Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy Blog

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2011-04-04T16:06:00.000+01:00

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FT says energy sector "ripe" for smart changes that monitor use of natural resources

2011-03-31T15:53:00.002+01:00

The Financial Times has published a digest on IT and sustainability, which includes reports on mapping water leaks, intelligent resource management, greater accuracy ahead of building construction, and systems that allow businesses to track their environmental performance.

Laura Ipsen of Cisco Systems says:

"The only way we can make smart changes to our planet is by using technology to manage, monitor and control ... natural resources."

The FT says:

"The energy sector is ripe for this kind of transformation."

St Columb's Gill Harper reports on her learning-exchange week in California

2011-03-30T16:04:00.006+01:00

Gill Harper, School Business Manager at our award-winning St Columb Minor School, is spending the week in California on the West Coast Green Alliance's learning exchange, organised by the IPPR.

Gill writes:

All of us in the group clearly come from very different backgrounds and organisations but all have a common thread which is that we all want to provide opportunities for youngsters, but particularly people living in the more socially deprived areas, to access the skills and training opportunities that will lead to decent green jobs with a decent salary and a career path.

On Monday we met with the leaders of the Apollo Alliance and the WeCan coalition who have clearly driven policies to stimulate the transition to a clean energy economy whilst providing green skills and job opportunities for the most disadvantaged Americans in San Francisco and other cities in California.

Today, Tuesday, we travelled out of the city to meet with Tara Marchant, the Director of Oakland Emerald Cities Collaborative . She explained how their consortium has successfully worked collaboratively to drive energy efficiency strategies with a focus on retrofitting urban buildings. Their vision is to create jobs that have life-time outcomes for youngsters in California.

This was followed by a fascinating visit to RichmondBUILD where we witnessed a lesson during a 15 week job-training programme for local residents from 18 upwards, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds, in green careers. This programme is primarily funded by the federal and state government but also has the benefit of supportive partners. The success of the programme was very evident from talking to the people enrolled on the training programme and hearing some of the success stories over the last 3 years – it is being driven by the Director who has a clear vision that makes it happen.

Our final visit today has been to Sun Power, a very successful renewable energy company who manufacture Solar PV panels. Their California Offices and one of their smaller assembling plants is housed in a fascinating old warehouse which was originally where Ford motor cars were assembled!

(image: RichmondBUILD students on the job training programme)

Rahimafrooz installs more than 200,000 solar systems in Bangladesh

2011-03-29T15:30:00.011+01:00

Since Rahimafrooz won an Ashden Award in 2006 it has continued to design and install new solar systems at an impressive rate. We recently got an update from them detailing their latest milestones. It was jam-packed with firsts.

Rahimafrooz has now installed over 200,000 solar home systems. It has also installed Bangladesh’s first ever specially-designed flood irrigation system, its first water purification system, and its largest centralised off-grid solar system. The flood irrigation system will allow 42 farmers to irrigate 40 acres of land and enable them to grow crops three times during the year instead of once. The 8kWp solar panels use technology that tracks the sun to make best use of the eight hours of sunlight and will provide 800,000 litres of water per day.

The cyclonic storms of Sidr and Aila, accompanied by furious tidal surges in 2007 and 2009 left people in Morelganj facing a crisis – safe drinking water. Rahimafrooz has now installed a solar-powered water purification system to provide drinking water for more than 8,000 people. The system integrates solar panels, a solar water pump and a water purification unit. Rahimafrooz is keen to replicate the success of solar-powered water purification system in other areas of the country where arsenic and salinity contaminate supplies.

Rahimafrooz has also installed the largest off-grid solar centralised system in Barkal, Rangamati. The 10 kWp system provides lighting for the entire community living in Barkal.

Last year South Farnborough Infants followed our LESS CO2 programme. This year they're going even further

2011-03-28T13:11:00.003+01:00

South Farnborough Infant School took part in last year’s South East LESS CO2 programme, which was designed to kick-start schools on a journey to reduce their CO2 emissions.

The school has just written to us, now that the LESS CO2 programme is over, with their to-do list for the coming year.

We thought it was well worth sharing:

Keep embedding sustainability into the curriculum – so far we've had great feedback from Year 1’s. Next we want to make a shared year group Green Board, and Green Summit to celebrate work by each year group.

Keep loaning energy monitors to parents. This has been a success - one winning family made a massive 32% energy saving in the second week of the loan and were rewarded with a top-of-the-range brand new monitor.
Install sun tubes in corridors by Easter 2011. We’ve already spent £7,000 this year so far on eco improvements to the building, including eco lighting in the main corridors.
Get together with our feeder schools to bring sustainability into the forefront of the South Farnborough schools staff, children and parents' minds, and look at sustainable procurement possibilities.
Make the most out of our monitoring by installing an Energy Display Meter and using the data in our curriculum.

This year we are heading down to the South West to roll out the LESS CO2 programme with 15 schools in Devon and Cornwall.

Okehampton College achieves another 25% drop in gas across year

2011-03-25T11:44:00.003Z

Okehampton College had already achieved impressive energy reductions when it received an Ashden Award in 2010. But the College's steps to reduce their energy consumption and CO2 did not stop there. Over the last year the College has reduced its gas consumption by 25%.

Keith Webber, Community Technology Coordinator at Okehampton, says:

"Our energy budget was set at £100,000 for the financial year - which is typically what we had previously been spending. But our net energy expenditure for this financial year will be around £55,500. This includes sports pitch floodlights and all electrical meters on site and takes into account the clean energy cash back of around £7,000 from feed-in tariffs. I believe there is still a further £10,000 of savings we can make."

Okehampton College's total energy consumption has gone down from 649,286 kWh in 2005 to 252,000 kWh in 2010. This represents a huge cost saving.

"If we were consuming at our 2005 rates, our bill would now be 2.5 times as much. We now have well-developed plans to use further renewable energy installations to realistically reach zero bills by this time next year. Importantly, this will also dramatically reduce our CO2 emissions as well."

Keith says there are strong financial incentives to continue looking for more energy savings:

"We currently are still only paying 9p a unit for electricity but can expect a sharp rise when the contract expires, this could increase by over 30% to maybe 12 or 13p a unit."

(Pic: Keith Webber, the Community Technology Coordinator at Okehampton College)

Budget blow to zero carbon homes

2011-03-24T12:25:00.001Z

Plans set out in the Budget renege on promises to be 'the greenest government ever'. The government missed a real opportunity to create new green jobs, meet our carbon reduction targets and pave the way for our low-carbon revolution in the UK.

What our winners need is confidence. It is the one thing that will allow communities, individuals, businesses, social enterprises, entrepreneurs and local governments to work in partnership to affect change and reduce our carbon emissions. This confidence comes from long-term policy, long-term reassurance and long-term targets.

Take for example the watering down of 2016 zero carbon homes policy in yesterday’s Budget. This was a policy that was working. It was stimulating innovation and creativity. Other countries looked to us as a shining example because low-carbon industry in the UK was starting to flourish. You could say just the same about the solar industry.

But yesterday’s announcements added further gloom to the uncertainty created by the early review of feed-in tariffs.

Essentially, there is no longer a zero carbon homes policy and we now have an un-ambitious green investment bank that can’t borrow. From flourish to flounder. What a shame.

(pic: 2003 Ashden award-winners BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy Development) is the UK's largest 'carbon-neutral' eco-village)

This is the big one in today's budget

2011-03-23T07:57:00.014Z

Update: Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne announces £2bn extra funding for Green Investment Bank - to launch in 2012

Green measures at a glance

Reactions on Twitter:

Dan Roberts, Guardian news editor: "Money for green investment bank but extra incentives for flying and driving. is that what they call joined up government?"

Kamal Ahmed, Sunday Telegraph Business Editor: "Delay to Green Investment Bank funding; Ingrid Holmes E3G: "It's like buying a powerful car and driving it around with the hand brake on"

New Economics Foundation: "Green Investment Bank resources trebled. So three peanuts rather than just one then?"

Institute of Mechanical Engineers: "Green Investment Bank needs £20bn to update infrastructure. Gets £3bn - a drop in the ocean..."

From earlier: What to look out for in today's budget: the Green Investment Bank:

This is the big one and the coalition has nowhere to hide. The GIB is intended to play a central role in driving the huge investment - £370bn by 2025, say some – needed in low carbon infrastructure in order to make the UK's economy green and sustainable.

The GIB was a Conservative and LibDem manifesto pledge, and a coalition pledge.

In the US, suburban shopping malls can become green community spaces

2011-03-22T11:38:00.007Z

At the recent Ecobuild conference, architect Ellen Dunham-Jones spoke about how some suburban shopping malls in the United States are changing into green community spaces. Juliet Heller reports

With much of the suburban landscape in the United State now aging, architect Ellen Dunham-Jones, author of Retrofitting Suburbia, says there is an opportunity to re-develop and re-invent malls and business parks into green and “walk-able” spaces.

The carbon footprint in suburbs is three times bigger than in cities. People in the suburbs depend on fossil fuels, particularly oil, and there are public health issues also emerging. For instance, obesity from the sedentary lifestyle is leading to heart disease and diabetes.

There has also been a surprising demographic shift: it looks as if around two-thirds of suburban households will no longer have children. Increasingly the suburbs is populated by retirees and young professionals, so the needs and demands of these spaces are changing accordingly.

By greening the landscape with trees, greening the transport system to reduce car use, and redesigning the buildings to be more comfortable and efficient, the areas are being transformed, and others are following their example.

You can watch Ellen Dunham-Jones's TED talk on retrofitting suburbia

As Climate Week shines light on "real practical examples", there are wider lessons to learn

2011-03-21T12:51:00.009Z

Climate Week, which starts today, aims to showcase examples of successful sustainable energy projects, or, in their own words:

"To shine a spotlight on the many positive steps already being taken in workplaces and communities across Britain. The power of these real, practical examples - the small improvements and the big innovations - will then inspire millions more people."

Our UK award-winners are already doing exactly that. They are at the forefront of building and embedding changes that reduce carbon emissions; from schools that have achieved more than a 50% reduction in their energy consumption, to enterprises that are installing microgeneration technologies and supporting behaviour change in homes and businesses.

Scaling up these initiatives, though, is the crux of having a real impact on the UK's emissions, and our winners, as an example of 'what success looks like', provide a valuable learning tool. Our most recent report, 'Power to our neighbourhoods' highlights some of the learning from our winners' work as they overcome the barriers to success. It concludes that approaches that are integrated and coordinated at a neighbourhood level are the most effective. Most importantly, it identifies the 'enabling factors' to making this happen: local authority involvement, partnership working, developing local supply chains, developing 'green entrepreneurs', building on existing communities and ensuring communities have real agency are at the top.

You can read more about our winners and download the full report on our website.

Sonia Gandhi says most of climate debate has been "gender blind"

2011-03-21T10:46:00.002Z

On Thursday last week, Sonia Gandhi, chair of the Indian National Congress, delivered the Commonwealth Lecture 2011 on "Women as Agents of Change" and called for women's voices to be heard in the climate change debate. After all, as Mrs Gandhi said, "Climate change and environmental degradation exact a greater price from women."

“Among all the challenges facing humankind in the twenty-first century, few are more pressing than climate change and global warming. Unfortunately ... most of the climate debate so far has been gender-blind."

“Today, women in India are becoming agents of change through their own initiative, their energy and enterprise. Through individual and collective action, they are transforming their own situations and indeed transforming the broader social context itself ... India is at the cusp of a ‘demographic dividend’, due to its young and increasingly educated and skilled population. Imagine what might happen when this demographic dividend is multiplied by a ‘gender dividend’. It will, I believe, yield enormous economic gain and lead to profound social transformation."

Full lecture here.

Red noses support Wangari's Green Belt (among other things)

2011-03-18T11:33:00.007Z

This morning's Radio 4 programme The Reunion told the story of Comic Relief: how it was launched in 1985; how the idea first emerged as a response to the crippling famine in Ethiopia in 1984; how the idea of Red Nose developed; and the "chaos, panic and tears" surrounding the first TV extravaganza. (Tonight's extravaganza starts at 7pm.)

In the intervening years, other issues have risen in prominence, including climate change. In 2006, Comic Relief commissioned research to understand better the impact of climate change on the world's poorest. The research made clear that the world's poorest were facing a climate change "triple whammy":

"they didn't cause it, they are most affected by it, and are least able to afford even simple measures that could protect them from the damaging impacts that are already unavoidable."

One of the eight pilot programmes that have followed from this, we are delighted to see, has been the support of Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement in Kenya.

Professor Maathai was the keynote speaker at the Ashden Awards in 2008.

Ashden Awards and GVEP International publish carbon finance guide

2011-03-18T10:14:00.001Z

In partnership with GVEP international, the Ashden Awards have published a guide on carbon finance for clean energy projects. For small-scale energy projects in developing countries accessing finance is one of the major constraints to expansion. Not all entrepreneurs are aware of basic criteria that will allow their projects to qualify for carbon finance, the time it will take, and who they should contact for help.

This guide tackles this information gap. It is one of a series on finance for sustainable energy enterprises produced by the Ashden Awards and GVEP International. The others, ‘Investment Finance’ and ‘End-User Finance’, are freely available online.

Arup director Peter Head outlines his vision for the "ecological age"

2011-03-17T14:17:00.003Z

Juliet Heller hears Peter Head, director of Arup and chair of The Institute for Sustainability, outline his vision for the "ecological age".

Peter Head has recently undertaken a three-year global tour to explore policies and investments to achieve what he calls the “ecological age”, reducing CO2 by 80 percent by 2050.

His main findings are that sustainable green growth needs community involvement, and cities have to be transformed.

He summarised the approaches needed:
-linking up renewable energy in communities and enabling them to make money from it;
-expanding the use of electric vehicles;
-taking cars out of inner cities (eg Seoul, S Korea where a motorway has been converted to a river, replacing cars with boats for transport and China where 5 percent of GDP is invested in high speed rail);
-growing more food in cities – using any space available such as rooftops
-using large scale biogas digesters as in Stockholm
-learning from examples such as the eco-city in Wangzhung, China designed by Arup.

Peter’s main case study is one that is still in the development stage (perhaps this illustrates the problem we face in the UK – not enough large scale examples). The planned ‘Total Community Retrofit’ project is being developed by the Institute of Sustainability and Arup.

This will help accelerate the transition to a low carbon way of life, creating new jobs and boosting the economy. They will connect urban and rural areas, and retrofit 20,000 homes using a street-by-street approach, financed by pension funds. It aims to share learning by building a knowledge hub, encouraging the idea to be replicated at the regional level.

(Peter Head was speaking at the Ecobuild conference in London.)

Five new reports show efficiency measures bring jobs, savings and CO2 reductions for businesses across the Northwest

2011-03-16T13:55:00.004Z

ENWORKS won an Ashden Award in 2007 for outstanding energy efficiency advice to businesses. Five new local reports demonstrate the impact its resource efficiency programme has had in areas across the Northwest.

In Cheshire and Warrington over 1,200 businesses have been helped through the programme, saving them 18.7m per year. For example, through the support of an ENWORKS advisor from Groundwork Cheshire, the Ellesmere Port headquarters of Protocol Skills, a national vocational training provider, has saved £7,100 a year by reducing boiler settings, setting up a weekend switch-off regime, installing water saving devices and low energy lighting and establishing a switch off campaign.

Property coordinator, Nick Biglowe, said:

“Other companies are missing out. A lot of people don’t realise how some really simple changes can make a huge difference. There’s no catch with Groundworks Cheshire – everyone benefits."

The reports also reveal that companies in Cumbria have saved 70,000 tonnes of CO2 through efficiency measures, whilst over 6,000 jobs have been saved across Lancashire, Liverpool and Greater Manchester.

(pic: CHK in Crewe, a steel components manufacturer, has saved £17,300 to date through efficiencies)

100 delegates meet in Cornwall to discuss sustainable schools

2011-03-14T17:28:00.010Z

Simon Brammer and Carla Jones travelled to Cornwall last Thursday for a conference on sustainable schools, organised by Ashden award-winner Gill Harper from St Columb Minor School and partly funded using Ashden Awards prize money. Carla Jones reports:

There were over 100 delegates representing schools throughout Cornwall for the conference ‘Developing Sustainable Schools in Cornwall’. It was also good to see representatives from past Ashden winners - Community Energy Plus and Solarcentury - among the exhibitors.

Rachel Delourme from Cornwall Learning introduced the opening speeches from Simon Brammer and Sharon Longden, Head of Cornwall Learning, which laid out the challenges and opportunities for schools (see the Ashden's learning resource for schools).

The explorer Anthony Jinman told us how achieved his dream of reaching the North Pole by the age of 29. Now, as founder of Education Through Expeditions, he reports on the dramatic climatic changes he sees in the polar regions through an interactive learning website.

Ben Margolis, acting director at 10:10, emphasised that real change won’t be driven by delegates at Copenhagen and Cancun, but will instead come from sustained engagement with local communities, starting with schools. It is at this grassroots level that people get a sense of agency and push for change.

The conference shared best practice in schools. We heard about the new pupil-led teaching approach at Ashley Primary School, the wide-ranging sustainability measures that have been introduced at St Columb Minor, and the fresh adventurous attitude to cooking at Penair School, where last week octopus risotto was on the menu.

Finally, we had a lot of interest in the next LESS CO2 programme that will support schools across the Southwest to reduce their carbon emissions.

(pic: Pupils taking wind speed readings at St Columb Minor School)

Heinberg on ‘the end of growth’

2011-03-14T11:09:00.003Z

The week before last I attended the Ecobuild conference at the ExCel centre in London. One of the most engaging lectures was Richard Heinberg's on 'the end of growth’ and the importance of sustainable energy alternatives to underpin a new economic system.

The community-based website Sustainable Guernsey has now transcribed this lecture and Mike, our UK Awards Manager just emailed a link to a presentation Heinberg gave along very similar lines at Totnes.

Government announces policy "to revolutionise how heat is generated and used in buildings"

2011-03-10T12:13:00.007Z

The Government has announced details of the £860m Renewable Heat Incentive policy to revolutionise the way heat is generated and used in buildings and homes. It's remarkable for a number of reasons:

- Like the Feed-In Tariff, the RHI takes a long-term approach to incentivising installation of renewable heat (from biomass, solar thermal, ground and water source heat-pumps, on-site biogas, deep geothermal, energy from waste and biomethane)

- It’s the first of its kind in the world (i.e. there has never been a separate guideline for renewable heat): it’s a significant move, as around half of the UK’s current carbon emissions come from the energy used to produce heat – more than from generating electricity. In fact over 95% of heat in the UK is currently produced by burning fossil fuel.

- There is one scheme for industry/commercial/public sector and one for the domestic sector: Targets include the expansion of renewable heat in the industrial/commercial 7-fold by 2020. This scheme also gives the opportunities for schools, libraries, community centres and communities of households to install renewable heat.

- A full system of RHI payments will be available to households from October 2012; and the Government says that in the interim, more than a quarter of the first year’s budget will be guaranteed for up to 25,000 household installations through a “RHI Premium Payment” to encourage take-up. Those who sign up to a premium payment must prove

- It will be particularly useful for rural areas because these technologies are often particularly appropriate for areas where there is low density of housing which is not necessarily near mains electricity or gas.

- The initial investment by government is £860m, which is expected to increase green capital investment by £4.5 billion up to 2020. The Government says this will create a large and thriving market in renewable heat

The Department for Energy and Climate Change will seek Parliamentary approval of the regulations in July 2011 and will introduce the tariff scheme after that.

Reactions

We will track further reactions over the coming days, but the main initial criticism is that the scheme excludes air source heat pumps, one technology which is used to produce renewable heat.

YouGen’s Cathy Debenham blogs about the domestic side here:

For first reactions on Twitter follow #rhi

US criticises Bangladesh over removal of Yunus from Grameen Bank

2011-03-09T14:45:00.004Z

The US Government has criticised Bangladesh over the removal of Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Laureate and micro-finance pioneer (and an Ashden Advocate), from his position as managing director of Grameen Bank.

The Financial Times reports Robert Blake, US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, saying

"This is a country that is a doing a lot of things right ... And some of their actions with respect to Grameen Bank are out of step with that."

"We thought it was important as a friend to point that out."

Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, has known Yunus for decades and, in Blake's words, has a "long and personal relationship" with him.

The Wall Street Journal points to the source of the current problems as the moment in 2007 when Yunus, after winning the Nobel Prize in 2006, made a public bid to clean up corruption in Bangladesh politics which, it is said, angered the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Grameen Bank has more than eight million rural borrowers, who own 96.5% of the bank's share capital.

Gender equality involves communities having access to clean energy

2011-03-08T17:16:00.009Z

Gender inequalities mean that women face a greater burden from inefficient or unavailable energy sources, spending far more time on subsistence activities to collect, process and use energy resources. For instance, women spend between two and nine hours a day collecting firewood according to the World Bank.

This ‘energy burden’ affects women in terms of time and physical energy. Elizabeth Cecelski, Director for Research and Advocacy, ENERGIA puts the issue starkly:

"Poverty influences and determines [the] energy choices of poor households. There is a gender bias in rural energy poverty... the main source of energy in poor rural households is not biomass - it is women's labour. The real energy crisis in rural areas is women's time."

Issues of poverty and respiratory health are also significant for global gender inequality: household smoke is strongly linked to chronic lung disease among women, whilst 70% of the 1.5 billion people living on less than a dollar a day are women (UNDP, 1995 Human Development Report).

Women, then, have the biggest potential to benefit from efficient and renewable technologies in terms of time saved, health and income.

Our award-winners are pioneering these projects in this area.

We award projects producing efficient cookstoves being sold for as little as $3 across the developing world. And we recognise enterprises that are designing cookstoves suited to local cooking practices. For instance the ‘New Lao’ stove was designed for use in Cambodia as more efficient and durable than the conventional bucket-type stoves. We have found that improved cookstoves projects can have significant health benefits through the reduction of noxious gases as well as having wider social and economic impacts.

We, also, reward organisations that are boosting women’s income and enterprise. Grameen Shakti, for instance, trains women solar technicians to install its solar home systems (SHSs) in India, whilst Prokaushali Sangsad in Bangladesh set up a cooperative, the Coastal Electrification and Women's Development Co-operative (CEWDC), of local women who chose to improve their situation through the assembly and sale of SHSs.

The development sector has been slow to recognise that the lack of access to modern energy affects women and men differently. The distinction is, in fact, staggering. Today, on International Women’s Day it is important to remind ourselves of this fact and to acknowledge that gender equality will involve, in part, bringing communities access to clean, modern energy systems.

(Image: Women technician learning to install a solar home system for Grameen Shakti in India)

Spain moves quickly to reduce oil imports by 5%

2011-03-08T13:40:00.003Z

The Times reports that Spain is reacting swiftly to events in Libya: Spain imports 75% of its energy (15% more than the European Union average) and 13% of its crude oil comes from Libya.

To reduce the country's dependence on oil imports, Spain's Government has reduced the speed limit from 120km/h to 110km/h, fares on local and middle-distance trains have been cut by 5% and the bulbs in street lamps will be replaced by energy-saving ones.

The Government says these measures will cut foreign oil imports by 5%.

We need a new economic model, says Heinberg, oil can no longer sustain the current one

2011-03-07T16:46:00.011Z

Richard Heinberg, author and Senior Fellow-in-Residence at the Post Carbon Institute, presented at Ecobuild last week. He argued we mustn’t simply be weaned off of oil but that our entire growth-based economic model, based on abundant sources of fossil fuels, must change. Alternative energy sources, he contends, must be found to provide the basis of a very different economy.

Richard Heinberg explained that humanity had moved from muscle power to fossil fuel-based power over the past few centuries. This shift had triggered significant changes in our way of life and had given rise to an economic model based on growth.

Heinberg explains:

“Energy is not a factor of the economy, energy is the economy. Oil is the basis of our economy take it away and global trade ceases to exist”

There are no credible scenarios, he argues, where an alternative source can replace fossil fuels in terms of factors such as the return on investment, scale and convenience. Instead, what we need is a different money system to reflect a move towards a sustainable energy system.

As oil runs out and prices rise, the shift in our economy, he posits, is inevitable, the true work is to create the alternative tools to surpass the wall that our current systems face.

His riveting hour-long lecture did leave us feeling, in the words of the chair, the Today's Sarah Montague, that “We are doomed!” But Heinberg nonetheless manages to maintain a positive and uplifting tone.

I asked him afterwards, “How do you manage to give a lecture like that and still be smiling?” “I play the violin”, he said, “I take things slow, I try to enjoy the beauty in life.” If that doesn’t contain the seeds of an alternative approach to ever-increasing consumption and growth, I don’t know what does.

(Pic courtesy of Richard Lord of who attended Ecobuild and blogs for Sustainable Guernsey)

Huhne says the government will speed up efforts to move away from oil

2011-03-07T15:26:00.002Z

The Energy Secretary Chris Huhne told the Observer that the UK had no option but to speed up efforts to move away from oil.

"Getting off the oil hook is made all the more urgent by the crisis in the Middle East. We cannot afford to go on relying on such a volatile source of energy when we can have clean, green and secure energy from low-carbon sources. The carbon plan is about ensuring that the whole of government is engaged in a joined-up effort to lead us into a low-carbon world."

The Observer says Huhne will join David Cameron and Nick Clegg later this week to launch "The Carbon Plan".

To communicate 'climate change' you need to think about 'mind change'

2011-03-03T16:57:00.011Z

How do we engage with a new generation on the important issue of climate change? Baroness Susan Greenfield, in her lecture “The age of unreason: the psychology of climate change” highlights that we must realise humanity is facing another major challenge which she terms ‘mind change’.

Greenfield expands:

“Our brains are responding to and physically adapting to our environment. The dominance of a 2-D cyber culture is altering our minds; we have shorter attention spans, higher IQs, less of a sense of identity, less empathy and an ‘in the moment’ sensory engagement with the world. Communicating critical messages around climate change must reflect this”.

Her suggestion for an approach to reflect this changed psychological terrain? Short messages with clear sensory images (she cites the visceral poster of a skinned animal against the fur trade) and which give people a regained sense of identity.

(pic: Baroness Susan Greenfield)

How will we retrofit 26 million UK homes?

2011-03-02T17:38:00.006Z

The three-day Ecobuild conference in London kicked off yesterday with Transforming the existing stock.

BBC journalist Stephen Sackur chaired the panel, which featured Gregory Barker MP, Paul King, CEO of UK-Green Building Council, Robert Peto, President of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and Kevin McCloud, presenter of Grand Designs.

Carla Jones reports.

The basic issues were clear: our homes account for 27% of our carbon emissions. So we need a big shift if we are going to meet our 2020 carbon reduction target. But what will drive the retrofitting of UK households over the next 10 years? The Government says it has the ambition to achieve this aim. But what exactly are the practical changes that will get us there? And will the changes be driven by "carrots" or "sticks"?

Kevin McCloud said: "Regulation is a critical 'stick' for sending a clear message to the market. It is fundamental to boost change and instill confidence" But Greg Barker was reluctant to use coercion, which he argued would simply annoy people.

The discussion centred around how change would be funded. The various suggestions emphasised that the money should clearly come from a set of taxes for a direct subsidy of retrofitting changes, including VAT reductions for retrofitting and reclaiming the potential for the Green Investment Bank to reduce the risk from of private finance. Greg Barker emphasised the Green Deal pay-as-you-save scheme, but was hazy about any details, prior to the Budget announcement on 23 March, as to which tax measures would incentivise change.

The panellists all agreed that changes must be stimulated at the community-level. People will be more likely to act if their neighbours were getting similar work done and the resources could be collectively leveraged.

The overall motivating force for change? People act because they want a "nicer" home, above and beyond financial or environmental reasons.

McCloud summed up the need for clarity to drive this action:

"For people to make decisions to retrofit their homes we need to be offering clear 'no brainer' solutions - it needs to be clear what they will save and how it will operate".

Ban Ki-moon calls on Hollywood to help get across the idea of "sustainability"

2011-03-01T15:08:00.001Z

The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked Hollywood for help in the fight against global climate change. He told senior Hollywood figures at a forum on global climate change that "Together we can have a blockbuster impact on the world."

The LA Times reports:

About 400 writers, directors, producers, agents and network executives attended the outreach events: a series of panels at the Hammer Museum, moderated by Larry King; a lunch for selected bigwigs; tete-a-tete meetings between high-powered industry players and top U.N. officials; and a star-studded dinner where Ban was introduced by Charlize Theron, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took a turn playing the drums.

Ban Ki-moon told his audience:

"You have power and influence to send to millions and billions of people around world. To make planet Earth environmentally sustainable is a political and moral imperative."

Are wood-burning stoves the greenest way to heat your home?

2011-02-28T13:47:00.003Z

A new paper commissioned by the Sustainable Building Association (AECB) questions whether wood-burning stoves are the greenest way to heat your home. The authors of the paper argue that burning biomass creates as much carbon emissions per unit of heat as burning coal. Mike Pepler, our UK Projects Manager, responds.

Burning wood has never been completely carbon neutral, as chainsaws and vehicles use fossil fuels.

The comment from the authors that the wood should be used in buildings and fences instead of burning it is fine, but there’s plenty of wood around that isn’t fit for those uses – I know, I cut plenty of it down myself! This includes trees that haven’t grown straight and species that are not generally used in large quantities for construction (e.g. birch, sycamore, hornbeam, of which I have plenty...). It's also worth pointing out that because wood for construction is more valuable than wood for heating, most woodland owners won't be burning wood that could have gone to construction, as it just doesn't make financial sense.

Another point is that to produce wood for construction, the trees must be left to grow to a much larger size. As they get bigger, they grow slower, so regular coppicing on 15-20 year cycle actually keeps the trees in the rapid-growth mode, so absorbing CO2 faster than mature trees.

The other issue is that we ought to be building less, not more, in future - no matter what we build from. New buildings equate to new energy demand. Granted we will need some new ones, but I doubt if it would be enough to use up all the wood we’re currently burning, even if it was fit for that use.

One other point to consider is that we only produce about 20% of the wood and wood-product (paper, card, etc.) that we use in this country, so we really need to reduce our use of all these products as a priority, and put what we have to the best use we can. For instance, for construction when the wood is good enough, for fencing, etc if it’s poorer, and for heating after that.

(pic: 2006 Ashden Award winner, Woodpile at Smithies Depot, where waste wood is converted to biomass fuel)

Rapid rise in oil prices shows "how little slack there is"

2011-02-24T10:54:00.006Z

The Financial Times reports that half of Libya's oil production has shut down. The impact that has had on the price of oil has been swift. This morning London Brent oil prices soared to $120.

What's remarkable is that while Libya has been producing 1.6 million barrels of oil a day, the United States alone consumes 20 million barrels of oil a day. As The Atlantic reports:

Given Libya's relatively small contribution to the global oil supply, the turmoil in the energy and stock markets resulting from Libyan unrest lets you know how little slack there is in the oil market.

See also: Chris Huhne says the break-even for low-carbon economy is $100 a barrel oil.

As oil hits high today of $109 a barrel, and Gaddafi threatens his own people, the case for renewables gets ever stronger

2011-02-23T15:29:00.005Z

The Guardian announced an hour ago: "Oil price hits highest point since September 2008. Brent crude for April delivery has just exceeded $108.70, its price on Monday. It was trading at $109.29 at 2:15pm, having hit highs of $109.45."

Nomurua has also said this afternoon oil prices may surge to $220 a barrel if political unrest in North Africa halts exports from Libya and Algeria.

Last week the Energy and Climate Secretary Chris Huhne said the break-even for a low-carbon economy is $100 a barrel oil.

The Independent reports that events in Cairo and Tripoli have made David Cameron recalibrate British foreign policy. Cameron says:

"For decades, some have argued that stability required highly controlling regimes and that reform and openness would put that stability at risk."

"As recent events have confirmed, denying people their basic rights does not preserve stability, rather the reverse."

Hard to think of a better advert for renewables than the ugly sight of despots in oil-rich countries threatening to attack their own people. The link between our high demand for oil and the suppression of democracy is not hard to see.

Eco-location, eco-location, eco-location

2011-02-22T16:57:00.002Z

In a recent article in the LA Times, experts at the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology argue that the location where buildings are built should be as important in forming ecocredentials as the energy performance of the site. Factoring in the energy used whilst commuting to work could force businesses to reconsider what it means to be green. For example, a site in downtown Chicago where 65% of its employees commute by either walking, cycling or taking public transport, scores favourably against a comparable site in the suburbs of Illinois where 99% would be forced to travel by car.

Transforming the face of energy: solar across Asia, Africa and Latin America

2011-02-21T17:44:00.006Z

(Demonstrating a d.light solar lamp to villagers, Uganda)

In the second of a new series, Carla Jones highlights some ground-breaking solar projects working in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The solar PV system includes quite an exceptional little piece of kit: the solar PV module. It literally harnesses the energy from sunshine and transforms it into electricity. A solar module, re-chargeable battery, controller, lamps and wiring together make up the solar home system (SHS).

(pic: A solar home system on display at a retailers in Uganda)

Enterprises are bringing solar energy to communities with no access to modern energy - currently about one third of the world. They are having profound impacts on education and health and are finding creative ways to do so. They are bringing education to remote waterside communities in Bangladesh in PV-powered boats, installing solar in schools and hospitals in West Africa, improving healthcare for inaccessible communities in the Upper Amazon and bringing vaccines to remote villages in Nigeria with solar-powered fridges. Solar pholtavoltaics have the potential to take modern energy to people living far from main gridlines in a ways that are cheaper and more reliable than their fossil fuel alternatives.

Solar also helps trade. For example, consider Lesbia Sebastiana Diaz, a shopkeeper in Rama, Nicaragua who is now able to open three hours longer each day thanks to the benefits of solar lighting, earning $40 extra a day and saving on kerosene. Each SHS saves 100 litres, or $340 worth, of kerosene ever year.

(Solar lamps can be rented out to street vendors in India)

Above all, the best solar projects ensure that quality systems reach people in a way that is affordable and sustainable in the long-term. They set up technical colleges to train local technicians, offer micro-credit, establish savings schemes and co-operatives, develop and support solar dealers to market and expand thier products, and, embark on the local production of solar system components to boost local capacity and the local economy.

Solar companies consider legal challenge over subsidies

2011-02-18T11:40:00.000Z

More than 20 energy companies have hired law firm Eversheds to challenge the Government's decision to review £360m in subsidies for "solar farms".

"The law firm has drafted a letter warning that many of the UK's largest solar companies are prepared to take the Government to judicial review for failing to consider all the consequences and not consulting widely enough."

You can follow today's State of Green Business Forum tweet by tweet

2011-02-16T16:49:00.008Z

The State of Green Business Report was released in Washington D.C. today.

There's an impressive list of speakers at the State of Green Business Forum that includes William McDonough, architect and author of Cradle to Cradle, Jigar Shah CEO, Carbon War Room, and Jeffrey Swartz, CEO, Timberland.

You can follow the State of Green Business Forum on Twitter. The hashtag is #sogb. These 10 tweets from the morning's sessions give a flavour:

@VOXGlobal: Jeff Swartz of Timberland: We need consumer friendly labels to help them make smart #Susty choices. #SOGB

@beccbrown #sogb learning how packaging can be made from mushrooms from @evocative - cool! Can just put it in your garden after opening package.

@beccbrown #sogb a trash bag of styrofoam is equivalent to nearly a gallon of gas in energy- & it's made for disposal! Pouring oil down the toilet

@biggreenpurse #SOGB inspiring presentation from @ecocradle on styrene packaging alternative made from mushrooms. No pollution, no toxins.

@FHSustain Carbon War Room CEO Jigar Shah: World needs to save 17 gigatons of CO2 by 2020. How? Deploy new tech, build infrastructure to scale. #SOGB

@beccbrown #sogb Jigar Shah says: stop talking about lightbulbs! Most carbon is upstream and is systemic.

@DianeMacEarchean #sogb Jigar shah:Think big: it's not about less water when you brush your teeth. It's about 40% of h2o supply leaking away.

@greentie Kevin Moss: Not everything can be measured, but what is measured makes an impact. #sogb #sustainability #metrics #csr #business #mba

@thedatadiva The question is will "source maps" resonate with consumers & affect their choices? #sogb

@thedatadiva @kevinlmoss is on the stage at #sogb "Not everything can be measured" Creating MEANINGFUL metrics to move the needle.

Oscar-nominated movie "Gasland" lifts lid on gas industry's darker side

2011-02-15T11:08:00.013Z

Now the Baftas are over, the movie industry turns its mind to the Oscars. There's one movie in the running that highlights the damage to the environment done by "fracking". Gloria Dawson reports.

When we talk about polluting fossil fuels, coal and oil are cited as the villains. Coal wins the prize for producing the most CO2 when burnt, as well as heavy particulates which cause ‘black soot’ in the polar regions and respiratory disease. Oil, meanwhile, gets a bad press not only because of its carbon intensity, but more recently for the Gulf of Mexico accident, and for the extraordinarily environmentally destructive project to extract bitumen from soils of Northern Canada.

Gas is often thought of as the ‘least worst’ option – plentiful, easy and relatively sustainable to extract and lower-carbon. However, Josh Fox’s documentary, ‘Gasland’, nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar last month, has begun to change this.

Fox began the film when his family was offered $100,000 for permission to drill for gas on their land. The gas company was proposing to use hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’, where millions of gallons of chemically-laced water are pumped at high pressure into the ground, causing the rock to fracture and natural gas to be released, which can then be stored.

Fox decided to travel across the US to find out what fracking does. He found that in 34 states of the country, communities of people suffer from carcinogen-contaminated drinking water, unexplained illnesses, flammable gas in their water systems, explosions from build-ups, and spillages of contaminated water near where this type of drilling is taking place. The US Environmental Protection Agency has in some cases advised residents not to drink tap water and to use a fan whilst showering to blow away harmful gas.

Hydraulic fracturing used to be a ‘last resort’ gas extraction process, but as accessible supplies dry up it has become increasingly popular. It has been subject to deregulation in the US. A US Energy Bill in 2005 exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and various other pieces of environmental legislation. This has made it incredibly difficult for people to obtain details about the content of water that has made them ill, or to make the companies involved accountable for what they do.

The gas industry, of course, wants the perception of gas as a benign, even ‘green’ fuel option to remain. A propaganda war has begun, with gas companies accusing Fox of manipulating facts, and the film’s website and Facebook page have now mobilised a global outcry at the effects of fracking. The film has put fracking, and ‘unconventional’ fossil fuel extraction under the spotlight and there are signs that legislators are taking concerns seriously. The state of New York, for example, is now considering a moratorium on fracking, and Congress is considering legislation to include gas drilling in the Safe Water Drinking Act again. But fracking is still a growing industry across the US and other countries.

Digging and drilling for more coal, oil and gas - in America, UK and the rest of Europe – is seen as necessary for ‘energy security’, reducing dependence on politically uncertain sources of fossil fuels in Central Asia and the Middle East. With ‘conventional’ reserves of oil and gas dwindling, we may be heading for swapping one kind of insecurity with another, closer to home.

You can find out more about the film at http://gaslandthemovie.com/ and watch the trailer here.

Ashden Award winners to receive free technical support from ERM in new initiative

2011-02-14T12:23:00.003Z

As part of an initiative to unlock the potential of low carbon ventures across the developing world, the ERM Foundation in partnership with the Ashden Awards, will enable sustainable energy projects to develop with technical consulting from ERM.

Mariana Mazon, our international business support manager, has proposed a number of previous Ashden Award winners who could benefit from ERM consultants' support. These will be selected from a pool of projects provided need and skills can be matched. These include a biomass gasification electricity company in India, a mini hydro cooperative in Brazil and a biogas programme working in Vietnam.

After being selected, several ERM consultants will work on a project between February and April. As an added bonus, three of the projects with the greatest potential to scale will be selected by a panel to receive grants totalling £10,000.

(pic: Dam and bridge at Usina Granja Velha, built by 2010 winner CRELUZ in Brazil)

Architects need to work with behavioural scientists to understand how people use energy within buildings

2011-02-11T11:22:00.010Z

A new report by the UK Energy Research Centre, announced today on BBC Online, highlights the fact that behaviour change is too often overlooked by energy policies.

Homes account for 45% of the UK’s energy use. To reduce this energy use significantly, we need to consider more than just the technologies that improve the efficiency of buildings. The report argues that once people start using buildings, they do so in complex ways.

Erik Bischard, lead researcher in the Energy House Project at the University of Salford, explains:

"The built environment community is dominated at the construction phase by technicians and engineers who are driven by specifications and tight budgets...

"Human behaviour, once the building is occupied, is often seen as someone else's problem - but this is a dangerously mistaken view. Almost half of greenhouses gases emitted are as a result of how we use buildings.”

Architects need to work closely work with behavioural scientists to assess the way that people use buildings. Ultimately, the report suggests, smart buildings aren’t the solution — smart people are.

(pic: courtesy of BBC Online - the Energy House Project)

D.light launches microfinance project to bring solar to poorest in Northern India

2011-02-09T13:21:00.005Z

Our 2010 Gold Award winner D.light design has launched a micro finance project, in partnership with Christain Aid, that will bring solar lighting to 4,400 rural households in three Indian states in its first year.

The Northen Indian states of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh have the worst rural electrification track record in India. The majority of people living in these states are socially excluded communities, mainly minority ethnic and caste groups, known as Adivasi and Dalits respectively. On average, these communities have a family income of less than 200 rupees per month, so they are unable to afford the 549 or 1699 rupees that D.light’s lanterns cost in India.

Energy, though, is already an expensive outgoing for poor households. In a country where almost 45% of households have no access to electricity, kerosene lamps are cheap to buy, but expensive to run. A survey revealed that on average families spend between 50 and 90 rupees a month on kerosene for lighting. Kerosene is also dangerous.

D.light and Christian Aid are developing a financing mechanism that will allow poor communities to avoid kerosene, leapfrog the grid and move straight to solar lighting. This project aims to reduce family monthly expenditure on lighting by 50%, increase family incomes by 20-30% and reduce CO2 emissions by 10,000 tonnes. Christian Aid has provided funding for the first 2,500 lanterns and will work with its Indian partners to identify young people to become 'rural entrepreneurs' who can manage the distribution and finance alongside a network of women's self-help groups. Two local partner organisations will work with the entrepreneurs to promote the technology within the villages, train the entrepreneurs in financial management and ensure the sustainability of the project.

Community self-help groups will collect orders from villagers and supply the solar lanterns on credit, charged at 12% annual interest over 10 months. This interest covers administrative costs and allows money to be reinvested in new stock, eventually making the whole project self-sustaining. D.light will supply the lanterns and train the rural entrepreneurs in customer education, battery replacement and sales and demand generation.

(pic: Woman in India with her D.light Kiran lamp)

Recent events in Egypt highlight the delicate balance between oil, food prices and political stability

2011-02-07T12:43:00.008Z

An article in The Oil Drum links oil, food prices and political stability in Egypt. With Egypt’s income from oil exports rapidly falling, its plans to reduce food subsidies, along with rising prices, were a trigger for unrest. Mike Pepler, our UK awards manager, explains the key points:

Egypt has been an oil exporter, but exports have now dropped to zero due to both rising domestic consumption and falling production.
Although Egypt does still export gas, it has made no new export contracts since 2008. The money available for subsidising food is in decline.
The Egyptian population has quadrupled over the last 60 years, and they now import 40% of their food.
Meanwhile, food prices are rising globally in part due to supply issues (global wheat harvests fell last year due to fires and floods in various parts of the world for instance) and, as I recently explained, due to the fact that our fossil fuel use is integrally linked with our food production system.
Recent rises in oil prices are tied in closely with increases in the price of food.

(pic: graph courtesy of the Oil Drum shows the close relationship food prices and oil prices)

See also:
We need to remember our food system is linked to our energy use
How events in Egypt affect oil prices

Technologies changing the face of energy: biogas projects in Asia and Africa

2011-02-03T16:44:00.015Z

(pic: cooking on biogas in Nepal)

In the first of a new series, Carla Jones highlights some impressive biogas projects in Asia and Africa.

The way biogas works is quite simple: take an airtight container (usually a brick chamber under the ground), fill it with some organic matter (manure, human waste or kitchen waste are the most common), and let the bacteria break it down. What comes out is biogas, that can be burned for cooking. The residue is a nutrient-rich fertilizer for crops.

Typically, a single fixed-dome biogas system is made from brick and sits underground. Many of our winners, though, have taken this design further. VK-NARDEP has developed a small bamboo-framed model, ARTI has designed a ‘balcony’ digester for apartments, and KIST in Rwanda has built a system of five interlocking chambers.

(KIST installing a large biogas system at a Rwandan prison)

Biogas has great potential in many settings. Schools, prisons, homes and farms can all benefit.

(Eating lunch cooked on biogas, Tania School, Kenya)

The chamber is fed from readily available organic components, from toilet sewage and livestock manure to kitchen waste.

(Portable household biogas plant in Kerala, India)

Imagine saving two hours a day of collecting firewood, avoiding the dangerous smoke from your kitchen, and ridding your community from the stench and danger of animal waste. For 100,000 pig-farming households in Vietnam, biogas is achieving just that. Elsewhere it is achieving even more. In Shaanxi Province, China, families have an extra $380 a year from saved fuelwood and the income from extra crops. Urban users of compact biogas systems in India save half of their LPG use. In Karnataka, India, SKG Sangha has ensured the residue from biogas increases its value through vermicomposting, which brings extra income.

And biogas helps the surrounding environment. In Shaanxi Province, China, each biogas digester saves 4.5 tonnes of fuelwood per year, avoiding deforestation in a region that suffers soil erosion and dust storms. In Rwanda, the KIST programme saves 1,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

The most successful projects engage the end-user and wider community over the longer term. They employ and train local technicians to install the system and to provide after-sale service. The programme operated by the Vietnamese Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development in partnership with the Dutch organisation SNV employs 1,800 masons who now, as a result of the success of the scheme, install as many systems as self-employed masons as they do within the government programme. The support from the Biogas Sector Partnership (BSP) in Nepal has helped to ensure there are 11,000 long-term jobs within the biogas sector. Their success is reflected in the regional development of technical capacity and demand in the sector as a whole.

How events in Egypt affect oil prices

2011-02-02T11:57:00.003Z

With oil reaching $100 a barrel, the Independent's Hamish McRea considers how events in Tunisia and Egypt will affect the demand for oil.

"Though neither Tunisia nor Egypt are significant oil producers themselves, they have set in motion concerns about wider regional instability – and that in turn should remind us that the world is tremendously dependent on the Middle East and will almost certainly become more so over the next couple of decades."

The reason?

"Non-Opec oil is difficult oil: it is under the sea or in the Arctic, or bound up in tar sands from which it has to be separated. By contrast, Opec oil just comes straight out of the ground. In any case, even if the technical difficulties can be overcome, the actual ability of non-Opec producers to carry on ramping up production is in question. As a result Opec, producing less than 40 per cent of the total now, will be producing nearly half the world's oil in 2030, and most of that increase will come from the Middle East".

(Pic: Tahrir square, photo credit: BBC News Online)

d.light design shortlisted for Financial Times ArcelorMittal "Boldness in Business" Award

2011-01-31T10:29:00.006Z

2010 Ashden Gold Award winners d.light design has been shortlisted for the prestigious FT ArcelorMittal "Boldness in Business" Awards. From an initial list of 250 nominations, d.light has been selected as finalists in the "Newcomer" category along with five other organizations, including Groupon, MetroBank and Zynga. Last year's winner in this category was Twitter.

The "Boldness in Business" Award was established by the Financial Times and ArcelorMittal to highlight and celebrate companies and entrepreneurs who are innovative and dynamic. The award winners will be announced at a ceremony in London in March 2011.

Government warns UK firms to make better use of resources

2011-01-28T16:25:00.009Z

A major report, published by DEFRA, explains the need for UK firms to factor resource issues into their long-term decision-making and to find alternatives to the materials they now use. We recently highlighted that one of our past winners, ENWORKS, is helping businesses do just that.

Business Green reports:

“According to the research ... a wide range of materials will face constricting supplies over the next few decades as the global population rises towards an estimated nine billion by 2050. [T]he report warns that the supply of rare earth elements is likely to be particularly constricted. Companies will have to increase recycling rates and make better use of metals such as indium (a component in solar panels), as well as cobalt and lithium (elements in electric car batteries and solar cells).”

Todd Holden, ENWORKS director, says small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are often aware of the importance of resource efficiency, but this doesn’t often translate into action:

"Our own independent research on business attitudes, which surveyed businesses of all sizes, but focused on SMEs, has found that 82% of businesses felt that resource efficiency was 'very important' or 'of some importance' to them. Yet, crucially, only 33% had made efficiency improvements in their use of energy, materials or water in the previous 12 months, and only 20% were planning to do something about it in the following 12 months.”

It's clear more could be done. The financial savings alone make this self-evident. DEFRA’s report states that energy efficiency measures could save British companies more than £6bn a year.

See also: ENWORKS shows that resource efficiency can save your business

If you missed IEA's chief economist "saying the unsayable", slides from the talk are now online

2011-01-27T15:13:00.001Z

Last week we blogged that Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, had said the unsayable: that is, it's virtually impossible for us to meet climate change targets with current policies.

Dr Birol made these remarks at a lecture at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change. The slides from that lecture are now online. The concluding slide states:

Recently announced policies can make a difference, but fall well short of what is needed for a secure & sustainable energy future

The age of cheap oil is over, though policy action could bring lower international prices than would otherwise be the case

Stronger penetration of natural gas can have profound implications for energy markets and environment

Renewables are entering the mainstream, but long-term support is needed to boost their competitiveness

Lack of ambition in Copenhagen/Cancun has increased the cost of achieving the 2C goal & made it less likely to happen

South Korean officials spend this morning studying Suffolk County Council’s approach to woodland management

2011-01-26T15:56:00.009Z

(photo from left to right: Gary Battell, Simon Brammer, Andrew Rowe, Elvin Ozensoy, Councillor Jane Storey and Dr Kim)

A number of government officials from South Korea today visited Suffolk County Council as part of their research and development strategy in a move towards becoming a low-carbon economy. Last year Suffolk County Council won an Ashden Award for its outstanding work in supporting the local wood-fuel supply chain and installing wood-fired boilers in schools.

Simon Brammer, our UK programme manager, joined Dr Kim, from the Rural Development Administration of South Korea, Councillor Jane Storey, Suffolk Council’s Deputy Leader, and Andrew Rowe and Gary Battell, who were responsible for delivering the award winning project. Simon reports:

“South Korea recently announced a plan to spend £22.6m over the next five years to develop renewable energy sources and to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. The latest investment is part of the government's green growth strategy, aimed at turning environmental technologies into the main drivers of economic growth and new sources of jobs. The investment programme is also designed to reduce the country's heavy dependence on oil and gas imports and tackle greenhouse gas emissions.”

“South Korea has significant woodland which they hope to manage in the innovative way that Suffolk has done by establishing strong supply chains and resurrecting the art of woodland management”.

“It is very exciting to see our UK winners supporting the efforts that other countries, from right across the globe, are making in their transition to a sustainable energy economy.”

To feed eight billion people in 2030, we need to remember our food system is linked to our energy use

2011-01-26T15:21:00.000Z

Three reports have appeared in the last fortnight highlighting the urgent need to address the food, energy and water demands of a population that's expected to reach eight billion by 2030. The report, One Planet, Too Many People?, from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, looks at the pressures of population growth on our food, energy and water systems. The report, State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet, from the World Watch Institute, explores sustainable solutions to our food system. The Foresight Project's Global Food and Farming Futures report examines how we can meet the food needs of our planet in the next 20-40 years.

Mike Pepler, our UK Awards Manager, emphasises the theme that's emerging from each of these studies: the challenge of how to feed the world in 20 years' time must be done in combination with meeting rapidly rising energy demands. We must address our need for a productive food system at the same time as reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

A good example of the energy input that goes into agriculture is fertilisers. Our intensive use of fertilisers produces a double whammy of greenhouse gases. Mike says:

"Nitrogen is a key element needed for plants to grow, but it has to be incorporated in chemicals that plants can use. There are natural processes that achieve this, but the nitrogen added through man-made fertilisers has doubled the amount available for plants to grow. CO2 is released as a result of the Haber-Bosch process which is used to produce ammonia to make fertiliser. Then the fertiliser, once spread on the field, also emits nitrous oxide - this is the third most significant greenhouse gas, after CO2 and methane."

"About 3-5% of the world's natural gas supply is used to produce nitrogen-based fertiliser - that is about 1-2% of all energy use globally. Although the advent of petro-based chemical fertilisers in agriculture is one of the pillars of the 'Green Revolution' that boosted food production in the latter half of the twentieth century, it has come at the cost of increased greenhouse gas emissions".

"The climate change caused by greenhouse gases, including those emitted by fertilisers, is now threatening food production, and will become more of a problem as time goes on. We must recognise the link between sustainable energy systems and our agricultural system. More research is needed on this topic."

See also: Three steps that each of us can take to help.

(Pic: Farmer in Vietnam uses slurry from biogas production as a natural fertilizer for their crops)

In current financial climate, ENWORKS shows that resource efficiency can save your business

2011-01-25T12:24:00.002Z

Juliet Heller speaks to Samantha Nicholson, Operations Manager of ENWORKS about its successful Online Resource Efficiency Toolkit, which helps businesses across the North West to make cost savings. In the current financial climate, it couldn't be more useful.

ENWORKS won an Ashden Award four years ago for demonstrating that good environmental practice in businesses is profitable. Since then, their business support has gone from strength to strength. The support that ENWORKS provides has helped businesses in the North West save over 669,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, and generated savings of over £120 million a year. Since the Toolkit was launched in 2004, it has supported over 8,700 businesses of all sizes, in the North West and further afield.

The Toolkit is part of ENWORKS' wider resource efficiency programme. Samantha explains:

“We immediately remove a lot of the barriers to businesses that haven’t embarked on the sustainability journey so far. This isn’t a report or manual that sits on a shelf gathering dust, it’s an easy to use electronic tool that allows busy staff to manage large amounts of detailed data across several projects, and it’s continually updated to align with the latest national research on CO2 calculations."

"The toolkit also helps managers who are facing resistance to adopting environmental measures to build a stronger internal business case. The data provides them with the pros and cons of specific measures, both in a financial and environmental sense.”

There could be a growing demand for this approach in the UK. A recent Carbon Trust survey of finance directors found that big businesses wastes £1.6 billion a year on energy that could be saved through easy measures, such as upgrading heating and lighting, and carrying out staff training in energy saving. The research found that energy efficiency projects could deliver an average return on investment of 48%. The average payback period on large-scale business investments in energy efficiency is only three years, the report says, but many straightforward improvements cost little or nothing at all. Over half of the cost savings, that ENWORKS helps implement, are made at no capital cost. Samantha adds:

“We are working with an amazingly diverse range of businesses including manufacturers, haulage companies, hotels and leisure centres and healthcare organisations, just to give a flavour. We have enough data now to demonstrate clearly that the Toolkit is helping businesses make huge savings and we are happy to share our knowledge and expertise with others, for example through tools such as our ENWORKS In a Box site. We hope more and more businesses will recognise the value and economic sense of increasing their resource efficiency”.

In the current financial climate, the efficient use of resources such as energy, water and materials can make the difference between losing or saving your business.

(pic: Samantha Nicholson with ENWORKS director Todd Holden)

Sir John Beddington warns of world food crisis. Here's three steps you can take to help

2011-01-24T14:15:00.005Z

This morning the Government's chief scientific adviser Sir John Beddington discussed the threat of a world food crisis. A billion people today are hungry. The population is rising rapidly. A new report says that farmers, politicians, economists and scientists need to think how to make food production more efficient and deal with the problems of water and energy.

Our UK awards manager, Mike Pepler, says there are three steps that each of us could take to help.

Don’t waste food. Food that is thrown away has not just wasted the food, but everything that went into producing it, including water, fertiliser, pesticides, diesel (for farm machinery and transporting it), electricity (for refrigeration), packaging and also the energy you use at home to refrigerate and cook it.

Eat less meat. Producing meat requires much greater input of fossil fuels than producing other food, and has a corresponding higher emission of greenhouse gases. It also takes up more land area, as animals are often fed crops that could have been eaten by people, so the more meat we eat, the less food is available in total.

Grow your own. Growing a bit of food at home can be quite easy, and you have the option to do it organically by avoiding any use of chemicals. You’ll also have no food miles, as it only has to travel a few steps to your kitchen.

Ashden judges pick this year's shortlist

2011-01-24T11:32:00.009Z

The Ashden Awards judges have just announced the shortlist of 32 projects for the 2011 Ashden Awards.

This year's international applicants, ranging from Africa, Asia and Latin America, use innovative approaches to tackle poverty and climate change, including creating fuel pellets from waste biomass, solar LED lanterns and small wind turbines.

The UK applicants are spread across the country, from Brighton and Devon to Scotland and Lancashire. These ground-breaking initiatives range from an enterprise using biodiesel for community transport to programmes retrofitting homes and community groups that promote behaviour change.

Take a look at our news page for more details on the projects that tackle poverty and climate change.

Pace of transition to cleanstoves "worryingly slow"

2011-01-23T18:19:00.002Z

Today's Independent on Sunday carries the headline: Home fires: The world's most lethal pollution.

The world's deadliest pollution does not come from factories billowing smoke, industries tainting water supplies or chemicals seeping into farm land. It comes from within people's own homes. Smoke from domestic fires kills nearly two million people each year and sickens millions more, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Dr Nigel Bruce, consultant to the WHO, says: "The pace of transition to clean-burning stoves and fuels is worryingly slow".

Five more schools on way to becoming sustainable with Ashden's LESS CO2 programme

2011-01-20T14:50:00.017Z

Staff from five schools joined three Ashden Award winners yesterday at Epsom Primary school, Surrey, for the final session of our pilot ‘LESS CO2’ programme.

For the past year LESS CO2 has drawn on the experience of Richard Dunne from Ashley Primary, Stephen Green from Ringmer College and Paula Owens from Eastchurch Primary – all previous Ashden Schools Award winners - to help a group of schools in Surrey reduce energy use and incorporate an ethos of sustainability throughout their schools. Yesterday's session was about motivation, feedback and reflection.

Over the past year the schools have made some impressive changes. Brookwood Primary School, for instance, has reduced its CO2 emissions by 50% and has just received its green flag. The use of the 'Current Cost' energy monitors that each school received at the start of this programme has undoubtedly had an impact.

Rachel Clack, a teacher from Epsom Primary School, said:

"Getting the pupils to track our energy use week on week has been very exciting, the pupils are asked to think about why there is such a difference during assemblies and it is used as a tool to think about topics within the classroom.... Now that we have a year's data we are at the point where we can compare our energy use with last year and I hope management will start seeing the savings."

Each school has set up an eco-team of pupils who patrol the school buildings regularly: are there computers or projectors left on? Who has been leaving lights on? Many of them employ praise and ‘name and shame’ tactics, highlighting in school assemblies those who have remembered to turn things off, the eco-heroes, and the 'carbon criminals', who haven't. The impact on behaviour around the school has also been noticed.

Rachel explains:

"I see teachers literally running back down a corridor to turn off a projector when they see the Eco-team on their rounds - they really are a formidable force within the school!"

As well as sharing their successes, at yesterday's session the schools also shared some of the obstacles they have encountered in embedding sustainability. A school is both a workplace and a learning space. It can be a problem engaging the interest of other staff, establishing sustainability as part of the school ethos, and ensuring it has a life beyond the hard work of one keen member of staff.

Each school left the last session with their own priorities for the future. South Farnborough Infants School, for example, is raising funds for solar panels on the roof. Knaphill Junior School is looking to get solar thermal panels for their outdoor swimming pool – the single biggest use of energy in the school. The biggest challenge for every primary school, however, is to find a way to engage the interest of the schools where their pupils go next. It's vital that the enthusiasm and knowledge that the children have gained is not lost when they move into secondary education.

The LESS CO2 pilot has proved very successful and we are delighted to have received funding from the Ernest Cook Trust to roll the programme out in the South West in 2011.

(Pic from left to right: Paula Owens, Stephen Green and Rachel Clack at Epsom Primary School)

See also:
LESS CO2 - Ashden Awards workshop for schools

The IEA's chief economist Fatih Birol says the unsayable

2011-01-19T14:05:00.004Z

Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, says it's virtually impossible for us to meet climate change targets with current policies.

The BBC's environmental analyst Roger Harrabin reported on this morning's Today programme (3 mins in) that Dr Birol said it would take "a doubling of the current effort and then another doubling again". Harrabin remarked that Dr Birol "had said the unsayable".

Even BP agrees.

John Doggart says biggest challenge facing Green Deal is "building up our knowledge, skills and infrastructure"

2011-01-19T12:36:00.004Z

John Doggart, chairman and founder of the Sustainable Energy Academy (SEA), talks to Juliet Heller about the challenges facing the Government’s Green Deal, which is due to come in at the end of next year.

The Green Deal plans to roll out retrofits on existing buildings across the country, helping us achieve the carbon emission reductions of 80% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. It will provide loans for energy efficiency which apply to the house rather than the owner and aim to be a ‘one-stop shop’ giving advice on grants and other information. Service suppliers like M&S and B&Q are expected to play a major role.

The SEA runs the Old Home Superhome Project which won an Ashden Award in 2009 for encouraging people to green their older properties by ‘superhome’ owners opening their doors to the public. As a member of the Existing Homes Alliance, SEA has helped prepare a report and recommendations for the Government on how to accelerate low carbon retrofits across the UK. The report supports the Green Deal, but sets out some of the practical challenges to bringing it in:

“There is substantial work to be done on developing the policies, frameworks and mechanisms that will make the Green Deal a success.”

John Doggart believes the biggest challenge is increasing capacity:

“The Green Deal simply won’t work if we don’t start building up our knowledge, skills and infrastructure right now. There are not enough people trained or experienced in the green building sector at present. It could also be a fantastic opportunity to create new jobs during these difficult economic times.”

“Indeed, some aspects of retrofitting are highly specialised, requiring more research. How do we ensure that there is adequate ventilation for insulation to perform properly in our climate? In some European countries there has already been mass scale retrofitting but these countries have different climates to ours. They don’t have the same problems of damp and old, leaky building stock that we have. “

There are approximately 26 million homes in the UK that could benefit from the Green Deal.

Architype's Jonathan Hines explains why the "passivhaus" approach works best

2011-01-17T10:44:00.008Z

Jonathan Hines from Architype, an Ashden Award winner in 2009, talks to Juliet Heller about designing buildings that are affordable, look good, and use less energy.

Architype puts this approach into practice by focusing on passivhaus techniques. Passivhaus is a rigorous approach to building, designed to radically reduce energy consumption and achieve maximum internal comfort. Passivhaus buildings save carbon simply by using less energy. Architype has recently designed two passivhaus schools in Wolverhampton which will be completed this summer. They will be the first in the country.

Jonathan Hines: "The beauty of passivhaus is that it's not about ticking boxes, it is a design tool that really works. You can aim to build a low-carbon building by adding renewables but find that the technology doesn't perform as well as you'd hoped in practice. With passivhaus you know that it works, it will get the energy down lower, and it will last for the long term".

"In the current climate of austerity measures, designing buildings well to save energy is the way to go, not spending more money on technologies that just offset carbon".

"We should be setting energy targets for buildings instead of carbon targets. This would encourage people to design buildings that use less energy in the first place, instead of relying on offsetting. The concept is an obvious one but so important: Buildings need to be designed better to improve their energy efficiency".

(pic: Jonathan Hines outside Architype's office, built to high standards of energy efficiency, constructed largely using wood and based on an existing barn).

Neil MacGregor shows solar lamp to Ashden Awards guests: "What people have always hoped for is now a reality"

2011-01-14T11:56:00.005Z

This week the Ashden Awards team celebrated the selection of a solar lamp and charger as the 100th object in the BBC series 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'. We were lucky enough to view the 100th object, exemplified by 2010 Gold Award winners d.light design's Nova lamp, at a reception in the British Museum.

Sarah Butler-Sloss, Founder Director, introduced the object to 100 distinguished guests, specially invited by the Awards team and members of the Development Board:

"This object is something which absolutely represents everything that the Ashden Awards stands for. In 2010 it won the Ashden Awards Gold Award. The reason for this is that it's a practical, simple and affordable object and it is available to the poorest of the poor across the globe. It replaces kerosene bringing clean, safe and bright light to households for the very first time".

The Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, went on to explain how the 100th object was chosen:

"I was invited by Sarah to the 2010 Ashden Awards and, as I heard the account of what this solar panel and lamp does, and what solar panels do for people without mains electricity, setting them free, not just from the need for kerosene, but from all the political control that goes with mains electricity, all the corruption, the political interference, it suddenly became clear to me that this had to be the 100th object."

"In every society the greatest prayer is that light perpetual shine on you. And that is of course what this solar panel does, it gives you light perpetual. It lets you take the sun and use it when you need it. And we've put together some objects [in this display case] that show that through the millennia, and around the world, this is always what people have hoped for. And this is now a reality".

Energyshare is a new social network for renewable energy projects

2011-01-13T16:00:00.003Z

Lucy Conway, from Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust, an Ashden Award winner in 2010, emails to say she's working on a new project called energyshare:

energyshare is a new initiative which aims to celebrate renewable energy projects across the UK and support thousands more to get started. energyshare is a social network where groups can connect with others on a similar renewable energy journey, get access to a range of funding information, plus get advice and support for projects.

energyshare on facebook
energyshare on twitter

Low-carbon, local energy technologies will help tackle pressures of population growth says report by Institute of Mechanical Engineers

2011-01-12T13:38:00.022Z

Today the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) published the report "Population: One Planet, Too Many People?" urging governments to recognise engineering as critical in tackling the problems of food, water and energy supply for a growing and increasingly urbanised population. Amongst its recommendations, IMechE sees low-carbon, local energy sources as an important part of the set of innovative technologies needed to tackle this growing pressure on resources. It states:

“Increased food production, water processing and urbanisation, combined with economic growth and expanding affluence, will by mid-century more than double the demand on the sourcing and distribution of energy.”

It also states that low carbon and local solutions will be part of the energy supply mix to meet these needs:

"Current known technologies for energy sourcing and distribution are capable of reducing, managing and satisfying the emerging demand...alongside [largescale infrastructure] will be greater emphasis on the deployment of localised community-based clean technologies in the newly developing nations."

(Pic: 2010 Ashden Awards winners TECNOSOL install solar-driven systems in rural Nicaragua)

Jeremy Leggett argues that Queensland floods show interconnections between financial, climate and energy crises

2011-01-11T16:28:00.003Z

Jeremy Leggett, CEO of Solarcentury, an Ashden finalist in 2007, writes in his Triple Crunch log

In the last month, we have seen interconnections between the financial-, energy- and climate crises very clearly ...

One example he gives is that:

massive investments have gone into coal, based on prospectuses prepared by the same investment banks whose dire risk management gave us the financial crisis, factoring in not a dime of risk from the climate crisis. But we ignore such risk at our peril, as coal miners in Queensland have discovered lately. Their flooded mines have meant big losses in export income, and coal shortages overseas which themselves have knock on impacts ...

BBC latest: Brisbane braces for surge

Pic: Karumba, Queensland

MARD and SNV reach 100,000 digesters in Vietnam

2011-01-11T11:12:00.004Z

Great news: the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and SNV have built their 100,000th biogas digester in Vietnam.

MARD and SNV won an Ashden Award in 2010. The judges praised:

their highly successful partnership which has enabled the distribution of biogas technology across Vietnam on a massive scale in a way that is both sustainable and has the potential for further expansion. By popularizing the use of biogas among pig farmers, this programme has tackled Vietnam’s waste problem and has brought tremendous benefits to farming families.

UK gas storage at five-year low

2011-01-10T17:55:00.002Z

The Observer reports that the UK's gas supplies are at their lowest levels in five years for this stage in the winter. We recently plotted a graph to show how these low levels compared with last year and highlighted the consequences of such a trend of low supplies for gas and electricity consumers. The recent milder weather has helped the situation. But as Mike comments on his own blog: "the risk to supplies still depends on what happens with the weather over the coming weeks."
See also:
Energy Security - how saving energy at home and work can help
UK National Grid issues first Gas Balancing alert of the winter

Save energy, save money: insulate your loft

2011-01-10T12:10:00.014Z

Mike Pepler, our UK awards manager, continues his new series Save Energy, Save Money with a look at loft insulation.

Unless you live in a flat that's not on the top floor, the roof accounts for about a quarter of the heat loss from your home. Insulating the roof can reduce the heat loss by up to 50%, saving energy and saving you money. There are several different types of roof, and different ways of insulating them - we'll look at the most common types now...

Pitched roof with a loft
This is the typical design of roof in the UK, with sloping tiles covering a loft space above the top floor of the house. The floor of the loft will be wooden joists, with the ceiling of the top floor of the house underneath them. Often you'll find boards have been laid over the joists to provide storage space in the loft.

The most common way of insulating a loft like this is to use rolls of glass fibre, which is laid between the joists and then on top of them. Having insulation over the top of the joists is important, as usually they are only 150mm (6") deep, and the recommended minimum insulation is 270mm (11"). If you already have boards laid down over the joists, you can either put 270mm of insulation on top of them, or remove them and proceed as normal. Whatever you do, it's important not to block any gaps at the edge of the loft that are intended to provide ventilation, otherwise you could get damp problems.

But I need my loft for storage space!
If you can't do without your loft for storage space, there are two options. One is to use insulating polystyrene boards, which can be cut to fit between the joists and then the floorboards can be put over the top. This works because the insulating boards perform better than glass fibre, so the thickness can be reduced by up to 50%, depending on the type of board used. However, these insulating boards cost more. The other option is to lay glass fibre between the joists and then screw down new joists at a right-angle:

insulate between them:

and put the boards on top:

If you do this, make sure the joists are strong enough to take the extra weight of wood, in addition to what you plan to store in the loft. Also, remember not to block up any ventilation gaps.

Don't forget the loft hatch
The hatch into the loft should also be insulated. How this is done will depend on your hatch, but if it is a simple panel that you push up from underneath, then you can glue an insulation board onto the back of it:

Savings and costs
A loft insulated with 270mm of glass fibre (or an equivalent insulating panel) will reduce heat loss by 50% compared to a loft with no insulation. Even if you already have some insulation, it will still be worth increasing it to the recommended minimum. Glass fibre insulation typically costs £3 per square metre to insulate to a depth of 270mm. Insulating boards typically cost £15 per square metre at 80mm thickness, but the thickness you need to use will vary according to the type of board.

Professional installation of insulation in a standard loft will typically cost £250 for glass fibre, although in most cases there are grants available to reduce this cost.

Compared to having no insulation, you might save about £150 a year by adding 270mm of glass fibre. If you already have some insulation, say 50mm, then upgrading to 270mm will save £45 a year.

Dormer roof with loft
A dormer roof is one that has tiles extending down to the top of the ground floor, with the upstairs windows extending through it, with a small flat roof above them.

The main part of the loft, towards the top of the roof, can be insulated in the same way as a normal loft, but the lower sections of the roof enclose another loft area that is often inaccessable. This part can be insulated by making a hatchway in the wall of a first floor room, allowing insulation to be installed in the small loft area alongside the wall. As with the main loft, you must be careful to avoid blocking any gaps that are required for ventilation of the roof space.

Flat roof
Flat roofs are often found on ground floor extensions and above the windows in a dormer roof. Insulating these roofs requires more work, as either the ceiling must be taken down inside the house, or the roofing material lifted above the room. Once the cavity is exposed, it can be insulated as normal using glass fibre or insulating boards. Boards may be a better option here if the space is limited. As flat roofs must be renewed every 15 to 20 years, it is usually worth waiting until this renewal is being done before installing insulation.

Pitched roof with a room in the loft
If you've converted normal loft space into a room, it's very important to insulate it, as otherwise there's not much between the room and the cold air outside. In this case, insulation boards must be used, and fitted between the rafters before plasterboards or other material is put in place. It may not be possible to use the ideal thickness of insulating boards, and the rafters between them will reduce the effectiveness, but the insulation is still worth doing, cutting heat loss and saving on energy bills.

Getting loft insulation installed
Unlike cavity wall insulation , loft insulation is something that you can often install yourself, although many people choose to pay for it to be done professionally.

One of the easiest ways to find a reputable installer in your area is to contact your local council, as they will be able to recommend one to you and also help you with grants. Alternatively, you can contact the Energy Saving Trust for advice or look at consumer rated websites such as YouGen.com.

What if I live in a block of flats?
If you live in a ground or middle floor flat, you may still gain from insulating above your ceiling, for example if the flat above is unoccupied, and therefore colder than your flat, but the savings will not be as significant. If you live on the top floor, loft insulation should be installed as normal.

Ashden Award winning loft insulation
Several Ashden Award winners have worked with loft insulation, you can view them in our case study database. Of particular interest is Second Nature , who make an insulation product from sheeps' wool, called Thermafleece (pic at the top: Thermafleece being installed courtesy of Thermafleece.com).

Yes, the feed-in-tariff could shift the way we consume energy

2011-01-07T09:09:00.009Z

Yesterday's post asked whether the UK could encourage a shift in energy use through the feed-in-tariff. Yes, says Mike Pepler, our UK awards manager, it could help balance out energy use.

Peak demand in the UK during the winter is between 5pm and 7pm (see pic above and the half-hourly live table here ). We need to even out energy demand throughout the day, regardless of whether or not households install renewables. At some point we could all be paying different electricity prices depending on time of day we use the energy. A tool in the feed-in-tariff to incentivise 'smart consumption' is therefore a step in the right direction.

But we have to watch out that such incentives don't deepen imbalances within society. One point I’ve heard raised by people working to tackle fuel poverty is that people in poverty can’t afford the new appliances to take advantage of electricity prices that vary according to time of day. If we moved towards time-sensitive pricing, they would miss out on the savings. Not only that, but the current feed-in-tariff is actually subsidised by all electricity consumers, but only those installing micro-renewables get the benefit.

These disadvantages don't mean we shouldn't have a feed-in-tariff. We need new generation capacity to reduce CO2 and to keep the lights on. Since that's in everybody's interest, you could say it's fair we all pay a bit to make it happen. But we must also be realistic about what solar can do. We will need other sources as well, and storage too.

Could the UK follow Germany’s lead in changing feed-in-tariffs to get us to use our own energy ?

2011-01-06T14:28:00.014Z

An article in Renewable Energy World today picked up on a tool that's been brought in by the German government to incentivise those people who have installed micro-renewables to change the pattern of their energy consumption.

The German feed-in-tariff not only encourages PV installation, it also encourages "own-consumption". The government will pay those who have installed solar more money per kWh hour for the energy they consume themselves.

This new incentive addresses the fact that people with solar panels produce energy during the day when the sun is out and yet they consume it in the evening when they are home from work (see graph above). The new policy could encourage more people to use smart appliances that switch on during the day. It could also make people more aware not just of what energy they are using, but also when they are using it.

Is this a policy that might work in the UK?

New year, new energy saving installation? If so, YouGen.co.uk is a good place to start

2011-01-05T12:17:00.006Z

Mike got solar thermal installed at the end of last year. He was recently asked to rate his installers on YouGen. This website has been steadily developing resources for those who are looking for ways to make their homes more energy efficient and we think it is a good place to start looking for that new installer or to find out more about renewables. Take a look here.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T14:49:00.005Z

2010 was a year of outstanding achievements for Ashden Award winners. As the new year begins, we take inspiration from some of last year's successes.

February 2010. The winter starts to thaw out with the news that Trees Water & People has won that prestigious prize – the UNEP Sasakawa prize.

As spring begins, the office receives the news that Zara Solar has won the Lighting Rural Tanzania competition. Meanwhile, GERES sells its one millionth stove and the Gaia Association is nominated for a World Bioenergy Award.

Summer. After the bustling of awards week in London, we hear that Stuart Conway, Co-founder of Trees, Water & People, wins the Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service.

As autumn begins, Global Action Plan is highly commended for its charity partnership with Sky by the Charity Times Awards, and, we find out that d.light's solar lantern is being used to exemplify the 100th object as part of the BBC series 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'. Mid-autumn, more impressive news from our winners: Architype scoops the RIBA Sorrel Foundation Schools Award for St Luke’s School.

As the season draws to an end, the Green Apple Awards take place recognising the work of ERTC and its cookstoves and Global Action Plan for environmental best practice. And by October, d.light's solar lanterns are reaching 2 million lives. At the Energy Institute Awards AIDFI and Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha are recognised alongside Ringmer Community College. Meanwhile, in Scotland, the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust is shortlisted for the Spirit of Scotland Award.

Finally, it's winter again, and, after months of hard work to secure support, AIDFI wins BBC World Challenge. And, just in, we've learnt that BIOTECH has won the Kerala State Energy Conservation award 2010 for best performance.

What a year 2010 was! We're confident that 2011 will be just as inspiring.

Happy New Year!

Best Ashden Moments 2010: Sarah picks the moment the 100th Object was unveiled

2010-12-31T20:43:00.004Z

For the last in our end-of-year series, where members of the Ashden team choose favourite moments from the year, Sarah Butler-Sloss, founder-director of the awards, picks the moment the solar-powered lantern was chosen as the 100th Object.

It was great news that the solar lantern was chosen as the 100th object. It's a small object, but it represents a solution to two of our biggest global problems: climate change and poverty.

How we tackle climate change and how we reduce poverty are vital questions to address if we are going to survive the 21st Century. Clean renewable energy has to be the energy of the future and affordable, accessible energy is crucial for ending poverty. The 100th object in the series meets both those challenges.

A History of the World was an extraordinary radio series and we were very lucky and honoured that Neil MacGregor came to speak at this year's awards. There have been many great moments for us this year, but what was so special about this moment, the moment the solar-powered lamp was chosen as the 100th Object, is that it introduced to a much much wider audience the sense of potential and empowerment that local sustainable energy brings. That lies at the heart of what the Ashden team is trying to achieve. For all of us at the awards, the 100th Object was a terrific boost.

Nick Stern says solar power can free communities from corrupt practices,
In one hour from the sun, we get enough energy for a year,
100th Object introduces us to “the noise of the day",
100th object reminds us of extraordinary amount the semiconductor transistor has done for 21st century life
100th Object going "to change the way we think",
After today's 99th Object, one more to go,
From 100th Object to 100s of solar projects,
What the Twitterverse thinks of 100th Object,
100th Object: "a story worthy of this generation",
Solar-powered lamp revealed as 100th Object,
Tomorrow’s vote on 100th Object keeps solar in the news,
Solar lamp an icon in social entrepreneurship
and
Will solar powered lamp be 100th Object?

Best Ashden Moments 2010: Mike picks his trip to the Isle of Eigg

2010-12-30T17:29:00.001Z

For the eighth in our end-of-year series, where members of the Ashden team choose favourite moments from the year, Mike Pepler, UK awards manager, picks his trip to the Isle of Eigg.

When I visited the Isle of Eigg in February, I didn’t know whether they’d make it through to become a winner, but I was excited to be visiting them and seeing the work they’ve done.

The idea of a community taking responsibility for its own energy supply, as well as supplying their own water and a proportion of their own food, was very inspiring. To me, the people of Eigg are leading the way – showing the rest of us what we should be aspiring to.

The end result would look different in every community, of course, but the overall goal of supplying as much of the community’s needs as possible from the local area is one that is sure to help improve energy security and reduce CO2 emissions.

Best Ashden Moments 2010: Jo picks seeing the installation of a biogas plant in India

2010-12-29T17:14:00.003Z

For the seventh in our end-of-year series, where members of the Ashden team choose favourite moments from the year, Jo Walton, head of communications, picks her trip to India and seeing the installation of a biogas plant at SKG Sangha.

For me it was visiting India and seeing some of our winners' work in action. After five years at the Ashden Awards, to actually see this work on the ground really making a difference, was incredibly inspiring.

It was wonderful to be there when they were the building a biogas plant at SKG Sangha! But I also saw SELCO's solar home systems lighting up people's homes and TIDE's solar greenhouses providing fresh food and an income for women and children. The trip was a great privilege.

See also:
Simon picks the publication of Power to Our Neigbourhoods
Carla picks the moment AIDFI won BBC World Challenge
Jane picks the moment the finalists arrived in London

Best Ashden Moments 2010: Mariana picks the launch of the Ashden India Collective

2010-12-28T21:51:00.004Z

For the sixth in our end-of-year series, where members of the Ashden team choose favourite moments from the year, Mariana Mason, international programme manager, picks the launch of the Ashden India Collective.

It was exciting to go to India this July and officially launch the Ashden Indian Collective. Close to 15 of our Indian winners attended, along with Government of India, investors and NGOs. We held the event in partnership with, and thanks to the support, of DFID India. The group will draw on their experience to develop policy recommendations for the government to widen the use of decentralised renewable energy.

See also:
Simon picks the publication of Power to Our Neigbourhoods
Carla picks the moment AIDFI won BBC World Challenge
Jane picks the moment the finalists arrived in London

Energy security - how saving energy at home and work can help

2010-12-28T18:02:00.000Z

Mike Pepler, our UK awards manager, recently posted an analysis of the UK gas supply situation on his own blog, you can read it here.

Using publicly available data from the National Grid, he's plotted some graphs comparing the amount of gas the UK has in storage, and comparing this winter to a year ago. Due to the cold weather, and the declining gas output from the North Sea, storage levels are much lower than they were at this point a year ago. This could present a problem if the rest of this winter is colder than average.

If supplies do run low, part of the process to deal with the situation includes a public appeal to reduce gas use. Reducing electricity use helps too, as about 40% of our electricity is generated from gas. A shortage of gas will also push up gas and electricity prices, so by taking action to reduce your energy use you can yourself some money, help improve energy security and reduce CO2 emissions, all at the same time!

Take a moment to visit some of our recent blogs about saving energy:
Nine solutions that work to combat rising fuel prices
Save energy, save money: cavity walls

Best Ashden Moments 2010: Gloria picks Sir David Attenborough's speech

2010-12-23T12:46:00.005Z

For the fifth in our end-of-year series, where members of the Ashden team choose favourite moments from the year, Gloria Dawson, Policy and Research Officer, picks Sir David Attenborough's speech at the 2010 Awards ceremony.

My Awards moment of the year was Sir David Attenborough's speech at the Awards; he so enthusiastically embraced and praised the positivity of our award-winners' stories. For me, the most important bit was where he said that we have, as humans, started to undergo a fundamental moral change in our relationship to the planet; we have realised that it is wrong to take and not give back, to despoil the Earth's resources without regard for other living creatures and organisms and their future. He likened this moral change to the shift in opinion in the 19th century over the justifications for the slave trade. I do so hope he is right.

Best Ashden Moments 2010: Anne picks the moment GERES sold its one millionth cookstove

2010-12-21T10:09:00.003Z

For the fourth in our end-of-year series, where members of the Ashden team choose favourite moments from the year, Anne Wheldon, Technical Manager, picks the moment GERES sold its one millionth improved cookstove.

I was really encouraged when I found out how much one of our past winners, GERES in Cambodia, had progressed since winning an Award in 2006. Not just that the sales of their improved stove had exceeded one million, but that it was now in use in nearly half the urban households in Cambodia. That’s what we need everywhere, sustainable energy technology becoming mainstream.

(pic: Mrs Samith using one of the 'New Lao' stoves, Chak Angre Krom, Meanchey District, near Phnom Penh)

See also:
Simon picks the publication of Power to Our Neigbourhoods
Carla picks the moment AIDFI won BBC World Challenge
Jane picks the moment the finalists arrived in London

UK National Grid issues first Gas Balancing Alert of the winter

2010-12-19T21:03:00.000Z

This evening the National Grid in the UK issued the first Gas Balancing Alert for the 2010/11 winter. The latest status for gas supply can be viewed on their information website.

According to the National Grid:

The purpose of the Gas Balancing Alert (GBA) is to provide a signal to the market that demand-side reduction and/or additional supplies may be required to avoid the risk of entering into a Network Gas Supply Emergency.

The issuing of this alert is therefore a signal to the gas market in the UK that action needs to be taken to ensure security of supply, and in the past this action has always been successful. The action is typically large industrial gas users reducing their consumption, or new short-term supplies being acquired, either from gas storage or through extra imports.

So what does this mean for gas and electricity consumers in the UK? Domestic supply will be guaranteed, but prices will inevitably be pushed up further still. Gas prices will rise as a direct result, but also electricity prices, as over 40% of our electricity is generated by burning gas.

What can you do? Well, you could start by reading some of our past blogs on how to save energy and therefore save money:
Nine solutions that work to combat rising fuel prices
Save energy, save money: cavity walls

What should we be doing as a country? The standard industry and government response is to build more pipelines or LNG import terminals - but building facilities does not guarantee there will be gas flowing through them, as that depends on the market and the suppliers. It also doesn't help the UK balance of payments, or help cut CO2 emissions. While extra import facilities may be useful, the first action that must be taken is to reduce consumption through demand management and efficiency, as we mentioned just last week on this blog.

Mike

Existing Homes Alliance advises Green Deal: benefits would mean less CO2, more local jobs & lower energy bills

2010-12-17T15:08:00.010Z

This month, the government introduced the Energy Bill into Parliament as part of its new Green Deal. The Existing Homes Alliance also recently published recommendations to ensure government efforts help the UK to refurbish its existing housing stock – to bring it in line with the UK’s commitment to cutting carbon emissions 80% by 2050.

Their recommendations cover key areas of the Green Deal. The first is finance: policies must allow the most to be made from the economic opportunities of widespread refurbishment – estimated between £5-15 billion. Secondly, the Existing Homes Alliance stresses that the government must place attention on how the work will be done - by investing in tradesmen and exploring area-based schemes for example - and done well. Shoddy work will make a dent in consumer demand for these changes. Thirdly, the government needs to focus on driving demand, regulating minimum energy performance is a necessary ‘stick’, but ‘carrots’ are also important.

Simon, our UK Business Support Manager, also works with the Existing Homes Alliance. He thinks making these changes will stimulate wider benefits:

"Creating demand for uptake of energy efficiency measures and stimulating the behaviour change that is needed to meet our carbon reduction targets is a tall order – but we can learn a lot from many of our Award winners who have worked hard to engage local communities, help them understand the issues, and take action. If, as a result of rising to this challenge, we get more local jobs, a more buoyant local economy and lower energy bills, then everyone wins."

(Pic: House on the right has been refurbished, including external wall insulation, by 2010 Award winners Northwards Housing)

Best Ashden Moments 2010: Simon picks the publication of Power to our neighbourhoods

2010-12-16T15:34:00.001Z

For the third in our end-of-year series, where members of the Ashden team choose favourite moments from the year, Simon Brammer, UK programme manager, picks the publication of Power to our neighbourhoods.

For me one of the best moments of 2010 was the publication of our research in June which was a culmination of a year's work and contained the wisdom of many of our UK winners.

The report drew on current best practice to demonstrate how we can cut energy bills, reduce CO2, create jobs and help secure our energy future by scaling up and replicating local sustainable energy programmes.

The work has been well received and is having a direct impact on UK policy.

Briefing paper
Executive summary
Full report

If Chris Huhne doesn't back renewables, the costs will be even higher

2010-12-16T11:28:00.002Z

The Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, will outline government plans today to encourage energy companies to develop low-carbon power plants. The BBC reports the government is to guarantee prices for electricity to persuade the private sector to invest in new low-carbon forms of generation. The Daily Telegraph headlines the story £500 on electricity bills to pay for green energy. Mike, our UK Awards Manager, explains

Ultimately, as electricity consumers, we all have to pay for the equipment that generates electricity. As we’re facing a future with rising fossil fuel prices, to build gas or coal power stations because they’re cheap is short-sighted. If we build renewable energy generation capacity, then not only do we not have to pay for fuel imports, we also have better security of supply, and will be closer to meeting out targets on CO2 emissions.

The BBC report is accompanied by a photo of a row of wind turbines out at sea. But as Anne Wheldon, our Senior Adviser, points out.

The extra cost is not just for renewable energy. Much of the extra cost will go to nuclear power, which is included in the new generation of power plants. The BBC reports that nuclear will not receive specific subsidies, but it also mentions that there will be feed-in-tariffs for nuclear. Let's make sure that the main focus is renewable electricity, otherwise we’re trading climate change for the other long-term problem of nuclear waste management.

Best Ashden Moments 2010: Carla picks the moment AIDFI won BBC World Challenge

2010-12-15T16:52:00.003Z

In the second in our end-of-year series, where members of the Ashden team choose favourite moments from the year, Carla Jones, Communications assistant, picks the moment the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation (AIDFI) won BBC World Challenge.

I'd like to nominate the moment that AIDFI won the BBC World Challenge. It was great to have been able to chart their progress over the past six months, from first hearing they had been nominated in July and watching the film on the World Challenge website, to that nail-biting final week of voting when they were in the front running, to hearing they had won the overall prize. And it was brilliant to be able to use our blog, twitter and facebook pages to support them and spread the word!

See also:AIDFI now in Top Three for BBC World Challenge
AIDFI works hard for votes in last week of BBC challenge
AID foundation selected as finalist for BBC World Challenge
Blog Action Day: Ram pumps provide freshwater for 50,000 people

The Cancun agreement on "technology transfer" is short on detail

2010-12-15T12:29:00.009Z

Gloria Dawson, our policy and research officer, assesses the future for technology transfer after Cancun

The United Nations Climate Change Summit in Cancun, Mexico ended with an agreement to limit average temperature rises by 2 degrees Centigrade and establish a forest protection scheme and a climate adaptation fund.

As I blogged last week, a formal international agreement on technology transfer was also one of the hoped-for outcomes. There is a new agreement to establish centres for technology transfer. But this agreement doesn't have any numbers attached to it. There is no indication how these centres will be funded, where the centres will be, or who will administer them. Without these details, it may be some time until this mechanism becomes a reality.

One of our winners, GERES, attended the Cancun summit and called for vulnerable communities in poorer countries to be able to access money from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for emissions-reducing projects. Although agreements at Cancun over the CDM only concerned larger mitigation projects (e.g Carbon Capture and Storage), GERES has said they are committed to remaining part of policy discussions on this issue at UN and international levels.

GERES is head of an expert panel on "suppressed demand" and that panel will publish a report on the subject in time for the Africa Carbon Forum in Morocco in April 2011.

Short summary of Cancun here.

Award-winning presents for Xmas: solar lamps

2010-12-15T10:05:00.002Z

In the last in her series on award-winning presents, Juliet Heller suggests lighting up someone’s Christmas with a solar LED lamp

D.light produces an excellent range of hard-wearing and reliable solar lanterns that are changing peoples’ lives in those parts of the world where there is no grid electricity. Instead of using smoky, dangerous kerosene lamps, people can now enjoy clean, bright light at the flick of a switch, and also charge their mobiles.

D.light Design is a ground-breaking social enterprise set up three years ago by two Stanford University graduates. It has improved the lives of over two million people in 40 countries.

Now, in response to popular demand, two of these innovative solar lanterns are available on Amazon UK, just in time for Christmas. The S250 is priced £30.00 and includes an LED light, mini solar PV panel and charger. The smaller S10 lantern is just £10.00.

See also:
Award-winning presents for Xmas: Eco Top Trumps
Award-winning presents for Xmas: energy monitors
Award-winning presents for Xmas: the cookstove

Best Ashden Moments 2010: Jane picks the moment the finalists arrived in London

2010-12-14T15:06:00.007Z

In the first in our end-of-year series, where members of the Ashden team choose favourite moments from the year, Jane Howarth, Awards administrator, picks the moment the finalists arrive in London.

The moment I'd choose is meeting the finalists at the hotel on the Sunday before awards week starts. We have tea, show them their films and brief them on the week to come.

The hotel is the Grange Strathmore Hotel, a small cosy hotel in Kensington. We have afternoon tea, the finalists each give a short introduction about themselves and their work, and we tell them what will happen during the week and answer any questions they may have.

They each watch the short films that have been made about them, in a separate room, one at a time - we don't let the finalists see each others' films at this stage as they are still preparing to meet the judges for their final interviews. We get a very positive reaction to the films.

After tea, we take them on the tube to the office so that they know the route (three stops on the District line) and don't lose their way to the interview the following day.

As the Awards administrator, it's great to meet them all in person after many months of emailing. And it's also a relief to know that they've all made it to London!

The idea that Britain can either have clean energy or cheap energy ignores the third option: saving energy

2010-12-13T10:09:00.005Z

There are some fairly uncomfortable facts in the Economist's latest article on energy in the UK, Clean and green for a price.

One is that Britain ranks 3rd lowest out of 27 European countries in producing renewable energy (one above Malta and Luxembourg). Another is that renewables account for 3% of total energy consumption at the moment, and the government has signed up to an EU target to reach 15% by 2020. A third is that Britain pays £1 billion a year in subsidies for renewables.

But the Economist article frames the situation in the narrow terms of either/or. The intro sums it up: Britain can have clean energy or cheap energy, but not both. But there is a third option that the Economist has ignored. What about energy efficiency and managing energy demand?

Mike Pepler, our UK awards manager, says,

"Savings are vital and there's a difference here between demand management and energy efficiency: efficiency is switching from a big car to a small car for the commute to work; demand management is working from home instead."

It takes time for renewables to come on stream and, since we don't have the luxury of time, it puts an added emphasis on behavioural change. This means that the most sensible order in which we should tackle the energy challenge is: (i) reduce demand (ii) improve efficiency and (iii) use renewables. As Mike says,

Doing things in this order delivers the quickest and cheapest savings, but it puts the responsibility on individuals to make decisions to change the way they live - which is the way it probably should be.

If shipping were a country, it would be the 6th biggest carbon emitter in the world. Now a database monitors it.

2010-12-10T17:00:00.003Z

If the shipping industry were a country, it would be the sixth-biggest industrial carbon emitter in the world. The Carbon War Room has set up a website designed to rate ships as if they were refrigerators or boilers. Shippingefficiency.org will provide data on 60,000 vessels, giving them a rating between A (clean) and G (dirty).

In a Senegal village, one wind turbine leads to a "building boom"

2010-12-10T11:16:00.004Z

Oxfam researcher John McGrath visits a village in Senegal, well off the national grid, that has a wind turbine, towering above the baobabs, and a plane of solar panels. Cables lead off to every house and people pay any one of four tariffs, based on how much power they use. The result?

McGrath says there's a new pride, people talk about a “revival of the town”, young people who'd left for the capital are coming back, and people from surrounding areas are moving in, buying land and building houses.

McGrath writes: "A building boom was visibly in progress."

See also: Practical Action's report highly relevant to Ashden winners and Helping to lift people out of poverty also helps cut carbon emissions

Award-winning presents for Xmas: Eco Top Trumps

2010-12-10T10:03:00.010Z

Here's one for the Christmas stocking.

An Ashden Award winner in 2009, the Shropshire energy charity Marches Energy Agency inspires communities to adopt low carbon lifestyles.

One of MEA's successful initiatives was Eco Vehicle Top Trumps. MEA says:

Our pack contains 30 different vehicles, from vans to bikes, busses to sports cars. Vehicles include conventionally powered low emission cars such as the Toyota Aygo and alternatives such as biodiesel, bioEthanol, bioMethane and electrically powered engines.

When it was first produced, a pack of Eco Vehicle Top Trumps were sent to each of the 3000 secondary schools in the UK. With only a few packs now left, make sure you order yours soon. They're available on eBay.

D.light solar lanterns attracts wide interest at BA's conservation day

2010-12-09T13:07:00.006Z

British Airways' Communities and Conservation Day showcased a range of projects it supports (including the Ashden Awards) in the atrium of their offices at Terminal Five. Throughout yesterday, BA staff mixed with 34 NGOs, charities and social enterprises. Suzy and myself were there and found plenty of interest in d.light lanterns.

Amigos is a charity working with young people in Uganda. It has introduced d.light lanterns at its training centre, Kira Farm. Amigos director Phil Pugsley said that each day the cook Mary lays out 15 Nova lamps in their field to charge in the sunlight, in the evenings they light up the main rooms. In a country where load shedding is common practice, this reliable source of energy makes all the difference. What's more, Phil explained, there's a health benefit to solar lighting:

“Currently we can’t give our children mosquito nets because of the fire risk. If they used kerosene lamps, the naked flames could catch on the netting and get taken straight up to the thatched roofs. With solar, this risk is gone.”

After inspecting the d.light lanterns on the Ashden stall, Geoff Booker, from the Quicken Trust asked for contact details so he could see if he could get these lanterns to 1000 students in Kabubbu, Northern Uganda. Geoff said:

“This could make a massive difference to their lives. When the students finally get down to homework, after chores at about nine at night, kerosene is a poor source of lighting.”

Another visitor to the stall, also interested by the d.light lantern, was Nikki from One, an initiative that supports the building of PlayPumps® in Southern Africa. These water pumps, built in schools are powered by the action of children playing on merry-go-rounds, that brings water up from underground.

(Pic: Carla speaks to BA staff)

Chris Huhne says insulating homes "a no brainer"

2010-12-09T08:21:00.003Z

Following on the same theme as yesterday's blog about nine solutions that work to combat rise in fuel prices, today the BBC reports that Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has unveiled a plan to insulate the UK's draughty housing stock.

After 2012, people will be able to approach their energy supplier for a loan to cover the cost of insulation, instead of paying in advance.

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said the deal - which is part of the Energy Bill - would "make upgrading our nation's draughty homes a no brainer".

See also: the Green Deal "needs to be flexible" to help the fuel poor

Nine solutions that work to combat rising fuel prices

2010-12-08T14:58:00.010Z

Three companies - British Gas, ScottishPower and Scottish & Southern – have announced price rises in recent weeks. At the same time, freezing weather and snow across Britain has boosted energy demand.

Jim Dale, senior risk meteorologist at British Weather Services told Bloomberg News that December may be the coldest in more than 30 years. “We are expecting a return to Arctic weather including blizzards and deep frosts from around Dec. 17.”

The Arctic weather has pushed up demand for both electricity and gas. Between 35-40% of the UK’s electricity is generated by burning gas, so the prices are linked. Since the price of gas has risen in recent days, it has also become more attractive for generators to switch to coal or oil, causing a rise in carbon emissions. (Carbon emission permits have also gone up in price.) The most expensive form of power generation is oil, so this too will have an impact on electricity prices.

The UK’s natural gas storage facilities are currently about 70% full, compared to 95% this time last year. If temperatures continue below average, we can expect to see prices go even higher, as we'll be forced to import more gas when storage runs low.

If that's not bad enough, today's Independent reports that energy prices may rise by 25% over 10 years.

The best option, of course, is to manage demand. The best way to do that is through energy efficiency and home insulation. The best people to follow are our Ashden Award winners. Here are nine inspirational approaches within the UK:

Kirklees Council, Huddersfield has rolled out free insulation to its residents.

Second Nature has developed and marketed effective roof-insulation material made from sheep's wool.

Northwards Housing, Manchester has converted housing stock into energy-efficient homes with no charge to tenants.

Leeds City Council has improved the energy efficiency of housing by over 21% since 1996.

Arun District Council, West Sussex has introduced energy efficiency throughout its operations.

Energy Agency, Ayrshire used a community fund to promote energy efficiency intensively in three local villages.

Cumbria Energy Efficiency Advice Centre provides an integrated service of advice, funding and installation for home insulation.

Community Energy Plus provides free energy efficiency advice and efficiency measures

Gloucestershire Warm and Well has linked seven local authorities with a range of organisations working on health and community support.

GERES argues in Cancun for changes in CDM funding to help poorest communities

2010-12-08T11:50:00.006Z

The French NGO GERES - an Ashden winner in 2006 and in 2009 - has been to Cancun to participate in roundtable discussions about the Clean Development Mechanism.

GERES argues that because communities in the most vulnerable countries of the South have very low levels of CO2 emissions, they cannot take advantage of CDM funding.

If carbon-sparing technological solutions were introduced, these same communities could, however, benefit from better access to energy services, lighting and drinking water, while maintaining a constant emission level.

Swan Fauveaud, manager of the GERES Climate Change Unit, gives this example of the "vicious circle" at work.

In Ladakh, the introduction of passive solar greenhouses and better home insulation can raise the indoor temperature by 15 degrees celsius. According to current CDM accounting standards, this type of activity does not result in any eligible emission reductions because villagers living in poverty cannot afford to heat their homes. That's one of the paradoxes of the CDM!

pic: A woman in Ladakh harvests fresh produce in a solar greenhouse

Helping to lift people out of poverty also cuts carbon emissions

2010-12-07T13:41:00.006Z

The Green Futures editor-in-chief, Martin Wright, argues in the Guardian that the idea of having to choose between tackling poverty and tackling climate change is nonsense.

Martin, an Ashden Awards judge, says there's no reason you can't tackle climate change and energy poverty simultaneously.

Indeed, you will struggle to do one without the other. Pretty much every energy technology which helps lift people out of poverty – clean, efficient cookstoves; clear bright solar lights; and, in the developed north, a crash programme of energy efficiency for vulnerable homes – will also cut carbon emissions.

Cancun delegates discussing "technology transfer" should remember that it's already happening

2010-12-07T11:16:00.013Z

Much of the media coverage of COP16 has focused on disagreements over the UN-administered fund for mitigation and adaptation in poorer countries. But, writes Gloria Dawson, our policy and research officer, aid money is not the only help that developed countries can give to those already affected by climate change.

In the likely event of a failure to reach a legally binding agreement at Cancun on reducing CO2 emissions, technology transfer is one of the "back door" areas where there may still be significant agreement and progress.

In the context of climate change, technology transfer means nations sharing existing technologies and working together to develop new technologies which help countries adapt to or mitigate climate change. Expertise about wind turbine technology, or plans for solar micro-grids, or techniques for more water- and energy-efficient farming can be adapted from one country to another to meet specific needs.

This knowledge can be transferred directly through the public or private sector by relaxing certain patents or it could be brokered through existing UN mechanisms such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Technology transfer could also be supported through new international institutions. This is already happening in places, but there is still no formal international agreement to support it.

The Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has said that helping poor nations adapt to the effects of warmer temperatures should be a higher priority than reaching legally binding emissions reduction agreements. Right now in Cancun, delegates are discussing plans for a network of innovation centres to help developing countries. A key role for an international Climate Technology Centre would be identifying the specific needs of individual countries.

States and transnational corporations will always disagree over the degree to which intellectual property can should be shared. The representatives of rich countries often argue that, as most technological innovations are developed, registered and manufactured in developed countries, a relaxation of patents on technology inhibits technological innovation.

But technology transfer is already a large part of what Ashden Award winners do. The winners scale up small sustainable energy projects, by disseminating skills, expertise and technology that make sustainable energy more widespread and effective. Our winners work with governments and the private sector, but they also skill up ordinary people and share their knowledge and innovations as widely as possible.

A good example is Aprovecho Research Centre, an Ashden Award winner in 2006 (with ProBEC, S.Africa) and 2009 (with SSM, China). Aprovecho builds fuel-efficient wood stoves that are appropriate to a wide range of needs. They build relationships with producers of stoves in different countries to create the best stoves that can be produced by local people at low cost.

At their Rocket Stove website, you can see many of these designs, as well as the online tool they have developed to help people design and build their own rocket stove. This is an impressive example of technology transfer in action, devolving knowledge and skills to those who need it, for little or no money.

Practical Action's new report highly relevant to Ashden winners

2010-12-06T16:38:00.006Z

Practical Action’s inaugural Poor People's Energy Outlook - published today - discusses the energy poverty of more than 1.5 billion people in terms that are highly relevant to the Ashden Awards and Ashden winners. The report:

- highlights the inefficiency of countries having a national, grid-based energy plan/framework rather than thinking about decentralised power

- stresses that inefficient cookstoves waste time, money and damage health

- criticises the huge lack of information and access at community/local levels for affordable sustainable energy

- emphasises that energy access is a basic precondition for development

- outlines a ‘minimum standard’ of energy access for households worldwide.

Ashden-winner AIDFI wins BBC's World Challenge

2010-12-06T10:57:00.002Z

On Saturday, BBC World News broadcast the final of the World Challenge 10 series. The winner was 'The Only Way is Up', the ram pump project from the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation (or AIDFI).

The Philippines-based initiative - which won an Ashden Award in 2007 - uses the power of a river's flow to push water uphill. AIDFI has introduced the pump to over 170 villages.

There were 800 nominations from over 70 countries, from which 12 projects were selected. More than 167,000 people round the world voted online for their favourite. 'The Only Way is Up Project' received US $20,000 prize from Shell.

(Pic: Auke Idzenga, Programme Director, receives award at BBC World Challenge ceremony)

See also: AIDFI now in Top Three for BBC World Challenge
AIDFI works hard for votes in last week of BBC challenge
AID foundation selected as finalist for BBC World Challenge
Blog Action Day: Ram pumps provide freshwater for 50,000 people

Our winners broadcast globally over the weekend

2010-12-03T16:07:00.003Z

This Saturday, films of our winners are being shown across the world. The Rural Energy Foundation and the partnership between the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and SNV will have their stories shared in Cancún. Their films will form part of a festival put on by the International Institute for the Environment and Development (IIED) as part of their Development and Climate Days side event. To be screened in the morning slot, they will form part of the five shorts presented under the theme 'Techonology and Adaptation: shifting towards sustainable energy production'.

On the other side of the globe in Japan, SELCO will feature in a programme analysing India's fast developing economy. To be broadcast nationally, the half-hour programme, 'Dynamic India', includes an interview with SELCO's founder Harish Hande. Harish is asked to shed light, from a social enterprise perspective, on the key to India's growth. The programme will be streamed live from NHK's website homepage and can be watched at 2:10, 6:10, 10:10, 3:10, 17:10 and 22:10 UTC (equivalent to GMT ).

(pic: Harish Hande, Founder of SELCO on 'Dynamic India' courtesy of NHK)

New list ranks top US states for solar energy

2010-12-02T17:24:00.005Z

A new report lists the top states in America for solar power. The Huffington Post reports new research from Arizona State University, on the "Optimal Deployment of Solar Index" (OSDI), provides a ranking of ideal states for solar power based on a range of considerations:

Ideal states should have: a relatively high level of solar insolation (ability to generate a significant amount of solar energy), a fairly large amount of economic activity resulting from solar energy being deployed, a reasonably low cost of energy installation, higher than average current prices for electricity, and the potential for electricity production through solar power that would offset large amounts of carbon emissions.

Top of the list is Hawaii (pic). California - the Sun State - only makes 30th on the list.

Award-winning presents for Xmas: energy monitors

2010-12-01T14:36:00.009Z

Do you know anyone who loves gadgets, likes to save money, and cares about the planet? If so, Juliet Heller knows the perfect present.

The OWL energy monitor, and similar gadgets like the Efergy, are really easy to use, but beware, they are quite addictive. I gave one to my partner a few years ago and he’s obsessed with it. He checks the temperature and electricity consumption several times a day. But I mustn’t complain. It’s cut our electricity bills by 25%.

Then I gave one to my nephew Max for his 16th birthday (really, he asked for one). Max likes gadgets and enjoys fixing electrical equipment. Now he’s Mr Energy Monitor around the house too, and is using the OWL for a school project that studies why rooms in the house are different temperatures.

Jo, our Head of Communications, says she's a compulsive OWL watcher at home.

“It’s been quite an education. I was amazed to see how electricity use surges when one of us switches on the kettle or the vacuum cleaner. And it’s great for checking if things are left on, which often happens with young children (and forgetful husbands)."

Jo encourages schools to get a monitor as the first step towards sustainability. The Ashden Awards runs a project called LESS CO2 (Low Energy Sustainable Schools) which motivates school leaders to reduce their energy consumption by working with some of our award-winning schools.

An energy monitor hasn't in itself won an Ashden Award, but OWL electricity monitors, for instance, allowed households on the Isle of Eigg to keep an eye on how much power they are using, and many schools who have won our awards, such as St Columb Minor School in Cornwall and Ringmer Community College in East Sussex, use energy monitors to track energy consumption and reduce electricity use. The teachers also use the data in maths and science lessons, which helps integrate climate change learning across the curriculum.

Another, more sophisticated tool, the Eco-Driver software programme is used by Ashley C of E Primary School in Walton on Thames to monitor the energy generated by their solar PV as well as their energy consumption. It helped reduce the school’s electricity use by 50 per cent in the first year.

The BBC News says the next generation of smart meters

“should cut electricity consumption by around 5%, so if all Brits used one the emissions savings would be roughly equivalent to taking 600,000 cars off the road.”

OWL monitors are available on Amazon for £25. It’s worth reading the reviews.

Most popular 10 blogs in November

2010-12-01T12:14:00.003Z

1. Save energy, save money: cavity walls (15 Nov 2010)

2. How to turn a small, cold, dark house into a SuperHome (27 Oct 2010)
3. When electricity boards went on the offensive (27 Oct 2010)

4. Chris addresses delegates from 12 sub-Saharan countries (12 Nov 2010)

5. Antiques Roadshow ends with thoroughly modern 100th Object (8 Nov 2010)

6. Ashden winners go to INSEAD for advice on how to scale up (23 Nov 2010)

7. Jo sees installation of biogas plant at SKG (10 Mar 2010)

8. Public turns up to see how Juliet's SuperHome (8 Nov 2010)

9. Award-winning presents for Xmas: the cookstove (25 Nov 2010)

10. UK faces double whammy of price rises and Arctic winter (24 Nov 2010)

Steve Chu says US faces "Sputnik moment" with clean energy

2010-11-30T13:33:00.010Z

The U.S. Secretary of State for Energy, Steven Chu, gave a speech at the National Press Club yesterday, in which he warned that "time is running out" in the race for clean energy technologies.

Dr Chu said that America may face another "Sputnik moment". In 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik 1, the first earth-orbiting space satellite.

A Nobel prize-winning physicist, Dr Chu believes that China and the E.U. may take the lead in clean energy technologies.

"Given the enormous economic opportunities in clean energy, it's time for America to do what we do best: innovate."

How to talk about "sustainability"

2010-11-29T14:20:00.006Z

The Dutch journalist Joris Luyendijk (left) says that the way to talk about sustainability is in terms of processes in which individuals are making something sustainable.

It's so weird that sustainability is boring because the word "interest" both connotes your interests as a human being, your interest in staying alive, and your "interest" in being interested in something. So you would expect these things to converge.

But then, on this very threatening phenomenon of the destruction of our ecosphere, you can't get people interested. All sorts of things that are boring when they come out of a scientific journal, or a scandal, or a media moment, might be interesting when it is part of the hero's journey towards a desirable goal, sustainability.

The Economist backs renewables as "a matter of justice"

2010-11-26T10:42:00.012Z

The Economist's cover story today is: How to live with climate change. The paper says, 'It won’t be stopped, but its effects can be made less bad.' Climate change also provides

an extra reason for rich countries - which caused the problem in the first place - to find ways to help poor countries develop. That is a matter of justice, not just humanity.

The paper argues that prosperity is the best protection against global warming, but it recognises that as economies grow they consume more energy, which threatens to make the problem worse.

... rich countries can help, by offering poor countries support for greener energy technologies, and thus allowing them to make use of their capacity for generating renewable energy from water, wind and sunlight.

pic: Alamy/Corbis

Three reasons why solar portable lights have a big future in Africa

2010-11-26T09:48:00.004Z

A new report from Lighting Africa (above), a joint IFC and World Bank programme, says that solar portable lights could provide access to clean and safe lighting by 2015 to an estimated 65 million Africans, who are currently either un-electrified or under-electrified.

The report puts the potential for development down to three factors: significant improvement in the quality and performance of solar portable lights in the past five years; a decline in the retail price; and product features that have been adapted to meet consumer needs.

Download the full report

Award-winning presents for Xmas: the cookstove

2010-11-25T13:29:00.008Z

Run out of ideas for Xmas gifts? Why not give an award-winning clean stove to a camping enthusiast?

These highly efficient rocket stoves are a simple but revolutionary technology that burn wood or charcoal and cut fuel use by 40 percent or more, reducing smoke and carbon monoxide emissions by more than 50 percent.

Efficient stoves like these tackle one of the scourges of the developing world. Indoor smoke kills 1.6 million people, mainly women and children, worldwide every year.

In 2009 we awarded our Energy Champion prize to the Oregon-based Aprovecho Research Center and SSM in China who together design and manufacture affordable and efficient rocket stoves used extensively in the developing world. The company that has been set up to sell the stove, StoveTec, has sold over 50,000 in countries like India, South Africa and Chile. They aim to reach the three billion worldwide who cook on smoky open fires and inefficient stoves.

But these stoves are also available in the UK. Order and get more information and reviews from UK retailers: Wild Stoves (all the money goes to Stove Tec)and Bell Tents

Or you could donate a rocket stove to a cook in Haiti for £8.00 or fund a stove in Africa for £6.50.

For more on improved cookstoves, read our 'Stoking up a cookstove revolution' report.

(pic: StoveTec rocket stove)