National and International Portal
This section of the NEF website provides information on renewable energy technologies.
If you want to know how renewable energy technologies work or what their current use is in the UK then visit this website. You will also be able to check out different renewable energy case studies. If you have a particular question it may be answered by the frequently asked questions page and you can test your knowledge in the renewable energy quiz.
The UK Government is also setting out a range of activities to help the country tackle Climate Change. Defra is the Government department in charge of doing this.
This website provides students with an introduction to wind energy. Here you can learn the basic facts of generating electricity from the wind and check through our FAQ’s to see if the answer to your question is there. Don't forget to look at the map of wind energy projects in the UK, for details of wind farms in your area!
The EST is a non-profit organisation, funded by government and the private sector. Set up after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, promote the sustainable use of energy to cut carbon dioxide emissions, one of the key contributors to climate change. The EST works with households, business and the public sector to do this.
This is a great place to go for a field trip and the website has lots of information on renewable energy, environmental building, energy efficiency, organic growing and alternative sewage systems.
This website provides simple to use information about the use of nuclear power and why the world needs nuclear energy. It has a broad list of resource pages providing a range of information covering uranium resources, nuclear power stations to safety and waste management.
Take a look at how climate change will affect the UK and what action the Government has already taken to prepare for this.
Find out what the evidence is, the impacts are and how we can change to tackle climate change…
UKCIP shows how our climate might change. This website gives information on what this means for different regions and what we might expect in terms of changes in weather and sea levels.
There are many schools across the UK that have installed renewable energy technologies; others have looked at reducing their energy consumption or using energy efficient lighting etc.
There are also many places to visit to see different energy technologies in action. Why not find out where these different types of ‘power stations’ are and visit them if you are in the area!
Remember to look out for them when you are on your on your travels!
Dearpark Primary School has taken a Whole School Approach to energy management. This interest in energy has resulted in savings each year for the school of £4,000 per annum. The school is very pleased with the success of this approach and will continue with the project going forward.
Benchmarking data indicated the school was not performing well in terms of electricity consumption, improvements to the lighting at the school were recommended and energy efficient lighting and improved controls were installed.
There are around 1,043 wind turbines in operation at 84 sites around the UK. See where these sites are by visiting the BWEA website
There are a number of sites in the UK producing heat or electricity from biomass. To find out if there is one in your area visit this website.
For a list of the photovoltaics installations across the UK visit the PV-UK website.
There are over 2000 generating stations in the UK. The Government produces a list of major power stations in the UK. This list includes all the major power stations but not smaller plant such as wind farms, small CHP or photovoltaic units.
The Energy Certification for Schools programme can help you manage energy more efficiently in your school, whether you're a student, teacher, governor, member of staff or the local authority. We can also help with curriculum resources on energy efficiency and the environment.
Responsible for strategic guidance and all education funding within England and Wales, DfES recently published an energy and water management good practice guide. It includes guidance on school building design, environmental performance and energy consumption statistics.
Annex 36 is a European project supported by the IEA to identify and promote cost-effective, energy-saving retrofit measures within existing educational buildings.
As a school caretaker you have an important part to play in helping to control the schools energy costs. Your actions could reduce the schools energy bill by 10% or more. Many day to day activities undertaken by school caretakers have a direct influence on energy costs.
Eco schools is a great way to make sustainable development a part of the life and ethos of your school. Designed to fit into the curriculum, it's an award scheme that gets everyone in the school community involved in making the school environment better.
The GLOBE Programme is an international environmental education project, that encourages children in schools to explore and measure their local areas, and report their findings over the internet. To date 107 countries have joined the programme and over 10 million data records have been compiled by the 15,000 schools taking part. Here in the UK, we hold INSET sessions for teachers at locations to suit you, and provide a range of materials to help implement the project within the classroom. We also aim to provide as much support to registered GLOBE schools as possible, answering queries via email and telephone, and also providing school visits to talk to staff and students, if you want ...And it only costs around £60 per teacher to enrol.
The Schools & Homes Energy Education Project is a not-for-profit company and registered charity that offers educational resources, workshops, courses and training in sustainable development:- energy efficiency, renewable energy technologies and for people to make informed decisions about energy use.
European Sustainable Energy Education Forum (ESEEF) is a network of European organisations. The aim of this project is to initiate the establishment of a Union-Wide network for energy education, the European Energy Education Forum. The EEEF will be an essential Union-wide network for teachers, pupils and students to get up to date education on Renewable Energy.
Learning Days is an exciting new initiative offering themed day-long events into Primary Schools. The 'Introduction to energy' module is the latest addition to an expanding series of topics that are all linked to the National Curriculum and has been developed for KS2 students…
Renewable energy education site from the DTI and the UK Government which provides information and teaching resources for primary and secondary schools about eight key renewable energy sources. It is particularly useful for the geography programme for students agend 11 to 18
Energy Quest is the award-winning energy education website of the California Energy Commission in the United States. It contains information, resources, games, an online book, and lots of fun ways to learn about energy