Energy | News & Views

FiT solar power review ‘material risk to investors’

Signs that the government’s Feed-in Tariff (FiT) review is already beginning to affect investor confidence have emerged, with the Matrix Group suspending its Clean Energy VCTs [Venture Capital Trusts].

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced its review of the incentives last week, saying it was addressing the concerns surrounding large-scale solar farms.

Members of the industry then reacted angrily after it was revealed the research would cover any installation capable of generating 50KW of power, which are largely defined as medium scale. They claimed the review could undermine investor confidence in the technology.

The Matrix Group has now sent a letter to investors saying it is suspending fundraising for its Clean Energy VCTs, claiming “the future of the FIT scheme is now uncertain, which is a material risk to investors”.

It said its investments “were to be exclusively focused on relatively large scale rooftop solar PV” and it is contacting the DECC to receive clarification over whether “rooftop installations over 50KW would be treated differently from ground mounted” solar developments.

The timeframe available for completing projects given the early conclusion of the review was also said to be too small.

>>> Please read the full article here

Green energy ‘could unlock £12bn in cash for local councils’

Taken from: Low Carbon Economy

Renewable energy generation could potentially unlock £12 billion of cash for local councils over the next 20 years, a new report suggests.

Produced by the think-tank the New Local Government Network (NLGN), the study suggests tapping into the subsidies made available for green energy developments could hold part of the answer to the financial pressures being faced by local authorities.

In August, the coalition announced it would begin allowing councils that produced green power to sell it back to the national grid. Previously they had only been able to put it to local use.

At the time, energy secretary Chris Huhne said the initiative could open up £100 million extra income a year.

The Power and Money report by the NLGN said, despite their revenue generating potential, currently there are only 275 community projects accredited under the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme.

However, Luke Hildyard, the study’s author, said: “By carrying out the review of the FiT earlier than planned and delaying the renewable heat incentive, the government has increased the risk factor for those planning to roll-out micro-generation installations locally.”

He added the “uncertain environment” meant councils could be reluctant to embark on such schemes.

>>> Please read the full article here

Al Gore, Gary Neville or Cheryl Cole: who would you trust on climate change?

From the Guardian

We are often told that we are living in the “age of celebrity”. Yes, it’s an utterly depressing thought, but some believe we should exploit this collective obsession by putting to good use the mighty influence many celebrities wield. Charities have long latched on to the idea that for their message to be heard in the media mêlée it must have a “face” attached. And, of course, the media is heavily complicit in this “game”, too.

Environmental campaigners, like everyone else, have actively sought the support of celebrities to help not only broadcast their message, but also add an air of authority. The reason is simple: many people – whether they admit it or not – look up to celebrities.

Ahead of Climate Week – a series of events scheduled for March which “offer an annual renewal of our ambition and confidence to combat climate change” – the organisers have commissioned a survey to illustrate which celebrities would most likely get us to “act on climate change”. The results are intriguing and perplexing in equal measure.

Climate Week asked Millward Brown, a brand research consultancy, to utilise its “Cebra” (celebrity-brand) index. Twenty celebrities were chosen to represent a spread of people who were either a “well-known activist”, “environmentally inclined but not an activist”, or “not known for activism”. A “nationally representative sample of 500 adults aged 16-65″ was then asked how much influence each celebrity had on environmental issues. They were also asked to allocate a score to each celebrity using the measures of “familiarity”, “affinity”, “media attention”, “role model” and “talent”. And here, in order of influence, are the results:

1) Al Gore
2) Bill Gates
3) Arnold Schwarzenegger
4) Boris Johnson
5) David Beckham
6) Ken Livingstone
7) Chris Martin
Cheryl Cole
9) Gwyneth Paltrow
10) Duncan Bannatyne
11) Phil Schofield
12) Robbie Williams
13) Fearne Cotton
14) Leonardo DiCaprio
15) Holly Willoughby
16) Colin Firth
17) Graham Norton
18) Sienna Miller
19) Paloma Faith
20) Gary Neville

>>> Please read the full article here

2011 “make or break” for electric cars

The next two years will be “make or break” for the electric vehicle market in the UK, one expert has claimed.

Dr Ben Lane, managing editor of nextgreencar.com, said from a “sales point of view” 2010 was not a good year for low carbon vehicles, however he believes now “a number of key elements are all coming into place”.

These elements were said to be manufacturers making high-quality models, advances in lithium battery technology allowing vehicles to travel further between charges and political support for electric cars. “2011 and 2012 will be make or break years and the signs at the moment are that it will be ‘make’,” Dr Lane said.

The comments come following the announcement of the nine models to be covered by the government’s Plug-In Car grant. Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV, the Peugeot iOn and the smart fourtwo electric drive will be the first vehicles eligible for the maximum £5,000 grant when it comes into force in January. The recently named European Car of the Year, the Nissan Leaf, will also be covered by the scheme.

>>> Please read the full article here

UK’s largest smart grid project unveiled

Homes and businesses in the north-east and Yorkshire are to benefit from the largest smart grid project ever to take place in the UK.

Some 14,000 homes are due to take part in the £54 million project, which will aim to assess the impact of electric cars, solar panels and other low carbon technologies on the electricity grid.   All homes taking part in the study will install smart meters, while 1,500 will use air or ground source heat pumps, 800 will install solar PV panels and 150 will drive electric cars.

The findings will then be applied to the whole of the UK using data from 160,000 smart meters. Solutions will then be trialled to see how the capabilities of the grid can be improved.  Durham, Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield are among the major cities participating in the project, which is being supported by CE Electric, British Gas, Durham Energy Institute and EA Technology.

Phil Bentley, managing director of British Gas, said: “It is vital that Britain makes the transition to a low carbon economy – and no single company has all the answers.”  Figures released from Ofgem recently, in relation to the Feed-in Tariffs, revealed that solar panels account for 97 percent of installations under the scheme

>>> Please read the full article here

TUC: Govt cuts could hamper green economy

The opportunity to create thousands of green jobs could be missed if the government cuts investment in the low carbon economy, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has claimed.

In a letter to Chancellor George Osborne, the TUC, Friends of the Earth and the Aldersgate Group warned that the market cannot be relied on to “drive the move to a low carbon economy”.

A reduction in government investment would also be a “huge blow” to the development of carbon capture and storage technologies, the document added.

Speaking at the TUC Alliances for Green Growth Conference, deputy general secretary Frances O’Grady said that green investment is “essential” to ensure the economic recovery of the UK.

“Cutting green funding in the spending review would not just risk economic recovery, it would also mean many lost opportunities to create green jobs, develop technologies that could reduce our carbon emissions, and save businesses and taxpayers billions of pounds,” she said.

Ms Grady also reiterated the needed for the Green Investment Bank to provide capital for green initiatives.

Mr Osborne will be announcing the comprehensive spending review, which lays out the government’s spending plans for the next four years, on Wednesday October 20th.

>>> Please read the full article here

Economic factors ‘driving energy-saving attitudes’

Economic factors rather than environmental concerns are influencing consumers’ attitudes to energy efficiency, new research suggests.

The latest Attitude Tracker from The Energy Saving Trust, released this week, found that two-thirds of people are more inclined to try and save energy now that economic times are tough.

Some 53 percent of those questioned agreed with the statement “I’m more interested in the money I would save from using less energy than in the effect it would have on climate change”.

More than three-quarters of people said that energy saving is now “becoming the expected way of thinking”.

Matt Hunt, spokesperson for renewable energy advice firm BritishEco.com, said that the firm is currently quite busy with requests from homeowners.

“There is still a desire from people to make their houses environmentally sound, especially if they are rewarded with fixed tariffs and things,” he explained.

However, the Attitude Tracker survey found a five percentage point drop in the number of people who claimed to be more interested in energy saving than they were a year ago, from 66 percent in 2009 to 61 percent this year.

>>> Please read the full article here

Scotland raises renewable energy target to 80%

First minister Alex Salmond has announced that he is raising Scotland’s renewable energy target by 30 percent. In 2007, the Scottish government set itself the aim of producing 50 percent of its energy from low carbon sources by the year 2010. This target has now been increased to 80 percent.

The government calculated that there does not need to be any significant change to policy, planning or the regulatory framework in the country to reach the new target. Mr Salmond said that, by 2020, it is possible that 60,000 jobs will have been created in the low carbon industries.

He added that Scotland already boasts “a quarter of Europe’s potential wind and tidal energy capacity and a tenth of its wave resource”.

“Given the scale of lease agreements now in place to develop offshore wind, wave and tidal projects over the next decade it is clear that we can well exceed the existing 50 percent target by 2020,” Mr Salmond said.

The target is far in excess of that from the UK government, which is aiming to generate just 15 percent of its energy from renewables by the end of the next decade.

>>> Please read the full article here

Smart meters ‘may not cut energy use’

Installing smart meters may not result in households saving energy, a study has suggested. Smart meters had been considered as one component in an infrastructure to help use energy more effectively, and cut bills and emissions. Research by a University of Oxford scientist found that the devices alone were unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in the demand for energy.

The findings appear in the journal Building Research and Information.

“A lot of us are using gas and electricity without realising we are using it,” explained author Sarah Darby from the university’s Environmental Change Institute (ECI).

“If you had a wood fire and went away for the weekend, then the fire would go out. However, if you leave the central heating or electrical appliances on when you go away, you may be none the wiser.”

However, she observed, there was still a lot of confusion of what a smart meter was, despite the devices being hailed as key in the effort to curb energy use in the UK.

“Essentially, a smart meter is a meter with communications technology. You can use that technology in different ways: it could turn your water heating on and off, according to the needs of the utilities, to fit in with load balancing.”

However, another paper in the Building Research and Information journal warned that the benefits of smart meters could become less effective over longer periods of time.

Dutch researchers questioned the findings of studies around the world because they were often only conducted for a relatively short-period of time – four months or less.

When the team from Delft University of Technology carried out a study that lasted for 15 months, they found that early energy savings were lost unless the features provided by smart meters became incorporated into consumer habits and routines.

The Decc/Ofgem consultation lasts until the end of September, and the government is planning to give the green light to the roll-out programme in mid-2012.

>>> Please read the full article here

Transporting energy from Sahara ‘not a practical solution’

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.

Mr Knies predicted that this could supply 15 percent of Europe’s energy by the year 2050.

However, a spokesperson for The Renewable Energy Centre.co.uk said that “the complexity of the land, costs and political frameworks which would surround the whole issue” mean that the project would not be able to contribute to the 20 percent emissions cut the European Union is seeking by the year 2020.

“The statement from Knies, although perhaps a true one, is also a substantial generalisation in terms of it being a solution,” she explained.

The spokesperson added that there would also be a question as to where the “financial burden” for such a project would lie.

>>> Please read the full article here