Wood fuel pioneer plans AIM float
Entrepreneur Robin Parker is planning to bring biomass hopeful NET Energy Group to AIM by raising up to £20 million for the company, which he plans in five years to build into a ‘renewable power utility’ using wood pellets to generate 50 megawatts of power a year.
Click here for full storyThe building phase of a proposed new energy from waste facility could generate up to 200 new construction jobs on Teesside, it has been forecast. According to Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, the plant is intended to generate renewable power from non-hazardous business and household rubbish generated in the area.
Click here for full storyFor one heating company, focusing on renewable heating has increased business and prepared it for the continuing rise of the renewables sector. Denis Meehan, managing director of London-based Ecological Heating, has completed all his training with Logic and recognises renewables as a growth industry. “There is a lot of opportunity in this sector, especially with the launch next year of the Renewable Heat Incentive, Feed-in-Tariffs with solar PV, and the grants that are available.”
Click here for full storyAn inventor who has discovered an ingenious way of harnessing tidal energy has received more than £600,000 of investment to test a device that is hoped to one day provide power for millions of homes. Graeme Mackie, of Oceanflow Energy in North Shields, has received £560,000 funding from the Scottish Government and a £50,000 grant from One North East and an undisclosed sum from Norwegian investors. The money will be used to stage the biggest trial of the technology in a 35kw device at a coastal community off the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland.
Click here for full storyAdler and Allan recently hosted a ground-breaking biofuels discussion forum at the Fire Service College in Gloucestershire to highlight the issues arising from the potential introduction of bio-components to all elements of the fuel supply chain. The forum covered both national and European legislative changes and the recent and projected amendments to fuel specifications whilst exploring the impact that these changes have on fuel management and housekeeping requirements.
Click here for full story…… Tesco says it has implemented a very efficient ordering system to reduce waste, but what waste there is can be re-used, recycled, or turned into energy. Leftovers fit to eat are distributed to those in need by a charity called FareShare. Waitrose also works with FareShare, says a spokesman, and 115 branches generate renewable energy from food waste.
Click here for full storyIt is felt that a carbon tax would be a more cost-effective way of ensuring that Britain goes greener more quickly and more efficiently. The use of solar energy is thought to cost consumers £460 per tonne of carbon saved whereas insulating water heaters or installing programmable thermostats could cost only £10 per tonne.
Click here for full storyFrench energy giant GDF Suez has announced it is to take over UK-based International Power in a £1.4bn deal that will create the world's largest independent power generator and bolster GDF's presence in the expanding hydroelectric and renewable energy sector.
Click here for full storySiemens today announced that it has secured two giant wind turbine orders in the US and China that are estimated to be worth around $1.1bn (£700m). The company said it has inked a deal in Ontario to provide wind turbines with 600MW of capacity, and will also deliver 98 turbines with a combined capacity of 227MW to a planned wind farm in Oklahoma.
Click here for full storyCommunity buy-in and streamlined bureaucracy allow onshore and offshore windfarms to account for more than a fifth of electricity generated in Denmark.
Click here for full storyWith an electricity meter that goes backwards and a roof covered in green plants, Tony's Almond's house is no normal home. The house in Welwyn village, just north of London, is actually a green "superhome" - the 50th in a UK-wide network of demonstration eco-homes now open to the public.
Click here for full storyChris Huhne's announcement that local authorities will be allowed to sell electricity to the National Grid is, on the face of it, logical – councils have lots of buildings which could be used for hosting solar panels, for example, and they could make cuts in their CO2 emissions and electricity bills as a result. However, there is a problem.
Click here for full storyWith a grass roof on the petrol station and a vegetable patch beside the coach park, the concept for Britain's greenest motorway services may seem beset by contradictions. But planners have approved designs for the £35m Gloucester Gateway project which aims to reinvent the motorway pitstop for the carbon-conscious generation….. The car parks have been designed to allow for charging points for electric vehicles and the filling station can be adapted to bio-fuel pumps in the future.
Click here for full storyResearchers in Scotland are investigating methods for controlling carbon dioxide capture equipment on fossil power plants as their loads compensate for the variability of energy output from renewable sources. The 3.5-year project dubbed ‘COMCAT - Control, Optimisation and Measurement in CO2 Absorber Transients’ is receiving £100,000 from power generation service provider Doosan Babcock, the Energy Technology Partnership and Edinburgh University.
Click here for full storyA new hydrokinetic turbine for generating clean electricity from water sources is approaching its final testing phase, developers reported. The Lako Variable Turbine, or LakoVT hydrokinetic turbine, is intended to utilize run-of-river locations for renewable hydroelectric energy production. The company, Lako Power Limited, has already commissioned an initial feasibility study at a UK university, and the patent pending technology has been tested in water leading to the third and final stage, flume testing.
Click here for full storyLegislation that would ban wind farms from being built within two kilometres of residential buildings has been put forward by a hereditary peer. Green power companies have described Lord Reay's Wind Turbines (Minimum Distances from Residential Premises) Bill as being "without merit". Matt Partridge, development director of Cornwal Light and Power (CLP) , which owns the wind farm at Goonhilly in West Cornwall, said the bill would see the UK fall further behind in trying to meet its renewable energy targets.
Click here for full storyEvery window in Britain could potentially be turned into a solar power generator thanks to new technology developed by scientists. The new solar cell technology for harnessing green energy could revolutionise the power industry - and could be available within about five years. Norwegian company EnSol AS has created the unique patented film which they hope could be released commercially by 2016.
Click here for full storyThe CBI today (9 August) called on the Government to deliver key energy and planning reforms within six months, or risk undermining emissions targets and energy security. Launching a new report; No time to lose: Deciding Britain’s energy future,the UK’s leading business group warned that without clarity on Government policy, £150bn of private sector investment in low-carbon infrastructure would fail to materialise. This investment is essential for the UK to achieve a secure, sustainable and cost-effective energy mix that includes renewable sources, nuclear power and fossil fuels.
Click here for full storySolar panels could be fitted to the roof of every public building and wind turbines installed in hospital car parks under plans for local authorities to earn £100 million a year from generating green electricity. Previously councils were not allowed to make money from installing renewable energy schemes like hydro electric plants on rivers for fear of upsetting the electricity market. But as part of the Coalition's plans to become ‘the greenest government ever’, town halls will be able to profit from 'mini power stations' for the first time.
Click here for full storyMatthew R. Simmons, founder of the Ocean Energy Research Institute in Rockland, Maine, passed away suddenly on Sunday. He is survived by his wife, Ellen, and their five daughters. Mr. Simmons was also former chairman of Simmons & Company International. Details of the services are pending. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Ocean Energy Research Institute.
Click here for full storyHouseholders tempted by a rash of new "solar for free" offers could double their financial savings by paying for the panels themselves, experts have warned. The advice comes as installations of solar photovoltaic panels have exploded in the UK, with the number installed in four months in 2010 more than doubling on the whole of 2009 since a government financial incentive was launched in April.
Click here for full storyEurope's booming wind energy industry is being exploited by criminals, according to Kroll, the corporate security group. Criminals see an opportunity to tap into billions of euros' worth of European Union subsidies. Organised groups linked to the Italian Mafia are among those to have infiltrated the industry, Jason Wright, senior director of Kroll's consulting group, told The Times. While emphasising that the overwhelming majority of European wind projects were "entirely legitimate", he said that criminals were increasingly investing in the industry, both to qualify for subsidies and to launder profits from drug-running and other illegal activities.
Click here for full storyPlans for a multimillion-pound waste reprocessing plant on Teesside which will create 50 jobs have been unveiled. Power company Sembcorp UK and waste management firm Sita UK want to build the energy recovery facility at the Wilton International site in Redcar. The plant would reprocess non-hazardous business and household waste into renewable energy. The firms said the green development would also help reduce carbon emissions.
Click here for full storyBio-oil could become a more efficient source of renewable energy with a potential of replacing fossil fuels such as diesel, according to a £1.4 million project. The Bio-oil Refinery Project, part funded by the Research Council of Norway, aims to develop integrated bio-oil technology to transform biomass more efficiently into biofuels through fast pyrolysis.
Click here for full storyEnergy Secretary Chris Huhne has insisted the government is fully behind the opening of a new nuclear power station in eight years' time. He was responding to calls from the CBI business group to reassure investors that ministers were prepared to make a big push for nuclear power.
Click here for full storyChris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, has been the victim of a terrible misunderstanding, he claimed on BBC’s Today programme this morning (9 August). We all believe he’s anti-nuclear power – but he’s not. Dear me, no. His previous position, he insisted, had been “misunderstood” and he is actually in favour of nuclear being part of the UK’s energy mix because he had “no intention of the lights going out on my watch.”
Click here for full storyGreenpeace has launched a competition to design a visual message supporting the use of renewable energy sources and opposing nuclear power. Germany is on the brink of a crucial change in its energy policy and the winning design will be used ahead of the submission of the concept by the German government in September.
Click here for full storyLocal councils will be allowed to sell renewable electricity to the National Grid from today (9 August), with the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, urging them to position themselves at the forefront of a power revolution. Huhne has lifted a ban on the sale of surplus electricity to the grid by councils, which say the scheme could raise £100m a year for cash-strapped local authorities in England and Wales.
Click here for full storyKey energy and planning reforms must be delivered by the Government within six months or it risks missing targets for reducing carbon emissions and improving energy security, business leaders will warn today (9 August). Uncertainty about the planning regime is making investors wary of committing to new energy projects and possibly jeopardising supplies, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) says. Launching a report, No Time To Lose: Deciding Britain's Energy Future, the CBI says that without greater clarity, Britain risks missing out on as much as £150bn of private sector investment in low-carbon infrastructure.
Click here for full storyWork to lay 25km (15.5 miles) of cable off Cornwall for a £42m wave energy scheme has been halted. The process, delayed three times last week because of equipment failure and weather, finally started on Saturday. However, problems recurred with a flotation device, and part of the cable sank while being floated to land from a ship 2km (1.25 miles) offshore. The work has now been put on hold until at least Tuesday while divers attach new buoyancy units to the sunken cable.
Click here for full storyRural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead has announced the first contract has been awarded for developing small-scale hydro schemes on the national forest estate in the north-west Highlands. Green Highland Renewables Limited will carry out the projects, which cover Inverness-shire, Ross & Skye, Lochaber and the northern Highlands. It is the first of three lots that are open for small-scale hydro development.
Click here for full storyCapturing pollution from European power plants and using it to force oil from underground reservoirs may turn a profit for the first time as crude prices rise toward $100 a barrel. Gathering carbon dioxide and pumping it into deposits to extract more crude for so-called enhanced oil recovery became too costly for companies after Brent crude fell 73 percent between its record high in July 2008 and December that year, according to Thomas Greenwood, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The 115 percent rebound since then may make it profitable even without government subsidies that are designed to curb the emissions, he said.
Click here for full storyAlex Salmond's £10million green energy competition has attracted just four entries - and only one from Scotland. The Saltire Prize Challenge invited entrants to come up with a commercially viable wave or tidal energy scheme for Scottish waters. According to the First Minister, it is the world's biggest award for renewable energy projects. But opposition parties claim the competition is Salmond's "Millennium Dome".
Click here for full storyWith feed-in tariffs for generating your own electricity now a reality, what are the options for poultry producers, and do they stack up financially? Ken Randall reports.
Click here for full storyHonda is working with the European Youth Parliament to support its 64th International Session, taking place in Frankfurt, Germany between 30th July and 8th August. On Tuesday, a representative from Honda Motor Europe took part in an “expert hearing”, giving members of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) a chance to learn about Honda’s environmental technology and to discuss the subject of sustainable mobility. Members of TRAN were also offered the unique opportunity to ride in the FCX Clarity, Honda’s zero emission hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle.
Click here for full storyThe Greens are proposing that the federal government almost quadruple support for large-scale solar, geothermal and other forms of renewable energy by guaranteeing up to $5 billion of loans to new power stations. Greens deputy leader Christine Milne said the existing program for $1.75 billion of renewable energy grants was too small to spark the full use of Australia's potential resources of ''sun, wind, ocean, earth, and human ingenuity''.
Click here for full storyThe EU is set to contribute 45% of the construction costs for ITER, the new international fusion reactor being built in France, which some estimates now put at EURbillion, three times the 2006 cost estimate. But the EU’s financial problems may mean it can’t deliver all of it’s share of around EUR7.2 billion.
Click here for full storyWork is finally under way in Cornwall to lay 25km (15.5 miles) of cable as part of a £42m wave energy project. The cable laying element of the Wave Hub scheme is about a week behind schedule following delays caused by equipment problems and the weather. The first part of the operation will see the cable floated to land from a ship 2km (1.25 miles) offshore.
Click here for full storyEDF Energy will bank windfall profits of an estimated £350m a year at the expense of British customers, when the Government introduces a new green tax. The French-state owned utility would be the major beneficiary of Government plans to artificially raise the price of carbon allowances traded in the UK. The move is intended to make it more expensive to run fossil-fuel power stations than low-carbon nuclear plants.
Click here for full storyThe US Department of Energy yesterday awarded $1bn to a pioneering near-zero emission carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, in a move designed to help establish the US as a leading player in the emerging market for CCS technology. The project, dubbed FutureGen 2.0, replaces long-standing plans to build an experimental coal-fired power plant, which would capture and store carbon dioxide underground. Energy secretary Steven Chu confirmed the grant, announcing that the funding is expected to help create almost 2,000 jobs in the state of Illinois with work scheduled to start next spring.
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