Rural, community-led heat networks are possible in the UK and Regen SW has been working for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to understand the main viability factors: planning policy, gas grid and heat load.
Making rural heat networks happen Read More »
Decc’s key responsibility is making sure our families and businesses have the certainty of secure, affordable and clean energy supplies. For this very reason, I want the UK to vote to stay in the EU on 23 June – because it helps to deliver these objectives as well as helping us to tackle climate change more effectively.
Lord Bourne speaks out on Brexit energy risks Read More »
The hiatus over Hinkley Point C only throws into sharper focus the question of how the UK can produce reliable low carbon power. Yes, solar and offshore wind are coming down in price, but to meet its carbon targets the country is going to need large scale, round the clock low carbon power generation.
Low carbon security of supply: the case for CCS is building Read More »
While we are used to the occasional power outage, lasting perhaps a few hours and limited to a small area, the electricity sector also has plans in place to deal with much more severe and widespread disruptions to power, and being able to restore supplies as quickly as possible. Peter Jones, technical manager at the ERP notes that, “while we are confident the current system is resilient to a wide range of extreme events today, looking forward we can see a number of significant long-term trends that may impact the system resilience in the decades to come.”
Maintaining a resilient energy system Read More »
Recently, I travelled around Cornwall. I visited amazing hotels, beautiful beaches and rugged countryside landscapes. I was not, however, on holiday, but visiting our Local Energy Market (LEM) project, which has installed a range of low carbon energy technologies into the businesses I visited, including the stunning Carbis Bay Hotel and the charismatic Olde House farm and holiday retreat.
Local energy in action Read More »
Grant Wilson and Paul Rowley today published a new paper for the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) titled Flexibility in Britain’s Gas Networks.
Leveraging linepack Read More »
In the upward trajectory towards a low carbon world and electrification of transport in particular, there is one country that is on a stellar pathway, and a long way ahead of everyone else – Norway. “Norway envy” is something that is often intimated by professionals in the energy sector, caused by virtually zero carbon energy generation from their enormous hydro-electric power resources and that most of their building heat is derived from this lovely clean electricity as well!
Learning from Norway Read More »
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) recent announcement of £40m funding for seven district heating schemes is welcome news. This is part of the government’s £320m Heat Networks Investment Project (HNIP).
Laying the foundations for heat network growth Read More »
At the end of April this year, Ofgem announced that it will not be launching a mid-period review into the current RIIO1 price control system regulating UK electricity networks. Their conclusion was that RIIO1 was working as intended and they had not identified any issues within the current price control system. They also mentioned that they are happy with preparations by energy networks in specific areas including electric vehicles, cyber security, new European laws and storm resilience. DNOs have committed to using existing allowances of over £600m to drive innovation further into a smarter, more flexible energy system. This helps ensure the energy networks are being more proactive and flexible in meeting demands of newer technologies and services to customers.
Keeping regulatory certainty Read More »
