Weilun Xu – Charity Insights

Unforgettable experience – The last week at Marches Energy Agency

29 July 2017

All good thing has come to an end, as my journey at MEA reaches its destination day by day I feel more and more emotional like I am already missing the place. So much things happened in the past four weeks, apart from demonstrating my research results and learning from my colleague I also managed to show them how bad an ‘Asian flush’ can get (I will never drink with an empty stomach again). Anyway, let me tell you what happened in my last few days at MEA.

The last week was quite rough to be honest, apart from doing the planned charity research I was also assigned to do some document classification and research work. This happens because one of my supervisor was quite happy with my presentation at week 3 and decided to let me help him prepare some materials for future meetings. Although I had to work extra hours at my home it’s always better to be busy and excited for the big finale. At the moment MEA is interested in the work of other charities that share the same goal, especially in their project and funding information. My job is to identify successful and interesting service of those organisation and evaluate the potential for MEA to learn from them. Apart from general service like helplines and energy advisor, some organisations offer local energy workshop and work with school to teach students about green energy. Considering the Shrewsbury high school is close by this could be one of the many service MEA offers the future. Also, Because Shrewsbury is not a large city so the funding can be a limited factor, some charities not only receive fund from government but also from companies and larger organisation. Although it’s usually not as awesome as government funding it’s enough to hold local events. More advanced charity (mainly locate in London) can even offer heat screen service to detect heat loss level and gives out EPC, but it might be too much for the present MEA, and many more. For the document work it’s more general, since I did research before it’s just time consuming, no big problems raised.

As I wrote those down the time just pasted Thursday midnight and now is Friday. I am going to deliver my final project to the team and throw a small pizza party for lunch. Can’t believe this is the last day of work. I will never forget the time I spent here and will miss it very much.

Second week at Marches Energy Agency

Weilun Xu

19 July 2017

To be honest I didn’t even realise that my journey at MEA has just pasted the half point a few days ago, not sure if it’s because my concentration on work or just because of that theory which states you feels time goes faster as you grow older. Anyway, let me introduce you what I have done since my first post.

After armed myself with related knowledge and learned what the organization do, I began to do researches that would benefit both MEA and myself. Nowadays solar PV is becoming a popular option for consumers to cut their energy bill as the price of Solar panel dropped significantly since 2011(from £11000 to around £5000 for a 16kW panel). It’s also estimated that the national electricity price will increase in the following years, thus several organizations, including SolarTrade UK, one of the leading team in the field, believe that there will be a large expansion of Solar PV business by 2020. Apart from that, lot of families also got themselves a rechargeable battery to store day-time energy for the night use, saving them even more money on bills. MEA is looking forwards to knowing the recent development of solar technology, also the situation of related business, including how the other charities or councils are supporting the development. With those questions in mind I started my research journey.

I got the most of the answer from internet, especially in the UK government website where there’s a file folder that contains all the solar panel installation record across the country. I managed to separate multiple data points and produced some graphs for presentation. I also came up with a list of councils that are supporting their local solar PV construction, by investigating their website and their registration documents I got some idea of how their funding works and how much money is spent on the work. I actually learned how to do those in week 1, guess those reading have already paid off.

As I mentioned in my last post I got the chance to visit a solar manufacturer in Birmingham last Friday. I briefly interviewed one of the staff about the future of this application, the staff told me that the price of Solar PV might not drop further in short future as China is offering solar panel at such a low price that the actual sale price has to be increased to protect UK market.

Tomorrow I am going to give a presentation about my research, after that I will investigate the work of other energy charities and possibly find what MEA can learn from them in the future. I will be back shortly with further report, see you soon.

First week at Marches Energy Agency

Weilun Xu

9 July 2017

It is the 9th of July and it has been exactly one week since I started working in Marches energy agency. Thanks to my previous visits I managed to get used to the working place fairly quickly and made myself comfortable in a nearby accommodation. So overall speaking it’s not a bad start and I’m really enjoying this whole experience.

In case you didn’t know, the charity I am working with (MEA) is an energy charity located in Shrewsbury, it’s an organization full of talented and passionate people who are dedicated to fight local fuel poverty and climate change. My role comes in to research the new green energy applications which can be potentially used by MEA in the future, also to look for new possible services MEA could bring in the future by learning from other bigger organisations. Their office building is very environmentally friendly and is also one of the few buildings that has a ‘A’ grade Energy performance certificate in UK.

After announcing my arrivial using MEA’s twitter account, my work at MEA has officially started. The first week I concentrated on the background research, as well as doing some office work that help me to get to know each aspects of charity’s work. I particularly like this flexible way of working as I can decide my own approach to the goal based on my interest. So far I have learned a number of house energy solutions, including their average performances and some difficulties/disadvantage. (Certain solution such as loft insulation may not be practical as it takes too much space and leaves loft unsuitable for storage). I have also looked through some files about government funding, and found great house energy efficient can not only bring financial advantage, but also lowers the risk of cardio-respiratory disease and brings mentally-well being. It’s also a good way to boost local economy as new application will bring more job opportunities. I really love the independent research as some results surprises me a lot and there’s always friendly staff in MEA when I need help.

For the next week, I plan to conduct further research about solar panel and storage battery application, which I believe can be a widely-used technology in the short future. I may visit a few solar PV manufacturers to learn some professional opinions about the future of this application. So please stay tuned for more information.