Renew On Line (UK) 27
Extracts from the July-Aug
2000 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it
Renew On Line (UK) 27 |
Extracts from the July-Aug
2000 edition of Renew |
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1. DTI Pushes Renewables to market "We are moving towards a market-based approach, the best way to meet our 10% target". So said Energy Minister, Helen Liddell, at a recent meeting of PRASEG, the cross-party Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group. She went on "By creating a guaranteed market for renewables until 2025, the Government is offering the UK's renewable energy industry an unprecedented opportunity to expand. Now is the time for the industry to evolve from marginal to mainstream status. It will contribute substantially both to the protection of our environment and to the diversity and security of our energy supplies." ...MORE 2. Solarnet- net metering breakthrough Eastern Energy, now the retail arm of TXU Europe, has launched a Solarnet scheme, which means that, for the first time in the UK, people with solar PV panels can be paid the same price for surplus electricity they export to the national grid during daylight hours, as they pay for any conventional electricity imported at night. ..MORE 3. Sustainable Economics "Not Too Difficult!" "The Government must be bolder with its powers to move the economy in more sustainable directions. Our society is still using far too much energy and creating far too much waste. Road traffic is still escalating, adding to its toll of congestion and pollution. Inappropriate, intensive agriculture is damaging our countryside and destroying our wildlife"...MORE The UK should plan for a reduction of 60% over the next 50 years in the amounts of carbon dioxide it produces by burning fossil fuels, so as to respond to the serious problem of Climate Change. This was one of the key conclusions of a major report by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution - 'Energy – The Changing Climate' ...MORE The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions recently announced new statutory targets for recycling in its new Waste Strategy for England and Wales. To help attain them, Environment Minister Michael Meacher announced that re-use and recycling schemes will be eligible for support from the proceeds of the landfill tax credit scheme....MORE 6. DETR’s STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR RENEWABLES The Government is adopting a strategic approach to planning for renewable energy development. Outlining the new approach Planning Minister Nick Raynsford commented, "a positive, strategic approach to planning for renewable energy is essential to help to deliver the Government's targets and goals for renewable energy and climate change, which are central to achieving sustainable development, whilst continuing to protect the landscape." This was underlined in the DTI’s recent Conclusions in Response to the Public Consultation...MORE The new Climate Change Draft UK Policy produced by the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (see Renew 125) seems to be a comprehensive exercise - and has been quite well received, even if it did fudge the 20% target a little. Thus it concluded that ‘the combination of existing policies and the impact of some of the measures the Government has introduced since Kyoto is forecast to reduce UK emissions of the six greenhouse gas basket to around 13.5% below 1990 levels in 2010. This would be enough to deliver the UK's Kyoto target of a 12.5% reduction. On the same projections, emissions of carbon dioxide are expected to be 7% below 1990 levels in 2010'...MORE "Renewable energy could be as important to the Scottish economy as the oil and gas industry," according to Hamish Dingwall, Head of Energy with Scottish Enterprise . "Who knows, sometime in the longer-term we may be beating the Danish at their own game on the international stage." ...MORE Energy Clash in Norway Swedens Biomass to help replace nuclear power? CHINA'S SOLAR DEAL PUTS UK IN THE SHADE TEXACO LEAVES CARBON CLUB Urban Renewables Cities "have largest potential for renewables" Tidal Warming? 10. The new German Renewable Energy Law In February, the German Parliament adopted the Renewable Energy Law - the ‘Law for the priority access of electricity from renewable energy sources’...MORE PV SHARE BOOM Dot.com shares may be facing problems but Reuters reported recently that the morning after announcing a joint venture to make solar panels, Belgian steel wire maker Bekaert SA saw its shares bounce up by more than four percent. Reuters noted that this made it one of the leading percentage gainers on the Brussels stock market..MORE Most of Europe is in the process of phasing out nuclear power, with new plants being banned and old plants being decommisioned. For some countries, like Denmark, Italy, Spain, Greece, Austria, Sweden, the decision to back away from nuclear was taken long ago - in many cases in the wake of the Chernobyl accident. But subsequently, following the election of left-centre governments of various types, they have been joined by the UK (with a policy of ‘diminishing reliance’ as plants retire and are not replaced) and Germany ( a complete phase out by 2032 now agreed - it was initially to be by 2016)...MORE Renew 126 includes a Feature looking at the problems of biomass combustion – and introducing EERU’s new 43 page report by Alexi Clarke " Life Cycle Analysis for the Accreditation of of Biomass Energy from waste". This can be obtained from NATTA for £10 (£25 for organisations/libraries) It argues that, in addition to the more familiar issue of emissions, one of the questions that is posed by the combustion of biomass to generate energy is how much of the biomatter produced annually by plants and living organisms can be used in this way on a sustainable basis? In particular, what are the consequences for soil reserves and, given, that soil is involved with carbon dioxide sequestration, for the atmosphere? There are also detailed reviews of the new DETR report on Climate Change, part two of Dave Elliott’s analysis of the problems of large scale hydro and reports on a wide range of local group activities, including the new European Renewable Energy Federation, plus a critique of Eco- modernism |
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