Energy networks

Scottish island wind boost ‘not enough’ for embattled Lewis link

DECC renewables forecast falls ten per cent

Centrica scraps ‘uneconomic’ gas storage plans

DNOs could face Competition Commission over power connections

Liberal Democrats plug smart grids

ETI offers £20m to develop CCS on gas plants

Lib Dems back new nuclear and fracking

SSE predicts distributed generation surge

Prove it

Interactive map shows carbon storage sites

Davey makes the case for environmentally-friendly shale

Fly-tipping threatens power supplies

The big picture: growing strains

Iceland interconnector could undercut UK offshore wind

Sewerage is an asset, not the solution to a problem

Since privatisation, the logic of an integrated clean and dirty water enterprise structure has dominated in the water sector. This was underpinned by the logic of scale economies, so necessary to utilities originating in a public service ethos. Is that about to change? In the "dustbin" solid waste economy, disposal taxes will have increased the upper price ceiling of waste disposal from £7 per tonne in 1997 to £100 in 2013, powering a veritable explosion of new entrants offering alternatives to landfill. Unsurprisingly, this is creating a loop back to technology innovation embracing new bio, thermo, chemical and mechanical applications able to prosper at these higher rates of reward. The stimulus is not just fiscal, however.