Sandford Energy Project

We have issued a pre-tender questionnaire to nearly 30 local and national PV installers requesting information from them regarding our potential project. We want to find out whether there is potential for a group discount, how best to go about our project from an installer's perspective, which installers are genuinely interested in working with us, and among many other things which installers will work with us in a transparent and value adding way to offer our participants the best value for money in PV installations. We hope to short list to a few installers during December, so that we can go out to tender early in the new year. 

If you are interested in having PV installed and live in Crediton and District please get in touch, as the more homes involved the greater the discount we will be able to obtain.

Pioneer Microgenerators

A freedom of information request has revealed how little it would cost the electricity industry to include early adopters in the FIT scheme - £4.25 Million pa, under £100 million for lifetime of the scheme.

Here is the Government's official response to the pioneer microgenerator's petition.

If you are thinking of having solar hot water panels installed it might be best to wait until after April 2011 or at least until the Government makes an announcement on this topic. We hope there will be an arrangement called the renewable heat incentive similar to the FIT payments starting next year. We'll let you know if we hear anything.

There is disappointment for early adopters of renewable energy as the Coalition breaks a preelection promise of the Tories. After months of silence from energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne, he has finally spoken out on the subject of equal cashback for people who installed solar PV, micro wind or hydro before 15 July 2009.The promise was to pay the same rate to early adopters as new installations receive (that's 41.3p per unit rather than the miserly 9p they currently get). Recently Chris Huhne revealed that he's reneging on that promise in an answer to a question from Green MP Caroline Lucas.

There is a lot of interest in "rent a roof " solar panels schemes at the moment. We have reproduced part of an article by Cathy Debenham with kind permission from Yougen, an independent provider of information about renewable energy. There are a number of links embedded in the article which lead to further information.

Plans are in the early stages to create a community PV energy project in Sandford that could involve a large number of interested residents. Anyone who lives in the Sandford area and would like to know more entirely without obligation, can contact me.

News from the BBC

Cornwall's Wave Hub energy project 'is going ahead'

Horse manure to power MOD office - the manure from horses in the King's Troop will be used to heat and light its new headquarters in south London.

Free solar panels, free electricity for your home - surely there must be a catch?

As the UK faces the prospect of North Sea gas running out, could supply problems be eased by using gas made from human waste?

We are working with other pioneering microgenerators around the country to lobby the Government regarding their unjust treatment of early adopters of renewable energy. Letters have been written to our MP and Ed Miliband among others to attempt to get the pioneers included in the new feed-in tariff arrangements. We will also be asking for information from the government about the numbers of people impacted using the Freedon of Information Act. 

The BBC's James Painter examines why Costa Rica tends to score highly on surveys looking at wellbeing and the environment.