A UK report says that nearly half of the electricity consumed by British businesses is wasted when employees are not at work.

In an analysis of more than 6,000 smart meters, British Gas found that 46 percent of electricity use occurs from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m., when most businesses are typically closed. Common examples of unnecessary electricity use include the lighting of parking areas during weekends, keeping the lights on at retail stores even after shopping centers are closed, and running vending machines around the clock.

The UK utility also released a series of thermal images illustrating how much energy is lost from energy-inefficient buildings in London, Manchester, and Liverpool during the evening hours. According to British Gas, the average business could save £1,200 ($1,900) on its annual electricity bill by simply switching off the lights at parking lots during weekends.

A recent report by Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute suggested that reducing energy waste will be a critical component of UK efforts to achieve its climate change targets.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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Wind power in the UK has reached the 6GW threshold. The landmark figure was reached by the Ormonde offshore wind farm, off the coast of Cumbria and with 120 megawatts (MW) operational, which is enough to power more than 67,000 homes.

“There’s a great feeling of pride throughout the industry that we’ve reached a record high of 6 gigawatts, and there’s a further 19.5GW of capacity under construction, consented, or in planning,” said RenewableUK‘s Chief Executive, Maria McCaffery. “The Government’s Renewable Energy Roadmap is calling for 31GW of onshore and offshore wind combined by 2020, and we’re confident that we can deliver this if we continue to get the right level of Government support”.

The news was announced at RenewableUK’s Annual Parliamentary Reception last Wednesday. To give a better idea of what 6GW represents in terms of power, the UK now has enough installed wind power energy to supply over 3.3 million homes.

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Amidst the flurry of bad news being broadcast out of the UK, as London riots rage across the city, there has been some good news on the alternative energy front as well.

Westmill Solar Farm, the UK’s largest solar farm, was connected to the national grid a couple of weeks ago. Power from adjoining solar and wind farms in Oxfordshire now provide energy to 4,000 homes for the next 25 years, at least.

The solar farm covers the equivalent of eight soccer pitches. It features 23,000 solar panels and went online just a few days before government changes to feed-in tariffs.

“The installation offsets 3,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, it will provide power for a minimum of 25 years and from an aesthetic point of view, it is quite a sight to behold”, said Chris Dean, managing director of Blue Energy, which constructed the solar farm.

The solar farm began harvesting sunlight at 4pm on July 19. Following the government’s decision to curtail tariff levels associated with large-scale solar projects as of August 1, Blue Energy is now focusing on providing solar schemes for residential settings.

Mark Shorrock, CEO of Low Carbon Solar, which handled planning and grid application processes, said: “Westmill is a great example of how land, not suitable for agricultural use in the UK, can be harnessed for renewable energy and ensure the provision of more secure and reliable energy for the UK’s future.”

Westmill Solar Farm will be the subject of the UK’s largest community co-operative scheme later this year, meaning local residents and other shareholders will have ownership of the project.

“We are in the process of tailoring solar energy projects with incorporated investment schemes for private dwellings across the UK”, Mr. Dean said.

Adam Twine, a director of Westmill Solar Co-op and who farms at Westmill Farm where both the solar and wind projects are situated, said: “Local ownership of a solar farm in the UK on this scale will be a first. We expect to be oversubscribed for the share offer as we were for a similar scheme involving the wind farm.

“It’s our hope that this model of local people taking positive action to address climate change and generate renewable energy effectively in their own community will be replicated across the UK.”

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

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Government guarantee schemes and increasing electricity bills, combined with dwindling fossil fuel resources and the dire need for solutions to climate change make solar panels a compelling solution for the eco and budget conscious homeowner.

A solar system – simplified
Solar power uses photovoltaic (PV) cells on the roof of your house to convert light from the sun into electrical energy which can be used in your house, or fed back into the national grid. A chemical reaction creates a flow of electrons in the solar panel (direct current or D/C), which feeds into an inverter to convert this into alternating current (A/C) to power your house.

Will it work if I don’t live in Southern California?
Solar panels don’t actually need sunshine to work, the photovoltaic cells react to daylight. So even on a completely overcast day solar panels can generate 40% of their potential electricity yield. And you are still connected to the electricity grid, so outside of daylight hours you can draw from the grid just as before. Plus, any extra electricity from your panels which you don’t use will be fed back to the grid and you’ll actually get paid for it! (See below)

The environmental benefits
The environmental case for renewable energy is becoming louder and more critical all the time. Barely a week goes by without a major news story involving the rising price of oil and gas, the terrible environmental impact of fossil fuel recovery methods such as “fracking” and tar sands which leave areas of land devastatingly polluted and emit up to 45% more greenhouse gas than even traditional oil and gas (and of course 100% more than solar). With peak oil production rapidly approaching, solar is widely seen as an integral part of the low-carbon future, and thankfully one which you can start to benefit from now.

The financial benefits
Arguably just as important as the environmental benefits, there are now real cost savings to be made by going solar. Government schemes both in the UK and US now provide homeowners with compelling cost incentives for installing solar panels at home. Last year in the UK the government introduced the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) as an incentive scheme to encourage homeowners to invest in solar PV.

in the UK, the FIT ensures payment of 43.3 pence (0.70 dollars) for each unit of electricity that their domestic solar system produces, irrespective of whether they use that electricity in their home or not. Additionally, the FIT also pays 3 pence (5 cents) per unit for electricity not used in the home and exported to the National Grid. The scheme is guaranteed for 25 years, and the amount will increase with inflation linked to the Retail Price Index.

With this in place, homeowners can make around £12,000 (US$19,500) profit over the lifecycle of their solar panels. This is on top of savings on electricity bills of between £70 (US$114) and £130 (US$212) every year.

Anything else to stop you?
Installation and all the technical know-how are handled by the solar panel provider, along with maintenance over the life of the panels. In the vast majority of cases you won’t require any planning permission to install solar panels. Although the initial cost of the panels is between £8,000 (US$13,000) and £14,000 (US$23,000), the feed-in-tariff, and bill savings ensure you will start earning this back from day one. Also, many solar panel providers offer free panels in exchange for rights to the feed-in-tariff until the cost is paid off. So there really should be nothing stopping you from going solar at home.

Article by Ben Saffer, appearing courtesy EnergyRefuge.

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The vast majority of new offshore wind turbines built in European waters this year have been installed in the UK, according to the European Wind Energy Association.

Of 108 new turbines installed off the European coast during the first half of 2011, 101 were built in the UK.

But so far only about two-thirds of the new turbines have been connected to the electricity grid, according to the industry group’s report.

As of June 30, there were 1,247 fully connected turbines in European waters, scattered across nine countries. EWEA Executive Director Christian Kjaer said offshore projects represent “the largest construction undertakings going on in Europe,” but warned that the sector will continue to rely on increased large-scale investment.

Although just one turbine was constructed in Norway during the first half of the year, it was a prototype floating model that, if successful, could extend the offshore wind industry into deeper waters, and open up new areas of exploitation, industry experts say.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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Not for the first time, the Prime Minister was happily promoting the irreconcilable. “By stepping up, showing leadership and competing with the world,” he announced last week, “the UK can prove that there need not be a tension between green and growth.”(1)

It could have been worse. After the Treasury and the business department tried to scupper the UK’s long-term carbon targets, David Cameron stepped in to rescue them. The government has now promised to cut greenhouse gases by 50% by 2027, which means that, with a following wind, the UK could meet its legally-binding target of 80% by 2050. For this we should be grateful. But the coalition has resolved the tension between green and growth in a less than convincing fashion: by dumping responsibility for the environmental impacts on someone else.

The carbon cut we have made so far, and the carbon cut we are likely to make by 2027, have been achieved by means of a simple device: allowing other countries, principally China, to run polluting industries on our behalf.

Officially, the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen from 788 million tonnes in 1990 to 566mt in 2009 (2). Unofficially, another 253mt should be added to our account (3). That’s the difference between the greenhouse gases released when manufacturing the goods we export and those released when manufacturing the goods we import. The reason why our official figures look better than those of most other nations is that so much of our manufacturing industry has moved overseas. It is this which allows the government to meet its targets. If the stuff we buy is made in China, China gets the blame.

This would be less of an issue if China were obliged to restrict its emissions. But under the only global treaty in force at the moment – the Kyoto Protocol – developing countries have no need to reduce their impacts (4). That suits the governments of both rich and poorer nations. Governments like ours can pretend that there is no conflict between green and growth. They avoid unpopular decisions, allowing people to consume whatever they fancy, and they keep business sweet by promising endless expansion. Governments like China’s can keep supplying us with the goods we couldn’t produce at home without breaking our obligations.

Though the UK has been better served by this system of false accounting than most nations, it’s a global problem. A recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that even if all the unenforceable pledges made in the Copenhagen Accord were honored, carbon cuts by the rich nations between now and 2020 would be canceled out by their imports from developing countries (5). In other words, nothing will have been achieved. Already, 16 billion tonnes – equivalent to 27 years of the UK’s emissions – have gone missing from the international system as a result of this false accounting (6).

One of the results of such prestidigitation is that we greatly underestimate the pollution caused by manufacturing. Because we don’t see these emissions in our own accounts, and because the government seeks to clean up only the carbon which officially belongs to us, we have concentrated on greening the electricity and heating in homes and offices, and the transport we use, and have overlooked everything else we buy. We emphasize services and forget about goods. As soon as you account for the stuff we use that’s made elsewhere, you discover that we’ve been missing more than half the story. As the Guardian’s carbon calculator shows, manufacturing and consumption is responsible for 57% of our real emissions (7). Cameron’s contention that there need not be a tension between green and growth collapses.

It looks naive today, it will look cynical in 2027. The new carbon target is likely to be more than annulled by the growth in outsourced greenhouse gases. Figures produced by the Carbon Trust, a government-funded body, show that by 2025 our true emissions (produced both here and abroad) will rise from 844mt to 908 mt (8). So much for the 50% cut by 2027.

This is an issue which governments of all varieties appear to have ignored. But recent freedom of information requests by Guy Shrubsole and Alex Randall of the Public Interest Research Centre show that civil servants have long been advising ministers that the issue makes a mockery of their carbon targets (9). Their briefings have warned that “the rise in UK consumption has outstripped the improvements achieved” and that “the Government needs to be cautious about over-claiming on its achievements in decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation”. Some hope.

The obvious conclusion is that the international system for regulating emissions is bust. It has been bust since it was launched in 1992. From the outset it allowed rich and poor nations tacitly to conspire in producing a semblance of action. As soon as the UN tried to resolve this problem by bringing developing nations into the system at Copenhagen in 2009, the process collapsed.

After the talks fell apart there, we were promised that the matter would be settled at Cancun the following year. It wasn’t, so we were told to wait until the talks in Durban in December 2011. At the end of last month, both the EU and US negotiators announced that it isn’t going to happen in Durban either, but that miracles will be administered in 2012. I can picture the delegates at the 2100 meeting, sitting beside the air conditioning units in Murmansk, promising that it will all be sorted out in 2101 at Ny-Ålesund.

If governments are serious about preventing climate breakdown, they must admit that the process has failed, abandon it and start again with a new one. I still believe the most promising system is the cunningly-designed carbon trading scheme proposed by Oliver Tickell in his book Kyoto2 (10). This would also be resisted, as it doesn’t allow rich countries to dump their emissions on poorer ones. But it has two advantages in expediting the negotiations, over the current system. The first is that it is fair, transparent and universal, with fewer opportunities for false accounting: governments are less likely to feel cheated. The second is that, because greenhouse gases would not be allocated to states, there is no longer an incentive (which has fatally undermined the negotiations to date) to pass the buck to other countries and engage in carbon nationalism.

The old system is dead, but there will be no successor until governments are brave enough to issue the certificate. Until that point, there’s only one thing these interminable, soul-sapping talks will save: face.

Article by George Monbiot, appearing courtesy Celsias.

References:

1. http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn11_41/pn11_41.aspx

2.http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/statistics/climate_change/gg_emissions/uk_emissions/2009_final/2009_final.aspx

3. Steven J. Davis1 and Ken Caldeira, 23rd March 2010. Consumption-based accounting of CO2 emissions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 107, no. 12, pp 5687–5692. doi/10.1073/pnas.0906974107

http://www.pnas.org/content/107/12/5687.full.pdf+html

4. http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.pdf

5. Glen P. Peters, Jan C. Minx, Christopher L. Weber and Ottmar Edenhofer, 25th April 2011. Growth in emission transfers via international trade from 1990 to 2008. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.1006388108.

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/04/19/1006388108.full.pdf+html

6. As above .

7. http://www.monbiot.com/2010/05/05/carbon-graveyard/

8. http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/events/events-resources/Documents/2010-10-footprinting-and-labelling-brief-PT.pdf

9. http://climatesafety.org/uks-total-emissions-set-to-rise-new-data-obtained-by-pirc/

10. http://www.monbiot.com/2008/07/01/green-lifeline/

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The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) recently launched by the UK government has been met with mixed reactions.

The £860bn pound scheme is expected to increase green capital investment by £4.5bn by 2020 and will stimulate a new market in renewable heat. The number of industrial, commercial and public sector installations is expected to rise seven-fold by 2020.

Businesses that install low-carbon forms of heating such as Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP) will be paid the RHI at 4.3p per kW hour of renewable heat produced for systems less than 100kW and 3p per kWh for systems above 100kW in quarterly installments over periods of up to 20 years. The RHI tariff will reduce the payback period to between 6-9 years on commercial heat pump installations.

Geothermal International, a company with over 80% share of the UK’s commercial GSHP systems, welcomed the scheme, saying it will transform the market. “We are delighted the Government has committed to encouraging a national switch to low-carbon heating. Ground Source Heat Pumps have a vital role to play in meeting targets to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions by 2050 – the technology is a proven renewable energy heating and cooling solution for the 21st century”, said Patrick Sherriff, Geothermal International’s marketing director.

The company has installed more than 160MW of GSHP systems in the UK, including Europe’s largest lake loop at Mansfield Hospital and the UK’s largest closed loop system at the One New Change building in the City Of London. Amongst its most typical customers are offices, retail developments, police headquarters, schools, hospitals, community centres, sports centres and even the UK’s first carbon-neutral church at Little Walsingham, Norfolk.

GSHP systems work by extracting the natural warmth stored in the ground all year round. A typical system consists of a buried earth loop connected to a heat pump. Liquid is pumped down the loop, where it gathers warmth from the earth, and is then compressed, raising its temperature high enough to be used in space heating a building. For cooling, the process is reversed. Working on a similar principle, a typical Air Source Heat Pump system draws heat from the air outside a building then uses a pump to concentrate the heat which in turn warms water for radiators. ASHP systems can supplement GSHP systems and can be readily retro-fitted.

Concerns
Not everyone is so enthusiastic about the RHI, though. Green charity Environmental Protection UK (EPUK) has issued a warning that the scheme could lead to increasing air pollution, especially in urban areas.

Businesses and households will receive incentive payments to use renewable heat which includes biomass systems such as wood-fired boilers. But these biomass heating systems can release high levels of air pollutants when fuel is burnt, EPUK said. That presents a potential health risk in built-up areas.

According to figures from the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants, pollutants released by biomass heating systems, similar to those from vehicles, could contribute to up to 200,000 premature deaths a year.

EPUK suggests a location-based approach to renewable heat, with local authorities having a greater say in what types of system can be installed to ensure that pollution levels and potential health risks are minimised.

“The RHI highlights the need for a rethink on the Government’s microgeneration strategy,” said EPUK chair James Grugeon. “It’s a step in the right direction, but this broad-brush approach to installing renewables shows there is a lack of understanding about the local health impacts they can have and also where they work best.”

Friends of the Earth, another UK-based green charity, acknowledged the potential benefits of the scheme but also expressed concerns over the use of unsustainable biomass and incineration.

Article by Antonio Pasolini, appearing courtesy Justmeans.

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Buying solar power in the UK has become literally as easy as pie since one of Britain’s largest supermarket chains announced it is selling panels from its stores and website.

According to Reuters, Retail giant Sainsbury’s has entered into a partnership with British Gas to offer small solar panels and loft insulation. A 2.1Kw solar PV system is retailing for $16,310 to install and set up. The supermarket’s Energy department delivers and installs the units besides giving customers 10,000 Nectar points (the name of its reward system) worth $75.

Sainsbury is planning to educate consumers about the benefits of small-scale renewable energy with in-store advisors all over the UK. This will come in handy since the government is introducing schemes whereby households will get paid for each unit of renewable electricity produced. Estimates are that consumers will save nearly $1,000 that way.

Small-scale renewable energy is seen by many as a greener option that massive farms since it requires no additional space.

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

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It may seem like wind farms are a relatively new form of green technology, but they have actually been around for years—decades, even.

In fact, the UK’s first commercial wind farm, located at Delabole in Cornwall, celebrated its 20-year anniversary with a multimillion-pound renovation. Delabole originally consisted of 10 turbines standing at 164 feet each, but has now received four new 325-foot turbines as part of the overhaul.

With the newer, more energy efficient turbines up and running, the wind farm is expected to generate 9.2 megawatts of power—a massive feat for any form of renewable energy. This operation now has the ability to power 7,000 homes.

The project cost about 11.8 million pounds to complete, but with the site slated to produce a substantial amount of power in the area for years to come, it seems well worth it.

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International cooperation in clean tech innovation and diffusion is increasingly common. One of the trends in this regard is a country’s trade officials organizing an international tour of home grown clean tech companies, in many cases to the U.S., to promote their wares and explore business opportunities.

A recent case in point was the G’Day USA Australia Biofuels event last month.

The latest example of this is the delegation of UK clean tech companies visiting San Diego.

The UK Trade & Investment Roundtable, being hosted by DPR Construction, Inc. at 5010 Shoreham Place in San Diego on February 18th, will showcase several UK companies operating in and around the clean tech space.

For obvious reasons, one of the hottest clean tech sectors in the UK is wave and tidal power, including such players as Tidal Energy Limited, Pelamis, and Marine Current Turbines.

But the mini British Invasion of San Diego later this month represents a wide range of technologies from advanced batteries to green buildings.

According to James Cummings of the British Consulate in Los Angeles, the visiting companies include B&M Longworth (ultrasonic cleaning of industrial equipment), Breathing Buildings (green building ventilation systems), Ionotec (conductive ceramics for advanced batteries), Nanoflex (coating material for lighting), Securistyle (windows and doors), and the Carbon Trust (sustainable business and emissions reductions advisory services).

In some ways the UK has been at the forefront of green innovation policy. The UK Intellectual Property Office was one of the first national IP offices to initiate a fast track program for green patent applications.

So these and other UK clean tech companies were among the first to enjoy the opportunity of expedited examination of their patent applications. I hope they have taken advantage of it.

To RSVP or find out more information about this event, contact Mr. Cummings at james.cummings@fconet.fco.gov.uk.

Eric Lane is a patent attorney at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego and the author of Green Patent Blog. Mr. Lane can be reached at elane@luce.com.

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