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Wind turbines at GreenPark business centre, Reading

With business for green energy companies booming in the UK, and a thriving global market in wind energy, the future is looking up for wind power generation. As the most cost effective way of producing renewable electricity, businesses and private households are now realising that they can opt for wind energy without it costing the earth.

Ecotricity, a fast-growing installer of wind turbines in the UK, has played a significant part in boosting the wind sector here as well as helping the UK meet its targets for electricity generation from renewable energy. By the end of 2006 Ecotricity had 11 wind farms of 27 MW, which is about one in ten of all onshore wind projects in the UK. The company's turbines are delivering 46 GWh/year of renewable electricity and avoiding around 46,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions a year. The installed capacity is expected to double by the end of 2007.

Since 1991 the company has worked hard to make wind power a more popular and acceptable renewable energy option in the UK. Although wind turbines generally have public support both at the national level and around sites where they have been installed, vocal opponents often block planning permission for wind developments.

Ecotricity's success is put down to several factors - close consultation with local communities, careful selection of wind farm sites away from scenic locations, installing only single or small groups of turbines and using the most efficient and reliable turbines available. With this unique approach, Ecotricity has achieved an impressive 90% success rate with wind farm planning applications compared to the industry average of 60%.

The company - with more than 30,000 domestic electricity customers and 1,000 commercial customers - invests its profits back into the development of wind power as part of its long-standing commitment to the environment.

Ecotricity also runs a' Merchant Wind Power' scheme which has attracted businesses that might not otherwise have opted for wind power. Through this scheme, turbines are installed to supply electricity directly to the distribution network of a business instead of to the national grid. By getting the power directly, the business avoids the losses and costs associated with grid transmission and any excess can still be sold. This means that the turbines can be economic at sites with a lower wind speed than is usually possible.

One Merchant Wind Power customer, Mr Julius Brinkworth, Energy Manager of Sainsbury's explains the benefits, "With this project Ecotricity has helped us to meet our environmental goals and our energy needs. We have this fantastic state-of-the-art wind turbine on our site which not only looks great but is providing almost half of the depot's electricity, with no carbon emissions, and at a competitive price."

Ecotricity turbines now supply about 24% of the electricity sold, and all the profit from sales are invested in new wind farm development, supplemented by commercial loans.

Although many other installers are struggling to source turbines because of the huge demand on the world market, Ecotricity's partnership with wind turbine manufacturer Enercon has guaranteed a supply of efficient and reliable turbines. The Enercon turbines can work even at relatively low wind speed, they have slow rotation, low noise levels and aesthetic blade design.

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Year 8 pupils at West Bridgford School look into their boiler converted to run on wood-fuel.

Nottinghamshire's Robin Hood territory of dense forests, also traditionally an area of coal mining, is now home to a radical programme to bring wood back as a sustainable fuel.

Schools across the County are getting a big carbon-cutting boost by converting their old boilers from coal to wood - a cleaner, more sustainable source of fuel. The Nottinghamshire County Council scheme is saving around 2,400 tonnes of CO₂ a year and catalysing a local wood pellet industry. Already 17 schools have benefited, with 27 more schools to be converted by the end of 2008.

With a clean, smoke-free environment, both teachers and pupils at the schools are enthusiastic about the Council's initiative, and even people living near the schools have noticed a reduction in local pollution. "When we burned coal it looked like the QE2 coming out of the docks! You used to get a layer of dust on all the cars outside" says John Flannigan, Site Manager at West Bridgford School, one of the participating schools.

The schools are also using their new wood-fuel boilers as a teaching resource to engage pupils in the move to sustainable energy.

The biomass push in the region has expanded the local supply and use of wood pellets and even created new jobs. The Council has teamed up with ReNU, a local non-profit company dedicated to supplying sustainable fuels, and until recently relying on imported pellets from Ireland. But early this year the company commissioned a local pellet production company to produce 10,000 tonnes of wood pellets a year from local forestry and sawmill waste. The Council also now uses boilers manufactured locally by Hoval and Ashwell which can run at efficiencies of over 90%.

Nottinghamshire County Council was the first in the UK to set up a Local Public Service Agreement, committing it to cut CO₂ emissions from council buildings by 25% or 3,500 tonnes a year. Their aim now is zero net emissions by 2050.

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Solar PV roof, Boatemah Walk social housing development, Lambeth, London.

Although solar power's contribution to energy in the UK is still relatively small, with growing pressure to cut carbon emissions from buildings, along with rising electricity prices and business CSR commitments, solar solutions are poised to take off. The biggest barriers are high initial installation costs and limited government support compared to that of other European countries.

Solarcentury has been at the forefront of showing the practical, innovative and effective ways that solar systems can be used in buildings across the UK - even in crowded urban locations. The company specialises in developing mounting systems and installation procedures for integrating solar systems into a wide variety of buildings including industrial estates, schools, prisons, hospitals and houses.

The firm has used innovative design to develop a range of top quality solar products - solar PV panels and tiles, solar water heating and mounting systems. All are designed to be simple to install so that traditional roofers can fit them with little training, and they integrate with standard building materials.

Working closely with building developers, local authorities, engineers and architects, Solarcentury has designed and installed over 550 large installations and thousands of home installations, including 30 installations for schools, 150 for public sector or charitable organisations and 300 for businesses. All have met the rigorous standards of planners as well as clients. These installations add up to 3,3 MWp of solar power, generating around 2,370 MWh/year, which prevents the emission of about 1,350 tonnes of CO₂ a year.

According to David Pretty, Chief Executive of Barratt Homes "[the solar tiles] have attracted a huge amount of interest at our Eco home in Buckshaw Village. New home buyers are pleased with the aesthetics and particularly impressed that solar tiles can save them money. We're doing this not just because it makes commercial sense, but because we believe it makes sense for the future. It will help to shape the homes we'll build for the future."

Compared to other renewable sources of energy, solar power has a high capital outlay but the maintenance requirements and costs are extremely low. The process of choosing solar power also tends to encourage people to become more aware of their energy consumption. Each Solarcentury installation includes a meter to show the current electricity generated and some include the total generated as well as CO₂ emissions avoided.

One of Solarcentury's best known installations is the CIS tower in Manchester which is the largest commercial solar façade in Europe and one of the biggest solar installations in the UK.