By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 08:29
Shortly after George Bush declared that the U.S. would not adopt the Kyoto Protocols, the City Council of Boulder, Colorado declared that the City would. Since then, a number of activities have taken place to achieve the aims of the Kyoto Protocols. A committee called the Boulder Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (BREEE) Working Group was formed of energy professionals, City officials, and concerned citizens.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 08:28
The aim of the Rõuge rural municipality in southern Estonia is to develop a zero-CO2 community, excluding transportation, in within five years.
100% renewable heating in public buildings has already been reached as biomass for heating is the most important renewable energy source in the district. The municipality institutions exclusively use green label electricity.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 08:26
The intelligent metering of energy and water consumption in local and regional public buildings and the half hourly analysis of consumption data can enable savings opportunities to be identified, including the detection of faults. From Leicester City Council’s experience with intelligent metering it has been found that in some buildings savings of up to 20-30 % can be obtained with little or no investment.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 08:25
“klima:aktiv” is the climate change program of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. The aim of “klima:aktiv” is to reduce CO2 emissions as well as reinforce renewable energy in Austria. To achieve these goals more than 20 programs for renewable energies and energy efficiency were created – “energy efficient companies” being one of them.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 08:20
While improved energy services have many quality of life benefits like lighting or television, the productive use of electricity can also help to reduce poverty, leading to increased profitability and productivity for micro, small and medium enterprises, and small industries. The remoteness of rural locations usually makes it difficult to expand electricity supply through a centralised grid system. Therefore people living in off-grid regions often rely on expensive fossil fuels like diesel and kerosene.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 06:42
“Energy efficiency improvements don’t cost – they pay.”
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 06:41
Over the last few years a lot of test and full scale intelligent street lighting installations have been installed both in Oslo as well as other municipalities. The experience gained and the developed skill within the field has opened the way to a rapid increase of the market. The technical challenges are not all solved, but the systems can demonstrate high quality performance although there have been some challenges to overcome.
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-08-25 11:12
In order to meet the requirements of Australia’s Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET), energy providers in the state of Queensland have agreed to purchase green energy for State Government Buildings by supporting a program to install solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in schools. The objective of the Queensland Solar Schools initiative is to provide schools with an educational resource that raises awareness about green energy technologies while reducing school electricity usage costs.
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-08-25 11:10
This paper examines two community projects implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The first, Promoting Access to Energy Services to Foster Integration and Human Development for Disadvantaged Communities in Hungary and Slovakia with a Special Focus on the Roma, built on regional development work with isolated communities without reliable access to heat and electricity. The second, Energy Efficiency in Housing in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), focused on a network of communities where rebuilding was underway following the Balkans conflict.
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-08-25 11:09
This paper analyses the effect of the novel market-based instrument of emission trading on investment strategies of local utilities in the climate friendly technologies of combined heat and power (CHP) and renewable energy resources (RES). We take the example of the German electricity sector, where the economic conditions have been subject to dramatic changes in recent years.
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-08-25 11:08
This paper reviews three key initiatives undertaken in the historical city of Oxford to bring about reductions in energy-related CO2 emissions on a city-wide scale. The author has been part of all three initiatives.
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-08-25 11:05
In 2005, SenterNovem, the Dutch Broadcasting Corporation, a publishing company and a consortium of local authorities launched ‘Energy Survival’; a renewing energy marketing strategy for children to create a demand for local energy actions. New elements are powerful branding and the use of cross media techniques through national TV, internet, local events and primary education. Through entertainment, Energy Survival influences children’s attitude towards energy consumption and its convincing relation with the environment.
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-08-18 16:23
In October 2006 the UK government published a new Local Government White Paper. This policy statement set the framework for the role of local government in the coming years.
The White Paper is one stage in the latest wave of local government reform in the UK. This reform has aimed to refocus attention away from delivery of specific services and towards community leadership, particularly with reference to sustainable development.
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-08-18 16:21
Nowadays communities are increasingly faced with questions such as:
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What can be done within shrinking budgets for communities?
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How can politicians be inspired by energy-saving measures?
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How can sustainable and permanent projects be realised?
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-08-18 16:20
The regional government of Upper Austria made a commitment to increase energy efficiency in public buildings by 1.5 % per year. This target is part of the Upper Austrian energy efficiency strategy which includes a number of measures to support different target groups in implementing energy efficiency measures. The O.Ö. Energiesparverband, the energy agency of Upper Austria, is responsible for the implementation of most of the measures included in the energy efficiency strategy.
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-08-18 16:18
This project demonstrates how the concept of “Sustainable Energy Communities” can become a reality without much additional effort in terms of costs and human resources. 3-NITY includes 28 communities in nine European countries.
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-08-18 16:17
Over the past few years, French wind power has undertaken an unprecedented development. Few turbines are in place (756 MW), but the overall granted capacity amounts to about 2.7 GW. The administrative territory of Aveyron, one with the best wind power potential in the country, is an interesting case for understanding the ways in which industrial wind power is being developed and regulated in France. This paper presents Aveyron wind power development by dividing it into three periods. For each period, we also sketch national developments in wind power policy.
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By HDK / Published on Mon, 2009-06-08 07:32
While the commercial and domestic building sectors account for 33 % of all energy-related CO2 emissions worldwide, approximately 30 % of this energy consumption can be saved economically. However, numerous barriers such as hidden costs and benefits, distorted energy pricing, imperfect information, market failures and misplaced incentives prevent the realization of these energy saving potentials. For this reason, countries apply a variety of policy instruments such as building codes, energy efficiency obligations, subsidies and information campaigns.
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By HDK / Published on Mon, 2009-06-08 07:31
In order to achieve the sustainability targets of climate change, security of supply, and economic efficiency, present energy efficiency policies create the conditions for the transformation of markets and end users behaviours towards more energy efficiency. EDF, as an energy supplier, has to face at the same time the opening of the energy market and the challenge of sustainability.
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By HDK / Published on Mon, 2009-06-08 07:26
All the stages of the energy policy cycle (debate, design, implementation and monitoring) involve a broad range of institutions. Increasingly, energy efficiency has regained a high priority in EU energy policies, notably underlined by the EC Green Paper on energy efficiency (2006) and in the following Energy Efficiency Action Plan. The objectives of this paper will be to analyse the role and effectiveness of the energy efficiency industry and services representation in the energy policy cycle; and identify options for a most effective representation.
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