UK Energy, The Blog!

Well, SSE (owner of gas and electric suppliers Southern Electric, Scottish Hydro Electricty, Swalec and Atlantic) has certainly been keeping itself in the headlines over the last couple of days fo all sorts of reasons. Here's a quick summary of all thats been happening (deep breaths):

• Announced half-year profits of £410m (a rise of 36%)
• 600,000 new customers
• Despite this price cuts not likely
• Likely to bid for the electricity network controlled by EDF
• OFGEM not likely to approve, partnership possibility with Canadian company Borealis
• Plans to develop UKs biggest ever Carbon Capture trial facility
• Announced that its Glendoe hydro scheme will not be operational until 2011 due to tunnel collapse
  
• Two new planning applications will be submitted for hydro electric schemes at Coire Glas Loch Lochy and Balmacaan at Loch Ness

.......And breathe!

I think that just about covers it!

This June, HRH The Queen officially opened the Scottish and Southern Energy Glendoe Hydro Power Scheme, based near Fort Augustus, Loch Ness. This is the first conventional (large scale) hydro power station to be built to generate Scotland electricity for fifty years. The engineering that has went into creating this facility is quite stunning - over 17km of tunnels have been dug under the Monadhliath mountains.

Here is a video explaing the process behind Glendoe:

The 100MW scheme began generating electricity at full output in December 2008, (2 months ahead of schedule). Sadly, due to an unfortunate blockage, the Glendoe scheme is currently under maintainance. This is expected to be resolved by early 2010.

You can keep up to date with the latest developments at the Glendoe official website.

There have been two significant developments in the research field in Scotland and Wales over the past couple of weeks.

Firstly, the Welsh Government announced that it was ploughing £34m into the The Low Carbon Research Institute Energy programme. The aim of this is to develop sustainable products and technologies which will help contribute to Welsh Assembly targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions utilising the Welsh university knowledge base and helping industry develop new products, technologies and services, turning them into commercial reality.

Professor Phil Jones, Head of Cardiff University's Welsh School of Architecture and Chair of the Low Carbon Research Institute (LCRI) said: “The LCRI Convergence Energy Programme is a unique collaboration of Welsh Universities partnering local industries to provide a comprehensive cross disciplinary energy research base to support the Welsh Assembly Government's low carbon policies.

"It will significantly add to the LCRI's research capacity to establish Wales as an international leader in low carbon research."

Meanwhile up in Scotland, Scottish and Southern Energy announced that it was to partner with Strathclyde University to create CEERE - the Centre of Engineering Excellence for Renewable Energy. The Scottish Government will be investing £2.8m into this scheme, which it is hoped will create 250 jobs and help to ehance Scotlands standing in the renewables research field.

SSE Manging Director Ian Marchant:

“Our Centre of Excellence which will be known as CEERE will play a crucial part in helping SSE to realise its renewable energy goals in the UK, Ireland and elsewhere in Europe, helping to secure energy supplies and contributing to the development of a lower carbon economy.

"Having considered all of the options in mainland Europe, Ireland and the UK, we have settled on Glasgow as the best location for CEERE, and the city’s own sustainable energy ambitions also make it a very appropriate choice.

“Working with the University of Strathclyde, and with the support of the Scottish Government, we will create and secure several hundred skilled jobs for Scotland.

“Scotland’s ambition to become a leader in renewable energy is well known and we are delighted to be making this investment in Scotland. We’re very positive about the prospects for creating new jobs to harness Europe’s renewable energy resources and the potential make a significant contribution to the achievement of Scotland’s ambitions.”

These both seem like exciting research investments for both countries - we will be watching developments from each with great interest.

One of the things that we love about the Green energy sector is that there is always something happening - good or bad! Here are our top green stories of 2009 so far, they range from the humourous and light-hearted to deadly serious - hopefully there is some thing of interest for you here!

• The World's Worst Man-Made Eco Disasters - An excellent, if sobering, photo article from Newsweek
• The Problem with the US Energy Grid - The picture says it all, well written artivle too from Good

Uspowermap

There is a rather important vote happening in the Scottish Parliament tomorrow. MSPs are set to decide on the Climate Change (Scotland) Bill (SP Bill 17)  which will set out some ambitious emissions targets for the country.

The principal aims of the the bill are outlined as follows............

• Reduce Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050
• 34 per cent emissions reductions by 2020, rising to at least 42 per cent if the EU commits to 30 per cent reductions by 2020;
• Framework of annual targets; and
• Emissions from international aviation and international shipping

The vote itself is thought to be extremely close, with one or two votes expected to be critical to whether the bill goes through.

You can see the full bill for yourself here.

We'll have an update with the result as soon as it come through.