Religious buildings could save up to 42,000 carbon tonnes a year if solar panels are used to replace conventional electricity measures says British Gas, the UK’s leading energy and home services provider. Just to put it into perspective, 42,000 carbon tonnes works out at around about 500 transatlantic flights! Not only will it save significant amounts of carbon tonnes being emitted, but it will also save religious buildings potentially hundreds and thousands of pounds. They [British Gas] used an example of a mosque that has recently converted to solar power and had the solar panels installed on the roof of the building which is saving £5,000 a year in electricity bills.
Solar powered panels are ideal for religious buildings because they are most commonly positioned to the south, this means that they get optimum amount of sunlight during the day.
Religious buildings are ideal because most of them are south-facing; meaning that they get the optimum amount of sunlight during the day and with the recession hitting churches, mosques and synagogues harder than ever it would be an ideal scenario for them to get on board with energy saving measures such as this as soon as possible.
In May this year a church in north London finished covering its south-facing roof with solar panels known as PV tiles and is now using them to generate energy.
Fr Shaun Richards, the parish priest of St Silas Church in Pentonville, said: “Even though not all UK churches could adopt this model due to planning and architectural conservation laws, there may be thousands of Church of England buildings out there that could help create a greener future by generating clean energy as well as some much needed income.”
In Birmingham, the Masjid-e-Hamza Mosque will soon be making as much as £6,400 a year from Feed-In Tariffs, having installed solar panels as part of the Sustainable Mosley project.
The scheme is likely to appeal to churches as their Sunday collections have been hit by the recession, and because many clergy are committed to caring for the environment.
Friday 30 July 2010
Tuesday 20 July 2010
Only 13% of companies have registered for the CRC
The CRC (Carbon Reduction Commitment) came into force on the 1st April this year. As most of you will know by now, the CRC is a mandatory scheme in place to encourage companies and organisations cut carbon emissions. As of the 5th July only 651 companies have registered from an expected 5,000, which is well below the result The Environment Agency were expecting.
The deadline to register with the Environment Agency under the CRC scheme is 30th September 2010. All public and private sector organisations that have at least one half-hourly electricity meter during 2008 are encouraged to participate. Failure to register before the deadline could result in fines of up to £5,000 plus an additional £500 per day for each working day that they fail to register up to a maximum of 80 days.
A spokesperson for The Environment Agency said: “Participants successful in reducing energy consumption will not only save money on energy bills, they will also receive financial incentives and boost their reputation as an environmentally-conscious organisation. These savings should be well in excess of the costs of participating in the scheme.”
Make sure you are prepared for the CRC and avoid hefty fines. Saving energy can be a positive, cost-effective and rewarding project. If you’d like to reduce energy for your business or organisation, contact Powermaster today who will discuss the possibilities of significantly reducing energy for your business and buildings.
For information on how to register with The Environment Agency, click here
The deadline to register with the Environment Agency under the CRC scheme is 30th September 2010. All public and private sector organisations that have at least one half-hourly electricity meter during 2008 are encouraged to participate. Failure to register before the deadline could result in fines of up to £5,000 plus an additional £500 per day for each working day that they fail to register up to a maximum of 80 days.
A spokesperson for The Environment Agency said: “Participants successful in reducing energy consumption will not only save money on energy bills, they will also receive financial incentives and boost their reputation as an environmentally-conscious organisation. These savings should be well in excess of the costs of participating in the scheme.”
Make sure you are prepared for the CRC and avoid hefty fines. Saving energy can be a positive, cost-effective and rewarding project. If you’d like to reduce energy for your business or organisation, contact Powermaster today who will discuss the possibilities of significantly reducing energy for your business and buildings.
For information on how to register with The Environment Agency, click here
Irish Environmental Campaigner Passed Away
On Saturday July 10th, anti Dublin Bay Oil Refinery campaigner – Sean Dublin Bay Loftus (formerly known as Sean Loftus), died at age 82. It was only a couple of weeks after he had news that the oil refinery he campaigned against would not built. Mr Loftus was described as “an environmental pioneer”, a “Kindly and encouraging gentleman” and “He led the way even before the Green Party came into existence” by his friend, colleague and the Irish Environmental Minister – John Gormley.
Solar Power is put to the test
New energy-saving technology advancements are achieved every day, but who would have thought that solar power would eventually be able to fly a plane? On Tuesday July 6th 2010 this is exactly what happened. Although the solar powered plane (The Solar Impulse HB-SIA) has had trial runs at least a dozen times since April 7th, this was the first time that it had its ‘first night flight ever’ meaning that it had to run solely on stored solar energy cells from sunset to sunrise.
The successful trial has been a breakthrough for energy saving technologies and could well set the stage for future renewable energy projects for the aviation industry. Although it has been said already that this technology is not intended to replace traditional aircraft fuel sources in the immediate future, with the flight instead focusing on trialling and promoting energy-saving technology.
The solar cells are stored within the wings of the plane which has a wingspan as wide as a Boeing 747’s and has four electric motors powered by 12,000 solar cells.
The Solar Impulse HB-SIA reached an altitude of 8,600 metres and approximately two hours before sunset on Tuesday July 6th started a slow descent eventually reaching an altitude of 1,500 metres where it carried on flying, using only the energy stored in its batteries until the next sunrise and landing in the early hours of Wednesday.
The plane, which was controlled by chief executive and co-founder of the Solar Impulse Project, André Borscherg, landed safely at the Payerne airbase in Switzerland. Borscherg said: “For seven years now, the whole team has been passionately working to achieve this first decisive step of the project”.
Project co-founder Bertrand Piccard said: "When you took off it was another era. You land in a new era where people understand that with renewable energy you can do impossible things."
To read more about the Solar Impulse Project, click here: http://www.solarimpulse.com
The successful trial has been a breakthrough for energy saving technologies and could well set the stage for future renewable energy projects for the aviation industry. Although it has been said already that this technology is not intended to replace traditional aircraft fuel sources in the immediate future, with the flight instead focusing on trialling and promoting energy-saving technology.
The solar cells are stored within the wings of the plane which has a wingspan as wide as a Boeing 747’s and has four electric motors powered by 12,000 solar cells.
The Solar Impulse HB-SIA reached an altitude of 8,600 metres and approximately two hours before sunset on Tuesday July 6th started a slow descent eventually reaching an altitude of 1,500 metres where it carried on flying, using only the energy stored in its batteries until the next sunrise and landing in the early hours of Wednesday.
The plane, which was controlled by chief executive and co-founder of the Solar Impulse Project, André Borscherg, landed safely at the Payerne airbase in Switzerland. Borscherg said: “For seven years now, the whole team has been passionately working to achieve this first decisive step of the project”.
Project co-founder Bertrand Piccard said: "When you took off it was another era. You land in a new era where people understand that with renewable energy you can do impossible things."
To read more about the Solar Impulse Project, click here: http://www.solarimpulse.com
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