At our Energy meeting we had a lot of lively and interesting participation.
Our speakers Adrian Hewitt and David Bell of Merton Council, Malcolm Evans of Sutton Solar Club and Russell Smith of Parity Projects all stimulated interesting discussions in the workshops afterward.
The workshop groups in the second half of the meeting broadly followed the subject areas of the four speakers.
THe first groups discussed Combined Heat and Power (CHP), District Heat and Power (DHP) and Energy from Waste (EfW). The responsibility for these areas was seen as The Council, The Government and the Greater London Authority (GLA). What is required is for the community to ask the council why these kind of projects aren’t progressing in the borough. Merton residents can write to their local councillors asking them to push forward these kind of projects and make climate change a key priority of the council, making a cabinet position for Climate Change. One of the participants suggested the following as suggested content for a letter to the council:
The Council should be urged to consider
· Trailblazing in issues relating to energy efficiency and local, renewable energy generation. If Merton gets ahead of the game now it could generate business locally later when others realise they need to follow this borough’s lead, as well as bringing immediate advantages for businesses and residents.
· Constructing only mixed developments, not just single function housing or business alone, to spread the energy requirements of all new developments and enable local, sustainable energy generation schemes to be installed.
· Collaborating with other local authorities to enable economies of scale to be achieved in installing sustainable energy generation schemes and starting up other sustainable initiatives in the spheres of waste disposal, pollution control, water supplies, flood control, transport and biodiversity.
· Aiming to achieve the government’s target of 60% of energy supplies being from renewables by 2050 far sooner than this date, and then going on to exceed the proportion of our energy which comes from renewable sources.
· Taking measures to increase Merton’s ability to generate its own power from renewable sources, with aim of becoming entirely self-sufficient in 10 years. Energy costs could rise astronomically, quite possibly doubling within the space of a couple of years, rising 10 times over 5 or 10 years, should the UK’s gas supplies from Russia dry up, if, or more likely when, Russia decides it needs the gas for its own use or China is able to pay a higher price than the UK.
· Offering some sort of incentives to increase energy efficiency in existing housing, local authority and business premises. At the moment energy efficiency is just as important as switching to renewables, since the vast stock of existing premises is so poorly insulated, uses relatively few energy efficient appliances and residents/users have not yet adopted sufficent energy efficient behaviours. Energy efficiency is an easy way for everyone to realise financial benefits.
· Offering free/low cost individual energy audits to enable businesses and householders to see how easily they could improve their energy efficiency.
· Aiming for a Merton target that in 10 years time everyone should be able to see the source of the power generated to keep their home/business/facilities running – ie establish local renewable power generation.
· Offering funding to one or two permanent staff for Sustainable Merton to build on the goodwill and enthusiasm which has so far been shown by a big cross-section of the Borough’s residents and to help make all the businesses and residents of Merton experts in sustainable living.
The second group looked at community wind projects which might involve local schools who can get grants and finance up to £30k to set up a turbine which would pay for itself within 5 to 7 years. Support would be required from the local community to avoid planning hitches so it was suggested that trips to successful renewable energy projects mights be arranged.
The third group focussed on setting up workshops to teach people how to build their own solar water heaters. One of the participants volunteered to contact Sutton Solar Club and organise a workshop. The project will need space and equipments such as old copper cylinders.
The final group suggested a range of projects including a Merton Environment Centre similar to the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, a house conversion scheme linking residents with finance and accredited suppliers perhaps in partnership with a local Energy Supply COmpany (ESCO) - a survey of householders intentions was suggested, turning the lights off in the civic offices and a community trip to the Centre for Alternative Technology.
The consensus of this groups was also that the council should be made to feel guilty that these kind of projects were not already happening in the borough.
You can write to your local councillors at http://www.writetothem.com/. Pressure can also be levied by writing to the local press.
You might have lots of other ideas to bring to the table so join the debate online at http://sustainablemerton.wordpress.com/issues/energy/
