The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy needs to “completely re-think” its strategy for the decarbonisation of heating, Policy Exchange has warned. The influential think tank said that, with a price tag of £300 billion, plans to install electric heat pumps in four out of five homes by 2050 are a “colossal waste of money”. Achieving this would cost as much as £12,000 per household. The figure takes into account the cost of upgrading the grid and building more than 100GW of new power generation to meet the extra demand for electricity, as well as more than £8,500 for the installation of each pump. Policy Exchange said in a new report Britain is “significantly off-track” to meeting the carbon budgets it is committed to, and that a lack of progress on the decarbonisation of heating could “make or break the UK’s carbon plans”. It urged the government to “put affordability at the heart of its decarbonisation strategy by shifting away from its focus on electric heat pumps to alternatives”. A new strategy based on a “more balanced set of priorities and technologies – incorporating substantial improvements in energy efficiency, more efficient gas appliances, greener forms of gas, and alternative heat technologies” could deliver an 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050 but at “substantially less cost to the consumer”. Demand reduction could potentially reduce overall heat demand by up to 20 per cent over the period. The report said improvements in energy efficiency should be given “early prioritisation” as they are “beneficial regardless of which heat technologies we use in the future”. There is still “significant potential” to rollout out loft and cavity wall insulation and heating controls, which are “cheap and relatively straightforward to install”. However, in order to make substantive savings, more disruptive and expensive measures such as solid wall insulation for older properties will need to be deployed. Despite the rollout of more efficient condensing gas boilers, which have been mandatory in new installations since 2005, 11 million of the less efficient non-condensing boilers remained in UK homes in 2012. The report said these ought to be upgraded as “a matter of priority”. Other technologies such as “flue gas heat recovery, gas driven heat pumps, and micro combined heat and power have the potential to substantially increase boiler efficiencies beyond the current level”. Hybrid gas-electric heat pumps, which can switch between the two sources to depending on which is cheaper, could also play a major role. Crucially, as they can switch to gas during peak hours, they would avoid the need for grid upgrades as would be needed with the mass installation of electric heat pumps. Policy Exchange said electric-only pumps could still play a role, “but not to the extent suggested in the [Department of Energy and Climate Change] heat strategy” laid out in 2012 and 2013. The think tank noted the potential to decarbonise the gas itself through the use of green gases produced from waste and organic matter. It would not require changes to gas appliances or networks and would therefore offer “a cost effective route to substantially decarbonise gas use”. However, there are “uncertainties” about the amount which can be produced. A more transformative approach would be to covert the gas grid to run on hydrogen, which the report said could achieve a 73 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. However, this would be very costly: Upscaling the findings of a study looking at converting the city of Leeds to run on hydrogen, suggests doing so across the UK to all 23 million homes on the gas grid, would initially cost £180 billion and then a further £12 billion each year. Policy Exchange said more work needs to be done to assess the feasibility of this option. Source: Policy Exchange The report made a number of recommendations. It said the government needs to set out a “coherent and achievable long term vision, backed up with sustained policy intervention and considerable cross-party support” but at the same time pursue “quick wins”. It should take a more balanced approach, which minimises costs to consumers, and avoid “picking winners” and setting technology specific goals. Carbon pricing should be used to encourage lower carbon solutions and the disparity between heating and power will need to be resolved: “At present the effective carbon tax on heating fuels such as gas and heating oil is negative, whilst the levies placed on electricity bills are increasing as power is being decarbonised.” Heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty policy should be better integrated and there should be a “national strategy with a localist approach”. Policy Exchange said the best course of action will “vary by location and over time” and so a “one size fits all” approach will not work effectively. Energy and Utilities Alliance chief executive Mike Foster said: “The vast majority of UK households are connected to the gas grid. Rather than rip out heating systems and make the grid obsolete, it makes sense to decarbonise the gas we use.” He added: “Green gas is now being recognised as the preferred solution to meet UK heat demand, which is seasonal and demands a flexible supply. Our members are poised to deliver; we now need that green light from the government for green gas. “There is no easy option for the UK, all means to decarbonise will cost consumers, but it is imperative to keep these costs to a minimum. Previous policy direction did not do this. I hope this report helps the new government set a new direction.” Earlier today the Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) released a report also warning that the government is off course to meet its 2020 targets for renewable heat and transport. It said the proposed reforms to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which will see heat pumps prioritised over biomass, are not the “optimal pathway” to meeting the heating goal, and should therefore be revised. Source link

It has been announced that SoilsCon 2017 will be held on Wednesday 18th October this year. Regarded as an event that is firmly placed in the landscape industry events calendar, SoilsCon will be will be held in the same venue as last year, Phyllis Court in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. The location for last year’s event proved popular, leading organisers to select the same venue for the third convention. This year will be the third soils conference that has been organised by Tim O’Hare, the soil scientist and landscape consultant. The conference will hopefully offer landscape architects, contractors, garden designers, developers, topsoil manufacturers and a range of other industry professionals a day of professional development, discussion and debate. On offer at SoilsCon will be a number of different presentations form some of the country’s leading experts in their respective fields. The speakers that have been confirmed for this year’s event include organizer Tim O’Hare, Tim White the Senior Associate of Tim O’Hare Associates; TerraCottem CEO Carol Devos; Martin Gammie, the Managing Director of Consulting with Trees Limited; and Head of research and Development at PlantWorks Ltd, Dr. Louisa Robinson-Boyer. The subject of the presentations that will definitely be covered at this year’s SoilsCon will include: Soil management practices on Greenfield sites, which will refer to a North West Cambridge case study; The benefits of using new generation soil conditioning technology in order to improve soil performance; considerations to what sustainable urban tree planting looks like; and the role that mycorrhizal fungi plays in water and nutrient uptake. Also on offer at the event in Oxfordshire is a Soil Surgery, which will be held during the networking sections of the show. At this surgery, visitors will be helped by Tin O’Hare Associates team members with their specific soil issues.  More complete programme of speakers and presentations will be released a later date.

The community organizing charity Citizens UK’s campaign group London Citizens has recently published an affordable homes league table for people looking to buy homes in London. The table displays the percentage of affordable housing that have been built in the area over the course of the past five years. These figures only cover the percentage of affordable homes that have been built by the eight biggest housing providers. Countryside the property developing company has a score of 48%, meaning that it is ranked as the number one house builder of affordable homes amongst the top eight housing developers. The list of house builders included companies like Qatari Diar/Delancy, Bellway Homes, Mount Anvil, Barratt Home, Telford, Berkley Homes and Taylor Wimpey. Citizens UK wanted to highlight the lack of affordable homes being produced and suggested that all property developments in London should have at least 35% of the project allocated to affordable homes. This could help tackle the challenge faced by Londoners to find affordable housing. It is thought that more and more communities are being damaged because of the lack of affordability and the poor levels of housing provision, which could be changed if developers allocated more houses for the affordable market when carrying out developments. Countryside house builders have been said to have a unique ethos which requires them to provide affordable homes and work in partnership with local councils, housing authorities and business partners in order to make the best development choices for the community. With the lack of affordable housing at the moment it would be beneficial if more companies looked in to providing for this market. The figures from London Citizens have been cross referenced against the websites for public planning application websites and other industry data to work out the percentage of affordable homes created.