Industry headlines

When plans for the creation of Britain's first Green Investment Bank (GIB) were announced in the March the reactions were as mixed as the details were confused. The aim is for the bank to support low-carbon and renewable energy infrastructure projects, raising equity and debt finance to fund nuclear power stations, wind farms and smart grids….. Government figures reveal that there is plenty of money to be made once we take action to catch up with international rivals. Click here for full story

Investing in renewable energy opportunities has been fraught with difficulty in recent years. The consensus among industry watchers is that hundreds of billions of dollars will be spent on a whole range of renewable energy capacity and energy efficiency projects in the next two decades as the world attempts to adjust to a low carbon future. But kick-starting this process has proved to be frustratingly difficult. The market has repeatedly seen its hopes for the sector dashed and last week it was the turn of Europe's leading wind turbine maker, Vestas, to provide investors with a stomach-churning shock. Click here for full story

[Scotland’s] Finance Secretary John Swinney has backed calls for a new £2billion green investment bank (GIB) to be based north of the border. The UK Government said it will bring forward detailed proposals for the investment body after the budget spending review in the autumn. The idea is for the bank to finance green energy developments such as wind, wave and tidal power. Click here for full story

Ernst & Young's (E&Y) announcement that it is launching a dedicated practice to support the UK's clean technology sector is the latest development to highlight the attractions of the sustainability business for the big consultancies. While E&Y claims to be the first to set up a practice specifically for cleantech, in recent years PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, KPMG and E&Y have all launched dedicated practices for sustainability and climate change. Click here for full story

The UK Government is being urged to base a new £2billion green investment bank in Scotland. Nationalist Rob Gibson said the institution, which would channel public and private-sector investment into energy infrastructure, should be located close to windfarms, both on and offshore, and places where wave and tidal energy devices will be sited. The Highlands and Islands MSP has raised the issue with UK Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Huhne and Scottish Secretary Michael Moore. Click here for full story

Despite repeated pledges to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and criticism from some quarters that government support for renewable energy technologies is too generous, global subsidies provided to renewable energy and biofuels are dwarfed by those enjoyed by the fossil fuel industry. That is the conclusion of a major report released late last week by analyst Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which analyses subsidies and incentive schemes offered globally to developers of renewable energy and biofuel technologies and projects. Click here for full story

The UK Government is being urged to base a new £2billion green investment bank in Scotland. Nationalist Rob Gibson said the institution, which would channel public and private-sector investment into energy infrastructure, should be located close to windfarms, both on and offshore, and places where wave and tidal energy devices will be sited. The Highlands and Islands MSP has raised the issue with UK Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Huhne and Scottish Secretary Michael Moore. A spokesman for First Minister Alex Salmond said the SNP government was strongly in favour of the bank being based in Scotland. Click here for full story

New research suggests ministers could give a welcome boost to its environmental goals by reinventing RBS as a green investment bank. The coalition has promised to reform the banks, and it also wants to be the greenest government ever. Laudable goals – and research published by former PricewaterhouseCoopers consultant James Leaton and economist Howard Reed suggests ministers could kill two birds with one stone by re-inventing RBS as the Green Investment Bank, or the Royal Bank of Sustainability (to keep the initials and save on a rebrand). Click here for full story

Over 90% of institutional investors want green investments in their portfolio, according to a new study. Research commissioned by the New Energy World Network (NEWN) found more than nine in ten private equity, pension, insurance and venture capital funds would like to have some exposure to renewable energy, clean technology, and sustainability-related investments. Click here for full story

Australia’s first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard has promised investments of up to A$1bn ($892m) over ten years to promote the use of renewable energy sources. The promise is on condition that she is re-elected after the national vote on 21 August, when she faces opposition leader Tony Abbott. Click here for full story

The Carbon Trust has launched a new service designed to ‘turbo charge’ and stimulate investment in early-stage clean tech companies. This will help create a step-change in the growth of high tech, low carbon businesses in the UK. The launch of Carbon Trust Entrepreneurs Fast Track, developed after consultation with Britain’s emerging low carbon technology companies, was welcomed by business leaders, including Sir James Dyson, the Federation of Small Business, the business angel community and the UK Government. Click here for full story

Any entrepreneur, start-up or spin-out company with a genuinely innovative low carbon idea or technology should visit relevant web page to register interest and find out more about the application process. Click here for full story

David Cameron is to slash spending on green technology but pour hundreds of millions of pounds into charities, voluntary groups and churches, the News of the World can reveal. The Prime Minister's first pledge after taking over as Conservative Party leader was to slash greenhouse gasses and promote eco-friendly energy. But he has shelved a £1 billion fund to invest in new British companies using green technology…… Instead, Mr Cameron - whose party's logo is a green tree - will tomorrow reveal plans for a "Big Society Bank". Click here for full story

The government is reportedly preparing to shelve plans to part fund the formation of its proposed Green Investment Bank (GIB) through the sale of assets such as the Channel Tunnel rail link and the student loan book. The Financial Times reported today that the plans had been ditched amidst growing signs of tension between George Osborne at the Treasury and Vince Cable at the business department over how the bank should be funded and managed. Click here for full story

The "Scottish Low Carbon Investment Project" seeks to match low carbon opportunities with the financial community and in particular those financiers with an expressed interest in this space. The project is now seeking to collate organisations’ "elevator pitches" for funding, whether it be for a particular project, the development of technology or for the expansion and operation of an organisation. The project will in due course seek to identify appropriate financial services targets which may provide the funding solution. Click here for full story

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), the Perth, Scotland-based utility giant, yesterday (13 July) revealed that it is considering entering the £1 billion competition to develop clean power stations in the UK. The company said it had launched a feasibility study for carbon capture and storage (CCS) at its gas-fired power station at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. Plans for a different capture scheme at Peterhead were shelved by BP in 2007 after Government delays. However, a spokeswoman for SSE told The Herald that if Government could be persuaded to extend the competition to include gas, the company “would certainly consider entering”. Click here for full story

The Crown Estate is warning that the current debate over its future in Scotland could hamper efforts to attract multi-billion-pound investment for offshore energy projects. The body looks after the Crown’s £6 billion portfolio of assets and rights in the UK and pays its profits to the Treasury. It fears the uncertainty comes at a crucial time in Scotland’s attempt to secure thousands of jobs in offshore wind, wave and tidal power, and carbon capture. Click here for full story

Britain's competitiveness and future security will come under threat if the Government fails to act on energy policy, the Engineering Employers' Federation (EEF) will warn today.   The UK faces an unprecedented combination of energy challenges over the next decade and needs to invest billions of pounds in infrastructure, manage the risks associated with growing dependence on imported gas and meet renewable energy targets, the employment body says. Click here for full story

The first phase of the London Array wind farm has a capacity of 630 MW and is expected to begin operation in 2012 and be able to provide wind energy for the London Olympics. DONG Energy A/S has signed a GBP 250 million loan facility with European Investment Bank intermediated by a leading international bank. The loan is related to the construction of the London Array offshore wind farm and can be drawn throughout the construction period. Click here for full story

THE head of the "ethical" Co-operative Bank claims it has "two to four years" more to capitalise on "consumer negativity" towards big banks. Neville Richardson, newly installed chief executive of Co-operative Financial Services (CFS), said he believed a pledge by the bank last month to pump a further £200 million of loans into the renewable energy sector this year would also sharpen its competitive edge. Richardson said the negativity towards its rivals arose from their near-collapse and the taxpayer bailout of swathes of the publicly quoted sector. He added that the Co-op's work on renewables would attract a new, "green-conscious" generation of younger, retail savers. Click here for full story

US President Barack Obama wants to expand by $5bn a successful renewable energy manufacturing incentive programme that he says could leverage an additional $12bn in private investment and create some 130,000 jobs.With fears of a weakening economic recovery mounting, Obama pointed to the success of his enormous economic stimulus effort, particularly in clean energy.
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China and India are among the ‘first choice’ countries that will benefit from solar energy developments under a $9bn financial aid initiated and supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a senior official says. Many countries in the Asia-Pacific region are geographically well-positioned to harness energy from the sun, but affordable financing mechanisms need to be made available to allow the area to tap into the energy resource Click here for full story

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A Scottish renewable energy firm that was recently put up for sale has agreed to work with a Chinese shipbuilding giant to develop products that it believes could help to transform the economics of offshore wind power.
Aberdeen-based SeaEnergy Renewables has signed a cooperation agreement with Nantong COSCO Ship Steel Structure Company (NCSC) under which the firms will develop and manufacture steel structures for use in the industry.
These will include the huge jackets that are used to support offshore turbines.
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(Reuters) - Britain's plan to switch from the market-based renewable obligation subsidy scheme to a flat-fee feed-in tariff could deter investors and delay clean energy projects, investor and banking group Investec said on Wednesday.
In its June budget, the government suggested it may introduce feed-in tariffs for large-scale renewable projects, such as offshore wind farms and marine energy, and could keep the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) for existing projects only.
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DEVELOPMENT and ship-breaking company Able UK has unveiled plans to construct a £400m centre for renewable energy on the bank of the Humber.
The Billingham firm released its vision for a Marine Energy Park a year after setting out proposals for a logistics centre and business park at its 1,987-acre Able Humber Port facility north of Immingham.
It says the projects will create 10,000 jobs on-site and a further 17,000 in and around North Lincolnshire.
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Enel, Italy’s largest and Europe’s most indebted utility, has chosen October as the month for the long-awaited flotation of its renewables division.The firm will launch an initial public offering for Enel Green Power (EGP) despite lingering weakness in the financial markets and an impending downward revision to Italy’s solar feed-in tariff, which has blasted the country into a position of global leadership in the solar sector over the past two years. Click here for full story

First Minister Alex Salmond has welcomed the signing of a co-operation agreement between Aberdeen-based offshore wind developer SeaEnergy Renewables and a Chinese steel company to develop and market steel structures for the offshore wind sector.The Minister attended a special ceremony in Shanghai yesterday (July 6) to mark the formal signing of the deal with state-owned Nantong COSCO Ship Steel Structure company (NCSC), which the Scottish Government said was the ‘first of its kind'. Click here for full story

Aquamarine Power is among five Scots firms benefitting from a Government scheme to harness the country's wave potential.An Edinburgh energy firm is among those to benefit from a £13m scheme designed to harness Scotland’s wind power.Aquamarine Power is one of 5 Scots businesses to be given grants from the WATERS fund, set up by the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The firm has won more than £3m to develop their Oyster 3 scheme at Orkney’s European Marine Energy Centre. Click here for full story

Covanta Energy, a leading US international Energy from Waste (EfW) provider, Monday purchased land in Northwest England to be used for the construction of a new plant. In the announcement made by the North of England Inward Investment Agency, the American company submitted an application for planning approval for the construction of a new Energy-from-waste processing plant in the Cheshire County. The new plant is expected to convert the County’s non-recyclable, non-compostable residential waste into clean, renewable energy to power up to 50,000 local homes. It will take in a combination of commercial and industrial wastes from shops, offices and other businesses in the region, the aim being to gradually cut down the amount of waste that goes into landfills and generate a considerable cut in green house gas emissions. Click here for full story

Woodside Petroleum Ltd has undertaken informal discussions with renewable energy company Tidal Power over the possibility of using its technology to provide power for the oil producer's James Point LNG project, the Australian Financial Review reports.
Tidal Energy is the operator of a stalled $400 million tidal river energy project in the Kimberley region, which it says could supply a small portion of the proposed LNG operation's total electricity requirements.
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At the Offshore Wind Conference 2010 in Liverpool, Scottish based SeaEnergy PLC signed a Letter of Intent with Ulstein Group to co-develop new service vessels for the offshore wind industry. As the offshore wind industry moves further from the coastline, new strategies are required to make these far offshore windfarms more cost effective. Click here for full story

A doughnut and an oyster are among five marine energy projects sharing £13 million to harness the power of the sea.
The grants from the WATERS fund (Wave and Tidal Energy: Research, Development and Demonstration Support) will help develop emerging energy technologies and improve the operation of marine renewables devices.
WATERS is a collaboration between the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise with support from European Regional Development Funds.
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The Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund, or Geeref, mainly invested by the European Union, will put 10 million euros ($12.5 million) in a private Chinese fund, the EU’s energy commissioner said.“China is one of the world’s leading countries in terms of renewable energy investment,” Guenther Oettinger said at a media briefing in Shanghai today. Click here for full story

The first round of grants since the Budget for developing next-generation offshore wind technology are announced today (Monday 5 July) by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.Secretary of State Chris Huhne will announce the grants, totalling £10 million in a speech at the launch of the International Energy Agency’s Energy Technology Perspective report.£5 million of grants will be awarded to 7 UK companies and aim to increase the UK supply chain for offshore wind. Click here for full story

Wave energy developer Aquamarine Power was awarded over £3 million from the Scottish Government today [Tuesday 6 July] to support the development of its next-generation Oyster wave energy device. Aquamarine Power received the grant from the WATERS fund (Wave and Tidal Energy: Research, Development and Demonstration Support) which is run and administered by Scottish Enterprise on behalf of a collaborative venture involving Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. Click here for full story

Bangladesh has more than doubled the number of rural homes installed with small-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) panels to about 500,000 under the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Programme (BREP), a local official says.The achievement in the first-half of 2010 markedly dwarfed the approximately 200,000 rural homes that were equipped with the panels at the end of last year, according to Foiz Ahamed, joint secretary of the power division at Bangladesh’s Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources. Click here for full story

The government is committed to harnessing the "tremendous benefits" of a successful wave and tidal renewable energy sector and is considering putting policy in place to ensure technology and jobs do not go overseas, energy minister Greg Barker has claimed.Joining fellow energy minister Charles Hendry and energy secretary Chris Huhne, Mr Barker answered questions in the House of Commons last week (July 1), covering a range of renewables issues including the suitability of wind farm locations and the importance of energy from waste. Click here for full story

President Barack Obama, in his weekly address, announced nearly $2bn in loan guarantees for Abengoa Solar’s 250MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in Arizona and Abound Solar, a cadmium telluride thin-film PV manufacturer planning to expand manufacturing in two states.The conditional commitments from the Department of Energy’s Loan Guarantee Program – expanded through Obama’s economic stimulus bill – could create up to 3,600 construction jobs and some 1,600 permanent jobs. Click here for full story

It might be sunny but solar panels around Britain are failing to generate any electricity because of a shortage of parts.
The introduction of 'Feed-in Tariffs', that pay homeowners for electricity fed into the grid, has led to a rise in demand for solar panels.
But householders who have installed the expensive technology are unable to start generating electricity because of a shortage of "inverters".
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