The Icon

LEADER of the East Suffolk Council has voiced his concerns regarding offshore windfarm developments by ScottishPower Renewables ahead the council's cabinet meeting. While East Suffolk Council is 'strongly in favour of renewable energy', Councillor Steve Gallant says he is 'disappointed' with the submitted applications in their current form, which lead him to believe that 'the benefits will be considerably outweighed...

LANCASTER City Council has just licensed its first electric private hire vehicle, a Model 3 Tesla. Unlike most taxis, this one won’t be picking up people after a night out or taking people to the supermarket. Instead it will be providing 'an executive service' to airports and seaports, with a range of 348 miles giving it the ability to travel across...

HOUSING improvement loans are available to landlords and private homeowners whose properties are in need of repair or modernisation. One of the aims of the loans is to bring empty properties back into use but they are also available to owner-occupiers to make their homes safe, warm and secure. Councillor Jane Mudd, Leader of Newport City Council, said: "This is a...

HERTFORDSHIRE County Council has pledged to reduce their carbon energy usage by 80 per cent by 2025 as part of their new Energy Strategy. The new strategy is aligned with the council's Climate Change Emergency and the wider national targets and sets out our carbon targets through adopting five key themes: Demand reduction throughout energy efficiencies, application of low and...

A KEY challenge for meeting the UK’s net-zero target is the decarbonisation of Britain’s domestic space heating and hot water demand, according to Dr Grant Wilson, lecturer in chemical engineering in the University of Birmingham, told the UK Energy Research Centre. To help achieve this, according to Dr Wilson the primary aim should to reduce the amount of energy required...

Zap-Map, a popular UK electric vehicle charging digital platform, today announces the launch of a free voice-activated function on Google Assistant, allowing users to search for charge points using voice commands. Drivers can quickly access Zap-Map’s comprehensive database of over 95% of all public charge points – the biggest in the UK – to find charge points on route to...

ONE of the UK’s largest public solar car ports has been installed at Oxford City Council’s Leys Pools and Leisure Centre in Blackbird Leys. A canopy over 48 car-parking spaces, featuring more than 350 solar panels, will deliver over 80,000kWh of green electricity to the Leys Pool and Leisure Centre per year, enough to power about 25 homes. The £175k Solar...

Ofgem’s investigation into the power cuts of 9 August following a lightning strike found that combined loss of two large generators, as well as the smaller loss of generation at a local level, together triggered the subsequent disconnection. This lead to loss of power and disruption to more than one million consumers. Jonathan Brearley, Executive Director of Ofgem, commented on the...

STOKE-on-Trent City Council cabinet has confirmed details of how a climate change commission will work to change the city’s environmental priorities. The commission will gather evidence for four months and will be led by councillor Carl Edwards, cabinet member for the environment. Councillor Edwards commented on the news: “This approach will help us to tackle the climate issues Stoke-on-Trent is currently...

AFTER four years of planning and analysis, Southern Water has published Water Resources Management Plan which sets out the enormous challenge the region faces to protect the environment and provide drinking water to their customers. Updated every five years, the company has previously looked 25 years into the future to assess the risks. For the first time Southern Water is now...