Can you afford to turn up the thermostat?

Freezing temperatures could put up energy bills by £7 a experts have warned, adding to the pressure on households as they cope with price hikes to gas and electricity.

It costs £3 a day, on average, to heat a home, but during cold weather this can easily rise by £1 a day as people push up thermostats or leave the heating on for longer, according to figures from price comparison website, uSwitch.com.

Weather forecasts have said that some parts of the UK could get up to 10cm of snow today with freezing temperatures set to continue for up to three weeks.
All of the ‘big six’ energy suppliers have announced price hikes this winter, with the last of these, from E.ON, coming into effect next Friday.

The price increases have pushed up the average annual household gas and electricity bill by 7.4 per cent, or £94 to a record £1,352 a year.



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UK tidal power has huge potential, say scientists

The UK is underestimating the amount of electricity that could be generated from tidal sources, new research says.

The analysis says that estuary barrages and tidal streams could provide more than 20% of the nation's demand for electricity.

Despite high costs, experts say tidal power is more reliable than wind.

The predictable nature of tides makes them an ideal renewable energy source, the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A reports.

Essentially, engineers try to tap tides in two ways: one involves building barrages across tidal estuaries that use the ebb and flow of the waters to turn turbines - a major project of this type had been proposed for the River Severn.

The other method involves planting turbines underwater in fast flowing tidal streams in areas such as in coastal waters around Cornwall and Scotland.
Smaller better

In the Royal Society report, researchers say they are "extremely optimistic" that both types of technology can be realised and relatively soon.
La Rance tidal station (Getty Images) La Rance in Brittany, France, is the site of the world's first tidal power station

"From tidal barrages you can reasonably expect you can get 15% of UK electricity needs, that's a very solid number," co-author Dr Nicholas Yates from the National Oceanography Centre told BBC News.

The massive Severn estuary tidal barrage scheme had been rejected by the coalition government because of its environmental impact, but ministers have indicated they are open to review the idea.


Developing power from offshore tidal streams is fraught with difficulty, as the BBC discovered when reporting on the emerging industry in Scotland last year.
Better than wind

But according to the authors of the latest research, 2013 could see a big breakthrough in tidal stream power. A company called MeyGen is planning to deploy tidal stream technology in the Pentland Firth that will initially generate up to 40MW of electricity, enough to power about 38,000 homes.

"This is a crucial milestone for us, it will be the first array of tidal stream turbines," observed report co-author Professor AbuBakr Bahaj from the University of Southampton.

"It will be a viable proposition for us in energetic areas of the sea - it will be give us another element in the energy mix that's more reliable than wind."

While the report paints a positive future for tidal power, a critical element is money.

In the past month ,the EU has announced funding in the region of £30m for two UK tidal projects.

Investors in tidal technology are currently rewarded with a payment of £40 per megawatt hour for energy generated from renewables, but this scheme will end in 2017.

By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News

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Energy tariff cashback deals could be targeted as Ofgem cracks down

Ofgem is to look at how introductory offers like cashback are marketed on price comparison websites.

Sources at the regulator have told This Is Money they are unhappy with industry practices that involve creating headline-grabbing discounts of several hundred pounds to encourage consumers to switch supplier, but which energy companies offer for only a limited quota to sign up a small number of customers with the remainder given more expensive deals.

The regulator takes over the voluntary code of practice for price comparison companies in January. Currently 12 switching companies are accredited, which means they have agreed to independent audit, can display a Confidence Code logo on their website and adhere to a set of rules for how prices are displayed.

The regulator has already announced plans to remove complexity from tariffs. It wants customers to be able to say what their tariff price for gas and electricity is. Currently even Phil Bentley, managing director of British Gas is unable to do this. He told MPs on the Energy Select Committee that he would struggle to answer if asked what he paid for his gas and electricity.

Once the tariff price that customers pay for their dual fuel – whether it be their electricity, green fuel or other type - becomes the currency that is talked about, Ofgem’s idea is that price competition on default, standard tariffs will be more effective.

More customers will have the confidence to switch to these standard, widely available lowest tariffs, or energy companies might even be forced to move consumers onto lowest tariffs by legislation.

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Electric cars 'pose environmental threat'

Electric cars might pollute much more than petrol or diesel-powered cars, according to new research.

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology study found greenhouse gas emissions rose dramatically if coal was used to produce the electricity.

Electric car factories also emitted more toxic waste than conventional car factories, their report in the Journal of Industrial Energy said.

A battery electric vehicle, with electricity produced by the power generation mix we currently have in Europe, compares favourably in the magnitude of 10% or so with diesel”

Dieter Zetsche Chief executive, Daimler

With electric car production being so damaging to the environment, these cars have already polluted a great deal by the time they hit the road, the report says.

However, if the cars were then powered by electricity made from low-carbon electricity sources, they could nevertheless offer "the potential for substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and exposure to tailpipe emissions" over time.

However, in regions where fossil fuels are the main sources of power, electric cars offer no benefits and may even cause more harm, the report said.

"Electric vehicles powered by the present European electricity mix offer a 10% to 24% decrease in their global warming potential relative to conventional diesel or petrol vehicles."

This is in line with calculations made by some carmakers.
Drax Cars powered by electricity produced in coal power stations pollute more than petrol or diesel cars

"According to our results, a battery electric vehicle, with electricity produced by the power generation mix we currently have in Europe, compares favourably in the magnitude of 10% or so with diesel," Daimler's chief executive Dieter Zetsche told the BBC.

Longer lives

The report pointed out that the longer an electric car in Europe stays mobile, the greater its "lead" over petrol and diesel engines.

"Assuming a vehicle lifetime of 200,000km exaggerates the global warming benefits of electric vehicles to 27-29% relative to petrol and 17-20% relative to diesel," it said.

"An assumption of 100,000km decreases the benefit of electric vehicles to 9-14% with respect to petrol vehicles and results in impacts indistinguishable from those of a diesel vehicle."

An electric car's longevity depends a great deal on how long its battery lasts, not least since it is very expensive to replace them.

Batteries are gradually getting better, which could result in electric cars being used for longer.

However, as petrol and diesel engines are also improving, the relationships between the different types of vehicles are not constant.

"A more significant reduction in global warming could potentially be achieved by increasing fuel efficiency or shifting from petrol to diesel," the report said.

"If you are considering purchasing an electric vehicle for its environmental benefits, first check your electricity source and second look closely at the warranty on the batteries," said Professor Stromman.

Those in power, meanwhile, should recognise "the many potential advantages of electric vehicles [which] should serve as a motivation for cleaning up regional electricity mixes".

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