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1.Community Energy
The Department of Trade and Industry has
launched a new initiative to help schools, offices and housing developments
in England play a part in reducing the effects of climate change. The
£1.6 million Community Renewables initiative will set up local
support teams in 10 areas covering half of England. The support teams
will help local people and organisations devise renewable energy schemes
suited to their area.
MORE...
2. MP’s on PIU
report
The debate on the Performance and Innovation
Unit’s Energy Review continues to rumble on, with the DTI’s consultation
paper providing a new focus. Some of the issues were identified in a
House of Commons debate on the PIU report in March, although this
turned into a pro and anti nuclear exchange. The antis were ably led
by Dr. Desmond Turner (Labour, Brighton). ‘We
must remember the awful history of the early 1980’s.
MORE...
3. Solarising the
UK
The DTI has allocated £4m to support its Large
Scale Building Integrated PV Field Trial for Public Buildings -
part of its £20m PV solar programme. The funding will support 18 new
projects around the UK, in public buildings including Schools, galleries,
church halls and sport centres. The total capacity would be around 1.14
MWpeak.
MORE...
4. NETA moves
In addition to Combined Heat and Power being at
long last given full exemption from the Climate Change Levy, bowing
to pressure, Brian Wilson, the energy minister, has proposed reforms
of the NETA, the New Electricity Trading Arrangements, to help
green energy projects. Ideas being discussed include new grants for
the preparation of applications for small generators, and a revised
cost system for accessing the National Grid, skewed in favour of green
generators
MORE...
5. Wind Welcome
here
National Wind Power’s Lambrigg wind farm in Cumbria
is very popular, according to an opinion survey carried out by independent
consultants RBA Research. They found that 74% of local people asked
supported it, including 37% who said they supported it strongly. Opposition
was very low, with only 8% of residents saying they opposed it. 18%
of respondents expressed no opinion
MORE...
6. £66m for Energy
Crops
The DTI has launched a £66 million support scheme
for bio-energy projects. The money will support the establishment
of up to six power stations to produce electricity from burning fast
growing crops such as straw, willow or miscanthus (elephant grass),
and up to a hundred smaller power and heat plants. The Bioenergy
Capital Grants Scheme, jointly funded by DTI and New Opportunities
Fund, will support power generation and combined heat and power projects
using energy crops and other biomass.
MORE...
7. Secure Energy
Future?
The House of Commons Select Committee on Trade
and Industry recently produced a report on its review of Energy
Security, asking whether the high level of diversity and security of
supply, with electricity generating capacity currently exceeding demand
by more than 30%, would continue as demand rose and as we attempted
to move away from fossil fuels
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8. UK Climate Change
Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett has warned
of that the impact of climate change may happen sooner and be much
worse than has been expected- based on a new UEA/Hadley/Tyndell Centre
report ‘Climate Change Scenarios for the United Kingdom’ which suggested
that top temperatures, in summers, in the UK may rise to highs of
40 degreesC by the 2080s, especially in the SE
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9. Renewables
around the world
California – 3.5
GW of new green power
California is to
support 3,500 MW of sustainable energy capacity by 2006, including 2,400
MW of renewable energy generation capacity, according to the California
Consumer Power & Conservation Financing Authority. It says that
"there are sufficient economic resources
of Clean Energy - energy efficiency, load management, renewables and
clean decentralized generating resources
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10. Sustainable
Development and Climate Change
Finalising Kyoto
COP-7, the Seventh Conference of Parties to the UN
climate change accord, as originally agreed at Kyoto, met last year in
Marrakesh, and thrashed out some of the ground rules for how the various
Kyoto mechanisms are to work (see Renew 135, p14). But there are still
a lot of details to sort, and that will be the task of COP-8 later this
year.
MORE...
11. Nuclear News
Nuclear- a secure option?
In its report on Energy Security (see earlier
in this section) the Select Committee on Trade and Industry looked
at the prospects for nuclear power. Would new build ever become economic
enough to be a contender in the private sector? The British Nuclear
Industry Forum (BNIF) summarised the problems: ‘The
principal drawbacks [the City] see are the very large
MORE...
12. In the Rest
of Renew 138
In another bumper 36 page issue, the Feature looks
at Fuel cells, how they work, what they can be used for and the
way ahead, while our Technology section includes a look at Waste Combustion,
Building-Integrated wind turbines and Alternative Transport fuels
. Our Reviews section looks at some contrarian views on subsidies,
climate change and nuclear power. And our extensive Groups section includes
coverage of the Wind battles in Wales, the new Hockerton windturbine
and the return of nuclear opposition- an issue also discussed in the Forum
section
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