News archive - Week ending 14th September 2007

Edinburgh Castle Bathed in White Light

Edinburgh Castle's golden glow is to be replaced by more natural white light. The new energy-efficient light bulbs in the 93 lamps are designed to halve the castle's energy consumption. There are 70 floodlights around the castle and 23 fluorescent reflector lamps for the roof of the Scottish National War Memorial, Gatehouse and Argyle Tower. The floodlights are switched on every evening at dusk and are turned off at 1am. The old sodium floodlights will be replaced by lower-wattage ceramic metal halide lamps which will be more energy-efficient. The lights were tested on the castle frontage for several weeks earlier in the year.

Edinburgh City Council which pays for the lighting is hoping that, as well as being more aesthetically pleasing, the new bulbs will help to reduce the annual £10,000 lighting bill. David Storrar, Regional Architect for Edinburgh with Historic Scotland, which maintains the lights, said: "The new lights will have the same brightness but use less power. They will bring a lot more definition to the castle, highlighting the stonework and architectural detail, although placing some of the hard to reach lamps will involve rope squad-trained staff having to abseil down the rock."

Edinburgh Castle was first lit up using ex-Army searchlights just after the Second World War. The present system has been in place since the 1970s, with the original idea being to make the castle look as if it was floating on air.

Marks and Spencer Eco-Stores

Marks and Spencer is to open eco-stores in Scotland as part of a £200m plan to make the company carbon neutral. Stores are planned for Galashiels and Pollok in Glasgow which will feature more energy efficient lighting, refrigeration and ventilation and recycled water. Wooden fixtures and fittings will be made from accredited Forestry Stewardship Council timber. Although shoppers are unlikely to notice any visible changes in the eco-stores, the company claims they will use 25% less energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions by half

The first store will open at the new Silverburn shopping centre in Pollok next month. This store will receive electricity equivalent to the output of a two megawatt turbine based on a small farm in Aberdeen, which the company is sponsoring. The construction companies involved in building the stores were required to adhere to a green travel plan, which involved workers sharing cars to and from the sites. Suppliers have been told to recycle 80% of construction waste and off-cuts.

Richard Gillies, Director of Store Design, Development and Procurement said "We're not creating a one-off, high-profile store that nobody's going to shop in. What we're trying to develop is real, tangible features."

"More Ambitious" Recycling Targets Under Discussion

Scotland's local authorities are to meet with the Scottish Government in Edinburgh on October 3rdat a "waste summit" to discuss the prospect of increased recycling targets.

At the moment, Scottish local authorities are striving to meet recycling targets for household waste of 30% by 2008 and 55% by 2020. New quarterly figures issued by SEPA revealed that in the 12 months up to December 2006, Scotland recycled an average of 27.1% of household waste; up from 23.3% in the calendar year 2005. This meets the 25% national target for 2006 but the new Scottish National Party administration has said it is aspiring to a "zero waste" goal for Scotland

The new figures from SEPA show that Scotland's target of sending no more than 1.5 million tonnes of biodegradable municipal waste to landfill has also been met, 1,476,900 tonnes was sent to landfill in 2006, down from 1,578,232 in 2005.

However across Scotland the SEPA figures showed a wide variation in recycling rates, ranging from 42.6 per cent in Clackmannanshire to 12.1 per cent in the Western Isles. Edinburgh also failed to meet its recycling targets and was one of nine councils told to put recycling higher on its agenda.

Grid Connection Charges too High

A study by Xero Energy for Highlands and Islands Enterprise has found that producers of renewable energy in Scotland's islands and north mainland almost certainly face the highest charges in Europe to connect to a national electricity grid. The cost of connecting in northern mainland areas was found to be "many times greater" than in the rest of the UK and 30 times higher than Denmark. In the Island costs are even higher.

However the report was positive about Britain's "super shallow" charging policy which means that energy producers are charged to connect to the grid, but do not have to meet the costs of grid reinforcement to handle new energy sources.

National Grid stressed that the costs were related to distance. There is a surplus of generation in the north and a deficit in the south of the country. A spokeswoman said, "The incremental costs of accommodating generation in Scotland and the associated charges are therefore high, since power has to be transported over long distances to consumers." She added that renewable generation developers had to balance the resources available in remote locations with additional transmission costs associated with these areas

Windfarm Decisions

Ministers have granted consent for a windfarm at Harestanes, capable of generating 213 Megawatts (MW) of electricity, sufficient to power around 120,000 homes.

However consent has been refused for windfarm applications at Clashindarroch near Huntly (129 MW) and Calliacher near Aberfeldy (62 MW). The Clashindarroch farm, it was claimed, would have potentially harmful impacts on the Deveron Valley landscape. While Calliacher would have an unacceptable visual impact on Glen Quaich and on Loch Freuchie. However, the Reporter indicated that the project would be acceptable if reduced below 50MW in which case the application would need to be referred to the local authority.

Scotland's Green Hotels

Scotland dominates a new list of Britain's greenest hotels. Of the 50 awards for eco-friendly credentials, 35 were given to hotels north of the Border. The "Gold Register" was compiled by a team of independent examiners who visited hundreds of hotels. The award-winners had to show that at least 60 out of 120 potential environmental measures were in place. These range from energy-saving light bulbs to innovations such as waterless urinals and having a green purchasing policy backing local farmers and caring for wildlife.