Welcome to The Renewable Energy Centre Press Room
Here you will find articles and press releases issued by The Renewable Energy Centre. If you require more information or would like to publish these, please contact Angela Gallacher (Head of Press & Marketing) on 01926 865835.
Please click on the links below to read the full articles:
Sutherland Tables 2012 Publication Now Contains figures on Ground and Air Source Heat Pumps
10 Feb 2012
The Sutherland Tables provide comparative costs for space heating and hot water for the most common fuels across a range of standard house types throughout the UK and Ireland.
The Tables also provide figures for heating an individual room using a variety of appliances including open and closed solid fuel appliances, gas and electric heaters, and fixed and portable LPG heaters.
Varilight V Pro Versatile and Intelligent LED Dimmer Switches
08 Nov 2011
The Internet Electrical Store has added the Varilight V Pro range of Trailing Edge Dimmer Switches to its Light Switch collection.
Formerly known as the J Series, this dimmer has the ability to dim LED Lights. Varilight V Pro is an energy efficient and cost effective lighting solution.
.... Download PDFVerdo Renewables Fuels our Fires throughout 2011
19 Oct 2011
Wood Pellet manufacturer Verdo Renewables has seen significant growth throughout 2011. The company’s head office is based in Denmark but now has two major manufacturing plants in the UK.
Both sites, one in Grangemouth, Scotland and the other in Andover, Hampshire have the capacity to produce over 55,000 tonnes of wood pellets and 15,000 tonnes of briquettes respectively. The company is also now hoping to engage over 150 new retailers to stock products in addition to the 34 already supplying Verdo pellets and briquettes.
.... Download PDFPlanning Application Refused for 3 Wind Turbines in Swindon
17 Oct 2011
After 4 years of trying to secure planning permission, Honda and partners Ecotricity were refused planning last week to erect 3 wind turbines on the Honda car manufacturing site.
The Renewable Energy Centre was asked to comment on the decision by the BBC Wiltshire, Mark O’Donnell show.
Save Energy Renewables Opens Renewable Energy Showroom in Poole
05 Oct 2011
One of the largest Renewable Energy providers in the South has opened Poole’s first interactive Showroom for Residential and Commercial customers.
One of the largest renewable energy providers in the South, Save Energy Renewables - part of the Save Energy Group, is providing an opportunity to get up close and personal with the products that are enabling today’s astute consumer to take control of rising energy costs by harvesting what comes naturally – daylight.
.... Download PDFNew CHP Training Course at Imperial College Fills Knowledge Gap in Energy Reuse
15 Sep 2011
The European Energy Centre (EEC), one of the UK’s leading renewable energy training providers, and a leading Lecturer from Imperial College London have designed an innovative training course aimed at helping decision-makers understand the latest technologies in energy ‘reuse’ and the potential paybacks to their business.
The course will be held at Imperial College on the 30th September 2011.
.... Download PDFNew Range of Inverters for PV Market Launched by Gefran
14 Sep 2011
Gefran will be attending the Greening Government Conference on 12th October 2011 (Stand 24) to offer the renewable energy market its line of RADIUS inverters designed for the photovoltaic sector. Our aim is to raise awareness of the different technologies available to make potential projects more energy and cost effective.
With the RADIUS inverter family, GEFRAN commits its technological know-how to future challenges, applying over 45 years of experience in the electrical drive and energy management segments.
.... Download PDFSunstroom completes the construction and grid connection of a 5MW solar PV project in Wiltshire
03 Aug 2011
Sunstroom Energy Limited, a company specialised in developing solar parks, has completed the construction and grid connection of a ground-mounted solar PV project near Malmesbury in Wiltshire.
The total installed capacity of the project is 5MW, comprising approx. 20,000 solar panels. The project is located on a brownfield site of approx. 36 acres and is not overlooked by local residents. It was constructed in 5 weeks and became operational in July 2011, days before the 31 July government deadline.
Gehrlicher Solar UK Ltd builds one of the largest solar parks in the UK
28 Jul 2011
With a peak power of 5 MWp, Gehrlicher has successfully built the Langage Solar Park in the UK’s sunniest regions together with UK power developer Carlton Power Ltd.
On the 15th July 2011 Langage Solar Park (5 MW), one of the largest photovoltaic parks in the history of the United Kingdom, was connected to the English power grid. Located near Plymouth in England’s sunny southwest, the project will annually produce 4.95 million kilowatt hours of clean renewable energy, providing for the needs of about 1,400 three-person households.
Solar Europa secures billion pound deal that will help ease fuel poverty in UK
15 Jul 2011
200,000 association tenants across the UK getting free solar panels installed on their homes.
A massive £1.2 billion deal has been struck that will see around 200,000 council and housing association tenants across the UK getting free solar panels installed on their homes. Yorkshire-based Solar Europa has unveiled what it claims is the UK's biggest-ever deal for free solar power after securing financial backing from a market-leading project finance specialist.
.... Download PDFWind turbine manufacturing industry building on a global localised market
14 Jul 2011
With new demands in emerging markets, the wind turbine manufacturing industry is seeing repositioning from the traditional centres of production from Europe to emerging market entrants in Asia and South America.
While some leading OEM’s are opening production facilities in China and Vietnam, tier one manufacturers are making a significant step towards producing their components in the fast industrialised nations of China, India and Brazil. This step change in the turbine manufacturing landscape is resulting in the relationships between OEM and component manufacturer being increasingly important in order to minimise costs and continue expanding their business.
For the past couple of years the wind turbine supply chain have been about component redesign, reconfiguration of component production lines, realignment of manufacturing locations and more conservative capacity addition. While the demand gap brought about by the financial crisis has forced turbine component suppliers to downsize and refocus capacity, suppliers are now better positioned to respond quickly to the market.
Problems with Planning - the Industry looks to AAH Planning Consultants for the solution
12 Jul 2011
The planning process in the UK can be far from straightforward as typically there are many ongoing requests for additional information, plans and documentation. It can be a headache and regularly takes businesses away from their core focus of expansion by tying them to the planning process.
AAH Planning Consultants has successfully identified this challenge, and has decided to put its expertise to good use. ‘Outsourcing to a planning consultancy can be the best decision a company can make’ says Adrian Hill, Planning Director at AAH Planning Consultants. ‘Our clients recognise that they are wise to outsource planning applications leaving them to focus on either site acquisition or sales’.
Wind Energy Update Wind energy component manufacturers seize opportunity to connect with OEMs
28 Jun 2011
While the wind industry has been through several challenging years in terms of numbers of orders and installations, the rise of emerging windpower markets such as China, India, Eastern Europe and Brazil has arguably reinvigorated the turbine manufacturing industry, with leading manufacturers establishing new centres to capitalise on new opportunities.
To adapt to shifting manufacturing strategies, component suppliers are being forced to evaluate their approaches to forge stronger relationships with OEMs so that they can contend with a more globalised and competitive supply chain environment.
.... Download PDFEuropean and Asian wind turbine OEMs commit to Collaborate
27 Jun 2011
Turbine manufacturers are constantly reviewing their component sourcing strategies as they seek to reduce their costs and increase product quality and reliability.
As manufacturers try to balance in-house manufacturing and outsourcing supply, shortages in previous years have forced OEM’s to pay closer attention to their relationships with component manufacturers.
Wind Turbine Blade Maintenance Against all odds
20 Jun 2011
When a seven metre portion of a Vestas blade prototype broke off last year - only weeks after the company had a signed a deal to supply the same model to a 420MW wind farm in Australia - the company felt it had some explaining to do. But according to the latest Wind Energy Update Operations and Maintenance Report 2011, human error, which was ultimately the cause of the failure, is all too common in blade prototype manufacturing.
“The rotor blade prototype fabrication process requires significant hand labor, providing abundant opportunity for deviations to the fiber placement specifications,” explains the report, which provides an in-depth cradle to grave analysis of blade design, manufacture, and maintenance.
