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AR5: a turning point for tidal stream?
Richard Arnold, policy director at the Marine Energy Council, welcomes the success of tidal stream energy in the latest Contracts for Difference auction and urges the government to maintain the momentum by providing more ring-fenced funding and setting a long-term target for deployment.
Opinion
No offshore wind in fifth CfD round
No offshore wind projects are included in the latest Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction, the official results of the fifth allocation round have confirmed. There had been widespread speculation that offshore wind developers had shunned the process because of the government's failure to recognise soaring costs by raising the cap on strike prices. It has led to accusations that ministers have undermined their own target of generating 50GW of offshore wind by 2030.
News
CfD boost is ‘too little, too late’
The government’s £22 million increase in the budget for the next Contracts for Difference allocation round does not go far enough to restore confidence to renewable developers hit by soaring costs. This is the view of experts who told Utility Week the latest allocation round lacks ambition and fails to account for the 20% to 40% increase in costs facing developers.
News
‘Not a single person in supply chain’ thinks UK will hit net zero targets
Not a single person in the supply chain believes UK net zero targets will be achieved. That is the damning conclusion of the Energy Industries Council’s (EIC) annual Survive & Thrive report into global energy supply chains. Based on the views of 96 supply chain bosses, the EIC report concludes that “widespread delays in project funding strongly signposts that the UK is not going to meet its legally binding 2050 net zero target, and neither will Scotland meet its 2045 target”.
News
Drax gets green light for pumped storage hydro plant
The Scottish Government has formally approved Drax’s plans for a £500 million underground pumped storage hydro plant. The plant will be located on the site of the Cruachan Power Station in Argyll. It will be the UK’s first new pumped hydro storage power station in almost 40 years.
News
Government urged to make tidal stream a ‘strategic priority’
Tidal stream power should be a strategic priority for the UK, a leading climate change expert has urged. Lord Stern – who chairs the London School of Economics’ Grantham Institute of Climate Change – made the remarks in the university’s report on the UK’s sustainable energy opportunities. In particular, the report says the UK has an opportunity to take a lead in rolling out tidal stream technology with the potential to deliver 100GW of electricity worldwide.
News
SSE to pay out almost £10m over excessive ESO payments
SSE is facing a penalty of almost £10 million after it secured excessive payments from National Grid Electricity System Operator during periods of transmission constraint. The proposed £9.78 million payout relates to an investigation by Ofgem into SSE Generation’s Foyers pumped storage power station, located on the banks of Loch Ness in Northern Scotland.
News
Wales launches tidal lagoon challenge despite past woes
The Welsh Government has launched a tidal lagoon challenge, putting up £750,000 to fund at least three research projects. The funding will be used, in part, to address barriers that have prevented previous schemes being developed such as the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon.
News
SSE pumps £100m into Coire Glas hydro storage scheme
SSE has committed £100 million to develop plans for its Coire Glas pumped hydro storage scheme, despite lack of certainty from government over a long-term funding mechanism. The £100 million will be used to fund the next phase of detailed design and refinement, with construction procurement due to progress throughout the year.
News
CfD budget ‘sends the wrong investment signals’
The government has set a budget of £205 million for the first annual Contracts for Difference (CfD) allocation round. However, groups including RenewableUK and the Marine Energy Council have been critical of the way funds are being allocated, saying the budget and parameters are "too low and too tight" to unlock the necessary investment.
News
‘National war effort’ needed on energy efficiency
The government has been urged to set a target of one million energy efficiency installations a year by 2025, rising to 2.5 million per annum by the end of the decade. The challenge is set out in the conclusion of an inquiry by the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), which also called on the government to “urgently bring forward” measures to incentivise energy efficiency via the mortgage market.
News
Offshore wind moved into mature technologies CfD pot
Offshore wind will compete against onshore wind and solar in the pot 1 auction for established technologies in the next Contracts for Difference (CfD) allocation round launching in March. The auctions will return to a two-pot structure for the fifth allocation round, which will be the first to be held on annual basis as announced by the government in February.
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