Green energy and winter weather

With the heavy snow hitting the UK so dramatically over the weekend, it’s that time of year when even if you’re trying to save on the fuel bills, the heating needs to be up pretty high. Unfortunately the forecast isn’t much better for the days to come, with temperatures likely to be as low as minus 20 celsius in some parts of Scotland.

With all this coldness happening, it would be easy to forget that climate change is still a reality: so remember that by doing small things like using insulation and getting your energy supply from a green energy company, the cold snap won’t mean being carbon heavy.

Only three months of cold weather to go, anyway. Brrrr…

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Green ‘Zine for green folks who want green electricity etc?

I made a visit to a city centre branch of a  well known newsagents chain there at the weekend. The security guard stood, as usual, in an awkward position by the newspaper stand at the entrance, as if it was a nightclub. Having seen the prices this place charges for a bag of crisps, maybe his mistake was understandable.

I walked further into this shop. Man it was hot in there, it was like walking into a sauna. Did they have the heating on full on a humid August afternoon? Not great anyway.

So there I am, having a look at the magazines. There are thousands of them, attacking your eye from every angle. Music mags, mags for musicians – guitar, synth, piano, Theremin (kidding about that last one) – mags for caravan owners, cat owners, long distance runners, magicians, tattoo enthusiasts, lad’s mags, women’s mags, comics, golf, football, mountaineering, telepathy, Apple, Microsoft, Linux, listings, fashion, railways, model railways, basejumping, skydiving, Incredible Hulk, Bob The Builder, cars, aeroplanes, spaceships, motorbikes, war games, health, food, true crime, horoscopes, graphic design, art, current affairs, history, wildlife, technology – you name it.

But the one thing I was unable to find was a magazine devoted to everyday green living for ordinary people who are a bit cool. Now, I ain’t saying that this kind of magazine doesn’t exist. Just that too-hot-newsagent chain didn’t stock one.

So how about it? An agenda-setting, green-living magazine for the masses. Printed on sustainable paper and giving us the kind of green stuff we want:

Info on greenest UK shops (newsagents included)

Green living tips

Green cooking

Info on green electricity suppliers

Green transport

Green sports

Green holidays

Green celebrities

Green projects for the home

Am I alone in wanting to buy this magazine? I doubt it. So either drop me a link to your own Green ‘Zine or let me know which publisher to contact and persuade them that it’s a winning idea.

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green jobs!

If there’s two words I like seeing together in a sentence, they’ve got to be green and jobs.

So imagine my delight this morning when I saw them together, and not just any old place but in a news report.

This Press Association report states that:

Up to 100 jobs could be created at a specialist green energy centre thanks to a new deal between Mitsubishi and Scottish and Southern Energy

Music to my ears. It seems the green ball is a-rolling.

With green energy companies now setting the agenda, it seems green-sky thinking is now becoming a global phenomenon.

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Scottish Parliament Rejects Hunterston Plans

There was some rather interesting developments in the Scottish Parliament late last night with regards to energy policy. During a debate on Climate Change (the minutes of which can be read here), Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) chose to back calls to reject plans for a coal-fired power station at Hunterston in North Ayrshire. Labour and the Liberal Demorcrats backed a Green motion against the development which was announced on Monday. The developers of the plant have agrued that the power station to provide low carbon energy to 3 million homes for decades to come. If the plant were to be built it would be the UKs first to use  carbon capture and storage technology, the viability of which remains highly debateable. Despite this vote the plant could still be built as Ministers considering the application can ignore the vote in Parliament.

Carbon Capture and Storage process

How would you vote on this power plant? Should it go ahead?

There is more on this issue on the BBC website.

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OFGEM Green Certification = Good, Right?

The first round of ‘green certified‘ domestic energy tariffs has been announced by OFGEM.

The certificate has not met with universal approval from the green community however. Ecotricity founder Dave Smith said:

“Ofgem’s new ‘rules’ set an artificial standard of what green electricity really is. If suppliers want to plant trees or look after birds, I’m all for that but not under the guise of green electricity. Consumers just want to be sure of two things: where is my green energy coming from, and what good will my bill bring? And both of these are quick and simple to verify.”

There are also some claims that changing to an energy efficient lightbulb would have as much real environmental benefit.

Only 2% of the UK population are currently signed up to green energy tariffs.

What are your thoughts on the green energy certificate?

Would seeing the label sway your decision in any way? Fill in our poll!

Here are the tariffs that have  ‘Green Energy Cerification’:

• SSE better plan – Scottish Hydro’s green electricity scheme, also available with  SWALEC & Southern Electric
• Zero Carbon (to be renamed) and Future Energy from British Gas
• Go Green from E.On
• Green Tariff from EDF Energy
• 100% Green & Gold from Good Energy
• Juice and National Trust Green Energy from npower
• Simply Green from Scottish Power

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Energy Usage iPhone App from British Gas – Any Good?

UK Energy company British Gas has launched an app for the iPhone that allows you to monitor your home energy usage. Unfortunatley, we haven’t managed to get our hands on it to test it. From the blurb on the website it appears to be simply a case of submitting your meter reading and getting an accurate bill. If this app proves successful, it will be interesting to see if other major energy suppliers respond with their own apps – this could be a potentially interesting area. We have however seen some comments which highlight that this apps process is not as simple as its made out to be.

Do you have the British Gas iPhone App installed yet? What are you thoughts!?………….

Use your iPhone to monitor home energy

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Infrared House Survey Could Save You $$$$$

Are You Losing Energy??

Worried about your gas, electric and water bills and whether you’re wasting energy in your home?
A new program from the city of Fresno’s Planning and Development Department can help. It’s a new thing called the energy survey programme where basically they scan all areas of your house with an infra red device to see where the energy is escaping from your house. Not only is this a remarkable tool but saves you hundreds on your energy bill’s and also great news for the planet.

This plan is the outcome of a $4.6 million Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. More than 2,800 communities received grants in March to help reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions. Visalia also gained money for a program that’s similar. Madera is interested in learning more from Fresno’s program.
There’s one slight problem, only homes prior to 1998 are contacted for this, if your home was built after 1998, the Title 24 California building code required energy efficiency standards. Inspectors use high-tech infrared cameras and various other tools to conduct thermal scans inside and out the home to determine where theheat is escaping the house. It generally takes an hour and half to two hours.

It’s thought that windows would be the main escape route for heat but after carrying out surveys inspectors are starting to notice different areas of the house are just as bad and maybe even worse especially around ceiling ducks.
This seems like a great opportunity for the public to save on energy and get there sky high bills down to an affordable price, and is also can great news for the planets global warming problems.

Vision of how the tool works

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Invaluable Advice from the Energy Retail Association (ERA)

If truth be told there are a number of these consumer representative organisations out there – all undertaking extremely worthy work and research in order to keep the energy firms on their toes and save us a bit of cash on our cheaper gas and electrcity bills. However, by far the most comprehensive and sensible of these websites that we have seen is that of the Energy Retail Association (ERA).

Their website contains a wealth of information covering the entire gamut of the energy retail experience. Amongst the topics covered are:

• Energy supply complaints – how to deal with them
• Helping customers with energy efficiency – what does all the jargon mean? (Atlantic have a cheaper gas and electricity page on this)
• Services for vulnerable customers – don’t worry help is at hand, you just need to know where to look!
• New code of practice for customer billing
• Preventing disconnection
• Switching Supplier – the quickets and easiest methods
• New technology – Smart meters
• Independent code for doorstep sales practice

All of the information is presented in a very easy to read manner – we were impressed. ERA also undertake research into all aspects of the UK energy insustry. Their recent findings include that 32% of UK households are not even aware of the existence of the smart metering programme.

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Energy Bills Warning As Fixed Rates Deal Ends

As you have probably read in your newspaper today, OFGEM is warning UK consumers that they should be seriously considering switching energy suppliers in the next few months. This is because the popular fixed price energy tariffs offered by some of the biggest energy suppliers are coming to an end in August. Many people signed up for these in the last couple of years in order to protect themselves from rising energy bills, Moneysupermarket.com has said that 70% of customers switched to these types of deals last year.

OFGEM warns that unles consumers switch now they could face a rises of over £300 in their annual energy bills.

This is obviously concerning news for all UK energy consumers out there. In the current economic climate the last thing that households need to hear is that their energy bills are going to increase no matter what. We can but hope that the end of this fixed price regime will perhaps spark some new initiatives amongst some of the biggest energy suppliers and the anticipated rises won’t hit consumers as hard as predicted.

Please fill out our poll on this matter.

Read more on this story from these sources:

MSN Money – “Energy customers could face £340 bill hike”

FT.com – “Household bills to rise as fixed energy deals end”

Mirror.co.uk – “Household bills to soar as fixed-rate power deal ends”

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UK Consumers: Who owns your energy?

Understandably, as consumers we are very much focused on getting the cheapest gas and electricity bills that we can. There are very few of us that actually give any thought to the ‘bigger picture’ of who we are actually paying to supply our energy. This is a particular issue in these difficult economic times – anything that can lower our household bills is welcome.

With this in mind, we felt that it would be useful to compile a list of the current ‘big six’ energy suppliers in the UK, with details on who really controls these companies.

• E.ON – Based in Dusseldorf, Germany, completed take over of Powergen in 2002.
• EDF (Électricité de France) – Paris based, produced 22% of EU Electricity in 2003, 74.5% of which was from Nuclear Power.
• NPower – It’s parent comapny is german giant RWE
• Scottish Power – Controlled by Iberdola, a huge Spanish Utilities company
• British Gas – Centrica ltd took over the British Gas name in the UK
• Scottish and Southern Energy – Based in Perth, Scotland since its inception in 1998

So, there we are – as you can see there are some rather intersting results in there. If you get your power from E.ON, EDF, NPower or Scottish Power, you are essentially further swelling the coffers of some of the biggest utilities companies in Europe. British Gas parent company Centrica is at least UK based, but has significant interests in Europe and North America – how can we be sure that our money is being re-invested in improving their UK energy supply?.

Scottish and Southern Energy, established in 1998 with the merger of  Scottish Hydro and Southern Electric is the second largest supplier of natural gas and electricity in the UK. It’s headquarters are in Perth, Scotland.

Of course, all of these companies are in the energy business to make money from us, no matter where they are based. However, surely we should be more concsious of who we are paying for our energy in the future.

Who controls the big six energy companies?

Discuss this with us on the Nature network.

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