I feel I’m drowning in electrical cost every month.  Do  you feel the same? You can do something about it and you can begin immediately. There are some simple actions that you could start using right now.

You can begin lowering your utility expenses by following these actions below.

Why not start right within the place in your house you are currently in.  Think with regards to just what you can accomplish to lessen your energy use when you leave this room in your home.  Glance around carefully and important things will immediately come to you. When you leave a room you most likely do not even give it a second thought regarding what electricity consumption you have left behind. What occurs right now when you leave a room in order to go to the play room, or go outside into the backyard with the children?  Possibly absolutely nothing leaving lights, TV, radio, all on.  I observe this every day. You most likely simply think, Oh well I will be back again within 15 to 30 minutes so precisely why bother.  Indeed bother, for the reason that every little bit helps.

For illustration, simply by changing out those energy inefficient incandescent light bulbs using brand new  energy efficient CFL light bulbs can help make a difference and this is just a very small investment.

A day does not go by that I see several energy saving devices which if used properly can save you dollars. Of course a few are scams but others are worth your time to research.  You can get some extremely complicated units that actually can control all the energy consumption in your house.  Having said that you will find smaller controls that you can use with your AC and heating systems in which perform a fantastic job of lowering your energy usage.  There quite a bit of great  Green Energy Technology out there, thus utilize it.

A leading contributor to high energy bills is the major use of our appliances. Exactly how you make use of your appliances is actually more critical than how many appliances you have.  Outlined below are a couple of the common home appliances which consume a large amount of energy and what you can do to decrease the consumption.
Give some thought to your daily shower habits. One big waste of electricity and also water is to allow your shower to warm up endlessly prior to getting in. If you are really intending to be energy conscious you must be conscientious concerning getting in and right out of the shower.  Absolutely no day dreaming, get clean and get out.

It is important to consider just what temp you are maintaining your home.  Be a good energy steward whenever making use of your air-conditioning and when heating your house.  Adjusting a rooms temp upward or down 3 to 4 degrees truly is not a major deal because your mind and body will acclimate quickly.  You will probably be extremely amazed about just what a difference this can help make to your monthly utility bill.

Whether you have a big family or not always use the washing machine as well as the dish washer solely when you have a full load of clothes or dishes.  You’ll conserve energy and water.  By doing this you may possibly be able to reduce the number of laundry loads in half for the month and cut running the dish washer by 50% to 60%.

Merely doing the couple of things I have mentioned above will make a substantial difference in your overall utility bill.

In the event that each of us do what we can to lower our energy consumption on a daily basis we can help to make a difference in helping make our environment a far better place.  Start right now to do your part.

The Benefits of Commercial LED Lighting

As companies seek ways of slashing and controlling energy consumption and costs, they are bound to consider the hardware used for lighting the working environment as well.  It is with quite good reasons too, because not only do lights consume lots of energy, they also generate heat, which necessitates the use of cooling systems like air conditioning.

These systems further consume energy and run the bills up further, to a certain degree only because of the lighting.

One very effective means of reducing this cost is by using Commercial LED Lighting (Light-Emitting Diodes) .   This semiconductor light source is one of the very latest in lighting technology and provides a great and efficient alternative to the traditional light sources.  The visual impact of the LED lighting is quite high, and it also last far longer than the traditional lighting sources.

When used in an office space, Commercial LED lights can present tremendous savings in terms of energy consumption.  They have already been used in several typically high energy consuming commercial conditions with tremendous effects, a few of such instances are:

• 75% power savings by LAX Gateway at Los Angeles International Airport, following the installation of a Commercial LED lighting system to replace the traditional metal halide system.
• Elimination of maintenance costs at the British Airways London Eye, after replacement of fluorescent light system with a new LED lighting system.

Apart from the cost saving advantage, LED lights are also very eco-friendly. Additionally, for a company, the following are clear benefits that accrue by virtue of an investment in an LED system:

1. The useful life of LED’s is estimated to be between 35,000 to 50,000 hours. This dwarfs that of fluorescent bulbs at 30,000 hours and incandescent bulbs at 1,000 to 2,000 hours.
2. Damage rate is far less because LEDs are made of solid state components thus largely immune to external shock unlike incandescent and fluorescent bulbs that break on impact.
3. Higher efficiency per watt generated. The lighting effects of the LEDs result in less energy consumption which translates to lower costs.
4. LEDs come in small and manageable sizes and do not have mercury content.

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BP’s Efforts on the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

BP published another press release on Thursday, May 20, 2010 about their continued efforts to contain the oil spill that happened in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP said that they were working with other experts and the government authorities on their subsea efforts. Their main focus has been to intervene via the BOP (blow out preventer) in order to stop the oil from flowing from the well, and to collect its flow from the points where there are leaks.

Their RITT (riser insertion tube tool) containment system has been able to collect 3000 barrels of oil and 14M standard cubic feet of gas a day at the end of the leaking riser. The team continues to collect and store the oil and flare the gas on Discoverer Enterprise, their drillship, 5000 feet above at the surface.

Apart from these attempts, they are preparing for an operation called as “top kill” with which they hope to seal the well. As per their plans, they are hoping to begin this operation in a few days.

For the surface spill, they have employed more than 930 vessels to collect the escaped oil and disperse it. With the help of these efforts, they have skimmed around 7.8 million gallons of oily liquid off the surface.

In order to be able to accurately determine the rate at which oil is flowing from the riser, the US government has put together a team called as the Flow Rate Technical Team (FRTT), which is responsible for developing more precise estimates than the ones available from several parties at the moment. This is because the third parties’ estimates are often based on the dimensions that the riser had before the incident. However, during the incident, the riser structure has gotten altered, due to which those estimates aren’t accurately applicable.

BP has agreed to fully support the FRTT by proving them with whatever information they need to be able to do their job well.

BP has also launched a live feed on their website, www.bp.com, in order to help all readers see their efforts directly on the Internet. So far, this was available only to the government entities including the US Coastguard, the MMS (Minerals Management Service) etc. in addition to the scientists and engineers involved in the attempts to curb the spill.

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UK to Miss its Renewables and Carbon Emissions Reduction Targets for 2020

According to the new report from Cambridge Econometrics the UK will come short to meeting its 2020 renewables and CO2 emissions target. The new coalition Government must act swiftly to deliver new policies that will help the UK achieve the ambitious 34% reduction in green house gases by 2020.

Divided into 3 periods the UK is likely to meet its first carbon budgets up to 2017, but unless the New Coalition Government implement strong policies to promote renewable energy generation and to enhance energy efficiency in Britain, the report warns that based in current trends we will fall short to meet the 15% renewable energy generation and the 34% reduction in Green House Gases emissions (GHG).

“The incoming Government will need urgently not only to set out the details of the ambitious carbon-reduction policies it has inherited, but also move swiftly to their implementation if the UK is to achieve the statutory goal of a 34 % reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020,” said the report’s Co-Editor Paul Ekins.

The report argues that the Government will have to deliver new policies to increase the use of renewable energy to generate and transport fuel if it is to meet the carbon targets.

In 2009 CO2 emissions fell 10% thanks to the economic recession that has reduced industrial output and the switch from coal to more nuclear power, but according to the report it is unlikely to decline as much in 2010 and the following years as the economy start to regain its strength.

The previous Government predicted that to meet the EU renewable energy and CO2 emissions target the UK would need to source at between 30 to 40% of its electricity generation from renewables by 2020. However, the Cambridge Econometrics study predicts that if electricity demand grows at between 0.75% to 1% each year to 2020 and fossil fuel prices remain relatively high, then renewables will account for just 16.5% of the UK’s electricity mix by 2020 – well short of the target of between 30 and 40%.

“If the incoming Government puts in place effective policies that promote the increased use of renewable energy in transport and for heat supply, and if the vehicle fuel efficiency targets in road transport are extended beyond 2015 as currently proposed, it seems quite likely that non-traded sector emissions will move more in line with the carbon-budget target in the third 2018-22 period,” the report concludes.

On the other hand the UK is expected to meet easily its Kyoto protocol target to greenhouse gases emissions. Official figures suggest that in 2008 GHGs were some 19.4% down on the 1990 baseline as a result solely of domestic effort; the decline was 22% with allowance for trading under the EU ETS as permitted under the Kyoto Protocol.

On a net UK carbon account basis, taking into account trading of allowances under the EU ETS, the decline in GHGs between the average for 2008-12 and the 1990 baseline is expected to be around 22¼%.

About Cambridge Econometrics

Cambridge Econometrics is an independent private limited company and is owned by a Charity, the Cambridge Trust for the Promotion of New Thinking in Economics. It has been providing detailed economic and industrial forecasts since 1978. Our company also provides detailed regional and energy forecasts for the UK, and regional forecasts for the European Union. We provide the most detailed long-term economic and industrial forecasts available for the UK. The projections are produced using the ‘Cambridge model’, known as the Multisectoral Dynamic Model of the UK economy (MDM), which was originally developed in the University of Cambridge Department of Applied Economics. This large computerised system has approximately 5,000 endogenous variables and nearly 16,000 behavioural parameters and other coefficients. The model is continually revised and improved to take account of new data and advances in economic theory and econometric techniques

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Four More Arrests Linked to Fraudulent Carbon Trading Scheme

Four more fraudsters were arrested in the early hours of Thursday morning suspected of carbon trading frauds. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) investigators found guns and piles of cash in 7 properties in London and Leicester areas.

The agency confirmed these raids were linked to nine arrests last August in London and Gravessend in Kent.

“All those arrested today and last August are believed to be part of an organised crime group, operating a network of companies trading large volumes of high-value carbon credits.” HMRC said

Chris Martin, an Assistant Director at the HMRC added:

“These arrests are the result of the hard work that our Investigators have carried out during a sustained and complex 15 month operation,”

The fraudsters arrested were committing a well know type of fraud know as “carousel fraud” or “missing trader” fraud which can be committed on any goods such as mobile phones and computer chips imported VAT-free from EU members states. Carbon allowances are particularly susceptible because they are high value intangible and easily traded between different countries.

Back in July 2009 the Treasury removed VAT from carbon credits to try and avoid such frauds on carbon trading, but this is only a short-measure while we wait for an EU common carbon trading policy to tackle fraudsters.

In late April, we reported that UK and German tax officers teamed up in a major cross-border investigation into alleged carbon trading fraud involving fraudsters from Britain, France, Spain, Denmark and Holland which resulted in 22 UK arrests.

Europol, the cross-border police force estimated that criminals mainly from Britain, France, Spain and Holland have pocketed a total of €5bn (£4.5bn) in this fraudulent carbon trading scheme which is variation of the well known “carousel fraud”.

Companies now need permits to emit carbon dioxide as part of the global fight against climate change and polluters are granted a certain number of emissions allowances that can be traded.

“The Government took decisive action to prevent this type of fraud recurring by zero rating carbon credits for VAT,” said Les Beaumont, Deputy Director of Criminal Investigation for HMRC.

Have your say. What measures should be taken to prevent fraudsters from gaming the taxman when trading carbon allowances across European countries?

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The inaugural Energy Lectures were held this week, and everyone who attended appeared to have thoroughly enjoyed the event held at the Lowry Centre in Manchester.

The event was aimed at Financial Directors and energy procurement specialists who operate within the major energy user sections of the UK and the event offered an industry insight into the UK energy market and detailed analysis of what the future issues will be for both commercial gas and business energy.

The event was hosted by Owen Thomas from CNN International and the BBC World Service and featured a plethora of industry speakers from suppliers to consultants and leading government agency’s and advisors.  All of the guest speakers were the foremost authorities in their specialist energy field.

The event included a three course lunch during which attendees had an opportunity to network whilst listening to an additional guest speaker David Strahan, the award-winning investigative journalist and infamous ‘peak oil’ theorist.

The event was a great success, and promises to be one of the most important and relative energy events in the future, and one that will be in every ones calendar for next year.

http://www.theenergylectures.co.uk

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All Energy Show in Aberdeen to Reveal Offshore Valuation Study

In its tenth consecutive year the All Energy show kicks off today in Aberdeen. According to the organisers this year’s show will feature 400 participating companies from the renewable energy sector representing 16 different countries.

Already a reference in the renewables sector the fair will feature a series of sessions about wind power, marine energy innovations and a few others all focused obviously in renewable energy generations. But one session in special is causing a lot of buzz.

For the first time ever a full economic valuation of Britain’s offshore renewable energy resources will be presented by the Offshore Valuation Group, a group of organisations from the public and private sector, chaired be the Public Interest Research Centre.

In short, the report said wind and wave power has the potential to generate the same amount of electricity as is currently achieved by North Sea oil and gas production. By achieving only a third of its full potential 145,000 jobs could be created and by 2050 the UK could export electricity.

Tim Helweg-Larsen, Director of PIRC, said: “To discover that we own a resource with the potential to return the UK to being a net power exporter, and on a sustainable basis, is genuinely exciting, and a wake-up call to those in a position to foster the further development of this industry.”

Such potential associated with Government incentives, private funding, technical expertise and development projects in hand is pushing the Highlands and Island into pole position globally when the subject is green energy generation.

The co-operative Bank, a bank specialised in small to medium renewable projects of up to £25m will use the event to launch a new Scottish renewables team. The Co-operative also announced that it has designated £200m for renewable projects which will be mostly spent in Scotland.

Meanwhile governing bodies are preparing the sector to avoid the same errors committed by the oil and gas industry. Brian Nixon, Chief Executive of Aberdeen based industry forum Decom North Sea wants companies planning to invest in renewable energy operations to present a decommissioning plans to demonstrate how they will fund these projects at the end of their life spans.

“Where the oil and gas industry did not always think ahead and consider what would happen to installations at the end of their lifespan, the people behind the ongoing wind developments can think about how they are getting infrastructure in place and how it will be taken away afterwards.” he said

And added:

“By taking this action, they will ensure future projects are truly sustainable and environmentally appropriate.”

If all the predictions made by the Offshore Valuation Study are met, Britain is on its way towards a low carbon economy not to mention that this is a huge boost towards meeting our Climate Change Bill agreements.

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