Amazing - a whole weekend without renewables or carbon capture in the papers

It seems that this whole weekend has gone by without any newspaper coverage on renewables or carbon capture...maybe it's all the budget coverage.

I'm sure it will be back on the agenda pretty soon.

Budget support for Carbon Capture and Storage

Interesting to see Gordon's announcement of a competition io develop the UK's first full-scale carbon capture and storage demonstration, with the intention of the UK emerging as a dominant force in this important sector

OpenHydro accelerates away from the crowd

While Lunar Energy may have announced a potential 8MW project with E.On, OpenHydro has made some real steps. It has already installed a full scale device in the water at EMEC, and has apparently signed contracts for two commercial projects.

The first to be announced is in the Bay of Fundy, legendary for its tides, where Nova Scotia Power has signed a contract for a demonstration project (http://www.nspower.ca/about_nspi/in_the_news/2007/01122007.shtml).

Then today, it announced that it's signed up with Alderney Renewable Energy (a company which has exclusive rights to Alderney's exceptional tidal resources) for the provision of tidal turbines there too (http://www.waterpowermagazine.com/story.asp?sectionCode=130&storyCode=2042899).

It seems that OpenHydro is really picking up the pace on commercial implementation of tidal technologies.

Lunar Energy announces 8MW project

It seems that tidal power is picking up some momentum, as Lunar Energy has announced an 8MW project in conjunction with E.On. The proposed project is planned to be deployed on the west coast of the UK and to involve 8 1MW tidal turbines.

But it's best not to get overly excited about any imminent tidal revolution. Although Lunar's project is the largest yet announced, it's important to recognise that Lunar has a number of important hurdles to jump before this project reaches fruition.

The key issues are:
Status of technology: Lunar has yet to build a full scale device, or test at any scale in the sea. These are non-trivial challenges.
Finance: It's not clear whether E.On will be funding the building of the Lunar prototype, or whether Lunar has to close a funding round before this can happen.
Competition: There's plenty out there, in the shape of Marine Current Turbines, Scottish and Southern Energy, SMD Hydrovision, Scotrenewables, Woodshed and others.

But good luck to Lunar for closing a deal with E.On, and let's hope they successfully complete the project.

Welcome to the Redfield Consulting Blog

Redfield Consulting is delighted to announce the launch of its blog, where we'll publish our thoughts on the renewables and carbon capture sectors.