Wednesday 19th March 2014

No special treatment for solo Scotland

England and Wales would not subsidise Scotland's renewables sector if the country votes for independence in September, energy secretary Ed Davey has warned.

Davey told the Scottish Renewables annual conference in Edinburgh yesterday that an independent Scotland would have to agree a new deal with the UK government on energy exports, in competition with countries from across Europe.

“The Scottish Government can assert that UK consumers would continue to subsidise the costs of Scottish renewables and buy Scottish electricity to meet renewables targets no matter what the cost. But this goes against all commercial logic,” he said.

Davey added that Scotland alone would have to pay to meet the Scottish government’s ambition of generating 100% of domestic electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

German wind workers in protest walkout

Workers and management at 15 wind companies in north Germany are set to stage a walkout later this morning over planned energy reforms.

The union IG Metall and the German Wind Energy Association are organising the protest against the government’s proposed changes to the Renewable Energy Sources Act, which it claims threaten thousands of jobs and Germany’s energy transition.

Workers from companies including Enercon, Senvion, Siemens and Vestas are expected to take part in the protest.

Longyuan hails wind despite profit drop

China Longyuan Power Group has reported a strong performance by its wind operations in 2013, despite a 21% drop in overall profits to ¥2.05bn (£199m).

The company, which is China’s largest wind developer, said its wind operations accounted for over half (54%) of sales in 2013, up from 46% in 2012. It completed 28 wind projects totalling 1.3GW last year, which took its total installed capacity to 14GW.

It attributed its loss to an impairment on two biomass projects.

DECC awards £4m to cut offshore costs

The UK government’s Department for Energy and Climate Change has given grants totalling £4m to four firms to help lower the cost of generating offshore wind energy.

Energy and climate minister Greg Barker yesterday announced that 2-B Energy has been awarded £2.8m to develop a two-bladed turbine. Manchester firm HVPD and Alstom were awarded £900k, SgurrControl got £667k, and Ocean Resource got £216k.

DECC is seeking to reduce the cost of generating offshore energy from around £135/MWh to less than £100/MWh by 2020.

Falck completes £154m stake sale

Falck Renewables has concluded the £154m sale of minority stakes in six UK wind farms, totalling 273MW, to a fund managed by Danish pension fund PensionDanmark.

The Italy-headquartered company has sold 49% stakes in five Scottish projects - Ben Aketil (27.6MW), Boyndie (16.7MW), Earlsburn (37.5MW), Kilbraur (67.5MW), and Millennium (65MW) - and Welsh scheme Cefn Croes (58.5MW) to CII HoldCo Ltd.

CII HoldCo is a subsidiary of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which is funded by PensionDanmark.

No special treatment for solo Scotland

England and Wales would not subsidise Scotland's renewables sector if the country votes for independence in September, energy secretary Ed Davey has warned.

Davey told the Scottish Renewables annual conference in Edinburgh yesterday that an independent Scotland would have to agree a new deal with the UK government on energy exports, in competition with countries from across Europe.

“The Scottish Government can assert that UK consumers would continue to subsidise the costs of Scottish renewables and buy Scottish electricity to meet renewables targets no matter what the cost. But this goes against all commercial logic,” he said.

Davey added that Scotland alone would have to pay to meet the Scottish government’s ambition of generating 100% of domestic electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

German wind workers in protest walkout

Workers and management at 15 wind companies in north Germany are set to stage a walkout later this morning over planned energy reforms.

The union IG Metall and the German Wind Energy Association are organising the protest against the government’s proposed changes to the Renewable Energy Sources Act, which it claims threaten thousands of jobs and Germany’s energy transition.

Workers from companies including Enercon, Senvion, Siemens and Vestas are expected to take part in the protest.

Longyuan hails wind despite profit drop

China Longyuan Power Group has reported a strong performance by its wind operations in 2013, despite a 21% drop in overall profits to ¥2.05bn (£199m).

The company, which is China’s largest wind developer, said its wind operations accounted for over half (54%) of sales in 2013, up from 46% in 2012. It completed 28 wind projects totalling 1.3GW last year, which took its total installed capacity to 14GW.

It attributed its loss to an impairment on two biomass projects.

DECC awards £4m to cut offshore costs

The UK government’s Department for Energy and Climate Change has given grants totalling £4m to four firms to help lower the cost of generating offshore wind energy.

Energy and climate minister Greg Barker yesterday announced that 2-B Energy has been awarded £2.8m to develop a two-bladed turbine. Manchester firm HVPD and Alstom were awarded £900k, SgurrControl got £667k, and Ocean Resource got £216k.

DECC is seeking to reduce the cost of generating offshore energy from around £135/MWh to less than £100/MWh by 2020.

Falck completes £154m stake sale

Falck Renewables has concluded the £154m sale of minority stakes in six UK wind farms, totalling 273MW, to a fund managed by Danish pension fund PensionDanmark.

The Italy-headquartered company has sold 49% stakes in five Scottish projects - Ben Aketil (27.6MW), Boyndie (16.7MW), Earlsburn (37.5MW), Kilbraur (67.5MW), and Millennium (65MW) - and Welsh scheme Cefn Croes (58.5MW) to CII HoldCo Ltd.

CII HoldCo is a subsidiary of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which is funded by PensionDanmark.

No special treatment for solo Scotland

England and Wales would not subsidise Scotland's renewables sector if the country votes for independence in September, energy secretary Ed Davey has warned.

Davey told the Scottish Renewables annual conference in Edinburgh yesterday that an independent Scotland would have to agree a new deal with the UK government on energy exports, in competition with countries from across Europe.

“The Scottish Government can assert that UK consumers would continue to subsidise the costs of Scottish renewables and buy Scottish electricity to meet renewables targets no matter what the cost. But this goes against all commercial logic,” he said.

Davey added that Scotland alone would have to pay to meet the Scottish government’s ambition of generating 100% of domestic electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

German wind workers in protest walkout

Workers and management at 15 wind companies in north Germany are set to stage a walkout later this morning over planned energy reforms.

The union IG Metall and the German Wind Energy Association are organising the protest against the government’s proposed changes to the Renewable Energy Sources Act, which it claims threaten thousands of jobs and Germany’s energy transition.

Workers from companies including Enercon, Senvion, Siemens and Vestas are expected to take part in the protest.

Longyuan hails wind despite profit drop

China Longyuan Power Group has reported a strong performance by its wind operations in 2013, despite a 21% drop in overall profits to ¥2.05bn (£199m).

The company, which is China’s largest wind developer, said its wind operations accounted for over half (54%) of sales in 2013, up from 46% in 2012. It completed 28 wind projects totalling 1.3GW last year, which took its total installed capacity to 14GW.

It attributed its loss to an impairment on two biomass projects.

DECC awards £4m to cut offshore costs

The UK government’s Department for Energy and Climate Change has given grants totalling £4m to four firms to help lower the cost of generating offshore wind energy.

Energy and climate minister Greg Barker yesterday announced that 2-B Energy has been awarded £2.8m to develop a two-bladed turbine. Manchester firm HVPD and Alstom were awarded £900k, SgurrControl got £667k, and Ocean Resource got £216k.

DECC is seeking to reduce the cost of generating offshore energy from around £135/MWh to less than £100/MWh by 2020.

Falck completes £154m stake sale

Falck Renewables has concluded the £154m sale of minority stakes in six UK wind farms, totalling 273MW, to a fund managed by Danish pension fund PensionDanmark.

The Italy-headquartered company has sold 49% stakes in five Scottish projects - Ben Aketil (27.6MW), Boyndie (16.7MW), Earlsburn (37.5MW), Kilbraur (67.5MW), and Millennium (65MW) - and Welsh scheme Cefn Croes (58.5MW) to CII HoldCo Ltd.

CII HoldCo is a subsidiary of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which is funded by PensionDanmark.