Brussels, Nov. 24, 2014 –. Thermo King, a manufacturer of transport temperature control solutions for a variety of mobile applications and a brand of Ingersoll Rand, won the 2014 Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of the Year category at the Temperature Controlled Storage & Distribution (TCS&D) Awards.

The TCS&D Awards reward excellence in the perishable supply chain. The awards recognized Thermo King for its leadership in the transport refrigeration industry, its wide range of products and services for a diverse customer base, and a robust, highly skilled mobile service support network.

Stephen Williams, U.K. sales manager for Thermo King accepted the award. He thanked the TCS&D Awards judges for acknowledging the company’s commitment to constantly seeking innovative solutions to improve operating efficiency and the environmental impact of its products.

“Thermo King takes its responsibility to help customers with challenges they face today seriously, such as delivering perishable cargo at the right temperature while in transport, reducing environmental impact, decreasing noise and increasing the efficiency and reliability of their operations,” said Williams. “Thermo King is committed to helping its customers through these challenges, which I believe is one of the reasons we earned this award.”

The 2014 TCS&D Awards ceremony was held recently at the National Motorcycle Museum in Warwickshire, United Kingdom. For the second year the annual TCS&D Awards, with 17 award categories, recognized companies and individuals who make a difference in the temperature controlled storage and distribution industry.

More than 75 years ago, Thermo King shaped the transport refrigeration industry with the development of the first successful mechanical transport refrigeration unit. Even though the industry has changed since, Thermo King continues to provide high-quality refrigerated transport solutions with low noise and exhaust emissions.

Thermo King backs its customers with an unrivalled global network of certified dealer service technicians committed to keep them running and increase their uptime.A global system of more than 900 factory-authorized and certified sales and service centers is the most reliable and skilled dealer service network in the industry.  

About Ingersoll Rand and Thermo King

Ingersoll Rand (NYSE:IR) advances the quality of life by creating comfortable, sustainable and efficient environments. Our people and our family of brands—including Club Car(R), Ingersoll Rand(R), Thermo King(R) and Trane(R)—work together to enhance the quality and comfort of air in homes and buildings; transport and protect food and perishables; and increase industrial productivity and efficiency. Thermo King Corp. was founded in 1938 and manufactures transport temperature control systems for a variety of mobile applications, including trailers, truck bodies, buses, shipboard containers and railway cars. We are a $12 billion global business committed to a world of sustainable progress and enduring results. For more information, visit www.ingersollrand.com or www.thermoking.com.

UK’s National Grid has secured a £1.5bn loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to strengthen the power transmission network in the country.

It is the largest ever single loan to be offered by the European lending institution, EIB stated.

Besides being used to set-up new power generation links, especially for renewables, the funds will be used for upgrading ageing assets and improving network resilience in the country. It is hoped these changes will help the country cope with climate and security risks.

The EIB loan is expected to finance projects such as the £1bn London Power tunnels and will be used by the National Grid to reinforce infrastructure between the Wirral and Scotland.

Upgrades will be done to secure key infrastructure setups from floods, EIB informed.

The funds will be spent on establishing new connections to offshore wind projects and setting-up new interconnectors linking continental Europe.

EIB vice-president Jonathan Taylor said: “Investment in the UK electricity transmission network is essential to prepare for future demand, connect new sources of renewable energy and upgrade old facilities.

“This agreement, the largest ever single loan to be provided by the European Investment Bank, reflects both the scale of energy investment needed and National Grid’s own experience in implementing such a diverse capital investment programme.”

National Grid global tax and treasury director Malcolm Cooper said: “This significant European Investment Bank loan will be used to fund infrastructure investment and build an electricity network for the future.

“With this loan, National Grid is supporting UKplc, funding projects and providing skilled jobs across the country.”

A more ambitious energy efficiency investment programme would pay for itself within 10 years and add £13.9bn annually to the UK economy by 2030.

That’s according to a report commissioned by Energy Bill Revolution and co-funded by the UK Green Building Council which suggests that a national energy efficiency programme would create up to 108,000 jobs and cut natural gas imports by 26%, making the UK less vulnerable to unstable energy markets and creating a more resilient economy.

The programme would also cut carbon emissions from homes by 23.6 million tonnes per year by 2030.

Director of the Energy Bill Revolution Ed Matthew said: “We have one of the most badly insulated housing stocks in Europe and as a result a truly woeful record on winter deaths and fuel poverty.

“Fixing Britain’s badly-insulated homes won’t just save lives, it will provide a massive economic boost to the UK economy and it pays for itself. There is now an overwhelming case for it to be made a top UK infrastructure investment priority.”

Solid investment

Commenting on the report, UK Green Building Council director of policy and communications John Alker said: “Government spending on energy efficiency is not a frivolous drain on the public purse, but a rock solid investment proposition for UK Plc.

“The challenge now for all political parties is to set out a way for energy efficiency to not only be classified as a national infrastructure priority, but to benefit from capital investment to pump prime the market. It can no longer be considered the poor relation to shiny new energy generation projects.”

Construction company Saint-Gobain are in support of the campaign.

The company’s advocacy leader Jade Lewis said: “The report details a positive approach to improving the UK’s housing stock, which is one of the poorest in Europe in terms of energy efficiency. Buildings are responsible for almost 37% of all UK carbon emissions, so it is important that this figure is reduced nationwide.

“Saint-Gobain would like to see energy efficiency retrofit a priority infrastructure spend in the UK. Much more needs to be done to simplify and incentivise the uptake of energy efficient retrofit measures if we are to reduce emissions from the built environment, meet our UK carbon reduction targets and tackle fuel poverty. We believe that a long-term fabric first approach is needed to meet these targets.”

Earlier this month, edie reported on unpublished EU figures used by environmentalists in call for a more ambitious goal for reducing energy use by 2030.

Lois Vallely

The UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) will be investing £5.2m in a project to deliver efficient electricity and cooling in a UK data centre in Lewisham owned by global bank Citi.

The announcement comes in the month that GIB celebrates its two-year anniversary.

It will fund the installation of a 2.8MW combined cooling and power (CCP) system as well as energy efficient cooling units and efficiency improvements to the building’s air conditioning system.

GIB’s chief executive Shaun Kingsbury said: “The IT industry is one of the most energy intensive sectors globally, second only to aviation. Energy can represent up to 80% of the cost of running a data centre, so they provide an important opportunity for energy efficiency measures.

“I am pleased that we have been able to support the first energy efficiency project at a UK data centre and hope that this is the first of many such projects.

“This project makes financial sense, reducing Citi’s energy costs, and makes environmental sense, reducing the data centre’s greenhouse gas emissions. And because of the innovative investment model, it will involve no upfront capital expenditure for Citi as the cost of the project will be paid for out of the energy cost savings achieved.”

Reduce emissions

The CCP system will generate 71% of the electricity needed to power the data centre and provide cooling for servers housed therein, reducing Citi’s overall costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Business Minister Matthew Hancock said: “This is a hugely welcome investment from Citi, one of the first of its kind for the banking sector. Reducing energy costs makes sound business sense and shows that businesses across the UK can benefit from making the most of green technology.

“We’ve already invested £3.8 billion into the Green Investment Bank opening up jobs and paving the way for projects like this one from Citi. But we are committed to going further to make sure the whole system is more efficient.”

In June, edie reported on GIB’s announcement of a £2m investment to help SMEs make improvements in energy efficiency.

The bank also put forward £5m of funding for the Balmenach distillery in Speyside to support the installation of a new biomass boiler to reduce emissions.

Lois Vallely

UK-based financial services giant Prudential is ready to invest as much as £100m for the construction of the proposed £1bn ($1.6bn) Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon energy project.

The 320MW facility will be located across Swansea Bay in Wales.

The construction of the project, which is being built by Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay, is expected to start by 2015.

Expected to be operational by 2018, the facility will generate more than 495GWh of power annually for 120 years, sufficient enough for 120,000 homes.

Bloomberg quoted Prudential chief executive officer Tidjane Thiam as saying: “Such investments provide our customers with strong and sustainable returns, create good jobs and increase productivity and economic competitiveness.”

UK renewable power firm Good Energy Group invested £500,000 in the project in May this year.

The first phase of the project’s development is estimated to meet around 8% of UK’s electricity requirements, reports The Telegraph UK.

Tidal Lagoon Power chief executive Mark Shorrock was quoted as saying by the BBC: “Securing the backing of a world-renowned investment institution marks another major milestone for the Swansea Bay project and is a clear endorsement of our vision to introduce tidal lagoon infrastructure into the UK’s low carbon energy mix.

“Tidal lagoons will employ British industry to harness a British natural resource and return profits to British institutions”.

Retail giant Sainsbury’s has announced that it will stop rewarding shoppers with Nectar points for every bag they reuse from April next year, as part of wider changes to its loyalty programme.

The changes, which have provoked a backlash on social media, mean that from 11 April 2015 Sainsbury’s will award one Nectar point for every pound spent compared with two at present.

However, the retailer announced that customers would still earn one point per litre of fuel bought from Sainsbury’s forecourts.

A Sainsbury’s spokesman told edie.net: “Yes we will be removing points on bags from 11 April 2015 in all of our stores as part of a wider review of our Nectar offering to customers.

“We’ve seen a change in customer behaviour that suggests customers are generally reusing bags without taking the ‘one Nectar point’ reward.

“This is also in line with new legislation to charge customers for single use bags. In response to the 5p levy on single use bags brought in by respective governments in Wales (Oct 2011) and Northern Ireland (Apr 2013), we withdrew single use carrier bags in our stores there. This is already in effect.

“A levy is expected to come in for England late next year.”

Cutting carbon

The news comes as Scotland launched charges for single-use carrier bags today (20 October). Every retailer in Scotland will charge at least 5p for each new carrier bag they give to shoppers.

Elsewhere, the Sainsbury’s spokesman added that there was a “lot more to plastic bag use than just the point of sale”.

He said: “We’ve reengineered our orange bag that’s commonly used in England to make it thinner gauge while remaining strong. As a result, you can transport more of them at once – more in a pack, more on a lorry – cutting carbon. We’ve also encouraged single use bags at our stores and have recently produced bags for life made entirely from our orange bags.

“We’re also removing our orange bag completely in Scotland as the new charge comes in, replacing with a white reusable.”

Customer incentives

The move by Sainsbury’s to change its loyalty system for bag reuse has prompted criticism from Keep Britain Tidy, which is part of the ‘Break the Bag Habit’ coalition of environmental charities.

Keep Britain Tidy spokeswoman Helen Bingham told edie.net: “Obviously we are disappointed that England will have to wait until October 2015 to have a bag charge that will reduce the number of single-use plastic bags given out in our shops. The delay means that between now and then about seven billion single-use carrier bags will be given out in England.

“Until the charge comes in, we would like to see every supermarket and retailer do what they can to reduce the number of bags given out and incentivise their customers to move away from the single-use bag. These bags are not free, they have an environmental cost. They are a highly visible form of litter and, once in the marine environment, can have a devastating impact on marine wildlife.”

Scotland’s carrier bag charge: In numbers

Liz Gyekye

The Environment Agency has certified members of the energy professionals’ body, the Energy Institute (EI), to conduct audits for companies looking to comply with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS).

From 17 October, members of the EI’s Register of Professional Energy Consultants (RPEC) and the EI’s Chartered Energy Managers are eligible to conduct energy audits for the Government-mandated scheme which calls for mandatory energy audits in the UK.

— Edie explained: Energy Savings opportunity Scheme (ESOS) —

EI skills and capability director Sarah Beacock said: “The EI has been working with DECC on the development of ESOS since last year. We are pleased to see the skills, experience and competence of our members being recognised to help implement this new regulation.

“ESOS will help to identify areas of potential energy savings but it mustn’t end there. For the scheme to truly effect change, efficiency measures and initiatives identified within each organisation must be implemented.”

Win-win

ESOS requires all companies with more than 250 employees or a turnover of more than €50m to produce detailed reports on their energy use and efficiency every four years. In order to comply with ESOS, businesses must produce their first environmental audit report by 5 December, 2015.

“Energy efficiency is a win-win scenario,” said RPEC Steering Group chair Neil Peacock.

“It can make a significant impact on the bottom line with surprisingly little management effort or investment. RPEC consultants have years of experience not only in auditing but in implementing the recommendations from audits. They are clearly best placed to advise those seeking to save energy and cut costs, whether your business uses energy in buildings, industry or transport.”

Read edie’s top ten tips for ESOS compliance.

Brad Allen

Celebrating a landmark achievement in the rich and varied history of the Port of Dover, the Dover Harbour Board is delighted to confirm the Marine Management Organisation has approved the Board’s application (through a Harbour Revision Order) for additional powers.

George Jenkins, Chairman, Dover Harbour Board, said:

“The Board are delighted that the future of the Port of Dover as a trust port has been secured, allowing us to play a bigger part than ever in the regeneration of Dover.

“Unlocking the potential of the organisation to deliver for its customers and community in a way not possible before, the Port has received what has to be seen as a huge vote of confidence in the shared vision and organisational approach being developed by the team at Dover.

“We are building momentum.  We are already moving forward on a clear timetable to deliver the first ever community director of Dover Harbour Board.  We are establishing a new community fund for Dover with £¼ million now committed to launch it.  This decision will reinforce our delivery.”

Tim Waggott, Chief Executive, Port of Dover, said: 

“This empowering decision arrives just four months after the initial application was made.  Such a swift approval, in record time, comes only days after we announced the biggest ever single investment in Dover, the £120 million Phase 1 of Dover Western Docks Revival.  This means we now have the necessary powers to progress the project, delivering over 600 new jobs for Dover and transforming the waterfront to be the catalyst for Dover’s wider regeneration.

“We look set to deliver a record traffic performance in 2014. Moving forward with major investments in the Eastern Docks Ferry Terminal whilst providing excellent customer service demonstrates how the Port of Dover and its ferry operator partners are maximising our contribution to the local Community, East Kent and the Nation.  

“I would like to pay tribute to my team for their hard work and also to thank all at the Department for Transport and our local MP, Charlie Elphicke, for their help, support and encouragement. I also salute our customers and community who have supported us hugely in our quest. This is a proud and exciting time to be associated with Dover and its Port.

“These are new and uncharted waters for us all, but I believe we are entering a period of time that will go down in the history books as the start of a golden age if we all continue to support each other and work together to deliver for Dover.”

The Norwegian state-owned enterprise Statnett has received approval for two licenses from the the country’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy for two 1,400MW power interconnectors – one to Germany and the other to the UK.

The license approvals boost Norway’s interconnection capacity by almost 50%.

Commissioning of the cables to Germany and the UK are likely to be in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

Statnett, which is responsible for owning, operating and constructing stem power grid in Norway, owns both the interconnectors.

The firm will work with Germany’s system operator TenneT and the German state-owned bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) for the Norway-Germany project, which is called project Nord.Link, and will connect Tonstad in Norway and Schleswig-Holstein in Germany.

UK system operator National Grid will co-ordinate with the firm for setting up the Norway-UK project, called as North Sea Network (NSN).

According to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, the sub-sea cable connector between Kvilldal in Norway and Blyth in the UK will be the longest of its kind in the world.

Statnett executive vice-president Håkon Borgen said: “The two new interconnectors will be key parts of the next generation power system and will contribute to greater security of supply and more value creation in Norway.

“They will also pave the way for increased utilisation of renewable energy, and thereby for reaching the climate targets in Norway and our partner countries.”

Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tord Lien said: “Interconnection with Germany and the UK will give a better utilisation of the power systems and create economic benefits.

“These cables are important for successfully increasing our share of renewable energy.”

Norwegian Minister for Climate and Environment Tine Sundtoft said: “The electricity interconnectors will contribute to Norwegian renewable energy, replacing fossil energy in Europe and will facilitate green value creation in Norway.”

UK firms Anesco, Farm Power Apollo and Opus Energy have teamed up to install and commission commercial-scale solar battery scheme in the UK.

The firms connected the 250kWh battery storage unit to 498.4KW Slepe Farm solar park in Dorset.

The unit, which will be used to store the generated power from the solar park, will release the energy to the National Grid, as and when required.

Collaboration between a solar park owner, energy supplier and energy efficiency solution provider is claimed to be the first in the UK.

Slepe Farm owner and Farm Power Apollo managing director Mark Simon said: “This ground-breaking project shows how innovation by landowners, renewable energy asset owners, energy suppliers and energy services companies can create a new way of delivering renewable energy.”

Anesco CEO Adrian Pike said: “If the UK is to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, while coping with growing demand, then effective and sustainable power systems need to be utilised, and the ability to store energy and manage generation to match customer need is a vital part of this.

“With this successful partnership we have demonstrated a model and approach to renewable energy generation that could effectively be replicated. Ultimately projects such as this will help power from renewables achieve grid parity quicker than otherwise and reduce the draw on green levies in the future.”

Opus Energy renewable commercial manager Nigel Williams said: “This initiative represents a seamless extension of our existing relationship with Anesco and we are delighted to act as their partner at Slepe Farm, to facilitate access to additional revenue streams.

“The use of battery storage, in combination with continuing improvements to the technology, stand to hasten the day that solar is able to compete in the energy market in its own right.”

The trio have collaborated to show how solar power can be an important part of the generation mix and a sustainable means to manage energy generation capacity.