DECC appeals to Supreme Court over solar feed-in tariff rulings

22 February 2012

Government leaves it late to meet deadline to appeal against previous solar court cases.

The government has lodged an application to appeal to the Supreme Court, following two court rulings which declared its plans to rush through cuts to feed-in tariff incentives for solar installlations were unlawful.

As had been widely expected, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) met the 21 February deadline to apply for an appeal to the court, following a rejection of its initial appeal by three Court of Appeal judges last month.

If DECC is granted an appeal, it will seek authority to enact proposals set out in last year's controversial consultation on changes to solar FIT incentives.

If it wins the case it will be allowed to halve the FIT rate for installations with a capacity of less than 4kW that were completed after 12 December last year to 21p/kWh from April 1. If it again loses all solar installations completed between 12 December and a new cut-off date of 4 March will retain the higher 43p/kWh incentive.

Novozyme: new enzyme brings biofuels into petrol cost bracket

22 February 2012

Biofuels company claims CTec3 breakthrough is five times more efficient than current technologies.

Novozymes will today launch a new enzyme that it claims will convert five times more waste biomass into ethanol than current products, bringing second-generation biofuels into cost-parity with corn ethanol and gasoline.

The biofuel company said the so-called Cellic CTec3 enzyme is 50 per cent more effective at turning cellulosic feedstocks, such as wheat straw, corn stalks, agricultural residue or household waste, into bio-ethanol when compared to Novozymes' previous product, Cellic CTec2.

Free CPD Event - March

21 February 2012

You are invited to the FREE CPD SAP 2009 and CODE 2010 event that BRIARY ENERGY are running on 8th March 2012.
This is in direct response to numerous questions relating to how SAP 2009 affects the Code for Sustainable Homes 2010.
This event is totally free and is run at 2 different times during the day.

Venue : Greenworks Training Academy, Unit 1, Bromford Central, Bromford Lane, Birmingham, B8 2SE
Date: 8th March 2012

You will be issued with a 1 ½ hour CPD certificate after the event.
Any questions you may have on both SAP, ACD’s and CfSH will be answered on the day!

Session 1

08.00 – 09.00 refreshments served

09.00 – 10.30 1st presentation

10.30 – 12.00 Open forum

Session 2

12.00 – 12.30 light refreshments

12.30 – 14.00 2nd presentation

14.00 – 15.30 Open forum

Agenda

How to meet the requirements of both ENE1 and ENE2, with cost effective “tamper proof” solutions
New EUPD 2013 boiler and cylinder regulations – how these affect SAP
How to boost your ENE1 and ENE2 scores to enable cost savings in other areas – why ENE 2 is fabric only.
Show you what effect these credits have on your overall Code score and how to make savings on your build cost related to your Code score
Explain Code weighting of section scores and what they mean to cost – take out high cost credits that produce low credit points.
Explain the technologies available to help you meet the requirements for ENE 1 and why they do not affect ENE 2
Code 4 solutions in relation to the TOTAL code 4 score – why just simply meeting Code 4 in the SAP is not good enough
Explanation of linear thermal bridging and what ACD’s mean to the SAP results. – this is a VITAL part of Sap 2009 and one you may not be aware of (came in October 2011)
Building regulation pass does not mean Code 3 is achieved – Why?
Brief overview of the Green Deal – relative to refurbishment of HA dwellings.

Please contact us as soon as possible indicating which session you would like to attend as places are limited.

This will be followed by short presentations from Alpha Heating Innovation and Stroma Solar in relation to ENE 1 credits and Code 4 Solutions.
We look forward to meeting you at one of these events.

Kind Regards
Gary Nicholls

CPD Event - March 2012