The wrong renewables: Why relying on offshore wind will prove a costly error July 14, 2014 Politicians everywhere have to decide between satisfying long-term national needs and achieving short-term electoral rewards. It is hard to imagine a more worrying sign of this conflict – as a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) last month helped highlight – than the present policy confusion in the UK over renewable energy. On the [...]
KKR goes green with wind farm tie-up in Spain June 24, 2014 Private equity firm KKR clinched a landmark green energy deal yesterday after snapping up a stake in a Spanish-based windpower business. KKR, led by veteran buyout pioneers Henry Kravis and George Roberts, will pay €417m (£334m) to buy one-third of Acciona Energy International (AEI), which creates electricity from wind power. The agreement marks one of [...]
Germany produces half of energy from solar power for first time June 20, 2014 Germany is big on renewables and at the beginning of June it succeeded in producing half of its energy from solar power for the first time. But it didn't last long. For just a single day production of solar energy hit 23.1 gigawatts, high enough to provide 50.6 per cent of energy demand. A combination [...]
Warren Buffett was spending $15bn on renewable energy. He’s now upped that to $30bn June 10, 2014 Yesterday, it momentarily slipped Warren Buffett’s mind how much money Berkshire Hathaway is shelling out on wind and solar power in the US – $15bn (£8.9bn). Speaking at the Edison Electric Institute’s annual convention in Las Vegas, the guru investor turned to deputy Greg Abel for a reminder of the figure, before coming back with, [...]
Renewables not fossil fuels are a threat to energy security says new report June 3, 2014 The widespread use of wind and solar energy poses a serious risk to the UK's energy security and could undermine the reliability of the country's energy supply, according to a new report from the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). The crisis in Ukraine and Crimea has focused the minds of policy makers on energy security. [...]
The green myth: Why renewables destroy jobs March 25, 2014 POLITICIANS and activists are celebrating the news that Siemens is prepared to invest £160m in facilities in and around Hull to produce and install offshore wind turbines. It sounds like good news: 1,000 new jobs. But our embrace of renewable energy will cost jobs overall, not create them. The UK is putting eye-watering amounts of [...]
Siemens is “committed” to renewable energies, says boss March 25, 2014 Siemens' chief executive, Roland Aurich, has said that the UK’s pledge to produce 30 per cent of UK energy from renewable sources by 2020 has given certainty to how the company “goes forward” with investments. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Programme, Aurich said we “need to make sure we combat climate change”. Siemens is going [...]
The technology that’ll rival solar-powered electricity February 24, 2014 Competition could be coming to solar-powered fuel, with new and inexpensive materials nearing the market. Research published last week in the journal Science has provided the latest boost to the promise of solar-power hydrogen fuel, which could offer power vehicles at a fraction of the cost currently needed. Kyoung-Shin Choi, the chemistry professor who led [...]
How free markets are making solar energy feasible without subsidies February 20, 2014 IT MAY be a clean form of energy, but solar has become a dirty word in some circles. Given expensive subsidies and feed-in-tariffs, solar (like other renewables) has looked like yet another uncompetitive distraction. It’s little surprise that countries like Germany, which have made the greatest commitments to renewables, also have the highest domestic energy [...]
Erratic and arbitrary UK renewable subsidies are likely to end in failure December 4, 2013 WITH Centrica threatening to pull the plug on a £2bn offshore wind farm if the government did not increase already exorbitant subsidies, ministers agreed to do just that. Yesterday, they announced they would slow the planned reduction in the guaranteed strike price for offshore wind by adding £5 to the subsidy – to £140 per [...]