‘LOCALISM’ – the number one buzzword in politics since last May – could be the key to future energy usage both domestically and in business in the UK.

Small-scale heat and power generators serving a cluster of businesses or a whole housing estate might be the answer to maximising energy usage for a greener future.

But, while experts and scientists see the benefits, convincing politicians, councillors and accountants of the true value of ‘district heaters’ is where the real battle lies.

This was the key theme from TheBusinessDesk.com’s ‘greentech’ round table event, held in association with the Birmingham office of law firm Cobbetts.

The event, hosted at Cobbetts’ offices in Colmore Square, brought together environmental experts from the fields of business, academia and law.

Chaired by TheBusinessDesk.com’s West Midlands editor Marc Reeves, the panel included Cobbetts environmental law expert Hugh Goulbourne, head of Cobbetts Birmingham office Graham Muth and Coventry University’s director of business development Mark Abrams.

Click on our short videos for insightful comment with key players from the debate below

‘District heating’ is where properties gain some or all of their power from local generators as opposed to the National Grid.

Any surplus can then be put back into the Grid for a ‘feed-in tariff’ which brings a typical return on investment of 12% in the UK.

Mr Goulbourne, a former advisor to the Government on its low-carbon framework, said: “There’s been a big growth on the back of the feed-in tariff put in place in April 2010 around micro generation technologies such as solar and small-scale wind, while micro hydro has seen a bigger growth than was expected.”

[VIDEO: 215]He said this might represent a general increase in interest in the technologies rather than actual installations or systems being connected into the National Grid.

“The challenge is getting funding in place. When you have got a return on investment for a very bog standard wind farm in India of 21% you can see why people aren’t rushing to invest in the UK,” Mr Goulbourne added.

Mr Abrams said feed-in tariffs were fantastic ideas but were mistrusted by both consumers and businesses.

Also joining the discussion were NEC Group engineering services manager Phil Dyke, director of Environmental Business Communications Fred Mead, The Mark Group’s commercial director Bill Rumble and chief executive of New World Solar Mark Clemson.

Click through to meet our expert panel

Mr Rumble said: “It’s unfortunate the review of the feed-in tariffs has been called so early but we understand the agenda that’s behind that.

[VIDEO: 213]”There’s nervousness about large-scale, ground mounted arrays because, arguably, they are not really driving the agenda that was behind the feed in tariffs in terms of green jobs, driving awareness, getting renewable technology in the faces of would-be consumers.”

Mr Clemson added: “There are all sorts of funding models out there – we need some clarity and leadership.

“I firmly believe there’s a window of opportunity, certainly from an economic point of view, underpinning local communities, for jobs growth and an impact on fuel poverty. My concerns are the fragmented supply chain.”

Financing district heating developments and green initiatives in general were high on the agenda.

Mr Muth said the problem for green projects on public buildings or housing association developments was the Coalition’s tightening of the public purse strings.

“With what’s been going on with the RDAs and the LEPs, we are undoubtedly in a hiatus period, certainly in the Midlands,” he said.

[VIDEO: 214]”There’s very little clarity on what funds are available, who’s going to be managing them, where they’re going to be going. I personally cannot see a lot becoming available in 2011 which is really bad news.”

Panellists agreed financing was an incredibly important factor and that, where countries like Germany and Denmark lead, the UK lags behind in this area.

“The banks in Germany see this as an investment plan so if you go to your bank they might say ‘Invest this in your pension, this in stocks and this in green energy’,” Mr Clemson continued.

“I can’t see that here because our banks are so risk-averse at this moment in time.”

Mr Rumble was optimistic, saying the UK could compete with the likes of India for return on investment when it came to attracting international money.

Mr Mead added: “We always look for the business opportunity and at the moment a lot of that is for products and services coming in from abroad. I’d like to see these things made in the UK.

“We do a lot of work with the large-scale wind energy market and breaking into the dominance of the Germans and the Danes is very difficult. There is something like £100bn going to spent in the round three offshore wind turbine installations and of that 90% will come in from Germany and Denmark.”

[VIDEO: 212]Mr Dyke discussed the NEC Group’s involvement with the construction and operation of the £253m Convention Centre Dublin, which was the world’s first carbon neutral convention centre.

“Working directly for the Irish Government, we were there for three years challenging, shaping and tweaking the design,” he said.

“We designed the Convention Centre as an office. If there’s a show on, things are running, if there isn’t, they are not so you’re not wasting energy.

“If you look at Northern Europe, cities own their strategies and they legislate fairly openly and simply.”

OTHER THOUGHTS……

Our expert panel had plenty to say on other matters…..

Hugh Goulbourne: “You’ve got some pretty big things around the reform of the electricity market and transmission networks which aren’t making headlines but are incredibly important. You could see put in place some pretty big incentives.”

Graham Muth: “What we’ve had in the recession is businesses looking a lot closer at their spend. Certainly what you need to see is a lot more businesses doing better before you’re going to see them embracing the things that everyone round this table knows they’ve got to.”

Mark Clemson: “There’s a degree of reticence from developers but I think the mindset will change. The next generation will leave university demanding to live in a home that’s energy efficient and to work for companies with a robust green agenda.”

Phil Dyke: “There has to be a political will. We’re talking about a lot of small measures. Which is going to be the best technology going forward? The answer is, it’s going to be all of them.”

Fred Mead: “Buildings won’t run themselves. You need trained professionals to run them and get the value out of them and I am not so sure those trained professionals are about.”

Bill Rumble: “The challenge is motivating the consumer to take action. You can either make it attractive for them to take action and adopt the technology or you make it unattractive for them not to.”

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