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

The proposed Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) will encourage more emissions by paying people to install systems that burn more fossil fuel, according to sustainable building association, AECB. The consultation on the renewable heat subsidy scheme, launched by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in February, closes today (April 26). Click here for full story

The U.K. market for small-scale wind power plants grew by a quarter last year as turbine exports jumped, according to RenewableUK, an industry group. Domestic sales of wind generators for homes and small businesses increased to 17 million pounds ($26 million) from 2008, the U.K. wind and marine energy association said in a statement. More than 20 manufacturers exported 8 million pounds of equipment, 45 percent more than the year earlier. Click here for full story

RenewableUK has launched the Small Wind Systems UK Market Report 2010 …... The UK is already the second largest market in the world for small wind systems and the largest in Europe, with more than 20 UK turbine manufacturers supplying three quarters of demand for their home market. The figures from the report reveal that Britain continues to lead the way in this field with the small wind market expanding by 25% on previous records to install 8.6MW in 2009. Manufacturing market revenues now stand at £17million with the sector providing almost 1800 jobs in the UK.
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The Prince of Wales has called for a major environmentally-friendly refurbishment of Britain's historic buildings to "avert the climate crisis".….. The Prince is to fit solar panels on his home in London, Clarence House, and already uses ground source heat pumps and other forms of renewable energy on his wider estate. He said historic buildings should be leading the way in the fight against climate change by insulating roofs, harvesting rainwater and even generating their own energy. Click here for full story

British Gas is to recruit 1,400 technicians and energy advisers over the next 18 months to bolster its burgeoning energy services division which caters for both households and businesses. Click here for full story

Work has begun on the largest ever green makeover of historic buildings in the UK, as the National Trust in Wales moves to 'green' a total of seven mansions and castles in a bid to cut fossil fuel use and energy consumption by 50 percent. Click here for full story

Solar power installers are bamboozling householders with high pressure sales tactics and misleading financial statistics, an undercover investigation by a consumer group has found…… The Renewable Energy Association, a trade body which runs an assurance scheme for solar installers, said it was concerned by the report. A spokesman said: "We will be contacting Which? to follow up on their investigation, and take any action necessary against any of the companies which are members of our scheme." Click here for full story

Gordon Brown last night (April 22) praised solar energy and recommended more people try to install the renewable technology, during the second televised leaders debate ahead of the General Election. Click here for full story

After signing an innovative deal to pipe heat from a biomass boiler to a newly built town in Devonshire, the energy company E.ON claims the economic case will be poor for rolling out community heating schemes in most other new housing developments in the UK unless local councils also pledge to purchase the heat for local authority buildings. Click here for full story

Farmer and entrepreneur Maitland Mackie is behind a drive to create a £10m fund to help rural areas benefit from the profits from wind energy. An influential Scottish Government committee is considering a recommendation for an ambitious initiative which, it is claimed, could generate more than £1bn a year in Scotland - twice the income from farming. The Community Renewable Implementation Group is giving serious consideration to proposals put forward by Mr Mackie, He says urgency is of the essence before the best wind energy sites are scooped up by multi-national energy companies and rural communities lose the opportunity. Click here for full story

Zeropex AS of Sandnes, near Stavanger, Norway has announced the establishment of a UK subsidiary with an office in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Zeropex produces unique power generating pressure reduction devices that convert the differential pressure in water flows to produce continuous electrical power to improve the sustainability of industry and communities. Its first product, the Difgen system, has been approved for use by The UK Carbon Trust. A number of UK water utilities, including Scottish Water, are currently considering trials of Zeropex's Difgen system. Click here for full story

Helius Energy, the Aim-listed developer of biomass energy plants, is in the process of finalising debt funding and contracts for the construction of a £40 million plant in Moray. The company, in which Scots entrepreneur Angus MacDonald is the largest shareholder, is working with Scottish distillers on the site in Rothes, which will use waste from whisky production to generate electricity. Click here for full story

The Sigma Sustainable Energy Fund II (SSEF II), providers of development and later-stage capital for green-tech businesses, has completed investments in two companies in deals worth £3m. The SSEF II has committed £1.5m to Ampair Energy, a company based in Dorset, which recently acquired the business and assets of Boost Energy Systems, a company that designs and produces Ampair wind turbines, which range from 100W to 6kW. Click here for full story

North Wales-based wind energy developer West Coast Energy Limited has entered into a joint venture with Ensign Energy Limited to deliver renewable microgeneration projects throughout the UK. Bosses believed the joint venture allows the Mold-based West Coast Energy (WCE) to diversify into micro generation and provide the capital base for Ensign to expand its activities into a rapidly growing market. Click here for full story

Affordable housing in Scotland has been given the biggest chunk of an extra £76 million awarded to the country after the Budget…. Finance secretary John Swinney has announced the largest portion of the funding, £31 million, will go to affordable housing developments…. ‘Significantly, we have decided to invest an additional 31 million pounds in affordable housing. It means that over three years we will deliver a record 1.71 billion pounds of investment in social housing - to support the approval of 21,500 affordable homes across Scotland.’ The money would also support the renewable energy sector and transport initiatives, he added. Click here for full story

The new-build Malvern Community Hospital, scheduled to open in autumn 2010, will use advanced renewable and energy efficient technologies to make it one of the greenest hospitals in the country. The 24-bed hospital will utilise renewable geothermal energy for heating, cooling and hot water, using ground source heat pumps to harness solar energy absorbed by the earth. It will also generate low carbon electricity using highly efficient combined heat and power (CHP) that will meet a significant proportion of the building’s needs. Click here for full story

Windhager, the biomass boiler manufacturer, has launched a new biomass wood pellet boiler - suitable for installation anywhere in the home. The VarioWin boiler - which measures just 8m x 6m - has a compact design, with all the necessary heating components mounted within the appliance. This means that the wood boiler can be positioned anywhere in the house without the need for a boiler room. Click here for full story

A £280,0000 green energy training centre focused on microgeneration technologies and backed by private business is set to open later this year on Merseyside. The Green Energy Training Centre (GETC) is being set up to meet the needs of a growing UK renewable energy sector, in which the Government estimates 160,000 jobs will be created by 2020. The centre will specialise in training to install renewable energy microgeneration technologies, which include equipment such as solar panels and photovoltaic and ground and air source heat pumps, found in the home and commercial properties. Click here for full story

The Government has failed to support anaerobic digestion in the UK claims the chairman of Anaerobic Digestion Biogas Association. Lord Rupert Redesdale said: “Britain will fail to meet its renewable energy targets without rapid building of a nationwide AD infrastructure. “It is remarkable the Department of Energy and Climate Change has not grasped the opportunity to incentivise the AD industry. Click here for full story

A leading renewable energy installer has signed a new deal with hospitality giant Whitbread to supply all green equipment to a new combined 'green' hotel and restaurant. Surrey based Isoenergy will supply the latest green energy products to Whitbread's new Premier Inn in Burgess Hill, Sussex, which is due to open later this year. The business will also be designing and installing the hotel's ground source heat pump system. Click here for full story

Eaga, the green technology provider, has become one of the first businesses to caution shareholders that the General Election is effecting trading. The company is the largest supplier of heating and renewable energy services in the UK, but said the election has pushed back new legislation that was expected to drive new demand from customers. Click here for full story

A hospital packed with green technology could become the most environmentally friendly in Britain, according to the primary care trust building it. The Malvern Community Hospital, due to open this autumn, is part of plans by the NHS to cut its carbon footprint. Click here for full story

Forget solar panels and wind turbines, a hotel that bills itself as one of the "greenest" in the world has found a new source of renewable energy – its guests. From next Monday, those staying at the 366-room Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers will be encouraged to head down to the gym to spend time on its new fleet of electricity-generating exercise bikes. The bikes have iPhones mounted on the handlebars which monitor how much power is being produced and fed into the mains supply of the hotel. Any guest producing 10 watt hours or more will be rewarded with a free meal. Click here for full story

It is a pleasingly Gallic phrase that brings to mind marauding students and protesting unions. But, while Toulouse's "pavement power" project has nothing to do with social unrest or burning barricades, it could yet prove revolutionary. As part of wider efforts to put France's south-western technology capital at the forefront of green wizardry, city authorities are testing out a scheme to generate electricity for street lights through the stamping feet of passers-by. Click here for full story

TUV NEL, and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), announced a major new initiative that will assist the growth of the UK’s wind energy industry….. [this] will see the expansion of the company’s Myres Hill wind turbine test site. The latest funding for £750k will help support the development of 10 new test pads at Myres Hill test site for public use by industry, certification and test organisations. In addition, TUV NEL will also carry out a DECC sponsored research and development project to investigate some of the issues surrounding the implementation of the standards established under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS).
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The Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) has claimed that one of the barriers to farmers making AD technology financially viable is that supermarkets are unwilling to buy food that has been grown on fields using its by-product, digestate. Click here for full story

The renewable-energy industry faces new controversy after a Northamptonshire firm became the latest to win planning permission to burn tropical palm oil to make electricity. Chelveston Renewable Energy has been told it can build a bio-oil power station on a disused RAF bomber base near Wellingborough. Click here for full story

Combined heat and power systems (CHP) can dramatically increase the efficient use of energy. As the name suggests, they use the same fuel source both to generate electricity and provide usable heat, whether from fossil fuels, such as natural gas, or renewable energy sources, such as wood chips. Click here for full story

An expected purge of wind turbine installers from a quality assurance list could ‘demolish’ the industry, insiders are warning. And with the high cost of installing renewables, eco-friendly consumers could back off leaving the green industry in meltdown and future power cuts a possibility. Click here for full story

Backers of a controversial energy plant earmarked for the heart of Edinburgh's waterfront have sparked anger after declaring almost three-quarters of local people support the scheme. Campaign groups fighting Forth Energy's plans for a £360 million plant that will burn woodchip shipped into Scotland from overseas have ridiculed claims the development will bring "positive benefits" to Leith. Click here for full story

UK energy and climate change consultancy AEA has developed a revised UK industrial heat map for the UK government. The initiative is part of the government’s strategy is to help promote decentralized energy for both new and existing buildings. The map has been developed as a successor to the original tool aimed at assisting power station developers when considering the opportunities for combined heat and power (CHP) as required under planning policy. Click here for full story

Helius Energy, the power firm that launched in Middlesbrough in 2004 with ambitious plans for development on Teesside, has been given the green light to build a 100MW e biomass-fuelled electricity generating station near Bristol. The AIM listed firm consolidated the business last summer by registering its head office in London to help attract investment and closed its local office. Click here for full story

Ventilation firm Vent-Axia is set to launch a heat pump division to compete in the renewables market. From May this year, the firm will offer both ground source and air source heat pumps aimed at the domestic and light commercial markets. Click here for full story

As green pioneers, Anne and Chris Billing have spent thousands of pounds on cutting their carbon footprint. But now they are threatening to dump the turbine that delivers energy from the wind to their home in Orkney, claiming they are being cheated by a government that wants home owners to invest in renewable energy ….. But the new payments will only be paid to householders who installed green technology after 15 July 2009. Click here for full story

A tiny island community will meet at the weekend to decide its next energy-saving step, which could lead to a £100,000 windfall. Easdale Island in Argyll has already received £130,000 after being selected with 14 other communities across the UK to share £2million from Scottish Gas’s Green Streets competition. The cash bonanza came after the community company Eilean Eisdeal applied to the Green Streets programme for funding for a turbine to generate electricity and a ground-source heat pump that will use seawater from one of the island’s flooded quarries to heat community buildings. Click here for full story

NFU Scotland has welcomed the launch of a scheme aimed at increasing the number of renewable energy projects in the UK. The union is urging Scottish farmers to take a fresh look at whether such projects may have a role in their business. The UK currently gets just over 5 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources and the NFU said that the new Feed in Tariff (FiT) scheme presents an important stimulus if the UK is to meet its target of 30 per cent generated from such sources by 2020. Click here for full story