Regular readers may remember the “SOLCER House” video demonstrating how to build an energy efficent house from the ground up? Not so very long ago I attended a seminar on the Energiesprong technique for retro-fitting energy efficiency to existing housing, and now an Energiesprong UK project in Nottingham has been featured on BBC News! Take a look:
If you listen carefully you will note that the presenters explain that:
Ten houses in Nottingham have become the first in the UK to pilot what’s been described as a revolutionary energy saving makeover, which should mean that residents enjoy warmer homes and reduce their bills.
The new approach comes from The Netherlands. Improvements can be installed within days whilst people still live in their homes, and the scheme is designed to pay for itself.
The Dutch call it Energiesprong, which means “Energy Leap”.
The UK’s new “Industrial Strategy” was published last week. The last time we had a good look at UK plc’s strategy was three years ago, when we concluded that “it rather sounds as though ‘Storage to Grid’ (or S2G for short) is a more likely prospect here in the United Kingdom than fully fledged V2G”. So how about this year?
The foreword by Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Business,Energy and Industrial Strategy (or BEIS for short), states that:
This Industrial Strategy deliberately strengthens the five foundations of productivity: innovation, people, infrastructure, places and the business environment.
At the very least “innovation” and “infrastructure” sound like the sort of things we get up to here at V2G UK. Here’s how Gov.UK visualises our future infrastructure:
Moving on, Greg continues:
As well as setting a path to improved productivity, our Industrial Strategy sets out four areas where Britain can lead the global technological revolution. These four Grand Challenges – in artificial intelligence and big data; clean growth; the future of mobility; and meeting the needs of an ageing society – have been identified on the advice of the our leading scientists and technologists. They will be supported by investment from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and matched by commercial investment.
There’s a video explaining the ISCF:
There’s even a video summarising each of the Grand Challenges. Electric vehicles get a mention in the one about mobility:
https://youtu.be/wlqQRp5vhOU
We’ve previously touched on the Government’s new “clean growth” strategy on the V2G blog, and obviously we’re inordinately interested in the “future of mobility”, so there really should be something of interest to us in the 131 page white paper. Let’s delve a little deeper shall we? Under the “infrastructure” heading we’re told that:
Our approach is to undertake a comprehensive package of measures to promote the uptake of zero emission vehicles. We have announced a further £100m for the plug-in car grant to incentivise the purchase of battery electric vehicles, and we are committing to 25 per cent of the cars in central government department fleets being electric by 2022. We are announcing an additional £200m of public investment, to be matched by private investment, to create a new £400m Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund, and we will regulate to support further expansion of the charging infrastructure network.
After the Grenfell Review, we will update building regulations to mandate that all new residential developments must contain the enabling cabling for charge-points in the homes. We will also provide £40m to support new technologies for on-street and wireless charging.
All of which sounds like very good news for our SaMDES project which envisages installing static battery storage and V2G charging stations in homes and small businesses across the South West of England. The news gets even better! A little further on we discover:
The zero emission road transport strategy, to be published in the coming months, and work on the options for the long-term decarbonisation of heating will build on this. They will support the growth of markets for technologies that create synergies between systems, such as energy storage, smart meters, vehicle-to-grid charging and heat networks.
Will the sweet music to our ears never stop? Not for the moment at least. Next we discover that:
We are determined to tackle air pollution and support affected areas, given the significant negative impact it has on public health, the economy and the environment. We will provide £220m for a new Clean Air Fund that will allow local authorities in England with the most challenging pollution problems to help individuals and businesses adapt as measures to improve air quality are implemented. This new fund is in addition to the £255m provided to implement the Air Quality plan earlier this year.
That sounds like more potential assistance for Camelford due to the town’s Air Quality Management Area status. Moving on once more, regular readers will be aware that we are proponents of energy efficiency. “Negawatts not Megawatts!” we cried when the predecessor to BEIS pulled the plug on zero carbon homes a couple of years ago. Will they make amends now? Unfortunately not really. There are a couple of sentences to the effect that:
In the more immediate term, energy efficiency and reforms to the retail energy market will provide the opportunity to lower bills. Up to £6bn could be saved in 2030 through investment in cost effective energy saving technologies in the industrial and commercial sector.
We will encourage greater investment in energy efficiency measures and technologies, including by developing a new scheme to support investment in industrial energy efficiency, to help large businesses install measures that will cut their energy use and bills, as we as improve their productivity.
Plus there’s:
We want to support greater collaboration between councils, a more strategic approach to planning housing and infrastructure, more innovation and high quality design in new homes and creating the right conditions for new private investment.
From where I’m sat I’m afraid that’s not a patch on “the proposed 2016 increase in on-site energy efficiency standards” that bit the dust in 2015. The white paper contains some great news if you’re into decarbonising transport, as we most certainly are. However unfortunately reducing the energy wasted by the UK’s poorly insulated housing stock, both old and new, still seems to be very much on UK plc’s back burner.
It seems as though we still have a long wait in store before homes like this will be constructed as a matter of urgency:
This morning the United Kingdom’s House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Select Committee published its latest report, entitled “Fuelling the debate: Committee successes and future challenges”. The introduction to the report states that:
The Energy and Climate Change Committee plays a central role in scrutinising and improving the Government’s policy and legislation.
We look in detail at three case studies – electricity market reform, competition in the energy market and shale gas – each of which highlights the key role we have played in holding the Government to account and improving policy and legislation. Finally, we set out our future vision for the UK energy system, based on the views and evidence provided by the wide range of stakeholders that we work with. We also explore the challenges which will need to be overcome in the next Parliament if the UK is to achieve its ambitious long-term climate and energy goals.
The committee has also just released a video summary of their activities over the last 5 years. Here it is:
In the video Tim Yeo, who is chair of the committee, says amongst other things that:
The cheapest form of energy is the energy we don’t use in the first place. Yet despite the fact that energy efficiency is one of the cheapest ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy security and end fuel poverty, they were neglected in the Government’s original proposals. So the committee recommended that demand reduction and energy efficiency be placed at the very heart of Electricity Market Reform.
Unfortunately today the Government is still putting too much emphasis on building new electrical generating capacity, instead of promoting demand-side measures that would improve security of supply and also reduce consumer bills.
Here at V2G we cannot help but agree with those sentiments. We also cannot help but agree with Catherine Mitchell, Professor of Energy Policy at Exeter University, who according to a “Tweet” by the ECC select committee itself at least, pointed out this morning that:
Catherine Mitchell: We need a transparent and liquid market. Must put demand side at top of the list. #UKenergyfuture — ECC select committee (@CommonsECC) March 12, 2015
