The house of straw

A team of builders have created a straw house that can withstand any amount of huffing and puffing - and a hurricane.

The environmentally-friendly house was built with straw bale panels and could pave the way for the first housing estate of straw buildings.

Professor Pete Walker said: 'Straw is a very environmentally-friendly building material because it is renewable and uses a co-product of farming.

'The crop used to make the straw locks in carbon dioxide as it grows and can be sourced from local farms, saving on transport and minimising the carbon footprint of the building.

'The recent test result is excellent as it has both confirmed the robustness of BaleHaus and validated the computer model, so avoiding the need for further tests and providing basis for safe and efficient structural design.

'We hope the data we're collecting on the BaleHaus will help strengthen the case for the mainstream building industry switching to using more sustainable building materials such as straw.'

Craig White, director of ModCell, said: 'This is a fantastic result. All too often, we are asked whether building with straw is durable.

'Our research at BaleHaus@Bath shows conclusively that building with straw using the ModCell System is not only safe, secure and durable, it is also fit for the 21st century challenge of reducing our CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

'These tests will offer proof that renewable building materials are a realistic option for building on a large scale.

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Radio 'scrappage' scheme 'to help listeners move to digital sets'

The part-exchange deal, involving major electronic retailers, is intended to boost the take-up of digital radios ahead of 2015, which is the target date for turning off the analogue signal.

Under the scheme, which will be detailed on Wednesday, customers would be offered up to a 20 per cent discount on their digital set in return for handing in their analogue model.

The scrappage scheme, due to start at the weekend and operated over the coming month, is inspired by the success of Gordon Brown's plan for reviving the British car manufacturing sector.

People trading in their old vehicles for greener models were offered a £2,000 discount, leading to thousands of extra sales.

Digital Radio UK, the body established to push through the switchover, is to announce details of the latest scheme.

“Retailers benefit by getting more sales. There is also a charity element,” a source said.


At present just 20 per cent of radio listening takes place over digital with an estimated 100 million analogue radio sets still in Britain.
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Cornwall's 'Silicon Vineyards' aim to triple solar capacity in UK

Cornwall's reputation for sun, sand and surf could soon be challenged by silicon if a proposed £40m network of solar farms gets the go ahead.

Next week, public consultation will begin for a 15-acre "energy farm" on a green-field site at St Kew, three miles east of Wadebridge, the market town which acts as the gateway to north Cornwall's popular tourist heartlands. A local farmer has raised £4.5m of private investment to construct the first of what could be 10 similar sites across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, which, if all built, would triple the UK's current solar generating capacity.

But such investment doesn't automatically guarantee a hi-tech approach: the solar panels will be tilted towards the sun each day by hand and a roaming gaggle of geese will be used to keep the surrounding grass at a manageable length.

A consortium of local companies calling itself "Silicon Vineyards" says the proposed 2MW facility at Benbole Farm – which would be the first utility-scale solar farm in the UK - would generate enough electricity to power 600 homes. It will also grow biomass crops and house an anaerobic digester as an alternative source of power generation. The consortium, which includes the commercial arm of the University of Exeter and a Penzance-based renewables specialist called Renewable Energy Cooperative (R-ECO), says construction could begin in October if planning is approved. The solar farm could start generating electricity commercially by April 2011.
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First of its kind Eco-Training Hub Opened Yesterday in Britain

Yesterday, an eco-training hub, which is described as the first of its kind in Britain was formally opened by First Minister, Carwyn Jones.

The British Gas Green Skills Training Centre in Tredegar intends to provide training over 1,300 people in new energy competent technologies.

Engineers obtain the possibility to study how to install tools such as solar panels, hi-tech smart meters, biomass boilers and combined heat and power boilers in purpose built training bungalows.

The centre, which is a part of the British Gas Energy Academy at Tredegar Business Park, cost British Gas £900,000 with the Assembly adding £500,000.

It is hoped that the project will assist the Assembly's program to improvise 40,000 homes in the Heads of the Valley's area.

Gearold Lane, British Gas Managing Director of Communities and New Energy said that the location was the first of its kind in Britain.

This is a society in the Valleys that for a number of years was at the vanguard of the industrial revolution and of power through the production of petroleum.

The challenge that comes up is to develop skills and to make an effort to be at the vanguard of the energy production in the prospective time.
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