Norfolk runs eco-driving course

Norfolk Council is running a course to teach drivers how to be ‘eco-safe’ so their cars emit less carbon dioxide into the environment and they lower their fuel costs.

A series of techniques, including skipping gears to reduce the engines revolutions per minute, are said to reduce fuel consumption by 20 per cent.

According to the Norwich Evening News, one coach company which put its drivers through the course has experienced 19.6 per cent savings on its fuel bills.

The course, which is also open to the public, first sees motorists drive in their normal style, which is then assessed. They are then given tips on how to drive to best conserve fuel.

Suggestions, which are echoed by the Energy Saving Trust include avoiding sudden acceleration or braking – this means taking the foot off the accelerator when approaching a junction or a stop rather than using the brakes at the last minute.

The newspaper reported was told to cut her number of gear changes, partly by making ‘block’ gear changes which involve skipping gears.

Church for acrobats to get green measures

Architects raising a church roof to make space for acrobats have pledged to make the refurbished building environmentally friendly.

Simon McCormack, of Thomas Ford and Partners, has been tasked with redesigning the Clifftown United Reformed Church as a theatrical studio and theatre.

He told the Echo newspaper that the building, which will be transformed for Essex University, will feature measures to reduce its environmental impact.

Insulation, which is one of the easiest ways of making a building more energy efficient, is to be installed in the roof.

The building will also feature water recycling, contributing both to reducing the buildings water use and indirectly its energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

Another change that the building will undergo is set to be the raising of an internal roof by one inch so a support structure for acrobats can be put in place.

The building which will also service the local community fit the needs of the East 15 Acting School, part of the university, perfectly said Mr McCormack.

He said: "There was a fantastic match between the requirements of the school and the old church.

"One of the key things is the project is not just an academic resource, but will also be used for performances and by the local community."

The University has been working with the East of England Development Agency to secure funding.

Beetle fungus helps break down biomass

A fungus inside the gut of a beetle could hold the key to more efficient techniques for creating biofuels from biomass.

Scientists at Penn State University have found that a fungus in the Asian longhorned beetle helps it degrade lignin - a polymer in plants that helps them stay upright.

"Lignin is nature’s plastic and any organism that wants to get to the sugars in a plant has to be able to get past this protective barrier," said Ming Tien, study co-author and Penn State professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. "We suspect that the fungus produces enzymes that help the beetles degrade lignin."

The Asian longhorned beetle feeds of very hard wood without waiting for it to decay, suggesting that it has its own way of breaking down the lignin.

Led author Scott Geib said that breaking down the lignin barrier to get to the cellulose is the most expensive and least environmentally friendly part of creating ethanol from biomass.

Meanwhile, as the world’s appetite for ethanol has risen, the cactus-like plant which is used to make tequila has been touted as a potential feedstock.

Solar energy can supply all world’s power needs

Solar energy has the potential to meet all the world’s energy demands delegates at the European Photovoltaic solar Energy Conference heard.

Photovoltaic solar panels currently cover just 40 square kilometres, though powering France or Germany would require 5,000 square kilometres of panels, Daniel Lincot, research director of the Institute for Research and Development of Photovoltaic Energy and chairman of the event said.

He called for solar technology to be deployed at a growing rate, saying: "The solar energy resource is enormous, and distributed all over the world, in all countries and also oceans."

Lincot added: "There is thus an enormous resource available from photovoltaics, which can be used everywhere, and can in principle cover all the world energy demand from a renewable, safe and clean source."

Current projections envisage that by 2020 photovoltaics will account for just three per cent of Europe’s energy needs.

The EU has set a target of 20 per cent of all electricity being renewable by 2020.

Norfolk cob house praised as energy pioneer

A cob house in Norfolk has been praised as an example of pioneering energy-saving techniques and renewable energy technologies.

Julie Reynolds’ cob roundhouse in Old Buckenham, which is one of the 15 Green Buildings which will be open to the public from September 11th to 14th, was praised by Campaign to Protect Rural England’s Norfolk director James Frost.

He told Green Building: "They would probably not call themselves pioneers, but they are working with building styles, energy-saving techniques and renewable energy technologies that are not mainstream, so in this way, they have a lot to teach others with similar aspirations."

The house was built of cob – a mixture of clay, water, straw, earth and sand – and sculpted by hand. Kate Edwards, who has built various cob buildings including Ms Reynolds’ said that cob was also a sustainable material as it can be recycled.

She said: "The great thing about it is it can all be recycled. I took a wall down and recycled it into another part of the house."

Cob is cheap and quick to build with Sustainable Build UK claiming up to 900 millimetres of cob could be laid a day.

IEA: Clean energy needs more R&D

More money should be allocated for researching low carbon energy than nuclear power, the International Energy Agency has told the EU.

In a review which by and large praised the EU’s climate change policies and leadership, the Paris-based agency called for more investment in research and development for low carbon technologies.

The review pointed to the 2007 Strategic Energy Technology Plan, which allocated 40 per cent of the £4.14 billion destined for energy research and development by 2013 to nuclear power.

"It will be important for the achievement of the EU climate change targets that this funding allocation is revised at the earliest possible opportunity, and that funding for non-nuclear energy research and development is increased significantly," said the agency, adding that nuclear technologies would only become useful after 2050

The report also notes that there is still more investment in the IT sector, where £7.31 billion will be spent, than in clean energy.

Hertfordshire’s Polysolar gets £567k grant

A group led by Hertfordshire-based clean technology company Polysolar has received a £567,000 grant to develop photovoltaics that can be used on windows.

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has announced funding for research into low cost translucent photovoltaic organic polymers, which will start in November as part of a broader £10 million investment int0 16 research and development projects.

Hamish Watson, chief executive of Polyusolar, told New Energy Focus: "The objective of the project is to develop polymer photovoltaics to use in transparent architectural glazing, primarily for commercial buildings.

"The basic technology of polymer photovoltaics originates from Cambridge and Imperial College research. What we are doing is improving the lifetime and performance of the technology, and encapsulate it for the glazing application."

Polysolar’s grant is a share of £10 million awarded by the TSB to "enable innovative materials technologies to be developed to meet the challenges we face in energy generation, conservation, storage and transmission" said science and innovation minister Ian Pearson.

Another project to receive funding is a bio-based natural fiber development led by Bangor University aimed at developing sustainable, thin and efficient insulation.

Environment a ’station’ on business success train line

Resource efficiency and waste management and environment are two of the stops on a ‘tubemap’ of services available to east of England businesses supplied by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA).

The new website, which takes the form of a London underground map, helps businesses find the public advisory bodies they need "to unlock their full potential".

Richard Ellis, chairman of EEDA, said: "The East of England has a thriving and entrepreneurial business community, with more than 430,000 businesses.

"We have been listening very carefully to what those businesses are asking for, and one clear and reoccurring theme is the need to explain what is often perceived as a complicated landscape - public sector business support."

Among the services listed under Waste Management and Environment are Renewables East, Eastex material exchange, the Community Carbon Reduction Programme, Carbon Trust and Envirowise.

At the resource efficiency ’stop’, there is a link to the takeITon campaign which gives free IT support and advice to businesses in the region.