A pioneering project to provide 22,000 tenants of social housing schemes with solar panels generating free electricity is in jeopardy. Fears the government will cut subsidies for solar installations have prompted Empower Community to pause investment until clarity from government is gained. read more...

Residents living in Bournemouth council homes are set to benefit from the installation of more photo-voltaic solar panels. A further 500 council homes will have solar PV panels installed between November 2011 and March 2012, following the council’s successful pilot scheme earlier this year. read more...

It was a bold claim to make. Last year, residents of the Brecon Beacons village of Llangattock made it their aim that the 420-home settlement on the banks of the River Usk would be “carbon negative” by 2015. This means that heating and powering the village’s homes will not just produce zero carbon dioxide emissions, but that renewable activities will help contribute to lowering emissions from a wider area. read more...

Virtually all of the work done on the use of naturally insulating building materials, such as straw, and hemp focuses on new build, but finally, it seems some work is happening on retrofits. An MPhil dissertation done at the University of Cambridge by Keven Le Doujet entitled “Opportunities for the large scale implementation of straw based external insulation as a retrofit solution of existing UK buildings: how much of a good idea is it to externally insulate existing UK buildings with straw bales?” explores this very question. read more...

New research from an influential think tank highlights the risk that localism reforms will work against national climate change goals finding that two thirds of local authorities are scaling down or abolishing climate change targets. Is localism delivering for climate change? Green Alliance has recently made the first assessment of low carbon activity by local authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and front runner neighbourhood plans under the government’s new localism agenda. read more...

David Walliams may have suffered from the polluted waters of the River Thames on his recent charity swim, but some creatures seem to be thriving. Evidence of a colony of short-snouted seahorses has been found in the Thames, during a routine fisheries survey at Greenwich. This is the first time that these rare creatures have been found so far up the Thames and the first time in this part of London. read more...

Environmentalists have criticised plans for a huge new Welsh biomass power station after newly-formed firm Lateral Power was named as the company that will operate it. Lateral Power says the 299 megawatt plant on land now used by Anglesey Aluminum will offer green electricity to the national grid and create up to 400 jobs. The firm says the station, able to meet the annual electricity demand of up to 300,000 homes, will be part of a larger North Wales eco park using waste water and heat to produce supplies of fresh fish and vegetables. read more...

They look just like instant coffee granules but consuming them in a hot drink is not recommended. For these are in fact sewage flakes - a highly-combustible renewable fuel that burns like wood chip. Thames Water has begun producing the flakes by drying sludge, the solids from sewage, in a new, methane powered machine at Slough sewage works in Berkshire. The company then burns the flakes to generate electricity. read more...