Blog entries

The Winds Of Change

Owen Anderson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:01:27 +0100

Once seen as the only viable source of Renewable Energy, wind power developed a huge buzz of publicity and funding over the last 20 years, preparing it to take over the mantle of generation from the more traditional fossil fuels. Or so we thought.

Marine energy on the other hand, has been Read More...

Irreversible Climate Change Coming Ever Closer

Alys Garrett — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 01:34:10 +0100

The IEA's World Energy Outlook for 2011 was released yesterday in London, which takes a look at the latest data and policy developments to provide an analysis of today's global energy markets and the outlook for the next 25 years. The main issue that becomes clear in this report is that limiting global warming to a ‘safe' 2°C is becoming more and more unrealistic. This is notRead More...

Feed In and Out

Owen Anderson — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 02:08:21 +0100

The Coalition Government announced this week that they plan to cut the Feed In Tariff (FIT) for solar PV, beginning next year. The decision came about due to the recent exploitation of the generous FIT rates for small scale solar. The scheme originally aimed at making PV more financially viable for domestic, farming, and small scale business ventures, but the high tariff had encouraRead More...

Alternative alternative energy

Owen Anderson — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:26:22 +0100

Whilst much of the focus on micro-renewables is concentrated on wind turbines and solar panels, there is a diverse range of larger renewable energy technologies that don't often get the coverage and discussion they deserve. Renewable technology is not limited to wind and solar generation in its traditional forms and there are many other forms of generation being developed. Some technologies aRead More...

FITs

Owen Anderson — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:58:09 +0100

The Feed In Tariff refers to a reward system that encourages the development of small scale (less than 5MW) low carbon electricity generation, by organisations, businesses, individuals and communities. The FITS offer guaranteed payment for the electricity they generate and export to the grid. FITS apply to most small scale generation schemes, including wind, solar, hydro and Anaerobic Digestion up to 5MW. It alsRead More...

Bigger Generation

Owen Anderson — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 02:21:24 +0100

As the renewable energy industry continues to develop, larger installations are being commissioned and constructed across the world. As the technology grows, the installations become more profitable and more viable, and hence have grown in size.

Solar

Currently the Worlds largest solar PV installation is Canada's Sarnia Photovoltaic poweRead More...

One investment failure...a reason to give up?

Alys Garrett — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 01:11:00 +0100

Now it is fairly common knowledge that the energy market is not like other markets; primarily in the sense that, the economic rate of return is significantly less than the social rate of return. This of course, reduces the incentive for private investment. However, it does give the government the chance to add value to the industry if smart policy decisions and investments are made.

BuRead More...

Scotland Pushing Forward with Small Scale Renewables

Owen Anderson — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:12:27 +0100

The DECC ( Department of Energy and Climate Change) has released figures for the second quarter of this year, that suggest the UKs energy mix is integrating more and more renewable and green resources. This has resulted in a 7.86 TWh contribution, a 50% rise on the same figures from last year.

Large and small scale schemes in Scotland have been key to this developmeRead More...

A 'bright future' for renewable energy?

Alys Garrett — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 02:11:27 +0100

Statistics released yesterday by the Department of Energy and Climate Change have revealed that the renewable energy sector contributed to a record breaking 9.6% of the electricity supplied by the UK grid. This is an encouraging 50% increase on the figures from 2010. A statistic that is also rather encouraging is the percentage decrease on last year's figures in energy consumption. Domestic use in partiRead More...

Spray-on Tan? No, it's Spray-on Solar!

Colin Luther Davies — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:34:01 +0100

As Japan continues the quest for green energy sources, a British company may have found the answer with this breakthrough technology: Spray on Solar Cells.

Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. Has developed the technology that enables solar cells to be added to buildings, vehicles and even clothing the same way paint is applied. This means that solar panels could potentially be placeRead More...

Using Renewable Energy Off-Grid

Alex Brant — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 01:23:42 +0100

For many people around the globe, a stable connection to a National Power Grid may be hard to come by and very expensive. The question is, can renewable power offer the answer, can it replace the need for many homes and businesses around the world to connect to the grid at all?

Many remote locations around the world are a long way from the nearest Power Station or grid connectRead More...

Japanese Feed-in Frenzy

Alex Brant — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:21:42 +0100

Following on from our recent blog story on Japan's rapidly growing renewables market, there has been more news recently regarding upcoming government policy. With Japan still struggling to overhaul its energy production methods and renew its energy policies after the March earthquake and tsunami, new legislation is being drawn up that would provide incentives for theRead More...

North Sea Oil Spill

Colin Luther Davies — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:03:28 +0100

Last night it was confirmed that the oil spill in the North Sea is the worst the area has seen in a decade; Figures indicate that as much as 216 tonnes of oil may have entered the water so far, exceeding the annual total for this area for each of the last 10 years.

Located around 100 miles off the east coast of Aberdeen, oil began to escaRead More...

Japan's Green Energy

Colin Luther Davies — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 01:26:32 +0100

With the nuclear power station disaster in Japan still fresh in the minds, the Japanese demand for renewable energy is on the increase, however, a country that was once the world's solar cell manufacturing leader, the Japanese now trail the US and China. To improve green energy take up, the Government has started deliberating on legislation to create a systeRead More...

The Man from DECC

Alice Starkey — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:13:01 +0100

Speaking at the Social Liberal Forum on Saturday 18th June, Chris Huhne laid out his ideas for improving environmental standards which he believes has a "win, win, win" formula as with his proposed changes, Huhne claims that competition can increase, thus leading to lower prices for the consumer and in turn, can benefit the government by helping them toRead More...

Clearing up some Feed-in Tariff Questions

Dominic Starkey — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 11:58:47 +0100

There's a fair bit of confusion out there concerning everything from to how solar panels work to the Feed-in Tariffs and beyond. A lot of answers lie in our factsheet pages but we do always try and answer any questions you might have. The following email exchange is one such example - If you do have any questions for us, get in touch!

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The NIMBY Blimp – Dreaded Enemy of the Wind Turbine (or is it?)

Matt Kilgarriff — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:06:33 +0100

So, the giant red blimp previously seen in Dorset, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire has continued its tour of the UK's proposed wind farm sites, and is now lumbering Northwards to the Highlands of Scotland and the proposed Druim Ba windfarm in Inverness-shirRead More...

Better Generation on the Exhibition Trail...

Dominic Starkey — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:28:18 +0100

The International Small Wind Conference (ISWC) may have finished yesterday in Gateshead, England but it is to be quickly followed by yet another acronym-heavy exhibition this weekend in China. The China Wind Energy Exhibition (CWEE) starts tomorrow in Shanghai and just as ISWC was graced by the presence of Better Generation's Toby Hammond, the Chinese exhibition will Read More...

Taller Than The Gherkin..... Vestas new 7MW Giant Wind Turbine

Matt Kilgarriff — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:50:50 +0100

Vestas this week unveiled their massive new 7MW turbine, which it hopes to install in Northern Europe and particularly the North Sea. With over 32,000 MW of capacity planned for the region, Vestas top brass believe that wind can contribute up to 10% of the global energy mix up from the current 2% by 2020.

Better Generation MD to talk at International Small Wind Conference 2011

Matt Kilgarriff — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:53:06 +0100

Image from FreeFoto.com

We've already had Professor Brian Cox and Lord Paddy Ashdown speaking at EcoBuild this year, now get ready for Toby Hammond, founder and Managing Director of Better Generation, who will be speaking at two seminars in this year's Renewable UK International Small Wind Conference.