Why Ecotricity is not involved in The Green Deal

(Extract from an e-mail sent by Lauren Harding, Home Moves Assistant at Ecotricity)

Ecotricity do not feel we are in a position to participate in the Green Deal given the current design and cost of the scheme. We believe our time and our customers money is better spent “turning bills into windmills” – where profits are used to build new sources of green electricity and gas.

By helping to wean Britain off imported fossil fuels and onto homemade and sustainable sources of green energy – energy will be cheaper for everyone in the long-term.

Don’t energy companies have to participate in the Green Deal?

To ensure small energy companies are able to continue to compete against the Big Six energy companies, the Government have allowed energy companies with less than 250,000 customers to opt-out of the Green Deal because it would involve a huge investment that would be an unfair burden on small independent suppliers.

Does Ecotricity not think that energy efficiency is important?

Being efficient with energy is equally as important as making green energy – they are two sides of the same coin. Ecotricity is in favour of the Green Deal scheme in principle – if it was being done in the right way.

The Government has introduced the Green Deal in a bid to encourage energy efficiency measures to be installed into people’s homes, but Ecotricity believe there are elements of the Green Deal that are not well designed or cost-effective.

What parts of the Green Deal are not cost-effective?

Firstly, a major principle of the Green Deal is the ‘Golden Rule’, whereby any energy efficiency measures that are installed should not cost more than the savings they provide on energy bills.

The problem with the ‘Golden Rule’ is that it’s based on estimates that are prone to big margins of error because of that for a lot of people the ‘Golden Rule’ won’t be upheld.

Secondly, the people providing the energy efficiency measures want interest payments and this just makes it more difficult to deliver the ‘Golden Rule’ (i.e. the energy efficiency measures should not cost more than the savings on energy bills). Worse still, those interest payments are higher than traditional forms of finance – such as bank loans.

When the Green Deal was thought up two years ago, the financing did stack-up. The interest rates available to finance the cost of insulating a house were far more (around 11%), but now you can actually get finance for around 6-8% – which could turn out to be cheaper than using the Green Deal.

What parts of the Green Deal are not well designed?

The middlemen providing the ‘Golden Rule’ estimates are often the same people that are selling the kit – such as insulation. Yet they’ve got no obligation or responsibility long term if the energy efficiency measures installed don’t work to the level promised. This is a recipe for miss-selling.

Yet it is the energy company that takes on the risk of default for Green Deal payments – not the middle-men that organise the energy efficiency measures. So Ecotricity doesn’t make money from the Green Deal yet becomes liable for the debt.

How much would the Green Deal cost Ecotricity?

For a small energy company, like Ecotricity, the administrative cost of implementing the Green Deal would be immense, with the computer systems costing hundreds of thousands of pounds (up to half a million), yet the only return on this investment would be an annual fee of £7.30 per Green Deal customer.

The Green Deal is far more costly and complex to manage than, for instance, the Feed-in-Tariff system for solar panels. Yet the annual fees to administer FiTs (which only just about covers the cost) are four times higher that of the Green Deal.

We believe our time and our customers money is better spent “turning bills into windmills” – where profits are used to build new sources of green electricity and gas.

By helping to wean Britain off imported fossil fuels and onto homemade and sustainable sources of green energy – energy will be cheaper for everyone in the long-term.

Kind Regards,

Lauren Harding
Home Moves Assistant

Telephone: 0845 555 7500
Email: home@ecotricity.co.uk
Website: www.ecotricity.co.uk

 

 

Newport Incineration Project Sinking

 Stop Newport Incinerator Campaign welcome Assembly report 

SNIC welcomed today’s report from the National Assembly for Wales Petitions Committee The report casts serious doubt on the Welsh Government’s decade-long support for waste incineration by raising crucial questions about health risks and recycling.

The report asks the Welsh Government to do its utmost to ensure that the target of 70% recycling by 2025 is met. This means that the burning of recyclable materials is to be minimised not promoted by a new generation of waste incinerators.

Incinerators are by their nature expensive to build and run, and their investment payback period is long. They need to have a high and regular flow of combustible materials such as plastics and biomass to make them work efficiently.

Two further recommendations are to actively support emerging technologies and to undertake a study of health risks from the emissions from incinerators.

Robert Hepworth, Chair of SNIC said, “The Committee have spoken for the people of Wales in questioning incineration on health and recycling grounds. We now call on the Welsh Government to level the playing field for grants so that local authorities can realistically consider alternatives to incineration. We encourage the 5 local authorities involved to insist on a full re-tender. This will save taxpayers wasting huge sums on redundant and unhealthy incineration plants which we could be stuck with for 30 years.”

He added ” the Report is perfectly timed as we see that Wales only existing waste incinerator at Crymlyn Burrows had again been closed this week after breaching its emission limits – how many more reports and practical lessons are needed to make our Government see sense and ban more incineration ?
Pippa Bartolotti, SNIC spokesperson, added: “This is excellent news for our campaign. In the light of the consistent increase in householder recycling, the entire incineration project is looking very shaky indeed – indeed a sinking ship. The clear signal from the Petitions Committee is that incineration is not the way forward for Wales.

“Campaigners across Wales have always argued in favour of alternative technologies to incineration which are commercially available from UK-based manufacturers. Now is the time to investigate these alternatives and give the people of Wales a method of waste disposal which is less harmful to the environment, and properly in tune with a zero waste strategy. The incinerator ship is sinking.”

Campaigners throughout Wales have repeatedly asked for the Welsh Government to conduct further research on health risks, and to update the incineration project’s recycling figures in line with reality.

Veolia are appealing the refusal of planning permission in Newport. Viridor have started work in Cardiff pending the award of contract from the Welsh Government.

 SNIC are in possession of QC advice that re-tendering can take place without financial or legal penalty and the arguments for doing so in the public interest, and as a result of changes in the facts on the ground – notably reduced waste flows, new policy statements from the EU against use of incineration and advances in alternative technology. The new report from WAG is a further incentive to re-tender.

Pippa Bartolotti, SNIC Spokesperson (and Leader of Wales Green Party)

 

Air Quality Management in Swansea

(Statement in response to an item on the agenda for today’s Council Meeting – see details of original question and Cabinet member’s response below)

This response from the Cabinet Member for Place (Councillor June Burtonshaw) is merely a re-statement of the facts.  It contains no good news for the people of Swansea.

By admitting that, “Our Action Plan cannot deliver compliance any more quickly …” Councillor Burtonshaw is confirming that Swansea does not have “an effective scheme of remediation for air quality”.

It’s to be hoped that the bland wording of this statement does not indicate a lack of ambition or willingness to deal with this problem on the part of the council.

Carbon Reduction Committment (CRC) Scheme

Article in today’s Evening Post about local councils contributions to the CRC scheme with a quote from Swansea Green Party at the end: http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Councils-cough-thousands-carbon-tax/story-16719714-detail/story.html

Green Energy for Wales delights Welsh Greens

The Siemens offshore substation, which is the latest milestone for the Welsh offshore wind farm, Gwynt y Mor, arrived by sea from Belfast this week. This month also saw the start of the laying of foundations and subsea cables for the first of the 160 wind turbines, which will make up the 576MW offshore wind farm. When completed, the wind farm will generate green energy for almost a third of the homes in Wales.

Pippa Bartolotti, Leader of the Welsh Greens said, “The announcement from Siemens that the last phase of infrastructure in the Gwynt y Mor offshore wind farm is being put in place, vindicates our long held policy that wind power is a practical solution for much of our energy needs.”

Greenhouse Gas Emmisions and Climate Change

(Letter to the South Wales Evening Post)

C E V Gardener (Have Your Say, Monday 6 August) seeks to turn climate science on it’s head by claiming that reductions in carbon emissions have lead to the recent changes in our weather patterns when in fact the opposite is probably true.

Even a cursory glance at the statistics shows that current levels of “greenhouse gas” emissions are significantly greater than they were in the 1980s and remain historically high.

In their latest annual report on the UK Carbon Footprint (8 March 2012) The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) concludes that whilst our footprint fell by 9 per cent between 2008 and 2009, “this follows a steady rise of 35 per cent between 1995 and 2005, leaving the footprint in 2009 some 20 per cent higher than it was in 1990”.

Despite all the government rhetoric, available evidence shows that the trend will continue upwards until at least 2050 on current plans.  If this pattern is reflected world wide it could lead to a potential increase in global temperatures in excess of 1 degree C in just 30 years, and a projected rise of up to 4 degrees in this century.

The impact of greenhouse gas emissions on global weather patterns is extremely complex and difficult to predict with any accuracy.

However, if the recent changes in the UK weather are related to carbon emissions and rising global temperatures, then this must have resulted from increases rather than reductions.

That being so, C E V Gardener’s plea to “bring back fossil fuels” looks like a recipe for adding fuel to the fire.

Yours,

Keith M Ross, Swansea Green Party

 

Victory for local democracy

Yesterday Swansea Council rejected a planning application to demolish the former Earlsmoor Respite Care Home and build a new 75-bed student dwelling. Local people objected because there was no provision for car parking.

More details in today’s Evening Post (page 18)

The developer claimed that “No resident would be permitted to sign a lease if they have a car”.

Interesting comment from Swansea Council’s legal department that “Anyone not complying with the agreement could then be pursued to court.” Like that policy has worked when it comes to getting HMO landlords to comply with their agreements – Not!