London to benefit from £30 million sustainable industries hub

As London gets on with normal life after its Paralympic and Olympic triumph, Mayor Boris Johnson has announced a £30 million investment in a sustainable industries hub.

The London Sustainable Industries Park in Dagenham aims to be the largest of its kind in the UK and will include a £21 million anaerobic digestion waste recycling facility, which will be built and run by the TEG Group.

The waste plant, which is being part funded by the Mayor’s £100 million Green Fund through the Foresight Environmental Fund, will divert over 49,000 tonnes of food waste from land fill a year to generate renewable heating and power for use on the site.

The Mayor has committed a further £10.3 million for a works programme to transform the brownfield site into a business quarter for environmentally focused enterprises in recycling and renewable energy, including wind and solar power, and biomass.

Closed Loop Recycling is already in occupation on the site, but the Mayor says the Greater London Authority (GLA) is in talks with a major potential tenant, which wants to build one of the UK’s largest industrial gasification plants in the park.

Construction on the 197,000 sq ft building on the 8.3 acre site, which would take municipal and industrial waste to produce energy, could start as soon as January 2013.

“This exciting new project is set to bring hundreds of much needed new jobs into Dagenham,” commented Johnson. “Low carbon industries represent a growth market, which will support a new generation of jobs for Londoners but also bring cleaner, energy efficient businesses that contribute to a better quality of life.”

The Mayor says the Park will create up to 750 long term jobs and 500 construction jobs.

http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/articles/i/5355/?cid=4

'Green deal' for energy efficient homes begins parliamentary journey

Bill provides homeowners with up to £6,000 for insulation and places legal obligations on power companies to cut emissions

• Damian Carrington
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 December 2010 07.00 GMT

The government estimates that 14m of the UK’s 27m homes would benefit from cavity, solid wall or loft insulation. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

A flagship coalition policy to provide homeowners with thousands of pounds to make their properties more energy-efficient will be introduced to parliament today.

The energy security and green economy bill is expected to place legal obligations on power companies to cut the greenhouse gas emissions in their customers' homes. It is expected to allow the companies to offer incentives, such as holidays abroad, to encourage take-up of the "green deal" loans.

Chris Huhne, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, has signalled that other incentives to install energy-saving measures may include rebates on council tax bills or, in future, reductions in the stamp duty paid by homebuyers. Huhne has been working on the incentives with Downing Street's so-called "nudge unit" – the behavioural insight team.

Tesco, B&Q and Marks & Spencer are among the big brands that have held talks with the government about delivering the green deal, along with energy companies. The green deal is likely to see billions of pounds lent every year and to create new jobs. The government estimates that 14m of the UK's 27m homes would benefit from cavity, solid wall or loft insulation.

The energy used for heating rooms and water in the nation's buildings generates about 33% of the UK's carbon emissions and must be cut by 20% if the government is to meet its legally binding emissions targets. On Tuesday, the government's official advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, said a green deal that vastly improved home energy efficiency was one of the three key tests of the coalition's pledge to be the "greenest government ever", alongside delivering low-carbon energy and implementing ambitious targets for emissions cuts.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change (Decc) has indicated that a "golden rule" will apply to the loans made for energy-efficiency measures which dictates that the cost of the loan repayments will always be lower than the fuel bill savings delivered. The more expensive measures, such as solid wall insulation, appear by thegovernment's own figures to break the golden rule. But the new bill is expected to use powers from the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target – and possibly its expected 2013 replacement, the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) – to make energy suppliers balance the books.

The government hopes the green deal will allow householders without the money to fund energy-efficiency measures to gain access to upfront capital, expected to be capped at about £6,000. Those renting may get the power after 2015 to force landlords to install energy-efficiency measures. The green deal loans made are expected to be legally attached to the property, not the owner. This would mean that someone thinking about moving home would not be deterred from taking up the scheme by the prospect of not benefiting from the savings delivered by the work.

Campaigners have expressed concern that the involvement of private sector companies could make the scheme more expensive. They also insist that any incentives given – such as holidays – must not cancel out the emissions savings. Another concern is that without a robust quality assurance system and guarantees, householders may fear poor work carried out by "cowboy" builders.

• guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/08/green-deal-energy-efficient-homes/print

London set to be first green city
By Bob Sherwood
FT.com
August 30 2007

Up to 100 of the UK capital’s pub­lic-sector office buildings, including City Hall and Transport for London’s headquarters, are to be given a green makeover at a cost of about £10m. Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, will on Friday invite energy and utility management companies to bid for the contract to increase en­ergy efficiency in the buildings by about 25 per cent. London is the first to take action of 16 cities, including New York and Tokyo, which in May signed up to a deal, developed by the Clinton Climate Initiative, to make buildings more efficient.

The contract is seen as the first phase of creating a framework that could be opened up to include the whole of the public sector. The mayor wants to prove that increasing the efficiency of large buildings cannot only cut carbon emissions but also achieve cost savings. If successful, it is hoped the contract will be copied by the private sector.

The 900 buildings run by the Greater London Authority group, which includes TfL, the Metropolitan Police Authority, London Fire Authority and London Dev­el­opment Agency, could save up to 50,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and £1m in lower energy bills each year. The contract will build in guarantees of energy savings over a 10-year period.

The mayor’s advisers be­lieve the contract can pay for itself over time and could stimulate a new market in improving energy efficiency in corporate buildings. They say a contract to conduct an audit of scores of buildings to determine the best way to improve each one makes more sense than making piecemeal improvements, such as adding ­double glazing, without an overall plan.

Mr Livingstone said: “London is leading the way by becoming the first of the 16 cities signed up to the Clinton Climate Initiative programme to begin work to cut climate change emissions by making our buildings more energy-efficient. We have started the tender process for companies to bid for the first part of the work and I hope that this will also lead to a boost in London’s green industries.”

Under the terms of the contract, the companies will have to plan and implement energy-saving measures for each building, possibly ranging from reducing heat gain and installing energy-efficient lighting and better insulation, to adding “smart” controls for buildings’ services and even sustainable energy systems.

The mayor’s office is expecting international interest in the contract, which is being advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union. Inter­national groups such as Honeywell and Siemens have expressed interest in the work for all 16 cities.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/11c9624c-5719-11dc-9a3a-0000779fd2ac.html

New town to boast 16,000 energy-efficient homes

Independent.ie
August 24 2007

A NEW 'green' town to include 16,000 homes is planned for the Irish capital. The new suburb will be in Clonburris and Liffey Valley, and will offer new residents a direct rail link to the city centre. The houses will also be among the 'greenest' ever built here, with builders using the most environmentally friendly products available.

South Dublin County Council has developed a masterplan for the area between Lucan and Clondalkin, which sets out how the town will be developed. Clonburris has joined nearby Adamstown in being designated a Strategic Development Zone, meaning the community facilities and public transport links will be built in tandem with the new homes. Landowners will be asked to help pay for rail links and essential infrastructure for the new town.

The council are already developing a new town in nearby Adamstown, also a Strategic Development Zone, and developers involved in this scheme have helped pay for infrastructure. And the public are being asked to give their views on the massive development planned for the south west of the city. The site lies west of the M50 motorway, and the Dublin-Kildare railway line bisects it with the Grand Canal bordering its southern end.

The Clonburris area covers 265 hectares, and the new district of eight new neighbourhoods will be based around a new Main Street adjacent to the rail and metro station at Fonthill Road. It will include "significant" shopping and employment floorspace, between 11,800 and 16,000 new homes, and a range of community and other facilities such as schools and parks to support the new community.

New bridges will be built across the canal and railway to provide good public transport links, while a "sustainability toolkit" sets out standards that new development will need to meet. This includes "A" rated energy-efficient new homes and and the use of renewable energy sources. The proposed Local Area Plan for the Liffey Valley Centre covers 64 hectares and provides a high quality mixed use urban centre, based on upgraded public transport and urban design. The new town centre will incorporate retail, commercial, residential, recreational, community and cultural activities.

It promises "innovative" buildings and a network of urban squares and streets. A new bus/taxi interchange, with possible future Luas, will be provided at the heart of the new town centre. The public consultation period on both plans runs until October 1 next, and the public are asked to make written submissions. The plans can be inspected at council offices.

Wed 15 Aug 2007
Tesco strikes blow for green energy
ADRIAN MATHER
The Scotsman

SUPERMARKET giant Tesco wants to erect a ten-metre high wind turbine to power the check-outs at its biggest Edinburgh store. The turbine will be installed in the car park of its Extra store in Corstorphine, subject to winning the backing of city planners. It would be the first Tesco store to be part of a national drive to halve the supermarket chain's in-store energy consumption within three years.

It follows a similar scheme in Wick, Caithness, where solar panels and five wind turbines were built on the roof of a new store to provide a tenth of its electricity needs. The Edinburgh scheme would provide a similar share of the store's power. A Tesco spokesman said: "We have been looking at a few sites across the UK as locations for these turbines, and the Corstorphine Extra store is one that we are keen to see a scheme developed in. It is a suitable location and, although we will have to wait and see what the planning department think about the application, we are hopeful it will prove satisfactory.

"We erected wind turbines at our new store in Wick at the end of last year, which have been very successful. This proposal is likely to follow the same mould in that it will provide renewable energy for the store's checkouts. It may only provide a small proportion of the total energy used in the supermarket, but this is part of a UK-wide initiative that we are committed to. We need to try to provide renewable energy at as many of our stores as possible."

A site near the store's car park boundary wall, next to the police station on Meadow Place Road has been earmarked for the turbine, which would have a maximum height of 10.6 metres, around 35 feet. It will include a steel tower and frame, with aluminium blades, and will be painted cream. Environmental groups welcomed the move, although they said the Tesco would have to prove that it was serious about becoming environmentally-friendly.

Friends of the Earth Scotland's chief executive Duncan McLaren said: "Supermarkets are big users of energy and, as a result, are responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions.
"The use of small-scale renewables such as wind turbines and solar panels in urban settings like this is to be welcomed. "However, given its size, Tesco is going to have to do something like this at every store to have any real impact on its emissions."

The city's environmental leader, Robert Aldridge, said: "While I am not at liberty to comment on specific planning applications, I can say that the council is generally in favour of micro-generation from renewable sources." Kenneth Swinney, of Corstorphine community council, said he was unsure how the proposal would go down with neighbours. He said: " I wonder how much of the car park it will take up."

Last year, Tesco successfully applied for permission to build three 60-foot-high turbines outside one of its stores in Glasgow.

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=1289742007