The Initiative

The Blewbury Energy Initiative is a project of Sustainable Blewbury. We aim to reduce energy consumption and to encourage the use of renewable energy resources wherever possible. We hope to reduce the amount of coal, oil, gas and electricity used, and to help the global environment.

See below for recent energy-related news.

New on this website

• The page on monitoring your energy consumption has been thoroughly updated, and now includes a discussion of the benefits and possible problems of smart meters.
• The global warming page has expanded information on: record atmospheric carbon dioxide and increasing carbon emissions; 2012 continues the trend – all 12 years from 2001 onwards are among the 14 warmest on record; how climate change could cause different types of extreme weather; the record decrease in Arctic summer ice cover; and sea-level rise due to the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.
• Information about feed-in tariffs, the Green Deal and Renewable Heat payments, for insulation and renewables, is now on a separate page.
• The nuclear energy page has information and comments about the Fukushima disaster, a summary on thorium reactors, and updated information on the situation regarding proposals and costs and timescales for new nuclear power for the UK.

News

• In January 2013 we thermally imaged 53 houses in Blewbury, by far our biggest programme for doing this. All houses received a detailed report, and in some cases owners were able to compare with images from previous years to assess the improvements they had made.
• Sustainable Blewbury has launched a project called Transition Together – Blewbury. This is based on the Totnes Transition Streets project, in which small groups of households work ‘bottom-up’ to reduce energy use and water consumption, to waste less by reusing and recycling, and to eat better and encourage local food sources.
• The government’s new Green Deal for householders is underway. It includes a cashback deal for early adopters to help the scheme to get going. See our domestic grants page for a description of how this flagship scheme works and what problems it might have.
• Other grant schemes for insulation, including the Warm Front scheme for people on benefits, have now ended.
• There have been major reductions and new restrictions in the Feed-in Tariff for solar photovoltaic systems. See our domestic grants page for information.
• The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), to encourage solar hot water, heat pumps and other renewable sources of heating, started in November 2011 for large-scale systems. However, for domestic users the scheme has been delayed yet again, until spring 2014. To fill the gap, Renewable Heat Premium Payments have been extended to March 2014.
• Beware of buying energy-related products from someone who phones, emails or texts you, or turns up on your doorstep uninvited. Frequent cold calls offer to install insulation supported by ‘government’ grants – when challenged no details are given. Recently, someone has been turning up in person offering the ‘opportunity’ to have your roof assessed for suitability for ‘thermal roof coatings’ which would save you money and ‘help the environment’– vague claims not backed up by any facts about performance. Beware of offers that claim to be ‘surveys’ and deny they are selling anything.