FAQs

What is Fuel Poverty?

Fuel poverty is said to occur when in order to heat it’s home to an adaquate standard of warmth a household needs to spend more than 10% of it’s income on total fuel use. For more detailed information please visit this UKPHA web site.

Are you looking for something you could do right now, that does not cost a thing?

Click to donate: free clicks generate donations for your favourite causes. To find out more please visit the CARE2 web site and make a difference today, just click here.

What is Hydroelectricity? How do Hydro power systems work?

Is there a river or stream close to you? It could be a reliable source of energy. Read the FAQ on Hydroelectricity from the Energy Savings Trust.

How does an Anaerobic Digestion Plant work?

Visit the Biogen.co.uk website for a full explanation of all the benefits of using the Anaerobic Digestion plant system.

What is an Anaerobic Digestion Plant?

The following link shows an Anaerobic Digestion plant in Ludlow which takes food waste from the town and turns it into electricity and compost. There are other groups including farmers who are installing these plants to deal with their own and local waste materials, to not only provide electricity for the grid, but also natural fertilisers for their land.

To see this article on the Bioenergy web site please click here.

What is a Ground Source Heat Pump?

It is a geothermal heat pump that operates as a central heating and / or cooling system, that pumps heat to and from the ground. The design takes advantage of the moderate temperatures in the ground and may be combined with solar heating to create even greater effeciency. To visit the home page of an award winning project, one that was retrofitted to a group of houses in the Penwith Housing Association Cornwall please click here.

What is the difference between ‘Photo Voltaic’ Solar panels and ‘Solar Thermal Collector’ panels?

Very briefly – ‘Photo Voltaic’ systems generate electricity from light from the Sun.

‘Solar Termal Collector’ systems are used to heat water collected from the heat of the Sun. Both systems are to be found installed on South facing rooftops and can be a useful supply of energy to the home.

For a full report of the different designs available together with diagrams and photos of how these systems work, please visit the Wikipedia page.

How can young people be introduced to changes in our environment?

Footprintfriends.com. This site is full of stimulating ideas and activities aimed at young people between 10 to 18 yrs.With competions, games, blogs, teacher support. ‘Footprints friends calls on all young people, parents and influencers to get involved’.

What is Permaculture?

Bill Mollison of the UK Permaculture Association explains in this article.

What is meant by the word ‘Resilience’?

Professor Stephen Carpenter from the Zoology Department, University of Winsconsin, explains the meaning behind the concept resilience.

What is the 10:10 Campaign all about?

’10:10 is an empowering climate change campaign with the aim of getting individuals, companies and institutions to reduce their carbon footprints by 10% during 2010′. Read a response to a full list of questions written by the Guardian Newspaper.

For more info about how to sign up and join this independent British campaign please see our Events page.

Is it really possible to greatly reduce the UK’s Carbon Footprint?

BBC Radio 4 Today: An interview with Lord Stern, author of a major report on Climate Change.
In this recorded interview of October 27th 2009, he states that 80% carbon reduction is ‘doable’. Listen here.

How can I calculate my Carbon Footprint?

The Resurgence web site has what is widely recognised as the most user-friendly and accurate on-line carbon calculator with lots of useful information.

What is the position of TEV regarding Renewable Energy in the Vale of Evesham?

The following statement was agreed in a TEV consensus decision-making workshop in June 2010 with particular attention paid to the future of Wind Power:-

“Transition Evesham Vale recognises the need to reduce our dependence on oil, gas and coal in order to address the combined challenges of climate change and fossil fuel depletion. Alongside increased fuel efficiency, we realise that renewable energy, including wind, solar, hydro and bio generation will all have a role in filling the energy gap.

We believe that there is a case for wind power generation in the Vale of Evesham, and that a site or sites could be found to harness this valuable energy resource.

We support the development of wind power in which:

  • The communities of the Vale have a stake in ownership and benefit from the development
  • The development contributes to increased economic as well as energy security within the Vale
  • The development is on a scale appropriate to its setting.

We would welcome opportunities to work towards such development in partnership with others who share our aims.”

How could we assess the Carbon Emissions in our Local Community?

Here is a short YouTube video titled ‘Climate Challenge Fund Baselining Guidance Film’. This is a beginners guide to assessing how much change your project will make to carbon emissions in your community. It provides a simple explanation of how to calculate your projects baseline, with lots of good ideas and advice about creating surveys etc.

What is Peak Oil?

Peak Oil is the time when the maximum rate of Global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. The extraction of oil always follows a bell-shaped curve, and once it reaches a peak, it becomes impossible to pump at the same rate and so production will inexorably decline.’World discovery of oil peaked in 1964 and has been declining ever since, despite considerable improvements in technology, and there is no prospect of any significant large discoveries. We are currently consuming more than six barrels for every one we discover. There is a growing consensus that we are now approaching, or are even at, the world oil peak’.(TTT).

What is Contraction and Convergence?

‘Contraction and Convergence (C&C) is a proposed global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change. Conceived in the early 1990’s by the Global Commons Institute, the C&C strategy consists of reducing overall emissions per capita to a level which is equal for all countries’. For more details about this model and how it could be put into operation please visit the Wikipedia page.

Where can I find the latest local information on tackling Climate Change?

The Worcestershire Climate Change Newsletter. This is a monthly magazine organized by WCC that informs the public and local organisationsabout taking action, to tackle the causes and effects of climate change locally. If you would like to receive a copy of the latest newsletter or read past issues on the WCC website, please click here.

What is Worcestershire’s Climate Change Strategy?

‘We will develop a Climate Change Plan for the County that contributes towards the national and international actions to tackle the causes and effects of Climate Change’. (Partnership Towards Excellence – A Community Strategy for Worcestershire 2003 – 2013).

What is the 12 step Transition model all about?

To find out more try reading this-

The Transition Towns Summary – collated and prepared by David A Wilson. May 2008.This is a12 step model plan which has been lifted from the ‘Transition Handbook’ written by Rob Hopkins, and can be seen outlined in just 4 pages, as a downloaded pdf file. Download the summary.

How did the Transition Movement get started?

The Transition Movement is a movement that was created by Louise Rooney and popularized by Rob Hopkins. It was founded in Kinsale, Ireland and was then spread to Totnes in Devon,UK by environmentalist Rob Hopkins during 2005 and 2006. More details on Wikipedia.

What’s Happening at the moment?

If you would like to know what is currently going on please look at the Links on the left side of each web page, where we will try to keep you informed of what is happening, all of which will be updated on a regular basis.

How can I get involved?

If you think you would like to find out more, and see all the different ways you could participate and contribute to the Evesham Vale Transition Initiative, please click here.

What is the Transition Vale of Evesham Initiative?

Here in the Vale of Evesham a small but growing group of people have been inspired by the Transition Network Initiative, where people in ever increasing numbers in the UK and abroad, are seeking to engage with all sectors of their communities in addressing this, the great transition of our time. Like the first Transition Groups we can offer no fixed answers, but rather believe, along with these other groups, that solutions will arise from engaging the creativity, imagination and knowledge which is out there in our own locality. The Vale of Evesham Transition Initiative has been set up to stimulate creative thought, and it’s aim is to find ways for our community to move towards a lower energy future. A future that Transition Totnes desires as being ‘both abundant and delightful’, and what better place to emulate that than here in the Vale of Evesham. We look forward to your participation.

Why is the term ‘Energy Descent’ used?

The term energy descent refers to the downward half of the peak oil curve, when the Age of Cheap Oil is over and world energy supplies have entered an impossible to stop decline.As Rob Hopkins quotes from his dissertation titled ‘Energy Descent Pathways’ – evaluating potential responses to Peak Oil as being ‘the continual decline in net energy supporting humanity, a decline which mirrors the ascent in net energy that has taken place since the Industrial Revolution. It also refers to a future scenario in which humanity has successfully adapted to the declining net fossil fuel energy availability and has become more localised and self-reliant. It is a term favoured by people looking towards energy peak as an opportunity for positive change rather than inevitable disaster’. Download the pdf file.

What is an Energy Descent Action Plan?

Energy Descent involves a planned way down away from our dependence on fossil fuels. To quote Jan Lundberg of the Sustainable Energy Institute – ‘real peace in a petroleum – fuelled world means rejecting petoleum dependence in all ways possible’. For a consise overview of the EADP concept please click here Kinsale 2021 – An Energy descent Plan, which is remarkable document that can be downloaded as a pdf file, has been written by the students of Kinsale Further Education College and edited by Rob Hopkins, one of the founders of the Transition Movement Initiative, and is the plan that Transition Totnes will be modelled on.

What is Worcestershire planning that will allow us to reduce our Carbon Footprint?

In Jan 2009 WCC produced a technical research paper titled ‘Planning for Renewable Energy in Worcestershire’. Download this 86 page pdf file.

What is the Carbon Footprint of Worcestershire?

For a Full Report of all the UK Local Authority Carbon Emissions Data for 2008, from which the above list has been selected, please visit the guardian.co.uk/environment website.

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