Renew On Line (UK) 60

1. Intermittency

On 18th Jan, in a House of Lords debate, Lord Tebbit weighed in against wind power: surely, he said, ‘common sense tells us that, in those periods of cold weather when there is no wind, these generators deliver absolutely no power? Does that not make them rather like an umbrella that will open only when it is not raining?’

Clearly the issue has come to the fore.

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2. Marine renewables 

1MW MCT Tidal Turbine

Marine Current Turbines is to install a 1 megawatt  Seagen tidal current turbine in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough following  approval by Northern Irelands’ Environment & Heritage Service. Strangford Lough has one of the strongest tidal currents in the UK and Ireland.  The project is being supported by a

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3. Wind power

Last years British Wind Energy Association conference warned that, as Windpower Monthly reported, ‘Wind’s political credit with the British government is just about used up and it cannot hold out its hand for more money. New thinking is required to bolster wind’s credibility and bring down costs, particularly with nuclear back on the table as an alternative source of carbon free electricity,’ 

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4. The Energy Review

Malcolm Wicks, the Energy Minister, straight-batted any suggestion that the new Energy Review would be anything but impartial. In the Observer Dec 4th, he insisted that ‘on my watch, in my review, there is no foregone conclusion to the prospect of new nuclear power stations’.  He also refuted the idea ...

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5. NFFO fund raided

When the Renewables Obligation replaced the Non Fossil Fuel Obligation in 2002, some projects with NFFO contracts were taken in to the RO system, but the payments under this (including the value of the associated Renewable Obligation Certificates) are more than they were contracted to get from the NFFO system- so there is an extra income stream- which...

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6. Microgen for all

Self-generation of energy from small scale renewables in homes and schools can not only help reduce emissions, it also has spin-off in terms of creating positive attitude to further improvements in energy use, since it makes the issues and the benefits of change tangible, according to a new report ‘Seeing the light: the impact of micro-generation on the way we use energy,’ ...

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7.Funding Gap? LCBP gets £30m

With the DTI’s Clear Skies and  Major Photovoltaic Demonstration programmes being wound up, the renewable energy community has expressed concerns about funding in the future.  The MPDP has seen 1000’s of PV projects go ahead and solar PV prices have fallen by 30%, while the Clear Skies programme has supported many community projects. ...

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8.UK roundup 

*Solarcentury, the PV installer, was ranked as the 25th fastest-growing UK technology company, with a 113% increase in sales, according to the Sunday Times.

* Irelands Airtricity is investing heavily in UK wind projects- it’s appointed former energy minister Brian Wilson to head its UK wing. ...

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9. Global Developments

50GW of wind

The wind industry has reached a 50 GW milestone of global installed capacity, which, according to the Global Wind Energy Council, will generate approx. 100TWh of electricity. The industry currently employs 100,000 people....

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10. EU: 34% from renewables by 2020?

Europe could get 34% of its electricity from renewables by 2020, according to ‘FORRES 2020: Analysis of the renewable energy sources’ evolution up to 2020’. It says that wind will grow from 34 TWh in 2001 to 385 TWh in 2020 under a ‘business as usual’ (BAU) scenario, but would reach 461 TWh under a scenario that models the future ...

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11 Around the World

‘Wrong way’ in the USA

The USA is at ‘a critical point’ in the transition to renewable energy sources, and further delay will leave the country “even further behind other nations in the development of renewable energy, even more wedded to energy sources that are unsustainable...

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12. Nuclear News

Chernobyl revisited

A new report for the UN, ‘Chernobyl’s Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts,’ produced 20 years on the accident by the Chernobyl Forum, involving over 100 experts from eight UN agencies including the WHO and the governments of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, claims that a total of 4,000 deaths ...

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13. In the rest of Renew 160

In our Feature, Dave Elliott looks back to the EERU Conference on ‘Locating Renewables in a Community Context’ held at the OU in Nov, and covers community level renewable energy projects. It also has an overview of nuclear issues by Dave Toke. The Technology section looks at some of the conclusions of the Scottish FREDS group on renewables, at micropower, marine renewables and the DTI’s review of technologies in the RO.  The main part of that review is discussed in our Reviews section, along with coverage of the Tyndall Centres new report on ‘Decarbonising the UK’ and an overview of the recent OU-EERU Conference on Intermittency. The Groups section includes a look at Sustainable City initiatives,  and some environmental groups views of nuclear power, and looks ahead to the next OU-EERU conference ‘New Europe-New Energy’later this year, which will be covering renewable energy developments in the new and candidate EU countries.