Wales achieves 48% recycling rate

Wales recycled 48% of household waste in the last financial year, according to a Government report. This means the country is on track to achieve its target of recycling 52% waste by 2012/13. The ‘Local Authority Municipal Waste Management, January-March 2012′ report shows the quarterly recycling rates for municipal waste achieved by Welsh local authorities […]

Devon to have UK’s largest solar plant

A renewable energy company claims it will build the UK’s largest solar plant in South Devon after it got the council’s approval yesterday. TGC Renewables said it will install 27,924 solar panels in a farm near South Brent and will be the country’s largest solar project to date. The company claims the 8MW project will […]

Hosepipe ban still in place despite heavy rainfall

Despite saying ‘signs of recovery’ from drought are being seen, a water company is still putting the hosepipe ban in full force. South East Water said the last three months of rainfall, since the ban was imposed, are now reaching crucial water reserves. But the company is still encouraging its 2.1 million customers to ‘keep […]

Government’s claim to be the greenest is an “empty boast”

The claim to be the greenest Government ever looks like an “increasingly empty boast”, according to WWF. Their comments come as a report by the Committee on Climate Change showed concerns about the UK’s challenge to meet its carbon targets. Keith Allott, Head of Climate Change at WWF-UK said the Government risks letting the Climate […]

Scots hail upward march of renewables

Scotland has hailed the continued rise of renewable energy with the release of new figures which show its green energy production in the first quarter of 2012 was double that of last year. DECC statistics show there was a 45.5% increase on the same period in 2011. Renewable electricity generation in Scotland was 4,590 gigawatt […]

“Driving smarter” cuts company fuel bills by 15%

Driving “more smartly” could shave up to 15% off companies’ fuel bills. That’s the message from the Energy Saving Trust which says drivers can take action to counter rising fuel costs. The message comes the same week as Chancellor George Osborne’s U-turn over a planned fuel duty rise in August, when pushed it back to […]

‘Urgent’ changes needed to meet carbon targets

The Government needs to ‘urgently’ drive major change in order to meet future carbon targets, according to the Committee on Climate Change. In its new report, the Committee said despite greenhouse gas emissions falling by 7% last year, only 0.8% of it was directly linked to carbon cutting measures. David Kennedy, Chief Executive of the […]

The Pope gets first electric car

You’re more likely to associate mopeds with the Italian capital. But now Rome’s Vatican City has a new mode of transport – the electric car. This week Pope Benedict XVI was given his first electric vehicle by Italian carmaker NWG. The head of the Catholic Church is said to be a keen supporter of green […]

Are energy prices going up or down?

All the signals point to uncertainty for household energy prices this winter, according to price comparison site uSwitch.com, following a week when one new supplier cut prices while another pushed them up. This week Ovo Energy dropped its prices for new customers by 4.5% from now on by an average of £60. The move will […]

Proposed fuel duty rise would have been “small”

The proposed rise in fuel duty this August would have been “small” compared to the reduction in fuel prices recently, according to an energy consultancy firm. David Hunter, Head of Strategic Partnerships at M&C Energy Group said the Government could have got away with the fuel duty rise. He told ELN: “The previously proposed 3p […]