New Scottish hydro scheme officially opens
A Scottish hydro power scheme which could produce enough power for over 800 homes each year has been officially opened.
Scotland
Windfarm site proposal at Mormond gets knock back
Plans to build a windfarm at a north-east landmark overlooking the home village of former first minister Alex Salmond have been rejected by the Scottish Government. Muirden Energy wanted to erect a dozen 326ft turbines on top of Mormond Hill – Buchan’s highest peak. But the proposals left people in Strichen outraged and were blocked by Aberdeenshire councillors. Now their decision has been upheld by Scottish Government planning reporters after the developer appealed against the local authority’s decision.
Pipeline supplier John Bell equipment strengthens presence in Scotland
John Bell Equipment has expanded its presence in Scotland with the opening of new offices in Grangemouth. The pipeline equipment supplier said the facility will be used by four members of the sales team who originally worked in a subsidiary of the company.
Investors look behind the scenes at Camco’s energy premises
Investors have been given the opportunity to look behind the scenes at Camco’s Jabil Circuit premises in Scotland. The company said production is well underway at the site in Livingston with 12 customer units being manufactured in parallel this year. This includes on 1.68MWh unit, one 240kWh unit and 10kWh units relating to REDT, which is Camco’s energy storage business.
North Sea jobs taskforce to continue work
A jobs taskforce set up to help North Sea workers whose jobs are under threat is to be continued “for the foreseeable future”, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced. The Scottish Government set up the Energy Jobs Taskforce in January after the sector was hit by the slump in oil prices. Initial plans were for the body, which brings together the industry, the public sector and trade unions, to be in place for six months. But Ms Sturgeon has announced it will continue to meet beyond its original six-month commitment. The First Minister said: “The Scottish Government is fully committed to the oil and gas industry; it has been a true success story and we are working to ensure it will continue to be so.
Sgurr Energy in jobs boost with China deal
Sgurr Energy has signed a deal worth several million pounds with Chinese lidar manufacturer Oasis. The agreement was announced as Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited Beijing. The company said the deal will complement their package of wind farm SgurrOptimiser services.
Private power lights up Scotland
The number of companies, farms and communities creating their own electricity has risen more than 50% in a year. Figures show 775 organisations have bought generating equipment in a bid to insulate themselves from rising energy costs and to reduce carbon emissions. The report by independent energy firm SmartestEnergy shows the number was just 509 in 2013.
INEOS boss insists Government ‘not against fracking’
The Scottish Government has given assurances that it is “not against fracking”, according to the boss of a firm which runs Scotland’s largest petrochemical plant. Jim Ratcliffe, the chief executive and chairman of Ineos, which runs the Grangemouth plant, has suggested an onshore shale gas industry could potentially be set up in Scotland within a few years, despite an indefinite moratorium on granting planning consent for fracking - the method of gas extraction. The firm has ambitions to establish a large-scale shale gas industry, having acquired fracking exploration licences across 700 square miles of central Scotland.
Emergency summit for onshore windfarms attended by hundreds of people
An emergency summit convened in the wake of Westminster’s decision to scrap a subsidy scheme for onshore wind farms was attended by more than 200 people, the Scottish Government said. Energy Minister Fergus Ewing organised the talks after the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced it would end payments under the Renewables Obligation a year early. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and others in the Scottish Government have already spoken out against the decision, which industry leaders Scottish Renewables fears could put up to £3 billion of investment in Scotland at risk.
Summit debates end of wind subsidy
Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing is to chair an emergency summit with the green energy sector today amid concerns about the impact of the UK Government’s decision to end a subsidy scheme for onshore wind farms.
Andrea Leadsom says wind farms ‘will not need subsidy’
Onshore wind farms could be built without any need for Government subsidies “in the near future”, energy minister Andrea Leadsom has said.
250 wind projects to be cancelled
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.
Wind subsidy axe ‘could cost jobs’
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.
OGUK Conference: Sturgeon plea over oil exploration
Nicola Sturgeon will today call on the UK Government to consult urgently on incentives to boost exploration in the North Sea. The First Minister will make the demand at the annual Oil and Gas UK Conference in Aberdeen. Figures show that North Sea exploration last year reached its lowest level in at least two decades, with 14 explorations wells drilled compared to 44 in 2008. The Scottish Government claims the Westminster Government has yet to deliver any follow up action after committing at the end of 2014 to further work on options for supporting exploration through the tax system.
Wind farms’ £8.8million community benefit
nd farms contribute almost £9 million a year to community projects across Scotland, new figures have shown. The amount of community benefit cash paid to local good causes from on-shore wind farms has now reached just over £8.8 million a year, according to Local Energy Scotland. Grants paid out under the scheme have helped with a wide range of projects, including sending members of a West Lothian dance school to the European Street Dance Championships in Germany. Payments also allowed a new community hall to be build in Daviot, Aberdeenshire, and to a thermal imaging camera so residents in the Sutherland area of the Highlands can see where extra insulation is needed.
Politicians hear Loch Ness turbines appeal
A conservation group has urged politicians to act to protect the country’s scenic Highlands from further wind-farm developments. The Friends of the Great Glen group says the Great Glen and Loch Ness area is under threat from a “multitude” of planning applications which could see the creation of hundreds of turbines and industrial infrastructure. The group, which has submitted a petition on the issue to the Scottish Parliament, argues that current planning processes do not afford the tourist destination with enough protection.
GE 2015: Shock as key players including Danny Alexander and Ed Balls lose their seats
The UK election has delivered an unexpected outcome, with Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron on course to stay in 10 Downing Street with a parliamentary majority. That’s partly because the Tories defeated Liberal Democrat lawmakers in England. In Scotland, where Ed Miliband’s Labour opposition has been dominant for a generation, the Scottish National Party is set to win nearly all 59 House of Commons seats. Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, lost the Twickenham district in southwest London he held since 1997. Tania Mathias, the Tory candidate, overcame a 12,140 majority to defeat Cable in one of the Liberal Democrats’ safest seats.
Plans by Global Energy for harbour rejected by Scottish Government
Global Energy, who own the Nigg Fabrication Yard, have had their plans for their own harbour rejected by the Scottish Government. They had put forward plans to create their own harbour at the entrance to the Cromarty Firth. However the Scottish Government threw out the bid on a legal technicality.
Opinion: Longannet closure….what about Iberdola’s broken promises?
Imagine an uninformed stranger arriving in Scotland and examining what passes for an energy policy. What conclusions would be reached about the self-contradictory, self-defeating chaos that has been achieved so far? On the one hand, we have a Scottish government which has made massive virtue out of a low-carbon energy policy, targeting a generation equivalent to 100% renewables. On the other, we have one of Europe’s most polluting power stations scheduled for near-imminent closure. Our passing stranger might reach one of two conclusions, or possibly both. First, the closure of Longannet is entirely consistent with the stated objectives of the current Holyrood administration.
Atlantis names Lockheed Martin as principal contractor to deliver turbine to MeyGen tidal power project
The majority owner of MeyGen, the world’s largest tidal stream energy project- based in Caithness, has extended a construction contraction with a global defence contractor for the delivery of one of the largest capacity single rotor turbines ever built. Atlantis’ new 1.5 megawatt AR1500 turbine will be built with the help of Lockheed Martin and is hoped to fulfil the company’s MeyGen project turbine supply obligations. The 18 metre rotor diameter AR1500 turbine, scheduled for delivery dockside in Scotland in 2016, will be one of the largest capacity single rotor turbines ever built.
Green energy centre funding secured
Funding has been secured for a £25 million green energy centre at St Andrews University which will create 225 jobs. It is hoped the site at Guardbridge will help regenerate part of north-east Fife, with apprenticeships and opportunities in the construction of the centre. The scheme is part of a drive by St Andrews to become the UK’s first carbon-neutral university.
MSPs to hold energy supply inquiry
A Holyrood committee is to hold an inquiry into the security of Scotland’s energy supply in the wake of news that Longannet power station is likely to close prematurely. MSPs on the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee will take evidence on the UK electricity market with a focus on supply, demand and the transmission network. It follows the announcement that the troubled coal-fired plant in Fife will “in all likelihood” shut by March 2016 after losing out on a short-term National Grid contract. Operator Scottish Power said the station has been under pressure from higher transmission charges to connect to the grid due to its location.
Skills Development Scotland targets energy sector recruits
More must be done to attract young people and women to work in Scotland’s energy industry, a new report concludes. Attracting new entrants will be key to ensuring the future of the country’s oil, gas and renewable sectors, according to Skills Development Scotland (SDS). It has published an updated skills plan for the industry, setting out priorities for developing the workforce against the backdrop of a fall in oil prices.
Energy firms’ capitalisation hit by oil price decline
The market capitalisation of Scotland’s oil and gas companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) fell by 31.9% to £373.5million as the sector was hit badly by the falling oil price during 2014. A report by accountants and business advisers BDO – entitled Drilling Down: an Overview of Performance and Prospects of AIM Oil and Gas Companies in 2014 – found that the UK sector market capitalisation fell by 44% in 2014 to £4.9billion. In Scotland there are four AIM-listed oil and gas companies accounting for 14.8% of the total number but constituting 36.2% of total market capitalisation.
Debate blows hot and cold over windfarms issue
A row broke out last night after a survey showed that the majority of people living in the north and north-east of Scotland support wind power. The industry claimed the results shot down the “vocal minority” of objectors who claim that most Scots are opposed to giant turbines dotting the countryside. But anti-windfarm campaigners said the findings had to be “taken with a bucket of salt” as they did not separate those who are “adversely affected”, mainly people living in rural areas and communities targeted by wind developers.