Industry headlines

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

Grimsby UK based safety equipment supplier Cosalt has signed a new joint venture agreement with the Danish engineering services company APRO, creating a partnership designed to take advantage of the major growth expected in UK offshore wind energy. Cosalt recently set up a dedicated Renewable Energy division to supply inspection and testing services plus marine safety, lifting equipment, tooling and height safety products to the renewables sector, particularly offshore wind farms. Click here for full story

Waste management firm SITA UK has today (August 26) set out its intention to improve its offering in energy from waste with the formation of a dedicated energy recovery division. The division, called SITA Energy Solutions, is set to be a 160-strong team formed in the wake of internal restructuring at the Maidenhead-based waste management firm. The staff for the new division is drawn from across the company's UK energy operations and is set to focus on energy recovery, landfill gas operations and energy-related technologies. Click here for full story

Norway-based risk management giant DNV has moved to meet growing demand for accreditation, certification and testing services from low carbon industries with the launch of a dedicated new Sustainability and Innovation division. The company announced yesterday that it will pool together around 400 of its staff who are already working in the sustainability filed into a new division operating in 17 countries. The company is already a major presence in a number of green markets, providing third party accreditation for carbon offset projects and renewable energy developers. Click here for full story

DNV, the international leader in services for managing risk, has formed a new division called DNV Sustainability and Innovation. The new division has been set up to steer DNV towards green service growth and sustainability services. “Our decision to establish the new division shows our strong commitment in the area of sustainability,” says Dr Henrik O. Madsen, chief executive officer at DNV. “We are continuously striving to show that in an increasingly challenging world, DNV’s competence and expertise instils trust and confidence and that we can help companies achieve sustainable economic, safe and environmental performance.” Click here for full story

Energy Minister Charles Hendry has given a broad hint that the much talked about Severn Barrage could be dead in the water. Speaking at an energy industry conference in Norway UK Energy Minister Charles Hendry said five potential projects for the barrier are now being considered by his Department for Energy and Climate. “We have been studying responses [to consultations],” Hendry said “...and we are looking at that and we are due to publish a report in the near future.” Click here for full story

A pioneering "sun park" planned for land near Louth could be the first of its kind in the country. The Grimsby Telegraph can reveal plans have been submitted for Britain's first solar park at Fen Farm, Conisholme, on land next to the 20-turbine wind farm. Energy company Ecotricity – which has also submitted a separate application for a further five wind turbines – wants to make renewable energy using sunlight. The planned solar park will have a capacity of 1MW of electricity – enough to power about 500 homes. Click here for full story

A Grade 1 listed Norman church based in Withington is set to become the first zero carbon place of worship in the UK. The renewable work on St Michael and All Angels Church is expected to be complete by the end of September. The church will be fitted with 22 solar panels on the roof and a new biomass boiler. These measures will generate electricity to power the building’s low lighting, however other measures will be taken in order to save energy. The church’s outdoor floodlights will be switched off in the summer and will only be used from 10.30pm in the winter months. Click here for full story

The French government is set to announce plans for a EUR10bn (£8.2bn) offshore wind farm building programme that will see 600 wind turbines erected at 10 sites off the coast of France over the next five years. An unnamed official told reporters yesterday that ministers were putting the finishing touches to the plan and would launch a tender for contracts to build and operate the wind farms next month. Click here for full story

Proposals have been unveiled for a multimillion-pound biomass plant on an industrial site near Fort William which could create up to 20 jobs. But the plant, which would operate round the clock, has already given rise to worries from the local community about emissions, noise and visual impact as well as serious concerns about its viability and sustainability. Click here for full story

Plumbing organisations are keen that their members take advantage of opportunities in the booming green economy. People who have passed plumbing courses are being urged to learn how to install the latest technologies in order to meet the growing demand for green energy appliances that save water and money. Blane Judd, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering, said that plumbers can play a key role in advising householders about the latest and best energy saving appliances. Click here for full story

Every cloud has a silver lining: wet weather could soon be harnessed as a power source, if a team of chemists in Brazil is to be believed. In 1840, workers in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, reported painful electric shocks when they came into close contact with steam leaking from factory boilers. Both Michael Faraday and Alessandro Volta puzzled over the mysterious phenomenon, dubbed steam electricity, but it was ultimately forgotten without being fully understood. Click here for full story

SNP support for the fledgling windpower sector was dismissed as “hot air” by political opponents yesterday. It follows the release of figures that show Scottish Government investment in offshore wind technologies has fallen since the Nationalists came to power in 2007. A study by Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Renewables, published yesterday, estimates that offshore windfarms have the potential to generate 48,000 jobs and £7.1billion in investment over the next decade. Without proper support and investment the potential could be wasted, with as few as 1,000 jobs created, however. Click here for full story

The schedule for the UK's nuclear reactor building programme has slipped behind already, the safety regulator has admitted, reinforcing concerns that the first reactor will not be built on time. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said it would probably have to issue an "interim" decision on the safety of the two new proposed reactor designs next June, the deadline for its assessment programme. The regulator expects significant chunks of extra work will remain before it can finally approve or reject the designs, but did not say how long this would take. Click here for full story

Norway’s Oil and Energy Minister Terje Riis-Johansen and UK Energy Minister Charles Hendry MP have signed a deal in Stavanger to secure Britain a safe gas supply, as well as develop offshore wind power. In yesterday’s joint statement issued at the 2010 ONS Conference and Exhibition in Stavanger, both Ministers also agreed to help the wind industry to develop offshore North Sea wind energy projects, as well as following work by Norway’s Statnett and the UK’s National Grid on connecting the two countries’ power supplies. Additionally, the deal, which includes an agreement to work on Carbon Capture and Storage, means Norway and the UK will “work together to encourage uptake of renewables and access to green energy in developing countries, including through REEEP and IRENA.” Click here for full story

Joint ministerial statement on climate change and energy security signed on the occasion of the 2010 ONS Conference and Exhibition, recognising the historical significance and important on-going role of offshore North Sea oil and gas in our bilateral trade relationship; and identifying the growing potential for North Sea marine renewable energy projects to bring new investment and green job opportunities and to strengthen energy security in the region. Click here for full story

The White House said yesterday that the US is on track to double its renewable energy generating capacity – as well as its renewable energy manufacturing capacity – by 2012. Releasing a new report summing up progress under the Recovery Act, Vice President Joe Biden predicted that the cost of solar power would be cut in half by 2015, putting it “on par” with the cost of retail electricity from the grid. Click here for full story

The [Japanese] government plans to build an offshore power-generation plant in fiscal 2012 to harness oceanic energy, with commercialization scheduled for as early as fiscal 2016, a government official said Wednesday. According to a plan laid out by the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, the plant--a joint venture with the industrial and academic sectors--will use oceanic energy such as wave power and marine currents to generate electricity. Early testing for the envisioned plant is scheduled for fiscal 2011. Click here for full story

A major Chinese generator manufacturer is in Northern Ireland to explore investment opportunities which could create over 600 jobs in the renewable energy sector. XEMC (Xiangtan Electrical Manufacturing Corporation), whose visit to the province is its first to the UK, said it was considering locating its European wind turbine assembly plant and blade factory in Northern Ireland. Click here for full story

Energy regulator Ofgem has published the total Renewables Obligation (RO) on electricity suppliers across the UK for the 2009/10 financial year, which stands at more than 30 million Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs). The RO places an obligation on electricity suppliers to source an increasing portion of the electricity they supply from renewable sources. To meet their obligation, they have to present a certain number of ROCs to Ofgem or pay into a buyout fund before September 1 each year. Click here for full story

Utilities building new nuclear power plants in the U.K. may have to spend as much as 6 billion pounds ($9.3 billion) on each plant, according to Charles Hendry, the country’s minister of state for energy. “Nuclear without subsidies will be part of the energy mix going forward,” Hendry said, speaking in an interview in Stavanger, Norway. “A new nuclear plant we would expect to be about 6 billion pounds, so at this stage we have expressions of interest to build eight to 10 in the next 20 years.”
Click here for full story

Statoil will look to invest more in renewable energy in the coming years, the company's chief executive officer has said. Helge Lund told reporters that the oil and gas producer is committed to putting funds into renewables but the industry must prove that new energy sources are profitable. Mr Lund is quoted by Bloomberg as saying: "This business has to be subjected to the same profitability criteria as the rest of our operations. Over time, the investments in renewable have to be able to compete with investments we have in other areas." Click here for full story

A record 2,200 U.K. households have installed solar panels this month, the Financial Times reported, citing the energy regulator Ofgem. That compares with 1,700 last month and 1,400 in June, the newspaper said. Click here for full story

Photographer Toby Smith talks about his pictures documenting hydroelectric generation in Scotland, where man-made dams and turbine halls are absorbed into stunning natural landscapes. The Renewables Project is showing at theprintspace gallery in Shoreditch, London, until 1 September 2010, before moving to Toronto's Bau-Xi gallery from 18 September to 10 October. [slide show with audio] Click here for full story

British Gas has become the latest energy giant to try to break into the booming market for domestic renewable energy technologies, unveiling a new service that will allow households to install solar panels at no up-front cost. Following the launch of the UK's feed-in tariff incentive scheme in April, many energy companies and specialist renewable energy firms have launched new financing and installation schemes designed to help households deploy rooftop solar panels. Click here for full story

The complexity of harvesting solar power from the Sahara desert and transporting it to Europe means it is not a practical solution for meeting 2020 targets, it has been claimed. German physicist Gerhard Knies said that a solution to the continent's energy needs could be the development of a large solar farm in the Sahara Desert and the laying cables under the Mediterranean to feed the power generated into the European energy grid, the Wall Street Journal reports. Click here for full story

Plans for a wind turbine in Oxford have been put on hold because of the risk it could interfere with nearby RAF radars. Partnerships for Renewables (PfR) said it would not pursue the Cutteslowe Park site proposal after discussions with the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Studies are continuing at a second site at Oxford Road near Horspath. The tip of the finished turbine would be as tall as the London Eye. The MoD said it would not object to a planning application without due reason. Click here for full story

An innovative business specialising in the design and manufacture of power electronics and electrical equipment has won over £6m in funding to look at charging electric cars via solar power. Turbo Power Systems (TPS), which employs 85 people at its power electronics division in Gateshead and has 30 staff at its electric motors site at Heathrow, has received a raft of research and development (R&D) investment. Click here for full story

The Prince of Wales has won permission to install solar panels on the roof of Clarence House in an attempt to make his 180-year-old London residence “carbon negative”. The installation of the 32 panels on the building’s south-east roof is expected to cost as much as £150,000, which will take 10 years to recoup in reduced energy bills. Experts have been called in to ensure that the roof of the Grade II listed building is not damaged during the installation. Click here for full story

Renewable energy firm Farmgen has started building work on the first of two anaerobic digestion tanks for its Carr Farm facility near Preston which is the first project to be developed under its plan to expand the UK's on-farm AD capacity. The plant at Wharton in Lancashire is designed to be the ‘spearhead' of the Lancashire-based company's investment plans, which include proposals for plants across Lancashire, Cumbria and Staffordshire. Click here for full story

South Korean ship building giant Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering has announced that it is aiming to generate a third of its sales from wind power by 2020 as global demand for alternative energy continues to climb. According to Bloomberg reports, the company is looking to diversify its revenue stream and generate sales of up to $7.5bn a year from its emerging wind energy operations by 2020….. The company is planning to invest $70m in its wind business with the aim of being the world's third-largest wind power equipment maker by 2020 and cornering 15 per cent of global market share. Click here for full story

A Coast Guard station in eastern Maine is the first federal facility anywhere to use tidal power as an energy source, officials said Tuesday. Coast Guard Capt. James McPherson was joined by Gov. John Baldacci, U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud and other officials to celebrate the launch of a tidal power demonstration project at the station in Eastport. A 60-kilowatt tidal turbine launched in March by Ocean Renewable Power Co. began providing grid-compatible electricity to the station's 41-foot search-and-rescue boat last week. The underwater turbine is powered by water current flows, much the way wind turbines are spun by moving air. Click here for full story

France’s cuts to feed-in tariffs earned by ground-mounted solar photovoltaic installations may be duplicated elsewhere in Europe as solar- panel prices fall, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Rapidly declining costs associated with making solar PV panels are forcing governments to reduce the subsidies for clean energy shouldered by consumers when they pay for electricity from renewable sources, an analyst at London-based BNEF said. Click here for full story

Finavera Renewables Inc. has signed a series of agreements for the co-development of the 105 megawatt Cloosh Valley Wind Project in County Galway, Ireland. Finavera Renewables has signed an agreement with SSE Renewables (Ireland) Limited, the Republic of Ireland renewables development division of Scottish and Southern Energy, the UK energy company which previously acquired Irish wind energy company Airtricity, to sell a majority interest in its wholly owned Gate 3 grid connection from Eirgrid to SSE for EUR8.4 million. The EUR8.4 million consideration is payable in staged payments. Click here for full story

The UK has turned itself into a hot-bed of development activity for renewable energy technologies such as tidal, wind and solar power generation. With the coalition government maintaining the last government’s enthusiasm for the renewable energy sector, there is every chance that the UK could create one of the moist active green energy engineering sectors in Europe. Click here for full story

The clock is ticking on the future of the UK’s energy supply, and it’s ticking ever more insistently. With four years to go until the majority of the coal-fired power stations are switched off, the need for clarity over the proposed new fleet of nuclear power stations is getting stronger. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today (25 August) released the latest bulletin for its Generic Design Assessment (GDA) exercise to certify the two competing designs for the new generation of nuclear reactors: the EPR from French consortium Areva and the Westinghouse AP1000. It’s very much a ’steady as she goes’ report; the HSE is requesting more information from both groups, but does not anticipate any problems with meeting its deadline of next June to complete the GDA.
Click here for full story

India's Renewable Energy Minister, the Head of Climate Change & Environment for the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the EU's North Sea Grid Co-ordinator are due to address a major international conference focused on the multi-billion pound opportunities presented by renewable energy and other low carbon developments. Senior financiers, utilities chiefs and politicians will take part in the two-day Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference, to be opened by First Minister Alex Salmond on September 28 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Click here for full story

In March 2010 HR Wallingford acquired 100% equity of SeaZone Solutions Ltd. SeaZone are now on the move to new offices in Wallingford, South Oxfordshire, where HR Wallingford are based. ….. Combining the two companies establishes a truly world-class player in the provision of marine information to organisations involved in engineering, marine and coastal management, offshore energy and environmental protection. Click here for full story

More than 14,000 people have objected to plans for a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston in Ayrshire, it has been claimed. Ayrshire Power wants to build a plant with experimental carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at the site. But campaign groups say thousands oppose the scheme which they claim will harm wildlife and the environment. Scottish ministers will now make a final decision after the official consultation period closed on Friday. Click here for full story

A University of Sydney researcher has won recognition for her groundbreaking work into capturing carbon emissions, which has the potential to significantly impact climate change. Dr Deanna D'Alessandro, a postdoctoral fellow based in the School of Chemistry, is one of three female researchers to be awarded a L'Oréal Australia For Women in Science Fellowship. Click here for full story