UK renewable generation capacity reached 42.2GW in the three months to 30 June, up 10% year on year, according to government figures. Renewables generated 31.7% of all power generated, a record as a percentage of total generation, if not total output. Offshore wind drove more than half of the increase in capacity, and as a Read more…

Britvic has signed a four year contract with Eon that will see all of its GB sites powered by 100% renewable electricity. The drinks maker will also use Eon’s risk management service to take advantage of wholesale market opportunities while mitigating risk. Switching to renewable power should enable Britvic to save 17,000 tonnes CO2e per Read more…

ITM Power today officially opens its seventh public hydrogen refuelling station in Swindon. The eighth will follow at Gatwick within the next three months. The Swindon station, funded under European and UK initiatives, uses renewable electricity and water to generate hydrogen on-site, negating the need for gas deliveries. It is sited at Johnson Matthey, which Read more…

SSE is to buy Fluor’s 50% stake in its Seagreen offshore wind joint venture for £118m. Seagreen is located 15 miles east of Fife in the outer Firth of Forth. Consent to develop phase 1 – two 525MW wind farms – was granted in 2014. SSE plans to bump up the total to 1.5GW using bigger Read more…

Brunel University is developing ‘Lego-style’ snap together solar panels that harness heat pipes to generate both heat and power. The £10m project, funded under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, hopes to drive down cost and carbon while helping to heat and power domestic and non-domestic buildings. The modular PV panels – called PVadapt – incorporate Read more…

SSE expects profit for the six months to 30 September to be half that of the prior year. In a trading update, the firm blamed high gas prices and weather effects on renewables output. In July, SSE said it anticipated taking an £80m hit. That now looks more like £190m. It expects to post an Read more…

Renewables fund Thrive has made its first investment in heat pumps. The firm has put £350k into a scheme that funds and installs heat pumps into retirement homes and makes a guaranteed 20-year return from renewable heat subsidies. Rendesco this summer commenced work at its 55th site. It plans to deploy 100 by the time Read more…

A business park in Buckinghamshire is to build a 15MW solar PV park over 76 acres of its land. Westcott Venture Park’s owners, Rockspring, said they also plan to secure enough grid capacity to add battery storage to the site. According to the firm, it will enable Westcott to become the UK’s first carbon negative Read more…

John Laing Environmental Assets has acquired its fifth anaerobic digestion (AD) plant. The fund entered the AD market last August and now has 25MW, accounting for almost tenth of its renewable energy asset base. The company has indicated it will target AD in the hunt for better yields in the face of rising competition in Read more…

J-Power and Kansai Electric Power will take a 41% equity stake in Innogy’s Triton Knoll wind farm, being built around 20 miles of the Lincolnshire coast. The 860MW wind farm is expected to commission in 2021 and cost £2bn. Onshore work has already started, with offshore construction due to start next year. The project has Read more…

Next Energy Solar Fund has bought two portfolios of rooftop solar PV. Totalling 1.15MW across 282 roofs, the fund paid £3.6m. That represents a significant premium on NESF’s recent deals for ground-mount solar. Last month the firm acquired 10 solar farms with a total capacity of 66.8MW for £42.2m. The because the assets are mostly Read more…

Dalmore Capital and Equitix Investment Management are set to acquire the John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF) for £1.45bn following an offer made last month. Dalmore and Equitix currently manage about £6.5bn of UK assets, mostly for pension funds. JLIF has investments in numerous energy and infrastructure projects. It said the deal represents a 23.6% premium Read more…

UK renewable power generation output increased in 2017, driven largely by more wind power capacity and higher wind speeds. That led to renewables topping 29% of the generation mix, up from 24.5% in 2017, according to latest government data. Renewable generation capacity now tops 40GW. The UK’s high carbon price continues to drive coal off Read more…

West Sussex County Council has appointed Anesco to provide operations and maintenance across its solar PV portfolio. The authority has a mix of commercial and domestic PV as well as solar farms and plans to install panels at a further 60 schools. It has also recently developed a large scale battery storage project – and Read more…

Government has confirmed that the next contracts for difference (CfD) auction will take place in May 2019, with auctions to follow every two years. The aim is to deliver between 1GW and 2GW of offshore wind throughout the 2020s, said Beis, with other less mature technologies also able to bid for support contracts. The government Read more…

Warm, still weather and high gas prices hit SSE’s operating profits for the three months to 30 June. The company said while warmer than average temperatures (1.5 degrees centigrade higher than the 30 year average) led to higher snow melt and increased hydro output 25% year-on-year, hydro generation was still 20% lower than expected. Warm Read more…

John Laing Infrastructure Fund is mulling a takeover offer from Dalmore Capital and Equitix Investment Management. The listed fund, which has investments in numerous hospitals and local authority projects, said the offer would represent a 21% premium on its share price at close of trading Friday, valuing the deal, should it go ahead at around Read more…