Category: Community Energy company

FLATLINE – a demand-side approach to energy management with Domestic Properties

FLATLINE, an industry led research project aiming to demonstrate the viability of a demand-side approach to energy management at domestic level, has reached a major milestone as residents move into three pilot homes at The Mill site in Cardiff.

Backed by the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, the ‘Fixed Level Affordable Tariffs Led by Intelligently Networked Energy’ (FLATLINE) project aims to significantly reduce residents’ energy bills, using a combination of domestic Demand Side Response and demand shifting for both heat and electricity.

The specially built pilot homes at The Mill development site in Cardiff will be closely followed by a further 46 homes at a separate site, Parc Eirin in Tonyrefail – which will see first residents move in this autumn as the first phase of the 225 new home scheme is complete.

See Press Release

And the Fully-Charged Video :-

Some countries reach the “golden goal” of grid parity for solar electricity

According to Bloomberg several countries that have high electricity prices have already reached the “golden goal” of grid parity. This means putting solar modules on the roof to replace electricity purchased from the grid is a good investment for consumers. This includes Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Spain and Australia. Brazil is also above the 6% level, but consumers may require higher returns on investment in a developing economy.

Japan, France, Greece and Turkey are expected to be there by 2015, and by 2020 even the US average price will high enough to justify investment, even without the 30 percent investment tax credit subsidy.

An interactive version of this chart can be found on the Bloomberg site.

My comment on the UK situation: The UK having relatively lower electricity costs than other countries is likely to be similar to the US, but there are wide regional variations in the cost of electricity from the grid and as it is a very competitive market variations depending on usage so some consumers might reach the golden goal earlier than others. In addition, the UK government is also being fairly rigorous in legislating for carbon emission reductions that could also have an impact upon the time when grid parity is reached.

Localisation is also another interesting factor. Location householders could club together to get good deals on Solar PV installation as well as adopt collective bargaining techniques to buy electricity from the grid at a lower price in the same way as a number of communities are clubbing together to buy cheaper oil. The development of Community Energy Companies is also yet another factor.

 

Sydney is set to get Australia’s first citywide low-carbon energy network

Sydney is set to get Australia’s first citywide low-carbon energy network after it signed a deal with Cogent for a trigeneration network supplying electricity, heating and air conditioning.

Under the agreement Cogent, a subsidiary of Australia’s largest energy company Origin, will install the network to supply low-carbon electricity to both public and private buildings in four low carbon zones across central Sydney.

The city’s interim trigeneration masterplan included a total of 360 MW by 2030 at a cost of AUS $440 million, to provide 70 percent of the local government area’s electricity requirements. This agreement covers the initial stages of the plan. More information

Last year Origin worked with Investa Property Group to develop Australia’s first open commercial trigeneration precinct in Sydney. It is also building a trigeneration precinct in Melbourne. Cogent will begin installing Sydney’s low-carbon energy network next year.

Source: Building4Change