Lofty plans to keep the nation warm

As Tesco announces a surprise move into the insulation business, Miles Brignall reveals how many of the grants on offer are nothing more than hot air

The supermarket says it will reclaim the cost through the government's recently announced programme of grants to tackle fuel poverty, which now affects 5.4m homes.

However, questions are already being asked about who the real beneficiaries of the programme will be. It has been suggested that when a profit-driven company such as Tesco becomes involved, the installers may be getting more out of it than the "fuel poor". Tesco admits this is a revenue-generating exercise, though it declines to say how much it will receive for each installation.

The main problem is that, in keeping with all the other government-backed insulation schemes, Tesco will not offer the service for free where the householder already has 6cm of loft insulation in place.

The Energy Savings Trust recommends that all households have 27cm of loft insulation. Because it is now almost impossible to find UK homes with no loft insulation, many question the value of the scheme in its current form. Up to 25% of a house's heat is lost through the roof.

A 70-year-old living on state pension would have to pay Tesco £149 to top up her loft insulation if she has more than 6cm in place. And the supermarket won't install anything if your roof has 15cm of insulation - just over half the recommended amount. Also, it has been pointed out by Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged, that these measures do little to help anyone whose home was built before the 30s and does not have cavity walls. They estimate that neither measure is possible in one-third of UK homes.

Add up all these points, and Gordon Brown's claim that up to 11 million low-income households would qualify for free insulation looks distinctly unlikely.

Ever since the government introduced the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (Cert) scheme, which requires power companies to invest in improving their customers' homes, Guardian Money has been contacted by unhappy readers turned down for extra loft insulation because of the 6cm rule.

The problem has been caused by the way the Cert scheme is calculated. For every home the power companies insulate they save an amount of carbon towards their three-year target. They get three-and-a-half times as many "points" if they can insulate lofts with fewer than 6cm in place.

With shareholders to please, there's little financial incentive for the power firms to top up a pensioner's home from 7cm to 27cm.

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Killacycle Throttles Petrol Power

In the past, their relatively low speeds and lack of range mean electric vehicles have suffered from some less than glowing press.

But now, Iceland is trying to convince the rest of the world that the future of driving is electric, after all.

With 99% of its electricity provided by renewable energy, Reykjavik is the ideal setting for the Driving Sustainability 2008 car show.

Among the mean, green machines on display, is the fastest electric motorbike in the world.

The Killacycle has a top speed of 168mph and goes from 0-100 in a second.

For a typical run, it needs only as much energy as a hair dryer would use over 15 minutes, while its batteries recharge in just four minutes.

It is the brain child of Bill Dube, who invented the Killacycle in his garage in Colorado.

He told Sky News: "It's just a giant cordless drill with wheels, a 500 horse power cordless drill with wheels. It has a battery, motors and a throttle, just like you'd have a trigger on your drill. And there are no carbon emissions.

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Solar panels are new hot property for thieves

Glenda Hoffman has an answer for the thieves, should they choose to return to her home in Desert Hot Springs, California. "I have a shotgun right next to the bed and a .22 under my pillow."

Hoffman was the victim of a theft that one industry professional has dubbed "the crime of the future". Another observer has come up with the term "grand theft solar" to describe the spate of recent burglaries in sunny California.

In May Hoffman lost 16 solar panels from her roof in three separate burglaries, one while she slept below. Happily for Hoffman her insurers have agreed to pay the $95,000 (£48,000) cost of replacing the panels. But as energy prices soar, and solar power takes off - at least in California - so opportunistic thieves have turned to the lucrative, and complicated, business of dismantling solar panels.

"I wouldn't say it's pervasive, but it's going on," California Solar Energy Industries Association executive director Sue Kateley told the Valley Times.

California is the leader for solar installations, with 33,000 across the state. Unsurprisingly, it is also the market leader for thefts of solar installations, although figures are hard to come by.

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Energy firms condemned for 'abysmal' customer service

Gas and electricity companies have been criticised for their "abysmal" customer service, by a leading consumer watchdog.

No other industry fares so badly when it comes to billing their customers correctly, answering their calls promptly and offering value for money, according to Which?.

Insurance companies, mobile phone operators, supermarkets and even banks beat energy companies, the hard-hitting report says.

Npower, with 6.5 million customers, emerged as the worst performer from the survey of 8,600 Which? members, with the report calling the company's performance "abysmal".

The report comes just a few weeks after the leading providers raised their prices for the second time this year to take the average annul dual fuel – gas and electricity – bill to more than £1,400.

Jess Ross,editor of Which said,: "This is the first time that we've asked members about their energy suppliers and we're shocked to see the results – too many suppliers are letting customers down and charging them more and more for the privilege.

"These companies are providing essential services that people can't live without, but this isn't an excuse to offer poor value for money."

Only a quarter of households have been told by their supplier that they can save money by switching their payment methods. Paying by direct debit, rather than by cheque, can save the average customers as much as £200 a year.

Less than a third – 32 per cent – of Npower's customers were prepared to say they were "satisfied" with the service they received, with one customer Julia Macphie saying, "The customer service is a farce. Despite 30-odd phone calls, eight visits by different meter readers and several letters Npower hasn't sent me a correct bill for nearly two years."

British Gas only fared slightly better with 40 per cent of customers saying they were satisfied. The highest-rated company was Utility Warehouse, a relatively small supplier that is run as a discount club, which charges a small membership fee.

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