Tag Archives: Microgeneration

Energy and Climate Questions to the Mayor

October 2012: This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to:

a London-specific target under the Government’s forthcoming Energy Company Obligation (ECO) programme; progressing in achieving the Mayor’s Hydrogen Powered Vehicles strategy; the provision of energy efficiency support to SMEs in London; work being undertaken under the Mayor’s Decentralised Energy Project Delivery Unit; support for Cooperative Renewable Energy projects; how London will benefit under Energy Company Obligation (ECO); a list of all current Decentralised Energy projects supported; the roll out of the Green Deal in London; work to support the support the non-domestic Green Deal programme in London; the scale of the Mayor’s Green Deal programme in London; Guidance on low carbon cooling systems; low/zero carbon measures secured through the GLA’s planning process;  GLA review of the potential for low and zero carbon microgeneration technologies; future carbon emissions related to new infrastructure projects; work by the GLA with ICLEI, C40 and Eurocities on climate mitigation and adapation; and update on Low Carbon Skills Forum; planned budgets for future carbon mitigation programmes; carbon savings achieved by the Mayor’s programmes; the success of the Feed in Tariff (FIT) programme in London; an update on the London Thames Gateway Heat Network; the publication date of the Mayor’s Technical Guide for District Heating; and progress on the development of district heating commercial templates and a London Heat Charter. Planning guidance on sustainable design and construction; progress under the RE:FIT programme; targets under the RE:NEW 2 programme; annual progress report on the Mayor’s climate programme; an update on the London greenhouse gas inventory (LEGGI). Publication of the London Environment Strategy (see here for the answer referred to); the number of Solid Wall Insulation companies in London; Mayoral action on tackling Fuel Poverty; energy efficiency of new homes in the Olympic park; proposal for a zero carbon development around the Olympic site; energy consumption of superfast broadband; and future plans for Edmonton incinerator.

A series of questions (below) were asked in relation to RE:NEW – all of which were directed to a question asked earlier this year pointing to the November 2012 publication of the evaluation of the RE:NEW programme.

How many pensioner households treated under the RE:NEW programme; number of solid wall homes treated under RE:NEW; fuel poor households treated under RE:NEW; flats treatedunder RE:NEW; private rented homes treated under RE:NEW; the number of solid wall installations undertaken under RE:NEW; the number of cavity wall insulation installations undertaken under RE:NEW; the number of loft insulation installations under RE:NEW; the number of benefit checks undertaken through RE:NEW; and how RE:NEW has helped drive up the CERT and Warm Front programmes in London.

Previous questions to the Mayor can be found here.

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Latest FIT statistics for London

9 January 2012: Ofgem have just produced their latest quarterly detailed spreadsheet providing data on FIT installations across the UK. The spreadsheet now documents information on an impressive 147,114 entries of schemes installed across the UK since the beginning of the scheme!

Filtering the Ofgem spreadsheet to provide London-only data highlights that:

  • 4,053 FIT schemes are installed in London as at 31 December 2011 (2.75% of the total UK schemes installed)
  • These represent a total of 11.2 MW of electricity capacity installed

Additionally – the latest update on the number of photovoltaics (PVs) installed nationally (a regional breakdown not provided) is available via DECC’s weeks PV statistics (dated 5 January 2012). The 16 December deadline date set by Government – after which installations would face a major reduction in the subsidy support from the FIT mechanism – clearly had a dramatic effect as the graph from the statistics illustrates:


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Feed in Tariff Progress in London

September 2011: The Guardian features a piece on AEA Technology’s useful Microgeneration Index which regularly provides details on the amount of Feed in Tariff (FIT) renewable energy technologies installed by region.  The Guardian report that “London has added more renewable power than anywhere else, with more than 3.2 megawatts of capacity added in the 15 months since feed-in tariffs became available. But when assessed per head, it comes only sixth in the UK.” The latest Microgeneration Index quarterly report (issue 4)  provides further detail stating: “During the following three months, growth in cities has continued (eg capacity in London has increased by 37% and in Glasgow by 131%). However, as some cities start from a low capacity, a better measure is the installed capacity in relation to the population…Sheffield stands out as the leading city, with Bristol, Leeds and Bradford following.”

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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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Green Streets, Strong Communities

July 2011: Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) report evaluating the British Gas Green Streets community energy challenge in which 14 groups from communities in England, Scotland and Wales were selected to compete for a prize of £100,000. Each was given a share of a £2 million injection of capital, as well as technical advice from British Gas, to spend on a variety of microgeneration (or ‘microgen’) and energy efficiency measures in community buildings and surrounding households. Two London schemes were included amongst the communities involved: Ham and Petersham (Richmond) and Hyde Farm Climate Action Network (Wandsworth).

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Microgeneration Case Studies

July 2011: DECC has published a series of microgeneration case studies on their website, providing some useful project and cost information on a number of renewable technologies (both heat and power types). None of the projects are in London from what I can see – which is a shame – but useful nonetheless.

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Microgeneration Strategy

22 June 2011: DECC have today published an updated Microgeneration Strategy focussing on non-financial barriers to the deployment of microgeneration technologies.  Chapter 5 specifically considers community scale generation opportunities with the Government stating it will take forward activities on helping provide guidance on planning (see PlanLoCaL for further information), finance, sharing best practice, and identifying barriers and possible solutions to the uptake of microgeneration. Dissemination of information will be through a series of events and through DECC’s Community Energy Online portal.

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FIT installation data

1 April 2011: Ofgem have just issued their second quarterly report (see 1 February 2011 newsstory in relation to the first release) on the installation of Feed in Tariff (FIT) accredited generators. Since the last report, a further 10,000 installations have been added – bringing the total number of sites data is reported on to 30,000 installations.  Download the ‘Feed-in Tariff Installation Report on Ofgem’s FIT webpage.

Using Ofgem’s data AEA Technology have set up a website allowing aggregate FIT installation data to be identified by region and borough and technologies employed. For more detail go to the AEA Microgeneration Index.

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