2013

Aims for 2013

  • Continue our Warm Homes Project and PV Project
  • Research the Green Deal and how we might become involved
  • Have an event in September based on simple low tech things people can do to make their homes warmer and more energy efficient
  • As we have been made an official consultee by MDDC Planning , we will be making comments on relevant major planning applications
  • Investigate the possibility of a Crediton Community Energy Company.

Energy Group 2012 Highlights

The Energy Group consisted at the start of 2012 of Linda Lever, Chris Dean, Chris Tucker, John Boyle, Hazel Underwood, Charles Mossman. During the year we welcomed Hertha Wood and Caroline Martin into the group. Many thanks to John Boyle for hosting our approximately monthly meetings.

We started 2012 with our Solar PV Project in full swing. Our installer Solarsense was under intense pressure to complete all the installations before Government deadlines regarding the change of feed-in tariffs from 43p to 21p came into effect. As a result of these changes new orders virtually dried up after February. However we did install over 70 sets of panels. We entered a second year's agreement with Solarsense in June. It was a simplified agreement offering a 10% discount on much lower prices. A PV installation still offers a tax free index linked return of about 10% pa whilst reducing electricity bills. The initial year of the agreement was a great success and most householders have now received their 15% retrospective rebate.

In September we entered a bid for the Renewable Heat Premium Payment Communities Scheme administered by the Energy Savings Trust on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The Scheme is targeted at making renewable heating affordable for middle to low income households  and aims to maximise carbon reduction by reaching homes with high carbon, expensive to run heating systems (especially those off the gas network) and ensuring that heating systems are installed after or alongside energy efficiency measures. We were one of 38 successful community groups in the UK and were awarded £40,000 based on 24 households which had expressed an interest in our scheme (Warm Homes Project). We selected 4 installers of heat pumps, solar thermal panels , biomass boilers and insulation to be our partners. We also contracted with Devon Association for Renewable Energy and Creedy Home Surveys to provide free renewable energy surveys and home energy performance assessments for all the households in our scheme. To date 7 of the original 24 households have taken up quotations from installers and are in the process of having renewable heating technologies fitted. The Scheme has been extended to the 30th June 2013 and we will be working hard to get more take up of the funds available.

In November we organised a firewood from hedgerows demonstration event with the aim of setting up a hedgerow management group. The event was well attended even though the weather was atrocious and we were in the midst of floods. We subsequently set up the group, reached an agreement with John Quicke to work on his land and had 3 work parties in February 2013 with 14 people taking part. We have applied for a grant from Awards for All for chainsaw and hedge-laying training for the group.

In between these projects we have formulated a wind turbine policy statement, lobbied Planning to become consultees on relevant planning applications, had a talk by Tony Norton, Head of Exeter Uni's Centre for Energy and the Environment and researched home energy performance assessments.


16th December 2013

Firewood from Hedgerows Work Party 8

We will be cutting stems and laying steeplers commencing at the footpath gate at the top of the field near where we had the demonstration event a year ago. 4 of us attended the work party and had several hours of hedge laying practice. (2 man days) ...


8th December 2013

Hedge Laying Course

The event started on time at 9.30am. We had great weather which meant we worked through to finish at 4:30pm. The Devon Rural Skills Trust (DRST) provided 4 instructors and we had 9 Sustainable Crediton members present for training. We also had two people helping process the brash. We started with ...



26th November 2013

Firewood Group One Year Old!

On the 24th November 2012, 21 people met at the Crown & Sceptre pub in Newton St Cyres amidst all the floods to take part in the Energy Group's Woodfuel from Hedgerows demonstration event. The event inspite of the rain and floods was successful and we watched a demonstration of hedge laying by ...


25th November 2013

Firewood from Hedgerows Work Party 7

We shall be carrying on from the previous work party, using chainsaws and distributing the wood created in the last two sessions. ...


10th November 2013

Firewood from Hedgerows Work Party 6

Updated 17th November 8 of us worked for a total of 36 hours or 4.5 project days. Much wood was cut with chainsaws and processed into logs. Work Scope Site induction and safety talk. Weather permitting a chainsaw gang will start work removing some of the larger material which we were unable to ...


30th October 2013

Firewood from Hedgerows Work Party 5

Update 30th October This event has been postponed until the 10th November due to low numbers and Supervisor unavailability on the wet weather day. Work Scope Site induction and safety talk. Scope to be decided following Work Party 4 Risk Assessment Site Induction ...



20th October 2013

Firewood from Hedgerows Work Party 4

Updated 22th October Weather turned out to be better than expected, only one 20 minute period of rain. Nine people attended and we did a massive amount of scrub clearing in preparation for our next work party on the 28th October. 53 man hours worked = 6.6 project days Work Scope Site ind ...


30th September 2013

Firewood Group Autumn Programme is Starting!

During the summer four of the group have been on a week's chainsaw training and we now have fully qualified tree-felling members in the group. We still have to get the relevant insurance but that will be in place before the start of our first work session this October. This training was paid for in ...


25th September 2013

Cut Heating Bills this Winter – talks by low carbon guru & micro-yacht sailor Mukti Mitchell and draught buster Brian Harper

Was a really good evening, about 30 folk attended including the speakers, all very interested, had a job getting everyone out of the hall by 10pm! The panel discussion worked very well and Kirsty Tooke from DARE complimented the speakers' expertise nicely. We hope to start a thermal imaging surv ...


31st August 2013

Energy Group News

Firewood from Hedgerows Group Update During the summer four of the Firewood Group, Dave Dann, Eddy Kay, John Downes and Pete Mason have been on a week's chainsaw training and we now have fully qualified tree-felling members in the group. We have still to get the relevant insurance but that will be ...



30th July 2013

Chainsaw Training for Firewood Group Members

Four members of the Firewood from Hedgerows Group are being trained and assessed in chainsaw use and maintenance this month. Funding for the training comes mainly from an Awards for All (A4A) grant, but each trainee is also making a contribution towards the cost. Once the chainsaw "tickets" are obt ...


29th July 2013

Government announce Renewable Heat Incentive Details

The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is the government scheme to encourage the shift to low carbon and renewable heat technologies. It commences in spring 2014. The final details of the scheme were announced on the 12th July. "Householders could get paid hundreds of pounds a year for heat generated b ...



27th June 2013

July Energy Group News

How to Monitor the Performance of Your PV System Do you know if your PV system is performing as well as it should? Do you know if your system is performing as well as other local PV systems? Are you interested in comparing the performance of your system with others in the UK. Well it is relati ...


17th June 2013

FRACKtured FUTURE

FRACKtured FUTURE It Doesn't Have to be This Way! Advance Tickets £8 (£10 on the Door) "Are we in danger of condemning our Children to lives of abject misery?" Former oilfield executive Ian R Crane has engaged industry sources and independent researchers to lay the foundations for ...



29th May 2013

Sustainable Crediton Receives £2088 Grant from Awards For All

Sustainable Crediton is delighted to announce that it has received a grant of £2088 from Awards For All for its Firewood from Hedgerows Group. The grant which must be used in the next 12 months is to be used for training group members in traditional Devon hedge-laying techniques, woodland managemen ...



30th April 2013

May Energy Group News

The Green Deal We have put together some information which explains what the Green Deal is all about. Essentially its is a long term loan (10 to 25-years) to undertake specific energy saving measures in home and is repaid through savings in your utility bills. Read much more on our Green Deal webp ...



27th March 2013

April Energy Group News

Sustainable Crediton's Warm Homes Project Extended until end of June Originally due to end 31st March, due to the tight time frames and pressure from the Communities, DECC has extended the project end date to the 30th June. This means we can offer our remaining funds to anyone interested in having ...



5th March 2013

Beyond Oil and Gas: The future for energy

Dirk Campbell, Director of Ovesco, Lewes Community Renewables company, Helen Smith, University of Exeter, researcher on marine and tidal energy. Can we find viable alternatives to fossil fuels, and what role can communities play in achieving this? ...


Logo for Greenpeace
26th February 2013

Ask your MP to support clean electricity and green jobs now.

We have a chance to move away from dirty fossil fuels and set our country firmly on the path to a renewable, booming, low-carbon economy. In writing, by law.

A crucial ingredient of the government's new Energy Bill was supposed to be a legally-binding target for the UK to produce almost zero carbon-polluting electricity by 2030.

This would be a huge win for household bills, our planet and common sense.

Write to your MP today and ask them to show support for clean electricity.

 


25th February 2013

March Energy Group News

Energy Tracers Would you like to have a subsidised draughtproofing survey of your home? If so we require 4 people to put their names forward in the next two weeks. Please contact Charles via the website. The process is explained below. Energy Tracers is a company that does thermal imaging survey ...


23rd February 2013

Woodfuel from Hedgerows Group Work Party 3

12 members worked at the final session of this winter. We cleared 20 more metres of undergrowth and cut down some small trees which were not within the hedge line. This material was processed into logs and kindling. By the end of the session there were 31 wheel barrow loads of wood to be shared. T ...


16th February 2013

Woodfuel from Hedgerows Group Work Party 2

. 8 people attended on a delightful sunny day. 4.5 project days were worked. We performed the work as set out below and produced a large amount of logs. We shared out 7 barrow loads between us. Some images of our day are showing. Work Scope Dave Dann will be leading and the work will involve mor ...



3rd February 2013

Woodfuel from Hedgerows Group Work Party 1

. 9 people attended the work party which was led by Rob and Dave. It was a very productive day with 10 wheelbarrow loads of logs and kindling produced, all the brash produced from the demo event processed into kindling and a large area cleared ready for the next session. A total of 39 manhours (5 ...


Logo for Friends of the Earth
1st February 2013

Demand a clean power future

Floods in Britain. Heatwaves in Australia. Hurricane Sandy in the US. Climate change is happening, and it's proving devastating.

Yet despite all this, George Osborne and his friends in the fossil fuel industry want a dirty new dash for gas. This would break our climate change commitments and lock us into a high-carbon future.

We're demanding a 2030 clean power target in the Energy Bill to create long-term certainty for investors in green industry and jobs.

There is a real chance we could win, and see Britain switch from fossil fuels forever.

How do we know this? Because tens of thousands of Friends of the Earth supporters have already called for clean British energy, creating massive support across businesses, unions and charities.

Now the Bill is in Parliament, it's time to win over MPs.

Your MP is on the Committee that's debating the Energy Bill, right now. Please take this action now to get them backing a 2030 clean power target.


31st January 2013

February Energy Group News

Woodfuel from Hedgerow Group Following our demonstration event in November 2012, we had a very useful initial meeting which 14 people attended on the 5th January. We decided to run some work parties in February on John Quicke's land in Newton St Cyres. These work parties are listed and described i ...




29th December 2012

January Energy Group News

Warm Homes Project On the 3rd December we learned that we had been successful in our application for funds. We were awarded almost £40,000 to be shared between about 25 households who have expressed an interest in the scheme. The funds come in the form of vouchers for specific renewable heat techn ...