UK

Studies Show UK Corporations and Consumers Value Renewable Energy

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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 →

 /  Published September 18, 2012 at 2:30 PM

UK Wind Energy: Business Leadership and Green Growth

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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 →

 /  Published September 17, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Energy Transparency Studies Released

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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 →

 /  Published September 14, 2012 at 2:00 PM

The full CREX 2012 and GCWS 2012 reports are available now http://www.vestas.com/en/media/news/news-display.aspx?action=3&NewsID=3150#.UFMpN2zUWXE.twitter #energytransparency2012 #vestas

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The full CREX 2012 and GCWS 2012 reports are available now http://bit.ly/U26R94 #energytransparency2012 Vestas

 /  Published September 14, 2012 at 10:30 AM

Wind Energy Works for an Island Nation: A Wind Power Infographic

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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 →

 /  Published September 14, 2012 at 9:45 AM

It’s a Crucial Time for Renewables…Let’s Seize the Opportunity

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Over the past 18 months, renewable energy has often been the subject of regular attacks in the media, on often shaky grounds, arguing that renewables are and will always be too expensive, they don’t work and people don’t like renewable energy anyway. However, these attacks are at odds with what’s actually happening on the ground.

Not only do the results of the Global Consumer Wind Survey that has just been released by Vestas and TNS show that an increasing number of consumers want renewable energy, there have also been some very positive developments of late on the costs of these technologies. Whilst the cost of many renewable technologies are still high, several technologies like onshore wind and solar PV are rapidly reducing in costs (by 50% alone in 2011 for solar PV according to the Pew Centre) and many other less mature technologies like offshore wind could soon follow this trend. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 12, 2012 at 2:00 PM

UK Energy Policy: When Will the Chancellor Listen to Consumers?

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David Cameron’s promise within his first month as UK prime minister to be “greenest government ever” looks at risk of derailment – by his own Chancellor, George Osborne.

Conservatives and Liberal Democrats appeared to carry over the political consensus on action on climate change and a switch to renewable energy. But what began as an ideological rift in the British Cabinet has become a very public clash between the Tory chief at the Treasury and the Lib-Dem boss at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 11, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Wind Energy Central to UK Power Supply Outlook

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A windswept archipelago that bears the brunt of Atlantic storms, with a dense and growing population: Britain’s conditions are perfect for an industry with a stable future.

In addition to its natural resources, the UK’s energy economics create good market potential for renewables: high retail electricity prices, Europe-wide natural gas prices of around €15 per mmbtu, energy security concerns, an aging nuclear fleet and environmental restrictions on shale gas. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 10, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Energy Transparency London

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The voluntary markets for renewable energy procurement have grown briskly in recent years but there has been little transparency about their size or who is participating. The Corporate Renewable Energy Index (CREX) – compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance on behalf of Vestas Wind Systems, aims to fill this gap by ranking the renewable energy activities of corporations in the U.K. and worldwide. The report represents the most comprehensive study on corporate renewable energy procurement.

Join us as we reveal new insights critical to sustaining a competitive corporate advantage: Keep reading →

 /  Published September 6, 2012 at 12:24 PM

Cleantech IT Revolution Sweeps Number 10 Downing Street

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Luke Nicholson takes a late and frugal lunch of soup and bread in the fourth-floor conference room of a former fabric warehouse in London’s East End. The walls are thinly-painted brick, the floors are bare wooden planks, and there’s a visible gap by a nearby window frame, letting air and light in through a place they shouldn’t go.

It’s an unlikely setting for Nicholson’s company Carbon Culture, a cutting-edge clean-tech startup that writes software to monitor energy consumption, expenditure and carbon emissions in eight U.K. government departments, and is about to roll its product out to the private sector. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 2, 2012 at 8:30 AM
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