Carbon and Energy Saving Trusts could face chop

The Government is expected to unveil a report today 29 June on how the green investment bank will operate and be funded, the FT reported on Monday 28 June. The newspaper said both the Carbon Trust and Energy Saving Trust could be scrapped to make “green” funding streams more efficient and raise funds for the bank.
FT

EU Supergrid

Sun, wind and wave-powered: Europe unites to build renewable energy "supergrid"
Business Green

Massive oil field discovery in North Sea

A collaboration of UK firms has made one of the largest North Sea oil field discoveries in nearly a decade, the Scotsman reported on Monday 28 June. It said the group––consisting of Encore Oil, Premier Oil, Wintershall, Nautical Petroleum and Agora Oil & Gas––estimated the Catcher prospect, off the east coast of Scotland, holds 300mn barrels of oil. Further drilling will confirm if the discovery is part of a single larger petroleum system, comprising 800mn barrels.
Scotsman

Europe moves closer to electric car infrastructure

Europe's carmakers moved a step closer creating an infrastructure for electric cars after agreeing on plug and socket standards for slow or overnight charging of the battery-driven vehicles due to hit roads from next year.
Reuters

Giant turbines could be the future of green energy

Large wind turbines with blades which “dwarf the London Eye” could be the future of green power, the BBC reported on Sunday 20 June. It said first generation of 10MW offshore wind turbines––named Britannia and designed by Clipper Windpower––was expected to be complete by 2012. Britannia design team project leader Bill Grainger said he saw no reason why offshore turbines should not get larger, as larger turbines make “economic sense”.
BBC

Firms paid to shut down wind farms

Energy companies could receive thousands of pounds to turn off wind turbines when there is periods of over supply. The first successful test shutdown of two wind farms took place on 30 May for a little over an hour during the night when demand was low compared to supply. Scottish Power received £13,000 for shutting down the two farms under the balancing mechanism.
Telegraph

Scotland could get 8% of power from waste

8% of Scotland’s electricity generation needs could be met through increased use of energy-from-waste. Quantifying the Contribution Energy-from-waste could Make to Scotland's Energy Needs said 25% of all waste produced could be burned to produce electricity and 12% could be used to produce electricity through anaerobic digestion.
Scottish Government

CAT outlines zero-carbon vision

The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) published its Zero-carbon Britain 2030 report, which examined how Britain could eliminate all emissions by 2030. It recommended: implementing a code for sustainable high-performance building refurbishments; setting a clear definition of zero-carbon; increasing public education; and setting a list of “European sustainability” measures to ensure a consistent approach across green industry.
CAT

CCS crucial for mitigating climate change, says IEA

The International Energy Agency (IEA)said that the G8 recommendation to launch 20 large-scale CCS demonstration projects by 2010 remains a challenge and will require that governments and industry accelerate the pace toward achieving this critical goal.

Renewable energy technologies, nuclear energy and CCS would “contribute significantly” to the least-cost route of reducing and stabilising atmospheric carbon levels.
IEA

Sustainability Survey Findings

Some key findings from the survey include:
• Almost nine in ten (88%) experts believe that improving sustainability performance leads to a stronger brand; only two percent of experts disagree.

• Just over half (55%) of experts say that integrating sustainability into a company’s brand image results in improved sustainability performance, while two in ten (19%) disagree. Corporate experts are more convinced that integrating sustainability into a company’s brand image improves its sustainability performance.

• Four in ten experts (43%) find that sustainable brand claims by companies are mostly “green washing”. Experts from the corporate sectors are much less likely to agree that sustainable brand claims are “green washing” than are experts from NGOs or institutions.
Sustainability.com

Iberdrola Renovables to invest €9bn in UK renewables

Iberdrola Renovables announced on Tuesday 8 June that it was to invest €9.1bn in new renewable energy projects, aimed at boosting growth in 2010-12. It said 21% of the investment had been ear-marked for UK investment, 55% had been allocated for US development, 11% for Spain and 13% for the rest of the world. The company said its goal was to attain an installed capacity of 16,000MW globally by 2012.
Iberdrola Renovables

Biogas company wins Centrica contract

Chesterfield BioGas (CBG), a division of Pressure Technologies, announced on Monday 7 June that it had secured a £0.6mn order from Centrica to upgrade the existing waste water treatment plant at Didcot to capture biomethane. It said processed biomethane from the new plant would be injected directly into the grid.
CBG

BSI launches carbon-neutral standard

The British Standards Institution (BSI) released a new specification designed to help businesses reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve “carbon-neutral” status. PAS 2060 aimed to allow businesses to meet their environmental and sustainability objectives while reassuring consumers that a company’s carbon-neutral claims are correct. It said the standard would improve transparency and promote competition between companies.
BSI

EU solar industry pledges research funding

The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) announced on Tuesday 1 June that it would provide €1,235mn funding to increase research and development in the solar industry. It said the money would ensure the solar industry “achieved competitiveness in all market segments” and enable solar to provide 12% of EU electricity demand by 2020. The Solar Europe Industry Initiative will be launched later today, Thursday 3 June.
EPIA

EU halfway to meeting emissions targets

EU member states are more than halfway towards meeting 2020 greenhouse gas targets according to the European Environment Agency (EEA). The Annual EU Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990–2008 and Inventory Report 2010, both published on Wednesday 2 June, said EU-27 emissions dropped 11.3% on 1990 while the EU-15 achieved a reduction of 6.9% on 1990. It added greenhouse gas emissions fell for a fifth consecutive year in 2008, dropping 1.9%.
EEA

Scotland studies CCS under Moray Firth

The Scottish Government has part-funded a £290,000 study with the energy industry to examine carbon capture and storage (CCS) capabilities in the Moray Firth, the Scotsman reported on Thursday 3 June. It said the study would examine the potential for CCS in the sandstone off the east coast of Scotland and would be conducted by the Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage, a partnership of the British Geological Survey and two Scottish universities.
Scotsman

Ecotricity delivers “green gas” to consumers

Green energy supplier Ecotricity announced on Tuesday 1 June that it had delivered the UK’s first “green gas” to consumers. It said the gas, made from composted organic waste using anaerobic digestion, had been added to its fuel mix after signing a deal with a plant in the Netherlands. The “green gas” is mixed with conventional “brown gas” in the grid and delivered to consumers.
Ecotricity

EU smart grid road-map

The European associations for transmission operators (ENTSO-E) and distribution operators (EDSO-SG) published on Thursday 27 May a road-map for developing the electricity grid to 2018. The European Electricity Grid Initiative Road-map 2010-18 focussed on system innovation rather than on technology innovation and addressed the challenge of integrating new technologies under real-life working conditions.
ENTSO-E

Electric Vehicles Report

Electric vehicles are only as 'green' as the electricity that charges their batteries, a report published today by the UK's leading engineers points out. In Electric Vehicles: charged with potential, The Royal Academy of Engineering identifies the serious challenge of ensuring that the electricity supply system can cope with charging tens of millions of vehicles whilst still reducing carbon emissions from power generation.
Royal Academy of Engineering