Around 250 onshore wind projects already in development are likely to be cancelled because the Government is ending subsidies which would aid their completion, Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has announced.
The cancellation of subsidies for onshore wind offered under the Renewables Obligation (RO) is likely to mean that 2,500 turbines which were due to be built are scrapped, Ms Rudd said.
She said consumer bills will not rise and insisted the move would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds in subsidies that would otherwise have been paid out to energy projects.
BP’s rating outlook has taken a hit in the wake of additional Macondo fines.
Fitch Ratings downgraded the industry giant’s default outlook from stable to negative. The firm cited outstanding fines and a dipped oil price for the slide.
A new material that could make wind turbines and even aircraft quieter by mimicking the design of owls’ wings that allows them to silently hunt their prey has been developed by scientists.
The Cambridge University-led Anglo-American team studied the feathers of the stealthy nocturnal airborne predators to produce the coating, due to be unveiled at a US conference today.
Because of the noise they make, wind turbines are often braked to make them turn more slowly and quietly, but the team behind the new material say that it could enable the machines to turn faster and boost their output without increasing noise as a side-effect.
Rejecting plans for test fracking in Lancashire would send a message that the county was not open for business and investment, a campaign group has warned.
Members of the North West Energy Task Force said it would be a missed opportunity to create jobs and “significantly” boost the local economy.
The coalition, which includes local businesses, academics, farmers and students, spoke out on the eve of the beginning of the decision-making process on proposals by shale company Cuadrilla for two sites between Preston and Blackpool.
Tullow Oil has agreed to pay out $250million following a tax dispute in Uganda.
The energy firm was locked in a court battle with the government of Uganda and the Uganda Revenue Authority ('URA') over its farm-downs with CNOOC and Total in 2012.
If there’s one thing Jimmy Milne has mastered during his 50 years in business it’s how to bounce back.
The serial entrepreneur has made and lost fortunes more times than he would like to admit.
In the latest instalment of The Journey, Energy Voice sat down with Milne in his home to chart the journey from a north-east farm boy to a three-time Queen’s Award recipient.
The word which screams at me when reading the responses to the Energy 2050: Securing our future's research on technology is “opportunity”! The concept is one thing. Exploiting it is another.
With most survey responders holding the view that the current supply / demand imbalance is set to continue in the medium term, and as a consequence the oil price will remain in the $60 - $100 per barrel range, reducing the costs of recovery, particularly in the North Sea basin, will remain the principal focus.
Nicola Sturgeon has described the UK Government’s decision to end subsidy payments for onshore wind farms a year early as “wrong-headed, perverse and downright outrageous”.
The planned closure of the onshore wind farm subsidy scheme threatens more than 100 future jobs at a development in rural Perthshire, as well as £10 million of investment at the site, according to industry figures.
The pope has issued a stark warning over the urgent need to tackle “extraordinary climate change and an unprecedented destruction of ecosystems“ in an eagerly-awaited message on the environment.
In the first papal encyclical Pope Francis has written, he said climate change was mostly down to human activity and policies were urgently needed to cut carbon emissions, such as by reducing fossil fuels and developing renewables.
The UK Government’s decision to end subsidy payments for onshore wind farms a year early could face a challenge in the courts.
Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing warned that scrapping the “renewables obligation” scheme could result in legal action being taken by the green energy sector.
Wood Group has agreed a six year deal with state-owned Saudi Aramco to establish an offshore engineering centre of excellence in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
Plans to end subsidies for new onshore wind farms will push up energy bills and could face judicial review, the Government has been warned.
Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has unveiled proposals to close the existing subsidies payment schemes a year early for new onshore wind projects, to fulfil a Conservation election manifesto promise.
The Tories claim the onshore turbines “often fail to win public support and are unable by themselves to provide the firm capacity that a stable energy system requires”.
The Government is to end new subsidies for onshore wind farms by closing the existing payments schemes a year early, it has announced.
The move aims to fulfil a Conservative promise ahead of the election on ending new public subsidies for onshore wind farms and changing the law so local people have the final say on them.
The Tories claim the onshore turbines “often fail to win public support and are unable by themselves to provide the firm capacity that a stable energy system requires”.
An independent report has confirmed Horse Hill’s reserves stand at 9.2billion of oil.
The area, which is near Gatwick Airport, has 9.2 billion barrels of oil in its 55 square mile perimeter.
This infographic shows growth in production on the UKCS after the discovery of oil in the North Sea 50 years ago.
Starting with BP’s West Sole platforms in the southern part of the North Sea in the late 1960s, oil rig sites continued to come online throughout the next two decades with other high profile sites such as Ardmore and the Forties oil field in 1975.
As the map illustrates, production reached its peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The premier league of global E&P has changed dramatically with the USA overtaking both Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's largest oil and gas producer in 2014. The last time the USA was the world’s largest oil producer was in 1975. The impact of this change will no doubt have profound implications in geopolitical terms.
So what about the UK’s position in the elite oil and gas premier league? According to the BP Statistical Review, the UK ranks now in the middle of the pack out of more than 50 countries in terms of oil and gas production in the global E&P table. The UK’s contribution has declined from c. 4% of the world’s production in 2000 to c. 1% in 2014. It is expected that the world’s oil and gas production will continue to grow over time to meet the ever increasing demand. With the UK’s production declining further in years to come, the UK may be relegated from the oil and gas premier league, unless we find ways to re-invigorate exploration, increase appraisal drilling and new field development activities in the UK.
An eagerly-awaited message from the Pope being formally published today is expected to warn of the urgent need to tackle “unprecedented” climate change and destruction of nature.
The papal encyclical, a letter sent to 5,000 Catholic bishops worldwide, is being published in five languages, and Pope Francis has said the document is “addressed to everyone”, not just the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.
A leaked draft of the encyclical, which appeared on the website of Italian news magazine L’Espresso in Italian earlier this week, indicates the pontiff will use it to spell out the moral and scientific case for protecting the environment.
Cutting public subsidies for onshore wind farms would result in job losses, rising energy bills and stranded communities, according to energy minister Fergus Ewing.
The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is expected to announce measures to deliver on the Conservatives’ manifesto pledge to end any new public subsidy for onshore wind farms.
Mr Ewing said he was concerned about reports that the new energy secretary Amber Rudd was considering closing the Renewables Obligation scheme - the main support for renewable electricity projects - a year early in 2016.
The move is opposed by the Scottish Government and the industry, which has said it is prepared to take legal action to fight “drastic and unfair” changes.
The UK Government should pledge not to increase taxes for the oil and gas industry for the next five years, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Scotland’s First Minister issued the demand at the annual Oil and Gas UK Conference in Aberdeen.
She outlined three changes that she believes the UK Government should make to the current fiscal arrangements for the industry, which has been hit by plummeting oil prices and job losses in recent months.
