National Grid is to acquire Western Power Distribution, the UK’s largest electricity distribution network, for £7.8B and begin disposal of a majority stake in National Grid Gas, currently valued at £6.4B, in a “strategic pivot” towards electricity. The WPD acquisition…
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Hospitals, schools and other public sector buildings win nearly £1B funding to decarbonise: second competition promised
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BEIS has said it will open a second phase of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme in 2021/22 after announcing grants of £932M in Phase 1 of the Scheme. So far 317 public sector organisations have been awarded funding for 429 energy…
Nine areas win £171M in CCUS and hydrogen funding as BEIS sets out Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy
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The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has announced major investment to cut emissions from industry and from public buildings in a new Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy. It will allocate £171 million from the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge to nine projects to…
SP Energy Networks contracts for 140MW of flexibility including first LV contracts
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SP Energy Networks has accepted bids totalling 140MW of flexibility services, for the RIIO-ED2 business plan period 2023-2028, following the latest round of tendering. For the first time it tendered for low voltage flexibility and it accepted bids for 3MW…
Motor Fuel Group plans 2800 fast chargers across GB by 2035
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Motor Fuel Group has announced it will invest £400 million over the next decade to install 2,800 Ultra-Rapid 150kW EV chargers across 500 sites. It will target 40 sites in 2021 that will have over 200 chargers. The initial focus will be…
UK’s Nest pension fund joins forces with Octopus Renewables, plans to invest £250M in 2021
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Nest, the investor that manages £16 billion in pensions for nearly a third of the UK’s workforce, is to partner with Octopus Renewables to commit around £250 million to renewables projects in the UK and Europe in 2021. Nest said…
Act by 26 March: ports seek clean flexible power sources for the ship to shore connection
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A competition for solutions to the supply of flexible clean power to ships and other port users closes on 26 March. Currently ships in berth receive power from onshore facilities and port owners have to managing energy being delivered to the…
Legal and General to begin work on ‘operationally net zero’ retirement community
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Legal & General has started work on building a ‘Net Zero’ retirement community. The new community, Millfield Green, in Caddington, central Bedfordshire, and will eventually have 200 specialist age-appropriate homes. It will use renewable energy generation through on-site photovoltaics, EV-charging,…
Global investor chief Lawrence Slade says UK needs a delivery plan to unlock green infrastructure funding, warns cash set to go elsewhere
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Regulatory pressure including the RIIO settlements have created a “nervousness in investors” and a new uncertainty and the government “missed an opportunity in the budget to put that right,” according to Lawrence Slade, chief executive of the Global Infrastructure Investment…
Four Drax gas turbine projects still up for sale – now with £230M in Capacity Market contracts
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Drax says that it is still considering the sale of four 299MW open cycle gas turbine (OCGT) projects at sites in England and Wales, although three of them have provisionally secured 15-year Capacity Market agreements in the T-4 auction. The agreements are…