npower Encourages Homeowners To Find Out More About Climate Week

npower encouraged homeowners to pay a visit to its stand at the Ideal Home Show during Climate Week to find out how to make their homes more energy efficient and better manage their impact on the environment.

Exhibiting at the show for a third year, npower showcased the latest eco-friendly home technology developments including electric vehicle technology, solar energy panels and the company’s green energy tariff.

Centre of the stand was a Tesla, the fastest electric vehicle in existence, along with home and city charging points for electric vehicles.

Nicola Hadcroft, creative services manager at npower, commented: “Climate Week is all about highlighting the innovative technology that is coming to the market to help make homeowners’ lives easier. The Ideal Home Show was the perfect place to showcase what npower is doing to make a difference.

“By encouraging people to become more engaged with their energy usage and as a supplier helping them to achieve this, we can work towards a more sustainable future and help homeowners tread more lightly on the planet.

“Even by making small improvements such as using an electricity monitor, energy efficient light bulbs fitting or fitting a smart meter, can make a difference, while bigger innovations, such as installing solar panels are a viable investment for the future.”

Homeowners who are not looking to install new products in their home, but still want to play their part can also sign up to npower’s green energy tariffs including npower Juice and npower’s National Trust Green Energy.

Via EPR Network
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Shock and Ore – Tarnished Earth Street Gallery in Birmingham

Tarnished Earth, a dramatic street gallery of photographs telling the story of one of the world’s biggest ecological disasters, is set to remain in Centenary Way, Birmingham, until 13 February before continuing on its tour of the UK.

The free outdoor exhibition by Jiri Rezac is being staged by The Co-operative in conjunction with WWF-UK and Greenpeace to show how Canada’s magnificent Boreal Forest is being destroyed and polluted by the rush to extract oil from the tar sands just below the surface to supply the oil market.

More than one million people are estimated to have seen the striking images – which contrast the destruction caused by oil extraction with the area’s pristine wilderness and the traditional way of life of the indigenous First Nation Cree – since its unveiling in London’s Southbank in September.

Paul Monaghan, Head of Social Goals and Sustainability at The Co-operative, said:“It is really important that people see for themselves the scale of the environmental destruction which is being done in order to extract oil from tar sands.

“The greenhouse gas emissions from tar sands oil are far greater than those of conventional oil, and its exploitation alone would be sufficient to take the world to the brink of runaway climate change.

“Tarnished Earth vividly portrays the impact tar sands operations are having on this beautiful area of boreal forest which has been home to wildlife and the indigenous Cree nations for thousands of years.”

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Local Quoter Helps UK householders Go Green

Local Quoter, one of the UK’s leading online price comparison websites for home improvements, has been doing its bit to help British homeowners make their properties more energy efficient for years.

The company makes sure people across the UK get the best possible prices on energy efficient windows and doors, and now Local Quoter has turned its attention to solar panels.

Being able to produce green energy at home has become a reality for thousands of people following the introduction of the government’s Feed-in Tariffs programme. Solar thermal panels are the perfect answer for anyone who wants to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and instead harness the power of the sun to help heat their home.

And with 25-year subsidies now available to homeowners who fit photovoltaic panels to their homes, this form of renewable energy has become a serious option for people across the country.

Local Quoter is in a position to help anyone who is considering installing solar panels on the roof of their property. With access to the UK’s leading building specialists, Local Quoter can help ensure householders get a solar PV panels quote that will leave them with a warm feeling!

Les Yates, Marketing Manager at Local Quoter, said: “Low carbon energy generation is the future – and homeowners up and down the country are already enjoying the benefits that installing cheap solar panels can bring.

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Concentrated Solar Power (CSP): Millions of Losses with Wrong Components

According to calculations by DLR (German Aerospace Center) the increase in yield resulting from annealed parabolic mirrors over a period of 25 years amounts to more than seven million Euros. This is based on independent figures and on the company’s practical experience with more than seven million solar mirrors that have been installed in the field for 30 years already.

In the industry it is discussed whether CSP solar mirrors made from tempered or annealed glass achieve a better overall performance. Manufacturers of tempered mirrors advertise lower costs for mirror replacement. This calculation fails to take account however of the higher plant yield that solar mirrors made of annealed glass achieve owing to their better precision collector interception.

The key parameters for the yield of a CSP plant are the bending properties of the mirrors. The basis for assessing the bending properties of a solar mirror is the focus deviation (FDx). This measures the frequency distribution of the real focus deviation in transversal (x) direction of the reflected beam from the ideal focul line of the collector parabola. Consequently, the lower the FDx value, the higher the plant yield. According to the calculations of the DLR each millimetre of decreased scattering loss amounts to an additional plant yield of 11.25 million Euros1 over a period of 25 years.

Based on these data, FLABEG Holding GmbH, the market leader in the field of glass finishing and the leading international manufacturer of solar mirrors has made the following calculation:

Yield and cost summary for a 50 MW plant with 23,000 tubes and 200,000 mirrors

Additional yield due to better precision collector interception (FDx): Annealed + 7,875.000 €1 Tempered 0

Costs for mirror replacements due to glass breakage:
Annealed – 650,000 € Tempered – 42,500 €
Costs for absorber tube replacements due to glass breakage: – Annealed 65,000 €
Tempered 0

Total: Annealed + 7,160.000 € Tempered – 42,500 €

Additional yield of the plant with annealed solar mirrors after 25 years: 7,117,500 €

Bases of calculation:
Average mirror breakage rate: annealed 0.20 %2, tempered 0.01 %3
Average absorber tube breakage rate: annealed 0.025 %2, tempered 0 %3
Precision rate / focus deviation: annealed FDx < 8 mm4, tempered FDx < 8.7 mm3

1Mean values according to calculations by the German Aerospace Center, reference
values: plant capacity 50 MW, period of observation 25 years, nominal glass
thickness 4 mm
2Average values according to KJC/Harper Lake, period of observation 10 years,
nominal glass thickness 4 mm
3Tempered glass manufacturer’s indications
4 Current average focus deviation of FLABEG parabolic solar mirrors

The result shows that during long-term observation, the annealed solar mirrors are markedly more profitable: More than seven million Euros of additional plant yield is achieved over the period of 25 years.

Axel Buchholz, CEO of FLABEG Holding GmbH, is able to confirm this calculation based on independent figures from his own practical experience: “Competitors advertise with extrapolations. In contrast, our solar mirrors have been in the field for 30 years already and have proven their durability and constantly high performance”. Another item of practical experience to be borne in mind: “Glass breakage generally arises only at the corners or edge of a mirror. Tempered glass shatters into a thousand individual pieces in this case, which may result in considerable damage to other components in the field. Our annealed mirrors on the other hand continue to remain operational”.

FLABEG, founded in 1882, is an independent company with 13 facilities in Europe, America and Asia. FLABEG is active in the commercial sectors of automotive mirrors, solar mirrors and technical glass; specializing in all processes of glass finishing. As the pioneer of solar technology with a worldwide network, FLABEG produces mirrors for all CSP-applications – Parabolic Trough, Dishes, Tower and Linear Fresnel. Due to latest coating technologies our solar mirrors are characterized by a reflectivity of more than 95%. FLABEG sets technological standards in terms of the company’s core competencies – bending and coating.

Via EPR Network
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