Local ownership of distributed power generation is the key to overcoming nimby objections to renewable energy schemes, says the head of a company looking to establish a geothermal plant in rural Cornwall. “Planning is the big unknown in renewables,” Ryan Law, founder of Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL) told BusinessGreen.com. “Communities object to mega-projects which supply the whole country, but if people realise they can have a direct stake in local schemes I think this is the key to it.” Click here for full story

Hidden in the list of cuts last Monday was the axing of grants to encourage families to install renewable technologies, says Geoffrey Lean. Click here for full story

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Energy Bill will implement a ‘green deal’ for energy efficiency, and says it will deliver low-carbon energy. At the same time, DECC is cutting £85 million in spending... Click here for full story

Both the UK and Scottish governments have set themselves ambitious targets for increasing the share of electricity generated from renewable sources and have provided strong financial incentives……. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Scottish Society for Crop Research in Dundee, Professor Martin Tangney said that other countries were far more positive about the benefits that biofuel could bring and were already reaping the rewards. Click here for full story

Energy-efficiency scientists are to study how people live by rebuilding an entire, redbrick Manchester terraced house inside a university laboratory's sealed testing chamber. The two-up, two-down dwelling is identical to those portrayed in Coronation Street, television's oldest surviving soap, and to more than two million real-life homes. It will be used for power-saving experiments in simulated climates featuring high winds, snow and Manchester's notorious rain. Click here for full story

The Financial Times special report on the Low Carbon Economy in the north west of England can be downloaded as a pdf file. It covers EfW, smart meters, microgeneration, wind and tidal resources, nuclear, and an LED cluster. Click here for full story

Investors and project developers have claimed that proposals launched last month by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to guarantee support for anaerobic digestion (AD) plants under the Renewables Obligation will help bolster market confidence and secure project funding. However, more needs to be done to support and encourage investment in dedicated biomass projects through the range of financial incentives, according to renewables financial advisor Compass Business Finance. Click here for full story

David Cameron, in his original incarnation as Tory leader, was an advocate of the green agenda; cycling everywhere, visiting the Arctic (albeit by plane) and fixing a wind turbine to the roof of his west London home. (No matter that he was forced to take it down due to complex planning issues). Yet the new prime minister has just axed a major scheme (the “Low Carbon Buildings Programme”) that gave grants for households and companies to put solar panels or wind turbines on their premises. So far it has helped 20,000. Click here for full story

A restaurant, brewery and a hotel are among businesses across Scotland that will boost the use of renewable heating. Grants totalling £1.1 million from the Scottish Biomass Heat Scheme have been awarded to 16 projects to reduce energy costs, secure jobs in forestry and deliver annual savings of over 7,000 tonnes of carbon - equivalent to taking 3,000 cars off the road. Click here for full story

For someone keen not only to do their bit for the environment, but to be seen to be doing their bit, there is nothing better than erecting a wind turbine in the garden. The neighbours may be wary, but those spinning blades are clear proof of your green credentials. When it comes to generating electricity, however, they may not be all they’re cracked up to be, as the broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby has found. Click here for full story

A number of microgeneration technologies feature in a new state-of-the-art training centre in Wales, aimed at providing people with the skills needed to work in the renewable energy sector. British Gas has opened the facility in Tredegar, with 1,300 energy-efficient installers and assessors hoping to gain qualifications each year. The British Gas Green Skills Training Centre is the first of its kind in the UK and has been created to reflect the type of challenges that may await the trainees if they pass their courses. Click here for full story

In a bid to make anaerobic digestion more cost effective and to bolster confidence in one of its bi-products, the digestate, plant operators are now able to undertake "rigorous" testing to meet a written standard which proves their digestate is safe to be spread on land. Click here for full story

Any scotch drinker worth their malt will tell you that whisky packs a punch. But now one distillery on the Scottish island of Islay is taking this quite literally and using it to generate electricity. Bruichladdich Distillery hopes to solve several energy problems in one go by installing a new type of anaerobic digester, says owner Mark Reynier. Click here for full story

In the Daily Telegraph Sarah Lonsdale tests the latest 'eco’ products, sorts the fads from the finds and reports back on the greenest homes in Britain . This week: heat pumps. Click here for full story

Independent solar expert Michael Pitcher from BFC Solutions, has identified potential hot spots for PV investment as the UK gets ready to reap the rewards of feed-in tariffs (FITs).
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Putting a wind turbine on top of a tall building is a highly visual way to shout about its green credentials, but minor changes in rooftop positioning can make a world of difference when it comes to actual energy generation. Built environment experts BRE have been putting their wind tunnel to good use, measuring speed and turbulence over thousands of spots on the roofs of a series of scale models representing high rise and medium rise buildings. Click here for full story

In a 2009 Directive put in place by the European Commission, the criteria requiring greenhouse gas reductions applied only to biomass sources for transport fuel. Now European energy firm Vattenfall Europe has taken it upon itself to identify measures that guarantee the sustainability of its solid biomass sources. By doing so the company has taken a leading role in the defining and sourcing of sustainable solid biomass on a large scale. On behalf of Vattenfall Europe, renewable energy company Ecofys has concluded a sustainability assessment of routes for bioenergy sources that are truly sustainable. Click here for full story

Residents of Leith have launched a Facebook campaign against plans for a £360 million biomass plant. Opposition is growing to Forth Energy's plans for the giant renewable energy facility, which will include a smoke-stack up to 100 metres high. Click here for full story

Opcon, the energy and environmental technology Group, has won its first order from Italy for a steam-powered Opcon Powerbox for production of green electricity. The customer is Ekipo s.r.l., an Italian engineering company that develops, produces and sells turn-key solutions for the process industry, including plants that take care of organic waste. Delivery of the steam-powered Opcon Powerbox will take place in November 2010. It will be integrated in an installation for burning organic waste designed, developed and produced by Ekipo for a customer in Italy. Click here for full story

The energy services division of energy provider GDF SUEZ has announced the acquisition of the Utilicom Group, which comprises companies such as a geothermal heating provider and heat and power firm, to create "the largest district energy company in the UK". The announcement has come following a purchase agreement with the IDEX Group for energy management company IDEX Energy UK Ltd and its subsidiaries. The investment will create COFELY District Energy Ltd, which is expected to be the UK's largest district energy company. Click here for full story

A proposed subsidy for green central heating will lead to a sharp rise in energy bills, threaten the manufacturing recovery and drive companies abroad, consumer watchdogs and business groups say. Click here for full story

French energy group GDF SUEZ now keeps the lights on at 10 Downing Street after acquiring Utilicom Group to create the UK's largest district energy company. The new company is responsible for operating a number of local low-carbon energy projects, including the Whitehall CHP scheme, which powers the UK seat of power with a 4.9 MW gas turbine and waste heat boiler, together with four conventional dual fuel boilers. Click here for full story

Energy giant E.ON is set to build an energy centre near Exeter airport to supply zero-carbon housing development, Cranbrook, with energy from a biomass combined heat and power (CHP) district heating network. Click here for full story

Renewable Power Systems has won a £10m contract to build and operate a state of the art anaerobic digestion system for Milton Keynes Council. The facility will process all of Milton Keynes food and garden waste – more than 25,000 tonnes each year, as the council expects the amount of organic waste to rise to 30,000 tonnes in the next five to seven years. Click here for full story

Energy from waste technologies could contribute up to 50% of the UK's renewable energy target by 2020, according to new research. Entitled "Renewable energy, landfill gas and energy from waste: now, next and future," the study by the Centre for Resource Management and Efficiency at Cranfield University also claimed that there was particular potential in using biomethane derived from landfill gas and anaerobic digestion as a fuel in road vehicles.
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….. BV Dairy has commissioned ENER-G to devise a component of a 'liquid anaerobic digestion' (AD) system which will convert effluent into renewable energy while simultaneously cutting the company's carbon footprint by more than 65%. Click here for full story

Suggestions by small and medium-sized businesses to build and run their own renewable energy installations are the way of the future, according to a clean energy provision expert. Antony Blakey, founder and executive chairman of Ultra Green, a company focused on developing renewable solutions for firms, said that no government can afford to subside green energy on any scale. He added: "You don’t have to be Google; Tesco can do it, Sainsburys can do it, anybody can do it right now. It’s a much more radical approach to run your organisation entirely on green power. Click here for full story

A surge in the popularity of boilers for burning renewable fuels will see a 40-fold explosion in demand for wood pellets, according to one of the industry’s leaders. Richard Smith, UK managing director of Verdo Renewables, which last year spent £10 million setting up a plant to make pellets in Grangemouth, believes that the country will go from using around 25,000 tonnes of them today to one million in “a relatively short space of time”. Click here for full story

Could your own mini power station be the answer to going commendably green? The Government thinks so, with feed-in-tariffs (FiTs) that came into effect on April 1. These provide a tax-free, index-linked income for anyone generating electricity for their house, from the likes of solar PV (photovoltaic) panels or mini-wind turbines. In addition, if re-elected, Labour aims to introduce new legislation for ‘green loans’ linked to properties, so that should you move before the installation pays for itself, you don’t take the cost of solar panels and wind turbines with you. Click here for full story

It's good to see a national gas company taking the lead in renewable energy. British Gas in the UK has announced a new pilot scheme with Thames Water and Scotia Gas Networks to build a plant that will clean biomethane gas harvested from human waste and inject it back into the grid for use in kitchens and heating. Click here for full story

A biomass energy plant in Dundee will create around 150 jobs during planning and development and 45 full-time posts when up and running. Developers Scottish and Southern Energy and Forth Ports say it will be one of four plants in Scotland that together will generate up to 500 megawatts of power. Click here for full story

Following an undercover investigation in the May edition of Which? magazine, claiming that 10 out of 14 solar thermal installers exaggerated the technology's potential energy savings, experts are questioning the UK government's attempts to regulate the industry before a feed in tariff for renewable heat comes into place next year. Click here for full story

The introduction of feed-in tariffs this month has led to a record number of inquiries about solar panel installation, as homeowners rush to take advantage of the scheme. The energy company npower has reported an 80% rise in inquiries for solar panel installation and record numbers are having panels installed in response to the introduction of the Clean Energy Cashback scheme on 1 April by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Click here for full story

What are feed-in tariffs, how does the UK scheme work and which renewable energies are eligible? Click here for full story

Souters has been appointed by Lancashire cheese producer Dewlay to promote the installation of a 126-metre wind turbine at its site near Garstang. The wind turbine is expected to be fully operational by September and will make the family-run cheese business the first manufacturer in the UK to be powered by renewable energy. Click here for full story

Siemens has been awarded a major contract to design, manufacture and install a state-of-the-art SST 800 steam turbine for the largest biomass-fired combined heat and power plant ever to be developed in the UK. The new plant, utilising Siemens innovative technology enables Tullis Russell, the Fife based paper manufacturer to meet its energy needs efficiently and in a sustainable and environmentally responsible way. Click here for full story

BV Dairy is aiming to cut its carbon footprint by more than 65 per cent by pioneering the use of liquid anaerobic-digestion (AD) technology. The move is expected to allow the dairy to reduce its CO2 emissions by approximately 1,200 tonnes per year and save an estimated £150,000 per year by generating more than 75 per cent of the site’s electricity consumption once the system becomes fully operational in August 2010. Click here for full story

An award-winning study concludes that energy-from-waste (EfW) technologies can contribute up to 50 percent of the UK renewable energy target by 2020. It states that this will depend on the pace of investment and availability of suitable feedstock. Click here for full story

RenewableUK has published ‘Generate Your Own Power: Your Guide to Installing a Small Wind System’ a consumer guide aimed at helping individuals and businesses looking to install their own wind turbine. Click here for full story

Leading renewable energy products provider Stiebel Eltron has completed four installations at properties across the UK – with the latest project at celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s new Liverpool restaurant just weeks away from completion. The German-owned green energy company has supplied its heat pumps and other renewable energy products to a variety of projects, including the Cocoa Bean Factory tourist attraction in Scotland and a police station in Durham. Click here for full story