Smart meters are to be provided through energy suppliers to every home, under plans published by Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Hunt.
In its response to consultation, the Government sets out how smart meters will be rolled out across Britain by the end of 2020. This includes:
A new publication - Smarter Grids: The Opportunity - makes the case for developing smart grids in the UK. Smart grids will give operators and consumers much more information about supply and demand of electricity - enabling more effective interaction between consumer needs and fluctuating supplies.
Specifically smart grids will:
Hundreds of homeowners across the country are being offered the chance to install energy saving technologies at no upfront cost in an initiative timed to mark the launch of the climate change conference in Copenhagen.
Homeowners in Birmingham, Sunderland, Stroud and the London Borough of Sutton will test out new ways to finance whole house energy makeovers under the Government's £4 million Pay As You Save scheme.
The pilots will give households the opportunity to invest in energy efficiency and micro-generation technologies in their homes with no upfront cost.
Householders will make repayments spread over a long enough period so that repayments are lower than their predicted energy bill savings, meaning financial and carbon savings are made from day one.
A total of around 500 homes across England will take part in the trial, which will provide evidence of how to foot the bill for the Great British Refurb - the Government's plan to make the 22 million existing homes in the UK more energy efficient.
The Energy Bill has passed through its Second Reading stage in the House of Commons.
The Bill will:
According to a new report, renewable technology which uses energy stored in the ground to heat buildings and provide hot water could be installed in hundreds of thousands of homes by the end of the next decade.
Heat pumps need electricity to drive the pump, which pumps liquid down into the ground to harness the heat there and then brings it back to the surface for use in heating and hot water systems - or carries warmth down below ground to cool buildings - but provide three or four times the energy used to drive the system.
There are currently around 8,000 ground source heat pumps systems in the UK, far fewer than in other European countries such as Sweden. However, the UK market is expanding rapidly and doubled last year from 4,000 to current numbers.
But - the report for the Environment Agency said that with support from the Government, the technology could be installed in 320,000 homes and businesses by 2020.
Further, if enough support is given, through the Renewable Heat Incentive which comes in during 2012 and will pay homeowners and businesses a guarantee price for generating renewable heat, more than one million could be put in place.
Even if growth is limited to being installed in 320,000 homes and business, being 1% of households and 11% of commercial buildings, it could provide 30% of the renewable heat the UK needs to produce to meet its goals to supply renewable energy by 2020.
Environment Minister Hilary Benn visited a pioneering eco-friendly housing estate in Lambeth to hear first hand how residents are working with their council to tackle climate change.
The Minister visited the Ethelred Estate in Kennington, which is the UK's largest green roof renewal project. It spreads ten buildings, with more than 4,000 square meters of roof space covered in sedum plants.
The green roof provides habitat for wildlife, improves air quality and absorbs rain water, giving it a role to play in reducing urban flooding.
Lambeth Council secured special government funding for the project, which cost £716,000. It has also completed further green roofs in nearby Stockwell and a biodiverse brown roof in Clapham.
The Ethelred roof project is a partnership between the Council and the Ethelred Tenant Management Organisation.