the Carbon Challenge

Carbonated water

Water use is an often overseen but significant cause of carbon dioxide emissions. A recent report we produced with the Environment Agency helps us understand the carbon emissions from water use at home and the potential for savings. It looks at the energy wasted through hot water heating, inefficient boilers and poorly lagged pipes. Quantifying the energy and carbon effects of saving water shows that energy saving initiatives in the home must include measures to reduce hot water use if we are to meet our emission reduction targets.

Domestic water use in the UK is pretty high – at around 150 litres per person per day. Taking water from the environment, treating it, distributing it to households, using it in the home, collecting it when it has become sewage and then treating it before discharging it back into the environment are all processes requiring energy, and therefore result in CO2 emissions. In order to best focus policy on how to minimise CO2 emissions from this train of events, we need to understand which parts of this process are the most energy intensive. We will use the report’s findings to help shape our forthcoming pilot, funded by EU Life+ and in partnership with Waterwise, to integrate water efficiency advice with energy advice through our advice centres in Cardiff, Edinburgh and London from September 2009.

People might argue that we are a rainy island – we should have plenty of water! But when you take into account the energy consumed in the treatment process, it pays to save water. Not everyone has a water meter, but everyone has an energy bill!

Ed2 = EE future

Pictured here is my Chairman Eddie Hyams, talking to Secretary of State Ed Miliband MP at the launch of the Government’s Low Carbon Transition Plan at the Science Museum on 15 July.

The model insulation house showed examples of loft, cavity wall, internal solid wall, ceiling and under-floor insulation – giving a practical example of the measures needed to cut CO2 emissions from homes.

The Low Carbon Transition plan sets out how the UK will meet its target of a 34% reduction in CO2 emissions on 1990 levels by 2020. Plans for a low carbon future include more green jobs, energy efficient house makeovers, more renewable energy, and lower carbon transport.

Pay As You Save Pilots

The part of the Low Carbon Transition Plan I’m most excited about is the Pay As You Save Pilots. On behalf of Government, the Energy Saving Trust will be managing pilots of long term household finance including the Pay as You Save concept.  The pilots will be designed and developed during 2009, and will commence in late 2009/early 2010 and run throughout 2011. 

The aim is to trial innovative new finance mechanisms that encourage consumers to undertake a whole house energy efficiency retrofit. We want to assess the uptake of Pay as you Save financing (PAYS), which helps householders by providing the upfront monies needed to purchase a comprehensive package of energy efficiency and microgeneration measures (or whole house packages). Householders then repay this finance through instalments that are offset by their energy bill savings. We will also be exploring other household finance options including low interest loans to test consumer interest and the practicalities of delivering finance packages to households.

The Energy Saving Trust will be working with a wide range of partners in delivering these pilots across a range of house types, both owned and rented.  As we develop the programme we will be actively engaging with key partners and will keep interested parties updated on progress. The banks might be struggling to lend, perhaps we can do our small bit to fill the gap!

How to deal with climate change deniers

During a recent parliamentary debate on the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband noted that the 17 countries of the Major Economies Forum accepted the long-held scientific consensus that work is needed to prevent a global temperature rise above 2 degrees.

However, it seems there is still some debate about global warming within parliament. Conservative backbencher Peter Lilley said that, without nuclear power, the Government’s ‘already overambitious’ targets would become pure fantasy. He believed that the models generating predictions of the effect of carbon on the environment were ‘deeply unreliable’.

Conservative MP John Gummer responded that if Mr Lilley’s analysis was right, it would still be a worthwhile task to address shortages of resources, and if he was wrong, he would lead the world to disaster. Therefore, he proposed that his views be ignored, “as I have had to do for the past 12 years”. Very well put, I thought!

  

Left: Rt Hon John Gummer MP, and right: Rt Hon Peter Lilley MP
 

The launch of the Great British Refurb Campaign

Kevin McCloud and Philip Sellwood at the launch of the Great British Refurb campaign

 

This morning I helped to launch the Great British Refurb campaign with Kevin McCloud and Ed Miliband in Westminster ahead of the Government’s announcement on its White Paper tomorrow.

I also caught up with Greg Clark MP, Shadow DECC Secretary, and a whole host of other MPs who are throwing their support behind our campaign.

 

Just to give some perspective on why this campaign is so important - nearly a quarter of all UK homes (an estimated 6.3 million homes) still need cavity wall insulation and nearly half of all UK homes need more loft insulation. Insulating these would save nearly 7 million tonnes (Mt) of CO₂ a year. That’s the equivalent of having more than 2 million fewer cars on the UK’s roads.

There are an estimated 7 million un-insulated solid walls. If all these walls were dealt with, around 11 million tonnes of CO₂ would be saved. That’s the equivalent of having 3.5 million fewer cars on the UK’s roads, and would save the same amount of CO₂ as is currently produced by two million households – around 8 per cent of all UK homes, or nearly two thirds of all the homes in London.

Why not click here to visit the Great British Refurb website where you can sign up and support the campaign?

 

 

 

 

 

Location, location, location

I am pleased to announce that at the Energy Saving Trust we have just undertaken the first comprehensive in-situ monitoring of domestic small scale wind turbines in the UK and they showed that when it comes to domestic wind turbines, it’s all about location, location, location.

Around 450,000 UK householders would benefit from installing a domestic small scale wind turbine with the best areas in the country being rural locations in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

The results show that no urban or suburban sites with a building mounted turbine generated more than 200kWh (or £26 of electricity) per annum, but the best performing building mounted turbine, located in a rural area of Scotland, generated nearly 1,000kWh (or £127 of electricity) per annum. Larger free standing pole mounted turbines, sited in rural locations, could generate in excess of 18,000 kWh (or £2,300) per annum.

We believe that in terms of next steps, regulation needs to be in place for the industry to ensure a better basic standard level of information is provided to consumers regarding the potential from domestic small scale wind turbines. Industry standards need to be agreed and the Trust is already working with the industry on behalf of the customer to ensure this happens.

As a result of the field trials, householders can be confident that the advice they receive from the Energy Saving Trust advice centres and website is accurate.  They can call our advice line on 0800 512 012 or go online, enter their postcode and see whether the technology is suitable for where they live. Why not click here to try it out for yourself?

While domestic wind turbines aren’t for everyone, there are other technologies in the field of microgeneration that householders could look to. Next in line for trials at the Energy Saving Trust are Ground Source Heat Pumps and Solar Thermal.

Media coverage received to date:

The Telegraph

The Guardian

BBC Online

 

 

 

Energy Saving Recommended is on the ball

Last week we held our Energy Saving Recommended Members’ Briefing at the Arsenal Emirates Stadium. Our Energy Saving Recommended Scheme accredits products that have met strict criteria on energy efficiency. This year we’re going to reinvigorate and refresh the Energy Saving Recommended scheme, placing greater organizational emphasis on the programme. The scheme will become quicker, slicker and more in keeping with the commercial timeframes of its membership, which is a who’s who of all of the key players in energy saving or energy efficient products across manufacturing and retail.

Attendees at the event included our Chairman Edward Hyams, and our Strategy Director Marian Spain. Dan Norris MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was very supportive of the Energy Saving Trust and the Energy Saving Recommended scheme.
 
Also in attendance were Jill Armstrong, Director of Lucid People Research, Bob Gordon, Environmental Policy Executive at the British Retail Consortium, and Irwin Lee, Vice President and Managing Director, UK and Ireland at Procter & Gamble.
 
We had an exhibition of the Energy Saving Trust’s services including Employee Engagement, our Advice network, Knowledge Services, Green Fleet Reviews, Housing and Low Carbon Technology.

Delegates were in attendance from: LG, Comet, Sainsbury’s, Knauf Insulation, B&Q as well as new corporate members of the Energy Saving Trust, Baxi.

Pictured above and below is Dan Norris MP - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Rural Affairs and Environment), DEFRA, and myself. Below is our 'lightbulb challenge' which consists of two booths, one containing an energy saving bulb and one containing an incandescent bulb. The challenge is to guess which one is which!