Posted by on January 24th, 2008
And lo, it came to pass that Blighty finally got its act together and signed its X on the renewable energy line.
After what Greenbang can only imagine was a prolonged case of peanut war, the UK finally signed up to a carbon-murdering plan from the EU. With a spring its step and its heart on its sleeve, the EC has now got Europe to agree to a £40 billion plan to stop plundering finite fuels.
The The Press Association tells it like this:
The most ambitious bid yet to tackle global warming involves a massive switch to renewable energy sources, and legally-binding targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by one fifth by 2020 and to boost energy efficiency by 20% by the same deadline.
The overall EU-wide burden will be shared between the 27 member states - with the UK told it must increase reliance on renewable energy from less than 2% now to 15% of the country’s total energy needs by 2020, as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 16% by then.
And there’s more
“Mr Barroso said what was proposed was realistic and financially manageable - the equivalent of about £110 per person per year until 2020 - or three refills of the average car’s fuel tank annually. “A reality check is needed - that is one tenth of the cost of inaction,” Mr Barroso told Euro-MPs in Brussels.”
Posted by on January 24th, 2008
So you’ve got your wind and your wave generators. You’ve got all this energy knocking about in remote bits of Scotland and where are you going to put it? And transport it around? Hmm? Thought about that? No? Tut. Now go and tidy your room.
Luckily the Scots have done it for you. Not the room tidying, the other thing. it involves a great big cable and £1.7 billion.
The Scotman, like Jonny Ball, explains all:
There had been fears it would be too expensive to transmit the green electricity from northern Scotland to large population centres further south, but research commissioned by the Crown Estate found a sub-sea cable down the east coast of the UK was economically viable.
A draft report, to be published today, says a basic connection linking the Northern Isles, Aberdeenshire and Norfolk, and then overland to London, would cost up to £1.7 billion.
A more comprehensive network, with links to the Western Isles, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands, would cost about £4.8 billion by 2020 and could be connected to the proposed European Supergrid.
Posted by Greenbang on January 23rd, 2008
There is a lot of moaning about this in the press today. The European Commission has said all 27 member countries have to get 20 per cent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020.
The UK is on track to do 15 per cent by then, so there’s going to be some real work to do.
The Times reckons this will cost the UK taxpayers £6bn.
But for f*ck’s sake - the taxpayer has to fork out for the Olympics (£13bn plus) and then the idiots at Northen Rock (£50bn ish) ballsing up at their jobs.
So this seems like a pretty small deal to Greenbang.
Anyway - media hungry hippo, the Carbon Trust, of course has its say on the matter.
“This powerful package of measures has put Europe firmly in the driving seat of international action on climate change and has quite rightly raised the bar on the UK’s renewable energy ambitions. The measures announced for the next phase of the EU ETS are very welcome as they will increase and firm up the price of carbon - essential if we are to drive investment in low carbon technologies at the scale required to deliver the deep carbon cuts necessary to mitigate the impact of climate change.
“The target announced on renewables for the UK is also extremely welcome given our huge potential across a range of technologies. It should catapult renewables from a niche provider, currently supplying 2 per cent of the UK’s energy needs, to a mainstream energy player by 2020. As well as delivering carbon reductions, a dramatic expansion of renewables will create significant economic opportunity as new technologies, such as offshore wind, could be worth at least £2 billion a year to the UK economy by 2020.
“However, meeting this seven fold increase in renewables will be a major challenge for the UK and will require well thought out policy measures for renewable electricity, heat and transport to ensure that this target is met and the UK reaps the benefits.”
Posted by Greenbang on January 23rd, 2008
They’re cheap enough. They save you money. And they save power…
Why wouldn’t you use eco-friendly lightbulbs?
This research says the UK is still a bit divvy about it…
At a time when household bills are rising steeply almost two thirds of UK’s adult consumers are still in the dark about how much money switching to energy saving light bulbs could save them. National climate change campaign Together (www.together.com), today released research revealing that 30 million people across the UK do not know they could shave £55 off their annual energy bills by replacing their inefficient bulbs.
Statistics compiled by Together suggest there are still around 440 million light bulbs in the UK that could be switched to energy saving ones. Changing these would cut nearly 5 million tonnes of CO2 from the UK’s annual footprint, equivalent to £1.2 billion in energy cost savings or taking nearly two million cars off the road each year.
Penney Poyzer, star of BBC’s No Waste Like Home and ‘green guru’, said: “What possible reason do people have for not changing their light bulbs to energy efficient ones. Not only do they save you money instantly and help the environment but the quality, variety & brightness is better than ever.”
Posted by on January 23rd, 2008
It’s all go over in Abu Dhabi. Not content with building the world’s most sustainable city, the gulf state is loading up on eco-initiatives like it was going out of fashion. Which it clearly isn’t. But that’s not stopping Abu Dhabi, oh no.
First up, a $15 billion fund - Greenbang will say it again, $15 billion - to work on environmentally-friendly energy and a power plant that will make the moon look small in comparisn. According to Reuters
“The money will go into infrastructure, renewable energy projects such as solar power, and manufacturing, to position Abu Dhabi as a leader in the global clean energy market, said Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, or Masdar.[...]
Abu Dhabi, capital of the seven-member United Arab Emirates federation, would also build the world’s largest hydrogen power plant with 500 megawatts of capacity, said Jaber.
And they’re just getting started: there’s the world’s largest carbon capture project, says Bloomberg.
Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co. plans to build what may become the world’s largest project to capture carbon dioxide and use it to boost oil and gas production. The state-owned company has chosen eight sites to inject about 15 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, a quarter of the emissions from Abu Dhabi [...] “We hope to get approval during the first half of 2008,” said Sam Nader, director of carbon management for the company, which is known as Masdar, in a Jan. 17 telephone interview from Abu Dhabi. “If the project is agreed this year, our first site will be ready by 2013.”
Posted by Greenbang on January 23rd, 2008
Another day, another climate change fund. Well that’s how it seems today at Greenbang Towers.
This time Virgin Money is doing all the green-fund making. The company claims:
Unlike typical ‘green’ funds, The Virgin Climate Change Fund can invest in all industry sectors but will only invest in companies with lighter than average environmental footprints for their sector. This ‘lighter footprint’ strategy aims to capitalise on research[1] which suggests that companies with a strong environmental focus can outperform their ‘dirtier’ competitors.
Virgin has teamed up with asset management firm GLG Partners, who will act as the fund advisors, and environmental research organisation Trucost PLC, who wrote the UK Government’s environmental reporting guidelines, published in 2006.
Posted by Greenbang on January 23rd, 2008
Greenbang is a fan of G24i - a Cardiff-based eco-innovation company. And normally, we wouldn’t run a story on a company getting its own turbine, but these guys are a bit special.
They’ve just been granted permission to build their own wind turbine. Once erected, they reckon it will generate enough green electricity to power G24i’s 187,000 sqaure ft site and possibly a significant number of surrounding homes and businesses.
Eliot Abel, G24i’s Sustainability Programmes Manager, comments: “We have worked incredibly hard to become a 100% ‘green’ factory and are delighted to have now received full permission to realise this dream. We have the backing of the local Government and environmental groups.”
“G24i has also been in talks with Cardiff City Council and Techniquest about developing an environmental learning centre for students and the general public at our site. The centre would explore all forms of renewable energy and their role in helping to address climate change and the wind turbine would certainly be a central feature.”
Robert Hertzberg, Chairman at G24i, adds: “This is a real coup for Wales and the embodiment of a new model for Government and the private sector working together to tackle the enormous challenge of climate change. I hope that we will inspire other businesses to take positive steps in tandem with the public sector to embrace tomorrow’s renewable energy solutions.
“We are seeing a global revolution in attitudes towards energy and the policy-makers are at the heart of it. Business must work with these groups to effect real change”
The company became the first in the world to produce commercial-grade Dye-Sensitised Thin Film cells in October, marking the commercialisation of over 18 years of research and development.
This category is brought to you in association with Tandberg
Posted by on January 23rd, 2008
Greenbang never rated the UK’s chances as an energy producing nation unless scientists worked out a magic formula involving the UK’s few abundant natural resources - pub banter, the Queen and a cracking curry - into renewable fuel. Fortunately, boffins have rated the UK’s chances as slightly more favourable.
Those analyst types over at Frost and Sullivan have come up with this assessment on the wave question:
Wave energy sources are not only available in plenty, but are also consistent, predictable and have the highest energy density among all renewable energy sources. The best resource is found between 40-60 degrees of latitude where the available resource is 30 to 70 kW/m, with peaks of 100 kW/m. The potential worldwide wave energy contribution to the electricity market is estimated to be of the order of 2,000 TWh/year, about 10% of the world electricity consumption.
The marine energy sector is set to grow faster. However, as it happened for the wind energy, government support, financial investment and technological advancement are needed to see the marine energy sector reach commercialisation.
“Wave energy technology” explains Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Gouri Nambudripad, “is being developed in a number of countries such as Canada, China, Chile, India, Japan, Russia and the US. However, Europe is leading the way in innovative technologies, pilot projects as well as pushing the existing technologies towards commercialisation including countries such as UK, Ireland, Portugal, Norway and Spain. In tidal energy, Canada, Argentina, Western Australia and Korea possess the resources, but here again Europe is a frontrunner, with the UK and France seemingly promising.”
“The UK – having some of the best wave resource in the world - is targeting 40% of its energy from renewables by 2050 of which 20% is to be sourced from wave and tidal energy,” continues Gouri Nambudripad. “The UK is estimated to possess the capacity to generate approximately 87TWh of wave power annually equivalent to 20-25% of current UK demand. Moreover, the UK has committed GBP 25m since 1999 towards the wave and tidal programme.”
Posted by on January 23rd, 2008
Jules Verne is clearly a fool. If you journey to the centre of the earth, you do not in fact find dinosaurs and such like. You’re more likely to find Merrill Lynch these days, after the company agreed to cough for some geothermal financing.
Merrill Lynch is now going to raid its change jar to finance 155 MW of geothermal power projects conducted by Raser Technologies. If all goes well, then Raser reckons it will be able to generate 100 MW per year for the first three years of its geothermal power production effort, and 150 MW each year after that.
Here’s some highlights from the new friendship:
Raser expects to receive approximately $4 million per year in cash fees and distributions, along with other tax benefits, during the first three years of operations from the 10.5 MW power plant after maintenance, operating expenses and debt service, and approximately $2.5 million per year in cash fees and distributions during the first ten years of operations. After the debt is retired in year 15 of the project, Raser expects to receive net distributions of approximately $3.5 million per year for the remaining life of the project.
• Raser expects subsequent power plants developed under this agreement to have similar economics.
• The plant is expected to be placed in service no later than the third quarter of 2008.
The financing commitment for the first 10.5 MW project is up to $44 million, in the form of 15-year, fully amortizing fixed rate notes, to fund approximately $33 million of total construction costs, in addition to a letter of credit, reserve accounts, accrued interest, transaction fees and other costs.
Posted by on January 23rd, 2008
Ready? Greenbang is going to talk to you about Nanogram. Thankfully, this doesn’t involve any elderly female relatives in a state of undress appearing to celebrate a birthday or stag do; no, this Nanogram makes “unique nanostructured materials for optical, electronic and energy applications” and has just secured $32 million in funding for the solar arm of its business.
The new funding will be used to accelerate development of NanoGram’s proprietary silicon solar technology and its advanced nanomaterials solutions for flat panel displays, solid state lighting, lithium-ion batteries, and printed electronics.
Ira Ehrenpreis, General Partner at Technology Partners, concurs stating, “NanoGram has already seen the successful spinouts of NeoPhotonics and NanoGram Devices, and is now pursuing additional exciting Cleantech opportunities in new large markets with their energy and advanced materials technologies. Managed by seasoned executives, the company continues to execute towards their vision of being a leading provider of nano-enabled materials solutions to their customers and partners.”
