Virgin Media Will Buy Back Shares This Year
The chief executive of Virgin Media, Neil Berkett, has said the company will buy back £375m of its shares this year, reports The Daily Telegraph. Richard Branson owns 6.5% of the cable TV and broadband group and the fact that they are to buy back shares shows how confident the company is, particularly as it has signed up a record number of customers in the three months to the end of June. Mr Berkett said Virgin Media had developed a “rhythm and ... More
Selling electricity back to the grid
MiPower, a solar energy photo voltaic (PV) specialist design and installation company, has been established at Netley Hall in Shropshire for the purposes of helping business electricity customers to sell electricity back to the National Grid. The company will offer businesses help with the new Feed in Tariff scheme that was launched by the government in April this year. MiPower, which focuses on installing solar panels or photovoltaic systems, will assist electricity customers in maximising their returns from being self-sufficient. Under the ... More
Govt Needs To Help Small Businesses Become Energy Efficient
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) says the government needs to do more to get businesses to be more energy efficient, reports Energy in Buildings & Industry (EIBI). Unless there’s more encouragement to persuade businesses and in particular SMEs to be energy efficient, then the CCC warns the government could be in breach of the Climate Change Act 2008. While greenhouse gas emissions have fallen the CCC says that any falls are almost certainly down to the recession and not to the ... More
TEG Has Green Energy Plans
A London-based private equity group is to join together with experts at The TEG Group to generate energy from waste, reports The Lancashire Evening Post. The joint venture will be known as TEG Biogas as it goes into partnership with the venture capital investor Albion Ventures LLP. Benefitting from the green technology experts at The TEG Group, they will build an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in Glenfarg, Perthshire. The AD plant will turn waste food into electricity. The 16,000 tonnes of food ... More
Clachan Flats Windfarm officially open
ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) which forms part of Iberdrola Renewables, the world's biggest producer of renewable energy, has officially opened Clachan Flats, their brand new windfarm, near Cairndow, Argyll and Bute. At the opening ceremony, SPR chairman Susan Deacon, was joined by the Duke of Argyll and John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth. The windfarm, which consists of nine turbines, will be capable of producing up to 15 MW (megawatts) of electricity – which is enough clean green ... More
Lake District Uses Water To Generate Electricity
The reason the Lake District has a lot of lakes is largely down to the amount of rainfall it gets so it should come as no surprise that a community in the Lake District is planning to turn its rainfall into a source of renewable energy, reports The Westmorland Gazette. The scheme is set to cost £1.6 million and has just received the go-ahead from planners which will enable villagers in Kentmere to use the power of the River Kent to ... More
BT’s Results are in
During BT’s annual general meeting last week, chairman Sir Michael Rake confirmed the telecommunication company’s return to profit for the 2009/10 financial year, see Utility Exchange Business Energy News for related information. As published online, BT Group Plc has announced its results for the first quarter to 30 June 2010 where unless otherwise noted, the changes in results are year on year against the first quarter to 30 June 2009. The key points as advised are: * Revenue of £5,006 million, down ... More
French government calls for EDF Areva collaboration
According to Nuclear Power Daily, the French government is seeking to establish a closer relationship between State owned utility EDF and reactor maker Areva – as it endeavours to help the country regain its leadership in the nuclear power sector. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde believes a closer cooperation will increase the country’s chances of winning reactor contracts abroad. Speaking to a French radio station RTL earlier this week, Ms. Lagarde said: "There must be a strategic partnership between Areva ... More
SSE Signs Hydropower Deal With MWH
Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) has signed an engineering and technical consultancy services agreement with MWH, reports tradingmarkets.com. The agreement involves the feasibility and outline design for two hydropower projects in Scotland. The schemes have the potential for an installed capacity of 600MW and in addition the potential to store 30GWh of energy. The deal was reported by Working with Water who quoted the hydro development manager at SSE, Neil Lannen, as saying “Pumped storage schemes complement the growing, but variable, amount ... More
Oil Industry Will Learn From U.S. Disaster
Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP will step down in October and Bob Dudley, an American, will take over, reports BBC News Online. And the new chief executive says BP will come out of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster a smaller and wiser company. Bob Dudley is in charge of the oil clean up at the moment and described it as a terrible tragedy and insisted that the industry and BP itself would learn from it. Mr Dudley said BP would ... More