News archive - Week ending 19th October 2007

BT Looks to Wind Energy

BT has unveiled plans to biuld wind farms. The proposals would generate a total of 250MW of electricity, enough to meet the power needs of 122,000 homes, while preventing the release of 500,000 tonnes of CO2 each year, compared to coal generation.

The Company is hoping to set up two test farms on Orkney and Shetland, with a third based in Cornwall. It has applied for planning permission for test masts at Wideford Hill Radio Station in Orkney and Scousburgh Radio Station in Shetland.

The £250m project should be able to generate up to a quarter of BT's electricity requirement by 2016. BT is one of Britain's biggest electricity users, with an annual requirement of about 0.7% of the UK's entire consumption The scheme will represent the UK's biggest corporate wind power project outside of the energy sector. BT hopes the wind farms will safeguard future supplies of clean, green energy for the company as part of its strategy to reduce carbon emissions.

Brendan Dick, Director of BT Scotland and a member of Scotland's Climate Change Business Delivery Group, said, "Organisations must reduce carbon in ways that make business sense. BT has already achieved a 60% reduction in its carbon emissions, and is committed to reducing them further to 80% by 2016?.

Skills Shortage May Threaten Renewables Industry

The former MSP and current chief executive of the Scottish Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF), Euan Robson, has suggested that a skilled worker shortage could limit Scotland's renewable energy efforts.
He told a seminar focused on the business potential of the renewable energy industry that seven of eight power engineers who graduated in Scotland last year are now working abroad.

Scottish Household Transport Statistics
Differences in the transport patterns for different groups of people are shown in a statistical bulletin, Household Transport in 2006: some Scottish Household Survey Results, which was recetly released by Scotland's Chief Statistician.

The report reveals that the percentage of households with one or more cars has risen from 63 to 68 per cent since 1999. The proportion of people with two cars has increased from 18 per cent to 24 per cent over the same time period. Sixty seven per cent of commuters in Scotland travelled to work by private motor vehicle in 2006. This reflects a significant increase since 1999; only 15 per cent took public transport, 14 per cent walked, and two per cent cycled.

Questions about travel to school revealed that 51 per cent of pupils walked, 24 per cent used a bus, 22 per cent went by car or van, and the remaining one per cent cycled. The main reasons for not using public transport were preference for car use, and the inconvenience of public transport. Ninety per cent of drivers who shop at supermarkets, and 69 per cent of drivers who visit friends and relatives, use a car to do so; 40 per cent of people over the age of 17 use a car every day.

Community Recyclers Achievements Recognised

Furniture Plus and Changeworks were both praised for their achievements at the Eventful Scotland Awards, the annual Scottish Waste Management celebration.

Furniture Plus, a furniture reuse charity based in Fife, won the Best Community Waste Initiative for their work in helping to relieve homelessness in the area.

Changeworks, the Edinburgh based environmental charity, won the Best Partnership Award for work that included the Generous City project, working with charity shops to increase the quantities of materials reused and recycled throughout Edinburgh. This is the second year in a row that Changeworks has won the Partnership Award.

Both organisations are members of the Community Recycling Network for Scotland (CRNS), the national membership body for Scottish community recyclers.

Factory to Install Biomass Plant

Food ingredients manufacturer Macphie of Glenbervie is to install a multi-million pound biomass plant at its rural Aberdeenshire factory. This would be the first large industrial biomass steam plant in Scotland, and is expected to be operational by mid-2008. The 1.75MW boiler will use 5000 tonnes of locally sourced wood fuel each year to produce the baseline steam demand for the Glenbervie site. The company received a £400,000 grant from the Scottish Executive's £10.5 million Scottish Biomass Support Scheme.

Chief executive Alastair Macphie said that the new biomass plant would play a major part in delivering the European Commission's target for 12% of energy consumption to be from renewable sources by 2010. Energy generation from biomass is expected to generate up to 74% of this target.

Scots Lack Knowledge of Energy Saving

According to a study from the EST, Scotland is lagging behind the rest of the UK when it comes to energy saving, with only one in four people knowing how they could reduce the amount of energy they use in their homes.

However the same study also shows that more than half of Scots feel bad about not being more energy efficient and campaign groups are hopeful that word of mouth will be able to influence more people to change their ways.

Schools Competition - Prevent Waste In Your School

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is holding a national secondary schools competition for S3 pupils on waste prevention. Schools will be asked to send in a presentation by 12 December 2007 and SEPA will invite finalists from around Scotland to make their presentation at a national final at Perth Concert Hall in March 2008.

To enter, a team of pupils will need to put together a proposal on the following:
?The Scottish community is now familiar with the concept of recycling and the benefits this brings in helping slow Scotland?s growing waste problem. However, most recycled material need never have been used in the first place and could have been prevented.

Assuming you have full control over your school?s budget, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various waste prevention strategies you might consider using in your school.?