Offshore wind to benefit British industries
British industries from boat-building to concrete, and electric cabling to gearbox manufacturing are in the line-up to benefit from the construction of thousands of offshore wind turbines, if new plans go ahead. A group representing the UK's offshore wind industry on Monday adopted a target of ensuring that more than half of the supply chain for offshore windfarms is sourced from the UK.
Click here for full storyThe EU added 9,616MW of wind energy capacity during 2011, making up more than a fifth of total new power installations, industry figures have today revealed. Offshore growth in the UK and onshore projects in Sweden and Germany helped push member states to a combined total of 93,957MW – an 11 per cent rise on 2010 and enough to supply 6.3 per cent of the EU's electricity – the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) said.
Click here for full storyNick Clegg has led a fightback against concerted attacks by Conservative MPs on government subsidies to support wind power. A letter to the prime minister signed by more than 100 Tory backbenchers called for a "dramatic cut" in subsidies for onshore windfarms, and new planning rules to make it easier for local communities to object to them. But the deputy prime minister defended subsidies to help renewable energy compete with fossil fuels, highlighting a growing division in the coalition over energy policy.
Click here for full storyNew Energy Secretary Ed Davey said on a visit to Watford that British companies were "leading the world" in creating green jobs and improving energy efficiency. Speaking on his first ministerial visit since replacing Chris Huhne in the role, Mr Davey said he had been a "lifelong supporter" of renewable energy.
Click here for full storyMarking National Apprenticeship Week the Prime Minister David Cameron today announced a new round of Government funding to support thousands of apprenticeships up to degree equivalent, helping deliver the world class skills firms need to drive growth. From today, businesses and training providers can bid for a share of £6m from the Higher Apprenticeship Fund, which will support the development of thousands of new Higher Apprenticeships in sectors including aerospace, energy and renewable technologies.
Click here for full storyITM Power the energy storage and clean fuel company, is pleased to announce that it will be launching its new high pressure and high volume stack designs that form the basis of its Megawatt Scale energy storage plant at the Hannover Messe on 23-27th April and All-Energy in Aberdeen on 23-24th May.
Click here for full storyCommunity scale green energy projects could be put out of business by Scottish Government plans to slash subsidy support for onshore wind and hydro schemes, the SNP has been warned. Under current proposals, subsidy levels for hydro schemes would be cut by half and for onshore wind projects by a tenth, so funds can be diverted to newer forms of renewable technology, such as wave and tidal projects.
Click here for full storyDimming the sun by engineering the effects of an artificial volcano is a feasible and potentially cost-effective option to reduce temperatures on Earth, the first major study of the practicality of planetary-scale solar radiation management (SRM) concludes.
Click here for full storyOpposing onshore windfarms for their impact on the landscape is understandable, but blocking them will drive up energy costs.
Click here for full storyWhat difference do anti-windfarm MPs make? Conservative MPs have written to prime minister David Cameron demanding cuts to support for onshore windfarms and easier ways to block them through planning objections. We thought it would be interesting to show where those MPs are based - and where windfarms are either working, planned or in planning. This map is the result - what patterns do you think it shows?
Click here for full storyPlans to build a windfarm off the East Sussex coast have been put forward for formal consultation. Energy company E.ON has unveiled plans to build up to 195 turbines between 13km (8-miles) and 25km (15-miles) out to sea. E.ON won the licence, which is one of nine sites around the UK earmarked for offshore wind farms, in January 2010. It said the Rampion windfarm would create enough renewable electricity to power about 450,000 homes.
Click here for full storyIs there or isn't there a scientific consensus on climate change? And does it matter? What's brought me here now is the letter published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) about 10 days ago, in which a group of 16 scientists declared there was "no need to panic on global warming". "A large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed," it says.
Click here for full storySmall-scale biomass projects for community use have the potential to help Scotland achieve its ambitious renewable energy targets and the enthusiasm of young Scots for renewable energy technology can make all the difference in ensuring these are achieved, according to Dundee City West MSP Joe FitzPatrick.
Click here for full storyAll-Energy 2012 (Aberdeen, UK, 23-24 May) will be the largest-ever event in the exhibition and conference’s twelve show history. Information on booking space (some 80% booked/reserved) and on sponsorship is available on-line. All-Energy 2011 attracted close on 8,000 and some 580 exhibiting companies. Introductions this year in the exhibition are zones for ‘Offshore maintenance – where offshore wind meets oil and gas’, ‘Smart Energy’ (energy efficiency and energy management), and low carbon vehicles (encompassing infrastructure as well as vehicles). Sector specific trails will help visitors plan their visit. All-Energy, the UK’s largest renewable show, remains free to attend for all with a business/professional interest in renewables – and this includes exhibition, conference and Giant Networking Evening.
Click here for full storyNick Clegg will today rebuff more than 100 Conservative MPs by declaring the Government will reject their demands to cut subsidies for onshore wind farms. Ed Davey, the Energy and Climate Secretary, will also make clear he is a firm supporter of "green energy" and will not bow to Tory pressure. The demand, in a letter to David Cameron, is seen as a test of Mr Davey's environmental credentials after he succeeded Chris Huhne, who quit on Friday. In a joint appearance today, Mr Clegg and Mr Davey will seek to reassure green groups that Mr Huhne's departure will not dilute the Coalition's commitment to their cause.
Click here for full storyThey have long been championed as a way to combat global warming by creating clean energy. But wind farms can actually alter the climate according to a new study by a group of American scientists. The team from the University of Illinois found that daytime temperatures around wind farms can fall by as much as 4C, while at night temperatures can increase.
Click here for full storyA public inquiry on two proposed wind farms opened this week. Planning inspector Robert Mellor heard statements from E.On and Renewable Energy Systems (RES) UK and Ireland as they try to over-turn West Norfolk Council’s decision to refuse permission to put up turbines close to an Iron Age fort. RES wants to build six 126.5m turbines on a site at Jack’s Lane, Barwick, near Stanhoe. E.On hopes to put up five 100m turbines on land at Chiplow, near Syderstone.
Click here for full storyThere are still many windmills in the British countryside, and they are seen as attractions, while wind turbines are frequently vehemently opposed. In the 18th and 19th century when there were thousands more windmills they were also controversial, built by entrepreneurs cashing in on the high price of corn and flour. Most towns had three or four in fierce competition.
Click here for full storyCeramic Fuel Cells Limited - a leading developer of high efficiency and low emission electricity generation products for homes and other buildings - today announced that its BlueGen gas-to- electricity unit had created nearly twice as much electricity than Sydney's Newington "Smart Home" had needed during the home's first 18 months of operation. Ausgrid's energy efficiency expert Paul Myors said an analysis of energy use and generation at the smart home showed it was producing enough electricity to power two average households.
Click here for full storyA total of 101 Tory MPs have written to the Prime Minister demanding that the £400 million-a-year subsidies paid to the “inefficient” onshore wind turbine industry are “dramatically cut”. The backbenchers, joined by some MPs from other parties, have also called on Mr Cameron to tighten up planning laws so local people have a better chance of stopping new farms being developed and protecting the countryside. Click here for full story
New energy efficiency body
In the first sign of his intention to use his cabinet promotion to be a "consumer champion", Mr Davey is expected to argue that going green does not necessarily need to cost more – a move that will win the support of the Chancellor, George Osborne. The new Energy Efficiency Deployment Office (EEDO) will signal that a reduction in demand for energy is "equally important" as the need to increase supply. Click here for full story
Solar power incentives lose shine
The last year hasn’t been a happy one for the British economy: GDP fell by 0.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2011; unemployment rose to a 17-year high; and government debt recently reached a record £1 trillion. One sector, however, has been bathing in the broad sunlit uplands of growth. In 2010 there were 450 solar businesses, employing around 3,000 people; by the end of last year, there were almost 4,000, employing more than 25,000 people. In September alone, some 16,000 households had solar panels installed – twice as many as in June – as everyone from farmers to vicars to Mick Jagger (plus thousands of other canny home owners with £12,000 to spare) scrambled to take advantage of generous government subsidies.
Click here for full storyA British company has unveiled what it claims is the solution to one of windpower’s major drawbacks: storage of surplus energy which can then be released during periods of calm. Highview Power Storage uses liquid air storage which takes electricity at peak times and uses it to cool air until it liquefies at –196C.
Click here for full storyAn experimental wave energy project in the UK has allowed researchers an early view of how the public might respond to large-scale development and the reaction is surprisingly positive. This is encouraging, says the study, but the potential for future conflict between the public and wave energy developers should not be overlooked. EU Member States have set a target to produce 15% of electricity from renewable means by 2015 under the
Renewable Energy Directive and wave power could make a vital contribution.
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London slow to be 'electric car capital'
…. Nearly three years ago, the mayor of London told fellow international mayors in Seoul that he would ensure 100,000 electric vehicles were in London "as soon as possible". But the London assembly's environment committee found that since Johnson's announcement, only 588 extra electric cars were registered in London. There are now 2,313 electric cars in the capital, just 0.08% of the city's total 3m cars.
Click here for full storyBiofuel: a hot topic for doctors seeking to implant pacemakers and other life-saving devices inside the body without the need for batteries that would need to be changed every couple of years, or months, or even week. Now researchers at Case Western Reserve University have possibly found the answer in one of our least favourite creepy crawlies: the cockroach. Using enzymes in series at the anode, the researchers have developed a chemical energy-converting fuel cell that creates a maximum power density output of nearly 100 microwatts per square centimetre at 0.2 volts. Click here for full story
2012: the year of the turbine
Britain is building more wind turbines this year than ever before with almost 800 turbines due to start spinning across the countryside and around the coast over the next 12 months. Some 478 turbines will be completed onshore, more than 70 per cent than last year, according to RenewableUK. Around the coast 303 turbines will be brought online, more than doubling in one year the amount of electricity generated offshore by the UK.
Click here for full storyScottish Water will undertake a £20million hydropower scheme that will use the flow in large water supply pipes to generate electricity and protect water treatment plants from power failures.
Click here for full storyEdward Davey MP has today been appointed Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. Arriving at DECC’s headquarters in London, Mr Davey said: “This is a sad day because Chris Huhne has had a real vision for a green economy and he’s done fabulous work as Secretary of State….. I want us to have a green economy, with the green jobs and investment we need to help grow our economy.”
Click here for full storyChris Huhne has quit as energy secretary after learning he will be charged with perverting the course of justice over a 2003 speeding case. His ex-wife Vicky Pryce will face the same charge in relation to claims she accepted his penalty points.
Click here for full storyEd Davey, the new secretary of state for energy and climate change, faces a daunting in-tray of policies that will create battles with industry, electricity consumers, anxious renewable energy investors and green campaigners – but the toughest challenge of all is likely to come from his cabinet colleagues.
Click here for full storyChris Huhne's departure from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) sees the exit of a minister who is generally regarded as having fought tenaciously for "green" policies within the Cabinet. And it raises the question of what hue the self-proclaimed "greenest ever government" is likely to be in future.
Click here for full storyFor an Olympic Games claiming to be the "greenest ever", in a city intending to be the "greenest ever", taking place under a government vowing to be the "greenest ever", there's precious little green to be seen when I pitch up at the 2012 venue in London…… But what about the Games' wider green credentials? Its low-carbon ambitions took something of a knock two years ago when plans to build a wind turbine on site were scrapped.That meant a downscaling of the pledge to produce 20% of the site's energy from local, renewable sources. The current target is about 11%, to be fulfilled by solar panels and the two small power stations on site.
Click here for full storySamsung Heavy Industries just made a 100-million-pound ($158 million) commitment to offshore wind in Scotland, where the harnessing of far-offshore, deeper-water wind was first proven. This investment in the future of offshore wind follows a 100-million-pound commitment from Mitsubishi Power Systems and a 40-million-pound ($63.3 million) commitment from Spanish wind turbine manufacturing giant Gamesa.
Click here for full storyIs the roof-top solar panel industry nice, green and eco-cuddly – or no better than a bunch of double-glazing sales sharks? This week a colleague received a call from a solar panel company promising that after the industry's court victory against the government, she could now pick up the juicy 43.3p per kWh feed-in tariff for generating electricity. She was told it made installing a system on her south-facing roof a no-brainer, it was money for old rope.
Click here for full storyWhen Full Fact published its original investigation into statistics on wind power backup costs used in a recent Civitas Report, we raised concerns that certain figures could have been mis-counted based on evidence from the original source from which the research was drawn. Citivas responded to the concerns in full, initially raised by the RES group, by claiming that the original figures were likely to be underestimated themselves, and highlighted the acknowledged caveats concerning their data which they had originally made clear. Continuing the dialogue, RES have produced a strongly-worded commentary on the Civitas response.
Click here for full storyA renewable energy firm is in talks with a number of social landlords to resurrect shelved solar schemes as part of the Government's planned cuts to the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) subsidy. Strategic Energy has created a system with Ernst & Young, the Council of Mortgage Lenders and some of the UK’s leading law firms to make the FIT viable at the lower 21p and 16.8p rates which come into effect from April 2012.
Click here for full storyThe government set out proposals for an overhaul of building regulations that would make new "zero-carbon homes" commonplace by 2016 and require property owners to install measures to improve their building's energy efficiency when they carry out renovations.
Click here for full storyCeramic Fuel Cells a leading developer of high efficiency and low emission power products for homes and other buildings, welcomes the recent comments made by Greg Barker, UK Minister of State (Climate Change) MP, during an adjournment debate on micro heat and power ("micro-CHP") at the House of Commons.
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