What has happened in the last five years in my town?

One large wind turbine, no hydro, some heat pumps, vast majority of electricity from fossil fuels, gas and oil prices rising fast.
Hybrid cars and busses, one electric car, less free parking,
Loads of wood burners, some larger wood and biomass installations in schools, businesses etc
Uptake of solar pv widespread but still only a tiny proportion.
Better insulation regulations for new buildings but this is not translating into as built results, poor air tightness,
Existing housing stock is poorly insulated, plenty of loft insulation going on, some cavity wall insulation, no floor insulation, no draught proofing or air sealing. Increase in energy poverty.
Waste recycling greatly improved
More interest in fruit and vegetable growing


What can we realistically expect to see by 2020?

No more wind, lots more solar pv, may be hydro on the river, the grid itself will be greener
We will see more hybrid busses and cars, more electric cars, probably more cycling hopefully more car sharing and park and rides. Petrol and diesel will be very expensive.
The vast majority of electricity will still be generated from fossil fuels, gas and oil prices will be rising faster still and shortages of gas and oil will be seen.
New build will slowly improve in line with CSH nothing dramatic
The bulk of the existing housing stock will still be poorly insulated, draughty; energy hogging and even more people will be in energy poverty. We will see virtually no uptake of the Green deal. There will be an increase of insulation levels in roofs, some external and internal insulation wall insulation will be seen but this will only scratch the surface of what is needed, also we will see more draught proofing but we are unlikely to see any floor insulation.
We will see Smart Metering and consequent load shifting. (no overall saving of energy)
Waste recycling continuing to improve, more energy generated from waste.
We will see increased use of wood and biomass but also fully justified increasing resistance to its use and a widespread degradation in air quality that will become a much bigger problem.
We will see more examples of low energy projects, although district heating has been mooted I do not think that we will see this apart from possibly in high rise flats and these probably would be better demolished in any case.

I thought Hybrid vehicles were expensive to build, expensive to maintain and hugely wasteful in terms of natural resources (battery construction etc) - better to keep a Ford Fiesta going for 30 years. Housing stock has always been poor and unless you start knocking down vast areas of terraced housing (again) it's not going to improve very quickly.
People are not going to conserve energy and resources unless they have too. Some people care but most don't (my smart phone is more important than your Mountain Gorilla) . Put a weekly/monthly/annual limit on electricity, gas, water, petrol, food etc for each individual and if you use it all, then tough - we'll soon learn not to waste so much. That's never going to happen so we'll just tinker at the edges (hybrid cars, recycling household waste etc) until it's too late - a bit later than 2020 though!

Where it started... http://www.dtqs.org/DTQS_context.htm

Long discussion about its pros and cons somewhere on the GBF.

Yes, here... http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/forum114/comments.php?DiscussionID=6835

I think that our local social housing organization has bit the bullet.

In the last year we have had EWI on the solid wall properties and PV on the ones with filled cavities.

I found it rather inspiring to see just how many houses can be done in such a short space of time when there is a coherent effort.

Remarkably no noticeable publicity!

Posted By: windy lambPS it's not a Ford Fiesta

What is it then?

Posted By: SeretCan't be that expensive to build, or they wouldn't be successful in the market against conventional powertains.

All depends how much of the manufacturing costs has been pushed over to marketing. Cars are pretty cheap to build, it is the rest that costs the money, dealer network, after sales service, warranty claims, shipping, import duties, advertising...

It's an Austin Mini - you know with sliding windows, drum brakes and an indicator stalk that flashes - what more could a man need! I have to admit that I'm starting to feel a bit vulnerable driving it these days. Even the (new) Minis are about three times as big.
Nothing wrong with a Prius anyway, I just think that simple things are often best; Bacon sandwich, Mini, Mini skirt for that matter, but I'm straying off subject.

The mind boggles!

Steamy in frigging mini skirt!!

I'm fairly broad-mined, but those mental images are driving me to drink... %-P

Nothing less than a flowing gown and a Rolls for Steamy to keep his dignity. Well, and a few personality changes, but there's only so much that the NHS can afford.

Rgds

Damon

Its called a Tunic, and I look very snazzy in it.

If all the wind turbine plans presently in planning or approved are carried out we should all be self sufficient having a capacity of 2.5MW for a population of 2500. In addition solar seems to be taking off but is restricted by the number of listed buildings. The most frustrating part is the hydro electric energy lost due to the local utility failing to put a generation unit on the reservoir.

Posted By: SteamyTea

Posted By: renewablejohn2.5MW for a population of 2500.

That is 24 kWh/day (assuming it is consistent). About half world energy use and about a 12th of the UKs. Could run my house it though, even in winter, just.

Well its double my daily electrical usage so others have no excuse.

Posted By: SteamyTea
That is 24 kWh/day (assuming it is consistent). About half world energy use and about a 12th of the UKs..

Are you talking about electricity, or total energy consumption?

In my case, that's just electricity because that's what John was talking about. Unless he's found a turbine that will produce gas.

Electrical generation is, at the moment, the only practical and affordable way to generate low emissions energy.
As odd as it may seem, we are heading for another boom in electrical distribution and use, though doubt if many of us on here will see it.

Anyone up for the 48 kWh Challenge

True, but not that versatile or portable. I do think that the push for EPCs on houses that want PV missed a trick, they could have insisted that 2 kWp of solar thermal was fitted.