Elemental

I love Twitter.  Settled down this morning to some light email and RSS catch up when a tweet flashed up (via twhirl) to tell me Gordon Brown was addressing the Government’s Low Carbon Economy Summit on London’s South Bank, complete with a link to the live speech.  One click later I was watching the speech and minutes after it finished the transcript* was available here. One of the most interesting points for me and one to watch for was:

And in the autumn we will consult on a new Suppliers Obligation aimed at changing the way in which energy companies operate —– incentivising them not to supply ever more units of electricity and gas, but to make profits from reducing not increasing demand.

Gordon then goes on to justify the need for new nuclear, which I remain agnostic on, as I’ve said before. My trouble is in seeing both sides of the argument, and agreeing with much of both.

It’s worth reading the section on renewables – very broad brush stuff but the underlying message is:

“we will get rid of all the obstacles that have in the past held renewables back”

John Hutton is to make further announcements later this morning. Reading the speech on paper it comes across as quite exciting:

And let us be clear. Building a low carbon economy is not just something to do with climate change. It is not just an energy security issue. It is not just a part of economic policy. It is all of these things, and more. It is nothing less than the basis for our future prosperity.

*I spotted some references to Heathrow and runways which were in the live speech but not the transcript.  I expect the transcript will be updated to reflect what he actually said?

mel starrs News Gordon Brown, Low Carbon

Gordon Brown announced his pre-budget report yesterday. The pertinent chapter for our industry is Chapter 7 (pdf, 26 pages). Driving home last night Radio 4 were asking the question ‘what is a zero carbon home?’. The reporter had even rang up DCLG for an answer – a spokesman said “one which was not a net recipient of electricity from the national grid” but it was clear that the reporters were still somewhat confused. We could wait for the Code for Sustainable Housing (due for publication next week, I believe) for the official definition but I believe what follows will be close.

The commonly cited definition of zero carbon development comes from the London Renewables document, ‘Towards Zero Carbon Developments‘ (pdf, 108 pages):

A zero carbon development is one that achieves zero net carbon emissions from energy use on site, on an annual basis.

A zero carbon house is one that approaches net carbon emissions from energy use in construction and on site over the useful life of the building

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