Can government stimulate investment in renewable energy generation by guaranteeing an electricity price for developers of sources such as wind and nuclear?
The UK government thinks it can, and recently introduced a long-awaited bill that would set a “strike price” for power generated by low-carbon producers, and recover the costs from consumers via electricity suppliers. Keep reading →
BP will pay a record U.S. fine to settle criminal claims arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a Department of Justice official said Thursday.
The European Union (EU) has the reputation of a bureaucracy awash in red tape. Yet when it comes to wind power, and above all onshore wind, its policies over the last decade have proven enormously effective getting this precocious branch of business in Europe on its feet – and even booming.
Despite an ongoing economic crisis, Europe’s wind power industry has flourished as few others, not least as a consequence of the EU targets, national action plans, and other framework regulation including carbon pricing. Keep reading →
Speakers representing a wide range of sectors, from academia to accounting, had similar views with regard to the importance of corporate social responsibility and renewable energy investments: These things matter now and will only become more important to shareholders and consumers in the future.
“In 5 to 10 years, it will be very difficult to sell products made from ‘black’ energy,” predicted Morten Albaek, Chief Marketing Officer for wind turbine manufacturer Vestas. Albaek was announcing the results of two new energy transparency studies being launched at the New York Bloomberg Tower on September 24th. The studies were released in Rio in August and London last week. Keep reading →
Energy supply will soon no longer be a commodity, exchangeable and undifferentiated. Transparency about methods of production combined with increased consumer enthusiasm for authentic ways of ensuring their habits don’t harm the planet will ensure a shift in how energy is made, consumed and tracked.
That’s the brave new world Morten Albaek envisions as he considers the “puzzle” that is the energy mix today. Albaek is Global Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Corporate Relations at Vestas, the Denmark-based world leading wind energy company, but his approach to the business of selling wind turbines to the world is based on a fundamental view of the sector’s place in history, and its development. Keep reading →
UK consumers care about price – that much is clear from the Vestas Global Consumer Wind Study 2012. And well they might. Government figures for 2011 show that the annual average electricity bill rose by £36 to £453 from the previous year.
It’s a trend that is never likely to be reversed. Electricity prices started to rise sharply from 2004 when the UK became a net importer of natural gas. Around 28% of the UK’s electricity fleet is gas-fired. This connection between fossil fuel imports and high energy prices is not lost on consumers – 77.5% of GCWS respondents expressed very high or moderately high levels of concern about dependency on fossil fuels. Keep reading →
Fast forward to a vision of Britain in the year 2020: 30% of the UK’s electricity demand will produce zero carbon; utilities will be settling balance sheets to the satisfaction of shareholders; investors will be counting a decent return on investment; government ministers will be celebrating the success of their policies; consumers will be paying reasonable rates to power and light their homes and businesses.
If a week is a long time in politics, eight years is a very short cycle in the energy industry and without an acceleration of government action, the UK is at risk of failing on its target of sourcing 15% of its demand from renewable sources. Every aspect of the dream scenario described above could be reversed. Keep reading →
Global investment in renewable energy capacity hit $237 billion in 2011, outpacing the $223 billion invested in new fossil fuel capacity globally, according to new data prepared by Bloomberg New Energy Finance for Vestas.
Moves by corporations to invest in renewable energy has the support of consumers as well, says a company data set – the Global Consumer Wind Study – also collected for Vestas and published as part of its Energy Transparency 2012 effort. Breaking Energy has partnered with Vestas on the Energy Transparency campaign as well. Read more about it here. Keep reading →
The full CREX 2012 and GCWS 2012 reports are available now http://bit.ly/U26R94 #energytransparency2012 Vestas
The UK has abundant wind resources from the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea that buffet the country’s coastlines, and despite current disagreement at the governmental level regarding renewable energy policy, a majority of people surveyed support greater renewable energy use over the next five years. Keep reading →
Jared Anderson
Conway Irwin
Peter Gardett