dysviz

Happy Solstice, remember to celebrate nature on the longest day, she feeds us, gives us beauty, fragrance, delight!

another aggregator running on adobe air, which tends to eat up your ram for me friendfeed works fine, but there is no dashboard or analytics

From the page: "Browse the latest news from across Europe regarding energy efficiency in buildings.
Events
View a comprehensive list of upcoming energy efficiency related events in your country and across Europe.
FAQ
Find answers to key questions on energy efficiency in buildings and legislation.
Publications
Access publications to discover the best practices throughout Europe and to learn more about the legislation."

posters of Ahmedinejad at a political rally in iran

From the page: "The European Commission today launched its new BUILD UP Web portal as a tool for sharing information on reducing energy use of buildings.

The site�s content will be regularly updated and enhanced by users themselves to cover a wide range of good practices in energy reduction, as well as to inform visitors of new energy and construction legislation.

�oeThe BUILD UP Web portal will enable anyone from homeowners to builders to look up and share best practice and information,” said Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. �oeAt the same time, it will inform and update the market about the legislative framework. BUILD UP can be an extremely useful tool to improve building performance.”

Buildings are responsible for about 40 per cent of total energy consumption in Europe. As a result, improvements in building performance are crucial to achieving EU energy-savings targets and combating climate change, whilst also contributing to energy security.

The EU in 2002 adopted the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), which provided member states with an integrated approach towards efficient energy use in the buildings sector. Recognising there is still a considerable potential for cost-efficient energy savings that is not being exploited., the EU last November proposed a recast of the EPBD that could generate additional energy savings of the equivalent of 60 to 80 million tonnes of oil per year by 2020 �" equivalent to a further reduction by 5 to 6 per cent of total EU energy consumption over that achievable by full implementation of the current Directive.

Based on these proposals, the European Parliament adopted in April 2009 a legislative resolution calling for even more ambitious and demanding legislation. The position of the Council of the European Union is now awaited."

From the page: "Says the Guardian, if we all started topping off our homes with small wind or solar generating units, we�d be creating the energy equivalent of five nuclear power stations.
The Guardian�s thinking was inspired by a new report by the Department for Business, Energy and Regulatory Reform, commissioned to investigate microgeneration. The Micropower Council (not affiliated to the midget wrestlers, who doubtless had a lot of micro power) has summarised the findings like this, for your reading pleasure:

* With ambitious policy measures, up to 9 million microgeneration systems could be installed by 2020, producing as much energy as 5 nuclear power stations. This compares to an estimated number of current installations of less than 100,000.
* By 2030, microgeneration equipment could be saving thirty million tonnes of CO2 - an amount equivalent to removing the emissions from all Heavy Goods Vehicles and Buses from UK roads.
* If consumers are to take up microgeneration in these numbers, they need to see a compelling economic reason to do so �" environmental benefits are not sufficient on their own to create a genuine mass market.
* That legally binding government targets for microgeneration, supported by concrete policy measures, would improve the confidence of those investing in the sector.
* A government target of 2-3 million units installed by 2020 could readily be met through a combination of cost-effective measures

That a range of these support measures would be needed, including:

1. A long lasting and consumer-friendly financial incentives scheme to stimulate substantial uptake (to deliver the equivalent of over 40p/kWh in above energy price for wind and photovoltaics, 5p/kWh for microCHP and 2p/kWh for sustainable heat technologies such as heat pumps and solar thermal systems).
2. Flexibility for consumers to choose to receive these incentives up-front or spread out over a long period to help with the high initial costs of equipment and installation.
3. Adhering to the policy of zero carbon new build housing from 2016 and all buildings in 2019, with clarity over the extent to which developers are allowed to offset their consumption using offsite electricity generation.
4. Large scale field trials or an early public procurement scheme to support technologies that are not yet ready for full-scale commercial production.
5. Continued consumer campaigns to improve consumer accounting for energy-based decisions, focused on lengthening consumer time horizons when considering energy purchase."

jet stream windpower is a reliable source of energy, and i avoids the NIMBY reaction from annoying opposition to local windpower.