Thursday 20 October 2011

Lomond Energy Sponsors Local Event

We're very pleased to hear from the organisers of this year's Dumpling Duathlon that the event around the village of Gartocharn, where Lomond Energy are based, has raised an impressive £1700. As in 2010 Lomond Energy were a core sponsor of the event which involved 160 people undertaking a 4km run or walk followed by a 10km cycle. Very much a family oriented duathlon the age of participants ranged from 6 months to 70 years and we are pleased to say the entire Lomond Energy team took part in driving rain and very muddy conditions (photos to follow) and were still smiling at the finish line. Funds raised will be shared between MacMillan Cancer Support and Gartocharn Primary School. The name 'Dumpling' comes from the local name describing the shape of Duncryne Hill on the south side of Gartocharn.

Monday 4 April 2011

Microgeneration

Although not something Lomond Energy advise about on a daily basis we are very interested in the microgeneration level of power and our office consumption is supported by solar pv. This website very neatly illustrates the take up of micro renewables throughout the UK. Top area for generation is Orkney Islands (predominantly wind), followed by Cornwall (predominantly solar). Our very own West Dunbartonshire only has 3kw of PV, one third of which is powering this office. This picture is one of change though and more individuals and organisations are looking at ways to improve energy efficiency and generate some or all of their own power.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Nimbyism

A very good piece of writing by Maria Caffrey published today in the Guardian summarises the reasons why onshore wind is a key part of the UK energy mix, now and in the future. Three key stats for you;
* One quarter of Scotland's electricity was supplied by renewables in Q4 of 2010
* A large wind turbine in the UK supplies, on average, 50% more energy than the same sized tubine erected in Germany
* 10,000 people are employed in the UK wind sector and this is expanding.

Friday 21 January 2011

If it ain't broke don't fix it...?


Recent announcments from the Coalition Government on Electricty Market Reform spell the start of another period of investor uncertainty in the renewables industry - just at a time when developers and manufacturers are 'tooling up' for the next wave of offshore development, and green energy - mainly wind - is proving not only its economic worth in an uncertain economic climate, but in terms of making a serious dent in our use of fossil fuel generated power.
Only last weekend, despite reports of 'the wind slowing down' from some broadsheets which should really know better, wind was putting almost a tenth of all power consumed onto the UK grid, giving our dominant gas generators a breather and slowing down the UK import meters connected to French nuke stations.
In the meantime our ageing nuclear fleet kept humming away in the knowledge that it is to be re-branded the new green fuel, and its future UK developers (mainly French, German and Spanish) are now lined up to be guaranteed some form of public support mechanism to allow new plant to be built alongside a potentially 'one-size-fits-all' deal for low carbon generators.
In doing so, renewables could be forced down the same 'market reform route', as apparently the current renewable price support system - the Renewables Obligation - isn't working. Well, whilst not perfect, it is working, and as more renewables capacity gets approved and built, it will get even better. Of course there is a consumer cost to the RO - just over a billion last year - but in the context of the £2.4bn spent over the same period to clean up decommissioned atomic plant this seems quite a bargain, not least as renewables are set to take nuclear's 3rd place in the power generation game after gas and coal within the decade.
The EMR is out for consultation at present, with proposals ranging from opening up the curently limited Feed in Tarriff to larger generators (good), to more complex market intervention arrangements such as 'capacity payments' and 'contracts for differences' which are most notable by their lack of detail (not so good!). But then what else are such consultations for, if not for industry to let Government know exactly what it wants!
Whichever mechanism evolves it needs to be fair, transparent, affordable and simple. But above all, it must be put in place in such a way to maintain market confidence if we are to continue to reduce our dependance on imported fossil fuels, decarbonise the economy and achieve the energy mix we are looking for.