News review
In brief
Sustainable Investment
Name change
REpower Systems SE, a wholly
owned subsidiary of the Suzlon
Group – the world’s ?fth-largest
manufacturer of wind turbines –
will change its name in 2014 to
be called Senvion. REpower has
been using its name under
licence since 2001. The rights
belong to a Swiss company that
is now using this name itself.
Therefore the external corporate
design will be gradually changed.
The Hamburg-based wind
turbine manufacturer will now
identify itself using the new
brand image worldwide.
Sustainable Industry
DECC cuts its own
energy bills
Energy Ministers have slashed
their Whitehall department’s
energy bill from £222,845 in
2011 to £182,482 in 2012. The
?gures were revealed in a
written answer to Parliament
by Greg Barker.
Sustainable Living
No to fracking
In response to the concerns of
local residents, the London
borough of Brent has followed
the lead of Brighton Council by
banning fracking.
Sustainable Industry
Dusty future
As drylands of the world
become even drier, water will
not be the only resource in
short supply. A new study
suggests that as the climate
becomes more arid, nitrogen
in the soil will decrease and
phosphorus will increase. Both
are essential for plant growth,
but need to be present in the
right quantities. The study
suggests that people who
depend on those ecosystems
for crops, livestock forage and
fuel will ?nd their resources
increasingly restrained.
In Arizona, the projected
decrease in plant production
could magnify the impact of
dust storms, which have been
increasing in recent decades.
6 GreenWeek Nov 1, 2013
Sustainable Politics
DECC distances renewables
from green levy roll-back row
Scramble to reaf?rm that support for renewable energy is secure
By Stuart Qualtrough
E nergy Ministers have the
scrambled to distance
Government’s ?nancial
backing for renewable energy
from the ongoing row on rollingback energy ef?ciency levies.
DECC reaf?rmed the Coalition’s
target of trebling support for
renewable energy by 2020. And
Energy Secretary Ed Davey said he
would “?ght like a tiger” to protect
subsidies for renewables.
RenewableUK welcomed
separate comments made by
Energy Minister Baroness Verma in
the House of Lords when she said
no one in Government is “talking
about changing support for largescale renewables or Feed-in Tariffs”.
Director of External Affairs for
RenewableUK Jennifer Webber
said: “It was pleasing to see a
Government minister go on record
to give this assurance to the
industry that the support for
renewables is not under threat
from this Government. We have
recently had reviews on the support
needed by each technology and
there’s no need to revise that.”
Baroness Verma’s comments
followed con?rmation from DECC
that support for renewables would
not fall within the scope of the
upcoming levy review, which will
Cash support for renewables is not under threat from Government review
feed into the Autumn Statement.
A statement said: “The
Government is looking at how to
get people’s energy bills as low as
possible to help hard-pressed
families. We’ve already increased
competition, brought new players
into the market to offer consumers
real choice, and the most
vulnerable are getting direct help
with their bills this winter. We’ll
continue this work to make sure
consumers are getting a good deal.
“No one is talking about changing
investment incentives for
renewables, such as the Renewables
Obligation, Contracts for Difference
and Feed-in Tariffs, which are
essential for investor con?dence in
the renewables sector and our
commitments to a low-carbon
economy. Between now and 2020,
the support we give to low-carbon
electricity will increase year-on-year
to £7.6bn – a tripling of the support
for renewable energy.”
STA CEO Paul Barwell said:
“Credit to the Secretary of State Ed
Davey’s of?ce for being very quick
to reassure us that investment in
renewables is safe. While the public
political wrangles have been
frustrating, some of the media
reporting has been inaccurate –
and inaccurate reporting can
create real damage for investors.”
Overheard
“The Government has so far
responded to the risks inherent in
fracking by cutting the budget of
the environmental regulator and
effectively allowing companies to
mark their own homework when
it comes to monitoring”
Leila Deen, Greenpeace Energy Campaigner
“I am not going
to give up on
renewable energy.
They are not
going to touch it”
Ed Davey draws his
battle lines against the
Conservatives in a
Guardian interview