Climate Week
21st to 27th March
Climate Week is a national event which offers the UK an opportunity to consider how it is going to mitigate climate change. As you will see elsewhere in the magazine, the School, the shop, and the Plumpton Wildlife & Habitat Group are marking the occasion.
To mark this event, the VAP Plumpton Goes Green Team has been busy collating the results from the Community Footprint questionnaires. It has chosen Climate Week to set out the results for Plumpton.
| Ecological Global Hectares | Total Carbon Tonnes | |
| Average for UK | 4.75 | 15.99 |
| Ave for South East | 5.22 | 17.42 |
| Ave for Lewes District | 5.61 | 17.21 |
| Ave for PLUMPTON | 6.01 | 19.36 |
So what does this actually mean?
A global hectare (gha) is a unit (2.47 Acres) of measurement of our Ecological Footprint which is defined as “the area of productive land and water eco-systems required to produce the resources that the population consumes”.
The carbon tonne of CO2 is a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide produced by a person, organisation or community in a given time. It reflects the amount of greenhouse gas emitted into our atmosphere.
From the above figures, it seems that the South East is worse than the rest of the UK on both measures, whilst Lewes District comes out at about the same as the South East.
However, Plumpton comes out much worse than the District as a whole. Why is this?
The two areas that most affect the statistics shown from the questionnaire results are travel and fuel use.
As regards travel – well that is very much down to personal choice. Hopefully, the introduction of the hourly train service throughout the day may have encouraged some villagers to use the train instead of the car. The cost of fuel alone may eventually make people think twice about jumping in the car.
Total Carbon Tonnes
As regards fuel – well Plumpton is reliant on oil and LPG – so it would seem at first that not a lot can be done.
However, the VAP Plumpton Goes Green Team is in the early stages of talking to advisers about Community Energy Generation. Micro-generation is the production of heat and power by individuals or communities – typically by renewable means – enabling them to meet their own requirements at, or approaching, zero-carbon cost.
As an approach, it has much to recommend it, both in terms of its energy efficiency – generation takes place at or very near to where the power is needed – and as a very effective direct means of reducing the household or community carbon footprint.
There are a number of micro-generation technologies to choose from – and, perhaps best of all, they can qualify for government grants towards their installation cost.
Plumpton is just starting to explore other ways of mitigating these costs, so if you would like to get involved in this project, please let Team Leader, Ruth Segal, know on pgg@plumptonvap.co.uk or 01273 891126.
Did you return your Community Footprint Form? If not – it is not too late – the Team is happy to add your statistics to the Plumpton figures. Final deadline is 31st March 2011. Please return your Forms to the shop.
Feed-in-tariff and Renewable Heat Incentive
Are you getting concerned about the rising cost of fuel? Are you interested in being paid to produce your own electricity and heating? Feed-in-tariff and Renewable Heat Incentive are both Government schemes which encourage households and businesses to install renewable energy technologies.
Feed-in-tariff
The feed-in-tariff is a payment for every kilowatt hour generated to anyone who installs a renewable electricity system. This includes solar electricity, wind turbines, hydroelectricity and anaerobic digestion. The tariff is applicable to households and businesses.
The feed-in-tariff pays up to 41.3p/kWh, depending on the type and size of the system used to generate renewable energy. You reduce costs on your electricity bill when you use your own energy and you are also paid an additional 3p/kWh when you export any surplus back to the grid. Tariffs are paid for 25 years for solar systems and 20 years for all other generation systems. These tariffs should cover the initial capital cost of installation and, according to the Government, earn a return up to 8% p.a. In practice that means you should earn back the capital cost at least two to three times over the duration of the tariffs.
Renewable Heat Incentive
The Renewable Heat Incentive is a fixed payment for the renewable heat you generate yourself (e.g. solar thermal panels, heat pumps or a wood burning boiler). Under the scheme you get paid a fixed amount based on an estimate of how much heat your renewable energy systems will produce.
For more information look at www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generate-your-own-energy
What else was happening in the Village during Climate Change Week?
At School
The School supported the community’s involvement with Climate Change. It ran poster competition about Climate Change in school. The posters were displayed around the village. Have a look at some of them here (external site).
At the Shop
Bim and Fal kindly agreed to hosting a Climate Change display in the shop. The results to date of the community footprinting project was on display, and, courtesy of Lewes District Council, there was:
75 FREE POWERDOWN DEVICES!
to visitors to the shop throughout the week.
A survey by the Energy Saving Trust found that the average household has up to 12 items left on standby. These Powerdown devices can be used safely on your TV reducing your standby power down to next to nothing, saving you money and extending the life of your TV!
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