UK pushes wind, solar power for local communities

\"This initiative could lead to schools powered by small scale wind turbines, hospitals with solar rooftops and houses with wood chip-fired boilers,\" Energy Minister Brian Wilson said last week. The scheme will set up of expert groups which will advise on areas such as feasibility studies, funding, technology issues and planning. Wilson said the type of project the initiative aimed to develop included turning farm and food waste into natural gas to generate electricity. The government said the community schemes will be able to draw upon some of the 35 million pounds set aside for renewable programmes. Earlier this month a thinktank set up by Prime Minister Tony Blair called for a near 10-fold increase by 2020, or 20 percent rise in the proportion of renewables in the energy mix. Just under three percent of Britain electricity is currently classed as renewable. This latest push for renewables forms part of government plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions, blamed by many scientists for contributing to global warming, by 23 percent from 1990 levels by 2010. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE