New London Plan proposal out October 14, 2009
Posted by Ricardo Moreira in legislation.add a comment
The proposal came out yesterday and is open for consultation until January 2010.
The big change on the energy side is the move away from the 20% target via renewables to a combined renewables+efficiency target. They seem to have heard the complaints from the efficiency advocates. That target would be 44% starting next year, and 55% by 2013, for both residential and commercial developments (using a 2006 baseline). This is going beyond the government’s Part L plans, which on the residential side is 25% by 2010, or Code Level 3.
It remains to be seen whether anything will be done on the enforcement side…
The full proposal can be found here: http://www.london.gov.uk/shaping-london/london-plan/strategy/download.jsp
SAP 2009 – Carbon Intensity of Electricity July 17, 2009
Posted by Tom Naughton in Editorial.Tags: Carbon Factor, Carbon Intensity, Heat, Heat pumps, SAP
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As noted in an earlier post, the carbon factor of electricity is a rather enigmatic figure. Well, it looks like we will soon be adding the figure 0.591 kgCO2/kWh to the list as SAP 2009 and the new Part L documents come in to force.
With a massive increase of 40% over the SAP 2005 figure (0.422kgCO2/kWh) this will have large implications for the specifying of renewable technologies for planning and offseting CO2 emissions.
The biggest loser is set to be heat pumps. Currently, and somewhat controversially, heat pumps are considered a renewable technology within SAP and the London Plan.
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Renewable Grants for the Public Sector July 8, 2009
Posted by Tom Naughton in Editorial.Tags: Biomass, Heat pumps, LCBP, Low carbon buildings programme, Microhydro, Microwind, Phase 2, Renewable grants, Solar PV, Solar Thermal, Wind turbine
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The Low Carbon Buildings Programme – Phase 2, which is aimed at getting low carbon technologies integrated into public sector owned buildings such as local authorities, schools and housing associations, has just been revamped with an extra £35 million available for the next two years.
Knowledge Guides – CHP and CRC July 1, 2009
Posted by Tom Kordel in Corporate, XCO2 News.Tags: Carbon Reduction Commitment, CHP, Combined Heat and Power, knowledge guides, London Plan, Trigeneration, UK legislation
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XCO2 Energy has now published a further two of our free knowledge guides. They include:
- CHP and Trigeneration – This gives a summary of the different types and sizes of CHP technology as well as the considerations needed to be taken when integrating CHP into a developments energy strategy.
- Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) – An overview of the current draft status of the CRC along with a timeline for its implementation.
Both can be downloaded on the right hand side of our resources page located here. Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback. Our consultancy work goes far beyond what’s included in these guides, but we hope these summaries act as a useful starting point.
Keep an eye out for more – next up will be a guide on solar shading.
Domestic feed in tariffs – where we are and where should we go? May 7, 2009
Posted by Tom Kordel in Editorial, legislation.Tags: buy back rate, domestic, feed in tariff, legislation, microgeneration, Microwind, onsite renewable, PV, renewables, ROC, UK policy
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There have recently been some interesting offers made by UK electricity suppliers to the domestic renewable energy generator. In particular Scottish and Southern Energy (S&SE) are offering 28p on every kWh generated by PV and exported to the grid. This seems like a great offer and looks like we are heading closer to the kind of feed in tariffs available in other parts of Europe (eg Spain Real Decreto 1578/2008 – 0.34€/kWh). This post analyses the offers available for one particular scenario; an average South England household with a sizeable photovoltaic array and then makes a comparison to the current Spanish government feed in tariff.
Stern talk at the LSE April 24, 2009
Posted by Ricardo Moreira in Editorial.Tags: Climate Change
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Nicholas Stern’s lecture at LSE earlier this week did not have anything groundbreaking, but, as usual, his ability to present climate change facts and their links to economics made it an interesting talk.
On the science side, the main point was the recognition that the Stern Review underplayed the risks. He cited figures from the Hadley Centre showing that, under business as usual, CO2e concentrations, currently 435ppm, might get to 750ppm or more by the end of our century, which means it is “likely” there will be a 5.5-degree temperature increase. This would mean floods, droughts, crop failures, mass migration, major political conflicts, etc. In short, we’re going to hell in a hand basket.
But he keeps a positive attitude, and here are the main points of his blueprint:
- We need to keep under 500ppm, or 20 gigatones/yr. For a world of 9 billion people in 2050, that means 2 tonnes/yr/person (the typical UK person emits 10+ tonnes/yr)
- Considering historic emission stocks, citizens of developed countries should actually have a quota of zero, and pay for their 2 tonnes through trading schemes
- Pricing CO2 externalities is fundamental and emissions trading has a role to play, but the main parts of the strategy are: energy efficiency, low and zero carbon technologies, carbon capture and a halt to deforestation
- The developed world should pay for avoided deforestation, but the developing world should be in charge of laying down the conditions. Technology transfer to the developing world is also key.
- Overall, measures would cost 1%-2% of global GDP to begin with, less in the future as technologies evolve and oil prices rise. And most of this cost is actually investment, which will generate more growth.
In terms of next steps, he highlighted the importance of sorting out a plan before Copenhagen, in December. The clock is ticking.
