The Energy Saving Trust's blog

Scotland targets better energy efficiency

 
Scotland's world-leading carbon-emission-reduction target (no less than 42 per cent by 2020) just got a bit more achievable: on Wednesday the first national target on energy efficiency was set, as part of the first Scottish Energy Efficiency Action Plan.

Existing commitments by the Scottish Government already include an ambitious aim to generate, within the next decade, 80 per cent of Scottish electricity from renewable energy. The new plan aims to reduce total energy consumption by 12 per cent in that time, which will mean less energy to generate.

Mike Thornton, Director of the Energy Saving Trust in Scotland, commented:

"Setting a target for maximum energy consumption is encouragingly ambitious and we also welcome the Scottish Government's commitment to energy efficiency as a cost-effective contribution to meeting climate change targets. We will continue to help Scottish consumers stop wasting energy and save money on fuel bills by providing free and impartial advice through the network of Energy Saving Scotland Advice Centres which we manage on behalf of the Scottish Government.

“This network already reaches more than 250,000 households each year and we look forward to it making a significant contribution to achieving Scotland's new energy efficiency targets."

First Minister Alex Salmond said:

"Today’s Action Plan reaffirms our ambitious energy efficiency and microgeneration agenda for Scotland. It will play a key part in meeting our world-leading climate change targets and in so doing create employment, promote new technologies, reduce costs for consumers and secure wider economic benefits from the transition to a low carbon economy."

Along with the launch of the plan, the Scottish Government also announced its new Universal Home Insulation Scheme, a £10 million programme to support new area-based, free-to-all energy efficiency schemes, delivered by local authorities. Around 100,000 homes across Scotland will be contacted with advice on energy efficiency measures and offered the opportunity to participate. This is in addition to last month's announcement of £15 million for the Home Insulation Scheme – delivered by the Energy Saving Trust – which offers householders a mix of free and discounted energy-saving measures, according to income.

42 per cent carbon-emission reductions by 2020? 80 per cent renewable energy by 2020? 12 per cent less energy consumed by 2020? It's a 'triple 20' that could save an estimated £2 billion by 2020, through smaller energy bills – and investment in energy efficiency over that period could directly support around 10,000 jobs.

That can only be good news.

Picture: Christian Gidlöf, Wikimedia Commons

Smart Meters or Dumb Citizens?

 

After doing a little research for this blog it became clear that not everyone is aware of the difference between smart meters and energy monitors.Whilst I suspect most of you are I thought I would give you a brief explanation for those who don’t before discussing the potential benefits and draw backs of smart meters.

Energy Monitors are hand held or table top gadgets that estimate your electricity usage in real-time. They are designed to make you aware of your electricity usage with the goal of reducing energy consumption. They usually display cost, energy usage (in kWh) or carbon emissions. These are available now and cost approximately £40 or you can get them free from some energy suppliers and you can install them yourself.

Smart Meters are electricity and gas meters that are designed to replace your existing ones. They measure your exact usage in real time and relay it back to your energy supplier.

One immediate change and, a potential benefit of the smart meter will be that you get accurate bills based on your actual usage; but this doesn’t automatically mean a reduction in your bill, you may use a bit less than the approximate amount you are currently billed for, on the other hand you may use slightly more.

The smart meters in themselves are not smart; it is you who needs to be. The smart meter will provide you with a detailed knowledge of your electricity and gas consumption but what you do with that knowledge is up to you. Ideally you will use it to pin point those areas where you could reduce your use and then actively do so.

At the moment smart meters are not widely available and would need to be installed by your energy company. Although there are government plans to roll out smart meters and have them in every home before 2020 they may not appear on a large scale for a few years yet. It might be worth checking with your current provider what their plans are for smart metering if you are interested in getting one.

Someone in the smart metering industry recently commented that “everything in your life is becoming smarter – your car, your phone – but your house is still stupid.” So are the smart meters actually smart? Only if whoever uses them is willing to use the information they provide to reduce their energy usage. The smart meters are not instinctively smart; they cannot work out where you are using excess energy and turn the offending appliance off only that you are using excess energy. The where is something people need to work out and action for themselves. And they can do it!

going green is good business

 

Going green - from the top down

While we're busy reducing domestic energy use one home at a time, one project in New York City is about to cut carbon emissions by the equivalent of 40,000 households in one swoop.

That’s right: the Empire State building is going green. Its refurbishment project, already underway, is expected to reduce the building’s energy use by almost 40%, saving $4.4m a year in energy bills. The scheme is predicted to recoup the costs of the refurbishment within three years.

The programme consists of:

• Replacing 6,500 windows
• Installing barriers behind radiators to stop heat loss
• Reducing the power of lighting
• Upgrading the building’s cooling system
• Improving the energy control system
• Raising the quality of ventilation
• Introducing a tenant energy management system.

And believe it or not, they’re doing it because it’s good business. "We're doing this not because it's the right thing to do," said Anthony Malkin, president of Malkin Holdings, quoted in the Guardian, "but because it makes business sense. If we don't reduce our energy consumption, we will lose money and be less competitive against China, India, Brazil and the other expanding economies."

This business-innovation approach is a very promising sign of things to come, and Malkin is not alone in his thinking: only two weeks ago the chairmen and CEOs of 27 major businesses – including Asda, Vodaphone and Lloyds Banking group – published a letter in the Financial Times, backing Environment minister Chris Huhne’s call to increase the UK’s carbon reduction targets from 20% to 30% by 2020.

Like Malkin, the business leaders say that raising emission reduction target is good business sense, and will save money and make the UK more competitive in a global market. According to the FT, “Companies, including household names from across Europe, applauded those views in the letter: ‘The EU’s future competitive advantage lies in encouraging and enabling its businesses to help drive the transformational change that will occur in the world economy within the next couple of decades, not to hide from it’.”

The Energy Saving Trust agrees. Not only do we have a lot of work to do if we are to meet our carbon emission reduction targets – the business side of going green will play an important part in building a really sustainable economic recovery.

In New York they see the Empire State building project as something all large buildings and major cities should be watching and learning from. Property Week quotes Malkin as saying, “If we only succeed at the Empire State Building, we have failed.”

We’ll be watching. And we hope the many thousands of Brits who visit New York each year will be inspired to emulate its most famous building when they get home. We’ll be more than happy to advise them on how to cut their emissions and their energy bills – though possibly not by $4.4million each…

"Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink"

When the poet Coleridge wrote that line he may have been onto something. After the winter we have just experienced, I have to confess I wasn’t expecting to see July open with a hosepipe ban!

And after a summer that has seen a rainless Wimbledon, uninterrupted cricket matches and thousands of sunbathers on the beaches of southern England, I was even less expecting the first hosepipe ban in 14 years to be declared in the very wettest part of England. But the area is now pursuing the implementation of its first drought order for over a decade.

All in all, this is a bit of wake-up call for the water industry across the whole country. Up until this point, particularly in the northern parts of the UK, water conservation seemed to be a luxury people have thought they could do without: after all, Britain’s famous for its rain.

But the Met Office reports that northwest England can only expect around 55% of its normal rainfall in the first six months of this year. It further predicts that it would take an extra 100mm of rainfall in the northwest to saturate the ground deeply enough to make it to the reservoirs.

For all sorts of reasons reduction of carbon emissions and reduction in customers’ bills have not translated in people’s minds into conservation of water. I hope this new dose of reality in a warming world will persuade water utilities to re-think their plans.

Otherwise, unless we want to wake up, like the poet, “a sadder and a wiser man,” we may need to be sending for someone who can do a good old-fashioned rain dance! 

(Image by Chris 73, Wikimedia Commons)

The Backlash Starts Here

Well it had to happen sooner or later didn’t it? I am the first not to seek to defend those scientists / policy analysts / journalists who either mis-interpret the facts or in some cases clearly seek to ensure the facts don’t get in the way of a good story as far as climate change (or anything else come to think of it) matters!

However, we need to be really careful about this. Just witness the hundreds of column inches dedicated to two or three pieces of mis-information during the last week. Set against the tens of thousands of column inches making it clear that there is a broad consensus,
if not total agreement, on the direction of climate change and it’s major causes.

Science will, and always will, remain highly contestable but this is one area where there is broad consensus. However, it is true to say that even those who believe there is a an undisclosed lack of consensus still talk of a no-regrets energy strategy in light of the science. It’s really important that we do not lose our nerve in the next few months as important decisions are made coming up to an election, and climate change is put before a broader audience. It would be unfortunate with a poor result in Copenhagen for this to be further compounded with a low level, facile discussion with regard to climate change during the pre-election period.

I for one will be looking to make sure that climate change, low carbon living and sustainability remain firmly on the agenda; political or not. Now is not the time to lose our focus if we are to make real progress on some exceptionally steep targets; not just around CO2 reductions but also those that pertain to the broader use of natural raw materials. Even the climate sceptics, or would be climate sceptics, cannot deny that to go on using energy and water in our current profiligate manner along with the continuing pursuit of a throw away society is clearly no longer sustainable, if it ever was. The fight back starts here. It was always going to be difficult, a case of climate fatigue indeed!