Department of Energy and Climate Change's Heat and Energy Saving Strategy consultation

I think that sounds like an excellent idea (if we have the time)

Some more news and details from the Guardian (published 12th Feb):

  Miliband announces green makeover for every home in Britain by 2030

Some important quotes:

All UK households will have a green makeover by 2030 under government plans to reduce carbon emissions and cut energy bills.

Cavity wall and loft insulation will be available for all suitable homes, with plans to retrofit 400,000 homes a year by 2015. Financial incentives for householders will also be available for low-carbon technologies such as solar panels, biomass boilers and ground source heat pumps, paid for by a levy on utility companies.

The government wants a quarter of homes (7m) to benefit from the schemes by 2020, extending to all UK households by 2030.

...[the schemes] might only begin in 2012...

...

Under the proposals, a Renewable Heating Incentive would tax utility companies and then use the money to build up smaller-scale energy networks. A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said the levy, intended to start in 2011, would not affect today's household bills. "We have to consult on how it will work and, in fact, our proposals would have little impact on prices for many years, apart from cutting billing for those who take up the offer of help."

In addition, householders could be paid for any electricity they feed into the national grid from their power-generating facilities.

...The EST said there are 7.3m cavity walls that could be filled with insulation, 7m solid walls that could be insulated, and 12.9m lofts which do not have the recommended depth of insulation, and 4.5m G-rated (the least efficient) gas boilers....

There's lots of good stuff in the Guardian article.

Casey Cole (a Southwark resident, if I remember correctly) over on the Carbon Limited blog has written a quick post about the consultations:

Carbon Limited

I spent a fair chunk of the weekend going through the CESP and HES consultations and it’s sucked the life right out of me. I think I may have consultation blindness. The worst part is, there’s a chance this might be a game-changing shift we’re witnessing here but 200 pages later it’s almost impossible to care.

Mike over on energy-performance-certificates.org has written an excellent summary of the consulations.  Highly recommended reading.  It's clear that this batch of consultations are very significant and that the proposals being consulted on are highly relevant to the Peckham Power Company.

Mark Brinkley over on the House 2.0 blog has published a long post about the consultation in an article called "Eco Bollocks Award: Heat and Energy Strategy".  He's not happy.  Here's a teaser:

Another consultation has landed on our desks from the government. This is the long promised one about the existing stock, called the Heat and Energy Saving Strategy Consultation. It’s a stinker. It’s so awful that I am awarding it an Eco Bollocks award. The only other document to get the award was Ken Livingstone’s London Climate Change Action Plan (nearly two years ago) and I have to say this is worse, much worse. Here’s why...

Russell Smith (of Parity Projects) made this comment in an email to us about the consultations:

I’d definitely recommend that you do this folks – especially the CESP consultation – by getting Peckham Power’s name into government other things may start to come back to you e.g. funding for pilot projects.

R

Mike over on Energy-Performance-Certificates.org has posted a detailed writeup of the Community Energy Strategy Programme (CESP) consultation.