Green IT Boosts Business Energy Efficiency

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Emma

Companies can improve their business energy efficiency by utilising eco-friendly IT, claims an industry expert. According to Nathan Coutinho, a solutions manager at CDW – providers of IT product and services for business, green technology can significantly help firms reduce their business energy consumption and subsequently lower overall costs particularly as budgets remain tight.

In an article for Computer World, Mr. Coutinho explained that there are a range of options firms can use to help improve their business energy efficiency, including power management solutions and Star-qualified products, which can achieve immediate savings.

Furthermore, by implementing energy-saving measures right across an organisation IT professionals could reduce their IT business energy costs by an average of 17%.

Mr. Coutinho commented:

“While most organisations care about reducing energy consumption and acknowledge the opportunity for significant savings, success comes only with sharp, persistent focus on energy efficiency opportunities throughout the IT environment”

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Source: Energy Helpline (News)

Scientists Build Terraced House To Study Energy Use

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Kathryn

Researchers at Salford University are set to re-create “Coronation Street” so that they can study energy use, reports The Guardian.

Scientists studying energy efficiency will assess how people live and in order to do this they will rebuild a whole, redbrick terraced house inside a university laboratory’s sealed testing chamber.

The terraced house will be a basic two up two down exactly the same as those which appear on Coronation Street. There are around two million similar houses still around in the U.K.

The house will be used by researchers to perform power saving experiments. They’ll be able to simulate different climates such as high winds, snow and rain. The house will be installed with gas, electricity and water and have furniture installed and staff from the various academic departments will in turn play the parts of residents.

It’s planned that this house will be just as busy as a normal terraced house so that they can assess the impact of carbon reduction equipment and smart meters.

The engineers will also use psychologists who will monitor if different carpet or wall colours make people feel warmer which could reduce the demand for energy.

The associate dean of science, engineering and technology at Salford said “We reckon we’ll know everything we need to about how to improve a terrace like this after about three years. Then we’ll knock it down and build something different. Perhaps a typical 1960s house, to see how that can be improved”.

The U.K. housing stock accounts for 30% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions so it’s important that we understand how we can save energy in our homes and reduce energy costs.

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Source: guardian.co.uk

ScottishPower Boosts Village Hydro Project

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Emma

Residents of an eco conscious village in Powys, Wales, are set to benefit from green energy following a funding boost from the ScottishPower Green Energy Trust – which supports small scale community based environmental and educational renewable energy projects.

The Green Valleys, which is a community-led environmental group based in South Wales, has been awarded £10,000 from the Trust, and this will be put towards the installation and maintenance of a brand new 16kw hydro electric generator in the small village of Dyffryn Crawnon.

The Dyffryn Hydro Project is jointly owned by all 23 homes in the small community where it is expected this new technology will generate 82% of the electricity that is required by the homes and businesses in Dyffryn Crawnon.

Plus, any revenue from the sale of electricity into the National Grid will be used to create a sustainable, community administered fund that will be used for further carbon cutting and socio-environmental initiatives within the community.

Alison McKean, Senior Environmental and Social Policy Manager at ScottishPower, remarked:

“We are always extremely keen to help fund projects with a genuine passion for, and a long term commitment to, renewable energy”

Source: Scottish Power (Press Release)

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BT Charges £150,000 For Broadband

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Kathryn

The previous Government was committed to getting everyone in the U.K. connected to broadband but this may be a problem when people come up against the following problem.

BT has told a pensioner in Wales that it will cost her over £150,000 to get her connected to broadband, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Mrs McCartney who lives in Salem, in Camarthenshire, said “it’s rural but not in the wilderness”.

However, BT told her that to install broadband in her home it would cost £129,613.54 plus VAT. A BT spokesman said “If it’s just one individual person and it requires upgrading the network for one person, no company would cover that”. He added “These charges reflect the additional line plant and equipment needed to provide broadband to a particular location”.

BT has said it wants to get people connected to superfast broadband but it appears that this may be just in certain locations and not everywhere if it’s so costly to connect one house to basic broadband. The previous Government was also keen to get everyone in the U.K. connected to broadband. Whether this Government will be as keen remains to be seen but who will foot the bill to get rural locations connected if telecoms giants such as BT won’t foot the bill?

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Source: telegraph.co.uk

Gas Off

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Emma

Two of the UK’s biggest energy companies have delayed plans to build two new gas-fired power plants as a result of weak power demand brought about by the global economic recession, reports Industrial Info Resources.

E.ON AG has chosen not to go ahead with the planned Drakelow combined-cycle gas-turbine (CCGT) plant in Staffordshire, England for the time being and at the same time Scottish and Southern Energy Plc (SSE) has postponed the proposed Abernedd gas-fired plant at Baglan Bay in Wales.

Originally scheduled to open in 2013, E.ON’s Drakelow D gas plant has been designed to comprise a 1,200MW (megawatt) plant – the company has not committed to a new date at this time. While SSE’s 874-MW Baglan Bay plant, which was scheduled to be commissioned in two stages, the first in 2013 and the second in 2015, will now see the first stage pushed back to 2015 as a consequence.

Both utilities have cited weak power demand for their respective postponements.

Source: Industrial Info Resources

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