Headlines – July 2008 “British Gas, the country’s largest energy supplier, is preparing for a fresh round of energy price rises of at least 15%, which could hit its 16 million customers within a matter of weeks “ As fuel prices rise across the world more and more homeowners and businesses are looking for cheaper fuel alternatives. Renewable energy is a multion million pound industry and growing by the month.

The three factors driving market growth:

Climate change: the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report concluded that current climate changes are 95% likely to be caused by increasing greenhouse gases and that it is 95% likely that these are largely a result of human activity.

Fossil fuel depletion: fossil fuels, in particular oil and gas, are in any case in short supply. New reserves are not being discovered at the rate that current reserves are being depleted. Many experts believe that peak oil production will be this decade, yet demand is still increasing at around 2% per annum. The International Energy Authority in July 2007 predicted a significant squeeze in oil supply within five years and prices in the long time are likely to rise.

Energy security: fossil fuels are not only in short supply, they are also largely concentrated in areas either of political instability or of potential or actual hostility to the developed economies. For example the vast majority of global natural gas reserves are in Iran and Russia. Reducing dependence upon fuels which may become harder to obtain is therefore a security priority for many countries, especially the US where energy security has been a feature of George Bush's State of the Union addresses.

What is Renewable Energy? Renewable energy is a source of green energy that can never be exhausted or is continually replenished by some natural process. In fact renewable energy only accounts for 4% of the UK’s electricity supply today. There's still some way to go to meet the Government’s target of 10% by 2010. This market has to grow to meet government targets. New rules allowing homeowners to install solar panels, ground source heat pumps and other microgeneration technologies to help cut carbon emissions have been approved by the government. Housing minister Caroline Flint gave the green light to the projects, stating that from April 6th 08 homeowners will not need to seek planning permission. The Labour administration has pledged to ensure all new-build homes in the UK are carbon neutral by 2016, with all commercial properties planed to follow by 2019.

This business will provide home and business owners with a source of information on renewable energy generation techniques and calculations for the return on any renewable investment.