Shopping vouchers for householders who recycle

Householders in England are to receive shopping vouchers and loyalty rewards for recycling, thanks to a £5 million fund. It is intended to increase recycling rates and encourage more councils to switch back from fortnightly to weekly bin collections. Councils that offer the latter service can bid for a share of the cash to increase […]

GDF Suez wins £90m for UK wind, sells 50% share

French power producer GDF Suez has raised £90 million for its UK wind assets and also sold half its share from its portfolio. The company won a 14-year financing from Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubihi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Germanys KfW. It has also sold 50% of its 70MW wind assets – which includes seven […]

Bike-mad actors bag green Edinburgh award

An acting troupe has just won a round of green applause – for cycling 2,000 miles between theatres. Four performers in The HandleBards bagged the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award for their green tour. By cycling around Europe and the UK to perform Shakespeare’s ‘Comedy of Errors’ and ‘Macbeth’ rather than driving, it’s estimated […]

Siemens suspends work on tidal array in Wales

Siemens has suspended work on its 10MW tidal array project in Wales. The news comes after the UK Government withdrew a £10 million grant pledged to the company’s subsidiary Marine Current Turbines (MCT) earlier this year. This was said to be due to delays in securing matched private sector funding. MCT had started developing the […]

Ofgem sums “big time wrong” on supplier costs

Energy watchdog Ofgem was slammed for getting its sums “big time wrong” today by the boss of trade body Energy UK. Yesterday the regulator published data showing suppliers’ profits were less than £1 per household per week last year. This was totted up from historical average of bills, costs and profits reported by larger suppliers. […]

UK gas system opened 18mcm long today

The gas system in the UK opened “a whopping” 18 million cubic meters (mcm) long as demand continues to be below seasonal normal levels. That’s according to the daily market report from npower, which notes gas demand stands at just around 144mcm. Prompt markets are expected to “drop off” this morning and so far day-ahead […]

Samoa opens first wind farm

Samoa officially opened its first wind farm today. Slap bang on the Samoan island of Upolu, home to nearly three quarters of the population, the wind farm will supply 1,500 MWh of power per year. The country which broke away from New Zealand in 1962 paid for the project through a $50 million fund specifically […]

ExxonMobil to pay $1.4m for oil spill

ExxonMobil has agreed to pay a $1.4 million (£0.8m) fine following an oil spill in the US two years ago. The penalty is for an alleged violation of the Clean Water Act stemming from the spill of at least 2,800 barrels from the North Line near Torbert, Louisiana, the US Department of Justice and the […]

The Daily Market Report – 29th August 2014

Find out what’s influencing gas supply, power prices and what you should watch out for in the new daily market report on the energy market from Tim Carter, Client Portfolio Manager on the Optimisation Desk at npower.

EU say Goodbye Putin? “Little chance” on the gas front

For all its talk of breaking away from Russian gas the European Union has “little chance” of cutting its reliance, reckons the ratings agency Fitch. The analysis suggests EU bigwigs’ recent comments about energy security is grandstanding. Europe may be able to avoid significantly increasing its gas purchases from Russia “at best”, according to a Fitch report […]