Electric car subsidy worth up to £5,000

Motorists who buy an electric plug-in car from January next year will get a grant worth up to £5,000 from the government.

The project was announced by Labour but placed on hold by the coalition until the autumn spending review.

Now the Treasury has taken the highly unusual step of agreeing to ring fence the money from any cuts.

Carmakers had been putting pressure on the new government to announce what was happening to the electric car subsidy.

They had warned that without it, the UK would be significantly less attractive for new investment.
'Absolutely committed'

The sheer scale of budget cuts needed across government departments - with the distinct possibility that transport might fare worse than most - had placed the scheme in doubt.
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“Start Quote

How often do you drive more than 90 miles in one stretch?”

End Quote David Beesley Electric car user

* What is it like to live with an electric car?

Now the government says the £43m earmarked for the scheme will be protected.

It means that anyone who buys an electric plug-in car from next year will get a 25% discount up to a maximum of £5,000.

"The coalition government is absolutely committed to low carbon growth, tackling climate change and making our energy supply more secure," said Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond.

"We are sending a clear signal that Britain is open for business and that we are committed to greening our economy.

"This will ensure that the UK is a world leader in low emission vehicles.

"We will review the level of the incentive regularly to ensure that the UK remains competitive and taxpayers get value for money."
Barriers

The extra help is not expected to make up for the extra cost of the vehicle - which could be about £10,000 more expensive than its petrol equivalent.

However owners could save hundreds of pounds a year in running costs.

The subsidy will come into force at the same time as a rise in VAT.

The increase from 17.5% to 20% adds almost £640 to the cost of a £30,000 car.

One possible barrier to people adopting electric cars is the lack of dedicated plug-in points - with there currently only being about 300 across the UK.

But Nissan - whose Leaf car will be on sale in the UK from March - argues this is misleading.

It says the evidence from Japan is that people do not buy electric cars until the charging points are in place - but then do not actually use them, preferring to charge at home instead.
Grant offer

Rapid-charge plug-in points, which can charge a car to 80% capacity in less than half an hour, are not likely to be the way most people "refuel".

Electricity overnight can be significantly cheaper and motorists can plug their car in and leave it, rather than having to wait.

That works as long as the motorist's daily use is not more than the range of the car - 100 miles in the case of the Leaf.

However that also depends on users not draining the battery in other ways such as using the heating or air-conditioning.

The grant is open to both private and business fleet buyers across the UK.

It will stay in place - assuming the money does not run out - until 31 March 2012.

The level for subsequent years will be set according to how the market develops and what happens to the cost of the cars.

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Giant offshore turbine that mimics sycamore seeds

A giant wind turbine design that mimics the spiralling motion of a sycamore seed could revolutionise the wind power industry.

British engineers are working on a design for the Aerogenerator which would rotate on its axis and would measure nearly 900 feet from tip to tip, generating up to 10MW.

News of the design comes after Lib Dem Energy Secretary Chris Huhne signalled a dramatic increase in the number of wind farms to be built in Britain – as he said there was no money in the pot to pay for nuclear power stations.

Engineering firm Wind Power is developing the Aerogenerator with architects Grimshaw, academics at Cranfield University and is also working with Rolls Royce, Arup, BP and Shell on its revolutionary design.

Those behind the design say that it could expanded to produce turbines that generated 20MW or more of power.

Scaling up the diameter of a conventional wind turbine would produce far more power from each device but would make them extremely heavy so engineers are now looking at ways of adapting the design to make them more efficient.

The Aerogenerator has two arms jutting out from its base to form a V-shape, with rigid 'sails' mounted along their length. As the wind passes over these they act like aerofoils, generating lift which turns the structure as a whole at roughly three revolutions per minute.

The first Aerogenerator could be up and running by 2013.

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Solar panels ‘could raise £34m’ for places of worship

Installing solar panels on British churches and other religious buildings could raise £34 million per year through Feed-in Tariff (FiT) payments and electricity bill savings, according to figures released by British Gas.

According to data based on the company's Green Streets programme, published this week (July 12), the renewable technology could generate more than £29 million-a-year for places of worship through FiTs and save nearly £5 million a year by not having to buy electricity.

The Feed-in Tariff scheme was launched in April this year and provides fixed, technology-dependent payments to individuals, organisations and businesses who install renewable electricity generators for every unit of electricity they produce (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story). Under the scheme, solar photovoltaic (PV) tariffs peak at 41.3p/kWh - the highest available tariff.

The British Gas Green Streets programme - which provides £2 million to fund microgeneration and energy efficiency measures to help 14 communities around the UK save and generate energy - has both a church and a mosque involved in the project and the figures revealed here are based on real life examples of the potential savings of these buildings. These were then extrapolated to take account of the number of churches and mosques in the UK and their average congregation.

British Gas notes that the savings and money-making potential identified will be "a welcome revelation" to religious buildings which have been hit by the recession, claiming a recent report found that a quarter of all Church of England dioceses are currently facing budget deficits.

The figures also show that the CO2 savings of installing solar panels could also be significant, with savings of up to 42,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.
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Air Source Heat Pump Slashes Heating Bills

The Pearce family, of Enstone, near Chipping Norton, took a £950 holiday paid for with savings made on their energy bills after having a new energy-saving air pump system installed.

The environmentally-friendly device uses naturally occuring heat from the air to warm the home and provide hot water.

The equipment, called an air source heat pump, has dramatically lowered the cost of heating the family’s three-bedroom home and meant Mark and Hayley Pearce could repay their outstanding electricity bills.
Two years ago, the Cottsway Housing Association tenants had accumulated a £1,000 bill with Southern Electric.

The couple then had the new heating system installed by Cottsway to replace the old electric storage heaters and solid fuel open fire in the lounge.

Before the new heating system, they spent £1,137 a year on electricity bills and solid fuel.

The house is not on the gas network and the storage heaters and coal fire gave it a carbon footprint of nine tonnes of CO2 a year.

Costs are now down to £384 for the heating and the carbon footprint has dropped to 3.2 tonnes.

The housing association has installed air source heat pumps to replace storage and convector heaters and solid fuel fires in some of its houses.

Cottsway spokesman Gary Salter said: “We knew we would see a cut in fuel bills for our tenants but this has even surprised us.”

The ‘Ecodan’ air source heat pump operates on a small amount of electricity. It works effectively in temperatures below -15C.

Thousands of homes in Scandinavia have similar technology and it is being promoted and bought by UK energy suppliers.

Mr Salter added: “It’s very simple to install and operate, and will work with conventional radiators like those in most homes heated by gas central heating.

“We are delighted with the results from all of the Ecodan systems we have installed to date.”

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