New Government Scheme to Aid Small Businesses Become Greener

In a bid to help small and middle sized businesses improve their energy efficiency the Government is preparing a multi-billion pound fund that will help more than 4m businesses across the land to become “greener”.

The main idea behind this scheme is to finance loans to small and middle sized businesses so they can replace energy hungry equipment with more energy efficient ones improving their overall business energy efficiency. The loans will then be repaid from the savings made in their energy bills.

Entitled “The Green Deal for Business” the scheme is a joint venture between the private and public sector. White hall representatives are discussing with high street banks and business energy providers such as British Gas how to generate the funds and administer it.

Kanat Emiroglu, managing director of British Gas Business (BGB), said: “We are talking to the Government about its energy efficiency scheme for SMEs [small or medium-sized enterprises]. They are very receptive about it.  I am hoping it will be introduced in a way that’s not bureaucratic.”

And concluded:

“There should be something in the Queen’s Speech in November, in the Energy Bill.”

The installation of modern and more energy efficient plant machinery has been proven to generate great savings and it is with this data that the Government plans to form the basis of a loan programme.

“Lenders need confidence that they would be repaid and data from businesses that already use energy efficient equipments provide such confidence” – stated Catalyst’s Energy Broker Chris Hurcombe.

Initial plans are to provide £94bn to British businesses by next February under legally binding agreements. In order to achieve such figures the Government is negotiating the involvement of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group.

British Gas is so confident that the scheme will work that it is prepared to put £20m up front. Mr Emiroglu said British Gas was examining how to isolate the energy savings accrued by a piece of equipment to take into account the fact that energy consumption may rise or fall for other business reasons.

On the other hand he noted that Existing government-funded initiatives, such as the Carbon Trust’s interest-free loans to small businesses, had not worked.

“The Carbon Trust has only touched a tiny percentage of SMEs. I would guess its less than 1%,”

According to British Gas Business thousands of companies face fines totalling up to £15m for failing to register their energy use with the Environment Agency.

To sum things up we leave you a reminder that if your company uses more than £500,000 of electricity a year it has to sign up to the Carbon Reduction Commitment by September 30^th 2010.

We want to hear from you now. What do you have to say about the Government’s new scheme “The Green Deal for Business” ? Will it be suitable for your business?

Or if you would like more information on our range of energy broker services or would like to find out how this could benefit your business, simply call our energy team today on 0870 710 7560 or request a call back at time to suit.

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Carbon Management equals Commercial Opportunity

Carbon management becomes strategic business priority for the world’s largest global corporations says the 2010 Carbon Disclosure Project’s 2010 Global 500 report

The Climate Week NYºC 2010 started on Monday and activities will go on till Sunday the 26th of September. During the whole week business leaders, government officials and NOG’s representatives from around the world will discuss key issues and explore solutions to ensure a cleaner, greener and more prosperous future for us all.

This year’s central theme is “Climate Innovation = Commercial Opportunity”. Celebrations started with an opening ceremony at the New York Public Library that drew about 300 people.  But the very first forum was held at the Bank of America headquarters where the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) announced the 2010 Global 500 report.

The CDP’s Global 500 report ranks companies according to their carbon reduction commitments on a 100-point scale. It analyses how each organisation is measuring and managing its carbon emissions, how it discloses information to stakeholders and above all what they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint.

Among the five corporations scoring highest in the Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) latest rankings released today, are Siemens, Deutsche Post, BASF, Bayer and Samsung Electronics. Highlights to Germany’s Siemens who scored the highest this year, achieving a near-perfect 98 out of 100.

The CDP’s 2010 Global 500 report and new Carbon Reporting Leadership Index (CPLI) key findings were:

• 85% of the carbon performance leaders surveyed reported have board or senior executive level responsibility for climate change
• 48% are now embedding climate change initiatives into the overall business strategy and across the organization
• 9 out of 10 companies surveyed identified significant commercial opportunity arising from climate change, separating the companies driven by risk factors, from those that are identifying and seizing competitive advantages and cost-benefits
• 65% of Global 500 respondents are implementing emissions reduction targets. However, only 19% of the Global 500 companies are showing significant emissions reductions
• North America significantly lags Europe in disclosure and performance: 21% of European respondents are in the CPLI, compared to 6% of North American respondents
• Leading companies see two main areas of focus for action: the energy efficiency of operations, likely encouraged by cost savings potential, and the development of innovative products and services that enable customers to cut their emissions

“Fuelled by opportunities to reduce energy costs, secure energy supply, protect the business from climate change risk and reputational damage, generate revenue and remain competitive, carbon management continues to rise as a strategic priority for many businesses. Companies globally are seizing commercial carbon opportunities, often acting ahead of any policy requirements. More companies than ever before are reporting through CDP and measuring and reporting their emissions, which is the first building block in working towards a low-carbon economy” aid Paul Dickson CEO of the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Dickson also noted that despite the failure of the world’s political leaders to come up with a new climate change agreement, the private sector is embracing the need for carbon emissions reductions. He went on to say “heavy disappointment at the failure to reach agreement on a global deal at Copenhagen and smears against climate change science.”

About the Carbon Disclosure Project

The Carbon Disclosure Project was launched over a decade ago at No. 10 Downing Street in London, when the residence was occupied by Prime Minister Tony Blair. This independent not-for-profit organization holds the largest database of primary corporate climate change information in the world.

If you would like more information on our range of energy broker services or would like to find out how this could benefit your business, simply call our energy team today on 0870 710 7560 or request a call back at time to suit.

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American institute of physics indicates us more productive Selenium solar cells

Did you know that many scientists would like to discover light-catching elements in order to convert more of the sun’s energy into carbon-free electrical energy?

Selenium Solar Cells - The Future of Solar Power

A new analysis announced in the magazine Applied Physics Letters in August 2010 (published by the American Institute of Physics), describes how solar power could potentially be harvested by using oxide materials that include the element selenium. A team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, embedded selenium in zinc oxide, a relatively cheap material that could make more successful use of the sun’s power.

The team identified that even a relatively small level of selenium, just 9 % of the mostly zinc-oxide base, dramatically enhanced the material’s productivity in absorbing light.

The primary author of this analysis, Marie Mayer (a 4th-year University of California, Berkeley doctoral student) suggests that photo-electrochemical water splitting, that signifies using energy from the sun to cleave water into hydrogen and oxygen gases, could probably be the most interesting future application for her efforts. Using this reaction is key to the eventual production of zero-emission hydrogen powered automobiles, which hypothetically will run only on water and sunlight.

Journal Reference: Marie A. Mayer et all. Applied Physics Letters, 2010

The conversion performance of a PV cell is the proportion of sunlight energy that the photo voltaic cell converts to electrical power. This is very important when discussing Photo voltaic devices, because improving this efficiency is vital to making Photovoltaic electricity competitive with more classic sources of energy (e.g., non-renewable fuels).

For comparison, the 1st Photo voltaic units converted about 1%-2% of sunlight power into electric energy. Today’s Photo voltaic units convert 7%-17% of light energy into electrical power. Of course, the other side of the equation is the dollars it costs to produce the PV devices. This has been improved over the decades as well. In fact, today’s PV systems make electricity at a fraction of the cost of early PV systems.

In the 1990s, when silicon cells were two times as thick, efficiencies were much smaller than today and lifetimes were shorter, it may well have cost more energy to produce a cell than it could generate in a lifetime. In the meantime, the technological innovation has developed substantially, and the energy payback time (defined as the recovery time necessary for generating the energy spent to produce the respective technical energy systems) of a modern photovoltaic module is commonly from 1 to 4 years depending on the module type and location.

Commonly, thin-film technologies – despite having comparatively low conversion efficiencies – obtain significantly shorter energy repayment times than conventional systems (often < 1 year). With a typical lifetime of 20 to 30 years, this means that current solar cells are net energy producers, i.e. they produce significantly more energy over their lifetime than the energy expended in producing them.

About the author and guest blogger – Rosalind Sanders publishes articles for the swiming pool solar covers blog, her personal hobby website based on tips to help home owners to spend less energy with solar power.

If you would like more information on our range of energy broker services or would like to find out how this could benefit your business, simply call our energy team today on 0870 710 7560 or request a call back at time to suit.

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Would we all use less energy if this headline was true?

Are you constantly thinking about the rising energy prices and wondering if there will ever be an end to it? You have many reasons to be concerned about, as prices are increasing at an alarming rate. If energy prices increase, let’s look at some of the other commodities that would reflect an increase in their prices as well.

1) Transportation

Who can live without convenient means of transportation today? However, this excellent infrastructure and support system for our society that we take for granted every day, runs on enormous amounts of energy. Imagine those costs doubling up in the next few years. Trains, taxis, planes will all see a massive reduction in their capacity as they will be too expensive to run and maintain.

2)  Electronic Gadgets

If equipment like computers, laptops, PDAs, etc are priced twice as expensively as they currently are, you are in for some tough challenges. Running your business without using these commodities today is almost impossible, therefore, if such a situation did occur, you would have to reduce the amount of electronic devices that you use, and perhaps install systems where more than one person could operate at the same time. Alternatively, you would have to transfer your increased costs to your clients, which could also mean you will remain with only those clients who are willing to pay extra for your products or services.

3) Internet and mobile expenses

People all over the world are connected with one another through the Internet and mobile phone. In fact, even telephony communication in many corporations today happens through VoIP, which cannot function without the Internet. If the prices of these items are doubled, it would also mean a further reduction in your profits due to increased expenses.

This list could go on for a number of pages.  Sounds terrifying, doesn’t it? Therefore, rather than being forced to use less energy when the prices double, why not do it today by optimising your energy consumption and possibly delay or even avoid the impending crisis? Even if an energy crisis was not imminent, it makes good business sense to reduce expenses as much as possible without hurting productivity.

We have reached the end of this article, however we would love to hear your thoughts on this.   Head over to our Twitter account or Facebook Page and leave your questions there, or if you prefer you can use our comments section below.

If you would like more information on our range of energy broker services or would like to find out how this could benefit your business, simply call our energy team today on 0870 710 7560 or request a call back at time to suit.

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Britain’s most environmentally concerned companies

Being an environmentally aware company it is not only about using renewable resources and recycling an environmentally engaged workforce, it is also essential for a company to label itself eco-friendly. With that mindset the Sunday Times has created the Best Green Companies award which is now in its third year.

The awards were created to identify and celebrate the achievements of British businesses that are eager to improve their environmental performance. There are many green awards nowadays but the Best Green Companies awards is unique because it uses a robust methodology to measure and determine each company’s environmental performance.

This year’s winners were announced on the 26th of May at a ceremony held at Kensington Roof Gardens. The overall winner was office supplies company UKOS, having finished in 22^nd place in the 2009 awards; the idea of sending goods in reusable containers that fold flat, received the highest overall green positive score from employees and granted UKOS the title of Britain’s Greenest Company.

Below you will find the top 10 winners of this year’s awards. Registration for the 2011 awards will open in October and it can only be done via the website: www.bestgreencompanies.co.uk

Each of these companies have developed an environmentally friendly process that have low, medium and high impacts on the environment.

It is worth noting that any UK based business can enter the awards by simply registering at www.bestgreencompanies.co.uk/registration.asp, costs vary according to the size of your business and are charged as follow:

If you would like more information on our range of energy broker services or would like to find out how we could benefit your business, simply call our energy team today on 0870 710 7560 or request a call back at time to suit.

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5 Innovative and Cost Effective Renewable Energy Resources

Nikola Tesla is known by many as the father of commercial electricity, without his breakthrough in the field of electromagnetism and patents as well as his theoretical work served as the basis for modern alternating current (AC) electric power systems, including the polyphase system of electrical distribution and the AC motor.

Since Tesla, countless inventors have developed technologies that influenced and changed the way we use and generate electricity. Nowadays the quest is to find ways to generate electricity from renewable energy resources to reduce the Earth’s carbon footprint easing the impacts of Global Warming.

Every now and then we bring to our readers some of these renewable energy resources projects and concepts. Today we have compiled a list with those that we think are the most innovative, efficient and most importantly cost-effective renewable energy generation projects to date.

Thorium

Thorium is abundant and clean enough to supply global energy demand for centuries.  According to experts there is more energy available from thorium than all coal, gas, oil and uranium combined.

Considered by many as the future of nuclear energy generation, Thorium operates significantly cleaner than uranium-based power plants as the waste products are much easier to handle. A ton of Thorium produces the same energy as 200 tons of uranium, or 3.5 million tons of coal.

To learn more about Thorium read: Is Fossil Fuel Dependence Over? or visit the International Thorium Energy Organisation (IThEO) at www.itheo.org/.

OTEC – Ocean Thermal Energy Conservation

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) uses the temperature difference that exists between deep and shallow waters to run a heat engine. As with any heat engine, the greatest efficiency and power is produced with the largest temperature difference and up until now this was the biggest challenge for OTEC. But recent developments in efficiency of heat exchange assisted by modern designs performance can reach theoretical maximum efficiency making OTEC a viable and efficient renewable energy resource.

A single 100 Mw floating plant can generate 800 million Kw of electrical energy, without the need of oil, gas or any other fossil fuel. OTEC only needs the temperature difference between the oceans hot surface water and cold deep water.

Wind Power

Needless of detailed information and one of the biggest bets of the Coalition Government to help Britain meet its Climate Change Bill Agreements and prevent us from a possible energy crisis in the near future. Wind Power is one the cleanest but not so cost effective renewable energy generation resources there is.

Despite accounting only for 2% of global energy generation, wind power electricity generation is growing rapidly and it has doubled over the past three years and in countries like Denmark it already accounts for 20% of stationary electricity production.

Solar Energy

Another renewable energy generation resource that doesn’t need detailed explanation. Solar energy generation is another clean and abundant renewable energy resource. Up until now the biggest challenges faced by solar energy has been the cost and efficiency of solar panels and solar cells.

The ultimate challenge is to make solar panels convert the maximum energy from the sun into electricity. Actually only about 31% of solar energy is converted into electricity. The rest of the energy is not able to be harnessed as it becomes heat – as ‘hot electrons’ – which is lost very quickly because electrons cool down very fast. Capturing almost all solar energy and converting to electricity is the goal of the ‘ultimate solar cell’.

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy uses heat stored in the earth to generate electricity. This energy is originated from the radioactive decay of minerals, from volcanic activity and solar energy absorbed at the Earth’s surface. Up until now geothermal energy generation was limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries.

Technological advancements in the field have expanded the range and size of viable geothermal resources. The only downside is that geothermal wells release greenhouse gases trapped within the earth surface and wells can run dry or lose steam. For more information on Geothermal Energy read: Geothermal Power

We want to hear it from you now. Are renewables the solution to solve or at least reduce Global Warming effects? Is the Coalition Government right to back renewable energy generation against other “antiquated” energy generation methods?

Join the discussion in our comments section below!

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Our monthly analysis of the UK gas and power markets is now available on line for the month of September 2010. The service is intended to keep you up to date with all the major news in Europe’s gas and power markets. It is also designed to keep power executives focused on market activity in an easy to digest format.

Your find our September 2010 report here and all historical energy reports can be located here.

If you would like more information on our services or would like to find out how this could benefit your business, simply call our energy team today on 0870 710 7560 or request a call back at time to suit.

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