What’s New?
Please consult this page to find out what’s new on the Quantock Eco website.
Latest postings will be referenced from here.
March 21st 2012 QE has received the 3 reports from CSE which form the bulk of the data processing completed as a result of the Housing Survey conducted in Bishops Lydeard by the QE BL LEAF team. A resume of this information will be provided and displayed on this website in due course.
Do join us for the next QE event on April 20th at the Church Room, Crowcombe – AGM followed by a talk by Graham Harvey. See the poster on the QE Events page. (Click here)
March 12th 2012 An Interim report on the LEAF Project has been added to the LEAF page. We are now over half way through and have completed the Housing Survey. We are now busy forwarding Warm Streets applications, doing infrared images of homes for people who requested this and supporting our eco-architect with the community building surveys for energy efficiency measures and PV energy generation. To read all about it click here.
February 23rd 2012 Apologies for the break in communication. We have been extremely busy with the LEAF project in Bishops Lydeard. Please see the LEAF page of this website . (Click here)
We held an excellent Pollination and Biodiversity event at Spaxston Village Hall last night. Ken Edwards kept us all spellbound with his knowledge and extraordinary photos. See the review from Carole Darke on our Events page. (Click here). Many thanks to Roy Osborne for hosting the event for us.
Full details for our next two Bishops Lydeard Energy Festival events are now available on the QE Events page. We look forward to welcoming you at the Utilities Warehouse presentation on March 2nd and at our Energy Debate on March 16th. (Click here).
January 25th 2012 Please join us this Saturday, January 28th, for the launch of the Quantock Eco LEAF project.
We will be meeting in the upstairs Church Room (to the right of the church) at 11.00am. After coffee/tea and cake we will be talking about our plans for the next 2 months in Bishops Lydeard. At 1.30pm Danni Barrett of CSE will be training us to run the Energy Advice Centre and raise awareness in the village. Do join us, in the morning, the afternoon or both!
January 25th 2012 Contributions from Ian Myers. Please send us anything you would like to add to What’s New?
2011: UK’s second warmest year
Last year was the second hottest on record in the UK, according to provisional figures released by the Met Office. The average UK temperature in 2011 was 9.62°C, against the historical average of 8.36°C, making it the second warmest year after 2007. Additionally, figures seem to confirm an overall global warming trend. The Met Office is also forecasting 2012 to be one of the top 10 warmest years since 1850 and January’s unseasonably mild weather suggests spring has already arrived; some species of frogs, butterflies and plants have already become “startlingly” active.
A good advert from Renault
Despite Government subsidies sales of electric cars are off to a slow start. We also know there are significant problems with electric cars, notably the world’s limited resources of lithium. That said, Renault have come up with a great advert for their new ZE cars that challenges us to change our thinking.
It would be great if we could see more perception-changing advertisements for the other green technologies. Being green was never easy – let’s hope the advertising industry can help us on our way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qKg-LPOXIMs
In case anyone thought the world was dead
http://www.youtube.com/embed/nGeXdv-uPaw Listen with the sound on!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nALyKU N5xO Carbon Weevils!
January 22nd. 2012 Many apologies for the long break in assembling QE news. Our exciting news is that we were successful in our application to the Local Energy Assessment Fund (LEAF) and have been awarded £22,400 to use in Bishops Lydeard before March 31st 2012.
We are planning 3 main activities.
1) Energy Advice Centre.
This will be established in the upstairs Church Room (to the right of the church) in Bishops Lydeard.
It will open on Saturday, January 28th and thereafter will be manned by volunteers from 10.00am until 2.00 pm from Wednesday to Saturday and
from 7.0pm until 9.0pm on Thursdays.
You are most welcome to join us for free advice and information and the first time you visit us we will give you a 50p voucher to spend in village shops, pubs and cafes!
2) Home Energy Survey
QE will be helped by CSE in Bristol to run a comprehensive survey of the housing stock in Bishops Lydeard in preparation for the Government’s Green Deal.
No individual properties will be identified. The aim of the project will be to identify the types of housing in Bishops Lydeard and the ways in which people in these different types of home can be helped to save energy.
3) Community Renewables Energy Generation Scheme
Much work has already been done on this by QE members. The LEAF grant will allow us to explore the idea of a community PV scheme further.
All these activities will take manpower! Please contact Jill Gray on 01823 432017 if you can help us in the Energy Advice Centre, with the Housing Survey or with the Community Renewable Energy feasibility scheme. Training will be available in the next 2 weeks for anyone who supports what we are doing and can get involved. Click here to go our new QE LEAF page to read more about our plans.
January 3rd 2012 The final QE Newsletter of 2011 has been added to our Newsletter page. Click here
December 19th 2011 Exciting News! Quantock Eco is hoping to make an application to the Local Energy Assessment Fund run by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Bids are invited for grants of, on average, £50,000 to ‘support community action on energy efficiency and renewable energy’.
and ‘to equip communities to work through mechanisms such as the Green Deal, Feed in Tariffs and Renewable Heat Incentive’.
The details of the Fund were announced on Dec 7th and the deadline for applications is Dec. 22nd. We are working hard to put together a viable project which we would base in Bishops Lydeard. More details in due course.
December 17th 2011 Dates for the QE calendar Spring 2012. See QE Events or Click here
December 16th 2011 Our Executive writes to Julia Haldenby in response to the SCC proposal to sell three crucial areas of woodland and SSSI on the Quantocks.
December 6th 2011 Useful advice on solar water heating from the Energy Saving Trust
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Publications2/Generate-your-own-energy/Here-comes-the-sun-a-field-trial-of-solar-water-heating-systems
December 6th 2011 Durban and the World Energy Outlook. (from Ian Myers)
Will the world lose the chance to avoid a dangerous rise in temperatures in the forthcoming UN climate talks in Durban?
Prospects don’t look great with the Government’s attention distracted by the current economic crisis.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has just published its annual World Energy Outlook and it is not a happy read. Our current policies, the outlook predicts, put us on course for long term average rises of 3.5°C, or if policies fail, a 6°C rise. The long term however is getting shorter, in fact, these temperature rises hit us by the middle of this century.
Worrying as this timeframe is, it’s also within the lifespan of many of the carbon-intensive investments being made today such as in tar sands, shale gas, coal mines and power stations. They are capital as well as carbon intensive. If they do their job for shareholders, the economy and public expenditure they will change the climate and undermine the food and water security on which our stability depends.
It gets worse. The IEA warns that by 2017 these investments will lock us into emissions that keep the temperature rise to the 2°C. However, all subsequent energy investment would have to be carbon neutral to prevent further rises! This is technically possible of course and costs might be offset by avoiding the predicted increases in the price of oil. The problem again is political, as the Durban talks may demonstrate. The ‘voluntary’ approach is advocated by some like the United States as a way of giving up on hard commitments while avoiding blame.
The timing for Durban could hardly be worse. Governments face vested interests against climate protection policies and an unconvinced public who are losing confidence in political leaders. These leaders don’t even seem to be able to resolve the Euro crisis let alone climate change!
It’s another case of too little too late states the IEA. The difference however is scary. Economics might improve one day but the climate by then might be damaged for ever. Solutions however are perhaps linked – we require measures that deal with the in-balances of capital and the carbon that follows that capital.
Look forward to Christmas and a new year but remember what happens in Durban matters more than we might realise.
http://www.iea.org/weo/
December 6th 2011 Link to DECC website for further details of the Green Deal (from John Holden)
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn11_099/pn11_099.aspx
December 5th 2011 Carbon Reduction Commitment performance published
The Environment Agency has just published the Performance League Table for the CRC. Find out which companies top the league. There are a few surprises in there. http://crc.environment-agency.gov.uk/pplt/web/plt/public/2010-11/CRCPerformanceLeagueTable20102011 (from Ian Myers)
November 29th 2011 Details of Quantock Eco’s next event – the Green Christmas Fair posted on the Quantock Eco Events page. Click here
November 28th 2011 QE Newsletter No. 10 downloaded to our ’Newsletter’ page. Click here
Additional website addresses added to the Energy Savings Trust on our ‘Links’ page. Click here
November 22nd 2011 The details and criteria of the Wild Places Competition currently being run by the AONB, Quantock Eco and the Friends of Quantock have been moved to the ‘Helping the AONB’ page. Please go to our PROJECTS page , click on HELPING THE AONB and scroll down. Click here
November 21st 2011 New links to local and national websites. Please go to our LINKS page. Click here
(Please contact Quantock Eco if you can recommend other websites).
November 17th 2011 See the latest Environment Agency advice for people considering installing Heat Pumps. Please go to our CASE STUDIES page, click on HEAT PUMPS IN BICKNOLLER then scroll down to the advice provided for us by Ian Myers after our recent evening on Ground and Air Source Heat Pumps. Click here
November 18th 2011 Review of ‘Can we live better with less?’ evening with Stewart Wallis of the New Economics Foundation. The evening was hosted by Transition Minehead and Alcombe. Please go to our LOCAL EVENTS page. Click here
November 8th 2011 New links to the Centre for Sustainable Energy website giving extensive information on energy efficiency, home insulation, renewables, and grants available. Please go to our LINKS page. Click here
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Would you like to respond to the Government’s consultation on its plans to reduce the FiTs paid on electricity generated by PV panels on homes throughout the UK?
The latest information from DECC can be found at
You can respond in 3 ways.
Firstly you can use the DECC website https://econsultation.decc.gov.uk/office-for-renewable-energy-deployment-ored/comprehensive-review-part-1
Secondly you can email fits@decc.gsi.gov.uk
Thirdly you can write to Feed-in Tariffs team, Departmentof Energy and Climate Change, 3, Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2AW
The QE Executive has responded in the following way:
From: QUANTOCK ECO [mailto:quantockeco@btinternet.com]
Sent: 09 November 2011 18:56
To: ‘fits@decc.gsi.gov.uk’
Subject: CONSULTATION ON FEED-IN-TARIFFS FOR SOLAR PVDear DECC,
Thank you for the opportunity to express our views on your recent change in FITs policy.
A principal part of Quantock Eco’s Mission Statement is “to help build resilience in the face of rising energy costs”. Our focus is on the householder and village community assets (as Village Halls) and therefore retrofit systems up to 4kWp.
We have promoted microgeneration of electricity with PV vigorously over the last two years, and have had some success. For example in this village alone, the number of systems installed in 2010 was one, whereas so far in 2011 there are 17!
This success has clearly been helped by the fact that the return on the falling cost of investment has been exceptionally good. DECC is therefore absolutely right to readjust the returns.
However we feel that the way in which it has been done has been rather abrupt, and as such will have serious negative consequences for the Government’s low carbon policy unless revised.
In our view some of these consequences are:
- Such rapid, drastic change undermines the confidence of both householders and the industry in Government policy.
- The contribution of solar PV to the Government’s low carbon programme will be seriously hampered.
- At the proposed FIT of 21p for systems <4 kWp (retrofit) householders will have far less incentive to install PV.
- Hundreds of installers have invested in this programme and will now have to rethink their strategy and may scale down their activity.
- Installers will find it extremely difficult to deliver systems for which they have already received deposits before the proposed cut-off date at 12th December.
- Householders who have decided to invest and have paid deposits on the basis of the previous FIT rate will feel cheated unless they manage to have their systems installed and registered before 12th December. A seriously tough task!
Given this scenario we invite you to consider the following points for a revised policy:
The FIT Scale:
- Set the annual return of the FITs to 10% of investment cost with annual reviews.
- The objective of these annual reviews should be to ensure that the FIT is always a constant 10% on investment cost.
- At present the average investment cost is approximately £11,500. Implementing our recommendation would mean that the FIT for systems <4kWp (retrofit) would be approximately 30p.
- Such a system should maintain the momentum achieved in the industry so far and help the Government achieve its low carbon objectives.
Cut-off Date for Application of New Scale:
- Given the average delivery lead time of approximately seven weeks the cut-off date of 12th December should be put back to 31st December.
- This would enable installers to complete schemes for which deposits have been made.
- Thereafter a new set of FITs based on the recommendation of 10% of investment cost might be introduced and managed annually.
We hope you will feel that these are reasonable requests and will take them into consideration.
For more information on who we are and what we are trying to do please visit our website www.quantockeco.org.uk.
Regards,
Julian Anderson
Chairman
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Free Home Energy Audits
The Bishops Lydeard Group of Quantock Eco are providing FREE home energy audits to anyone interested. Trained Energy Auditors arrange to visit your home, at a time convenient to you, and discuss with you various ways in which you could make savings on your heating and electricity bills. This might be anything between installing insulation to taking simple measures to eliminate draughts. The auditors are volunteers trained to help people save money and they are fully up-to-date with information about the grants available to help pay for insulation.
If you are interested in talking to one of our auditors please email Jill Gray at jillgray2@tiscali.co.uk including your telephone number. She will ring you to make an appointment.
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Bishops Lydeard/Cotford St Luke to Taunton CycleWay Petition
We have recently heard from our County Councillor, John Wilkins, that Somerset County Council has secured extra funding for the transport budget 2011 – 12. He tells us that he, along with other councillors, has been asked to identify one project that he would recommend should be added to the County Council’s development plans for next year. This must be a project that has overwhelming public support.
John proposes to put forward a request for a CycleWay from Bishops Lydeard/Cotford St Luke to Taunton!
This is excellent news!
John needs as much public support for this proposal as possible.
UPDATE Oct. 4th Sadly Quantock Eco’s BL/CStL CycleWay bid for extra SCC Transport Budget funding has not been successful.
Our plans have also been rejected by the West Somerset Railway Board.
Our CycleWay Campaign will continue. Watch this space.
PLEASE show your support for the BL/CStL CycleWay by signing the petition set up by Mike Rigby at the address below.
Or sign up on this Facebook page http://on.fb.me/k6iUkg
PLEASE ASK FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO SIGN UP TOO!
THANK YOU!
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Utility Warehouse
Quantock Eco is currently supporting UTILITY WAREHOUSE.
This is a FSTE 250 listed company that has just won the ‘Best Buy’ recommendation from Which? magazine.
The company works to help people to save money on all their utility bills and subsequently invests in its customers’ local communities.
They do this by asking people to amalgamate all their utilities – landline phone, mobile phone, internet, gas and electricity with the company, who then use their buying power to secure the best prices for their customers from suppliers.
The community fundraising aspect of the deal arises when some of the savings people have made are used to support charities and community groups in customers’ communities. Quantock Eco is one of the local groups hoping to benefit .
The concept is brilliantly explained in a series of videos made by French and Saunders for Utility Warehouse.
http://www.uwdcvideos.co.uk/?exref=F71419&v=1
If you would like more information about the scheme or would like to support Quantock Eco through Utility Warehouse please contact John Holden on John@johnholdensave.com . You can also visit the Utility Warehouse website www.utilitywarehouse.com
or ring 0800 13 13 000
The Quantock Eco Appeal number is F71419
Thank you!
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