Business costs of CRC

The cost of participating in the CRC large UK companies could exceed £20mm. Based on the Government's plans to charge organisations £12/tCO2 under the scheme.

• Edinburgh City Council  £990,000 a year
• Tesco £21.4mn
• The Royal Bank of Scotland £5.39mn.

Carbon Reporting

Green think-tank the Aldersgate Group call on the Government to make carbon reporting mandatory by 2012.
Aldersgate Group


Defra has published a report which showed large businesses that measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions are experiencing net benefits, including cost savings and increased competitiveness.

Defra has also published a report showing the total carbon footprint of UK central Government from 1990 to 2008. This includes the emissions from sources such as buildings, vehicles and other equipment. For the first time, it also includes the ‘embedded emissions’ of the goods and services bought by Government.
Defra

Big Six tell MPs “energy bills will rise significantly"

Senior representatives from five of the Big Six suppliers told the Energy and Climate Change
Committee on 7 December that domestic energy prices could increase 25% over the coming decade.
The rise in prices was attributed to higher network and obligation costs, increasing wholesale energy rates, growing volatility in international energy markets and the pressing need for significant investment.

UK Businesses are seriously underestimating energy efficiency returns

Finance directors at large businesses in the UK are undervaluing the financial returns from investments in energy efficiency by more than half, research by Carbon Trust Advisory has revealed.
Carbon Trust

EU carbon price to rise 49 per cent next year

According to Point Carbon ,the price of a tonne of carbon in the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS) will rise by around 50 per cent next year as energy companies attempt to hoard carbon credits ahead of the launch of the next phase of the scheme in 2013. It also predicts by 2020 the average carbon price will reach €36 a tonne.
Business Green

Renewables and Planning in Scotland

 Scottish Renewables release a paper suggesting ways to enhance the Scottish planning system in order to  support the delivery of renewables development.
Scottish Renewables

FiTs could replace RO

Climate change minister Greg Barker has signalled that feed-in tariffs (FITs) could replace the Renewables Obligation for offshore wind, a move that the renewables industry has warned could cause investment to stall and put the UK's build timetable and 2020 targets at risk.
Utility Week

Cancun Accords

A good summary of the recent outcomes from the Cancun meeting. Winners include:

• CCS which will be included in The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism
• Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) moves a step closer by introducing forestry base lining and a framework for how rich countries will pay the poorer ones to keep their forests.

Business Green

Scotland's CCS Blueprint

Scotland is to design a blueprint to ensure carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) can be implemented effectively around the world.

The Global CCS Institute has asked Scotland to develop a toolkit to help nations test the strength of regulations and the permitting process, build knowledge and test public engagement, ensuring CCS can be safely rolled out.
The move is a vote of confidence in Scotland's forward thinking approach to carbon capture and storage, a way of safely storing emissions from fossil fuel power stations.

The work will be carried out by the Scottish CCS Centre in Edinburgh, supported by the Scottish Government and the Scottish European Green Energy Centre. The toolkit will be promoted by Global CCS Institute around the world and the work is being used in various European initiatives.

Scottish Government

Green electricity will boom 'when subsidies are removed'

 John Constable, director of policy and research at the Renewable Energy Foundation, highlighted the benefits of subsidies for renewable energy generation for allowing the UK to experiment with deploying and integrating new technologies.

However, he noted that the industry still relies on funding and that subsidies will not transform the UK's electricity system overnight as they are not "economically sustainable".

Energy Saving Trust

Scottish Government posts

This report sets out the Scottish Government’s latest position on the role of renewable electricity and
fossil fuel thermal generation (coal, gas, oil) in Scotland’s future energy mix. It gives a clear view on the
need for both rapid expansion of renewable electricity across Scotland and the underlying requirement
for new efficient thermal capacity in this low carbon generation portfolio. It is based on the latest research
studies on future energy supply, storage and demand, and takes account of the changing policy context
in Scotland, the UK and the EU since the 2
nd
 National Planning Framework was published in June 2009.
It sets out new developments and implications in the following four key areas:

• update the position on renewable generation 
• update the position on thermal electricity generation
• update the position on energy efficiency
• update the position on transmission infrastructure and interconnection

Scottish Government

Ofgem awards low-carbon network funding

Ofgem published details of the four winning tier 2 projects that had been awarded a total of £62mn from the
£500mn Low-carbon Networks (LCN) Fund. These were:

• CE Electric’s Customer-led network revolution with £26.8mn. The project explores how a combination of smart technologies and changes in customer behaviour can reduce the costs associated with low-carbon technologies and uses British Gas’ early rollout of smart meters and low-carbon products for its base data;  
• UK Power Networks’ Low-carbon London––A learning journey with £24.3mn. A ‘smart city’ initiative for London will explore how to best use new technologies and active network management. It will work on the back of several existing low-carbon projects, such as ‘Plugged in places’ that encourages the use of electric cars. The project will be carried out in partnership with a number of organisations, including EDF Energy, Imperial College, Logica and Transport for London;  
• Central Networks’ Low-carbon hub with £2.8mn. The east Lincolnshire project will investigate ways of increasing the amount of, mainly wind, electricity generation that can be directly connected to a local electricity network. It will monitor wind speed, generator output and network conditions and will benefit small, renewables generators wanting to connect directly to the distribution network. This project is intended to allow more generation to connect at lower cost, so reducing costs for consumers; and  
• Western Power Distribution’s Low-voltage network templates for a low-carbon future with £7.8mn. This will examine the effect that low-carbon technologies have on the network. The trial should help other companies become more efficient by allowing them to anticipate network behaviour and know which solutions have already been proven to work well.  

Ofgem

Electricity Market Reform is coming.

The Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) announced on 24 November 2010 its intention to examine the overall aims of the Electricity Market Reform (EMR) project. The aim of the EMR is to carry-out a fundamental overhaul of electricity market arrangements to help to promote investment in all energy infrastructures, but with a particular focus on facilitating low-carbon generation. This includes:

·         Proposals to implement a carbon floor price and this would promote greater energy generation from low-carbon sources such as solar and reduce the risks for investors.

·         Examining FiT’s to see if they should be focused on particular technologies or maintain a wider technology base. A focus will almost certainly be on wind and solar which may further benefit the solar market.

Green Alliance

Snowy Scotland, but 2010 One of the World's Hottest Years on Record

While Scotland continues to experience a cold snap, a statement issued by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) on the status of the global climate showed that 2010 is almost certain to be one of the three warmest years since 1850, and possibly the warmest.

Sustainable Scotland