Extracts from the March-April 2003 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

1.White Paper

The White Paper on Energy has emerged at last, but does not offer too much new. In effect it’s a rehash of the Cabinet Office Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) report last year It backs, at least as an aspiration, the ‘20% by 2020’ renewables target proposed by the PIU, supports the idea of working towards the 60% cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, as proposed by the Royal Commission of Environmental Pollution ...

2. Clear Skies from Local Renewables

The government has launched a £10m ‘Clear Skies’ campaign to encourage homeowners, schools and communities across the UK to take the initiative in developing and installing their own renewable energy schemes. The ‘Clear Skies’ initiative is seen as a vital component of the Government’s renewables strategy to capture the imagination of individuals and local communities that want to play their part in the renewables revolution. ...

3. Offshore wind plan

The government has launched a consultation paper on how to develop the UK’s vast offshore wind resource. It identifies three major priority regions - the Thames estuary, the greater Wash in East Anglia and the NW coastline stretching from the Solway Firth to N. Wales. Energy Minister Brian Wilson said that the next round of bids to develop offshore wind farms should focus "on the three strategic zones ...

4. Biomass Revives?

The10MW ARBRE project in Yorkshire may still be stalled, but a new flagship project may yet take over. A prototype 2.5MW wood chip powered plant is to receive more than £2 million of Government funding. the DTI commented that ‘If successful, the plant at Castle Cary, Somerset could be the first in a new fleet of green power plants across the UK’. The £6.43m plant- to be developed by Bronzeoak Wellman Ltd- will generate 2.5 MW of electricity- enough to power 2500 homes.

5. Marine Renewables

The arrival of marine renewables, offshore wind, wave and tidal power, has taken a while, but now at last it seems to be underway- as witness not only the race for offshore wind, and the the launch of a series of new wave and tidal prototypes, but also of a journal Marine Scientist,

6. Wales likes Wind power

An independent telephone survey by Market Research Wales, commissioned by environmental group Friends of the Earth Cymru has revealed very high support for more Welsh windfarms both on and offshore. FoE Cymru say that the findings indicate that the much-publicised opposition to wind energy stems from a consistently small minority, not the ...

7. Wind Unreliable

With the wind versus nuclear debate hotting up, Prof. M Laughton waded in with critical comments on the reliability of wind arguing that the intermittency of wind power made it difficult to integrate large amounts into the grid system and maintain firm supplies, unless there was extra, expensive, back up capacity. In a paper in Power in Europe 363 (Sept 9th) he comments ‘Large high pressure systems with little wind pass over the country or parts of the country throughout the year. Those occurring in the winter are ...

8. Local Energy Planning

9. Energy Saving Targets Shortfall?

The Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC), introduced last April, which replaces the Energy Efficiency Standards of Performance (EESoP) scheme, requires energy suppliers to save 62TWh over the next three years by installing better insulation, more efficient central heating and increasing the sale of low-energy lighting, with at least 50% of the measures to be targeted at the fuel poor. Savings of 5TWh were expected in the first three months of the scheme, ...

10. Wilsons Energy Tour
Lib Dems record attacked

During the House of Commons debate on the British Energy crisis last Oct, Energy Minister Brian Wilson to some extent tried to sidestep the issue of the £650m loan to BE by taking MP’s on a tour of what he said ‘Liberal Democrats were doing, as opposed to saying’ in relation to renewables. First he provided the brief orientation comment: ‘Let us remember that they are saying that we must abandon existing sources of energy, drive nuclear companies into bankruptcy and ...