admin, Author at News and Events

Renewable subsidies destroyed the UK electricity market?

19 March 2015 admin 0

A couple of days ago, The Centre for Policy Studies released a report titled: Central Planning with Market Features: how renewable subsidies destroyed the UK electricity market. (You can read the report here). The UK press jumped onto this story and it's fair to say I agree with the findings of the report. I have known the root cause of the problem with renewable subsidies for a while: How can solar power really work in the UK market? We don’t get much sun anyway (when it’s not cloudy) and you never really know when it’s not going to be cloudy, which [...]

Electricity markets and politics appear complicated?

17 March 2015 admin 0

You’d be forgiven for thinking that green energy, electricity markets and politics appear complicated. A couple of weeks back we saw Greenpeace criticising the UK Government’s UK Export Finance scheme’s decision to loan $1bn in funding packages to a deal including Pemex (the Mexican oil group) calling the coalition government's green credentials into doubt. Last week German electricity giant (and UK ‘big six’ energy supplier) E.ON posted record annual losses blaming subsidised wind and solar for the downward trend in wholesale electricity prices. But we also know the EIS / SEIS tax breaks for investors that [...]

Building renewable energy in Colombia and Panama

5 March 2015 admin 0

Good news from Solar 350 this week as NASDAQ listed Chinese renewables investors gave the "green light" for two of our 100MW solar development projects in the S. Atacama desert, Chile. (You can learn more about this project in detail in our EIS Investors section here). Never satisfied, Solar 350's MD Nick Dimmock set off on a mini trade mission to explore further opportunities for building renewable energy in Colombia and Panama. His visit was hot on the heels of Ken Clarke (former UK Chancellor and Justice Minister) who is very keen to help UK companies take advantage of these [...]

CfD auction results: a ROC and a hard place

3 March 2015 admin 0

Last week the UK Government announced the winners (and losers) in the UK’s first Green Energy CfD (Contracts for Difference) auction. This will be remembered as a turning point in green energy policy, the landmark beginning-of-the-end of indirect subsidies. In total, around £4bn has been awarded to 27 green energy projects (compared to £16bn spent in the old indirect subsidy schemes last year). It is being presented as a win for the consumer and the taxpayer by the coalition government, a fudge by critics and a failure by the UK solar power industry. So which is [...]

UK Green Energy tax breaks pt 2: Towards a carbon tax?

30 January 2015 admin 0

In part one of this post we considered the crunch that changing tax legislation will bring to the UK renewable energy sector in 2015. Green investment tax breaks for many renewable electricity generators have already been cut, and this year even more are going to disappear. In this part, we'll ask what's next? After all, the requirement to reduce CO2 emissions isn't going to go away, so without green investment tax breaks for renewable energy generators, what will drive emissions reduction incentives? To recap, the old ‘double dip’ benefit of EIS/SEIS reliefs for investments in companies receiving indirect subsidies [...]

UK green energy tax breaks: The clock is ticking…part 1

28 January 2015 admin 0

As this current tax year comes to an end in the UK, one of the biggest changes to the way we invest in renewable energy is due to fully kick in. The green energy tax breaks clock is ticking down over the next couple of months. From April 6 2015, the tax incentives to invest in solar, wind, hydro and bio-fuel projects - that have proven so effective at driving development in the UK renewables sector - are going to disappear. In fact (for solar and wind) many stopped last July, but more are on the way. Taken in [...]

Are renewable subsidy cuts good for carbon emissions?

21 January 2015 admin 1

(Image credit: Images_of_Money via Flickr Creative Commons) It might seem counter intuitive, but there's an argument to be made that cutting renewable energy subsidies might not be a bad thing for the industry, and rising CO2 levels as well. On the surface, renewable subsidies have worked as a financial incentive to build more solar, wind and hydro projects, but it's also led to projects that (despite adding power to the local grid) haven't driven a proportional decline in carbon emissions or caused coal and gas power to scale down significantly. Maybe a rethink of the big picture for renewable [...]

The rise of renewable energy in Chile

21 January 2015 admin 0

Earlier this month Enel Green Energy brought 100MW of solar panels online in the South Atacama Desert in Chile. The South Atacama is also where our Solar Development company Solar 350 is about to start building our own solar parks, and where our carbon accreditation company Carbon 350 sees huge potential for emissions offsets. It is a unique location to optimise solar power, not just in terms of consistently high solar irradiation but also for creating the best C02/CO2e reductions from renewable power too. We're not surprised to see the rise of renewable energy in Chile. However these [...]

The future’s bright… renewable energy development is too.

21 January 2015 admin 0

We’re coming up on the end of January in a year that will mark some major new developments for 350PPM and its family of companies. 2015 will be a groundbreaking year for us, quite literally, as we’re poised to break ground on our first SuperSol solar park project in Chile’s Atacama Desert. As you might already know, back in 2012 Solar 350 - our renewable energy development company - received SEIS / EIS accreditation from HMRC, laying the groundwork for investors to come on board with our solar energy projects. We also secured the rights to develop [...]

Author: admin