Glossary

Association for Environment Conscious Building - www.aecb.net

Association of Electricity Producers - www.aepuk.com

As Far As I Know

Air Mass

Air Quality Management

Business Council for Sustainable Energy - www.bcse.org

British Electricity Trading and Transmission Arrangements - a single set of wholesale electricity trading and transmission arrangements introduced to harmonise electricity trading across Great Britain.

Building Integrated Photovoltaics - refers to photovoltaic systems integrated into a building, usually as a replacement for traditional building materials.

Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (German Ministry of Research) - www.bmbf.de/en/index.php

Bill of Materials - a list of all the materials needed to manufacture a product or product component.

Balance of System - the parts of the photovoltaic system other than the PV array: switches, controls, meters, power-conditioning equipment, supporting structure for the array and storage components, if any.

Building Research Establishment - www.bre.co.uk

Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method - www.breeam.org

British Wind Energy Association - www.bwea.com

Construction Best Practice Programme - raises awareness of the benefits of best practice and provides guidance and advice to UK construction and client organisations so that they have the knowledge and skills required to implement change. The Programme is supported by the Department of the Environment, Transport and Regions and the Construction Industry Board.

Combined Cycle Gas Turbine - Combined cycles use both gas and steam turbine cycles in a single plant to produce electricity with high conversion efficiencies and low emissions.

Climate Change Levy - this Levy is charged on industrial and commercial use of energy and is one of the Government's tools for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Construction Design and Management

Cadmium Telluride

Commission of the European Communities

Chief Executive Officer

Compact Fluorescent Lamp

Combined Heat and Power

Combined Heat and Power Association - www.chpa.co.uk

The Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers - www.cibse.org

Cost, Insurance and Freight

Colonial Properties Trust

Content Management System - system for the creation, modification, archiving and removal of information resources from an organised repository. Includes tools for publishing, format management, revision control, indexing, search and retrieval.

Cost of Goods

The Council for Registered Gas Installers

Confederation of Renewable Energy Associations

Climate Research Unit

Cross Sectional Area

Code for Sustainable Building

Corporate Social Responsibility

Display & Monitoring

Delivered Duty Paid

Delivered Duty Unpaid

Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions

Domestic Field Trial

Distributed Generation Co-ordination Group

Do It Yourself Home Energy Check

Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

Distribution Network Operator

Depth Of Discharge

Department Of Energy

Display System Equipment

Department of Trade & Industry

Department of Transport, Local Government and Regions

Energy Advisory Service

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization

Energy Conservation Authority

Enhanced Capital Allowances

Energy Conversion Devices

Ethical Company Organisation

Ethical Consumer Research Association

Environmental Design and Management

Energy Efficiency Advise Centre

Energy Efficiency Best Practice Programme

Energy Efficiency Commitment (the new name for EESoP)

Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes

Energy Efficiency Standards of Performance (now EEC)

Embedded Generation Working Group

Environmental Investigation Agency

Environmental Industries Commission

Energy Network Association

Italian National Electricity Utility

European Photovoltaic Industry Association

European Renewable Energy Council

Energy Services Company

Energy Services Companies

Electricity Supply Industry

Energy Saving Trust - www.est.org.uk

Ethylene Tetra Fluoro Ethylene - a partially fluorinated polymer containing hydrogen, with good heat resistance.

Emissions Trading Scheme

Energy Technology Support Unit

Ethylene Vinyl Acetate

Key Performance Indicators - financial or non-financial metrics used to reflect the critical success factors of an organisation. These are used in Business Intelligence to assess the present state of business and to prescribe the course of action. KPIs differ depending on the nature of the organisation. They help an organisation to measure progress towards their organisational goals.

Fill Factor

Fast Moving Consumer Goods

Free On Board

Gas Consumer Council

Government Construction Client Panel

Gross Domestic Product

Gas and Electricity Markets Authority

Glass Glass Laminates

General London Authority - www.london.gov.uk

Glass Reinforced Plastic

Health & Safety

Housing Association

Hydro Aluminium Extrusion

Housing Developer

Home Energy Conservation Act - www.defra.gov.uk/environment/energy/heca95/

Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer

Health and Safety Executive - www.hse.gov.uk/

Imperial College Centre for Energy Policy and Technology - www.iccept.ic.ac.uk/welcome1.html

International Energy Agency - www.iea.org/

International Electrotechnical Commission - www.iec.ch/

Integrated New and Renewable Energy in Buildings

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - www.ipcc.ch/

Initial Public Offering - the process of taking a privately owned company public, by listing its shares on a stock exchange.

Institute for Public Policy Research - www.ippr.org.uk/

Intellectual Property Rights - monopoly protection for creative works such as writing (copyright), inventions (patents), processes (trade secrets) and identifiers (trademarks).

Internal Rate of Return - the discount rate at which the present value of the future cash flows of an investment is equal to the cost of the investment. When IRR is greater than the required return the investment is acceptable.

International Solar Energy Society - www.ises.org/ises.nsf!Open

Knowledge Transfer Partnership (formerly TCS) - http://web.apu.ac.uk/tcs/

Light Amplification through Stimulated Emission of Radiation - a device that amplifies light waves and concentrates them in a narrow, very intense beam of energy.

Life Cycle Cost - the overall estimated cost for a particular system over the time period corresponding to the life of the system. It includes direct and indirect initial costs plus any periodic or continuing costs of operation and maintenance.

Letter Of Intent - a preliminary agreement stating the proposed terms for a final contract. They can be binding or non-binding.

Local Planning Authority

Large Scale Building Integrated Photovoltaics - solar electric systems where the photovoltaic panels replace conventional building materials such as roof tiles or facades.

Major Demonstration Program - www.est.org.uk/housingbuildings/funding/solarpv/

Maximum Power Point Tracking - every solar PV device has a point where maximum current is delivered. MPPT electronically adjusts the output PV-device output to the maximum power point.

Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery - this is the process whereby moist waste air from a home is replaced with fresh air from outside. Recovering this heat can provide a large proportion of the heat required to keep a home at comfortable living temperatures.

NHS Environmental Assessment Tool - www.dh.gov.uk

National Energy Services (NHER) - www.nesltd.co.uk/nher.html

New Energy Trust

The New Electricity Trading Arrangements - designed to replace the old POOL arrangements for the sale of electricity in England and Wales. NETA introduced a market system in which electricity suppliers, the old electricity boards, buy electricity from generators, using a screen-based system like that used in commodity trading.

Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation - before the introduction of the Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs), the Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation was the Government’s major instrument for encouraging growth within the renewable energy industry. The NFFO assisted the industry by providing premium payments for renewables-generated electricity over a fixed period, with contracts being awarded to individual generators.

Non-Fossil Purchasing Agency - set up in 1990 by the twelve Regional Electricity Companies as their agent for the purpose of enabling them to enter into collective arrangements to discharge their obligations under the Orders.

National House Builders Council - www.nhbc.co.uk/

National Home Energy Rating - www.nher.co.uk

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (USA) - www.noaa.gov/

New Product Development

Net Present Value - the difference between the present value of cash inflows and the present value of cash outflows. NPV is used in capital budgeting to analyze the profitability of an investment or project

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (USA) - www.nrel.gov/

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development - www.oecd.org/home/0,2605,en_2649_201185_1_1_1_1_1,00.html

Office of Gas and Electricity Markets - www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem/index.jsp

Office for the Regulation of Electricity & Gas - www.ofreg.nics.gov.uk/

Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries - www.opec.org/home/

Open Source - computer software source code that is released under an open-source license or to the public domain. Open source licenses include the GNU General Public License. Popular open-source software includes: Firefox, Apache, PHP, Mozilla and the Linux kernel.

Organic Waste for Sustainable Energy Production

Portable Appliance Tester - the routine inspection and testing of portable electrical appliances, especially those used in severe environments such as building sites, is an important safety requirement.

Portable Digital Assistant - hand-held personal computers, usually equipped with calendars, electronic address books and other features for both business and personal use.

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell - a type of acid-based fuel cell in which the exchange of protons (H+) from the anode to the cathode is achieved by a solid, water-swollen membrane electrolyte impregnated with a strong acid.

Public Electricity Supplier

Private Finance Initiative - a system for providing capital assets for the provision of public services. Typically, the private sector designs, builds and maintains infrastructure and other capital assets and then operates those assets to sell services to the public sector.

Passive Infra-Red– PIR detectors identify the Infra-Red emitted by hot objects such as people and animals. They are used in burglar alarm systems, and to control the security lighting that many people have fitted outside their houses.

Personal Protection Equipment - designed to be worn, or held, by a person at work to protect them against hazards likely to endanger their health or safety at work.

Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group - a cross-parliamentary group to promote renewable and sustainable energy issues in the UK Parliament. www.praseg.org.uk/

Packaging waste Recovery Notes - the UK's Producer Responsibility regulations affect any company involved in the packaging supply chain that is larger than £2 million turnover, or which handles more than 50 tonnes of packaging each year. Under the regulations, companies carry out their producer responsibility by purchasing enough packaging waste recovery notes (PRNs) or their export equivalent (PERNs) to meet their obligation, which depends on how much packaging they place on the market. Obligated companies can sign up to compliance schemes to carry out their obligations, or purchase PRNs or PERNs themselves from accredited reprocessors and exporters. PRN/PERN prices are determined by supply and demand.

Photovoltaics - technology that produces electric power directly from the sunlight. "Photo" refers to light and "voltaic" to voltage.

The Renewables Advisory Board - provides advice to Government on a wide range of renewable energy issues. The board is an independent, non-departmental public body sponsored by the DTI that brings together government departments, the renewables industry and the unions.

RAdio Detection And Ranging - a method of estimating the distance or travel speed of an object by bouncing high frequency signals off the object and measuring the reflected signal.

Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution - www.rcep.org.uk/

Regional Development Agency - Non-Departmental Public Bodies, sponsored by Central Government Departments, for the development of each of the UK's regions.

The Renewable Energy Association - www.r-p-a.org.uk/home.fcm

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Programme - www.reeep.org/

Royal Institute of British Architects - www.riba.org/go/RIBA/Home.html

Renewable Obligation Certificates - the digital certificates that hold details of exactly how a unit of electricity was made, by whom and finally who bought and used it. These ROCs are traded separately to the actual electricity itself and work as a bonus premium on top of the price paid for the unit

Registered Social Landlord - a housing association or a not for profit company registered by the Housing Corporation to provide social housing.

Sustainable Action Group Exchange - www.sage-rsa.org.uk

Standard Assessment Procedure - the Government’s standard for assessing the energy efficiency performance of dwellings.

Solar Century Holdings

Scottish Community & Household Renewables Initiative - www.est.org.uk/schri

Solarcentury Installation Partners

Sustainable Development Commission - www.sd-commission.org.uk

Sustainable Housing Forum - www.tcpa.org.uk/shf.htm

Small to Medium Enterprises - companies that employ less than 250 people, have a turnover of less than €50 million (or a balance sheet total of less than €43 million), and not more than 25% owned by a non-SME.

State of Charge - a ratio, expressed in percent of the energy remaining in a battery in relation to its capacity when full.

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell - A type of fuel cell in which the electrolyte is a solid, nonporous metal oxide.

Standing Seam Roof – a type of roofing widely used on commercial, leisure, retail and industrial projects.

Solar Trade Association - www.greenenergy.org.uk/sta

Standard Test Conditions - the testing conditions to measure the nomimal output power of photovoltaic cells or modules. Irradiance level is 1 000 W/m², with the reference air mass 1.5 solar spectral irradiance distribution and cell or module junction temperature of 25°C.

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems - A sustainable drainage system aims to mimic as closely as possible the natural drainage of a site to minimise the impact of urban development on the flooding and pollution of waterways.

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats - a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to an organisation. Opportunities and threats originate from outside the organisation. A SWOT analysis, usually performed early in the project development process, helps organisations evaluate the environmental factors and internal situation facing a project.

The Environment Exchange - provides the central marketplace on which companies may display firm buying and selling prices for Aluminium, Glass, Paper, Plastic, Steel, Wood, Recovery and General Recycling Packaging Recovery Notes.

Town & Country Planning Association - www.tcpa.org.uk

Task Group on Scenarios for Climate Impact Assessment - formed to facilitate the wide availability of climate change-related data and scenarios to enable research and sharing of information across the three IPCC working groups. The TGICA disseminates information in support of IPCC work, as well as IPCC "approved" "adopted," "accepted," and "supporting" material.

Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel - a cleaner diesel fuel with a lower sulphur content.

Ultra-Violet Radiation - electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength shorter than that of the visible region, but longer than that of soft X-rays.