The centre is one of the largest in the country and even boasts a full-size ‘indoor house’ on which students can hone their hands-on skills.

Courses on offer include industry recognised qualifications for electricians, plumbers and heating engineers in sustainable technologies, from installing solar panels to heat pumps and water recycling systems.

These courses will soon be a legal requirement for everyone working in the sustainable construction industry and the college is advising firms to upskill their staff now to capitalise on growth in the sector.

Installation training for the four main technologies – solar thermal, solar photovoltaics, heat pumps and rainwater harvesting and recycling – is currently available at greatly reduced costs at Liverpool Community College and certain other Skills Academy hubs. Until July 2012, installers are only expected to pay £171.50. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first served basis.

Elaine Bowker, principal at Liverpool Community College, said: “The growth in the sustainable sector is a huge opportunity for this region. With the launch of this training centre, one of the largest in the UK, we will be able to equip workers and businesses with the skills they need to ensure our region will be the leader in the field of green technology.”

Liverpool Community College will be running the courses for the National Skills Academy for Environmental Technologies and is one of only six centres in the country providing training in all green technologies.

Training under the National Skills Academy for Environmental Technologies is also available at 20 others centres around England, including Oldham, Blackburn, Trafford and Carlisle.

Consultation on the Green Deal closes on 18 January after opening last November.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) says it wants to hear from a wide range of stakeholders. Top of the list are members of the public who might be considering investing in energy efficiency measures, as well as organisations that might be interested in operating within the Green Deal framework.

The government expects the Green Deal to kick start around £14 billion of private sector investment over the next decade. The money will help homeowners to make energy saving upgrades to their properties at no upfront costs, with repayments on the price of the improvements made over time out of the savings on energy bills.

The government also expects the Green Deal to support at least 65,000 jobs in insulation and construction by 2015. It promises safeguards to help small family firms as well as big high street names to win business under the scheme, as well as protection for consumers from being ripped off.

According to government projections, the average household energy bill in the UK will be 7% lower in 2020 than without energy and climate change policies.

Chris Huhne, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, said: “The Green Deal is about putting energy consumers back in control of their bills and banishing Britain’s draughty homes to the history books. By stimulating billions of pounds of private sector investment, the Green Deal will revolutionise the way that we keep our homes warm.

“The Green Deal is also a massive business opportunity for firms up and down Britain, helping to power the economy and creating jobs. From one-man bands and local authorities, to the big supermarkets and DIY stores, we want as many providers getting involved as possible because that’s what will give consumers the best deal.”

DECC says it would prefer people to respond to the consultation online.

Alternatively, see the DECC website for details on how to respond by email or mail.

The Green Deal framework is due to be launched in October 2012.

The Energy House is used to test technologies that can be retrofitted to traditional UK homes to make them more sustainable. The university has signed a new partnership agreement with the India Green Building Council, endorsed by the Indian government.

Professor Mike Kagioglou, head of the university’s School of the Built Environment, said: “Our current relationship with the Indian Green Building Council puts us in a unique position to act as a hub for collaboration between Indian and British companies in green construction and energy.

“This new partnership means that in addition to establishing close research and development working in this hugely important field, we shall be able to benefit a wide range of manufacturers and service providers working in green construction and renewable energy.”

The agreement has been signed ahead of Retrofit 2012, the University of Salford’s second conference on energy conservation in construction.

First unveiled at last year’s Retrofit conference, the Energy House has already attracted more than £3.5m of investment and was named the top research and development initiative at the prestigious Green Gown Awards last November.

It is being used to test insulation and efficiency technologies from more than 50 businesses, ranging from large multi-nationals through to regional micro businesses looking to enter the fast growing retrofit market.

The Energy House is a replica of a typical Victorian terrace house, but it is built from reclaimed materials and constructed inside a sealed, three-storey testing chamber. This allows researchers to test technologies by replicating identical weather conditions time after time, including temperature, humidity and even rain.

VPhase, whose voltage optimisation equipment reduces home electricity bills by up to 12%, has joined the UK Green Building Council.

The Cheshire based company makes a market leading technology that reduces and stabilises the voltage of electricity coming into homes.

VPhase’s chief executive, Rick Smith, said: “Membership of the UK Green Building Council provides us with additional opportunities to talk about our proven technology and influence key policy makers.”

The UK Green Building Council is a membership organisation that works with policy makers and industry to campaign for a sustainable built environment.

Envirolink member TEG Environmental and its joint venture partner Alkane Energy have received a bank offer to fund their anaerobic digestion plant in North Wales.

TEG specialises in treating organic waste through composting and anaerobic digestion (AD), a process that produces biogas which can in turn be used to provide energy.

TEG and Alkane will form a joint venture company for the project, to be known as NEAT Biogas Limited, with TEG owning 70% of the company and Alkane 30%.  NEAT will fund and operate the plant, which is expected to bring in revenues of approximately £2m per year over 15 years.

Last summer, TEG and Alkane were named preferred bidder in a contract to build the £7.5m facility, which will provide a recycling service to three councils in North East Wales.

The plant will be able to process up to 20,000 tonnes of food waste per year, with at least 11,000 tonnes coming from the three local authorities.

It will be able to generate nearly 1MW of renewable power, sufficient for approximately 2,000 homes, as well as providing the energy to run the site itself.

The plant will also provide around 19,000 tonnes of organic fertiliser, enough to meet the needs of crops growing on 1,000 ha of land. It will be used as a low cost fertiliser on local farms.

TEG chief executive, Mick Fishwick, said: “We are extremely pleased to have been awarded this prestigious long term contract by the North East Wales Hub and we look forward to working with the Hub and to constructing our first AD facility in Wales.

“It is also very pleasing to see our partnership with Alkane reach fruition and we look forward to working with Alkane in our new joint venture company.”

The decision opens the way for developer Reform Energy to begin civil engineering work at the site in Fleetwood early in 2012, with construction scheduled to get under way by the end of the year. The plant should be operational by the end of 2013 and will provide more than 40 jobs.

It will be the first of its kind in the UK and will employ combined heat and power technology developed and used extensively in Europe, high efficiency combustion technology to generate power, and advanced filter systems to virtually eliminate emissions.

Around 80,000 tonnes of commercial waste material per year will be diverted from landfill and used instead to produce electricity and heat.

The plant will generate up to 10 megawatts of electricity and provide substantial heat that will be supplied to local commercial or industrial operations. The combined energy output of the plant will be sufficient to meet the needs of up to 12,000 homes.

Plans also include a visitor centre and learning zone, where the public and local schools will see how waste is turned into energy and how the plant fits with local and national policies on energy, waste and the environment.

The plant is the first of a number of energy recovery projects planned by Reform Energy across the North West.

Reform Energy spokesman, Chris Nelson, said: “Fleetwood will become one of the leading locations in the UK for energy recovery technology and Reform Energy intends to use the plant as a showpiece for other projects across the region.”

Lancashire County Council’s Development Control Committee approved the plans subject to confirmation of additional details of the development and conditions relating to areas such as the appearance of the plant and its thermal and sound insulation performance.

Envirolink member Optimised Energy Solutions is offering a free seminar to help companies and organisations improve the way they manage their energy requirements, including a demonstration of the company’s own MIRACLEES energy management software.

The seminar will explain how traditional calculations for energy management can lead to poor decisions and missed opportunities.

Optimised Energy Solutions says that to get the maximum benefits from improvements in energy management companies should take a systems-based approach. This leads to lower investment costs, greater savings on energy costs and bigger reductions in carbon emissions.

Delegates will also learn about the company’s MIRACLEES software, which analyses and compares energy improvement measures and then recommends the best sequence in which to implement them.

The breakfast seminars will be held throughout January and February 2012 at Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus in Cheshire.

To book a place, visit www.miraclees.com.

The company’s new operations in Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire follow strong growth and success in winning business in new areas.

David Hunt, a director at Eco Environments, said: “In the case of Cheshire and Yorkshire, we have completed a number of commercial and domestic projects during the past couple of years, so having dedicated operations there was only a matter of time.

“Derbyshire is a natural next step in our strategy due to our existing regional office in Birmingham, which is handling projects across the Midlands, while Lincolnshire gives us a terrific platform to begin our push further into the south of England.

“The introduction of the government’s feed-in tariff system in April 2010 transformed the renewable energy sector virtually overnight – with customers being paid for all the energy they generate regardless of whether they use it or not.

“Even with the announcement by the government that FiTs are to be reduced, solar PV remains one of the best financial investments with returns of between seven and ten percent.”
Eco Environments now employs 46 people compared to 11 at the same time last year, with staff numbers expected to rise to approximately 60 during the current financial year.

The company is a member of Envirolink.

The programme supports energy efficiency and renewable energy policies, with a view to reaching the EU’s 2020 targets: a 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions, a 20% improvement in energy efficiency and 20% of energy generated by renewables.

The IEE supports projects that increase the deployment of sustainable energy technologies and behaviours. It is geared towards intelligence sharing activities such as training, promotion, monitoring and awareness raising.

However, research and development activities are not eligible under the IEE, nor does it directly support technological development work.

The total pot for the fund is about £55 million and projects can be awarded up to 75% of eligible costs. Applications must be submitted by a team of at least three partner organisations, each established in a different eligible EU country.

For more details see the IEE website

The fund can support manufacturers in a number of ways, including training, capital investment and research and development. Collaborative projects that support several stages in the supply chain are encouraged.

Envirolink’s funding and finance consultant, Ben Roberts, comments: “In these risk adverse times, private investment has been understandably reluctant to support unconventional and innovative products and projects.

“The government is right to be supporting innovative growth areas, with the aim of giving the UK a much needed competitive edge.”

The government’s business secretary, Vince Cable, said: “British suppliers have a lot to offer and we need to help them realise and develop their strengths and sell them on the international market.

“While still encouraging free trade I also want to gain maximum value for the UK by ensuring our suppliers are in the best position possible to compete for the very significant new private and public investments being made in the UK over the next few years.”

The fund will be awarded through a competitive process, with applications being invited early in 2012. The application process is being managed by the Technology Strategy Board.

For more information contact Ben Roberts at b.roberts@envirolink.co.uk / 01925 855 789 or visit the Fund Finder page of the Envirolink website.