Green Energy Blog

Solar Power Plans in Turmoil?

An ambitious plan to have 15 per cent of Europe’s energy supply come from solar plants in North Africa has run into some trouble. 

The project had hoped to deliver an electricity generation network to Europe from the African continent via a network of underground cables from completely renewable sources.  Unfortunately the Desertec initiative has hit a snag because two large industrial backers have pulled investment out as well as the Spanish government have hesitated in signing an agreement with Morocco in order to have the solar “farms” built.

Desertec was initially founded in 2009 and its projected budget was approximately 400 billion euro and was set up so that the massive possibilities of renewable energies such as solar and wind could be tapped into.  The focus of the project was to have generated around 125 gigawatts of electric power by the year 2050. 

Not only would this meet all the local needs for power but would also ensure that there was sufficient electricity to export to Europe via high voltage current cables under the Mediterranean Sea.

However the project has little to show for the efforts that were so promising three years ago.  Two partners, Bosch and Siemens, have decided to abort the continued partnership and will no longer be part of the initiative.  This is obviously not good news and this view has been echoed by Dr Daniel Ayuk Mbi Egbe, who is an expert in the field of African solar resources at Linz University in Austria, and thinks the project will struggle without these two partners due to their enormity.

A declaration of intent was due to be signed in the near future for forthcoming solar plants that were due to be built in Morocco.  However, Spain has since reneged on this as they feel they would have difficulty in finding the subsidies required for the project, further casting the project into doubt.

Desertec have responded by stating that all these ‘small’ issues would be resolved and that the project is still due to commence forthwith.  What do you think will happen with the Desertec project?  Will it be a success?  Leave your thoughts below!

We're back - an energy catchup

Firstly, apologies for the lack of activity over the last few months - we've been stretched for time and unable to keep the blog going to a decent level. Things have settled down a little now, and we are now back in the swing of things. Fortunately, it's been a quiet couple of months for the Scottish energy sector, so we haven't really missed all that much - haha ;). In order to save you from us trawling through all the events of the last few months, we thought that some edited highlights of what has caught our attention should suffice:

Energy prices go up again - there has been another round of price increases, further increasing the pressure on consumers. This was swiftly followed by the PM causing confusion over energy bill plans.

Scottish Hydro YouTube channel - some interesting and useful videos from the energy company, including this one on how to bleed your radiator.

Glendoe gets going

These are some of the main events of the last few months - what have you noticed?

 

 

 

 

Morocco are moving towards a renewable energy future...

I caught this interesting piece in the Guardian about how Morocco is looking towards renewable energy in order to break their current dependence on fossil fuels. The article claims that the Morocco are aiming to be operating at around 42% renewable energy by as early as 2020 with solar energy powering around 14% of homes by 2014.

It's good to see countries being ambitious with their renewable energy goals and hopefully once their are some true success stories some of the late adopters will pick up on the benefits.

Source: Guardian Environment

Energy providers and customer satisfaction

How are the UK's energy providers doing in terms of pleasing the consumer?

Given that the UK's retail energy market is competitive, making people happy by providing the best service is a big factor in the success of anyone operating in the sector. So it was interesting to see this week what the latest National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI) has to say.

The NCSI, which is produced by consumer insights specialists CFI, is a quarterly look at how companies in a number of sectors are faring. The customer satisfaction level overall for the quarter is up slightly, with gains being made by some energy providers.

Top of the list for customer satisfaction in the utilities list for the most recent quarter being reported on is Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE), who have risen on the index and now have a score of 73 - a result which, says the CFI Group, puts SSE "well ahead of the rest of the 'Big Six' energy companies".

 

 

 

5 Green living tweeps you should be following

Now this is by no means an exhaustive list however it is a great starting for and allows for you to access the latest green news from a variety of viewpoints and opinions. This will help give you a better understanding of the big issues and allow you to provide more accurate commentary when discussing it on your blog or even just in general.

1. @Treehugger.com

Tree hugger is a pretty big deal in renewable energy circles; they were voted top sustainability blog in 2007 and they also featured in Time Magazine’s top 25 blog index back in 2009. 

2. @huffpostgreen

Huff Post Green is a sub-section of the excellent Huff Post online news paper, it is a great way of keeping up to date on the latest goings on now just with renewable energy but the welfare of the planet as a whole.

3. @350

350.org is a Global community working together to combat climate change. They operate in 188 countries throughout the world and carry out some really inspiring stuff. It’s worth following them just to keep up to date on their latest projects etc.

4. @Planetgreen

Planetgreen.com is friendly and accessible site owned by the Discovery channel. They offer a wealth of information on green living but give it a popular slant so it is easy to get involved with the content. They offer a great range of everyday tips and advice for living a green life.

5. @Guardianeco

A great way of keeping in touch with the latest green news, with some excellent commentary. The twitter feed is operated by the same team that run the www.environmentguardian.co.uk

 

 

Polls show UK supports renewable energy initiatives.

A recent opinion poll has suggested that the majority of people in the UK have shown that they regard the Government subsidies for wind power development as a good deal.

The poll was commissioned by trade body RenewableUK, and it concluded that 43% of people see the UK subsidy as good value for money against 18% of people who do not.

Another survey carried out recently has also shown a large majority of people are in favour of renewable energy.

These results have been well timed and have arrived just ahead of the Clean Energy Ministerial a summit that will bring ministers from more than 20 different countries to London to talk about low-carbon energy.

The survey is the most recent signal of strong public backing for renewable energy, the signal is further strengthened by the YouGov poll for Scottish Renewables that found 71% of Scots were in support of wind power, and a separate survey last week that showed as many as 67% of respondents were in favour of increasing the use of wind power.

At the moment as little as 9.5% of electricity in the UK is from renewable sources. Because of this relatively low number Friends of the Earth is worried that the government is doing more to encourage a "dash for gas" by making gas-fired power plants exempt from the emissions restrictions that other plants face.

These polls are the most recent moves by those in the renewable energy sector to retaliate against what is seen as the Treasury’s “anti-green” movement.

The Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has came out strong in his defence of a push for a "renewables revolution" this is flying in the face of criticism from US businessman and celebrity opposer of wind farms Donald Trump, who has regularly been quoted bemoaning  plans to build a number of offshore turbines near his new Aberdeenshire golf course.

Is switching gas and electricity supplier worth it?

Many of us read about or listen to people detailing their positive experiences with switching electricity and gas suppliers but never do anything about it. As understandable as this is, we all have busy lives - this reluctance can quite often be attributed to the fact that switching is 'too much hassle' - why take the risk of double billing or  a new supplier actually turing out to be more expensive! 

Well now, thanks to the internet this entire process is alot easier to negotiate. Individual supplier websites are finally gettting easier to compare prices and tariffs, and comparison sites such as uSwitch continue to offer valuable information on which tariffs would work best for your needs. Also, there is no need to worry about double billing as  legislation dictates that when you switch suppliers, the companies must adhere to your choice. 

A worthwhile habit to start is to regularly examine your gas and electricity bills to ensure you have the best deal possible -   most of us tend to think that we won’t save a great deal, but savings can potentially be in the £100s. Not only that but many suppliers (such as M&S Energy) offer incentives for switching such as shopping vouchers,a decent bonus to any energy saving.

We have a 3 step process that well tell our friends that are thinking of switching suppliers:

1.  Have a scour of the internet and  select a supplier that appeals to you, financially and ethically
2. Contact them, find out their process - this will probably entail you having to send an accurate meter reading to ensure any final bills are correct
3. Wait for your first bill from your new energy supplier

So, in summary, don't be too scared of switching supplier, it can be a hassle free way of saving some much needed cash!

If anyone has any questions or have switched recently then please let us know in the comments.

Samsung to invest £100m and create 500 jobs in Fife

The new year is starting promisingly for Scotland with talk of over 500 jobs being created in Fife. Korean super company Samsung are intent on bringing a project to develop a new generation wind turbine at a reported cost of around £100 million.

Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) the worlds second largest ship builder are planning on basing their maiden European wind project at the Fife Energy Park in Methil.  

The firm plans to test its new, more powerful 7MW turbine offshore at Methil before starting to take orders to build them at the site.

SHI have also signed a promising deal with engineering company David Brown Gear Systems and it is their gearbox system that shall be used in the new wind turbine.

Alex Salmond the Scottish First Minister is delighted by the news "Their choice of Scotland as their first base in Europe for renewable technology development is testament to the fact this country is fast becoming the European centre for research and development in new offshore wind technologies.”

However not everyone is happy about the increasing number of wind farm developments in Scotland. American billionaire Donald Trump is currently fighting plans to build 11 offshore wind turbines in Aberdeen Bay, which would be in full view of his golf resort. In fact Mr Trump feels so strongly there has been talk of him pulling out of the build.

I guess you can’t please everyone.

UK makes the Top 10 Solar suppliers.....

Even with all the uncertainty surrounding the feed-in tariff High Court decisions, it’s not all bad news for solar energy in the UK.

For the first time ever the UK’s solar industry has forced its way into the worlds top 10. This is believed to be at least partly due to the Government incentives which have managed to give a real push to solar panel sales as more and more people try to take advantage of the generous feed-in tariff rate.   

Even with the uncertainty facing the scheme at the moment – the UK is still producing massive amount of solar energy and contributing to the combined worldwide total of 23.8GW. 2011 was a big year for solar with a 1,273% increase in solar installations compared to 2010, this was made up of nearly 700MW of smaller sized installations completed along with around 200MW of large-scale developments greater than 50kW.

That data gathered by specialist research company HIS, the actual league table for ‘photovoltaics’ has Italy in the number 1 spot and Germany in number 2. Germany has seen a 20% reduction in solar installs since they reduced their feed-in tariff last year.

 

In 3^rd place is the United States, followed by China, Japan and France. In a respectable 7^th place the UK has entered the table with total generation into 800MW.

The US completes the top three, followed by China, Japan and France. With a total well into 800MW, the UK moves into seventh spot globally.

It is great news for the UK to be getting recognised for their support of solar power and hopefully it will inspire even more countries to do the same. After all with the current feed-in tariffs solar power offers a lot of benefits to businesses and homeowners, not to mention the fact it’s doing a great job of reducing our dependency upon fossil fuels.

 

Scotland set for renewables push in 2012...

Figures show that there is a pipeline of around £46 billion of investment for renewables in Scotland which should generate up to 17GW of energy capacity.

Fergus Ewing – Scotland’s Energy minister has said he is “relentlessly positive” regarding 2012.

It is believed that such a large scale investment will help create jobs throughout Scotland and put Scotland even further on its path to creating 100% of its electricity from renewables by 2020. In fact figures showed that in the first quarter of 2011 Scotland had generated 94% of 2010’s entire output.