Straw bale housing — demolishing unfinished estates — tribute to green pioneer Ray Anderson

Here's a round up of some green building and energy links that might be of interest. Busy at work here on the new issue of the mag — a passive house special edition, which goes to print early next week.

Straw houses baling out council building plans in the UK Guardian (with images here)

Demolishing Ireland's unfinished estates Ireland After Nama

Controversy brewing: the German Passivhaus Institut disowns its US satellite Green Building Advisor (more here)

Profile of the "ultra green" Zero Cottage in  California Jetson Green

Insulating old brick buildings Green Building Advisor

A green roof evolves at the Museum of London Treehugger

Why the US Energy Information Administration's analysis of peak oil is flawed Energy Bulletin

Leading green architect Michelle Kaufmann remembers sustainability pioneer and entrepreneur Ray Anderson, who died on 8 August MichelleKaufmann.com

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Solar Decathlon 2011 just around the corner

The 2011 US Solar Decathlon — which challenges university teams of architects, engineers and students to design houses powered by the sun — kicks off on September 22 this year. Below is a video walkthrough of the design from one of the competing institutions, Appalachian State University. You can check out video walkthroughs for all the projects here, read about them all here, and get regular updates on Facebook and Twitter too. Construct Ireland previously took a detailed look at some of the buildings that competed in the 2009 US Solar Decathlon. 

The first ever European Solar Decathlon was held in Madrid last year, with an American college emerging as the winner. We also published an extensive profile of one of the entrants to that competition, the Nottingham House, in the magazine. 

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Wufi and thermal bridging workshops coming to Dublin

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Joseph Little and Calina Ferraro of Building Life Consultancy, and Manfred Kehrer of the Fraunhofer Institute of Building Physics will deliver a two day workshop on Wufi Pro hygrothermal simulation software in Dublin on 15 and 16 September.

This workshop will teach attendees to use Fraunhofer’s Wufi Pro software for simulating heat and moisture transfer through building fabric for the purpose of assessing risk and preventing interstitial condensation. The focus of the workshop will be on the practical application of the software.
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Oil price shock coming? — mapping Ireland's empty houses — passive house boom

Here's our usual round up of interesting links — have a good weekend everyone. The new issue of the mag goes to print next week. 

Buried Treasure — a look at former Man United captain Gary Neville's underground house Michelle Kaufmann

Brace yourselves for the next oil price shock Energy Bulletin

Would you like to cover your house in "solar ivy"? Inhabitat

School built in four weeks from recycled shipping containers following earthquake Treehugger

Where are most of Ireland's vacant houses? Ireland After Nama

Advisers say UK government should force energy companies to insulate homes Guardian

Are these the top ten green building products of 2011? Jetson Green

Eight reasons for the growth of the passive house standard Jetson Green

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Green groups criticse new EU energy efficiency plan

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Environmental groups have criticised the EU's new Energy Efficiency Directive for failing to mandate member states to make big energy savings over the next decade.

According to the European Commission, the plan will deliver 20% energy savings across the union by 2020. However, Friends of the Earth said the directive would "not make savings to the extent promised, or on the scale needed to fight climate change".

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Building a low embodied energy house

We're busy at work on the new issue, hence the lack of updates, but to keep things ticking over here's an interesting Ted talk looking the kind of choices green builders and designers face when it comes to the environmental impact of construction materials. 

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Government introduces new energy rules for dwellings

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Environment Minister Phil Hogan has signed the new statutory instrument for Part L of the building regulations — which deals with energy efficiency in dwellings — into law, the department has confirmed to Construct Ireland.

The new regulations aim to deliver a 60% reduction in energy performance and carbon emissions for new dwellings compared to the 2005 standards, and will become effective from 1 December 2011.

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UK prepares for peak oil — Dublin's derelict buildings — Apple's new "spaceship"

Here's our usual round up of links that might be of interest:

To the surprise of many, Opec decides not to raise its oil production CNN

The British government appears to recognise that global oil supply will fall behind demand in the next five years Energy Bulletin

New uses for Dublin's derelict public buildings? Ireland After Nama

The Velux Sunlighthouse claims to be Austria's zero carbon and energy neutral house Inhabitat

Steve Jobs reveals Apple's plans for a new spaceship-shaped campus with lots of green space Inhabitat

Calculating the global warming impact of different insulation materials Green Building Advisor

Profile of an "affordable" passive house in Canada Green Building Advisor

An in-depth look at the deep energy retrofit of a Boston apartment block Metropolis Magazine

Can an entire house be recycled? CS Monitor

 

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Six-week consultation on green public procurement launched

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The government has published its draft national action plan on green public procurement (GPP). Environment minister Phil Hogan said the plan, when finalised later this year, will apply to all personnel involved in procurement across the public sector.

The plan aims to ensure the government purchases sustainable products and services in areas such as construction, energy, food and transport.
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More...

    Doubts raised over government's claims for Better Energy programme


    SEAI's Brian Motherway (left), energy minister Pat Rabitte (centre) and the Department of Energy's Stjohn O'Connor launch the government's Better Energy upgrade programme on 11 May.

    Earlier this month, energy minister Pat Rabbitte announced an "additional" €30M in government funding for building energy upgrade programmes for 2011. The government said the funds would "support an additional 2,000 jobs in 2011". These figures were reported largely without criticism in the national media. But they appear to be quite dubious, as our series of blog posts over the last few weeks has shown. Here's why:

    The government claims the €30M in funding is additional to the money the previous government had committed to energy upgrades for 2011 (€60M). But the previous Fianna Fáil—Green government also announced a tax relief on home energy efficiency upgrades in Budget 2011, and this has yet to be introduced. The total value the last government pledged to fund the energy efficiency tax relief? €30M.

    The tax relief will only be introduced if the minister for finance, Michael Noonan, signs a commencement order. The Department of Finance told Construct Ireland that it cannot state when or if the order will be signed. Commencement orders for budget measures sometimes remain unsigned for years — or forever.

    Construct Ireland suspects the commencement order will remain unsigned, and that the €30M tax relief will quietly slip away. If we're correct, the government's claim to be putting an "additional" €30M into Better Energy is dubious. The tax relief may not have been part of that programme, but it was nonetheless an investment in making buildings more energy efficient.

    We asked the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (DCENR) how the 2,000 jobs figure was calculated. It replied:

    The number of jobs is derived from the additional monies allocated by the government which we know will leverage similar levels of private funding in what are labour intensive works and based upon the typical wages in the sector.

    But if the money isn't really "additional", neither are the jobs. After all, the tax relief would have created jobs too. What's more, the 2,000 jobs figure does not appear to take into account potential job losses from the withdrawal of grants for heat pumps and biomass boilers — Construct Ireland is already hearing about companies losing work due to these grants being pulled.

    We also emailed DCENR asking why it withdrew grants for some renewable technologies while maintaining support for oil and gas boilers, but a spokesperson did not address the question directly, and simply said:

    The grant available for a new oil or gas boiler only represents a contribution to the additional cost incurred by the homeowner in choosing a high efficiency boiler (i.e. >90% efficiency) versus the standard required by the building regulations (i.e. >86% efficiency). The homeowner must also install heating controls in order to avail of the €160 subsidy.
     





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    Better Energy: questions answered?

    Earlier this week we sent three questions to the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources (DCENR) on the government's Better Energy building upgrade programme. Here's how they responded:

    CI: Has the proposed tax relief on energy efficient works for homeowners that was announced in Budget 2011 been scrapped? 

    DCENR: The tax relief announced in Budget 2011 is subject to a commencement order, which at this point has not been brought forward by the Minister for Finance.  

    CI: The press pack that accompanied the launch of Better Energy said the government had previously set aside €60m for energy efficiency upgrades in 2011. But the budget set aside €69.252m for capital expenditure for "sustainable energy programmes". Was the €60m figure a typo?

    DCENR: The original budget allocation for retrofit was around €60 million for capital works with the balance set aside for current.

    CI: How was the department's estimate that the "additional" €30m funding for 2011 would create an extra 2,000 jobs calculated? Did this figure take into account any potential job losses from the withdrawal of grants for heat pumps and biomass boilers?  

    DCENR: Applications for heat pumps and biomass boilers have declined considerably in recent months with applications in these areas representing in the order of 10% of the total applications received. This was factored into our calculations.

    Note: We would presume it is now highly unlikely there will be any commencement order for the €30m tax relief referred to in question one — this makes it potentially dubious for the government to claim it is putting an additional €30m into Better Energy. As you can see, our query as to how the 2,000 jobs estimate was calculated was largely ignored. 

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    Will Better Energy really create 2,000 extra jobs?

    Last week, we raised some questions about the accuracy of the government's claims that its new Better Energy building upgrade programme represents an additional €30m investment over what was initially promised for 2011.

    The other big claim the government made was the €30m figure would create an extra 2,000 jobs this year. Of course, if the €30m is not actually new funding, but just a re-allocation from a tax relief on energy efficiency works that appears to have been scrapped, the 2,000 figure looks highly questionable. Is the department claiming that putting €30m into Better Energy is creating 2,000 more jobs than would have been created by the tax relief?

    The government says its €30m investment will be matched by €30m of private sector investment. So that's €60m altogether. So is it simply presuming this will yield 2,000 jobs with an average wage of €30,000, or is its calculation — as one would hope — more sophisticated?

    Also, has it considered the potential for job losses in the heat pump and biomass boiler sectors due to the withdrawal of grants from those industries? We're already hearing about companies coming under serious pressure due to the removal of grants. Of course from the government's point of view, the purpose of grants is to stimulate a market to  a point where it's healthy and there's a good range of choice for consumers. It clearly thinks the heat pump and biomass boiler sectors are now there, making it the right time to remove the grants.

    But what kind of message does it send to eliminate grants for heat pumps and biomass boilers while maintaining support for oil and gas boilers?

    We've put questions on all of the above to the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and are hoping to have a response in the next few days.
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    Better Energy — is the new funding just a sleight of hand?

    Launching its Better Energy building upgrade programme earlier this week, the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources said it had committed "an additional €30m towards the programme" for 2011. It added that "capital funding of €60m was allocated for energy efficiency initiatives in Budget 2011". So reading the press pack, you get the impression the previous government allocated €60m, and the current one is now adding €30m to that.

    But is this really the case? 

    As part of his last budget, former finance minister Brian Lenihan introduced a tax credit scheme — under this, homeowners could claim a tax credit on home energy efficiency works. Lenihan set aside €30m for the scheme for 2011.

    But there was no mention of the tax credits as part of the launch of Better Energy, and the scheme does not appear to be open or imminent. Has it been dropped, and if so can the government claim the €30m of additional funding it announced on Wednesday is extra?

    What's more, while the Better Energy press pack says "capital funding of €60m was allocated for energy efficiency initiatives in Budget 2011", the figure in the budget actually appears to be €69m. The €60m figure may be a typo, but if not it means that a total of €99m originally set aside for this year has now become €90m.

    We hope to have a reply from the department to clarify things shortly. 

     

     


     

     

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