The Northern Ireland Executive is failing to implement policies which would create jobs, stimulate business growth and help businesses and farmers to reduce costs, a leading industry body has said.

Five Government Buildings in Northern Ireland, including the Stormont Estate, will be heated by eco-friendly wood pellets as part of a wider initiative to assess the viability of renewable technologies.

Currently, the Planning Service in Northern Ireland are consulting on permitted development rights for domestic and non-domestic land use with focus on microgeneration technologies. A similar planning regulation was introduced in the Republic of Ireland in 2007 and in Wales this year.

At the weekend, the coalition partners in the Republic of Ireland Government agreed a new Programme for Government which will direct the policy and spending for the remainder of the current term. Within this document there are a number of important announcements which ill directly affect the renewable energy industry

The Sustainable Energy Association has been invited to make a presentation to the Committee for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in Dublin and we want to know the issues affecting you most which we should highlight to the group of TDs and Senators who are responsible for scrutinising the work of the Department.

The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources have announced details of the proposed support mechanism for specific categories of renewable generation technology. The proposal is subject to state aid clearance from the European Commission.

EU member states are taking part in a project that aims to find solutions to barriers that hold up the installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems and legal issues of connecting to the grid.

Balcas, in association with Action Renewables, will be hosting a specialist one-day conference to highlight the commercial benefits of using renewable technologies, in particular wood pellets, for architects and specifiers across Northern Ireland.

The Sustainable Energy Association has voiced its serious concern that the development of a feed-in tariff to boost renewable energy uptake in Ireland is being hampered by a failure to implement a grant scheme which was launched six months ago.

The price of diesel and home heating oil is set to soar this winter as the Chinese economic growth is using more and more of the spare refinery capacity for distillates (heating oil and diesel). Industry experts are projecting a shortage of refinery capacity during this years heating season, which will in turn ramp up price pressure.