the Carbon Challenge

A CENTRE OF LOW CARBON INNOVATION ON THE EDGE OF THE BRITISH ISLES

Guest Blog by Eddie Hyams, Chairman, Energy Saving Trust

Beyond this beautiful beach it is some three thousand miles to the East Coast of North America, yet the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides is at the forefront of Low Carbon development in the UK.

I spent an intensive 24 hours on Lewis thanks to Brian Wilson. Brian and his family live on Lewis and even though it is several years since he stepped back from front line politics when he was Energy Minister, he is as energetic as ever, encouraging low carbon innovation and development - as well as playing a pivotal role in revitalising the Harris Tweed industry.

My busy day started with a visit to Lewis Castle College and its low carbon research centre, Greenspace (www.greenspaceresearch.com).  The centre was buzzing with ideas and renewables equipment. The importance of potential marine energy to the Highlands was highlighted by work on a new wave-testing installation which was under construction alongside existing small wind and PV test rigs. Among the many interesting development projects I was particularly interested in the software modelling tools for building efficiency including Energy Performance Certificates (EPC’s). Clearly some highly innovative work is in hand in this remote centre of excellence.

The Western Isle faces some of the highest levels of fuel poverty in the UK as a result of economic circumstances and the state of the local housing stock with its crafting history. So it was a fortuitous coincidence that my visit coincided with the announcement of the Scottish Governments Home insulation Scheme ‘’HIS’’ which will be managed by the Energy Saving Trust. This is an ambitious partnership project with over 8500 homes to be insulated in Lewis in this first year of a rolling programme across Scotland. This is a challenging target especially as there is a procurement process to complete by which time less than 6 months will remain to achieve the full year target.

My wide ranging discussions with the Western Isles Council, the Highlands and island Development Agency and with the local insulation delivery partners highlighted the scale of the challenge though it is one which everyone is highly motivated to meet. As ever, in these important projects, working with partnership and motivating the citizen are vital ingredients and these are very much part of our DNA throughout the Energy Saving Trust.

The HIS scheme is grant based, and while that may well remain an important feature of schemes focussed on the fuel poverty sector the  discussions reinforced for me the need for yet more ambitious energy reduction targets in the domestic sector. The Energy Saving Trust is already engaging with more and more local authorities and large and small delivery business as well as the energy retail companies to achieve this. The Energy Saving Trust- Scotland model, combining many aspects of advice and delivery into one single citizen centred organisation is very promising and this is something we will be highlighting in the coming months.

Out and about again after these meetings, saw a visit to a modern waste to energy plant using an Aerobic digester. I was struck by the fact that innovation can happen with the right encouragement in all parts of the British Isles.

The end of the day saw the chance to reflect while being privileged to participate in a relaxed family meal on the West coast of Lewis.

Reflecting on all I heard on the ground, I am convinced we can and must find ways of achieving ambitious targets without the need for more and more public money. In the longer term we should be aiming to eliminate the need for calls on public funding as we roll out partnership programmes. This may sound ambitious, given our history in the UK, but it is possible and we and others are working up robust ideas how to achieve this. 

I was impressed also, by the fact that Lewis draws back experienced and high profile individuals from all over the UK and beyond to enjoy its relaxed atmosphere and scenery.  Perhaps that is one secret of nurturing innovation.

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

 

 

 

Glamour and sustainable energy

Philip Sellwood is on holiday this week. Today, Mike Thornton, Director of Energy Saving Trust Scotland, has written a guest post.

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Not necessarily words that automatically go together but there have been recent reports in the Scottish media that do make a link. Specifically, the term “eco-bling” has been bandied around. The view has been expressed that microrenewables are the glamour end of the spectrum and that a small number of homes sporting highly visible solar panels, micro-wind turbines etc are diverting attention amongst the public and policy makers from the nuts and bolts energy efficiency measures which yield the big, cost-effective, carbon savings.



It is undoubtedly true that amongst “early adopters”, keen on nifty gadgets in general, microrenewables, being cool devices, have an appeal that hidden insulation that just lies there and saves energy can’t match. And the media certainly do love a story about plucky little home generators, so they are high-profile.

But the idea that microrenewables and energy efficiency are in conflict is what I think philosophers and Marxists call a false dichotomy. In fact they both have a place in the ecology of carbon saving. I think it would be fair to say that at the present time the large majority of support for carbon–saving measures in the home – from government and from other players like fuel suppliers – is for energy efficiency measures, that’s insulation of all kinds, low-energy light bulbs and so on. And that is is how it should be because these are incredibly cost-effective measures which save lots of money and carbon for relatively low investment. But although there is lots of carbon still to save through energy efficiency and we won’t come to the end of it for a long time yet, one day (and the sooner the better for the planet) we will have insulated all the cavities and lofts that can be insulated and replaced all the light bulbs that can be replaced.

And we still won’t have reached the targets for carbon savings – which will be 80% in Scotland. So then we will need microrenewables to save even more carbon and we will need them in large numbers. And as mass markets take a long time to develop, we need to start them going now.



Don’t forget that most people who install microrenewables do so because they have already put in all the insulation their house can accomodate and want to take the next step in terms of saving carbon and money. So today’s early adopters, far from indulging whimsically in pointless eco-bling, are pioneers doing us all a favour. Their willingness to invest in microrenewables is taking the whole market forward and everybody will benefit in the end.

So let’s hear it for eco-blingers!

Don’t Mention the War (on climate change), Germany is winning

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"Can the UK come back and take the lead over Germany in the fight against climate change?"

Well, it is not only football where we seem to get beaten in extra time by the Germans, I have just been wading my way through a comprehensive pack of measures launched over the last couple of years, enabling ordinary German citizens along with businesses and communities to modernise their housing, particularly delivering on energy efficiency and reducing CO₂ emissions from buildings. 

Just to give you some sort of sense of scale, in 2007, about 80,000 low interest loans totalling €5 billion (yes €5 billion) were granted under the Reducing CO₂ emissions from Buildings programme in Germany.  This went towards establishing energy efficiency in over 200,000 existing or newly built homes.  In addition €600 million went towards modernising 600 schools and 1,200 day care centres for children with significant increases in the energy efficiency of both new and existing buildings.

The good news for the German economy does not just stop there however. It is also estimated by the Bremmer Energy Institute that these “investments” helped to secure existing jobs and will create around 220,000 new jobs every year in German small and medium size construction companies.   In total from 2006 to 2009 the Federal Government will make about €4 billion available to reduce CO₂ emissions from buildings, which it has already announced will continue until 2011.  I could go on.

These financing packages are not only generous, they are also sensibly constructed, capped at a level that gives a decent incentive for consumers and developers alike to carry out the necessary investment in family houses, apartments and public buildings.  Not only that, if the measures that are carried out they deliver a 30 per cent reduction against existing housing standards the owner receives a grant of up to 20 per cent of those investment costs, so there is a double incentive to do the right thing.  If you get the message we are already 3-0 down and it’s not even half time yet!  The way in which these schemes are incentivised and structured makes them even more compelling proposition, with some schemes offering repayment free start up years and then repayment periods running from 5 to 30 years with a fixed interest rate for the first five or ten years.  Well - the games up, I think it is about time that we started getting serious in the UK in regards to what is necessary to deliver a decent housing standard for the lamentable housing that still exists in all four countries that make up the Union.

The good news, however, is that we have not yet reached full time and if we are quick about it, and I can’t say I am entirely confident, there is still an opportunity for a late equaliser or dream of dreams a winner in extra time.  If we don’t then Euro 2008 won’t be the only competition we fail to qualify for!

A room with a view!

Well, yesterday was quite a special day as I helped Nicky Gavron (Deputy Mayor of London) launch the completed and operational solar roof at City Hall. To quote Ray Noble of BP Solar - "This is possibly going to become the most iconic building, not only in the UK and Europe, but also possibly - at the moment - in the world with regard to its use of renewable energy". I won't bore you with too many of the engineering details, but suffice to say it's an engineering marvel - beautiful to look at (see pictures below) and has a carbon payback of just under four years (yes - four years!) This means with an expected operational life of 60 years, we are talking about this particular initiative paying back fourteen times over its lifetime. As I said in my speech, it's actually fantastic to see and to help launch such a singularly effective illustration of what distributed generation can look and feel like and yes, it's not a bad view either! Let's hope that the next step, which includes similar initiatives on over 100 GLA properties, whilst perhaps not as spectacular, will also serve as working reminders of what we need to do - not only to make London the leading low carbon city in the world, but also to illustrate what can be done all across the country. I am not sure that I am allowed to say well done Ken and Nicky in an election period, but I will anyway and risk Boris Johnson's wrath!

From the great to the small – all are important!

Well, what a week it’s been! There have been all sorts of announcements and press coverage, ranging from the Government’s declaration to press on with second generation nuclear power stations to various articles, particularly in the broadsheet press, accusing energy efficient light bulbs (CFLs) of anything from mercury poisoning, poor health, epilepsy, migraines to, well, I am not sure what comes next.  Third world poverty?! Whilst not wanting to undermine any of these issues, surely we have to keep our eye on the bigger picture here and remind ourselves that climate change is the biggest threat facing, not just the UK, but the rest of the world as well.

This brings me onto something small-scale, but quite heartening in the context of the trillions of pounds of investment being spent on nuclear energy, off-shore wind etc etc. We’re starting to see the gradual launch of something, which I think could potentially revolutionise the carbon footprint of our transport sector. What is it? Electric vehicle recharging points. Until very recently these rather eclectic electric vehicle recharging points could only really be found within WestminsterCity, where a Government launched infrastructure programme had funded a couple of dozen. However the good news is forward looking Capital Shopping Centres Plc, which is part of Liberty International has agreed to install recharging points in nine of the UK’s leading regional shopping centre. So, firstly a round of applause to CSC Plc and secondly coming to a shopping centre near you will be the opportunity to plug in and go. It’s only a small start, but a heartening counterbalance to all of the talk of the need to spend trillions of pounds of tax payers’ money on technologies that one has to say to date have singularly failed to deliver a consistent cost-effective source of energy.

OK, grumpy, old man rant now over! Resume normal service next week.

Power to the people

Despite its somewhat clichéd title (Power to the people) who would have thought it would be left to David Cameron's Conservative party to seriously take on the debate about how we move towards a decentralised energy revolution. The purpose of this blog is not to agree one way or the other, although I have to say that I am taken with much of what's in the document, particularly the stuff around microgeneration. Evidence from other countries shows it will take a combination of policy initiatives if we're to see a genuine mass market of microgeneration (you might also like to see the Energy Saving Trust’s latest document on this subject called 'Generating the Future', which analyses the policy interventions we believe are necessary to achieve wide spread uptake of microgeneration by 2050).

Despite somewhat cynical and sceptical comments regarding the content of the Power to the people, ranging from hostility from John Hutton at BERR to accusations of naivety by the Energy Networks Association, there’s no arguing that the report represents an ambitious step forward. A combination of feed-in tariffs, smart metering and consumer education will give us a shouting chance of moving individual households towards not only energy conservation, but being producers in their own right therefore delivering on all sorts of policy agendas from security of energy supply to reducing the massive losses on generation and distribution currently endured as part of the historic legacy of the National Grid. However, there are some caveats - we need to understand and review the success or otherwise of feed-in tariffs as they pertain to other countries. It is not all wine and roses. What we can say with certainty is that they have delivered a step-change in microgeneration installations. Compare less than 5,000 delivered by our current microgeneration grant schemes to over 300,000 delivered in Germany by feed-in tariffs. It is perfectly legitimate for those who hold a different view to express it in the decentralised energy arena. However hats off to David Cameron and colleagues for at least upping the ante in terms of the quality of the debate.