Greenpoint joins Grayling

Posted on March 2, 2013 by msaxton1

We are delighted to announce that we have joined Grayling with immediate effect. With our integration into Grayling, we are expanding and strengthening the group’s award winning sustainability practice, Future Planet, with our proven expertise in cleantech. As one team with unrivalled national and international resources, we are well-placed to realise the ambitions of cleantech and sustainability clients.

Grayling Future Planet has been recognised as a leader in the sustainability field, winning more than 20 national and international awards over the past five years, including Business Green Leaders Green PR Company of the Year 2012. Future Planet acts as the official communications partner of 2degrees, the global online community for sustainable business, and currently chairs the PRCA CSR and Sustainability working group.

Alison Clarke, CEO UK & Ireland, Grayling said: “Grayling Future Planet has a strong track record in advising global FMCG companies and the automotive sector on sustainability strategy. The expansion of the team through Greenpoint means we have an immediate footprint in clean-tech, a fast-growing area of sustainability.”

To find out more about Grayling Future Planet, why not visit the website or better still give Michael Saxton a call on +44 (0)20 7592 7933.

Please update your contacts with our new email addresses and phone numbers, as our details will change from 1 March 2013.

Green light for Green Deal

Posted on January 28, 2013 by msaxton1

Today marks the date that finance packages come into play that will enable work to start on accredited Green Deal schemes.

The Green Deal means home owners and tenants (with their landlord’s agreement) can make their properties more energy efficient without paying up-front. The repayments come off the electricity bill. The so-called ‘Golden Rule’ of the scheme is that the loan repayments made by the property owner must be less than, or equal to, the savings on their energy bill. There are 45 different home improvements for installation available under the deal. These range from loft and cavity wall insulation to draught-proofing, secondary glazing and heating controls.

In an uninsulated home a quarter of heat is lost through the roof according to The Energy Saving Trust. As loft insulation is effective for at least 40 years, it should be the first thing that people address to become more energy efficient.

So how does the scheme work?

The first step is to request a home visit from a Green Deal assessor, who will identify any improvements that are suitable and would pay for themselves. Some assessors may charge for the assessment. Homeowners/tenants can then go to as many providers as they like for quotes. The Green Deal assessor is likely to quote, but as with most things, it is likely to pay to shop around. To find approved assessors and providers visit www.greendealorb.co.uk/consumersearch The Energy Saving Trust can also help in England, Wales and Scotland (the Green Deal only applies to these three parts of the UK for now).

The question that worries everyone is ‘will the savings made be greater than the cost of the work?’ The scheme works like this: Green Deal repayments must be pre-agreed, based on the assessor’s estimate of your future cost savings. So the actual savings will depend on how much energy you use and how fuel prices change. The property owner/tenant can do a lot to control the former, especially if they use a smart meter with an energy monitor. However, there is nothing they can do about the latter. Therefore, there is a risk that repayments will end up costing more than any savings.

There is one further thing that will worry property owners: The Green Deal commitment stays with the home and passes on to the new owner. This could restrict saleability as potential buyers might not understand or welcome an extra debt. And if the buyer does not feel comfortable taking over the Green Deal loan then the owner may be forced to repay the Green Deal off early. Should this arise, the Green Deal provider is allowed to charge a fee for early repayment if they want. This is because under the regulations for the Green Deal the provider is entitled to claim for the interest that would have been paid by the homeowner should the Green Deal have run its course. According to Which? magazine this early repayment fee could be substantial.

It’s hard to imagine that any homeowner is against making their property more energy-efficient. And purchasers should take comfort that the property is energy-efficient. Clearly, they would want to see evidence of the work that had taken place and that any measures were resulting in cheaper bills. There’s also ample protection available to buyers and sellers around Green Deal installations. Government regulations mean that measures carried out under the Green Deal are guaranteed for a minimum of five years.

One final thought from us: it is worth remembering that the Green Deal it is not the only way to pay for energy-efficient installations – increasing your mortgage is an option. And savvy property owners will be able to weigh up the options soon enough when the Green Deal interest rates and terms are known.

Cleantech East Africa

Posted on November 10, 2012 by msaxton1

East Africa is shaping up to be one of the emerging markets for cleantech. Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda possess significant renewable energy resources that span small hydro, solar and wind to geothermal and biomass.

Take Kenya. It is looking to raise its 1.3GW of clean energy capacity to 18GW by 2030. The nation already has Africa’s largest wind farm with the 300MW Lake Turkana project. This is due to be completed in 2014, and has an estimated geothermal capacity between 7,000MWe and 10,000MWe concentrated in the Rift Valley.

Ethiopia is thought to have 45,000MW hydroelectricity capacity, more than 10,000MW of wind and 5,000MW geothermal. However, to date it has tapped just over 2,000MW of green energy. The Ethiopian government has a five-year plan in place to change that, with the goal of increasing the current power generation capacity to 10,000MW by 2015.

In Tanzania, the Tanzania Domestic Biogas Programme (TDBP) is providing finance assistance to low-income farmers who wish to electrify their homes and have the capacity to support a biogas plant. Through an anaerobic process, cow manure and urine are stored in an underground digester and separated into methane gas and fertile slurry. The gas can be used to produce a small amount of electricity for stove cooking. The slurry can then be used as a fertilizer for the farms. The gas stoves also significantly reduce the harmful smoke inhaled b while preparing and cooking food. TDBP has been highly successful to date and expects to install 12,000 plants by 2013.

However, financing cleantech remains a barrier to deployment in the East African region where the majority of the populations do not have access to electricity. Understanding what type of Grid-connected and off-grid solutions can be deployed will be vital to bring power to rural regions. Ultimately, supplying sustainable energy is a crucial challenge in the economic development of this resource-rich region.

There are signs that investors are taking the region seriously.

In June 2012, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation announced the launch of the U.S. – Africa Clean Energy Initiative (US-ACE) in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. The Initiative consists of $20 million in available funding for environmental impact assessments, finalisation of power purchase agreements (PPA), preparation of feasibility studies and other project development. OPIC identified a number of key factors for attracting investment. These included establishing a renewable energy framework, a creditworthy offtaker with a strong PPA, and a stable regulatory, political and economic environment.

The World Bank offers another route via its Clean Technology Funds. They have a total envelope of $4.5 billion. To date, these funds have been used to leverage over $37 billion of additional investment for projects such as energy efficiency programmes and the creation of renewable energy installations.

The UK government too is exploring the potential. Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker recently took a delegation of cleantech companies and investors on a whistle stop tour of the region with a view to expanding trade links between the UK and East African countries.

Cleantech USA

Posted on November 5, 2012 by msaxton1

West Coast cities are at the forefront of the cleantech sector according to a new report that brings together nearly two dozen metrics such as hybrid electric vehicles, certified green buildings and cleantech venture capital investments.

Devised by Clean Edge, the US Metro Cleantech Index provides a comprehensive and objective analysis of how the fifty largest metropolitan regions compare across the cleantech spectrum.

“West Coast metro regions, which have been at the forefront of regional cleantech efforts and have strong state support, dominate the inaugural U.S. Metro Clean Tech Index,” said Clean Edge Managing Director Ron Pernick. “But other regions show significant strengths and assets, from Chicago and Washington D.C. to Austin and Salt Lake City, representing the diversity of clean-tech leadership and activities across the nation.”

Six of the top seven metro regions in cleantech are on the west coast. The top 10 are:

San Jose, California
San Francisco, California
Portland, Oregon
Sacramento, California
Seattle, Washington
Denver, Colorado
Los Angeles, California
Washington, DC
Boston, Massachusetts
Austin, Texas

Other headlines from the report include:

Portland, Oregon has more LEED-certified green-building projects per capita than any other metro region, but Las Vegas earns the green-building crown for total LEED square footage per capita.
The top metro regions with the largest share of electric vehicles on the road are all in California – San Francisco/San Jose, Los Angeles/Riverside, Sacramento and San Diego.
Raleigh, North Carolina has the lowest carbon emissions (metric tons per capita) from large facilities.
Boston, San Jose and Salt Lake City lead the nation with the most licensable clean technologies coming out of their university labs, per capita.
Just four metro regions have the presence of a Department of Energy lab, a Clean Energy Alliance Incubator and a top-ranked green MBA program: Chicago, Denver, New York and San Jose.

The US Metro Cleantech Index is primarily aimed at providing cleantech data and insights for local policymakers, economic development agencies, service firms, nonprofits, foundations and corporations.

In devising the report, quantitative indicators were levelised to account for population size/activity and included a broad range of benchmarks. These ranged from green building deployment, clean vehicles in use, advanced transportation infrastructure and public transportation ridership to regional electricity mix, GHG emissions, venture capital investment, clean energy patents and clean economy jobs.

Sustainability adds up

Posted on October 30, 2012 by msaxton1

Financial reporting and tax are pushing sustainability issues up the corporate agenda according to a survey by Deloitte among CFOs. And an increasing number of CFOs are becoming involved in sustainability as it adds up to a competitive advantage.

The Deloitte survey Sustainability: CFOs come to the table reveals an increased involvement by CFOs in sustainability. Two thirds of CFOs say they are involved in driving sustainability strategies in their organisations, and more than half say their involvement has increased over the last year. The findings suggest that more CFOs are engaging with sustainability to support their business goals, and operationalising sustainability to gain a competitive advantage.

Sustainability seems to be becoming increasingly operationalised, with the percentage of CFOs and COOs accountable to their company’s boards for sustainability issues nearly doubling from 20 percent to 36 percent in the past year. As such, CFOs have become focused on a number of sustainable operating practices:

Increased focus on sustainability in tax and financial reporting: As integrated reporting gains momentum, along with a growing number of green credits and incentive measures, CFOs placed greater importance on sustainability aspects of reporting. The majority of CFOs reported a meaningful impact from sustainability concerns on both financial reporting—74 percent—and tax matters—54 percent.

Increased investment in technology: To further reduce the footprint of company travel and energy use from data centers, CFOs plan to invest in three specific areas: video conferencing (56 percent), data center efficiency equipment (52 percent) and electric vehicles (35 percent).

Respondents cited plans to invest in three specific areas in order to reduce their company’s environmental impact: 56 per cent stated plans to use video conferencing and more than half stated plans to look at data centre efficiency. More than a third said they planned to invest in electric vehicles.

The survey took in 250 CFOs in 14 countries across five continents.

Read about Deloitte’s Business Simulation Game by clicking here.

Powering the UK

Posted on October 29, 2012 by msaxton1

A new report by Energy UK points to concern among investors about supporting renewable energy projects in the UK.

According to a survey conducted for the report, Britain has slipped down the global rankings of attractiveness for investors as a result of this policy uncertainty. In 2010, investors scored the UK 3.5 out of 5, but in its latest survey give Britain a score of 2.8.

Projects to build new power plants, marine energy parks and wind farms are stalling or in some cases have been abandoned because developers do not know whether they will be profitable.

The energy sector is vital to the UK. Energy companies’ investment is at a 20-year high. £43 billion has been invested in new power plants, electricity and gas networks over the past four years — more than any other sector.

Direct employment has increased with it, from 83,000 in 2008 to 137,000 last year. A further 654,500 jobs are reliant on the sector.

Investors’ appetites have weakened due to the recession, which has reduced electricity demand as well as created problems in obtaining finance, and a perception that the government has dithered over planned reforms to the electricity market. Therefore, all eyes will be turning to the Energy Bill, which is scheduled for publication next month. It’s been two years in development and for many in industry it cannot come a moment too soon.

In May, Siemens warned the Government that it would not build a planned £80 million factory in Hull if ministers reneged on commitments to offshore wind subsidies.

This summer carmakers urged the Prime Minister to get on with the energy reforms because they need clarity about future energy costs. And the CBI has said that Britain’s growing exports of green goods and services could halve the trade deficit by 2015, but not if the Government keeps sending mixed messages that are frustrating power and engineering companies.

Clearly, it must be hoped that the Energy Bill will improve revenue certainty in low carbon generation, making it easier and cheaper to secure finance.

More information on Energy UK’s Powering the UK survey is available by clicking here.

Solar’s ‘Space Race’

Posted on October 1, 2012 by msaxton1

The US Energy Department has launched the SunShot competition to make it faster, easier and cheaper to install rooftop solar energy systems.

At the heart of SunShot, which is inspired by JFK’s Moon Shot programme that put the first man on the moon, is the bold ambition to make solar energy competitive with other forms of energy without subsidy by the end of this decade.

The US Energy Department is making $10 million in cash awards available to the first three teams that repeatedly demonstrate the non-hardware costs, or price to plug in, can be as low as $1 per watt (W) for small-scale photovoltaic systems on US homes and businesses.

During the first phase of the competition, winning teams will successfully deploy 5,000 small-scale (2–15 kW) rooftop photovoltaic systems with non-hardware costs averaging $1/W. Phase two, which is intended to assess the business sustainability of the winning teams, calls for the installation of an additional 1,000 qualifying systems. The competition will run through 2015.

The first-place winner will receive $7 million, second place will receive $2 million, and third place will receive $1 million for successfully achieving these goals.

It will be fascinating to see if the SunShot Initiative can create a new momentum for the solar industry by highlighting the need for American competitiveness in the clean energy race. Perhaps it could become a blueprint for European nations like the UK.

Certainly, the US Energy Department is not lacking in confidence.

“This race to the rooftops is designed to inspire innovative teams including installers, local governments, and utilities to make solar energy systems more affordable,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “This aggressive target is an important step that will help bring us significantly closer to reaching the SunShot goal of cost-competitive solar energy by the end of the decade.”

Mapping US Renewables

Posted on September 30, 2012 by msaxton1

A new website reveals which US States have the most renewables in play. Click on the image below and discover the investments made in solar, biomass and wind. The data was compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Lighting up an Icon

Posted on September 9, 2012 by msaxton1

The image of an illuminated Tower Bridge typified the confidence of London’s hosting of the Games. The LED lighting system that was retrofitted to the stone-clad exterior will light up the bridge for future celebrations and according to GE and EDF (which delivered the project for the Mayor), it will cut energy consumption by 40 per cent.

The technical achievements of the system are worth laying out in detail:

Window frames on all sides of the stonework are uplit with 4W LED projectors and Linear RGB projectors.
Lower corners of the towers are lit by inground 200W RGB projectors.
The tower roof sections are lit by 90W, 6000k projectors.
2km of LED lighting is installed across the stone and metal work of the bridge, which was moulded to fit the shape of the architectural features.
Abseilers have spent 4,000 hours above the Thames fitting the new energy efficient lights.
In total 1,800 special energy-efficient LED lights have been fitted, along with 2,000 metres of energy-efficient LED linear lights, 5,000 metres of cable and 1,000 junction boxes.

The cumulative impact of these new features delivers a 40% reduction in lighting use compared to the old system.

Mark Boleat, spokesman for the City of London Corporation, which is responsible for maintaining the bridge, said: “The new lights will give Tower Bridge an elegant night-time look for the next 25 years, with the capability of creating firework-like displays on occasions of importance for London and the nation.”

Five cleantechs to watch

Posted on June 28, 2012 by msaxton1

Sustainabilitylive offered the perfect platform for established players to start-ups in the sustainability and cleantech spaces to pitch their products. From the several hundred exhibiting and participating in the conference, we have selected five to watch:

Who says you can’t be clean and green in the automotive sector and deliver power? Not Aeristech, which has developed an engine turbocharging technology that reduces carbon emissions, enables engine downsizing and improves driving performance whilst managing cost and weight. If all of this sounds too good to be true, believe the hype: Aeristech’s motor generator is already being considered for Formula 1 cars for the 2014 season. There are also projects in development for mainstream motor vehicle applications, including a main drive electric motor which requires 20% fewer rare earths, a micro gas turbine range extender, which delivers power generation for EVs, as well as a hydrogen fuel cell air compressor.

Like our client Xeros, Aeristech has also been feted by the Clean and Cool Mission 2012 which selected Aeristech as one of its Mission companies. The Mission aims to facilitate dynamic UK talent in the influential U.S. market. Only sixteen firms make the cut. They must demonstrate the “potential to become future UK leaders of a low carbon economy,” through high growth potential and ground-breaking products tackling Earth’s environmental challenges. With an impeccable board of directors and a game changing technology to cut carbon dioxide emissions and improve performance, Aeristech looks set to race ahead. www.aeristech.co.uk

Voltage optimisation technology is one of the viable ways to reduce energy costs and cut carbon emissions and the biggest brand in the sector is powerPerfector. It introduced the concept to the UK from Japan, which at the time was facing the soaring energy bills that are now familiar here.

Although voltage optimisation is an easily understood concept and demand for the technology is high due to the price of energy and legislation requirements, companies in the sector struggle to stand out.

Step forward PowerSines, which differentiates by the ability to control and optimise voltage proactively and measure savings in real time. All of its systems are designed with a topology of transformers and switchgear (known as RIGHTvoltage) that enable controlling the output voltage with small steps. Unlike systems based on step-down autotransformers, PowerSines devices use its INV technology to control and transform only a part of the voltage that should be reduced from the mains.

The firm, which is Israeli and backed investment capital from Arison Investments, is intent on shaking up the UK market. Its marketing is every bit as slick as powerPerfector and its blog, cheeky and irreverent and informative in equal measures, is well worth a read! www.powersines.com

Brother and sister team of Sir Brian Souter and Ann Gloag have made Stagecoach one of the most successful companies in the UK. They’ve been quick to embrace clean technology in running the transport business and applied the same level of innovative thinking to set up Argent Energy.

Argent Energy produces biodiesel from tallow and used cooking oil by-products. A plant was established back in 2005 with a £17 million grant. In 2009, a further £1.8million was invested, supported by a grant from the Scottish Government, to build a pre-processing facility. This allows Argent Energy to remove impurities from raw materials ready for the chemical biodiesel production process. It means that Argent Energy can use more locally produced tallow as well as used cooking oil. In taking the problem and converting it to energy, the region’s catering and hospitality sectors as well as the Scottish red meat sector have every reason to get on board the Souter family’s waste-to-energy venture. www.argentenergy.com/about/

Ferrets are well known for getting down holes and Ferret Technology chose its name well: the water industry in England and Wales loses 3.36 billion litres of water a day in leaks and Ferret Technology aims to ferret out the problem.

Detecting leaks on small-bore service pipelines is time consuming, costly and disruptive. Leaks are often small, rarely visible on the surface and make little or no noise. Identifying the exact location of leaks often requires expensive exploratory work to expose or re-lay sections of pipework.

The Ferret patented technology provides a fast and accurate method for finding even the smallest leaks, on pipelines made of plastic, copper and lead. The system is designed for pipework in the 10mm-50mm internal diameter (ID) range.

The system comprises of a loose fitting plug (the Head) that is introduced into the pipeline via an existing access point such as a meter or valve pit, or directly into the exposed pipeline.

The Head is inflated with mains water pressure to block the pipeline. A separate stream of mains water (the Drive) is introduced behind the Head. The Head and Drive pressures are manipulated using the Ferret. Once the pressures are balanced the Head will move along the pipeline. When the Head passes a leak it stops automatically. The water loss through the leak is recorded by a flow sensor in the Ferret system, providing instantaneous quantification of the leak size.

A flexible umbilical cord attached to the Head contains a trace wire that allows the depth and position of the buried pipeline to be traced and the exact position of the Head / leak to be located accurately. The leak location process can be repeated to find any number of leaks in a pipeline. Up to fifty meters of pipeline can be surveyed from a single access point. www.ferret-technology.com

Extreme Mobile Information Gathering System – aka E-MIGs – is a start-up that’s looking to transform external asset inspections by putting GPS spies in the sky. The product lives up to its acronym: E-MIGS look like fierce radio-controlled toys for big boys and though they could be used for recreation the camera and GPS equipment they carry are designed for serious applications, such as asset geomapping, linear asset surveys and aerial leak detection, as well as internal inspections of reservoirs, sewers and other confined spaces. In fact, the applications could be much wider. E-MIGS could be used in disaster relief and humanitarian aid situations, to monitor biodiversity and environmental concerns, as well as provide manifold benefits in building and construction, all from safe, legal and carefully controlled heights as long as you have the equivalent of an E-MIG pilot’s license. It’s a novel technology, which though lacking obvious IP at this stage, could take off.