Electricity and Heat that doesn't cost the Earth

GB Electricity Mix

KEY MESSAGES

Where heat and electricity come from natural resources climate damage is lessened
Yearly cost to run renewables is MUCH lower than yearly cost to run coal, gas, oil etc
Gas for heating and oil for driving will be replaced by low carbon energy
Local heat and electricity can be owned by local people, individuals, businesses and communities
Electricity and Gas coming into Haringey needs to be from low carbon sources

Haringey Council’s proposed actions are in the ‘pink stripes’ below.

People need electricity to be part of the modern World and need heat when it is cold. It is when these come from fossil fuels that the blanket of greenhouse gases that disrupts our weather systems becomes more and more dangerous. Where electricity and heat come from natural resources climate damage is slowed down and the UK, Haringey and individuals can all play their part in this transformation. Reducing our use of electricity and heat is covered in the Green Buildings and Green Transport pages. This page is about incurring minimum greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity and heat we need, with Haringey’s proposed actions featured in the pink stripes.

The cabinet member in Haringey responsible for Sustainability and Renewable Energy is Cllr Mike Hakata at mike.hakata@haringey.gov.uk

What you can do to get cleaner electricity and heat

Much of the transformation from high to low carbon electricity and heat will be managed by the Government and power companies and invisible to users. However there will need to be significant behaviour changes as UK people swap gas boilers for heat pumps, petrol/diesel vehicles for electric and generate their own electricity and heat. The Committee on Climate Change advocate more local Climate Assemblies to work with the British People on the transformation. Things that individuals can do now include:

1. Switch to a Green supply

Ideally, every time someone switches to ‘green’ electricity additional 100% renewable electricity is installed in the UK. But it is not so simple and Which has a good explanation from Sept 2019 in How green is your energy tariff?. It identified Ecotricity and Good Energy as providing the same amount of 100% renewable electricity to the grid as customers buy. Which did not engage with Green Energy who explain here that they do too, and also has a tariff using EKO certification.

Buyers beware as other suppliers can associate the 100% renewable electricity they buy against ‘green tariffs’, meaning that non green tariffs are high carbon. Commonly suppliers just buy ‘Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin’ certificates (REGOs) to claim that their tariffs are 100% renewable. The table at Electricityinfo.org is therefore misleading.

This schematic from Regen explains the difference between real fuel mixes and claimed ‘green fuel mixes, where the electricity behind the certificates has actually been sold elsewhere. There is a table at the Which How Green is Your Energy Tariff article that says how much is bought from generators – thus encouraging more renewables. Green Energy explains how some suppliers save £ms by buying European certificates at https://www.goodenergy.co.uk/media/18730/renewable-certificates-in-europe-research-note.pdf

Switching schemes that claim to help users switch to 100% renewables include:

The Big London Energy Switch is supported by Haringey Council which from October 2020 ‘will only offer 100% renewable electricity’. The Haringey page of FAQs says that “the electricity supply will be matched by renewable energy sources including wind, biomass, and solar, which may be Generated by the suppliers’ own renewable sources; – Bought from independent renewable generators; Matched with 100% renewable electricity sourced externally with Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origins (REGO) certificates.”
Green Electricity Marketplace which has three schemes to use to switch.

And checkout Ripple Energy which supplies electricity only to its investors in new wind power! .

2. Generate more low carbon electricity

See E2 below for Haringeys action to encourage property owners to install solar panels, and also Com2 at Communities and Friendship.

Individuals can also invest in community solar projects eg at Community Energy England or ask your financial advisor eg at Ethical Investment search.

3. Adopt low carbon heating.

• See Renewable Energy Hub for an explanation of air source and ground source heat pumps.
• See Simple Energy Advice to learn about and apply for the Green Homes Grant, currently due to end March 2021, but likely to be extended
• See Trustmark to find tradespeople qualified to work under the Green Homes Grant.
• And see below for Haringey Council’s measures to encourage low carbon heating: E4 for heat pumps and E3 for district (communal) heating.

Haringey Council working towards low carbon electricity

E1 – Install renewable generation in our public spaces (e.g. Lee Valley) and review for wind turbines and PV solar arrays
As well as the Lee Valley there is an initiative to install solar on TfL property. See this initial search for contractors.

References
1. Floating Solar is explained in this Thames Water video, with further explanation here.
2.Thames Water uses Haven Power for electrical supply , and had a target to generate 30% of its own electricity by 2020. “We look forward to growing our relationship with Haven to exploit further opportunities to minimise energy costs and emissions, as well as continuing to work towards our ambitious target of self-generating 30 percent of our own electricity by 2020.” Although the substation is on the Haringey side there might not be any zero carbon electricity beyond own use to feed to Haringey.

3. Tottenham Marshes would be the most likely site near the Lee Valley for wind turbines. One small turbine type is Ecorote – a Polish product, which has been used at the South Pole.

5. The GLA’s Upper Lee Valley Opportunity Area is being republished and Haringey ‘An Economic Future for the Lee Valley’ will be updated to align with this.

E2 – Develop a programme to encourage the installation of 20,000 PV arrays by 2041

References

1 en10ergy and Haringey solar installations.

2 The London Solar Map

3 Conservation Areas in Haringey here.

4 London Community Energy Fund (LCEF) provides feasibility funding to community groups who want to scope out an energy saving project, such as solar PV, LEDs, charging points or batteries etc, and sometime capital instead en10ergy used this funding for installations at Woodside High School and Fortismere School.

5 S106 Carbon Offsetting The GLA Carbon Offset Funds Report 2019 says: “Policy SI2 part D of the new draft London Plan requires LPAs to monitor and report annually on the operation of their carbon offset funds. By Nov 2019 Haringey had collected £330K and was due £1.5m.”

6 Solar Together is open to Haringey residents from time to time – see here for GLA link. It relies on being able to provide solar PV at a cost that can be recouped by electricity bill savings – which can be difficult for most homes to justify on purely financial grounds. “Households and small businesses can register their interest to have high quality solar panels (PV) their roofs, and with support from local authorities, the Solar Together scheme will group purchase solar panels at a very competitive price on their behalf and install them.”

C1 – Council Own use electricity

For the Council to move to 100% green tariffs (electricity and gas) by 2027.

By 2020 (elec.)

By 2025 (gas.)

Delivered by energy efficiency and green tariffs (+0.3% on elec.) there is increasing demand from the schools to switch.

Where electricity contracts claim 100% renewable, despite actually just including REGO certificates¹carbon savings should not be claimed.

References

Haringey has moved to a 100% Green tariff with E.on for council buildings, many schools, some health centres. This does not guarantee 100% additionality – so the council is planning that, when its 3 year contract with Eon is up, it will work with TfL and other London boroughs to buy its own renewable infrastructure.

It has also begun a programme to reduce the electricity in street lights with LED bulbs.

Haringey Council working towards low carbon heat

E3 – – Develop policies to support installation of Decentralised Energy Networks (DENs)

References

1.The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) is developing a much larger Edmonton Incinerator. There is a local campaign with a list of objections to this development.. The currently facility produces waste to electricity, but the new one is designed to also produce waste to heat. The GLA’s North London District Energy Network paper supports the scheme “ 1.26. This project proposes to provide up to £750,000 to increase the pipe-size for the current pipe-work design between the Edmonton ERF and Fore Street that will start to be constructed from early 2021. This will allow greater volumes of heat to be available for the Enfield element of the network as well as upwards of 20MW of heat able to be supplied from Enfield into Haringey and on to Hackney.”

2.Wood Green District Energy Network (DEN) and the Heartlands development. The planning permission for the Heartlands development (HGY/2017/3117) allows for a temporary heat centre for the initial Phase; a DEN1 permanent heat centre for the site and then a DEN2 permanent heat centre for Wood Green District Energy Network. It is understood that the Heartlands developers, St Williams, promised to provide basic facilities for the later Wood Green District Network instead of the £m of carbon offset that would have been payable upfront. The Energy Statement for the ‘Clarendon Gas Works’ says that Haringey Council had confirmed that the construction of the [Wood Green] Energy Centre will be paid for by Haringey CIL. (p26)

3.The CCC Sector Summary for Buildings says (at p40) that “Currently, around 93% of district heat networks use a fossil fuel based primary fuel source. We assume that all new district heat network connections from 2025 are low-carbon. All heat networks supplied by legacy CHP schemes convert to low carbon heat sources by 2040.” Box M3.4: “we model a fully electrified heat supply mix dominated by water- and sewage-source heat pumps and waste heat from industrial sources. Recent examples of large-scale heat pump solutions include London, Glasgow and the whole town of Drammen in Norway. For our Headwinds scenario, we model an electrified supply mix which retains gas peaking capacity – transitioning to hydrogen over time.”

4. Developers choosing heat solutions can follow the London Energy Transformation Initiative’s (LETI) decision tree advising on the options and issues. “Connecting to district heating networks that are dependent on fossil fuels should be avoided unless there is a declared route-map to zero carbon for 2030.” And “Energy from waste is another option, however much of the burned plastics / biomass derivatives emit CO2that was previously locked out of the atmosphere. Instead as part of a circular economy these materials should be recycled, reprocessed and reused. At this time the logic of how energy from waste can contribute to a zero-carbon society has not been established, and consequently at this time this is not a suitable solution.” (p76

5. The Government’s Heat Networks Investment Project (HNIP), is “currently investing up to £320 million through the existing using grants and loans to accelerate the growth of the market.” And the Energy White Paper of December 2020 says “We are committing £122 million of funding towards a new Heat Network Transformation Programme and will implement local authority zoning by 2025.”

E4 – Develop a programme of technical advice to encourage the adoption of heat pumps
References.
1. Air Source Heat Pumps can also be used in reverse for cooling – but should be powered by renewable electricity, particularly solar to avoid boosting electricity from the grid. The Renewable Energy Hub has good general information about heat pumps.
2. Ground Source Heat Pumps. Recent innovations in Ground Source Heat Pumps include Black Mountain’s Erda’s Co-axial inclined boreholes which require a small footprint and provide cooling in the summer and heating in the winter, storing heat in the ground.
3. The Committee on Climate Change’s Policies for the Sixth Carbon Budget (p22) have these target dates:
- From 2025 – All new boilers ‘hydrogen-ready’
- By 2030 – Heat pump installations at scale (1m annually) ahead of a natural gas phaseout date pre-2035. All buildings except owner-occupied non-fuel poor homes achieve EPC C
- By 2033 – Sales of gas boilers to all homes and business phased out (by 2033) All buildings except owner-occupied non-fuel poor homes achieve EPC C by 2030
1. Options appraisals for heat pumps in 15 London buildings – Carbon Trust for the GLA in August 2020 concluded that there is a heat pump for every property, with many requiring energy efficiency measures to ensure suitability. Haringey will be able to benefit from consulting the GLA’s Heat Retrofit in London. (p159 pages)

Haringey working towards low carbon electricity and heat

Planning an integrated low carbon system for Haringey

Except where property owners generate their own electricity, Haringey customers receives the fuel mix sent to it from UK Power Network who get it from the sources available to the National Grid ESO. Thus the electricity used in Haringey, and the rest of the UK has decarbonised considerably as the UK has reduced the amount of coal used in the grid.

But, as the network modernises, each locality should influence the amount of low carbon electricity generated locally – and stored for later use. This would require state of the art modelling of the current electricity, heat map to agree the pathway to a decarbonised Haringey – regardless of resident’s actions.

The National Grid Electricity System Operator is working to enable this with a trial called the South Coast Regional Development Programme implemented by UK Power Networks (the same District Network Operator (DNO) that services Haringey), planned to rolling this out in 2021. The new system will directly connect the local network operator’s control room with the control room at the national system operator, giving them more visibility and control to keep the system balanced. The roll-out of the system will enable up to 600MW of distributed energy resources (DR) to be connected in the region.

The Energy Catapult is a company that will work with Local Authorities and DNOs to bring together plans for an integrated energy system incorporating heat and transport and regulatory issues. Currently they can demonstrate work with Manchester and can model from the basis of providing warm comfortable low carbon homes. Energy Systems Catapult offers expertise in local energy system modelling and analysis local, which takes a whole system perspective, considering the complex interactions of power, gas, heat, and transport and the different ways in which our energy might be supplied, managed and consumed in the future.

Modelling, such as with Energy Catapult, would involve collaboration with UKPN, Haringey Council and Haringey residents and would encompass sources of electricity and heat, including from waste, rivers, sewage, tube networks, solar roofs, solar thermal, biomass, anaerobic, wind and geothermal. Where residents could increase low carbon electricity and heat the work would cover behaviour changes and the incentives of warm homes and lower bills.

The Government’s path to Net Zero carbon electricity by 2050

The Government is fully aware of the need to decarbonise UK Electricity and Heat, And it has also been made fully aware that current policies will not get us there. The following documents cover activity in 2020, and formed the basis of the UK’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) submitted to the UN in December 2020. The aim of this is to encourage other Countries to submit more ambitious NDCs before the UK hosts the COP26 in Nov 2021.

Sixth Carbon Budget

The tripling of growth between 2020 and 2050 will result from the replacement of petrol and diesel with electricity and the replacement of gas boilers with heat pumps, but the increased electricity will be from zero carbon renewables.

Their calculations are that, if the Government follows their advice, carbon intensity of UK electricity should reduce: (p36)

Ave 220 gCO2/kWh in 2019
Around 50 gCO2/kWh in 2030
10 gCO2/kWh in 2035
2 gCO2/kWh in 2050.

Carbon Briefs CCC UK must cut emissions by 78% by 2035 to be on course for Net Zero goal.

National Infrastructure Strategy Fairer, Faster, Greener Nov 2020 (51 pages)

“As the power system evolves, the government will need to consider how its own role (p28)…. Network operators will therefore be required to make investment decisions that are best for the operation of the whole system rather than their own network.

Energy White Paper – December 2020

The Energy White Paper Powering Our Net Zero Future announced a long-term strategic vision for our energy system. Energy Live News said that “The Energy White Paper commits to all electricity being emission-free by 2050 and sets the country on target for an “overwhelmingly decarbonised” energy system by 2030.”

The 10 Point Plan – Green Industrial RevolutionNovember 2020

The 10 point plan formed the basis of the UK’s Nationally Determined Contribution to the UN Paris Agreement. The Guardian reported that “Greenpeace …. warned the scheme also had flaws. “It’s a shame the prime minister remains fixated on other speculative solutions, such as nuclear and hydrogen from fossil fuels, that will not be taking us to zero emissions anytime soon, if ever,”