Jack's blog

 A very positive article from The Guardian!  Here's a quick quote:

 The public overwhelmingly support a much more ambitious scheme to push renewable energy for homes and communities, a new poll shows today ahead of a key government announcement next week.

Government officials are putting the finishing touches to plans to boost the take-up of renewable energy in Britain - which is the lowest in Europe - through a system known as the "clean energy cashback", or feed-in tariff.

Read the rest of the article on the Guardian website: Public supports ambitious scheme for micro-scale renewable energy, Guardian 27th January 2010

Hi all,

Here's an interesting news article if you haven't read it already:

Heat maps point way for new 'green' power station

The key quotes follow after the break:

 An important new report has recently been published.

A good summary is on RealClimate.org:

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/06/a-warning-from-copenhagen/

I've just returned from the Energy Saving Trust's Green Neighbourhoods workshop.  Here are my notes.  These notes are quite rough around the edges but they will hopefully shed some light on what happened at the workshop... if you'd like me to explain anything in more detail then please post a comment at the end of this post and I'll do my best to elaborate.

The workshop was held today (Friday 20.03.2009 1pm-5pm) in Westminster.

Overview of the EST's Green Neighbourhoods scheme

• The EST's Green Neighbourhoods scheme will aim to provide a grant plus a zero-interest loan plus other funding.

• The project is gearing up now. Pilots are running. Not sure when the project will be rolled out nationally.

• GN will aim to help up to 100 neighbourhoods. Total budget might be £5M? Maybe 15 households per neighbourhood; £4k per house. But don't know how much money will be available. Originally the fund was £10m but that has been cut by the government, partially because of the overlap between GN and the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) run by the Department for Energy and Climate Changes's (DECC).

• Aimed at able-to-pay owner-occupiers; not social housing (which is covered by DECC's CESP)

• Aimed at “hard to treat” homes where “hard to treat” means solid walled or off mains gas. The existing Carbon Emission Reduction Target (CERT) scheme is addressing the “easy to treat” homes so the EST's GN must address the hard to treat.

• Target is for a 60% reduction in CO2 per household. Measure over 2 years using smart meters (electricity, water, gas, oil will all be metered. Data is viewable by homeowners and is also sent to utilities). Homes which already have some measures installed will not be penalised, the 60% reduction is relative to stock average. (e.g. if a house already had some solid wall insulation installed then that would contribute to the 60% reduction). The aim is NOT for the full 60% reduction to come from just the EST funding.

• The £4k per house from the EST will be leveraged against other funding to reach £15k per house. Match funding. The homeowner will be expected to put in a large chunk of money.

• “Whole-house approach”

• Hoping to bring in CERT where possible for appropriate measures (e.g. loft insulation). GN wants to be a facilitator to help bring in other funding.

• The EST GN is a demo programme. It will not compete with CESP.

• 65 people subscribed to today's workshop.

Harriet Harman's office has been in contact:

Dear Peckham Power
Your local Member of Parliament, Harriet Harman, has asked me to drop you a line on her behalf. She was told about your organisation by one of her constituents and thinks it sounds excellent.
She asked me to get in touch with her contact details.
If there is any support she can offer the organisation, please do not hesitate to get in touch at any time.
Very best wishes

Many thanks to the resident who notified Ms Harman about Peckham Power!  We hope this will be the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship.

The UK Government announced 3 consultations on the 12th Feb 2009:

Working together, we know we need to transform the attitudes and actions of us all when it comes to heat and energy efficiency. We need a radical shift in our use of energy and heat in our homes to meet our ambition of an 80% greenhouse gas reduction by 2050.

We are inviting comments on three consultation papers that set out the Government’s near and longer term proposals for mobilising and supporting this change: