Each SME could be saving around two thousand pounds a year – only one fifth of SME’s have energy efficient systems at their workplaces. Some 15 per cent of respondents had a smart meter installed, but almost nine out of 10 did not have lighting timers or motion sensors, eight out of 10 did not have an energy monitor installed, and 13 per cent admitted to leaving the window open when the air conditioning or heating was running.

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A recent report by the Carbon Trust clearly points out the financial, brand and CSR benefits to businesses sourcing their energy from renewable technologies.

Asda, Ikea, Tesco, John Lewis, M&S – and all the usual suspects are sourcing or trialling the use of alternative technology energies, and SME’s should be quick to follow suit.

Perhaps you’re not so brand conscious as the big tycoons, but surely you’re interested in saving and making money?

Have a read through this independent report by the Carbon Trust – it all seems to be making great sense.

With change, brings new opportunities, new wealth, new jobs and global competiveness. Find out more about the speakers and workshops at the Summit and how to register by clicking here.  http://bit.ly/oayznX.

[It's not free by the way, but really looks like it's worth the time and the spend.......]

The Creating Climate Wealth Summit is a unique workshop-driven convenings of executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and leaders from the private and public sector.

The purpose is to identify specific routes and pathways to accelerate the deployment of green solutions in the face of low expectations, weak mandates, and slow financial buy-in. During the summit, delegates address ways to bring existing technologies to scale while meeting employment, economics and sustainability goals.

Over 10,000 of us recently signed the Friends of the Earth energy-saving petition. And we don’t think Energy Secretary Chris Huhne’s response is good enough. Click here to read his response.

Tell Chris Huhne his response to our petition isn’t good enough .

He says that proper advice for councils on how to cut their emissions is a luxury we may not be able to afford – but it’ll cost a lot less than clearing up after catastrophic climate change.

His response is posted here online along with a set up for a quick action response for you to reply.

Feeling fobbed off on climate action? Please take action today .

Reducing your organisation’s energy use and saving money is one really positive step to take and it’s really easy to get instant guidance and support from The Carbon Trust Advice Line. They offer practical advice on how to take action, improve efficiency and reduce your costs.

The first step is to work with you to highlight areas for review within your organisation. These typically include staff awareness, monitoring energy consumption and energy policy development.

They can then provide you with a structured Energy Saving Plan which is a bespoke free service that guides you and your business through how to take simple measures to detailed technical support; they will advice on technology specific areas of improvement appropriate to your business; and write a report highlighting the areas of opportunity and guidance on implementation, including links to relevant areas on their web site, web tools and Carbon Trust publications.

Save some money with really little effort and save the planet too! For further information email Info@customercentre.carbontrust.co.uk or call on 0800 0852005 to speak to an energy advisor.

Howard Johns, chairman of the UK’s Solar Trade Association (STA) recognizes the series of recent setbacks as catastrophic to the UK solar industry – the governments recently imposed reduction of FiTs for large solar installations and excluding solar PV from the list of the 8 renewable energy sources that will play a key part in the UK’s energy mix through to 2020.

“The news that Chinese researchers anticipate solar could be as cheap as coal power by 2015 follows many reports this year predicting solar is set to achieve a major cost breakthrough with sustained investment today,” said Johns.

“The STA urges the UK government to take notice of mounting evidence about the potential of solar, and to reconsider their assumptions that solar is a technology that is too expensive to deploy in the UK.

“Clearly some people in China believe solar could be cheaper than coal by the end of this Parliament. This is not a technology anyone can afford to ignore, particularly given the UK does have some major manufacturing opportunities.”

He added that the technology has the potential to readily generate 30 per cent of the UK’s electricity needs, and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

Energy Minister Greg Barker said “I cannot agree more that local authorities have a vital role to play if we are to meet our national carbon reduction targets”.

But the Government’s Energy Bill is still missing tough action to help cut carbon emissions in our villages, towns and cities.

Think it’s time the Government matched its words with action?

Please sign our petition to the Energy Minister today .

Your support has already helped remove a nuclear loophole from the Bill that could have seen public bailouts of the industry.

A big push on Mr Barker as the Energy Bill reaches its climax will have a real impact.

Sign the petition for local carbon cuts today .

Here’s the link for the latest newsletter. Interesting reading………

Ernst & Young concludes slightly higher feed-in tariffs could make solar projects viable without leading to overspending

The crippling cuts to feed-in tariffs for large solar installations could have been avoided, according to a new report that argues that more modest cuts to incentives would have allowed larger projects to remain commercially viable while still ensuring that the scheme does not breach its assigned budget.

The government has long maintained that deep cuts to feed-in tariff incentives of between 40 and 70 per cent for solar projects worth over 50kW of capacity were necessary to stop the popular scheme overspending.

However, research published today by Ernst & Young and the Solar Trade Association will argue that slightly higher feed-in tariff rates of between 20p and 24p/kWh for solar installations with between 50kW and 5MW of capacity would result in an internal rate of return of five per cent for project developers – sufficient to attract enough investment to the sector to allow some solar farms and community-backed projects to proceed.

Read full story: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2079903/report-solar-industry-collapse-avoided-busting-feed-tariff-budget