Pat Rabbitte TD, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, will open the Marine Renewables Industry Association’s annual Ocean Energy Industry Forum on Friday, February 10TH, the first occasion on which he has addressed an ocean energy gathering. The second session of the Forum will be opened by David Thomson, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the … Read more
University College Cork (UCC) is truly Ireland’s green university, a fact testified by being declared in fourth position in the UI World Green Metric University Rankings. UCC beat off stiff opposition from 178 universities worldwide, renowned for their environmental credentials, to attain this outstanding achievement. The award was based on information submitted by universities around … Read more
Ryanair is adding a €0.25 levy onto bookings made from next Tuesday (17 January) to cover the costs of the EU’s new Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the airline said today. According to Ryanair, the airline will have an ETS bill of between €15m and €20m this year. To offset this, passengers will pay a surcharge … Read more
Boeing has started work on a four-month NASA contract to develop a mission concept study for solar electric propulsion technologies. The US$600,000 contract involves Boeing evaluating concepts that combine high-power solar arrays with advanced electric thrusters to power spacecraft and payloads to high Earth orbit and deep space destinations. “Boeing pioneered the use of electric … Read more
Lufthansa reduced its CO2 emissions by 1,471 tonnes during a six-month practical trial of biosynthetic fuel, the airline said this week. The trial involved 1,187 biofuel flights between Hamburg and Frankfurt. Total consumption of the biokerosene mix amounted to 1,556 tonnes. “Our burnFAIR project went off smoothly and to our fullest satisfaction. As expected, biofuel … Read more
Vestas, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, is to restructure its operations, entailing the loss of 2,335 jobs, as it seeks to reduce its fixed costs by more than Eur150 million from the end of 2012. The job losses, equivalent to about a tenth of its workforce, will result from factory closures and the streamlining … Read more
The EU achieved its 2010 target of 21% of electricity consumption from renewable sources, according to latest analysis by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). In 2010 renewable energies produced between 665 Terrawatt hours (TWh) and 673 TWh, hitting the 21% target given consumption was around 3,115 TWh to 3,175 TWh. If renewable electricity production … Read more
UK clean energy recovery from waste business Energos, part of the ENER-G group, has acquired waste to energy business BioGen Power through a share swap arrangement. Energos, which is gasification technology partner to BioGen Power, already had a 28% shareholding in the business. The deal brings together a joint portfolio of six fully consented UK … Read more
EDF Energy has announced it will cut gas prices by 5%, making it the first major energy supplier to lower prices this year. The move, effective from 7 February, follows in the footsteps of smaller energy firms Co-operative Energy and Ovo Energy, who have already announced price decreases. The price cut will be on gas, … Read more
SSE, through its wholly owned SSE Ventures business, has sold a portfolio of cleantech investments to Scottish Equity Partners’ new Environmental Energies Fund. As part of the deal, SSE Ventures has become a major partner in the new fund. The new Environmental Energies Fund (EEF) has acquired nine investments from the SSE Ventures portfolio, all … Read more