Cheaper Energy Solutions
The HeatSeekers van is travelling to Allerdale, Cumbria, in a drive to inspire residents to compare energy rates from rival utility suppliers and encourage people to install insulation and become more energy efficient.
HeatSeekers will be in Allerdale from today (October 5th) where they will be using thermal imaging cameras to assess the energy-efficiency of the city’s homes – Imaging is carried out at night ensuring minimal disruption to local communities where as many as 1,000 different properties can be evaluated in just one hour.
Energy experts will also be on hand to offer useful tips and energy saving advice to residents.
Utilise the expertise of Utility Exchange to compare the market for cheaper gas, electric, and telecommunication utilities, for both your home and business, saving you time, energy and most of all money; www.utility-exchange.com
Source;
Energyhelpline.com/ Gas and Electricity News (HeatSeekers vehicle to promote cheap energy practices in Allerdale-02/10/09)
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Scottish Energy Efficiency Scheme
According to utilityweek.co.uk – The Scottish Government is getting set to announce a new pilot scheme for loans aimed at householders in order to improve insulation or other energy saving measures – This latest loan scheme will also support the forthcoming consultation on the Energy Efficiency Action Plan for Scotland – a key part of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act.
The loans have been designed to complement other Government measures, such as the Home Improvement Scheme.
John Swinney, Cabinet secretary for finance and sustainable growth advised that:
“Energy efficiency is a key part of our economic recovery programme and our climate change ambitions. We all need to stop wasting energy in our homes, in transport and at work…
… Advice on how to take simple steps to be more energy efficient, and a loan to make it more manageable, will help thousands of people cut their fuel bills and play their part in reducing emissions”
The consultation will request views on annual targets for energy efficiency as well as look at ways of changing attitudes and influencing behaviour and also to see what opportunities exist that will capitalise on innovation and investment in energy efficiency.
Source;
Utilityweek.co.uk/ News/ Electricity (Scottish Government to pilot loan scheme for energy efficiency)
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Italy back on nuclear energy track
According to Reuters news yesterday – Italy signed a nuclear cooperation deal with The United States that would enable U.S. companies to help build a number of nuclear power stations across Italy, thus putting an end to a 22-year ban initiated by the Italian government. As the only group of eight industrialised nations without nuclear power, Italy had rejected it in a 1987 referendum following the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.
U.S. Energy Secretary, Steven Chu explained that Italy has restarted its nuclear energy infrastructure, incorporating aggressive goals and very admirable goals, by decreasing its carbon emissions through nuclear and renewable energy, and through improvements and efficiency.
Mr. Chu continued by saying companies like General Electric and Toshiba Corp’s Westinghouse unit will be able to bid on projects in Italy, which it hopes will be issued mid-February, determining the location of the facilities.
Italy is planning to rebuild the energy sector and produce 25% of power from nuclear plants, helping to reduce Italy’s heavy dependency on fossil fuel imports as well as reduce its carbon emissions.
Source;
News @ newenergyfinance.com
http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN2916990820090929?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sendNuclearHeadlines
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Keeping Warm in Wolverhampton
UK based electricity and natural gas supply company npower is celebrating after the energy company’s Health Through Warmth scheme made its 2,000th referral in Wolverhampton.
The scheme is managed locally by Wolverhampton City Council and helps vulnerable residents who are affected by cold and damp related illnesses – assisting people with heating and insulation measures, and provides helpful advice on energy efficiency.
So, to celebrate the impressive achievement, the Health through Warmth scheme hosted a special event in the company of Rt. Hon. Pat McFadden MP, Director of Public Health Dr. Adrian Philips, Councillor Barry Findlay, Cabinet Member for Environment at Wolverhampton City Council, and Rob Knight, npower’s Energy Services Policy Manager, who each gave warming speeches.
Also in attendance of the event were representatives from PCT, local authority, voluntary agencies amongst other local organisations, to learn about the benefits the scheme which they could offer to people they meet on a day to day basis. Guests also discovered additional information regarding the free training offered by the scheme enabling community workers to become scheme referrers.
As a subsidiary of RWE Germany, npower’s Health Through Warmth is currently active in 14 areas of England and Wales, and since being launched in Wolverhampton in May 2001, Health Through Warmth has facilitated over £2,763,485 worth of heating and insulation measures for local residents, whereby £207,318 was paid for by the unique npower Health Through Warmth crisis fund.
Source;
Npowermediacentre.com/ Press & News (Right Honourable Pat McFadden MP celebrates success of Wolverhampton Warmth Scheme-25.09.09)
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Now that’s rubbish
As reported by the New York Times online – For a project being overseen by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (M.I.T) Senseable City Laboratory, 3,000 common pieces of household waste, mostly from Seattle, are being tracked through the US waste disposal system over the next three months, in what is hoped to give people a concrete sense of their individual impact on the environment in such a way that might lead them to change their habits.
Researchers have tagged items of waste, for example, an empty can of beans and a compact fluorescent light bulb, with small electronic tracking devices, and will display the routes in real time online and at exhibitions opening at the Architectural League of New York and the Seattle Public Library.
It will take several months to analyse the data generated by the electronic signals, however researches have already noticed that while some waste reaches its destination in a couple of days, while other items take four or five weeks to wind their way to landfills or recycling and waste processing plants.
In Seattle, where researchers recruited volunteers for the project through the Seattle Public Library’s Web site, the Seattle Public Utilities newsletter and other local publications, about 500 pieces of waste have been tagged, where one tracked item – an aluminium can – travelled 2.5 miles to a recycling facility in the city in just under two days.
Alongside 50 items that were tagged at the Architectural League’s offices in New York where a recyclable plastic bottle picked up at Madison Avenue and 51st Street was traced to travelling 18.3 miles over four days to Kearny, N.J. and where one item of rubbish is still on route.
Ms. Brown of Waste Management said her company is hoping that the experiment helps to shorten or avoid overlaps in routes travelled by its 24,000 lorries, and that they will be able to find more central locations for transfer and disposal, ultimately working towards new ways to recycle more and subsequently more efficiently.
Full article;
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/science/earth/17trash.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
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UK and China – Ready for Business
Lord Mandelson – the UK’s Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills – secured $500 million in new investment deals and contracts between Chinese and UK businesses last week, following his visit to China.
These new business partnerships demonstrate the UK’s competence in low carbon business solutions and will therefore benefit British businesses whilst helping China to meet its tough environment and energy efficiency targets.
Organised by the UK Trade & Investment, the business secretary addressed a Low Carbon Business Solutions forum in Beijing on 8 September, and said:
“The UK can offer the knowledge, technology and experience to help our two economies de-carbonise. The UK has world-class climate change research institutions and consultancy services in carbon measurement and management. Our architects and engineers are creating designs for the low-carbon cities of the future”
Lord Mandelson also stated that Pilkington, Greens Power, Zed Factory and The Carbon Trust were a few outstanding UK companies currently working with advanced and low carbon technology and that these new contracts not only demonstrate the strength of economic ties between the UK China, but also confirm a shared commitment for developing a low carbon economy.
Whilst in Beijing, Lord Mandelson also requested greater access for UK goods and services suppliers to China’s rapidly developing domestic markets where the Chinese government confirmed that regulators are in the final process of approving a new business deal between the Bank of China, Standard Life and the Tianjin Economic & Development Area.
Press Release; Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – BIS (Lord Mandelson’s visit to China results in $500m worth of trade and investment deals)