Energy gap report ‘overstated’

A report which claims severe power outages could affect England in five years has been rejected by the government.

The report from the pro-nuclear Fells Associates claims that supply of electricity will simply not be sufficient for future needs and that combating climate change should be put on the back boiler until energy security has been guaranteed.

According to the authors, a third of the UK’s generation capacity will be taken offline by 2020 without new sources being put in place.

Co-author Candida Whitmill said: "Security of supply now takes priority over everything, even climate change."

However energy secretary John Hutton said the report was overblown.

He said: "Ian Fells overstates the risk of the energy gap, but he also understates what the government’s already doing to secure our future supplies and increase our energy independence - such as a tenfold increase in renewables, a renaissance of nuclear energy in the UK, and backing clean coal technology."

Hertfordshire firm to build bottle recycling in Wales

A Hertfordshire-based plastics reprocessor has teamed up with a social enterprise to develop a 20,000 tonne a year recycling plant for PET and HDPE plastics in South Wales.

Baylis Recycling and Plastics Sorting, which is part of the community interest company Cleanstream Group, are to use £850,000 in grants to develop the bottle recycling plant at Ebbw Vale in South Wales.

The two organisations are already working together in the South West and Wales and hope to have the new facility ready by March 2010.

Janet Rowlings, project manager for the Ebbw Vale development, told the Letsrecycle website that the new facility and the existing plant in Keynsham would work together.

"Once Ebbw Vale is up and running we’ll be able to take mixed plastics into both plants - HDPE to one plant for hot wash and flake and the other will hot wash and flake PET."

PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, is mainly used in bottles for fizzy drinks and oven-ready meal trays.

HDPE, or high-density polyethylene, is used mainly in bottles for milk and washing-up liquids.

Air pollution targeted by travel plans

A scheme to reduce pollution and emissions while making residents healthier is to be launched in Lowestoft this month.

The initiative, suggested by transport charity Sustrans, will see 25,000 households receive advice and travel plans to make better use of public transport and walking and cycling routes.

TravelSmart Lowestoft will contact people by phone or in their home to offer advice on how to travel to reduce congestion.

They will be offered cycling and walking maps, public transport time tables and can get bicycle safety training.

Using £45,000 lottery money Sustrans and local councils will launch the scheme in Oulton, Oulton Broad and Normanston.

Rachel Purdy, of Sustrans, said: "TravelSmart Lowestoft can help people beat the queues by offering them realistic alternatives to using their cars for some of their everyday journeys."

Travel plans are becoming increasingly popular. One developer in Canterbury is offering new residents a low-carbon travel pack upon arrival which includes a discount on bicycles and public transport.

Norfolk cracks down on waste dumping traders

People disposing of trade and commercial waste at domestic recycling sites are being targeted by the Norfolk County Council.

By depositing the waste at one of the county’s 19 recycling centres organisations are hoping to dodge the cost of disposing of their waste and costing Norfolk taxpayers an estimated £1 million a year.

Over the summer suspected traders were approached, with half of those now currently investigation, with the potential fine of £50,000 hanging over their heads.

Using CCTV with automatic number plate recognition at the Norfolk waste management centres, authorities were able to identify suspected rogue traders.

Ian Monson, cabinet member for environment and waste said: "The County Council is sending out a strong message that our recycling centres are not a ’soft touch’ for people trying to avoid paying for waste generated by their trade or business.

"We estimate that it is costing Norfolk’s tax payers more than £1 million year to get rid of illegal business waste and residents should not have to foot this bill."

Authorities in Norfolk recently reassured residents that their recycling was going to recycling plants and not to landfill and that the destination of all waste was known. The assertions were made after a Tonight programme suggested authorities did not know where waste ended up.

Norfolk subsea firm expanding in US

A Norfolk firm that provides subsea equipment for environmental monitoring and offshore construction has expanded its services in the US market.

Great Yarmouth-based Seatronics has invested $2 million (£1.11 million) in new rental items and equipment.

Among the new devices it will make available to its US clients are magnetonometers, subottom profilers and hydro-acoustic positioning systems.

The firm also recently invested $200,000 on a calibration laboratory and $50,000 on cable moulding facilities.

The calibration lab set up in Houston is the largest in the US and will allow firms to have equipment calibrated locally, saving the airfreight costs.

"We’re committed to our work in the US and this new equipment shows that we are investing there," Erik McGuire, vice president of Seatronics, said.

"The calibration lab and moulding facilities have already led to the creation of three jobs, with more on the way if business increases as predicted."

Seatronic also has bases in Aberdeen, Abu Dhabi, New Iberia and Singapore.

Essex gets Slo homes

Construction of houses on a new development in Essex will create just a tenth of the waste created by traditional techniques.

At the Newhall development in Harlow, 30 so-called Slo homes, or Simple Living Opportunities, are to be constructed – or rather installed.

The buildings will each achieve three out of six stars on the Code for Sustainable Homes, which replaced the Ecohomes standard in April last year, and will be built off-site.

Once the homes are built they are transported to the development where they are simply lowered into position.

Construction time is 40 per cent shorter than other methods and creates less building and water waste.

Jon and William Moen, brothers who are developing the site, told the Guardian they were interested in responsible development.

They said: "We’ve taken a long-term view, looking at how we can protect the environment and the wellbeing of our buyers. Every property will have a view of greenery and will be no more than 60 metres from a green space. We want generations of buyers to enjoy living here."

The Code for Sustainable homes sets minimum standards for energy and water use and gives homebuyers more information on the impact of their homes and running costs.

Cambridge to host clean tech conference

A conference at which ways of promoting clean technology and a carbon free future is to be held at the University of Cambridge later this month.

Entrepreneurship for a Zero Carbon Society will take place at the Sidgwick Site in Cambridge from September 22 to 24.

On the agenda for the event will be the funding of alternative technology, the role of business in responding to climate change and the transition to an environmentally sustainable economy, among other topics.

Organiser, Cambridge MBA student Marisa The, said that the university’s location in the Silicon Fen of the east of England provided a unique opportunity.

"It could blend cutting-edge energy research and policy with entrepreneurial talent and investment, creating the optimum environment for the development of an integrated approach to achieving a low carbon society, and the actual innovation of new clean technologies to challenge the status quo," she told FoodBev.

Other topics for discussion will be how providing incentives or subsidies such as fed-in tariffs could help develop the clean technology and in particular clean energy sector.

Norwich to be low-carbon leader

Norwich is to become an international example of a low-carbon city by promoting renewable energy, in plans laid out by a new economic strategy for the region.

The East of England Development Agency (Eeda) has launched the new regional economic strategy (Res), which could see Norwich become a global leader by 2021.

Existing environment and life science companies will be used as anchors to spur further growth in development clusters at Norwich Research Park and Hethel.

University of East Anglia’s environmental expertise will also be used to develop the region.

The plan calls for the promotion of combined heat and power, wind solar and biomass technologies.

The section of the strategy dedicated to the Greater Norwich sub-region states that there will be 33,000 more dwellings and 35,000 extra jobs by 2021.

Eeda chairman Richard Ellis called on local politicians to present a stronger political voice in order to boost investment in the region, which he claimed had less per person than any other region in the country.

He told the Eastern Daily Press: "The underfunding of our region is a long-standing issue and one of the reasons, I believe, is that we lack the strong, consistent political voice that other regions have. Our politicians need to come together and address this."