NEWS In Brief
GUIDANCE ON MAKING BOILERS MORE EFFICIENT Simple, low-cost actions could save UK businesses £400m a year in hot water running costs, according to the Carbon Trust. Heating and hot water accounts for more than one third of UK organisations’ energy consumption, but better maintenance and low cost improvements, including controls, would reduce costs by 30% the Trust’s ‘Expert in Energy’ guidance explains.
www.carbontrust.co.uk
LOW CARBON FUND OFFERS BILLIONS FOR CLEANTECH GE and the Carbon Trust have launched a $5bn incubation fund for new low carbon technologies across Europe. This follows the news that Europe has seen its share of investment in clean energy fall by 40% since 2007.
CORE PRINCIPLES FOR ‘SOFT LANDINGS’ NOW AVAILABLE Twelve Core Principles that defi ne a Soft Landings project have been published by BSRIA. These were developed in conjunction with the Soft Landings User Group. They have been written for construction clients and their professional teams to inform project processes, BSRIA said.
www.bsria.co.uk
US ‘COULD SAVE $1TRILLION IN ENERGY SAVINGS BY 2020’ Retrofi tting US buildings could produce $1trillion in energy savings by 2020, according to a report by Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors (DBCCA) and The Rockefeller Foundation. A national retrofi t programme would cost around $279 billion, but it would cut US carbon emissions by almost 10% and energy spending by 30%, while creating ‘much needed’ work in the construction sector.
www.rockefellerfoundation.org
Climate change ‘will cost fi rms £355m’
● RICS points to much higher energy charges for fi rms in the next 20 years
UK companies have been warned to brace themselves for dramatic rises in electricity charges to deal with the effects of climate change.
A report produced by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) suggests that annual energy charges for business operating warehouses will be £355m higher by 2030. The retail sector and offi ces will also be hit hard with additional costs estimated at £250m per annum as summers become hotter and winter weather more extreme.
RICS said that buildings relying on air conditioning for cooling would be ‘more vulnerable to price
increases’ and urged fi rms to invest in ‘cost effective’ cooling upgrades. Heating costs will come down as global temperatures rise, but these will be offset by the rise in electricity use for cooling.
The survey of more than 60,000 commercial properties, undertaken by Sturgis Carbon Profi ling, was based on data gathered for their Display Energy Certifi cates (DECs).
This also revealed that the average commercial property is not set up to cope with summer temperatures predicted to be up to two degrees higher by 2030. By 2030 a commercial property of around 2,500 sq m in London can expect to pay more than £5,000 per year in electricity alone, the RICS said. London’s commercial properties will incur the largest increase in electricity demand, with the subsequent cost expected to rise to an additional £3.20 per sq m, compared with £2.87 in Newcastle. However, after 2030 the operating costs of buildings are expected to start falling again as the effect of energy effi ciency improvements takes effect.
This will not apply to all existing commercial buildings, the report pointed out, and many will become obsolete because the refurbishment cost for those least adaptable to climate change will be prohibitive. This should be taken into account when valuing buildings now, said Martin Russell-Croucher, RICS director of sustainability.
Energy charges are set to rise
For more information visit:
www.rics.org
Davey denies dropping of renewables target
Energy Secretary Ed Davey has denied suggestions that the government wants to scrap its renewable targets and give greater prominence to nuclear power.
Under EU legislation, the UK is committed to sourcing 20% of its energy demand from renewable sources by 2020. However, The Guardian newspaper published
12 CIBSE Journal April 2012
an article suggesting that secret moves were afoot to drop that ambition in favour of a new 2030 target, which also includes nuclear and other sources of low carbon energy.
Davey described the newspaper’s article as ‘misleading’ and said the government was ‘100% committed to the 2020 EU
renewable energy target’. He said that the renewable energy roadmap was in place and was focused on driving ‘delivery up and costs down’. He also denied that the government was seeking to have nuclear power reclassifi ed as a renewable.
‘Nuclear is not a renewable – fact,’ he said.
www.cibsejournal.com
Shutterstock / Jetrel
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