Sustainability stats: This week in numbers

It was a week that saw the completion of the UK’s largest roof-mounted solar array with retailer M&S finishing installing 24,272 panels on the top of its East Midlands distribution centre. Tidal Lagoon Power also this week submitted an Environmental Impact Assessment scoping report for the Cardiff Tidal Lagoon, which would have a capacity of 1.8GW to 2.8GW and would be the UK’s first full-scale tidal plant.

Figures from a poll released this week revealed that the UK public has a wildly distorted idea of the cost of supported wind, with the average estimated cost of wind subsidies from an average annual energy bill being overestimated by £241 pounds.

Meanwhile, the NEC in Birmingham announced it will send 120 tonnes of food waste to a new Severn Trent AD plant this year – Sustainability Live 2015’s waste will no doubt be disposed of there too when it hits the NEC in April. Although WRAP says there could be a massive saving in food waste, £600m-worth annually, if the food shelf-life was extending by just one day.

And the Six Nations Rugby is in full flow at the moment. Although Scotland are not doing so well in the actual competition, its winning by a mile on the percentage of energy generated by renewables compared to the other nations. It’s just a shame that doesn’t count for much on the field.

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Lucinda Dann