policy

The Renewables Obligations (RO), thought of as the single most important policy in supporting the rapid growth of renewable electricity in the UK, has closed today amid concerns for further support for UK renewables.

The UK government must set out a clear long term vision for the future of climate related policy to 2030 and beyond if investment is to be made in the UK, according to a forum of climate change investors.

The UK will have to adhere to the European Union’s environmental and climate change-related policy if it is to have any future agreement with the trading bloc, according to the first EU response to the triggering of article 50.

Since the news broke in January that the Green Deal Finance Company (GDFC) had been privatised, industry has been waiting for the new and improved Green Deal to appear. David Pratt sits down with Kilian Pender, founder and chief executive of Greenstone Finance, to discuss the future of the scheme and why a history of failures won’t repeat itself.

Transmission system demand on Saturday afternoon dipped below overnight demand for the first time in the UK’s history, with increased solar generation the root cause.

The Green Deal will be re-branded over the summer as the new private sector owners prepare to re-launch the failed government scheme with improvements to how finance loans can be accessed, alongside a direct marketing strategy.

Renewable electricity generation is expected to fall in the early 2020s as gas fired power stations come online, according to updated energy and emissions projections from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Any potential increase in energy bills caused by low-carbon policies could be wiped out by government-backed support of energy efficiency programmes which would simultaneously reduce fuel poverty by as much as 75%.

The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has continued talks across Whitehall on the issue of rising business rates on solar installations, despite the lack of progress made in last week’s budget.

When The Solar Cloth Company collapsed in June last year, it took with it nearly £1 million of crowd-funded finance. Liam Stoker investigates how this came to pass and potential failures within Crowdcube’s consumer protections.