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Going solar!

Sun getting warm already!

Fresh back from holidays, our house now sports an array of 10 solar PV panels on our south facing roof (1.89kWp), as we join the growing number of York residents taking advantage of the new 'Feed in tariff' that gives a better return than keeping the money they cost (a lot!!) in the bank. Once we are connected up we will be getting free daytime electricity for at least some of the time and 41.3p per kWh for ALL the electricity generated by the panels over the next 25 years. If you have some money to invest and a south facing roof that is not shaded or in a conservation area then it is definitely worth investing in the future - even if you dont have the ready cash there are options such as extending the mortgage or there are companies that will install for free (but they take the feed in tariff, leaving you with just the cheaper leckie bills) More on this in due course!

System went live just before midday on Sat Aug 21st 2010... Generated 4.3kWh in first day, even though it was cloudy most of the afternoon. Full sun at 1pm gave about 1.6kW generation, overcast afternoon 350W. Sunday really was Sun-day... 8kWh generated by the evening after a mostly sunny day and the really exciting news is that, being out for a lot of the day, the mains reading was lower than when we started! Now starting to think about a smart meter to learn more about the power consumption of different appliances.

ONE WEEK ON... 

In spite of it being cloudy and showery on several days, the system has produced 42kWh over the past 7 days which equates to about £16 earned from the feed-in tariff. We have also been overall self sufficient in electricity, with the sun having powered 3 people's use of  washing machine, electic kettle, radios, TV, shower, computers and lights for the week. Obviously the sun will get lower in the sky and the nights longer, but if last week could be taken as typical of the period between May- August we should see quite a good return on the investment.    

 

 Week two: Weather has been really nice for much of the time: A fortnight on we have generated nearly 100kWh, including a record 9.2kWh in one day when we had pretty much blue sky all day. Of course this will drop off now as the nights draw in, but even cloudy conditions produce 300 - 400 kW.

4/9/10 Today we talked to someone who is planning a really eco conversion of a 'hard to treat' house, including heat recovery from computers on the top floor to feed into the ground floor rooms! Grey water recycling and solar PV roofing also on their list! Told them about the 'York Solar Club' facebook group to share experiences.

Polos with the hole in....

 Strange how when you want the media to cover serious issues like signing up to a 25 year contract for an incinerator they are not interested. However a quierky story about Polo mints being flown 7000 miles to sell in a city with a Polo mint factory is national news! Did an interview for local radio and one for national BBC news today and my quotes from the local press appeared in the Telegraph, Mirror and Daily Mail as well as the Yorkshire Post!! This all came about following a two year old story about discount stores in York selling Polo mints from an Indonesian factory when they are still made just down the road at Rowntrees (now Nestle) factory where they were first made in 1948. Through Wikipedia and internet searches Ive learnt today that they were first made under licence as 'Lifesavers' - a yankie idea based around theshape of a lifebelt. After the war ended the licence was lost so the Polo mint was born, a reference to the 'Polar' cool experience and also conveniently allowing the two o shapes to be used to illustrate the product.

During the live interview I did at lunchtime today I mentioned the story of a couple of years back about the Scottish seafood that was flown out to Thailand in order to benefit from cheap labour shelling the animals before being packed and shipped back to Grimsby for the UK market. To my amazement, when I met up with the camera crew from BBC they has a print out of a story about 120 Scottish workers facing redundancy because the company plans to use just such an arrangement for processing their seafood. My 15 second TV soundbite said that we have to tackle this nonsense of a global economy in the light of climate change and peak oil - to become more food secure we have to use more local food and reduce our dependence on food that has been transported half way around the world before we eat it!

 

Burn or recycle? Make your mind up time!

Public meeting: Sept 13th 7.30pm Friends Meeting House York and N Yorkshire councillors invited to debate the issue...

Today (4/9/10) it has been announced that the decision has been deferred to December - more time to consider a 'Plan B'?

Plans for an incinerator to process the waste from York and N Yorkshire could be in the balance as the government carries out a review of waste strategy, (including whether or not 'Energy from Waste' as the technology is now called should be included in local strategies). You can put your views on the Defra website http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/waste-review/index.htm. Here's what its about: "The Review will look at all aspects of waste policy and delivery in England. Its main aim will be to ensure that we are taking the right steps towards creating a ‘zero waste’ economy, where resources are fully valued, and nothing of value gets thrown away."

Strange how we have been ridiculed for calling for a 'zero waste strategy' yet the new government now seems to be keen on the idea just as we prepare to sign up to a 25 year contract that closes off this option.

All comments and suggestions received in the discussion or to the survey before 9 September 2010 will be considered and fed into the Review.  The Call for Evidence will close on 7 October 2010.  The early results of the Review will be made available in Spring 2011.

I would urge all residents of York and N Yorkshire to also make their views heard on the proposed 'waste solution' for the sub-region. Good features are that anaerobic digestion will be used to take out the methane from the slime, although not so good is that it will be turned into Co2 by burning it to generate power ( would be better still if it could be bottled and used to drive the bin lorries as some councils are considering) Also not good is the fact that the contract assumes 50% recycling is achieved by 2020 (we are nearly there now!) and will financially penalise the councils if the level of waste is too LOW!

The company Amey Cespa proposes to burn the waste left at the end of the process, along with commercial waste if needed to generate more electricity, with the aim that the potentially toxic residue (bottom ash) will be incorporated into building aggregate (not for use under my new drive or house thank you very much!!)

York and N Yorkshire councillors will be asked to vote on signing up to the 25 year contract very shortly - despite repeated lobbying from the Greens, our councils have given councillors a 'Hobsons choice' - there is no 'Plan B' worked up if they dont like the terms that have been negotiated in secret by the Joint Municipal Waste Partnership Board.

 Here are some points from the York Green Party website:

  You might be worried about the release of toxic chemicals, the huge £900 million price tag for the plant (requiring 6.5% of York's council tax income in a year), or the impact on recycling of commitment to provide waste to the plant over the next 25 years. Or you might be angry at the totally inadequate and abortive consultation that was carried out and the way that this costly project will undermine serious attempts to cut waste and boost recycling.

If you share the Green Party views:

• Sign the online petition at http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/dont-incinerate-north-yorkshire/sign.html
• Put up leaflets and posters whereever you are in the county - these are available from the North Yorkshire Waste Action Group (NYWAG - http://www.nywag.org).
• Write to your local Councillor or MP - find out who they are at www.writetothem.com.
• Write to the Councillors responsible for the Waste Strategy - for North Yorkshire this is: Cllr Clare Wood,
  Waste Disposal Portfolio Holder
  North Yorkshire County Council
  County Hall
  Northallerton
  North Yorkshire
  DL7 8AH
• 
  - and for York :
  Cllr Ann Reid
  City of York Council
  The Guildhall
  York YO1 9QN
Your comments need to be in by September 17th in order to be considered by Councillors at their decision meeting.

The NYWAG website is an excellent resource for information on the project - others include the Tockwith Residents Association, tockwith.net, who fought a long-running campaign against an attempt to build an incinerator near to their village, and the Marton-cum-Grafton village website.

There's more on the fraught, five-year history of the waste strategy on York Green Party website, from February 2007, April 2007, October 2007 and June 2010. You can also read the waste section of our local manifesto (pdf).

 York Green Party believes that we should be moving towards a zero-waste economy. Waste should be dealt with by a concerted and comprehensive system of reduction, reuse, recycling and composting, with a long term goal of zero residual waste always in mind. It isn't an easy option - it requires many changes to be made at all levels of our commnuities - but it is cheaper, does not generate toxic chemicals, and is the only truly sustainable solution

Lighter later campaign moves forward

Lighter Later Bill

It's happening.

After months of campaigning and lobbying MPs, I can confirm that there will be a bill in Parliament backing the campaign for lighter evenings.

The bill put forward by Rebecca Harris MP would force the government to implement th e time change if a full review of the evidence confirms the benefits. All being well, MPs will debate the plan in early December. To find out more and 'sign up' support see http://www.lighterlater.org/ 

What are the benefits?

Lighter Later is about shifting Britain’s clocks forward by one hour throughout the year. In other words, instead of setting our clocks to GMT in winter and GMT+1 in summer, we would set them to GMT+1 in winter and GMT+2 in summer. We would still put our clocks forward in spring and back in autumn, but the sun would rise and set one hour later throughout the year, which would mean that more people are up and around when there is daylight.

Moving Britain’s clocks forward in this way has the potential to:

1 Cut at least 447,000 tonnes of CO₂ pollution – equivalent to more than 50,000 cars driving all the way around the world – each year [1]

2 Save 100 lives each year and prevent hundreds of serious injuries by making the roads safer [2]

3 Lower our electricity bills by maximising the available daylight and reducing peak power demand [3]

4 Create 60,000–80,000 new jobs in leisure and tourism, bringing an extra £2.5–3.5 billion into the economy each year [4]

5 Reduce crime and the fear of crime [5]

6 Help make people healthier and tackle obesity by giving people more time to exercise and play sport outside in the evening [6]

7 Save the NHS around £138 million a year through reducing road casualties [7]

8 Improve quality of life for older people [8]

9 Make the nation happier – including reducing the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder [9]

10 Demonstrate that dealing with climate change can be good for the economy, good for people and good for society as a whole

 

Bishy Road Street Party success

 

This evening residents enjoyed a fantastic experience of a short section of Bishopthorpe Road being closed to traffic from 6.30pm-10pm As the culmination of The international 'Car Free Cities' conference taking place for the first time in the UK, this street party had everything - music, food bike try out area, most of the shops and cafes open late, half of the road taken over with stalls, tables and chairs. Small children were chalking flowers on the road or dancing to the music. A short shower mercifully lasted only a couple of minutes and the brass band played on. Within an hour the nearby pub was overflowing with groups sitting out on the grass chatting in the midst of the busy gyratory. The time passed so quickly for me - stewards briefing at 6pm, warm up for the choir at 7.15pm followed by Chechelele's rousing performance at 7.45pm with a healthy crowd watching.

 

 No sooner had we finished than I was issued with stewards tabard and walkie talkie and allocated to barrier duty  - not really a lot to do there other than give out supplies of chalk and talk to people ('networking') Comments included the experience of the interantional conference delegates who had been taken on a bike ride to experience the best and worst of York cycle provision. There was shock at the 'aggressive driving' in congested locations such as the station and Fishergate gyratory. One delegate said it was a big surprise to see so many people packing the street for this event and the eagerness of people to reclaim the space as the last cars cleared the area. As we cleared away and the first cars ventured into the street again people were asking when the next one would be - 'we must do this more often than once a year' some were even saying heretical things like 'Cant the council just close it off permanently? For details of the local shops in this wonderful parade of local traders see www.bishyroad.net

 

 

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