DANISH-style district heating projects could cut fuel poverty in rural communities, a new paper claims. The Scottish Government is seeking new ways to solve the problem of unaffordable power costs in buildings without gas supply. It is hoped that doing this would not only ease the burden on householders, but also help meet the national climate targets. Now a joint paper by gas firm Calor, think tank Common Weal and the Energy Poverty Research Initiative says Danish-style community heat schemes could help lower bills outwith urban areas. However, this solution may only work for 60% of properties and those that cannot be connected could use biogas boilers in conjunction with building-mounted solar generators, the research found. The conclusion is based on research carried out with Glasgow Caledonian University and comes decades after Denmark took steps to create its large-scale networks, which collect “waste” heat from factories and transport systems and redistribute this. They also take in energy from conventional power stations and renewables. More than 90% of rural residents who are income poor are also fuel poor, according to research. This is far higher than in towns and cities and the problem is linked to poor physical and mental health and lower education attainment. Some campaigners summarise the situation for struggling households as a “heat or eat” choice. The new paper – a joint submission to a Scottish Government consultation on the matter – reads: “It is generally thought that district heating is not a viable option for rural areas. Rural district heating is not substantially higher than urban district heating schemes. This is because, while the distances are greater, the necessary pipework is easier to install because access is easier.

The National 24th June 2019 read more »

Floating wind farms just became a serious business. Scotland’s Hywind is a 30 MW wind farm off the Aberdeenshire coast. Since October 2017, the five turbines have been operating as the world’s largest testbed for floating wind technology. Now, it’s a business. On June 19, the Danish energy-trading firm Danske Commodities announced it will buy all of Hywind Scotland’s power over 20 years, the first agreement of its kind. The contract promises to open the floodgates for floating offshore wind power, an idea previously limited to prototypes and pilots.

Quartz 22nd June 2019 read more »

A £100m fund has been established to help UK firms capitalise on the boom in offshore wind. With the UK so well suited to exploiting wind power, turbines have been erected in more than 30 locations from Brighton to the Moray Firth. But trade unions say the boom has not generated enough jobs for UK workers. The Offshore Wind Industry Council says its initiative will help hundreds of firms “maximise opportunities” in the offshore wind supply chain. “The Offshore Wind Growth Partnership will provide practical help for UK companies so they can compete successfully for contracts in this thriving global market,” said Benj Sykes, chairman of the OWIC and UK country manager for the Danish firm Orsted. The OWIC, which is a joint government and industry body, will invest the privately-raised funds over 10 years to support companies in the supply chain.

BBC 24th June 2019 read more »

A new multi-million offshore wind initiative will explore current “challenges” for UK firms and help them “compete for contracts in a global market”, according to a UK industry chairman.

Energy Voice 24th June 2019 read more »

A trade union has said the benefits from the boom in offshore wind have mainly passed the UK workforce and economy by.

Energy Voice 24th June 2019 read more »

BiFab’s mothballed yards in Fife have been thrown a possible lifeline in the form of a £100 million UK government fund to help UK firms capitalise on the boom in offshore wind. Trade unions say the boom has not generated enough jobs for UK workers and a crucial meeting takes place this week with the Scottish government, electricity generator EDF and owner of the Fife yards DF Barnes to stop vital work going overseas. The Offshore Wind Industry Council says its initiative will help hundreds of firms “maximise opportunities” in the supply chain. The OWIC, which is a joint government and industry body, will invest the privately-raised funds over 10 years to support companies in the supply chain.

Daily Business 24th June 2019 read more »

A £1.3bn tidal power project in Wales that was last year refused subsidies by the UK government is now racing to firm up private funding so as to begin construction before its planning permission expires in 2020. The project’s developer said it was still “do-able” to construct a lagoon in Swansea Bay that would generate electricity from the natural rise and fall of the tide, funded by a combination of bank loans, equity from the private sector and commitments from the Welsh government. Tidal Lagoon Power, the company behind the scheme, said it was in talks with potential backers including a Middle East sovereign wealth fund, a utility company and London-based pension funds to meet the £1.3bn construction cost of the project, and hopes to make a final investment decision by October.

FT 24th June 2019 read more »

With Europe’s energy strategy being one of electrification and clean energy, what impact will that have in Europe and how can the downside be managed? While the EU remains at the forefront of progressive climate policies, many of the arguments against increasing ambition focus on the impact this could have on employment in areas like Silesia in Poland, and the Ruhr in Germany. The key is to phase out coal in such a way that it doesn’t have a negative impact on workers. Certainly, the failure by the UK to manage the fall-out of the destruction of its mining industry is an object lesson in the consequences of a failure to manage social change effectively. There are many ways in which the concept of a ‘just transition’ can be defined. It’s related to climate justice, the idea that climate change is more than an environmental challenge, that’s it’s both a political and ethical issue. On the global stage, this can mean enabling developing economies to continue to use fossil fuels to support economic growth, giving them the same opportunities enjoyed by the developed world in the past. What it boils down to is an attempt to ensure that the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable future does not result in undue hardship to those it affects.

Energy Voice 24th June 2019 read more »

The search for new sources of energy has stirred excitement and alarm in northwest England, where an ambitious tidal power project for Morecambe Bay has fired up activists and may become a test of the government’s commitment to combating climate change. Promoters of a 12-mile-long pair of tidal barrages across one of the UK’s biggest bays claim the £8.5bn scheme would generate energy for 2m homes and prove the seriousness of Theresa May’s newly announced campaign for Britain to have zero net carbon emissions by 2050. Opponents worry that bridging the bay with causeways containing turbines, sluice gates and navigation locks would damage the UK’s largest area of continuous mudflats and sandflats. The muddy sands of Morecambe Bay are a magnet for migrating birds, fish and molluscs. “We love renewable energy and want to see the decarbonation of our energy network,” said Susannah Bleakley, chief executive of the Morecambe Bay Partnership, a local conservationist group. “But this is the wrong development in the wrong site.” The Northern Tidal Power Gateways project is the brainchild of Bury-based Alan Torevell, a former economist who set up a wealth management business in Manchester. Torevell claimed last week that Morecambe Bay could be the starting point “for producing 10% or more of the UK’s power needs through a series of tidal power projects around the UK”. About 1bn cubic metres of water enters and leaves the bay with every tide.

Times 23rd June 2019 read more »

Danish energy trading company Danske Commodities has signed a power purchasing agreement (PPA) for the world’s first utiity-scale floating offshore wind farm.

Wind Power Offshore 20th June 2019 read more »

Energy ministers from the North Sea countries have agreed to extend the Political Declaration of North Seas Countries Energy Cooperation and intensify their collaboration on offshore wind at a ministerial meeting in Esbjerg, Denmark on 20 June. The agreement extends the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the ministers in Luxembourg in June 2016 to reduce costs and increase offshore wind capacity. This extended agreement is based on input from the European wind energy industry, which argued that offshore wind needed “higher national and international cooperation”. The industry also said that as cost reduction had already been achieved ahead of time, the focus should now be on an “action-based approach.” It also outlined four priorities for the future of offshore wind production. Firstly, access to sites should be cross-border and there should be a more standardised approach to planning. The development of transmission assets should be opened to develop and optimise grids.

Power Technology 21st June 2019 read more »

BiFab is set to miss out on work in fabricating wind turbine jackets for the £2 billion NnG offshore wind farm – work which is instead expected to go to Indonesia, even though the idle BiFab yards sit just 10 miles from the proposed site of the wind farm. However, it emerged at the public meeting in Buckhaven last week that there are still hopes BiFab could get work from the wind farm. GMB Scotland secretary Gary Smith told the room: “We hope the key players will get round the table and hammer out some sort of agreement that will bring work we desperately need in Fife. It won’t be all the jackets but it will be something.”

Fife Today 21st June 2019 read more »

The energy firm EDF has agreed to talks over the future of mothballed BiFab yards in Fife, say union leaders. The GMB are campaigning for the yards in Methil and Burntisland to secure work on a £2bn windfarm off the Fife coast. A public meeting in Buckhaven on Thursday was told EDF, the Scottish government and BiFab’s Canadian owners had agreed to meet unions next week. EDF has refused to comment on claims the work could go to Indonesia. Speaking before the meeting, an EDF spokesman said: “We understand the NnG project is seen as critical to securing more work for the yard and we are working hard to make that a reality.”

BBC 21st June 2019 read more »

Union in fight with energy giant to have wind turbines built at mothballed Fife yards.

Daily Record 22nd June 2019 read more »

Labour is comparing the amount of new solar capacity installed in March 2019 with the amount installed in April 2019. This is a very misleading way to present the figures. There is almost always a major drop in new solar capacity installed in April compared to March. This is because of how government tariff schemes work and because in recent years a number of these payment programmes have closed at the end of March, leading to a surge in installations that month. To assess what’s happening to solar capacity, we need to take a longer-term view.

Full Fact 21st June 2019 read more »

Leading UK engineers have assessed the possibility of using hydrogen in place of natural gas in the UK’s gas grid and concluded that there is no reason why this cannot be achieved safely.

Renewable Energy Magazine 19th June 2019 read more »