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Pennon has acquired three solar PV generation sites that will add around 95GWh of renewable energy to the company's portfolio. This equates to 40% of Pennon's electricity usage as it works towards a target of 50% renewable self-generation as part of net zero ambitions.
1 year ago
The government pledge to develop 50GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 would be very difficult under the Large Onshore Transmission Investment regime, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks has said. The network operator said it strongly supported the Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework as an alternative because it enables a tranche of transmission projects to be fast-tracked.
The UK government has confirmed that conversations are ongoing about the sale of the Wylfa nuclear site. The site on Ynys Mon has been earmarked by the government as a prospective site for housing one of the next generation GW scale nuclear power plants.
The first end-to-end transactions of flexibility services for the ESO’s Local Constraint Market have been heralded as a success. A “world-first” trial saw households in Scotland increase their energy consumption to keep wind turbines online. The trial, led by Piclo, saw customers paid to turn-up their low carbon flex assets including heat pumps, electric vehicle chargers and electric heating.
The government has blocked proposed rule changes which would provide community renewable schemes with a guaranteed level of financial support, heeding Energy UK calls that the proposal needs to be better thought through. The committee of MPs currently scrutinising the government's Energy Bill voted to remove an amendment introduced by the House of Lords, which would have enabled community energy projects to benefit from a minimum export guarantee scheme.
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.
A rise in overall emissions in Scotland in 2021 meant the country missed its government’s greenhouse gas target, according to new official statistics. That is despite a large emissions reduction in energy, which was down by 0.5MtCO2e.
A heavyweight committee of MPs has expressed scepticism about the credibility of government plans for expanding low carbon generation. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has warned that the lack of an overarching delivery plan jeopardises government’s challenging ambition to decarbonise the power sector by 2035.
Sir Keir Starmer has promised to set new rules for Contracts for Difference (CfD) auctions as part of plans for an incoming Labour government to “throw everything” at decarbonising the UK’s power system by 2030. As part of Labour’s "national mission" on clean energy, Starmer said the party would link access to public investment and subsidies, such as those on offer for low carbon energy projects via CfD auctions, to factors like job quality, wages, and access to trade unions.
The UK cannot hope to match the US with subsidies to lure green energy investors but can make itself more attractive by offering slicker processes, Keith Anderson has said. The Scottish Power CEO responded to widely held concerns that the tax breaks and subsidies on offer in the US government’s Inflation Reduction Act will lead to the UK missing out on renewables investment.
EDF will lead a study exploring the value of introducing space-based solar power into the UK’s grid. It is one of eight projects to win government funding to develop space-based solar initiatives. Other winning projects include Cambridge University, who will develop ultra-lightweight solar panels to be connected to satellites that can function in the high-radiation conditions of space, and Queen Mary University in London, who are working on a wireless system to enable the solar power collected in space to be transferred to earth.