A renewable-energy leader yesterday stressed the importance of accurately valuing projects to ensure investor confidence.
Jonathan Cole, speaking at a business breakfast which opened the first day of All-Energy 2013, added that now was the time to enter the renewables market.
The managing director of offshore wind at Iberdrola, which owns Scottish Power, said one of the problems facing the offshore wind sector in particular was outdated project figures.
Mr Cole said: “One of the big problems we’ve got is that we use four-year-old figures.
“We need to define the value of the market in a much more realistic way.”
He added that the Offshore Wind Programme Board would be publishing updated information on offshore wind for the market this June.
The UK is now the offshore wind priority for Spanish utility firm Iberdrola, with 42% of group investment in offshore wind spent in British waters.
UK offshore wind investment will see an increase in activity from 2017, with about three gigawatts being added a year over the following three years, according to Mr Cole.
As the UK Government finalises its energy market reform (EMR) to guarantee power generation for the future, renewables is taking its place as a key part in the country’s energy mix.
Mr Cole added: “In the UK we do have a very stable regulatory platform.
“By the middle of this year, we’ll see what our EMR tariff will be until at least 2019.
“Its a longer-term view than we have in other markets.”
Neil Kermode (pictured), managing director of the European Marine Energy Centre, in Orkney, also spoke at the breakfast saying that confidence in tidal and wave power was up.
He added that the centre had already brought in around £40million of investment to the islands, with more than 900 vessel movements over the past year in the Orkney harbour.
Recommended for you
