One of the biggest volunteer-built organic straw-buildings in Britain, and an architectural piece of innovation constructed of just five main materials, is ready to throw open its doors for the first time for youth groups such as Scouts, Guides, care groups as well as weddings. The Bunkhouse at Fordhall Farm,
FITs to end - whats next for solar?
New research has found that typical domestic solar panel returns will fall from 6.5% to 2.84% when the Feed in Tariff closes on March 31st 2019 but the analysis also finds that a fair export payment and continued reduction in system costs may be enough to provide a decent return. Read more
“In the short-term, the viability of solar is going to depend on the level of export payments and on falling installation costs. If the Smart Export Guarantee pays homeowners at a fair level, then at the
right price and in the right place, domestic solar will still be attractive.”, said Green Business Watch Editor Alastair Kay.
Green Business Watch has modeled a range of payment levels for the Smart Export Guarantee and also a number of installation costs to compare rates of return and payback times after the Feed in Tariff.
Near Zero Energy renovation
A new multimillion euro research project which will demonstrate how buildings can be renovated to use ‘near zero energy’ has launched at Brunel University London. Featuring 17 partners from nine European countries and funded by Horizon 2020, the €8.4m project brings together academia and industry to develop a ‘Retrofit Kit’ that can be used to reduce energy consumption by 60-95% in renovated buildings.Read more
The Retrofit Kit will bring together a number of advanced, cost efficient, and energy-saving technologies – including smart windows with pre-heating and cooling technology, ventilation heat recovery, photovoltaic panels, and nature-based technologies – which can be fitted 30% quicker than typical renovations. It’s hoped that implementation of the technologies would have a payback period of under 15 years. Four demonstration sites will be created as part of the project, including one at Brunel, which will offer practical, real-world examples of ‘Near Zero Energy Buildings’ or ‘nZEBs’ retrofit.