Offshore wind has propelled Danish energy company Dong to an a record breaking operating profit in 2015 of £1.8billion as the company signalled its intention to shift its focus from oil and gas to renewables.
Aberdeen oil supply specialist First Integrated is setting its sights on diversifying beyond the North Sea in 2016 after enduring a tough 2015.
Renewables firm Welink Global has signed a £1.1billion agreement with a Chinese firm to develop solar power projects and energy-efficient housing in the UK
Scottish small-wind turbine manufacturer Gaia-Wind has sold its first turbines to Japan just weeks after establishing own local subsidiary.
Vattenfall expects to be able to build offshore wind power projects without subsidies by 2025, according to a senior company official.
The slump in oil prices that’s brought upheaval and cost cutting to the traditional energy industry spared renewables such as solar and wind, which raked in a record $329.3 billion of investment last year.
Scottish renewable energy consultancy, SgurrEnergy, has opened an office in Mexico City to support the Americas' growing green power sector.
Scotland should set a new “ambitious” target of generating half of its total electricity, heat and transport demand from renewables by 2030, according to campaigners. It would require a threefold increase in current green energy generation, Scottish Renewables said as it launched a “manifesto” for political parties to adopt ahead of May’s Holyrood election.
GE Power Convention is stepping up its presence in the renewables sector in China. The company recently signed a deal which will see it equipping Sewind’s offshore wind turbines with its 4MW fully fed LV3 wind converters.
Construction has begun on Scotland’s largest solar farm on the Errol Estate in Tayside.
Lack of UK Government support for the renewables sector has led UK investment firm TRIG to invest £42million in a French solar project.
The 270-megawatt Hornsdale Wind Farm, under construction about 220km north of Adelaide, has won a contract to deliver an additional 100 megawatts of power to the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).
Record-low coal prices and increased wind and solar generation that pushed European power prices to their lowest in a decade may cause further declines in 2016. Average day-ahead electricity prices in Germany, Europe’s biggest market, fell 3.2 percent to 31.70 euros ($34.65) per megawatt-hour in 2015, the least since 2004 on the Epex Spot SE exchange in Paris before the last auction later Wednesday. Northwest Europe coal fell 33 percent while the share of Germany’s energy demand met by renewable output increased by four percentage points to 30 percent, according to preliminary figures by utility lobby BDEW.
Communities across Scotland received a record sum of more than £10million from green energy projects in 2015, the country’s energy minister said yesterday. Fergus Ewing said it had been a “bumper year” for community energy, but anti-wind farm campaigners said the sum was unimpressive when stacked up against the profits raked in by multi-national energy firms. Green energy production is growing north of the border. According to new figures, Scotland reached its target for community or local ownership projects five years early.
The Scottish Government said the renewables industry has helped to put £10million back into the Scottish community following a record year. Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said there were now more than 150 projects on the community renewables register with millions of pounds paid out to communities from renewables developments. Meanwhile a target for community or local ownership of renewables was met five years early, with 508MW of capacity now operational.
Take a look back at some of the biggest stories affecting the renewables industry across the globe.
Vattenfall is in the midst of a restructuring after being hit by massive write-downs in the value of its traditional generation business as well as a fall in energy prices. The utility, which is wholly owned by the Swedish state, was affected by £3billion write-downs on its coal and gas-fired assets in Europe in 2013.
The Government has been accused of “huge, misguided cuts” to clean energy after it announced reductions of almost two-thirds to subsidies for solar panels on homes.
The European Commission has approved state aid compensation for energy intensive industry which is estimated to be worth £300 million a year, including £45 million to steel companies.
Subsidies for small scale solar panels on homes are to be cut by 64%, the Government has announced. Reductions in payments under the “feed in tariff” scheme for energy generated by new small scale renewables are not as severe as originally proposed in the summer, when ministers floated an 87% cut for domestic solar electricity.
Construction work has begun on Scotland’s largest solar park project, New Mains of Guynd, following a £10million investment.
Researchers are developing software to dramatically cut maintenance costs for offshore wind turbines. With tough North Sea conditions, a large percentage of lifetime outgoings for offshore windfarms are associated with maintenance.
Renewables are beating fossil fuels on cost in island nations from the Pacific to the Caribbean, where governments are seeking to limit their exposure to volatile market prices. “We’re so far-flung from the sources of fossil fuels that by the time they reach us, with all the shipping, you pay a substantial cost,” said Tommy Remengesau, the president of Palau, whose nation is located almost 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) east of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean. “It’s an economic advantage for us to go for renewables.”
GCube has signed a deal with Xcel Energy for a 200MW wind energy project in North Dakota. The company, which acts as an underwriter for renewable energy initiatives, will be providing insurance for all construction risks. The development in Courtenay, North Dakota, forms part of plans to expand its wind portfolio by around 40% and is expected to add a further 1.9GW of wind throughout their service territory over the next few years.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd has warned that all countries will need to make compromises as the high level part of crucial United Nations climate talks get under way.