Feed-in tariffs are coming to the UK in two weeks and look set to kick-start a massive surge in the installation of small-scale renewables, says Rory Tait. The introduction of the feed-in tariffs scheme has generally received a positive response, with many people predicting that it will revolutionise the smaller end of the renewable generation sector. But is the scheme the right way of delivering this green spur? And will the financial benefits outweigh the effort of having renewable energy systems installed? Click here for full story

Sunday Times says 60,000 heating engineers are interested in fitting renewable energy devices but are put off by the three-year certification process. The revolution to green the UK’s homes is being held back by a lack of qualified engineers who can fit renewable energy devices. Click here for full story

The case for solar and the impact of the solar revolution – Jeremy Leggett’s full case against George Monbiot’s anit-solar articles appears on Jeremy Leggett’s website. Click here for full story

A new company has formed to partner with landowners, commercial property owners and managers, to build, own and operate wind and solar power generating assets on sites across the UK. Vigor Renewables has launched to take advantage of the new feed-in tariffs (FiT), which come into effect at the beginning of next month. Also known as the Clean Energy Cashback scheme, FiT guarantees an inflation-linked income for on-site renewable energy projects under five megawatts in size for a period of up to 25 years. Click here for full story

Steven Harris from the Energy Saving Trust describes what he believes is the first step towards the nationwide take-up of domestic energy generation. Gordon Brown is doing it, the Tories are tweeting about it and, if the hype is to be believed, over the next few years we will all be investing massive amounts of money to lavish our homes with it. Click here for full story

A mobile anaerobic digestion rig will be tested on a range of industrial effluents at a variety of food and drink manufacturing premises in Britain over the next few months. The mobile Clearfleau rig will first be moved to the site of an unnamed Somerset cheese maker for trials on whey during January and February before moving on to another site.Clearfleau director Richard Gueterbock said: “During 2010 Clearfleau is planning to undertake further on-site trials with a range of industrial effluents. These will include dairy products, effluent from food and drink processing plus brewery and distillery waste.” Click here for full story

Red tape is strangling a scheme designed to encourage millions of families to generate their own green electricity with home-mounted solar panels, wind turbines and heat pumps, according to the UK’s biggest manufacturer of central heating equipment. Starting next month, Britain’s 26 million households will be able to collect a fixed fee of up to 41p a kilowatt hour for electricity they generate from roof-mounted solar panels and sell on to the grid. Up to 34½p a kilowatt hour is available for home-mounted windmills. Click here for full story

The British building industry wants to ease green home standards as the public balk at the 20 percent or higher costs of low-carbon homes, exhibitors told a major London conference. Low carbon homes are more airtight than their conventional counterparts, with better insulation, and rely on renewable sources of power generation such as roof-top solar panels or community-scale plants converting food and other waste into energy. Click here for full story

Monbiot has got it wrong: feed-in tariffs are not a waste of money. They work – just look at the German renewables industry ...... Thank goodness Jeremy Leggett stepped in to correct some of the inaccuracies in George Monbiot's piece. The errors, however, are even more extensive than Jeremy highlighted. It isn't often that Monbiot manages to get the politics, the details and the practicalities of an argument all wrong at the same time. He managed to do so, however, in his attack on the government's feed-in tariffs proposals for renewable energy. Click here for full story

The debate on the UK’s new Feed-In Tariff (FiT) has been quite lively, with the Guardian’s George Monbiot arguing that, with solar PV being still very expensive, the way the FiT provided the support needed was economically regressive. It does look that way at first glance - those that could afford to invest say £10,000 in PV might get £1000 p.a. back for the electricity they generated and used, paid for by all the other consumers, who would be charged extra via their electricity bills. It’s been suggested that this would lead to a £11p.a. surcharge on bills by 2020. However, in a rebuttal to Monbiot’s analysis, Jeremy Leggett from Solar Century said ‘the average household levy in 2013, when tariff rates are all up for review, is likely to be less than £3,’ and he added ‘this is far less than the average saving from the government’s various domestic energy efficiency measures over the same period. So there is no net subsidy. The levy is not “regressive” at all’. Click here for full story

Concern is growing over potential delays to the feed-in tariff intended to kickstart a domestic green power revolution. Click here for full story

New guidelines published today (5 March) will help regional authorities assess the potential for renewable and low-carbon energy in their area. The guidelines, published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) today will help English regions set themselves ambitious renewable targets in their new Regional Strategies, in line with the UK's overall target for 15% renewable energy by 2020. The document provides regional authorities with guidance on how to calculate the potential their areas have for renewables. This might include what the wind speeds are in different areas, how many houses there are with roof space - and what constraints they should then apply. The guidance provides detail on how to assess potential for large and small scale onshore wind, biomass, hydro power and solar energy. Click here for full story

Two British clean technology firms have combined forces to unveil a blueprint for the eco schools of the future. PassivSystems is to work with ModCell on the creation of the ModCell Renewable Schools across the UK, targeting the Government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. The schools will be built using ModCell’s renewable, carbon capturing materials that lower heating costs by up to 85 per cent, whilst any energy used on lighting, computers and other technology will be reduced even further using the PassivEnergy energy management system. The first school is scheduled for completion in September 2010 and will be an exemplar of how Zero Carbon Schools will be delivered. Click here for full story

The government will come under fire tomorrow from a renewable energy sector increasingly concerned about potential delays in the implementation of a "feed-in tariff" meant to kickstart a domestic green power revolution. David Kidney, an energy minister, will be questioned at a summit in London organised by Renewables UK [sic], formerly the British Wind Energy Association, over its failure to pass a statutory instrument needed for the introduction of the tariff. Click here for full story

The Solar Trade Association welcome the Pay as You Save Scheme. However, the STA believe that as Solar Thermal energy solutions will be reimbursed under the Renewable Heat Incentive, currently in consultaton, at 50% less than other renewable energy solutions homeowners will be unable to make decisions about renewable energy technology based on effectiveness and appropriateness alone. Click here for full story

B&Q is partnering the London Borough of Sutton in a trial of the Government's new Pay as You Save (PAYS) scheme. Click here for full story

Sharp Solar general manager Andrew Lee talks to Louise Bateman about the future of solar in the UK and explains why the UK could become a global leader in solar PV uptake and renewable energy adoption. Click here for full story

A green transformation of Britain’s homes will take place over the next decade – making them more comfortable, warmer and cheaper to run – under new plans set out by the Government today (2 March). With around one quarter of UK emissions coming from energy used in homes the Warm Homes, Greener Homes Strategy is aimed at cutting emissions from the UK’s homes by 29% by 2020. The new strategy will help people make smarter use of energy in homes, making it easier to take action and reduce bills. Installing some technologies, such as solid wall insulation, could see energy bills cut by £380 a year (average between 2013 and 2020). The new strategy will also be good for jobs, with up to 65,000 jobs required in the green homes industry as a result, for example installing and manufacturing energy saving measures or providing home energy advice. Click here for full story

The UK’s plans to decarbonise its energy system by pursuing ‘clean’ electricity could face critical challenges, says a report from leading scientists. Instead, says the report from Imperial College London and the University of Surrey, the UK should take a more integrated approach including using ‘waste’ heat from power generation to meet demand and provide an efficient, flexible energy storage system.
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Home owners would be forced to pay for solar panels fitted by previous occupants, under new government green plans to be unveiled this week. Under the plans, expected to be announced on Tuesday, loans for installing renewable energy would be fixed to a specific home rather than the owner. As part of the “pay as you save green loans” scheme, home owners would then be able to install solar panels and cavity wall insulation, Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, is expected to say. Click here for full story

Will the government's feed in tariff scheme which guarantees a rate of payment for renewable energy sold back to the grid tempt you to install your own solar panels or wind turbine? Click here for full story

Cardiff based Tremorfa Managed Services (TMS), which has expertise in electrical and mechanical installations, has teamed up with Parity Solar of Germany to install and maintain solar Photovoltaic installations which they design and manufacture. The collaborative agreement signed this week gives Tremorfa the exclusive rights to supply and install Parity panels in the UK. Click here for full story

Six Scottish renewables projects have been awarded a cumulative £2 million by the National Lottery good causes fund. Four separate wind turbines to generate community profit in the Orkney Islands, a mainland wind turbine development in Aberdeenshire and an improved electricity supply for a remote community in the Shetland Islands are to share £2,230,513. Click here for full story

Since the release of the feed-in tariff rates for the UK, Sharp Energy Solutions Europe has announced that it plans to significantly expand its resources in the region as the company expects a large amount of PV uptake within the next couple of years. "So far the UK solar market has lagged behind its European neighbors - but now Britain is taking the opportunity to bring about change in energy policy and simultaneously stimulate industry growth in the field of renewable energies. In our solar module factory in Wales in Wrexham, we have expanded the production capacity of initially 20 to now 280MW." Click here for full story

Local councils will be allowed to start generating and selling electricity back to the grid, in legislation being planned to bring about a "local energy revolution". Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, intends to help councils to become energy providers, individually or jointly, by setting up renewable energy companies. The plan is the latest attempt to shake up the energy provision and encourage sustainable sources. Councils are responsible for some 10% of UK carbon emissions and Miliband thinks they need incentives to move to lower carbon energy. Click here for full story

The hotly-disputed waste-to-energy pyrolysis plant at Carnbroe has been recommended for approval by planning officials. Councillors on North Lanarkshire’s planning committee must now decide whether to rubber-stamp the application or take the more unusual step of voting against the expert assessment. Click here for full story

Farmers and rural landowners are being discouraged from developing small-scale wind projects because of the "tortuous" and expensive planning system, according to a leading businessman. Maitland Mackie, chairman of Mackies of Scotland, says developing renewables could generate more than £1 billion annually for the rural sector within ten to 12 years. Click here for full story

Philip Wolfe, former head of the REA, founds first company providing end-to-end delivery of renewables for the Feed-In Tariffs and Renewable Heat Incentive….. With a delivery partner network spanning the UK, Ownergy Plc is the only company to offer any type of tariff-eligible renewables for homes, businesses and the public sector. By focussing wholly on the clean energy cashback schemes, Ownergy will be the natural and simplest choice for anyone wishing to benefit from the tariffs’ financial rewards and the opportunity to achieve energy independence. Click here for full story

Operators of anaerobic digestion facilities can now attain a standard which proves that their digestate is safe to spread on land after WRAP this week published its long-awaited British Safety Standard for digestate. Anaerobic digesters which meet the voluntary PAS 110 quality specification, which was originally drafted in April 2008, can assure users of digestate that their product is of a consistent quality and fit for purpose. Click here for full story

One of the most promising solutions to the UK's mounting waste problems is under threat after the Government set the price it will pay for electricity generated from organic waste too low, green campaigners claimed. Farmers are aborting plans to build anaerobic digestion plants to convert animal slurries, manure and rotting vegetables into energy after the Government's climate change department made the proposed plants commercially unviable, according to the Renewable Energy Association (REA), which represents the industry. Click here for full story

Government incentives are about to make solar water heating panels a financial no-brainer for millions of households across Britain, as long as they have a south-facing roof. Two weeks ago Guardian Money outlined the attractiveness of electricity generating panels as a result of the introduction of "feed-in" tariffs, which will pay households for the extra energy they produce. However, the installation cost – at around £12,500 – will put many people off.
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The Conservative Party has promised to reward early adopters of microgeneration technology by modifying the rate at which businesses and homes that adopted renewables before July 15th 2009 are paid. Currently the pioneers will be paid nine pence per kWh of electricity they produce compared to 20-25p/kWh for those taking on the renewable technology for the first time, BusinessGreen reports. Click here for full story

Tesco has announced that its new distribution centre in Widnes will be completely powered by renewable energy generated from food waste, thanks to a partnership between the supermarket, multimodal logistics company Stobart Group and the UK's largest food waste recycler, the PDM Group. The distribution centre will take its renewable energy from PDM's combined heat and power (CHP) plant which turns 230,000 tonnes of food waste - including Tesco's food waste - into renewable heat and electricity. Click here for full story

…… For most of us, a log fire has become little more than an optional indulgence for country weekends, but in the era of climate change, dwindling resources and rising energy prices, wood is making a comeback….. Provided that each tree felled is replaced, wood counts as a renewable fuel and the carbon released in burning is reabsorbed by new plantings. By contrast, burning fossil fuel releases carbon that has been locked up and out of the system for millions of years. Click here for full story

Social housing organisations in the UK are forming an energy cooperative that could generate 250 MW of electricity and £20 million a year from small-scale renewable energy installations. The Horizon Energy Cooperative, the first such initiative of its kind in England, wants to develop a ‘microgrid’ of locally generated wind and solar power. Click here for full story

SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy) is to become the first utility in the UK to build and monitor its own development of zero carbon homes to better understand what customers will need as the UK moves to reduce carbon emissions by almost 20% between 2008 and 2020. Click here for full story

The UK could become a world leader in low carbon technologies such as microgeneration, according to a leading environmental group. Chris Hewett, an associate at Green Alliance, argued that Britain is well placed on a number of fronts to succeed in the global low carbon race. Last Thursday (February 11th 2010), the Liberal Democrats set out a manifesto pledge to create 57,000 green jobs by investing £400 million upgrading disused shipyards to facilitate the production of offshore wind turbines. Click here for full story

In response to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's (DECC) new feed-in tariff programs for small-scale renewable projects in the UK, Garrad Hassan has announces that it will now offer a specialized service suite for developers of small-scale wind and solar photovoltaic projects. Click here for full story

Waitrose has received an award from the Association for Organics Recycling (AFOR) for its industry-leading measures to convert leftover food into renewable energy. The award, recognising the retailer’s pioneering work with anaerobic digestion (AD), comes as Waitrose commits a further 66 of its shops to the green scheme. It was won in partnership with recycling experts, Cawleys. Click here for full story

Answer The Guardian’s question correctly and you could win a year's supply of 100% renewable electricity for your home. The Competition closes at 3.00pm on 17 February 2010.
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