An open letter to the PM: Britain must build Sizewell C — nuclear sits at the heart of a green recovery July 12, 2020 An open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, business secretary Alok Sharma, and chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak We are writing as engineers, nuclear experts, scientists and concerned citizens to applaud your commitment to fighting climate change through energy policy, in particular the commitment to proceed with new nuclear construction at the same time [...]
Ofgem to bring in new checks on energy suppliers June 25, 2020 The UK’s energy watchdog will put in place more stringent checks on the country’s energy suppliers after a spate of collapses over the last two years. Ofgem today laid out a new set of proposals to increase scrutiny on the domestic market, having already set out tougher regulations for new entrants to the sector. A [...]
Global energy investment set to slump by record $400bn in 2020 May 27, 2020 Global energy investment is expected to suffer its greatest annual fall on record this year due to the coronavirus crisis. Investment is set to crash by $400bn (£325bn) — or 20 per cent — in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). At the start of the year, funding was on track for a [...]
Environmental taxes: Will the Chancellor break with history, raise fuel duty and go further? March 6, 2020 | City Talk Looking to the manifesto, it would be hard to predict what the Budget would contain on environmental taxes. In common with the other main political parties, there were few direct commitments among the rhetoric. Beyond a statement on plastics packaging tax, we saw only a promise to “prioritise the environment in the next Budget, investing [...]
Businesses urged to fight climate change and cut costs March 3, 2020 Businesses will be required to submit data on their carbon emissions, alongside their accounts, for the first time. The Streamlined Energy & Carbon Reporting requirements (SECR) will take affect for 12,000 companies whose financial year’s started on or before 1 April 2019 The government argues cutting the 30 per cent of annual greenhouse gas emissions [...]
UK government to allow new onshore wind farm subsidies March 2, 2020 Onshore wind farms will be eligible for subsidies for the first time since 2016 from next year. This was announced with details on the next stage of the Contracts for Differences scheme which launches next year. However, the government has stressed new projects in England will only go ahead with the consent of local communities. [...]
Energy complaints only the tip of the iceberg February 27, 2020 The true scale of customer dissatisfaction with the energy sector has been significantly underestimated, according to a new survey. Research by consumer group Which said if every consumer with a grievance against their supplier complained, the number submitted would be around 6.9m. One reason for this figure is disillusioned customers do not want to make [...]
UK power storage firm wins £35m investment from Japanese tech giant February 25, 2020 A UK company developing technology to store power more efficiently has won a key investment from a Japanese technology firm. Highview Power, which plans to store renewable energy by using liquid air announced the $46m (£35m) investment from Sumitomo Heavy Industries today. The money will be used to help export the “CRYOBattery” technology around the [...]
Only five car battery tech patents filed from the UK in 2019, says BDO February 24, 2020 A record number of patents were filed in 2018/2019 as countries race to develop electric car batteries – but data suggests the UK is falling behind when it comes to the automotive technology. Advisory firm BDO has found 3,400 battery patents were filed in this period, a 57 per cent increase on the year before [...]
We’ve got the power: Decarbonising our transport on the road to a greener nation February 21, 2020 The government will soon publish its strategy on cutting emissions from cars, trains, boats and planes — and already the transport secretary has suggested that sales of combustion and hybrid vehicles could be banned from 2035. Change comes with questions. For example: how clean is our electricity? And can Britain’s energy infrastructure meet the demand [...]