Dame Clara Furse will establish a new group with the aim of positioning the UK and the City of London as the leading global market for high quality voluntary carbon offsets, building on the work of crossing-cutting initiatives such as the Taskforce for Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets.

A new UK Infrastructure Bank headquartered in Leeds. The new Bank will provide financing support to private sector and local authority infrastructure projects across the UK, to help meet government objectives on climate change and regional economic growth. The Bank will:

• be able to deploy £12 billion of equity and debt capital and be able to issue up to £10 billion of guarantees

• offer a range of financing tools including debt, hybrid products, equity and guarantees t0 support private infrastructure projects
• from the summer, offer loans to local authorities at a rate of gilts + 60 basis points for strategic infrastructure projects
• establish an advisory function to help with the development and delivery of projects

The institution will begin operating in an interim form later in spring 2021. Further details on the mandate and scope for the Bank are set out in the ‘UK Infrastructure Bank Policy Design’ document here.

Fuel duty frozen  in 2021/22. “Future fuel duty rates will be considered in the context of the UK’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.”

From 1 April 2021 until 31 March 2023, companies investing in qualifying new plant and machinery assets to benefit from a 130% first-year capital allowance. Investing companies will also benefit from a 50% first-year allowance for qualifying special rate (including long life) assets.

Three City and Growth Deals in Scotland (Ayrshire, Argyll and Bute, and Falkirk) and three City and Growth Deals in Wales (Swansea Bay, North-Wales and Mid-Wales). Over the next five years £84.5 million in funding will be brought forward to speed up investment in local economic priorities.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) will establish Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) Taskforce, backed by £10 million of seed funding, to accelerate the delivery of MMC homes in the UK.

Global Centre for Rail Excellence, match funded up to £30 million, towards the construction of a rolling stock and infrastructure testing complex in Wales. Will  support innovation in the UK’s rail industry, including the testing of cutting-edge, green technology.

An offer of support, in principle, to the Able Marine Energy Park on Humberside following the conclusion of the competition to upgrade ports infrastructure for the next generation of offshore wind. Humber Freeport will create a regional hub for trade, innovation and commerce.

A memorandum of understanding with Teesworks Offshore Manufacturing Centre on Teesside to support the development of another offshore wind port hub.

£27 million, subject to business case, for the Aberdeen Energy Transition Zone, plus £5 million for the Global Underwater Hub, subject to business case, and up to £2 million to further develop industry proposals as part of the government’s support for the North Sea Transition Deal (NSTD). “Taken together, these proposals will support areas like Aberdeen transition to a low-carbon future.”

£4.8 million, subject to business case, to support the development of a hydrogen hub in Holyhead which will pilot the creation of hydrogen from renewable energy and its use as a zero emission fuel in HGVs.

£375 million to introduce Future Fund: Breakthrough, a new direct co-investment product to support the scale up of the most innovative, R&D-intensive businesses. The British Business Bank will take equity in funding rounds of over £20 million led by private investors.

Government’s s first sovereign green bond to be launched  this summer, with a further issuance to follow later in 2021 to total a minimum of £15 billion.

Green retail National Savings and Investment (NS&I) product offered in the summer of 2021.

Consultation  on  whether certain costs within the charge cap affect pension schemes’ ability to invest in a broader range of assets and smoothing certain performance fees over a multi-year period.

Support for new solutions to cut carbon emissions and accelerate near-to-market low-carbon energy innovations:

• £20 million to support floating offshore wind

• A £68 million competition to implement several first-of-a-kind energy storage

• A £4 million UK-wide competition for the first phase of a biomass feedstocks programme,

to support the rural economy in making improvements to the production of green energy

crops and forestry products.

Aggregates Levy rate frozen for 2021-22 but will return to index-linking in future.

Employers who hire a new apprentice between 1 April 2021 and 30 September 2021 will receive £3,000 per new hire, compared with £1,500 per new apprentice hire under the previous scheme.

Information about ‘shovel-ready’ projects that have been held up by the cost or availability of network capacity should be submitted by 19 March to distribution network operators (DNOs) via a call for evidence run by the Energy Networks Association (ENA).

The information will be used to target reinforcement in areas with significant green activity, bringing the network closer to green projects. This should bring forward stalled projects and reduce their cost of connection. ENA says the aim of the project is to support the Green Recovery by targeting investment in networks where there is expected to be significant green activity in the next year or two.

The funding is aimed at new projects that are struggling to be justified due to network infrastructure costs, rather than those that can or have already been paid for.

Projects can be submitted even if they do not have full land rights or planning permission fully agreed when the call for evidence closes. But ENA said, “the more information and evidence that you can provide to us the better. If this information exists, it will further evidence the fact that your scheme is shovel-ready or can be quickly deployed, which is one of the key aims of this Green Recovery scheme.”

This investment will be directed to the most efficient projects offering flexibility, whole-systems solutions and ‘least-regrets’ expenditure.

The core criteria are:

• Utilisation (how much of the capacity might be used in the near term)
• Deliverability (e.g. how quickly infrastructure and solutions could be completed)
• Value for money (including wider societal benefits that can be achieved).

The funding will not cover the costs of the third party project/equipment, nor the sole-use connection assets.

The ENA insists that it wants information covering any technology, but it says the scheme will be co-ordinated with and support wider schemes, such as a pathfinder for OLEV’s Project Rapid.

Projects which are not able to meet the timeline in this call for evidence should submit evidence to energy network operators for inclusion in their RIIO-ED2 business plans, now being developed, which will be submitted to Ofgem and cover investment in the networks over the period 2023-2028. ENA says this scheme will pave the way for “collaborative and agile” investment in  RIIO2.

The Call for Evidence is here

Stay up to date with New Power – subscribe to our FREE weekly newsletter here

 Further reading

SPEN takes a real-time look at network loading with new software

Distribution markets make a slow start

£5k bonus for embedded generators who adjust plant ‘set points’ this quarter – and warning over mid-May deadline for full subsidy

Waste to energy – can it do more for local power grids?

Green stimulus: the industry responds – ‘ambition severely lacking’

The regulator said gas prices, a major driver of GB wholesale power prices, have increased fivefold since a crash in spring last year and are at pre-pandemic levels. Combined with a reduction in available power supplies compared to last year this has led to an increase in the wholesale price of electricity. 

In addition the cost of CfDs has increased as expected as more capacity has come onlineand Renewables Obligation costs have risen.

Ofgem has also included an adjustment of £23.14for bad debt costs arising from Covid-19.

Davenport said: “As the industry moves from a world of megawatts to megabytes it is time to bring a fresh approach to taking the company forward, making it an optimal time for this transition. I look forward to supporting the new CEO when they are appointed to assist with the transition to a true mid 21st century energy as a service business, in a world moving faster towards zero carbon.”

Davenport founded Good Energy two decades ago. It now has over 50MW of solar and wind assets and a 100% renewable supply business. It recently announced new capabilities in electric vehicles, spearheaded by Zap-Map, in the strategic development of mobility as a service and a fully vertically integrated business model.

Stay up to date with New Power

Subscribe to our FREE weekly newsletter here

• Adaptation and resilience - to help communities adapt to, and prepare for, the worst impacts of climate change.
• Nature based solutions - to safeguard and restore natural habitats and ecosystems to preserve the planet’s biodiversity.
• Energy transitions - to accelerate the clean energy transition by encouraging the use of cheaper renewables and storage.
• Clean transport - to clean our air by speeding up the global transition to zero emission vehicles.
• Finance - to encourage our financial systems to be cleaner to unlock growth and create green jobs.

The Landing Page is here

Stay up to date with New Power

Subscribe to our FREE weekly newsletter here

The officer asked for “submission of a detailed flight plan for an UAV with a view to undertaking a comprehensive high-resolution video of the proposed development site”. Planning lawyer Angus Walker of BDB Pitmans notes in his regular blog that this is the first time this has been undertaken.

The drone flight plan has to be submitted by 20 January and interested parties can comment by 19 February. The examining officer has noted that some flexibility may be required on the flight depending on weather – a courtesy that may not necessarily have been extended to human inspection visits.

The officer said most other necessary visits had already been completed.

The meeting on 28 January will have a presentation from Ofgem tailored to community energy interests in the evolving regulatory landscape, followed by open discussion.

The event will focus especially on the Significant Code Review on Access and Targeted Charges which CEE says threatens some members with hugely increased charges to access the grid. Minded to decisions will be published early 2021 but this should still be in time to inform members’ feedback ahead of that.

Register here

See and link to many more industry meetings on our Agenda page

Which offer the best tariffs? Here we present a summary:

The Selkie project aims to improve the performance of marine energy devices and technologies, to boost marine energy industries in Wales and Ireland for two pilot demonstration projects.

The project, funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Cooperation programme, is developing a streamlined commercialisation pathway for the marine energy industry by establishing a cross-border network of developers and supply chain companies in Ireland and Wales. Multi-use technology tools, templates, standards and models are being created for use across the sector in Wales and Ireland.

SELKIE will test and validate the technology tools on two pilot demonstration technologies (one wave and one tidal), chosen by open tender. Using a structured development path, the pilot testing will advance the knowledge and improvement of marine energy devices in terms of their reliability, survivability, operability, stability and commercial viability.

The Selkie Project is seeking quotes for the services of a Tidal Energy Developer company and a Wave Energy Developer company to validate the tools developed during the project.

Gordon Dalton, Selkie project coordinator, said “Ultimately, Selkie aims to benefit the Welsh and Irish wave and tidal sector in the key areas of pushing down costs, making the new local technologies globally competitive and progressing them along the pathway to commercialisation.”

Marine Energy Wales Lead, Jess Hooper said “Wales and Ireland have enormous potential to deliver sustainable marine energy thanks to our natural resources. Establishing a cross-border network of developers and supply chain companies and bringing together expertise from institutions and business in Wales and Ireland to develop these innovative solutions cooperatively will strengthen the marine energy sector even further.”

More detail on the wave energy project here and the tidal energy project here.