The next regular meeting will be on Thursday 29th August 2024 at: 16:30
Here are notes from our discussion/surgery on Thus.
Heat Pump Case studies
Two members have collected extensive data on the performance/behaviour of their respective HPs. It’ll be good to get more case studies about HP performance for both space and hot-water heating. This is an area of particular interest to the Devon Community Energy Network as well as adding to the one ACT case study on HPs. Please contact me if you’d like to share your experience, good or bad.
Heating water was discussed as this can cause HP performance (SCOP/SPF) to reduce significantly. There is some advice on actions related to this topic from the CFT> Results> help, or search “Hot Water” here.
ACT welcomes this recently launched portal, aimed at Teignbridge residents and businesses. It is still sparsely populated, but we are told more ‘actions’ will be added soon. A real shame that TDC did not include the CFT as the tool of choice to calculate residential and business carbon footprints, especially as it was tailored by ACT to meet TDC’s specific requirements.
There is also no mention of ACT as a source of information and support, a surprising stance of a local authority that claims to want to work with the community and states that “In last year’s annual budget survey, almost three quarters of residents who responded agreed we should work with our partners to support climate change initiatives and reduce our carbon footprint”.
ACT has fed this and other comments back to TDC, we await a reply.
Government’s energy transition plans and climate policies
Unsurprisingly, this ended up being a wide-ranging discussion. Some early announcements/pointers included:
- Removal of restrictions for onshore wind development
- Formation and funding of Great British Energy
- Improved Contract for Difference (CfD) auction rates
- Revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)
ACT has submitted suggestion for government to reverse the last government’s ministerial statement which makes it more difficult for Local Development Plans (LDP) to exceed building regulations. This is very topical as the Teignbridge LDP is up for examination in September. Indeed the examiner has raised specific questions around policy CC2, for example Matter Q5.2 “Do the policy’s minimum standards go beyond the relevant current and future Building Regulations and Future Homes Standard? If so, is there a well-reasoned and robustly costed rationale including in respect of development viability and housing supply and affordability?”
All LDP examination related documents can be found here.
Meantime various bodies have been suggesting what steps the government should take to mitigate climate change, this example from Regen. Another proposed policy change is on energy tariffs, ACT has proposed this in response to previous consultations, so it’s good to see it covered by a main media outlet.
A new consultation on the NPPF has been launched. This specifically ask how the NPPF can “tackle climate change”, amongst other topic. ACT intends to respond to some of these (e.g. Question 78, 79 & 81). Please send your comments views to me so that I can collate the response.
One of the two main comments ACT submitted to the LDP consultation was in relation to including embodied emissions. TDC have responded positively to this. We will be sharing the latest Whole Life Carbon Assessment Standard from RICS with TDC to further strengthen the need for measuring/controlling embodied emissions.
Grid storage units in Teignbridge
Some concern was raised about deploying Li-Ion batteries in residential and amenity areas. These units are used to stabilise grid electricity voltage/frequency and deliver energy during peak periods. They are an alternative to the widely used gas-fired peaking units, one of which ACT successfully objected to.
We support such deployment (see TECs Guide on the topic), provided it is in the appropriate locations and safety considerations. The planning application 24/01127/ful is for a 2m high street cabinet 0.6m wide and 1.2m long in Dawlish. It contains an 800 kWh Li-Iron-Phosphate battery which is larger than an EV battery (typically 40-100kWh). This technology is considered one of the safer options, here is a video that demonstrate this.
Does every little help?
We managed to briefly touch on this question in relation to climate change. Using a typical example, which quotes large numbers, the initial answer was yes or even definitely. However, looking at the same numbers from a different perspective, the answer was no. More on this later ….
Written by Fuad
Energy group coordinator