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YouGen Blog
The RE100: what are major companies doing to support the renewable energy transition?
Posted by Gabby Mallett on 8 October 2019 at 10:12 am
The signing of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 finally marked the beginning of concerted international efforts to address the climate crisis. With progress slowly inching forward at the political level, some major companies have begun making significant commitments to renewable energy. …
EKOenergy (the ecolabel for energy) launches in the UK
Posted by Gabby Mallett on 1 October 2019 at 3:17 pm
EKOenergy is a non-profit ecolabel for energy, working to change how we produce and consume energy. In 2013, the initiative was set up with the backing of 45 environmental NGOs in the UK and Europe to provide an easily identifiable mark of quality for energy products. The ecolabel has gained a lo…
Electric cars charging to affordability
Posted by Martha Worthington on 24 September 2019 at 10:04 am
In the not-so-distant past, ownership of an electric car faced many obstacles: lack of vehicle charge points, an unattainable price tag and similarly priced maintenance costs. But, thanks to some recent developments, owning an electric car is closer than ever to being reality for the average cons…
Breakthrough for batteries? – Company claims that batteries last up to 25 years
Posted by Brychan Williams on 13 September 2019 at 2:52 pm
The battery developers Aceleron says that it has developed lithium-ion batteries that can be repaired and improved meaning that they could last up to 25 years. Currently, most batteries are thrown away after one component of the battery fails. This is obviously problematic considering how man…
RHI: things to watch out for
Posted by Brychan Williams on 6 September 2019 at 2:47 pm
The Renewable Heat Incentive is a financial incentive scheme that was set up by the UK Government to encourage people to use renewable heat technologies in homes, businesses and local communities. Applicants receive quarterly cash payments over seven years for installing an eligible renewable hea…
Northern Line set to provide heat for over 1,000 homes in North London
Posted by Brychan Williams on 28 August 2019 at 4:55 pm
If you have travelled via the northern line, especially during the summer; you will realise just how hot it gets. Instead of simply wasting this heat, Transport for London (TfL) have come up with an innovative idea whereby warm air from an unused Northern Line station will be harnessed to sup…
Moving away from natural gas and embrace renewable energy technologies
Posted by Brychan Williams on 19 August 2019 at 4:55 pm
Opinion Piece, Part Two Click here to read Part One. I believe that we can significantly reduce our reliance on natural gas by utilising the renewable energy technologies that we already have. Traditionally the problem with renewables has been around intermittency, output and cost. Th…
Is natural gas a transition fuel?
Posted by Brychan Williams on 13 August 2019 at 10:24 am
Opinion Piece, Part One Natural Gas is often branded as a necessary transition fuel; a cleaner alternative to coal and oil. It is commonly asserted that natural gas is needed to plug the output gap that will be left with the phasing out of other fossil fuels. The argument is that we aren&…
Is hydrogen the answer? The future of heat
Posted by Brychan Williams on 2 August 2019 at 4:52 pm
Part two In Part 1 of our blog series we looked at the role that heat pumps could play in the future of UK heating. To view that blog click here. What other options are there available that can replace gas as our main source of heating as we move to a net zero carbon economy? One pote…
Will heat pumps keep us warm? The future of heat
Posted by Brychan Williams on 26 July 2019 at 4:36 pm
Part one The Government’s advisor the Committee on Climate Change recommended back in March this year that gas heating should be banned in the UK for new homes as of 2025 to help meet climate change obligations. Currently gas is the primary source of heating for around 85% of UK homes. …
New tidal record is a sign of big things to come
Posted by Brychan Williams on 16 July 2019 at 3:20 pm
SIMEC Atlantis a sustainable energy generation company says that its MeyGen tidal turbines have now sent 17.5GWh of renewable electricity to the National Grid, surpassing its previous record of 11GWh. The MeyGen scheme which is situated off the Caithness coast in Scotland involves four tidal turb…
Smart Export Guarantee: what you need to know
Posted by Brychan Williams on 12 July 2019 at 5:24 pm
The UK government has designed a ‘Smart Export Guarantee’ system which is set to replace the Feed-In-Tariff (FiT) that has been removed as of April 2019. The FiT essentially guaranteed producers of renewable energy a price per KWh of electricity produced as well as a price for the exc…
How homeowners can cut more than just repayments with new green mortgages
Posted by Brychan Williams on 2 July 2019 at 3:41 pm
The UK government yesterday launched a £5m fund for the financial sector to begin developing green mortgages as well as a £10m fund to reduce the costs of retrofitting the UK’s housing stock. The initiative aims to reduce the energy consumption of homeowners by rewarding th…
A beginner`s guide to community energy
Posted by Brychan Williams on 28 June 2019 at 2:01 pm
Energy prices are on the rise. It was announced in February by Ofgem that 15m households will see their energy bills increase by more than £100 a year as of April 2019. The reason for this rise according to Ofgem, is due to an increase in wholesale costs of big energy suppliers. This an…
VAT on solar and battery systems set to rise
Posted by Brychan Williams on 25 June 2019 at 5:12 pm
It has today been announced that VAT on solar panels and home batteries will increase from 5% to 20% as of October 2019. These changes have come as a huge blow for households hoping to reduce their carbon footprint by installing solar/battery systems. The proposed tax reforms have come …
What does the public think about climate change?
Posted by Anna Carlini on 11 June 2019 at 9:41 am
The BEIS Public Attitudes Tracker is a good indicator of changes in public attitudes towards topical issues. The study runs four times a year and collects data through interviews. We have summarised the most recent results published by BEIS in May 2019, focusing on topics surrounding energy and c…
Britain has been coal-free for a fortnight: but is that really as good as it sounds?
Posted by Anna Carlini on 3 June 2019 at 2:43 pm
Breaking records As of posting this blog on 3rd June 2019, Britain is currently entering its 17th day of generating electricity without the use of coal. This has been the longest period of time the country has gone without coal since the very first coal power station was built in 18…
What are the reasons behind the energy price cap?
Posted by Caitlin Latimer on 3 May 2019 at 9:57 am
The recent price cap came into effect on 1 January 2019 to protect customers on a variable tariff and was supposed to be saving around 11 million people on average of £76 per year on their energy bills. However the cap has since been reviewed by Ofgem and from April onward the cap will…
Will the grid receive my export for free?
Posted by Anna Carlini on 18 April 2019 at 10:05 am
The Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) scheme has been closed since the beginning of this month (April 2019), but there are still unanswered questions for what this means for many new and existing solar panel owners. In particular this blog targets those who have missed the application deadline but still want …
New renting rules: the landlord price cap comes into effect
Posted by Louise Hyde on 5 April 2019 at 10:33 am
Targeting poor domestic energy efficiency and ‘slumlords’ has long been an environmental and social mission for the government. The domestic energy sector is responsible for the largest energy consumption in the UK, higher than transport, industry and services. It also has the highest…
