New rooftops in the City to go green

1st October 201523rd March 2015 by Chris

Now here’s an idea to put Worcester in the map. An opportunity to be in the vanguard of the green revolution and show the city as the flag ship of World Class Worcestershire.

Rooftops on new buildings built in commercial zones in France must either be partially covered in plants or solar panels, under a new law.

The law approved by parliament was more limited in scope than initial calls by French environmental activists to make green roofs that cover the entire surface mandatory on all new buildings.

Whilst I cannot envisage a law requiring this in our City I do think it would be good to start encouraging this – and perhaps the Uni, and the City and County Council buildings could lead the way.

Ecology : Electric Vehicles : Political notes and more

October 2015

Oslo, Norway’s capital, like most of the Scandinavian country’s cities and towns, boasts bus-lane access for electric vehicles (EVs), recharging stations aplenty, privileged parking, and toll-free travel for electric cars. The initiative began in the 1990s as an effort to cut pollution, congestion, and noise in urban centres; now its primary rationale is combating climate change. Today, Norway has the highest per capita number of all-electric [battery only] cars in the world: more than 100,000 in a country of 5.2 million people. Last year, EVs constituted nearly 40% of the nation’s newly registered passenger cars. Norway is the clear electric vehicle pacesetter in Europe, which now has about 500,000 electric vehicles.

And the Norwegian experiment shows every sign of accelerating. Earlier this year, Norway opened the world’s largest fast-charging station, which can charge up to 28 vehicles in about half an hour.

Hackney Council has installed the first publicly accessible on-street rapid charging posts for electrical vehicles in London, so increasing the charging options of EV users in the capital.
The three units, which are supplied by APT Technologies a leading innovator in EV charging solutions, are the very latest Tri-Rapid Chargers and are located in Shoreditch, Dalston and Hackney Central.

China leads the world in EV usage, with about 600,000 all-electric vehicles on its roads and an ambitious plan to deploy 5m EVs by 2020.

Wind power generates 140% of Denmark's electricity demand http://bit.ly/1IOI0jV
Unusually high winds allowed Denmark to meet all of its electricity needs – with plenty to spare for Germany, Norway and Sweden too

Professional Financial Advice
Jan Oliff
www.oliff.info