Hi and Welcome - thanks for dropping by
Hopefully, if you’ve found this site, you are looking for information about how you can start generating your own energy on a small scale - either for your home, business or community.
The main purpose of MicroGenerationForums.co.uk is to try and encourage home owners in the UK to themselves become MicroGenerators by providing a place to ask questions and learn more. Much of the information and technology you will find here is also appliccable to larger projects suitable for communities and small businesses.
Whatever your level of interest or ability, we are here to try and help you - whether you are simply seeking a basic outline of how you can generate your own energy to those embarking on installing and even building their own MicroGeneration system.
Perhaps you are just starting out and just want a general outline of the possibilities. Our general discussion areas provide a place to ask general questions and find information about renewable energy in the home. If you have specific questions about a particular technology, then we provide sections about all the main MicroGeneration technologies including wind power, solar power (solar panels and PV/photovoltaic), heat pumps and Biofuels.
Experienced MicroGenerators needed!
If you have experience of designing, installing or running MicroGeneration projects, you can help by:
Please take some time to check out our forums and see if you can pitch in with some help. The chances are that if one person is asking a question, then many more people have the same question.. so by simply providing an answer, the likelihood is that you will be helping many more people learn about MicroGeneration.
We also have a MicroGeneration case studies forum for you to share your experiences in a single post so that other users can get a feel not only for what is involved with installing a system but also with what the reality is of producing your own energy once the system has been installed.
We hope you enjoy the site and find it helpful - if you have any questions or
June 2, 2009 Most people would agree that developing and encouraging methods of producing the energy we need in a way that is sustainable and doesn’t harm the environment is a good thing. Reports from the USA last month were a timely reminder of the practical obstacles – and of what supporters of renewable energy in the UK need to be wary of. Read the rest of this entry »
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March 2, 2009 Anticipation is rising about what level the UK feed-in tariff will be set at.
It’s generally accepted that one of the key factors that has influenced the
growth of microgeneration in Germany has been the feed-in tariff. Read the rest of this entry »
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January 6, 2009 News that russia has once again switched off supplies to Europe over a disagreement with another country should act as further warning that the UK needs to actively encourage the uptake of microgeneration as quickly as possible. Read the rest of this entry »
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December 12, 2008 In response to Andrew Warrens post about why the Energy Savings Trust should be merged with the Carbon Trust, Edward Hyams (Chairman of the Energy Saving Trust) has posted that: ‘Merging the Energy Saving Trust and the Carbon Trust is the wrong answer‘ on the Carbon Challenge Blog. Mr Hyams argues that there is a potential conflict of interests by merging the the Energy Saving Trust since the Carbon Trust plays a (successful) role in developing and profiting from new technologies so it should not be advising on which technologies should be taken up. Read the rest of this entry »
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December 4, 2008 Ministers in Scotland and Wales seem to be pushing MicroGeneration forward with news of new and extended initiatives… can England do the same? Read the rest of this entry »
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October 23, 2008 Friends of the Earth Scotland have launched an online energy audit tool. It’s a real step in the right direction - users complete a series of simple questions and the tool makes suggestions as to suitable steps that could be taken to reduce energy consumption and which MicroGeneration technologies may be potentially suitable.
Recommendations are necessarily general but it’s a good step in the right direction.
It also looks like Friends of the earth Scotland are planning to try and use the level of interest in the tool as a lever to lobby Government - if you’d like to add some support, follow the link to test drive their energy audit tool
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October 23, 2008 The announcement of the introduction of feed in tarriffs is potentially an extremely important step in encouraging the widespread adoption of MicroGeneration in the UK.
Timing wise, many people have been vocal in their disappointment about how much talking and not enough action has been going on when it comes to encouraging the growth of MicroGeneration. This Energy Bill represents an opportunity to really move things forward.
As things stand the amendment states that:
The Secretary of State shall make regulations within one year of the day on which this Act is passed for the purpose of introducing a renewable energy tariff for a specified fixed period to specified producers of renewable energy.”
I just hope that the bill can be passed quickly.
It is also vital that MicroGenerators are included within the specified producers and that the feed in tariff is set sufficiently high to incentivise people.
In Germany, anyone generating electricity from solar PV, wind or hydro gets a guaranteed payment of four times the market rate - currently about 35p pence a unit - for 20 years.
The new clauses that have been introduced into the bill makes provision for different tariffs depending on the renewable source and the different types of energy generated.
The proposals should also clarify if MicroGenerators will be credited for all energy produced or just that which is fed back into the grid.
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October 10, 2008 The recent “Growth Potential for Microgeneration in England Wales and Scotland” report pointed out that:
Consumers place a very low value on ongoing energy costs compared with up-front capital
costs. This presents a considerable barrier for microgeneration technologies which are
characterised by high up-front costs with low on-going costs.
A new pilot scheme being run by Kirklees council aims to overcome this barrier by providing interest free loans of upto £10,000 to householders in Kirklees to install renewable and low carbon technologies on their property. Read the rest of this entry »
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October 6, 2008 The coast program on BBC last week featured the section of the UK coastline around Sellafield. During the program, it was explained that radioactive pollution emanating from the plant has been picked up as far away as Norway and that the Irish government has been trying for years to have the plant closed down.
Spread of nuclear waste from Sellafield
The program showed a pipeline used to dump the waste from a process used at Sellafield where nitric acid is used to dissolve solid, spent fuel assemblies. Some technical guy from Sellafield explained that it just ‘wasn’t practical’ to deal with the waste arising from this process and that the chosen solution of discharging the waste into the sea was the only practical solution.
I found myself getting annoyed about this. Perhaps it may be true that it would be phenomenally expensive to deal with this contaminated nitric acid, but then that cost should be reflected in the cost of producing energy via this method. If these costs were reflected in the price of the nuclear energy generated by this method, then it would help make the economic case even stronger for alternatives such as microgeneration.
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October 2, 2008 On Monday night i went along to a meeting in my local village pub aimed at encouraging people to share their ideas and experiences accross a whole range of topics of general interest, including renewable energy. Read the rest of this entry »
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