Renewables

The UK has risen to become the seventh most attractive destination in the world for renewables investment this year, with green energy finance picking up pace despite Brexit casting a shadow of uncertainty over the economy. While investment in other parts of the economy has stalled due to the ongoing lack of clarity over the UK’s future relationship with the EU, today’s latest assessment from consultancy EY indicates investor support for renewables is in fact increasing.

Business Green 19th Nov 2019 read more »

Edie 19th Nov 2019 read more »

Britain has overtaken Japan, which drops to eighth, while China remains top of the rankings and the US keeps second place in EY’s biannual renewable energy country attractiveness index (Recai). The report, which ranks 40 countries, said spending on green energy in the UK was “picking up pace” despite “uncertainty” brought about by Brexit.

Energy Voice 20th Nov 2019 read more »

Engie and Air Liquide join forces to develop green hydrogen. A cooperation agreement was signed by the French corporations to launch the HyGreen Provence project, which is expected to produce annually 1300 GWh of solar electricity and 10,440 tons of green hydrogen by 2027.

PV Magazine 18th Nov 2019 read more »

Richard Dixon: The UK Government’s policies have been a disaster for onshore wind and solar, but remarkably effective in reducing cost of offshore wind, writes Dr Richard Dixon. A general election used to be a vital opportunity for the environment movement but since 1999 the Scottish Parliament has controlled most of the things that make a difference on the environment and climate change, from air quality standards and transport policy to agricultural subsidies and energy efficiency in buildings. So is there much left to get excited about? Brexit is, of course, the main issue that will determine how many people cast their vote. Leaving the EU is likely to be very bad for the environment as we face the threat of the UK Government trying to weaken environmental and consumer protections to do dodgy trade deals with the US, and we lose the opportunity to go the European courts to challenge government decisions with major negative impacts on the environment. The other big area that affects us all is energy policy including the future of North Sea oil and gas. In Scotland, we have our own renewables and energy efficiency targets, and we are due a revised energy strategy next year, but a great deal of energy policy is controlled by the UK Government, including the crucial rules of the energy market, which determines the viability of different generating technologies. This has been disastrous in recent years for onshore wind and solar energy but remarkably effective in reducing the cost of offshore wind. So much so that it is now much cheaper than new nuclear power.

Scotsman 18th Nov 2019 read more »

The union fears that firms and workers in the Scottish renewables sector are missing out. More action is needed to end renewables market “chaos” which is increasingly placing Scotland’s green energy revolution in foreign hands, according to Unite trade union. Unite, one of the country’s biggest unions, says steps must be taken to regain control of the sector. The call comes after the Scottish Government’s economic and community development agency, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), moved three years ago to offload the taxpayer’s 19 per cent stake in Argyll firm Wind Towers (Scotland) – which owns the UK’s only facility for manufacturing wind towers – to South Korean-based CS Wind, which took over operations. CS Wind papers seen by The Herald also show that a £461,920 taxpayerfunded loan from HIE was also waived. The base at Machrihanish now faces the loss of 73 of its 94 staff three years after the sale despite pre-tax profits of £7.1 million last year. The Scottish Government is currently aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75% over the next 10 years as Scotland bids to become “net-zero” by 2045. Unite’s Scottish secretary, Pat Rafferty, says urgent action is needed because a “smorgasbord” of multinational interests is now “calling the shots” in the sector in Scotland. The union’s regional industrial officer, Charlie McDonald, said: “The workforce in Scotland is ideally placed to carry out the work that needs done… yet Scottish workers continually lose out to foreign firms time and again.” “We welcome any opportunity to work with the Government and employers to avoid job losses in the renewables sector, but the talking must result in actions that save jobs.”

Herald 19th Nov 2019 read more »

Scotland is on course to meet the equivalent of 100 per cent of our electricity needs from clean energy sources. Renewable sources provided 74.6% of gross electricity consumption in 2018. These welcome figures would have you believe that there is a successful and unproblematic transition to the green energy revolution but don’t be deceived because our renewables energy sector is in chaos. Unite fully supports a “just transition” from fossil fuels to clean energy but this has to be on the basis that there are green energy jobs to transition to or we are in danger of repeating the misery of de-industrialisation endured in the 1980s. Claims that developing a low-carbon economy would create upwards of 130,000 jobs have turned out to be fanciful. Instead, taxpayers are subsidising foreign firms to produce green energy which is supplied to Scottish homes at inflated prices and the work is being done thousands of miles away and shipped back to Scotland on carbon-emitting container ships. The next large-scale project to be announced at any moment by EDF, the French state-owned energy company, is the £2 billion Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore windfarm off the coast of Fife. The windfarm is projected to generate enough electricity to power a city the size of Edinburgh. It should be a fantastic opportunity to get the BiFab yards at Methil and Burntisland in Fife, and also in Arnish, back to work. However, it has been widely reported that EDF is on the brink of awarding the contract for constructing the jackets to the Italian industrial giant Saipem.

Herald 19th Nov 2019 read more »

The global climate crisis could lead to more renewable electricity being generated by spurring faster wind speeds for the world’s growing number of windfarms, according to research. Scientists have discovered that the world’s shifting ocean circulation patterns may have triggered a rapid increase in wind speeds over the last 10 years.

Guardian 18th Nov 2019 read more »

BBC 18th Nov 2019 read more »

Times 19th Nov 2019 read more »

The coalition of businesses leading a UK-wide trial of biomethane fuels for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), including Asda and Kuehne + Nagel, has revealed that the scheme mitigated the emission of 1,400 tonnes of CO2e over a two-year period.

Edie 18th Nov 2019 read more »

UK is the ‘go-to destination’ around the world for expertise on designing, building, and further developing wind, wave, and tidal energy projects, RenewableUK claims. The UK’s wind, wave, and tidal energy sector exports are worth £525m to the economy each year, with British-based companies now exporting their products and services to 37 countries across six continents, according to a new RenewableUK report released today. The trade body said 47 UK onshore wind, offshore wind, wave and tidal energy companies have signed a total of 465 contracts in the past year, covering hundreds of projects around the world in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and North and South America. Almost 70 per cent of all contracts were in the offshore wind sector alone, which secured deals in 15 countries across five continents, the report states, with Germany the most popular export market followed by Taiwan, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the US.

Business Green 18th Nov 2019 read more »

Energy Voice 18th Nov 2019 read more »

Onshore wind remains pivotal to a net zero future – we cannot afford to forget about it, writes Kevin Cannon, managing associate at law firm Addleshaw Goddard. Scotland generated almost twice the entire country’s domestic power requirements in the first half of this year from wind, powering homes from the Outer Hebrides right through to the south of England, something that has been achieved in just over a decade. Total installed capacity of renewable electricity in Scotland has grown from 3,353 megawatts in 2008 to 11,036 MW last year, with onshore wind currently accounting for 71 per cent of total capacity. Public backing for onshore wind has reached an all-time high – 79 per cent according to new figures from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy – and industry is slowly starting to take note. Last year, Scottish Power became the first major UK energy firm to drop fossil fuels completely worth £702 million. Scotland’s current capacity, paired with growing public demand, has the power to shape the future of electricity generation but there remain challenges to the sector’s continued expansion. The fact that the other Big Six companies haven’t yet followed suit may indicate a few of these challenges, with a dip in the number of planning applications to create further wind power sites stunting the sector’s growth, and the cost to produce and receive renewable electricity, impacting both industry and consumers. The withdrawal of UK government support for onshore wind introduced in 2015 has led to an alarming 94 per cent drop in onshore wind farm planning applications, with developers rightly hesitant to pass increased costs through the supply chain, ending with consumers. The number of jobs in renewable energy dropping by a third in the last year. Thankfully, there are a number of schemes in place to ensure Scotland doesn’t fall behind in the production of renewable energy, including the Scottish Government launching a £3 billion Green Investment Portfolio to bring to market low-carbon projects over the next three years and the UK government’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, which protects consumers from volatile wholesale prices, thus incentivising developers. The recent CfD Allocation Round 3 results saw contracts awarded to six Scottish wind farms, four of which are onshore. The first subsidy-free onshore wind farm also broke ground earlier this month in Dumfries and Galloway, which will ensure zero-carbon electricity at a reduced cost for consumers, further signalling that developers can overcome the hurdle of funding subsidy-free schemes, in this case, offsetting costs by a community share offer. The reality of subsidy-free wind marks a significant step toward realising net zero carbon emissions targets. That said, to encourage development at the scale that is required, there must be improved access to CfDs for onshore wind farms which remain largely excluded from auction frameworks as an “established technology”.

Scotsman 18th Nov 2019 read more »