|
 |
| Energize Wales News |
| |
The Welsh Assembly Government yesterday announced plans that will see the region lead the way in new green homes, setting the UK’s highest energy efficiency standards.
From 2013, new flats and homes in Wales will have to employ a range of technologies including heat pumps, photovoltaics, solar hot water and better insulation to reduce emissions and fuel bills.
According to the Welsh Government, weekly energy costs for heating, lighting and hot water in these new green homes could be as little as £7.50.
The change is being enabled by the transfer of new building regulation power to the Welsh Government at the end of 2011.
The Government says it will consult on detailed proposals during 2012, but expects to suggest that new regulations will initially require a 55% reduction in carbon emissions compared with 2006 levels.
“The task in setting a target for the first changes has been to find the most environmentally progressive balance between reducing energy demand and maintaining a healthy housing market attractive to construction companies and developers,” says Environment Minister Jane Davidson.
The move has been welcomed by green groups across the region.
“These new standards will put [Wales] ahead of England and will significantly reduce heating costs for householders living in new homes built after 2012, as well as helping to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets,” says Helen Northmore of Energy Saving Trust Wales.
|
|
A new study indicates that switching off lights and electrical appliances when not in use, as well as choosing more efficient models, has more impact on reducing CO2 emissions than previously thought.
Adam Hawkes of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London looked at the estimated figure for emission rates that the UK Government uses to calculate the impact of energy efficiency measures. His analysis shows that this estimated figure could be up to 60% too low.
The argument centres on how the estimated figure is determined. Currently, the Government uses an average across all forms of generation to come up with a value of 0.43 kilograms of CO2 per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed.
This figure includes low-carbon energy sources such as wind and nuclear. These energy sources, however, are not able to respond to instantaneous fluctuations in electricity demand – which is where fossil fuel power plants come in.
Hawkes calculates that the actual rate observed between 2002 and 2009 is 0.69 kilograms of CO2 per kilowatt hour.
“This means any reduction we make in our electricity use – for example, if everyone switched off lights that they weren't using, or turned off electric heating earlier in the year – could have a bigger impact on the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by power stations than previously thought,” he says.
The findings could be important for policy makers to help make more informed decisions on reducing carbon emissions. Hawkes adds that it emphasizes the importance of doing everything we can to reduce electricity usage.
For further information:
A.D. Hawkes. Estimating marginal CO2 emissions rates for national electricity systems. Energy Policy (2010), doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2010.05.053
|
|
The UK’s new Prime Minister David Cameron pledged on Friday to make his coalition the “greenest government ever” and committed central departments to a 10% cut in emissions over the next 12 months.
The effort, echoing the 10:10 campaign launched last year – which only the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) signed up to, will be led by a new government steering group.
The steering group will be headed by Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne and joined by representatives from key departments and the private sector.
Government departments will also publish their energy use online in real time so that the public can hold ministers and civil servants to account.
“I don’t want to hear warm words about the environment. I want to see real action. I want this to be the greenest government ever,” said Cameron.
As well as cutting emissions, the pledge promises to cut the Government’s energy bills by hundreds of millions of pounds, he added.
Central government departments totalling around 8000 buildings were responsible for 1.45 million tonnes of carbon emission in 2008/9, around 7% of public sector emissions.
His comments were echoed by Huhne, who has confirmed that he will be joined at DECC by Charles Hendry and Greg Barker.
“I intend to make decisions put off for too long to fundamentally change how we supply and use energy in Britain,” said Huhne, outlining his priorities.
He also pledged to make it easier for homeowners to improve their energy efficiency and give the power industry the confidence to invest in low-carbon projects.
Energy Efficiency News - May 2010 |
|
The UK Government has issued amended building regulations, which will come into force in October this year, to improve the energy efficiency of new and refurbished homes.
The amendments to Parts L, F and J of the building regulations aim to make homes 25% more efficient and save around 2 million tonnes of carbon every year by 2020.
Part L of building regulations will increase minimum levels of energy efficiency for building materials and services, and will apply for new builds as well as extensions or conversions. Homeowners and builders will now have to use more efficient windows and boilers.
As homes are made more energy efficient, they become more air tight so amendments to Part F of building regulations will ensure that this is carried out without adversely affecting air quality.
Meanwhile, Part J will require that carbon monoxide alarms are fitted when solid fuel appliances are used for similar reasons. The amendments should also smooth the way for wider use of biomass heating systems.
The changes to building regulations are part of the Government’s wider efforts to meet a target of zero-emission new homes by 2016 and all other buildings by 2019.
“More than one in three of the buildings we’ll be working in and living in by 2050 have not yet been built, so action now can make a real difference in the future,” says Housing and Planning Minister John Healey.
“The higher green standards we’re bringing in this year will cut emissions and play a crucial part in achieving our zero carbon policies,” he adds.
Healey says that the six month delay before the implementation of the new regulations will give builders time to prepare.
|
|
As the UK Government announces that a third of the vouchers under its boiler scrappage scheme have been claimed, Wales launches a similar scheme for over 60s.
The Government’s scheme was launched in January to upgrade 125,000 boilers in England, and has been matched by all the major energy companies that sell and install boilers.
Under the scheme, nearly 55,000 vouchers for up to £400 off the cost of a, efficient A-rated boiler have been claimed, with around 70,000 vouchers still available.
Last week, the Welsh Assembly Government joined in with the announcement of a boiler scrappage scheme targeted at the over 60s.
The scheme, which will launch on 1 April, will provide £2.5 million to help 5000 Welsh households replace old, inefficiency boilers. The scheme will provide vouchers worth £500 to put towards the cost of a new boiler.
“We are also investing an additional £1.4 million to tackle fuel poverty through our Home Energy Efficiency Scheme,” said Environment, Sustainability and Housing Minister Jane Davidson in a statement.
The Welsh Government says that the scheme has already helped over 100,000 households across Wales to improve the efficiency of heating and insulation as part of the £100,000 effort.
For further information:
www.est.org.uk
http://wales.gov.uk/
|
|
A two-tier property market based on energy performance could be less than two years away, an environmental management and compliance firm has said.
Sustainable buildings could see their rental yield reduced by up to 3 per cent and value by up to 16 per cent as a result of changes by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) to its Red Book.
The changes, due in April, will link property values to the sustainability of buildings. From then on, the principle of environmental performance commanding increased value will be “common currency”, according to a statement from Envos.
The comments come after a roundtable organised by consultancy Envos and mirror those from a report by Kingston University.
Panellists agreed that initiatives such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency scheme (CRC) would start to feed through to property rental values and valuations by quantifying the cost of carbon. This provides one method of helping assess the impact of sustainability on valuation, Envos said.
Jim Green, technical director for Envos, said the likely net effect of sustainability on a building's value will vary widely depending upon its type, location and individual circumstances.
“Kingston University's Sustainable Property Appraisal project in 2006 suggested a range of case studies showing an increase of 3 per cent for a sustainable office in a prime business park to a decrease of 6.9 per cent for an unsustainable unit in a secondary out of town retail park.”
|
|
The majority of new buildings constructed in the European Union and those undergoing significant renovation must prove their high energy efficiency as of December 31, 2020, the EU agreed Tuesday.
Buildings currently generate 36 percent of CO2 emissions in the EU and account for 40 percent of energy consumption in the union.
Representatives of the European parliament and European states decided to revise an existing European law set in 2002 on the energy performance of buildings as part of the EU's major plan to reduce pollution emissions.
Public buildings will lead by example in the new agreement, required to meet the higher standards two years earlier, from the end of 2018.
The new agreement implies a "very significant" recourse to renewable energies, including those produced directly on site.
Each country will set the precise standards of energy efficiency as the task of establishing general norms applicable to both Finland and Portugal, for example, would be too difficult for the EU to implement.
Depending on the materials and designs used, new buildings meeting the efficiency standards require just a fifth of the energy that existing buildings consume on average.
The Independent Environment |
|
|
|
|
|
|
