High street retailers could be wasting as much as £1billion per year on heat keeping shops at temperatures equivalent to Jamaica and letting doors stay open. A study from Cambridge University suggests that stores could save as much as 54 per cent of energy costs by keeping doors closed and turning down thermostats. Furthermore, if two-thirds of the nation took similar measures, the UK could save the equivalent of taking 1.1 million cars from the roads in carbon emissions. Research in London suggests that Britain is losing out on valuable resources as irresponsible businesses allow energy waste to ... Full Story

Plans for a £100 million controversial waste incinerator have been blocked by the government after six years of battling in Perth. The Scottish Government ruled yesterday that the scheme would be rejected, six years after the initial project was proposed. According to MSP Roseanna Cunningham, the decision was the right one for the right reasons. Planning reported Scott Ferrie was at the forefront of the decision to dismiss the appeal after widespread outcries from local campaign groups. In what is now being considered Perth’s longest saga in history, Grundon Waste Management will have to look elsewhere to ... Full Story

New threats to Britain’s wind turbine industry have come in the form of forecasts from analysts that offshore wind farms will slump over the next few years. The revelation could bring the industry’s recent growth to a staggering halt along with the expected 10,000 green jobs that it would have brought with it. Currently, analysts have said that offshore wind farm installation could fall as much as 93 per cent by 2013, compared to the previous year’s increase. The predictions have been based on data such as order numbers for cables, equipment and foundations that are required to install wind turbines ... Full Story

A nuclear waste shipment headed for Germany completed its tricky four-day haul from a reprocessing plant in France on Tuesday, igniting fresh protests on nuclear power that has it Germany’s government. At least 50,000 anti-nuclear campaigners obstructed the passage of the Castor containers for a couple of days as 20,000 police shepherded the shipment through rural Gorleben a day late. The final 20kms of the road trip was stopped beginning Monday night as police removed 3,000 demonstrators that had lined up to block the road leading to the facility. According to protestors, the campaign was fanned by the government’s decision to extend ... Full Story

Sita announced a new scheme to build 10 plants designed to turn old plastic into diesel fuel. The Suez Environment-owned waste company will create 120 jobs and spend nearly £50m building 10 state-of-the-art facilities, which will convert ‘end-of-life’ plastic waste into oil-based petrol. The move will prevent previously unusable plastic waste from ending up in landfill. In what will be Europe’s first plastic-to-diesel plant, the scheme will see 60,000 tonnes of mixed plastics rubbish recycled in to fuel per year. The pioneering technology is made by Irish firm Cynar and marks the first commercially-capable plastic-to-diesel machinery. Chief executive of Sita, David Palmer-Jones said ... Full Story

The Environmental Agency has granted the final permit needed for Viridor’s £150m waste-to-energy facility in Splott, Cardiff. The £150m requires the permit for building permission and now the UK energy firm is free to proceed with original plans. However, local residents continue to campaign against the proposed waste-to-energy incinerator on the grounds of its potential health impact. According to Viridor, it hopes construction will begin next year and the plant will be fully operating by mid-2014. Opponents maintain that the Environment Agency should not have approved the permit saying the incinerator needs tighter restrictions imposed upon it. Environment Agency Wales has already delayed ... Full Story

A new EU directive proposal was presented on Wednesday calling for national plans to be drafted over the next few years, as the international body still has no permanent storage sites for radioactive waste. As plans are made, exports of nuclear waste outside of the EU for long-term storage will be banned. The commission said that current sites are usable for 100 years at most, however, high-level waste created by nuclear power facilities can take nearly a million years to decompose. Finland revealed plans to have long-term hazardous waste storage facilities operational by 2020. Sweden will follow in its neighbor’s footsteps by ... Full Story

Plans for a £20m recycling facility have been revealed in a development that will bring 30 new jobs to Inverness. According to reports, the Iverness Harbour recycling plant will create 30 new permanent positions for skilled workers and bring even more temporary jobs during construction. The facility will also reduce the amounts of waste being sent to landfill by converting it to biomass fuel. The plant will be using a new system called auto-claving and building will be strictly monitored by Scotland’s Environment Protection Agency. Although auto-claving has been used for over a century to sterilise equipment, the technique has just recently ... Full Story

The majority of high-level waste in the UK is currently stored in a site at Sellafield. However, West Cumbria remains in the running for a new deep geological storage facility says a report. The government is seeking a location for high-level waste, such as nuclear waste, in areas like Allerdale, Copeland and Cumbria; all three councils have shown interest in preliminary discussions. In a study conducted by the British Geological Survey, some areas in the North West were ruled out, however, the majority of sites near Copeland and Allerdale were reported as clear. The findings, commissioned by the Department of Energy and ... Full Story

Construction on a new Oxfordshire waste incinerator could begin as soon as April 2011 after plans won approval from the local authority. On Monday, councillors backed a proposed waste-burning incinerator for a site in Ardley off the M40. The waste firm behind the plans, Viridor, said that work could begin by next April with a completion date of sometime in 2014. Members of the local council have given the plant permission under a 35-year contract, but the countryside will be restored at the end of the period. The company said the facility will be able to convert 300,000 tonnes of rubbish into ... Full Story

Sainsbury’s announced the opening of its store in Crayford, which will mark the first use of geothermal exchange technology in a supermarket in the UK. The superstore, which covers 9,000 square meters, has been built to use Greenfield Energy’s latest innovative technology that uses ground heat to heat and cool the store. The extension to the Greater London-based Crayford store is just one in a series of new store openings for the UK supermarket chain. According to the firm, the extended store is the world’s first supermarket to use the technology. The ‘geo exchange’ system allows boreholes underneath the structure to draw ... Full Story

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has approved the construction of eight new nuclear power facilities in Britain, despite growing concerns over clean-up costs and safety. The Lib Dem minister had previously voiced his opposition to nuclear power due to its generation of radioactive waste. However, joining the coalition, he has been forced to reevaluate his position as he struggles to keep the nation powered. The coalition government has committed to reducing carbon emissions in the country by 80 per cent by 2050. In order to meet those goals, the energy sector will need to significantly increase its renewable energy production. The minister also announced ... Full Story