Industry headlines

Generating Britain's electricity from offshore wind farms is likely to be at least twice as expensive as nuclear power, according to a new report by engineering consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff. Britain plans to build up over 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power capacity by 2020 and wants to build new nuclear power plants to replace old reactors. Click here for full story

The profile of science in the UK must be raised to help diversify the economy and boost growth, a report endorsed by the Conservatives has urged. The report's author, entrepreneur Sir James Dyson, called for more support for science teachers and tax breaks for high-tech firms to conduct research. Click here for full story

Leaders from ten global companies gathered in London today to announce publicly the formation of the "Friends of the Supergrid" (FOSG) which has been set up to progress policy towards the construction of a pan-European Offshore Supergrid. Through the combination of their respective areas of expertise, the FOSG members have unique insight into the policies needed to create the Supergrid and have the capability to deliver it in practice. The FOSG is the only representative body that combines companies in sectors that will deliver the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) infrastructure and related technology, together with companies that will develop, install, own and operate that infrastructure. It brings together the organisations that will design the physical equipment, with those who will build the structures at sea. The founding members include 3E, AREVA T&D, DEME Blue Energy, Elia, Hochtief Construction AG, Mainstream Renewable Power, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Prysmian Cables & Systems, Siemens and Visser & Smit Marine Contracting.
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A new study on the feasibility of an undersea electricity grid in the Irish Sea, which would link off-shore renewable energy farms in Ireland and the UK, has been approved by Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan. The project, which will examine the potential to connect wind, wave and tidal-energy sites by a new grid, is being supported by governments in the Republic, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Dubbed the Isles project – for Irish Scottish Links on Energy Study – it is EU Commission-funded. Click here for full story

A new company has formed to partner with landowners, commercial property owners and managers, to build, own and operate wind and solar power generating assets on sites across the UK. Vigor Renewables has launched to take advantage of the new feed-in tariffs (FiT), which come into effect at the beginning of next month. Also known as the Clean Energy Cashback scheme, FiT guarantees an inflation-linked income for on-site renewable energy projects under five megawatts in size for a period of up to 25 years. Click here for full story

Steven Harris from the Energy Saving Trust describes what he believes is the first step towards the nationwide take-up of domestic energy generation. Gordon Brown is doing it, the Tories are tweeting about it and, if the hype is to be believed, over the next few years we will all be investing massive amounts of money to lavish our homes with it. Click here for full story

A mobile anaerobic digestion rig will be tested on a range of industrial effluents at a variety of food and drink manufacturing premises in Britain over the next few months. The mobile Clearfleau rig will first be moved to the site of an unnamed Somerset cheese maker for trials on whey during January and February before moving on to another site.Clearfleau director Richard Gueterbock said: “During 2010 Clearfleau is planning to undertake further on-site trials with a range of industrial effluents. These will include dairy products, effluent from food and drink processing plus brewery and distillery waste.” Click here for full story

An ambitious plan for an electricity "super-grid" in the North Sea will be launched in London today (8 March) by a group of 10 leading European companies. Such a super-grid connecting the UK, Germany and Norway is expected to cost €34bn (£30.5bn). Click here for full story

Red tape is strangling a scheme designed to encourage millions of families to generate their own green electricity with home-mounted solar panels, wind turbines and heat pumps, according to the UK’s biggest manufacturer of central heating equipment. Starting next month, Britain’s 26 million households will be able to collect a fixed fee of up to 41p a kilowatt hour for electricity they generate from roof-mounted solar panels and sell on to the grid. Up to 34½p a kilowatt hour is available for home-mounted windmills. Click here for full story

The Environment Agency will later today release a new map designed to show areas in England and Wales where viable hydropower resources are going untapped. The hydropower opportunities and environmental sensitivities map forms part of a major new report from the agency, which found close to 26,000 locations where a hydropower turbine could generate renewable electricity. Click here for full story

The British building industry wants to ease green home standards as the public balk at the 20 percent or higher costs of low-carbon homes, exhibitors told a major London conference. Low carbon homes are more airtight than their conventional counterparts, with better insulation, and rely on renewable sources of power generation such as roof-top solar panels or community-scale plants converting food and other waste into energy. Click here for full story

Forty-two million energy-saving lightbulbs were sent out by utilities companies in the three months before Christmas under the government's £3bn energy-efficiency scheme, even though many are unlikely to be used. Since the scheme began less than two years ago, 224m bulbs have been distributed – almost 10 for each household. According to a survey by the Energy Saving Trust last year, the average home had six unused bulbs lying in drawers. Click here for full story

A national wind energy academy is to be established in Donegal as part of the county’s efforts to market itself as the number one area in the country for wind energy. Donegal is a net exporter of wind energy to the rest of the country, exporting 160mw of the 240mw it produces. It aims to provide 350mw to 500mw of wind energy by 2020. Click here for full story

Some cows could swap the field for the cattle shed in the future so farmers can collect the methane they produce. A new report claims greenhouse gases produced by agriculture could be cut dramatically if farmers altered the way they farmed. It says emissions will fall if woodland is expanded and energy, fertilisers and manure are used more efficiently. Click here for full story

……..Instead of putting its wind turbines in the countryside, Airvolution will target the grottiest bits of Britain. The firm has struck a partnership with Savills, the estate agency, to find suitable industrial sites. “Our ideal site is not idyllic pastureland but a place that has already been blighted,” said Kevin McNamara, chairman of Airvolution. Size will also help. They plan to keep each farm under 10MW, which would mean no more than four wind turbines. In theory, that should make approval easier. Click here for full story

Rivers could be harnessed to generate electricity for almost a million homes with the building of up to 26,000 controversial hydropower turbines around the country, a report will say tomorrow (8 March). The Environment Agency will reveal that the water wheels have the potential to generate enough electricity to power 850,000 homes – more than three per cent of the UK's residential electricity demand. A study commissioned by the Government body has concluded that there is vast untapped potential across the England and Wales for generating energy from rivers. Click here for full story

Climate scientists have delivered a powerful riposte to their sceptical critics with a study that strengthens the case for saying global warming is largely the result of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. The researchers found that no other possible natural phenomenon, such as volcanic eruptions or variations in the activity of the Sun, could explain the significant warming of the planet over the past half century as recorded on every continent including Antarctica. Click here for full story

Neither of the main parties seems to have any idea how we are to meet the looming shortfall in power. As the election approaches, two issues should transcend all others. One, obviously, is what the parties propose to do about the £178 billion deficit in government spending. But another, equally terrifying – as this column has warned for years – is what is to be done to avert the fast-looming crisis in Britain’s electricity supplies. With 40 per cent of our generating capacity due to disappear in the next few years, as 14 of our major nuclear and coal-fired power stations are forced to close, how do the parties propose to keep Britain’s lights on and our computer-dependent economy functioning? Click here for full story

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband threw down the gauntlet to Conservative leader David Cameron, challenging him to clarify his party's position on key climate change policies. In a precursor to the central role environmental issues are likely to play at the forthcoming election, Miliband issued an open letter to Cameron calling on him to spell out his party's stance on the UK's renewable energy strategy, and invited interested parties to add their signatures to the online document. Click here for full story

Environmental campaigners have accused Welsh Secretary Peter Hain of acting irresponsibly by backing the proposed Severn Barrage ahead of the completion of a feasibility study. Mr Hain has publicly supported the multi-billion pounds project and some Labour MPs are lobbying for a commitment to the scheme to be included in Labour’s general election manifesto. Click here for full story

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has said thousands of Scottish engineering jobs can be created by investing in "clean energy". The MP was speaking ahead of a visit to the Pelamis Wave Power unit in Leith, where he met the company's chief technical officer Richard Yemm. Click here for full story

Monbiot has got it wrong: feed-in tariffs are not a waste of money. They work – just look at the German renewables industry ...... Thank goodness Jeremy Leggett stepped in to correct some of the inaccuracies in George Monbiot's piece. The errors, however, are even more extensive than Jeremy highlighted. It isn't often that Monbiot manages to get the politics, the details and the practicalities of an argument all wrong at the same time. He managed to do so, however, in his attack on the government's feed-in tariffs proposals for renewable energy. Click here for full story

The debate on the UK’s new Feed-In Tariff (FiT) has been quite lively, with the Guardian’s George Monbiot arguing that, with solar PV being still very expensive, the way the FiT provided the support needed was economically regressive. It does look that way at first glance - those that could afford to invest say £10,000 in PV might get £1000 p.a. back for the electricity they generated and used, paid for by all the other consumers, who would be charged extra via their electricity bills. It’s been suggested that this would lead to a £11p.a. surcharge on bills by 2020. However, in a rebuttal to Monbiot’s analysis, Jeremy Leggett from Solar Century said ‘the average household levy in 2013, when tariff rates are all up for review, is likely to be less than £3,’ and he added ‘this is far less than the average saving from the government’s various domestic energy efficiency measures over the same period. So there is no net subsidy. The levy is not “regressive” at all’. Click here for full story

Homebuyers in the UK have "embraced" energy efficient technology in homes, according to research from Pilkington energiKare. The company's MOT Your Home survey revealed that 76 per cent of buyers now rate energy efficiency as a major factor in choosing their new home. TV presenter and architect, George Clarke, commented: "It's reassuring to know that more and more people are taking their home and their carbon footprint seriously, after all our homes are the biggest investments we are ever likely to make. What's important is that people are taking steps to change and recognising the added value greener living brings, such as cost savings and increasing the saleability of homes." Click here for full story

Scotland’s much-vaunted network of wind turbines was barely producing enough electricity to boil 1,000 kettles at times this week. On occasions the total output was a meagre 3MW (megawatts) – the equivalent of a single turbine working at normal speed. The reason was simply a lack of wind, due to the massive area of high pressure sitting over much of Britain for the past few weeks. Click here for full story

Toyota and the Clean Energy Partnership announced today (5 March) that Toyota has become a new international auto partner for the organisation. The move will add further impetus to CEP’s programme of advancing sustainable mobility through the development of hydrogen filling stations and a fuel supply network in Germany. Click here for full story

As the last quoted ports group standing, it was only a matter of time before Forth Ports got a bid approach. But it's not hard to see why £13.40 a share fails to float Charles Hammond's boat. Forth's chief executive has just sailed round the institutions explaining the value locked up in the company's freehold estate – more than 1,000 acres in Scotland (plus 4,500 more on the seabed) and 725 in Tilbury. Although Forth's property development plans are on hold, delayed by the sinking market, Hammond's latest idea is to use some land to build four renewable energy plants, generating 500MW of power. Click here for full story

The cottages around Askam wind farm occupy the perfect spot, looking out to sea over to the isle of Man and inland to the Lake District. The only problem is the noise. The seven turbines have sparked the most complaints about wind farms in the country. Residents complain of a noise like someone is "mixing cement in the sky" or a "clog is stuck in the tumble dryer" and they are not the only ones. New figures reveal that at least one in six wind farms have had complaints about noise causing a lack of sleep or just been "dreadfully irritating". Click here for full story

An engineering company is looking to significantly boost its workforce to take advantage of the opportunities that arise from the North-East’s drive to become a renewable energy hub. ALM Products, of Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, has invested £500,000 in equipment to take advantage of supplier opportunities in the electric vehicles and renewable energy sectors, as well as more traditional industries such as oil and gas. Click here for full story

Silicon wafer recycling venture Pure Wafer has developed a new manufacturing process which converts scrap material it produces into solar cells. The technology was developed by the Alternative Investment Market-listed firm with Swansea University and means that the material from its silicon wafer reclaim line can be converted into high-efficiency single crystal photovoltaic cells. Click here for full story

Concern is growing over potential delays to the feed-in tariff intended to kickstart a domestic green power revolution. Click here for full story

New guidelines published today (5 March) will help regional authorities assess the potential for renewable and low-carbon energy in their area. The guidelines, published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) today will help English regions set themselves ambitious renewable targets in their new Regional Strategies, in line with the UK's overall target for 15% renewable energy by 2020. The document provides regional authorities with guidance on how to calculate the potential their areas have for renewables. This might include what the wind speeds are in different areas, how many houses there are with roof space - and what constraints they should then apply. The guidance provides detail on how to assess potential for large and small scale onshore wind, biomass, hydro power and solar energy. Click here for full story

The renewable power industry has warned that it needs £500m from the government over the next two years if it is to help ministers meet energy and climate change targets. More than half of the cash is for offshore wind power generation, while another part is required if wave and tidal power is to move from experimental to commercial application, the industry said in a budget submission out tomorrow (5 March). The call for a large injection of public cash was made by RenewableUK, the lobby group previously known as the British Wind Energy Association, in a presentation to the energy minister, David Kidney.
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Wave and tidal energy may provide 2,000 megawatts of power to the U.K. by 2020, enough for about 1.4 million homes, Energy and Climate-Change Minister David Kidney said. “We have faith in these industries proving themselves and being a big contributor to fighting climate change,” the U.K. minister said today (4 March) in London. The estimate is more than 800 times larger than the current 2.4-megawatt generating capacity of the industries, made up mainly of small companies dependent on venture capital and grants to test their technologies.
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Wave and tidal energy in England and Wales today received a boost as plans for the first full Strategic Environmental Assessment for wave and tidal energy were outlined. The SEA - which will also pave the way for storage of carbon dioxide, and further offshore wind and oil and gas activities - will ensure that environmental concerns are addressed as the UK’s offshore energy resources are developed further. Click here for full story

Four ways of using the River Mersey to power the region’s homes have been selected. A feasibility study is currently looking at how to deliver the maximum affordable energy from the tidal resources in the Mersey estuary. And four technologies have been shortlisted as part of the Mersey Tidal Power project. The first two involve building barrages and using turbines to generate power – one with smaller turbines than the other. The other two involve building tidal fences. Click here for full story

Britain is to spend £26 million building a wind farm to power the entire Cape Verde, the isolated archipelago off the west coast of Africa. With a population of 500,000 stretched over a 1,500 square mile chain of islands, Cape Verde needs a dramatic expansion of its electricity network to support a rapidly expanding tourism industry. Cape Verde, which is hurricane blighted, has secured British funding for the construction of 40 wind turbines capable of generating 40 megawatts of electricity. Click here for full story

Highland Council leader Dr Michael Foxley threatened last night to play hardball to secure Crown Estate Commission support for his demand for tens of millions of pounds in revenue from offshore renewables. He spoke out after Crown Estate Commission chief executive Roger Bright flatly rejected Dr Foxley’s proposal – part of continuing talks on a memorandum of understanding between local authorities and the commission.
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Two British clean technology firms have combined forces to unveil a blueprint for the eco schools of the future. PassivSystems is to work with ModCell on the creation of the ModCell Renewable Schools across the UK, targeting the Government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. The schools will be built using ModCell’s renewable, carbon capturing materials that lower heating costs by up to 85 per cent, whilst any energy used on lighting, computers and other technology will be reduced even further using the PassivEnergy energy management system. The first school is scheduled for completion in September 2010 and will be an exemplar of how Zero Carbon Schools will be delivered. Click here for full story

RenewableUK has today (March 4) called on the government to commit more public money to commercialise wave and tidal and to offer support for port "super-hubs" to service the offshore wind industry as part of this year's Budget. Click here for full story