Energy Providers Should Insulate Every UK Loft Say CCC

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Emma

Government climate change advisors have said that energy providers should be made to insulate every empty loft and cavity wall within the next four years in order to cut emissions.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) says forcing energy companies to insulate all empty lofts and cavity walls in the UK will help to cut carbon emissions in the country. The chief executive of the CCC, David Kennedy, said “The government should state this ambition and energy companies should be on the hook to deliver these emissions reductions”.

He said improving old homes could not only help to reduce household energy bills but would also play an important role in tackling global warming in the UK. However, he said there must be hard targets in place for the proposals to be effective.

Amazingly, there are still around 10 million (43%) lofts in the UK which haven’t been insulated. Not only that, but around 8 million houses have cavity walls which have not been insulated.

The director of Energy UK which represents the energy industry, Christine McGourty, said “Energy companies have already made a substantial contribution to improving people’s leaky homes. In the past few years, companies have insulated more than 1.5m cavity walls and more than 2m lofts, helping consumers save up to £260 a year on their bills”.

Surprisingly, loft insulations carried out by professionals fell in between 2009 and 2010 by 30%. Mr Kennedy thought this was likely to be because energy companies were incentivised to insulate a certain number of lofts or cavity walls and when this number had been reached they stopped.

In some ways it’s a strange concept trying to persuade energy companies to help their customers use less energy but Mr Kennedy said “It is very important that someone is on the hook. The experience over four decades is that the free market does not deliver home energy-efficiency measures”.

It may be the case that some home owners are insulating their own lofts – DIY stores have an array of loft insulation now and with rising gas and electricity prices people may be taking the matter into their own hands. However, there are many households who cannot afford to take action themselves and it’s these households which require help.

British Gas Set To Announce Gas & Electricity Price Increase

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Ollie

As expected, it looks as though British Gas is about to increase gas and electricity prices over the next couple of weeks.

Ever since ScottishPower increased gas and electricity prices a few weeks ago, Utility Exchange has been warning that other utility companies or the “big six” as they are known, would follow suit. Now British Gas has warned that it expects to increase energy prices within the next few weeks.

Utility Exchange reported recently that British Gas had warned that wholesale prices were around 25% higher and that gas and electricity prices would have to increase to account for this. Meanwhile Ofgem, the energy regulator had warned that wholesale prices had increased by 30% since December.

Speaking at the Energy Select Committee, the chief operating officer of British Gas, Ian Peters, said “Unless there is a fundamental shift in the way the commodity markets are going to play out in the next few weeks then on the balance of probability, we will reluctantly put the price up. I’m not going to get drawn into precisely when or how”.

At the same time, Centrica, owner of British Gas has told the stock market that six month profits for the division which supplies energy to customers would be about half of those reported last year. The fall in profits are being blamed on high commodity prices and low consumption.

It’s been expected for some time that the rest of the “big six” (E.ON, British Gas, npower, EDF, Scottish & Southern Energy) would increase prices after ScottishPower increased gas prices by 19% and electricity prices by 10% from the beginning of August.

The head of energy at Consumer Focus, Audrey Gallacher, said “Suppliers like the comfort of the pack and, because of that, price rises often come in waves”.

It means it really is only a matter of time before the other energy providers increase their prices and experts have suggested that if you want to know exactly how much your energy bills will be for the next few years you should opt for a fixed price tariff.

While Utility Exchange announced last week that ScottishPower had lowered their business electricity prices for a limited period, it’s only a matter of time before business energy prices increase again too.

The threat of these price rises means it’s important to compare business electricity prices and gas prices as soon as possible and switch to a cheaper deal.

Sainsbury’s Announces Wind Energy Plans At Royal Highland Show

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Kathryn

Over 41,000 people attended the first day of the Royal Highland Show this year where Sainsbury’s announced it is going to generate enough wind energy to power all of its stores and depots in Scotland.

The supermarket, Sainsbury’s, announced at the Royal Highland Show that it planned to generate enough electricity from sources of renewable energy, to power all of its Scottish stores and depots, by 2012.

Sainsbury’s already generates a significant amount of renewable energy – enough electricity for over 50% of its stores in Scotland. The supermarket was able to do this because it bought all of the electricity generated from wind farms at Muirhall and Lochhead. Sainsbury’s said it was set to buy all the electricity generated from another site which will mean it will be able to power all of its stores and depots in Scotland with renewable electricity.

The group commercial director for Sainsbury’s, Mike Coupe, said “We have a long history of investing in renewables, particularly in Scotland. We will soon be able to say that we generate enough to offset all of the power used by our Scottish operations. This is a great achievement and one that will have a significant impact on our carbon footprint”.

This power purchase agreement means Sainsbury’s buys the energy in advance at an agreed price. This means Sainsbury’s knows exactly how much its business electricity prices will be, helping to protect the company from sudden rises in energy prices. The agreement also benefits the renewable energy company because it has a guaranteed income for its electricity generated.

A7 owns the Lochhead windfarm and the founder of the company said “Power purchase agreements are an innovative way that independent generators can get renewable energy projects off the ground”.

This will please the Scottish Government, which wants Scotland to generate 100% of its electricity from sources of renewable energy by 2020.

Train Services Cancelled As Heat Affects Overhead Power Cables

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Emma

In the winter it’s the wrong type of snow and in the autumn it’s because leaves are on the line but train services have been cancelled today because the heat has affected overhead power lines.

Trains from London Liverpool Street station to Suffolk and Essex have been cancelled today because the heat has affected the overhead power lines which carry electricity to power the locomotives. Temperatures are expected to reach 31C in parts of England today.

The National Express East Anglia service which travels each hour between London and Ipswich has been cancelled from 12.02pm today and other services will terminate at Colchester. As many as 35 trains have been affected by the cancellations. National Express says it will however run a full evening service.

The company said “Due to high temperature on Monday 27 June, speed restrictions have been imposed due to the design of the overhead line equipment. This equipment is subject to major renewal which will prevent the need for speed restrictions in the long term”.

National Express East Anglia added “We intend to operate a full AM and PM peak service”.

While National Express East Anglia Has cancelled services Network rail has reduced speeds on the London to Norwich Great Eastern line to 80mph and may reduce it to 60mph for the hottest part of the day.

Britain’s Biggest Solar Array Connects To Grid And Supplies Business Electricity

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Ollie

The biggest solar energy farm in Britain has started to generate electricity and is now connected to the national grid and supplying business electricity.

The solar array at Howbery Business Park in Oxfordshire can generate as much as 682MWh a year of renewable electricity. It’s the first large scale solar array to be feed into the national grid.

There are 3,000 panels which make up the solar array and will help to save the businesses on the business park 350 tonnes of CO2 each year. It will also help to reduce business electricity prices for businesses on the park. Businesses on the Business Park will be able to get a direct electrical supply from the solar array.

The panels were supplied by Solarcentury and the company’s chief executive, Derry Newman, said just because the weather in the UK was generally overcast doesn’t mean it’s not suitable for solar power.

He said “Solar works on daylight, not necessarily [direct] sunlight and it gets light every day in Britain. Of course it generates more on a very bright day than a dull day. If you average over the year, the amount of cumulative daylight, energy per square metre, is very well known and is very predictable. Over the life of the system, the amount of energy produced is very predictable”.

There are several more solar projects due to be connected to the national grid next month and developed by Solarcentury. However, after the review of the Feed-In Tariffs the rates paid to solar installations dropped by over 70%. This means that these large scale solar arrays may be the first and last we see in the UK for a number of years.

Mr Newman said that the changes to the Feed-In Tariff scheme meant that most investors had decided not to invest in solar developments.

He said “There were probably many hundreds lined up for development across the country. They’re pretty much all cancelled now because of the fast track review. This type of installation will be a relative rarity for a few years”.

However, Mr Newman thinks that investors will return in the near future. He said in just a few years the amount of subsidy needed for solar will go down because the price of materials used for solar panels is going down. He said once this happens investors will come back as investments become more attractive.