The UK government has merely loosened the head collar but it hasn’t yet killed the beast.

There is plenty of life left in Solar but the industry needs to build business models centred on delivering real value and market the many benefits of Solar installations rather than simply relying in subsidies from the FiTs scheme.

There was serious industry backlash against the UK government’s latest announcement of a massive cut in feed in tariff for Solar energy on schemes up to 4kW in size, from 43.3p per kWh down to 21p/kWh, earlier this month.

Chief Executive of the Renewable Energy Association, Gaynor Hartnell, was reported in the Guardian as saying that she did not believe the department for energy and climate change was winning its argument with the Treasury on the benefits to the economy of renewables. She is also quoted as stating that the government chopping and changing its mind like this and not honouring its commitments (this is the second major cut this year) was undermining confidence in the industry as a whole.

Other industry experts quoted in press articles within hours of the announcement were stating that thousands of contracts had already been cancelled and some Solar companies had started laying people off and making redundancies.

I’m in two minds about this. Firstly, cuts to payments under the FiTs scheme will make some people think twice about Solar installations, but unfortunately much of the subsidy has already been diverted to large commercial energy companies rather than individual home owners or public sector projects as it was initially intended. In my mind the Government should have acted sooner and made a much clearer distinction between the different market sectors. Spending controls are unfortunately now a necessity.

Every fledgling industry needs a helping hand but there comes a time when it should be able to stand on its own two feet. Perhaps that time for the solar industry is now.

There are many benefits and reasons why residential or commercial customers should invest in solar technology. FiTs is just one of them. Alongside the many ‘green’ issues, an other benefit is security of supply and having more control over your energy supply and usage; solar customers can at least rest assured that they can generate energy for their own needs at times when mains electricity may be unavailable. And with talk of possible energy rationing at some point in the future and political unrest globally, that benefit is looking increasingly attractive. Once payback has been achieved, Solar energy is always going to be less costly than many other sources – or even free in certain circumstances.

We offer solar inverters that provide maximum energy, efficiency and safety. They come with advanced communications, easy installation and maintenance, plus conformance to international standards. More information is available on our website or contact us.

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh is not shy about letting his feelings be known. We (the British Public) are used to reading about or listening to his latest verbal gaffe in newspapers and on the news.

In November, the Duke was reported in the Sunday Telegraph as having a pop at renewable technologies, specifically wind turbines, which he declared “Absolutely useless.” According to the newspaper, his comments were directed at a representative from a wind turbine manufacturer to whom he declared: “they are absolutely useless, completely reliant on subsidies and an absolute disgrace.”

His comments are unfortunate given the UK government’s widely broadcast renewable ambitions and support for onshore as well as offshore wind farms.

As you know, Riello UPS is a big fan of renewable energy, particularly as part of a mix of supply options, and particularly Solar. All new technologies need a subsidy to get them off the ground and solar is a case in point. In countries, such as Germany, where it has been subsidised for almost a decade, it has really taken off and as an industry will soon be able to stand on its own two feet. Wind farms (on and offshore) are the same and there are many instances where they are established and offering competitive enough electricity prices but there are many installations that still have some catching up to do and are reliant on subsidies.

On that note, I read an interesting article in Electrical Review talking about the ETI (Energy Technologies Institute) taking wave energy to the next level with a project to design and demonstrate a low-cost wave energy converter system.

Extracting energy from waves using wave energy converters (WECs) is one method of exploiting the energy potential of the seas around the UK – and as we are an island, why not? However, capturing as much energy from waves as possible while building technologies that will withstand the harsh environment is not easy and this project will identify areas for improvement and new developments. It is being commissioned in two phases, the first is looking for design concepts for wave energy converter systems and the second will see the designs being developed and demonstrated. Requests for proposals have been issued for any organisations wanting to get involved. Updates and more details are available at www.energyytechnologies.co.uk.

The first ever CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Performance League Table was published in November by the Environment Agency, which is responsible for running it. It showed that 60% of organisations have taken action on energy management by installing smart meters and obtaining certificates for ‘good energy management’.

Ranked organisations count among them some of the largest energy users in the UK; large businesses and public sector organisations that use more than 6000 Megawatt Hours of electricity a year.

The scheme is intended to help the UK meet its carbon reduction targets and encourage large energy users to be smarter about how and where they consume electricity so that it can be reduced.

At Riello UPS, we think anything that encourages users to focus on reducing energy consumption is a great idea and we help our customers do so (and thus reduce their energy bills) while securing power continuity. We do that by providing products that are efficient, reliable and functional. I cannot help thinking, however, that the UK’s efforts to reduce energy consumption overall and meet carbon reduction targets could be given a real boost if energy suppliers started installing smart meters as standard. Only those that stand to benefit the most from so doing can afford to install smart meters and while that is the case we will continue to see the waste that is associated with a haphazard approach to measuring energy consumption.

For more information about UPS and power protection, visit our website.

Could the trend be spreading here?

An article on climaterocks.com earlier this month stated that despite American homes being cluttered with electronic consumer gadgets (Smartphones, tablets, wireless routers that run all the time, and TVs that light up in high definition), demand for electricity is levelling off.

Over the next ten years, experts are predicting residential energy use in the USA will actually fall, the first time it has happened since Thomas Edison’s invention of the electric light bulb.

Edison’s light bulb has now been replaced by more efficient types of lighting and electrical devices of all kinds are much more energy efficient than they used to be. Manufacturers have focused on that aspect as part of their research and development of new products for the past ten years. There are other factors too: new homes are more energy efficient and old ones are being made so by home energy savings programmes. Plus, utility companies say it is symptomatic of the economic slow down and not something to worry about for the future.

As energy costs continue to rise and users become more educated about their use of electricity, there is every indication that this will happen in the UK and Europe too. This may lead to the big six energy utility companies having to reinvent themselves and their business models, and perhaps even for the first time in years, reducing their tariff charges to encourage us to use more.

It’s a nice thought but I wouldn’t bet the house on it just yet.

If you would like more information on UPS and selecting energy efficient power protection, visit Riello AROS UPS’s website.

A report published by the Energy Saving Trust last month claims that our love of electronic gadgets, such as flat screen TVs, tablet PCs, Smartphones, electronic toothbrushes and big fridges is leading us away from reaching our emissions targets and that we should be weaned off them.

The government has set down a target to reduce domestic electricity emissions by 34% by 2020 but the Energy Saving Trust says that we will fall far short of this is we don’t cool our love affair with gadgets.

The number of domestic devices and appliances in the average UK household increased by three and a half times between 1990 and 2009, according to the report, and overall energy consumption from consumer electronic goods rose by more than 600% between 1970 and 2009.

Reported in The Guardian last month, a spokesperson for the Trust pointed out that consumers would never buy a car without checking out its fuel-efficiency first and yet we are happy to fill our houses with electronic consumer good without sparing one thought for their electricity consumption and how much it will cost. “People need to be educated about these things.” She said.

It’s not just consumers either. In business many people now work from home or use equipment at home and in their personal time that is provided for business use, such as laptops, smartphones, GPS navigation systems (that require home charging), tablet PCs and so forth. Between 2000 and 2009, electricity use from home computing more than doubled and the number of devices in Britain’s homes rose from 30,000 to 65,000.

Five years ago, the Energy Saving Trust issued a report The Rise of the Machine, which found that the number of electrical appliances, products and gadgets people typically own had trebled since the 1970s. Although such appliances are more efficient now, electricity consumption has doubled between 1970 and 2002.

The Energy Saving Trust does good work, no doubt about that, but trying to get we -the people – to give up our love of gadgets is akin to King Canute trying to hold back the tide. As we move ever deeper into the technological age, our love of (and use of) devices will continue to rise and unfortunately gadgets these days are mostly electronic. It’s up to the electronics industry and technology inventors to ensure they are the most energy efficient they can be, but I agree, users should be more aware of the implications of using such implements on electricity consumption and educated as to responsible energy use.

If you would like to know more about energy efficient UPS, or any of our comprehensive range of power protection products and services, visit Riello AROS UPs’s website.

Electricity generated from renewable energy sources in the UK has increased 50% in the past year, according to statistics released by DECC (Department for Energy and Climate Change) in October 2011.

Electricity from renewables comprised 6.3% of the UK’s total energy consumption when the figures were announced in April 2010 and that figure rose to 9.6% this year, a healthy 50% increase.

Supplies from hydro and wind rose by 74.7% and 120% respectively but renewables still only supply around 10% of the UK’s total energy needs and that has got to change if we are to meet our carbon reduction targets alongside our growing energy needs.

However, the wind industry is making a tremendous contribution to the nations energy supply and is now providing enough power to supply nearly 3.25 million homes in the UK.

Electricity sourced from nuclear generation accounted for 21.3% of total according to DECC. So, despite the massive rises in low carbon energy and encouraging growth in the renewables industries, we are still relying on fossil fuels for two thirds of our energy needs.

As you know, here at Riello we are big fans of renewable energy and have developed our range of UPS and ancillary products to support renewable energy installations such as Solar (with our AROS solar inverters). We are continuing to bring products and solutions to market that support the drive towards renewables.

Some high-profile players in the data centre world have received column inches of late not least because of their ‘green’ credentials. Facebook, Google and Yahoo are all using innovative and environmentally-friendly cooling systems, building on brownfield sites and investing in renewable energy.

Colocation players have the same desire to be green but are somewhat constrained by the needs and demands of the customer.

Bourne out of the realisation that computer equipment can withstand hotter temperatures, a recent initiative by collocation data centres is to run warm in an attempt to lessen the need for cooling and use less electricity. Ambient temperatures of around 21 degrees Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) – often as high as 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) are now acceptable. The lower the temperature, the more cooling is required to maintain it, thus more energy is being consumed and the whole system is less efficient. However, there are two major problems with running data centres at higher temperatures.

Firstly, customer comfort: colocation customers need to visit their servers and do so regularly. They are used to data centres being a certain temperature and comfortable. However, what’s comfortable for machines is not always pleasant for humans.

The second problem with running data centres or server rooms at higher temperatures is how it affects UPS batteries. The batteries will continue to work effectively but the higher temperatures (above 20/21 Celsius) will compromise their design life and they will need to be replaced more often. This necessity will significantly increase the lifetime costs of the facility and UPS system.

Flywheel UPS is ideal for this type of application as it is not temperature sensitive like batteries. It will quite happily operate at 10 Celsius as it will at 40 Celsius. It can also offer high efficiency, low running and maintenance costs, the lowest possible PUE ratios and highest operational resilience. Riello’s Master MHF VDC 100-500kVA Flywheel UPS has been designed specifically for critical environments such as data centres, hospitals and large industrial installations. It is a scaleable system, incorporating a VDC or VDC-XE flywheel, which requires 50% less floor space than a similarly rated, traditional UPS and batteries. Flywheels have a much longer design life (20 years) than traditional UPS batteries and a far lower total cost of ownership (TCO). It also offers an instantaneous recharge time. To find out more, visit our website.

In his speech at the Conservative Party Conference earlier this month, Chancellor George Osborne gave a strong signal that sorting out the economy is a higher priority than cutting emissions.

Britain’s businesses must not be jeopardised by the country’s low carbon commitments he suggested. “We must have investment in greener energy.” He said. “And that is why I gave the go ahead for the world’s first Green Investment Bank but we are not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business.” he added.

Compared with other world-leading economies such as China and America that combined have a 40% share of the world’s carbon emissions, Britain’s is only 2%. Chancellor Osborne said that we should not cut our carbon emissions any slower but also not any faster than any of our fellow countries in Europe. He went on to mention the recent carbon budget, which came out earlier this year and put a floor price on carbon. Lobbyists and business leaders have warned it will drive business out of Europe, and the UK in particular. The CBI (Confederation of Business and Industry) has asked for major energy users to be exempt from the so-called ‘carbon tax’.

What’s interesting is the potential rift in the cabinet that may arise out of the apparent polarisation in priorities between the fiscal needs of the economy and the rebuilding of the UK power sector in order to meet increasing demand for electricity. Earlier on at the conference, Energy Minister Charles Hendry urged the rebuilding of the sector “in a way that is genuinely low carbon”.

The UK has a legally binding agreement to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 compared with 1990 levels.

Well, there is always going to be a conflict between what’s best for the economy and what’s right for the planet and I am only glad that I am not the Chancellor or Energy Minister. However, Riello has made it our business over the past decade or so to ensure that our UPS products and power protection solutions offer the highest levels of efficiency and lowest total cost of ownership as possible. The UPS you buy today can actually go a long way towards saving you money in the future and using less energy. To find out more visit our website.

According to a report published by CRN.com earlier this month, data centre power consumption is not as high as it was expected to be. Rather than attributing this to better data centre design and the work by data centre managers (DCMs) that has gone into implementing strategic efficiency measures, the slow-down is being accredited to the fact that the installed server base seems to have levelled off.

How unfair is that?

Nowhere do we see energy efficiency being placed higher on the list of priorities than amongst our data centre customers! Alongside TCO (total cost of ownership), energy efficiency ratings and PuE scores are top of the agenda for DCMs.

The European Union issued an analogous document in 2007 with regard to UPS devices, prepared in collaboration with the CEMEP, the European Committee of Manufacturers of Electrical Machines and Power Electronics, of which Riello UPS is a member. Towards the end of 2008, the Union disseminated a Code of Conduct for improving the energy efficiency of Data Centers. Riello has set itself the target of being the most environmentally friendly power protection company in Europe. We are at the forefront of UPS research and development in terms of finding ways to improve UPS operating efficiencies and reduce their dependence on and usage of consumables such as batteries. To that end, Riello UPS developed the unique ECO Energy rating system – a clear method of identifying how Riello UPS products comply with and exceed the European Code of Conduct.

Findings in CRN’s report suggest the total consumption within data centres from servers, communications, storage, cooling and power distribution equipment accounts for between 1.7 and 2.2 percent of the total electricity used in the USA in 2010. A year prior, it was anticipated that it would be 3.5%.

I think the emphasis should be on decreasing power consumption, alongside increasing efficiency. UPS and cooling equipment perform at their most efficient at full load and this is not something data centres should do. Superbikes are designed for maximum performance and optimum efficiency but operating at maximum cannot be sustained indefinitely. A UPS is a critical piece of equipment and so reliability must take top priority. So, therefore, using efficiency on its own as a measure of success in reducing energy consumption, although important, is misleading. If you decrease load, efficiency will drop but then you will also be consuming less electricity.

In terms of lowering costs and energy consumption, the key to data centre design is to ensure you build flexibility in from the start. In terms of UPS, that might include installing flywheel UPS instead of battery banks to reduce the use of floor space and preserve it for revenue-earning servers. Flywheel UPS also offers greater efficiency and lower lifetime costs than battery equivalents. Instead of ripping out and replacing your UPS system every five years as your requirements outgrow it, you may also want to look at installing modular UPS, which gives you the option of increasing system capacity by bringing in additional UPS modules as you need them and simply slotting them into the system.

There are many ways you can reduce energy consumption in data centres and I think this report is testament to that fact. That’s what DCMs have been doing. Efficiency is but one way of doing that.

I read an interesting article in the trade press last week about the potential of Lithium Ion (Li-ion) batteries for UPS applications. It seems Li-ion battery manufacturers have done much to improve the design and manufacture of these batteries and addressed some of the design flaws that have so far struck them off as a serious contender in UPS applications. Could it be that they are at last taking the potential growth in the UPS market seriously?

Reports so far focussed on the USA market suggests the market for Li-ion batteries will grow 23% per annum until 2016.

Li-ion batteries have been slow to penetrate the UPS market. They are more readily employed in portable consumer electronics, primarily because of safety concerns. Lithium is highly flammable so if the batteries are exposed to over charging or over currents, it can present a fire hazard. Cost has also been an issue (they can be 5-8 times more expensive than VRLA equivalents). Many countries do not allow Li-ion batteries to be transported by air, only overland or by sea. They are more expensive to produce than Sealed Lead Acid batteries, more commonly found in UPS systems. Due to their chemical make up and design, Li-ion batteries can present a significant fire hazard if not carefully monitored.

On the plus side, however, Li-ion batteries display rather better ‘green’ credentials than their VRLA counterparts. They are also lighter in weight and take up less space than comparably-rated VRLA battery sets (some reports suggest by as much as 50%). Li-ion batteries can offer longer back up times at higher discharge currents and are said to be less temperature sensitive (VRLA batteries require a constant ambient temperature to preserve battery life). Li-ion batteries can tolerate more and faster discharge cycles. They have no gas emissions and can operate in a totally sealed environment.

Some Lithium Ion manufacturers are now designing batteries with charging and monitoring circuits built in, which control battery charging and protect against hazardous situations from developing.

I can see the potential of Li-ion batteries and will be watching with interest how the market develops. However, VRLA batteries have been in use in UPS systems for a long time, the technology is stable and they are cost-effective. There are battery alternatives (such as flywheels and fuel cells) that are much more exciting and in my view offer a more significant alternative to batteries but a I cannot see VRLAs being replaced in UPS installations by any other battery technology anytime soon.