The new Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) managed – Somerset West Home Energy scheme, in SW England, is offering people the chance to access funding to install solid wall insulation in their property. In some cases, grants will be available to pay for some or all of the work – however, where these aren’t available CSE is offering an innovative pay-as-you-save scheme which will mean residents won’t have to pay anything upfront.
The scheme is an Energy Company Obligation (ECO) pilot to test many of the principles behind the forthcoming Green Deal which the Government is planning to introduce later this year.
The scheme will seek to provide customers with the right balance of pay-as-you-save finance and Energy Company Obligation funding to enable customers to make their homes a more comfortable place to live, with a focus on installing solid wall insulation. More vulnerable customers will be able to access fully funded loft and cavity wall insulation and heating system improvements.
Insulating the solid walls of old properties is no small task, but Somerset West Home Energy aims to smooth the process by removing the upfront cost
Initially, a free Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) will be carried out to determine what type of insulation or heating measures will be needed at the property along with an assessment of the customer’s current occupancy habits. The Home Energy team at CSE will take the results and use them to calculate the available grant and pay-as-you-save finance.
The pay-as-you-save finance option will be available from Wessex Home Improvement Loans for those that do not wish to pay the upfront cost left from any shortfall in the grant.
External solid wall insulation can not only make your home more comfortable and easier to heat, but can look great as well
The monthly repayments for this loan will be calculated on the basis of being lower than the expected monthly fuel bill savings that the solid wall insulation delivers. So if the EPC anticipates a fuel bill saving of, say, £30 per month, then the loan repayments will less than £30, meaning you can enjoy a more comfortable home without worrying about the cost.
Basic insulation and heating improvements, including heating system upgrades, will be accessible for those falling into the current definition of the ‘Super Priority Group’. This is primarily those in receipt of benefits such as Pension Credit and Child Tax Credit with a low household income. The UK Government’s Green Deal, which is expected to launch in late 2012, is due to work along similar lines.
For more information go to the full CSE article
The UK Government is introducing a range of changes to the Feed-in-tariff scheme (FITs) with effect from 1 August 2012 that it claims will “provide better value for money and allow businesses and householders to plan with confidence”.
The tariff for a small domestic solar installation will be 16p per kilowatt hour, down from 21p, and will be set to decrease on a 3 month basis thereafter, with pauses if the market slows down. All tariffs will continue to be index-linked in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) and the export tariff will be increased from 3.2p to 4.5p. However the scheme lifetime will also be reduced from 25 to 20 years for new installations meaning in effect the subsidy will finish after 20 years.
The new tariffs should give a return on investment (ROIs) of over 6% for most typical, well-sited installations, and up to 8% for the larger bands.
The industry has been very successful in bringing solar technology costs down swiftly over the last two years and the improved scheme will reflect this trend as well as recognise the increasingly significant place solar PV can now have in local renewable electricity generation.
The UK Department for Energy and Climate Change has published practical advice for energy consumers looking to get a better deal on their gas and electricity deals through ‘collective switching’, and guidance for organisations wanting to launch their own collective energy purchasing schemes.
Energy Secretary Edward Davey: -
“I want to help make collective purchasing become a permanent feature of the UK energy market. This can be a really useful tool for consumers by making it easier to move to a better deal and to get real savings on gas and electricity bills, as well as helping boost competition.
“Now I want to see more providers coming up with schemes with the scale and reach to help the most vulnerable consumers. Local authorities and housing associations could have real role to play here, helping their tenants cope with living costs.”
More information:-
A US company that has developed groundbreaking new technology to convert water into energy for use in a wide range of commercial applications is to start developing it for commercial use following independent scientific validation.
BlackLight's breakthrough Catalyst-Induced-Hydrino-Transition technology converts water into energy
The technology converts water vapour to a new, more stable form of hydrogen, called Hydrino, and at the fraction of the cost. BlackLight Power, based in New Jersey, said it has now received validation in six separate, independent studies from leading scientists that its Catalyst-Induced-Hydrino-Transition (CIHT) process and cell represents a breakthrough in clean energy technology.
BlackLight’s continuously operating, power-producing system converts ubiquitous H2O (water) vapour directly into electricity, oxygen, and a new, more stable form of hydrogen called Hydrino
The UK Department for Energy and Climate Change has released final fuel poverty figures for 2010 that is showing a downward trend, but it predicts that figures for 2012 will show an increase due to higher energy costs.
Fuel poverty in the UK and England 1996-2010
The 2012 Annual Report on Fuel Poverty Statistics was published on 17 May 2012 and covers new data for England for 2010, and an estimated level of fuel poverty in the UK for 2010.
The main points are:
- The number of fuel poor households in England fell to 3.5m in 2010, from 4.0m in 2009. In the UK, fuel poverty fell from 5.5m households in 2009 to 4.75m in 2010.
The reduction in fuel poverty was caused by three main factors:
- rising incomes, especially amongst lower income households at risk of fuel poverty;
- improvements in the energy efficiency of the housing stock and installations of energy efficient boilers (32% of households had condensing boilers in 2010 compared with 24% in 2009), enabling households benefiting from these to heat their home with less energy;
- little change in prices for domestic energy between 2009 and 2010.
The UK level of fuel poverty is estimated based on 2010 data for England and Scotland and extrapolated estimates for Wales and Northern Ireland based on earlier years.
Vulnerable Households
In England in 2010, around 2.8 million vulnerable households were fuel poor, down from 3.2 million in 2009. In the UK, an estimated 4 million vulnerable households were fuel poor in 2010, compared with around 4.75 million a year earlier. A vulnerable household is one that contains the elderly, children or somebody who is disabled or long term sick.
Projections
Projections for England indicate there are likely to be around 3.5 million fuel poor households in 2011 and 3.9 million in 2012. Price rises in the second half of 2011 will not fully impact on fuel poverty data until 2012.
Projections for 2010 over projected fuel poverty by around 0.5 million households and this is explained in chapter 8 of the report. The main reasons for this were:
- higher than expected income increases, especially for households in the bottom half of the income distribution; and
- greater improvements in energy efficiency of the housing stock, in particular through installations of new energy efficient boilers.
Actual fuel poverty figures for 2011 and 2012 will only be known when they have detailed results of the surveys on household income and efficiency programmes, and will be available for publication in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The Government’s far-ranging planning system reforms, through the Localism Act and the NPPF signal a major shift of responsibility to local authority and community levels in England.
Planning for climate change – guidance for local authorities is designed to respond to this agenda and is aimed primarily at local authorities, private sector practitioners, Local Enterprise Partnerships and Local Nature Partnerships who want both to tackle climate change and to reap the positive economic benefits that solutions such as renewable energy, sustainable transport and building flood resilience can bring. The guide contains a case study on the Cambridgeshire Renewables Infrastructure Framework as an example of good practice.
It covers energy efficiency and renewable energy as well as sustainable transport. It’s conclusions:-
Addressing climate change is necessary if we are to
ensure future economic, environmental and social
well-being. While communities can benefit from
decentralised energy directly, they can also build a
resilient economic future by anticipating and
responding to climate change that is now inevitable.
Communities that ignore the challenge will find the
cost of impacts and of insurance rising sharply,
threatening their economic and social fabric. This
guide sets out suggestions for action, but that action is
now up to local authorities and communities.
Some countries reach the “golden goal” of grid parity for solar electricity
By Peter Bates | May 7, 2012
According to Bloomberg several countries that have high electricity prices have already reached the “golden goal” of grid parity. This means putting solar modules on the roof to replace electricity purchased from the grid is a good investment for consumers. This includes Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Spain and Australia. Brazil is also above the 6% level, but consumers may require higher returns on investment in a developing economy.
Japan, France, Greece and Turkey are expected to be there by 2015, and by 2020 even the US average price will high enough to justify investment, even without the 30 percent investment tax credit subsidy.
An interactive version of this chart can be found on the Bloomberg site.
My comment on the UK situation: The UK having relatively lower electricity costs than other countries is likely to be similar to the US, but there are wide regional variations in the cost of electricity from the grid and as it is a very competitive market variations depending on usage so some consumers might reach the golden goal earlier than others. In addition, the UK government is also being fairly rigorous in legislating for carbon emission reductions that could also have an impact upon the time when grid parity is reached.
Localisation is also another interesting factor. Location householders could club together to get good deals on Solar PV installation as well as adopt collective bargaining techniques to buy electricity from the grid at a lower price in the same way as a number of communities are clubbing together to buy cheaper oil. The development of Community Energy Companies is also yet another factor.
The impact of occupant behaviour and use of controls on domestic energy use
By Peter Bates | May 6, 2012
This review was commissioned by the NHBC Foundation to examine previous research and knowledge on occupant behaviour and user interface design in homes. An extensive literature review was conducted and information was also gathered from experts at BRE.
The review published in March 2012 examines how energy is used in the home and how the way people behave affects their energy consumption. It explores the factors that affect energy use in the home and looks at the ways in which energy consumption can be reduced. In particular, the review examines the importance of providing guidance, feedback and information to occupants, and the role of in-home displays such as smart meters. It investigates behavioural science theories for changing behaviour and how these have been applied to energy use behaviours. It also examines the differences between energy efficiency and energy conservation and asks if energy-efficiency measures go far enough to tackle energy reduction.
Occupants control the energy used in a home through controls and user interfaces. These controls and interfaces can influence occupant behaviour. The review, therefore, goes on to explore the influence of controls and user interfaces on domestic energy use. It explores findings from previous research into how occupants typically use controls, their level of understanding and the information provided with controls. The review also compares automated and manual control systems in dwellings and their advantages and disadvantages.
The review then explores future user interfaces and ‘smart homes’. It examines how occupants will interact with future homes and what interfaces they are likely to use. It highlights where smart home systems might add value and possible barriers to the widespread roll-out of smart homes. It also examines recent consumer research on the latest low energy homes and outlines the concerns of consumer groups about the technologies and interfaces installed in these homes.
Research has shown that changing occupant behaviour will allow more energy to be saved than is possible through architectural and technical strategies alone. Differences in individual behaviour can produce large variations of more than three times the average energy consumption, even when differences in housing, appliances, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and family size are controlled for. It is, therefore, vital that more work is done to understand occupant behaviour and how to alter it to minimise wasted energy
and ensure energy is used efficiently.
Smart grid technology could save £19bn pounds to UK’s electricity infrastructure upgrade
By Peter Bates | May 6, 2012
Smart grid technology will cost £27 billion to develop and deploy, but sticking to conventional technology to upgrade the UK’s ageing electricity infrastructure between now and 2050 will cost £19 billion more.
The BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment scheme will go live for registrations on 2 July 2012. The new programme will help housing owners, managers and occupiers to carry out higher quality and more sustainable refurbishments, and ensure that refurbishment meets best environmental practice by saving carbon, water and waste, being adaptable to climate change and providing a healthy indoor environment.
BREEAM is the world’s foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings, with 200,000 buildings with certified BREEAM assessment ratings and over a million registered for assessment since it was first launched in 1990.
BREEAM sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation and has become one of the most comprehensive and widely recognised measures of a building’s environmental performance.
A BREEAM assessment uses recognised measures of performance, which are set against established benchmarks, to evaluate a building’s specification, design, construction and use. The measures used represent a broad range of categories and criteria from energy to ecology. They include aspects related to energy and water use, the internal environment (health and well-being), pollution, transport, materials, waste, ecology and management processes.
BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment can be used on a range of projects, including:
- making various alterations to a home – for example replacing windows or fitting new insulation
- conversions and change of use projects, such as converting a large dwelling into smaller ones, or an old hospital into housing
- refurbishment and regeneration schemes covering large numbers of homes.
Certification to the scheme will provide a market-focused label for residential buildings that have had more sustainable and higher quality refurbishments. A step change in refurbishment is needed in order to bring existing building stock where most buildings have an energy performance certificate (EPC) of D/E to a B.
Read article in Building4Change More details at BREEAM
Watch Introductory video on BREEAM and Refurbishment
