The UK’s Passivhaus Trust will hold a conference on large scale passive house developments on 30 April in Glasgow.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland Energy Show 2014 takes place at the RDS in Dublin on 12 and 13 March.

Kensa Heat Pumps has announced Lord Taylor of Goss Moor as its new chairman. According to Kensa the peer's appointment will be instrumental in the Cornish company’s growth as the UK’s leading supplier of ground source heat pumps.

Low energy design specialists Accredited Passivhaus Design (APD) are promoting the design of affordable housing to the passive house standard at Ecobuild from 4 to 6 March. According to APD, the passive house approach can reduce rent arrears while reducing the need for off-site allowable solutions as part of compliance with the UK's zero-carbon homes target in 2016. Part of the UK government's proposal for zero carbon homes, allowable solutions permits the counting of carbon credits as a carbon reduction strategy for buildings.

The Passive House Institute is set to launch details of Passive House Plus and Passive House Premium - two new categories of building certification designed to add microgeneration of energy into the world's leading low energy standard.

Leading passive house and low energy glazing brand Optiwin has announced that it is looking for small to medium sized manufacturing partners in the UK via Berkana Green, its exclusive licenced sales agent for England, Scotland and Wales.

Leading green roof and turf specialist, Lindum, will be focussing on pollinators and biodiversity at this year’s Ecobuild exhibition which takes place on March 4-6 at ExCel, London. At the forefront of green roof technology relevant to UK climate conditions, Lindum has developed pre-grown vegetation mats containing mixtures of wildflowers, herbs, perennials and sedums can provide a wonderful flowering display and encourage biodiversity.

Passive house will be represented stronger than ever at this year’s Ecobuild on 4 to 6 March, with a series of events throughout the exhibition focused on the world’s leading ultra low energy building standard. Passive House Plus will also be at this year’s exhibition — come find us at stand S800.

Leading international heating systems manufacturer, Viessmann, will unveil the first mass-produced, commercially available, domestic fuel cell in Europe at Ecobuild on 4-6 March. Viessmann and Panasonic have jointly developed the Vitovalor 300-P polymer electrolyte fuel cell-based micro combined heat and power system (mCHP), which goes on sale in Germany this April. By 2020, Panasonic and Viessmann expect a five-digit number of systems to be installed in Europe.

Windhager will launch its latest development, the BioWin 2 wood pellet boiler, at Ecobuild
2014.