Two events attended by APSE Energy this week

Having attended 2 excellent events this week the breadth of the energy agenda seems to get wider and the importance of local energy related action more important. The REBUS event held by Durham County Council on Wednesday explained how the Council is working in partnership with others to take forward a range of activities with geothermal and mine water resources being a particular area of focus. The link with the need to address how to create heat for our domestic and commercial buildings is obvious and we all know that the source of mine water heat (the earth’s core) won’t be cooling down any time soon. Shallow mine water is also a source for cooling – and there is a growing demand for that too.

Mine water, alongside the need to improve new build housing standards, were issues I raised during a round table session with Claire Perry MP, Minister for Energy on Thursday morning prior to the UK:100 event in Leeds. During the round table, the Minister asked for a couple of areas where action was needed to drive clean energy forward. As is common, local authority (and in this case community energy) activity informed those writing national policy about the operational problems and areas of focus that policy needs to address.