Civic Energy has been launched to help advise local authorities and the public sector on low carbon and renewable energy projects.  It is intended to be positive in tone, helpful in approach and non-technical in jargon.

Its aim is to help local authorities fully engage with green opportunities and deliver outstanding projects to their communities. It will cover all aspects of the green agenda, from electric vehicles, the implications of the Green Deal and other government policy to biomass and other sources of renewable energy. It will also showcase what local authorities are delivering across the country.

The journal is being fronted by well known consultant Stephen Cirell. It is free of charge to anyone in the public sector and will be funded by advertising in order to make this possible. The magazine will be quarterly and appear in both printed and electronic format. If you wish to read the first edition and subsequently register for a free subscription to please follow the link: Read the first edition of Civic Energy

If you have any questions or queries, please contact Claire Farrell on 0207 871 351 or email cfarrell@civicenergy.co.uk.

A final round of CESP funding opened in December (see link below). Applications will be accepted for heat generating technologies and energy efficiency measures only.

Deadline for the receipt of completed applications will be 5pm 29th February 2012. Capital grants will be awarded on a competitive basis with the selection panel meeting at the end of April 2012. Decisions will be published within two weeks of the selection panel meeting.

Community buildings who received a survey from MEA as part of the ‘Banish Inefficient Community Buildings’ project could apply to this to implement the recommendations. http://www.communitysustainable.org.uk/

In late December Lord Adair Turner, announcing that he was resigning as chair of the Committee on Climate Change, wrote to Greg Barker and the secretary of state Chris Huhne expressing concern about the detail of the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation (ECO).

He criticised the current proposals as being "an inefficient way of spending ECO funding", which would not cut energy bills for householders or enable the government to meet its carbon budgets. He pointed out that DECC’s own draft Impact Assessment projects show that between 2013 and 2020, six million lofts and 6.3 million cavity walls must be insulated.

But the government itself estimates that just 700,000 lofts and 1.7 million cavity walls will be insulated under the ECO. He proposes that current CERT targets be included in the ECO. This would make it much more likely that target emission reductions would be achieved (e.g. 4-5 MtCO2 in 2020, rather than 2 MtCO2 as currently projected).

MEA expert trainers have been enlisted to help Shropshire Council and AgeUK alleviate fuel poverty and prevent excess cold winter deaths.

In February and March, we will be training 160 representatives of AgeUK and then moving on to other support groups . They will learn how to identify the signs of fuel poverty and issues that may lead to preventable illnesses and death due to the cold weather. They will then be trained in referring householders in need for further help through the various support mechanism that exist in Shropshire, including MEA's highly successful Keep Shropshire Warm service.

In 2010-11 this excess winter deaths rose to 27,000 across the UK. Coupled with higher bills, had to heat homes and a higher rate of fuel poverty in Shropshire, this project should go along way impacting positively on these alarming statistics.

British Gas is taking applications for the second round of their Solar School programme - on a first come, first serve basis.

Apply at www.mysolarschool.co.uk

This is an opportunity for Solar PV panels to be installed at no cost to the schools. Panels will be paid for by the ‘Energy for Tomorrow' fund. Schools will be able to benefit from:

• Reduced annual energy bills*
• Reduced carbon emissions* 
• Pupil's awareness of using energy sparingly and creating it from renewable sources

* Based on like for like energy consumption over the relevant comparative periods

The energy company hopes to install systems between 4kWp and 50kWp in up to 150 schools.

This year's scheme is on a first-come first-served basis. Schools on the Phase-1 reserve list will NOT be automatically carried-forward, they must apply for the Phase-2 scheme.

Schools taking aprt will not be eligible for the Feed-in-Tariff. Instead, this will be assigned to the British Gas Energy For Tomorrow fund which is paying for the installation for the purposes of this scheme. This is an independently run, non-profit organisation dedicated to developing renewable energy sources and technologies for the future. Schools will benefit from being able to use the electricity generated which could mean electricity and carbon savings as a result of needing to buy less electricity from an energy supplier.

The scheme will take applications on their website until 23.59 on Friday 10th February 2012: www.mysolarschool.co.uk