News Stories

New addition to the RDI Team!

Daniela Marino has joined RDI for a 3 month period as an Assistant Project Officer to support the BEn GiS register development and other projects as the need arises.

RDI represents BEn project in Brussels

Two partners of the BEn project (Fraunhofer UMSICHT and RDI Ltd.) participated in an international symposium on biomass assessment methods and the adjacent workshop on biomass availability in Europe on 15-16 April 2010 in Brussels.

Flood and Water Management Act 2010

The Flood and Water Management Act gained Royal Assent on the 8th April 2010. The Act will implement several key recommendations of Sir Michael Pitt’s Review of the Summer 2007 floods, protect water supplies to consumers and protect community groups from excessive charges for surface water drainage.

The Act’s provisions include:

Deer Initiative Secures Funding

An Award Winning Partnership

The Northumberland Community Flooding Partnership picked up a ‘Highly Commendable’ award at the Evening Chronicle Environment Awards last week.

The project had been entered in the Climate Change Category. The award was accepted by Lynne Dunleavy, the Project Manager for the Partnership, at a ceremony held in the Centre for Life in Newcastle.  The presentation was made by Trai Anfield, broadcaster and meteorologist for BBC Look North and Adrian Hilton from ClimateNE.

Woodfuel Sector Employment Survey

Rural Development Initiatives Ltd. has been engaged by the Forestry Commission to undertake a survey of employment in the woodfuel sector.

The Renewable Energy Strategy (RES) envisages that up to 30 per cent of the UK renewable energy target could be met from biomass heat and power sources. The Forestry Commission is looking to understand the potential value of the woodfuel industry to the UK economy and job market by 2020. A key part of this assessment is to understand current levels of employment within the woodfuel sector, from forest to boiler.

RDI to speak at the ICF National Conference

BEn European partners visit the North East

RDI hosted the 4th BEn project consortium meeting in Hexham from 27th to 29th January 2010.  Ten representatives from five organisations including: Poland, Austria, Germany and Italy visited our region to discuss the progress made within the Ben project.

During the three day meeting the prototype of the BEn GIS register was presented by the German leader (Fraunhofer UMSICHT). The status quo and ‘next steps’ for BEn actions were discussed in detail.

Renewable Heat Incentive consultation published

The final decision document on the Feed-in Tariffs and the Renewable Heat Incentive consultation has been published. 

Households and communities who install generating technologies such as small wind turbines and solar panels will from April be entitled to claim payments for the low carbon electricity they produce.

RDI launches East Midlands training project