Latest News
Solar Farms – what do you need?
July 15th, 2010
A 5MW solar farm is likely to consist of approx 27,000 Solar PV panels set on frames which face south. The frames are set high enough off the ground that sheep can graze underneath.
Site requirements:
1) 20 – 25 acres
2) Flat ground or gently sloping to south
3) No rights of way across the land
4) Site not obviously visible from neighbouring houses
5) Site outside special protection areas such as National parks, AONB’s etc
6) Accessible by road or track to site entrance
7) Site not liable to flooding
8 ) Site not overlooked by adjacent high ground
9) Single ownership
10) No large trees, mobile telephone masts or other structure which would cast a shadow on the land
11) No adverse planning history
12) Particularly suitable sites include – redundant airfields, restored land fill sites, old glass house sites, low quality grazing land.
13) MOST IMPORTANTLY – the site needs to have 33KV over head power lines crossing it. Larger power lines are too expensive to connect to and smaller ones will not take the load.
For advice with your solar farm, call our consultants today.
Tags: solar farm
Posted in
Renewable Energy, Solar PV
BS EN 16001 to become ISO 50001
July 15th, 2010
Source: iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1337v (July 2010)
The future ISO 50001 standard for energy management was recently approved as a Draft International Standard (DIS).
ISO 50001 will establish a framework for industrial plants, commercial facilities or entire organizations to manage energy. Targeting broad applicability across national economic sectors, it is estimated that the standard could influence up to 60% of the world’s energy use.
The document is based on the common elements found in all of ISO’s management system standards, assuring a high level of compatibility with ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 14001 (environmental management). ISO 50001 will provide the following benefits:
- A framework for integrating energy efficiency into management practices
- Making better use of existing energy-consuming assets
- Benchmarking, measuring, documenting, and reporting energy intensity improvements and their projected impact on reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
- Transparency and communication on the management of energy resources
- Energy management best practices and good energy management behaviours
- Evaluating and prioritizing the implementation of new energy-efficient technologies
- A framework for promoting energy efficiency throughout the supply chain
- Energy management improvements in the context of GHG emission reduction projects.
ISO 50001 is being developed by ISO project committee ISO/PC 242, Energy management. The secretariat of ISO/PC 242 is provided by the partnership of the ISO members for the USA (ANSI) and Brazil (ABNT). Forty-two ISO member countries are participating in its development, with another 10 as observers.
Now that ISO 50001 has advanced to the DIS stage, national member bodies of ISO have been invited to vote and comment on the text of the standard during the five-month balloting period.
If the outcome of the DIS voting is positive, the modified document will then be circulated to the ISO members as a Final Draft International Standard (FDIS). If that vote is positive, ISO 50001 is expected to be published as an International Standard by early 2011.
Tags: BS EN 16001, Energy Management, ISO 50001
Posted in
BS EN 160001 and ISO 50001, Energy saving, Latest News
Green Marketing Analyst gets IEMA Certificate.
July 15th, 2010
Our Green Marketing Analyst, Leigh Tymms has passed his certificate exam and is now an Associate of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. He has also how taken his exam for the NEBOSH National Diploma in Environmental Management and is waiting for the results…so fingers crossed!
Green Marketing
Leigh is a Chartered Marketer. Having consultants with this expertise allows E Advantage, we believe, to add more value to our clients. What makes E Advantage unique is the joined up thinking we bring, not only facilitating environmental compliance but how environmental responsibility can be used to achieve a competitive advantage, engaging stakeholders, launching new propositions, winning and retaining business.
Read more about the environmental competitive advantage of which green marketing plays a significant part.
Substantiating Claims
The other core reason that we believe it is important to have consultants on the team who understand both marketing and environmental considerations is that there is the need to heavily substantiate environmental driven communications and still ensure they are effective. Regulators, such as the Advertising Standards Agency are getting tough on spurious green claims. Examples (the tip of the iceberg) of areas they are particularly focusing their attention are noted on their website as:
- Get your facts right. Don’t exaggerate the environmental benefits of your product: advertising claims should be backed up with documentary evidence
- This is an area where scientific knowledge is developing all the time. Don’t present claims as being universally accepted if the science is inconclusive
- Don’t use pseudo-science, or terms that will not be generally understood by the readers of your ad
- Avoid sweeping or absolute claims such as “environmentally friendly” or “wholly biodegradable”. It’s unlikely that you will be able to prove your product has no environmental impact
- Saying something is ‘locally’ produced should mean exactly that. Shipping goods in from abroad or the other end of the country doesn’t make them ‘locally sourced’.
(ASA, 2007)
Want to talk more about green marketing? Call us today on 01280 812 909
Tags: Environmental Managment, Green Marketing, IEMA, Training
Posted in
Environmental Advantage, Environmental Management System (EMS), Green Marketing, Latest News
BS EN 16001 Auditors
July 15th, 2010
BS EN 16001 Auditors:
Tom Whelan and Richard Johnson have qualified as Auditors for BS EN 16001 (soon to become ISO 50001, the standard for energy management systems.
E Advantage will continue to be at the forefront of energy management best practice and supported by the auditor qualification, are able to develop your energy management systems in such a way that it will satisfy the criteria of the auditors which assess them.
Energy management remains one of the best ways for an organisation to environmentally reduce its costs: “With few no cost measures, organisations could save 10% of business energy costs and with a few low cost options; this could be 20%” (Carbon Trust, 2009). A survey from the BSI group clearly showed this was the primary driver for organisations undertaking this work. (BSI, 2010).
For all of your energy management and BS EN 16001 requirements, call us today on 01280 812 909
Tags: Auditors, BS EN 16001, Energy Management Systems, ISO 50001
Posted in
Energy saving