Here’s the promo video for the Sol-evo PV carport we’ve developed over the last 3 years or so. One of several reasons why this blog has suffered! I try and console myself that at least there’s a good reason.
Posted in feed in tariff, PV, renewable energy, sustainability, zero carbon | Tagged Intersolar, PV carport, Sol-evo, Solar EPC | Leave a Comment »
Golly it’s been a while. So long that I’d almost forgotten by WordPress login. Things have been manically busy at work. We got 2MW of PV installed in Italy just under the 2010 FIT deadline, our first containerised plant room is installed in Preston, we’ve been doing DH design and our first install in North London, and so on. It’s been tough going but really good.
Anyway, I got an update from the Zero Carbon Hub about carbon compliance levels and was intrigued to read that they’re recommending that buildings should have to achieve a “built” performance standard rather than the current “design standard”. This stems from the revelation that, while they meet standards on paper, most new homes don’t meet Part L in practice.
This is nestled within the other recommendation from ZCH that to achieve Zero Carbon, carbon compliance levels for flats should be frozen at the Code 4 level of 44% reduction in emissions relative to ADL1 2006. For detached homes this is 60% and for everything else, 56%.
If you keep in mind that these reductions are in the context of regulated emissions only, this starts to look pretty paltry. Looking at total emissions, those figures become 27.5%, 35%, and 37.5% (when once we were aiming for 100%!)
So the question is this: does a requirement to build right (i.e. “built performance”) excuse lower targets?
Posted in zero carbon | Leave a Comment »
The quango cull was announced today. Quick headlines:
HCA - “Retain and substantially reform – smaller enabling and investment body working for local communities. Intend to devolve London functions to Mayor of London. Taking on regulation of social housing.”
Renewables Advisory Board – abolished
Sustainable Development Commission- under consideration
Committee on Climate Change – retained
Where the heck is is Energy Saving Trust?
Posted in climate change, renewable energy | Tagged quango | 1 Comment »
Infuriatingly, it looks like the government may mothball the Environmental Performance Standard, which would have limited emissions from new large power stations. This is despite the fact that both the Conservatives and Libdems championed the policy while in opposition.
As a result it’s likely that emissions from grid electricity will stay high for quite some time. In fact the official line is that the carbon intensity of the grid will remain roughly steady until 2015, when it will plummet towards near-zero carbon in 2040. (As an aside, is it a coincidence that the dropoff comes in 2015, given that it’s the latest possible date for the next general election?) It will be interesting to see how that drop off moves in coming years.
The announcement strongly reinforces the message from DECC that decarbonisation of heat will not be achieved through electrification. In other words, heat pumps are not the answer to decarbonising heat at the national scale.
Posted in climate change, heat pumps, renewable energy, sustainability, zero carbon | 2 Comments »
I’ve just sent this out to recruitment agents. If this is you (or someone your know who’s looking) drop me an email.
Job title: Energy consultant / project engineer
Timescale: Immediate start
Job specification
- Work alongside our director in the London office to drive forward our ESCO, consultancy, and containerised plant room businesses
- Carry out options appraisals; provide strategic energy advice to clients
- Carry out technical modelling of distributed energy systems; refining and owning the spreadsheet tools required
- Provide input into financial modelling, quickly learning business aspects of energy systems
- Carry out or oversee mechanical design of energy centres, district heating, and other elements, working alongside our UK team as well as our Danish partners and adopting best practice
- Help manage the procurement and installation of low carbon plant and infrastructure
Posted in other stuff | Tagged help wanted | Leave a Comment »
It’s been a while. Loads has been happening at work – all extremely positive – and it’s been difficult to carve out any time to blog.
Anyway, as part of all this, we’ve moved to new offices. And not just to any old offices, to probably the best offices on planet earth – on Stoney Street in the heart of Borough Market. Most importantly, above the finest coffee in London (Monmouth). Continue Reading »
Posted in other stuff | Tagged Borough Market, Fontenergy, Stoney Street | 1 Comment »
Posted in climate change, consumerism, feed in tariff, PV, renewable energy, uncategorized | Tagged DECC | 10 Comments »
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E.ON wades in with PV systems at £5.4k/kWp. Again note, it’s sales and not ESCO.
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Dude, quick! Get on that bandwagon! Note it’s sales, not ESCO (so you take the risk on returns). Also interestingly they’re offering PV installed costs for domestic retrofit are about £5k per home. The equivalent Tesco Sainsbury’s system (!!!) would be £6k.
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Going back to the discussion with Nick Grant on this blog – is the carbon in biomass better to leave locked up in timber products?
Posted in uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Just got to the end of the leaders’ debate on ITV and there were exactly zero questions about energy, carbon, and the environment. WTF?
I’ll be in the kitchen drinking sherry and crying if anybody needs me.
Posted in other stuff | Tagged ITV, leaders debate | 3 Comments »
The feed in tariff has arrived and my inbox is filling up fast with emails from companies selling PV systems making wild claims about payback periods and rates of return. Some of them are clearly from cowboys. Some of them are from reputable companies that (unless I’ve missed something or they’re temporarily insane) should know better. In this febrile flurry of market positioning, PV may rapidly become the new double glazing.
I have to admit that I love PV. As soon as I got to know PV properly through some projects we’re doing in Italy, I fell in love. PV is the business and I have absolutely no doubt that it’s a key solution to our long term energy needs.
But you’ve got to be realistic about costs and output. The UK isn’t Italy. As a result of years of domination by very few players, the UK PV market remains immature and install costs are high. In addition, (obviously) there’s less solar radiation so outputs are lower.
So what sort of IRR is realistic? I’ll go do some graphs now.
Posted in feed in tariff, PV | 1 Comment »
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