Energy Efficiency

This Dutch construction innovation shows it’s possible to quickly retrofit every building Energiesprong (‘energy jump’) is finding ways to make buildings more efficient without requiring major construction projects.

Fast Company 14th Jan 2022 read more »

Wind farms, nuclear power plants, solar panels and hydrogen: billions of public and private cash around the world is being poured into sophisticated ways to produce more clean energy. Yet behind that progress lurks an uncomfortable reality. Much of this energy is in effect wasted, not through useless activity or misdeeds, but in a more insidious way: warm air leaking through doors, draughty windows and attics, while aged fridges, washing machines and light bulbs use more power than they need. At a time of soaring energy bills and growing anxiety over tackling climate change, experts say that situation must change. Energy efficiency may capture the imagination less than advances in clean energy generation, but can play a key role in keeping bills down and cutting carbon emissions. Experts have predicted it could cost £6.2bn more a year to move the UK towards low-carbon home heating unless it is accompanied by energy efficiency measures. Energy efficiency could also save homeowners £8bn and, with other heating upgrades, help cut the equivalent of six nuclear power stations in energy demand, recent research has claimed. There have been some notable policy flip-flops. In 2015, the Government abandoned a plan requiring for new homes to be “zero carbon” amid efforts to speed up housebuilding. Lord Deben, chairman of the Climate Change Committee, which advises to the Government, told the select committee that “the people who laughed all the way to the bank were the builders who decided in advance that the Government would never get on with that”. More recently, the Government has been criticised over its short-lived Green Homes Grant scheme, which awarded homeowners vouchers worth up to £10,000 to upgrade their homes. It was scrapped in March 2021, seven months after launching and having upgraded fewer than 50,000 of the 600,000 envisaged. Dame Meg Hillier, the MP who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, said the scheme was “a slam dunk fail” and “a terrible waste of money and opportunity at a time when we can least afford it”. Reports that the Government might now be looking at cutting the Energy Company Obligation, a levy on energy bills to pay for boilers and insulation, have been met with alarm by campaigners. Calls to tackle energy efficiency are coming to the fore at a time of rising energy costs. Months of soaring wholesale natural gas prices are expected to hit households in April when the energy price cap on household bills is reset. In a report in October, E3G found that improving the energy efficiency of homes with a mid-ranking D rating could save households £511 on their bills in April. It adds that while the Homes Upgrade Grant and Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund are supporting households on the very lowest incomes, there is “no national programme available for the huge group that the government classifies as ‘able-to-pay’”.

Telegraph 19th Jan 2022 read more »

An alliance of 25 charities has called for increased funding for energy efficiency upgrades and clean energy technologies to help “wean the UK off expensive gas” as part of measures to combat rising energy costs. Alongside emergency funding to support the most vulnerable and greater investment in home insulation, charities including Save the Children, Age-UK, End Fuel Poverty Coalition, WWF, Green Alliance, Faith for the Climate, Tearfund, and Greenpeace, say the measures could help combat steep price rises caused by soaring costs of fossil gas. The charities estimate that fuel poverty could increase by 50 per cent in the months ahead from four to six million households across the UK, as households brace for an anticipated 50 per cent increase in energy bills from April.

Business Green 17th Jan 2022 read more »

Developer St Modwen has started work on a testbed scheme for the first affordable carbon-negative homes. The trial will demonstrate the potential to deliver carbon-negative homes commercially, and at a scale big enough to have a material impact on the UK’s annual CO2 emissions. Due to be completed early this year, the homes at Copthorne near Gatwick are designed to produce more energy than they consume. Analysis by energy and sustainability experts Ampersand Partners indicates the design could slash 52% from families’ energy bills.

Construction Enquirer 17th Jan 2022 read more »

Dr Nina Skorupska CBE, chief executive of the REA, said the government must “provide a catalyst” to better insulate homes and increase renewable energy installations to protect households from volatile gas prices. “We want the financial burden of fossil fuels to be a non-issue within five years – to do that the government must rapidly accelerate the shift to renewables and clean technology,” she said. As such, the government should expand eligibility and increase the value of the Warm Homes Discount to ensure there is additional support for those who need it, as well as establish an effective home insulation scheme by 2022 to ensure all houses be EPC rating C at a minimum by 2024/25.

Current 12th Jan 2022 read more »

The House of Lords’ Built Environment Committee is warning the UK Government that its approach to housebuilding is out of kilter with national commitments on levelling up and the environment, and that key ambitions won’t be realised without better support for training and education. One issue highlighted with both social and environmental consequences is the fact that the UK has some of the oldest and least energy-efficient homes in Europe. Energy inefficiency in homes can contribute to fuel poverty, contribute to health and wellbeing issues and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. The report cites previous research from the New Economics Foundation, conducted in 2021, which concluded that the UK will need 36,000 trained retrofit specialists to meet the demand for installations such as triple glazing, insulation and efficient heating by 2025 – if housing is to decarbonise in line with net-zero. At present, there are less than 200 across the country. The Committee is recommending that the Apprenticeship Levy, under which businesses with a pay bill over £3m also pay 0.5% towards the Government’s apprenticeship programmes, is scrapped. It argues that the number of people starting apprenticeships has fallen since the Levy’s introduction – by 26% year-on-year across all sectors in the first instance. In the construction and retrofit sectors specifically, steeper reductions have been recorded in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19.

Edie 10th Jan 2022 read more »

Improving insulation on the UK’s least efficient homes would save households around £500 a year on energy bills, totalling £8bn a year nationally, the prime minister has been told by business organisations and charities. The Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group, which includes companies and organisations such as the CBI, Energy Savings Trust, Rockwool, E.On and the WWF, said that amid the energy crisis, investment in improving energy efficiency in homes is “a permanent solution to high energy bills”. The group is calling for a greater level of support for vulnerable households in order to prevent a fuel poverty emergency. Sarah Kostense-Winterton, chair of the EEIG said: “The cost-of-living crisis is being driven by soaring gas prices. A permanent solution to lower bills is through reducing demand through energy efficiency measures.”

Independent 10th Jan 2022 read more »

Better insulation could save UK households more than £500 a year on energy bills, according to a group of business organisations and charities. The Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group is calling on the prime minister to prioritise energy saving through home improvements. It could save the UK £7.8bn a year, the group says. The government is under political pressure to take action over rocketing gas bills. Households have seen energy bills rise in recent months and further increases will take effect in April, when the energy price cap will be raised to take higher wholesale gas prices into account. The government is exploring ways to support those on low incomes who will struggle to afford higher heating costs. But the EEIG, which includes the CBI, Kingfisher, Energy Savings Trust and the green group WWF, says this and previous administrations are partly to blame for higher bills because they failed to ensure Britain’s homes are adequately insulated. “The cost-of-living crisis is being driven by soaring gas prices,” said EEIG chairwoman Sarah Kostense-Winterton. “A permanent solution to lower bills is by reducing demand through energy efficiency measures. “Emergency short-term measures for the most vulnerable households are crucial, but it’s fundamental for the government to simultaneously focus on the long term to avoid futures crises. “Green home retrofits have significant social, environmental and economic co-benefits, and stand out as a ‘no regrets’ solution to the energy crisis, climate crisis, and levelling up agenda.”

BBC 10th Jan 2022 read more »

With Scotland experiencing the highest levels of #FuelPoverty in the UK there is a clear disparity in how households are impacted by this. On closer inspection that inequality/unfairness continues in Scotland’s local authority data which we’ve mapped.

Energy Action Scotland 6th Jan 2022 read more »

People are sleepwalking into buying properties that could soon plunge in value or become unsaleable due to looming eco red tape. Experts have warned that buyers purchasing homes today are largely unaware of the fact that the Government’s net zero targets could make them liable for tens of thousands of pounds of energy efficiency upgrades in a few years’ time. In turn, these costs will depress the value of their homes and could make some unmortgageable. The Government wants all properties to have an Energy Performance Certificate of band C by 2035, and plans to implement this through the mortgage market. Under current plans, lenders will be required to have an average band C rating for their portfolios by 2030. This means homes that require very costly upgrades will attract higher mortgage rates and will be harder to remortgage. Once the Government’s targets are enforced, the value of homes with low EPC ratings will depreciate. The Government’s targets will affect the buy-to-let sector first. All newly-let rental properties must be band C by 2026, and all existing lets must hit the level by 2028. “The rental sector will be the canary in the coal mine for how this will affect the wider market,”. Mortgage lender Habito calculated that the cost of upgrading a detached family home from EPC D to C would be £12,540. But according to analysis by property website Rightmove, 1.7 million properties will never be able to reach this level. Upgrades on certain types of properties, primarily very old buildings, can be impossible.

Telegraph 6th Jan 2022 read more »

Millions of smart meters in the UK – including the shiny new ones currently being installed – will need to be upgraded. Again. The current meters superseded millions of now-obsolete ones that were installed in the early part of the last decade, so some consumers will have experienced three upgrades in just a few years. Of course, the consumer foots the bill for the bungling. The last estimate of the cost was £420 per household. The upcoming wave of replacements is happening because Whitehall has decided that the UK needs to turn off its 2G and 3G mobile networks.

Telegraph 3rd Jan 2022 read more »