one of two sites outside of north London where there is a need for energy (heat and electricity).” This type of fuel is usually called SRF or solid recovered fuel.

The website goes on to say that NO waste incineration will take place on the site, and no plans are being made to accommodate incineration at Pinkham Way now or in the future.”

NWLA also state that “The carbon impacts of waste are mostly in the treatment of the waste rather than in its transportation, but even so we are seeking to have the Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) delivered to the fuel-user by rail or water transport to minimise this. It is also important to note that we are making SRF precisely so that the maximum carbon benefits of combined heat and power can be reaped at a location where a suitable demand exists. The alternative would be to build a new incinerator that recovers only electricity and that wastes the heat; and this is very specifically what we are not proposing to do.”

A lot more information on the NWLA’s proposals – and the active campaign directed against them – is provided at the pinkhamwayincinerator.blogspot.co.uk website.

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Free training events for Environmental Health Officers on assessing for excess cold

July 2012: National Energy Action (NEA) has received support from DECC to offer free training sessions to Environmental Health Officers on how to assess for Excess Cold. The London workshop appears to be hosted by the Haringey – however – exact venue/date details are note provided as yet. For more information on this free training click here.

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Urban Design and Carbon Reduction

20 February 2012: “The importance of urban design compared to the value we put on it has been brought home to me again this week. In working in Tottenham, to try to maximise the impact on regeneration of the efforts to reduce carbon by 40% by 2020, urban design keeps appearing as a critical element.” Interesting comment piece by Chris Brown at Regen.

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