Showing how an all-renewable approach is feasible.

Mark Diesendorf recently wrote in The Conversation on how renewables can provide all needed electricity. Much of the argument concerns the need for baseload demand. This is an interesting article, well worth reading. Why 100 per cent renewables is possible... and affordable The future of civilisation and much biodiversity hangs to a large degree … Continue reading Showing how an all-renewable approach is feasible. →

Tribute well deserved

In our hectic daily lives, we get caught up in the priorities of the day, meeting deadlines, arguing with bosses or colleagues, just trying to cope. One day this week offered a wonderful opportunity to leave all that aside to listen and to think, and in a rare treat, to reflect along with many of the … Continue reading Tribute well deserved →

How big a problem is there in measuring floor area?

Tanya Powley writes in the Financial Times about the discrepancies in measuring the floor area in residential buildings in the UK. The discrepancy can be 10 to 15%. While it seriously affects valuation of properties, it can also impact on the UK’s total floor area, an indicator used in developing its buildings energy performance strategies. … Continue reading How big a problem is there in measuring floor area? →

New report on moving to a low-carbon Canada

The Trottier Energy Futures Project has come out with an important new report on Canada moving to a low-carbon economy. An Inventory of Low-Carbon Energy for Canada shows that Canada’s supplies of solar, wind, hydroelectric and biomass energy are much larger than the current or forecast demand for fuel and electricity, and technology costs have … Continue reading New report on moving to a low-carbon Canada →

Monitoring as we need it

EU member states have been given many tasks to promote energy efficiency in general and in the end-use sectors, meet 2016 targets, meet 2020 targets and contribute to energy and climate objectives. For countries with well funded and functioning energy agencies, the task is easier, but for most it is not easy, even if we … Continue reading Monitoring as we need it →

An ACE effort

The UK’s Association for the Conservation of Energy has produced an excellent “fact-file” comparing fuel poverty and energy efficiency in the UK to 15 other European countries with comparable levels of prosperity and heating need. It ranks these countries against six key indicators for which consistent and recent European data are available to assess the … Continue reading An ACE effort →

The oil debate battles on

Javier Blas writes in the Financial Times about how the debate peak oil has changed to a debate on peak demand as opposed to peak supply. As Blas writes, “it could presage a massive revolution, and much lower oil prices in the next two decades than currently anticipated by the energy market.” This has been … Continue reading The oil debate battles on →

New reports for your spring reading

There are a few new reports that are well worth spending time reading. The first is a comparison of German and UK experience in evaluating energy efficiency programmes. The second concerns climate policy and industry, policy interaction and the external environment. The third is on developing roadmaps for a retrofit strategy. Evaluating the evaluations: … Continue reading New reports for your spring reading →

Impact of air pollution in the UK

John Vidal writes in the Guardian about air quality in UK cities, although primarily London, and what it is doing to health. One monitoring station in London shows the fourth highest levels of NO2 of over 2,000 monitoring stations in Europe. Cities are missing targets set under EU laws, but questions arise as to who … Continue reading Impact of air pollution in the UK →

The benefits of better information on energy efficiency

Meg Handley writes in USNews.com about a new report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy on the savings that consumers could achieve if there was better information available. Consumers Could Save $1 Trillion With Better Energy Efficiency Information "The report is spot on—existing technologies and anticipated technologies could be realized without significant … Continue reading The benefits of better information on energy efficiency →