The UK government has moved a step closer in its aim to meet its European commitments to provide 15% of all energy from renewables by 2020.
Ministers on Wednesday approved new wind power sites for the Crown Estate around the UK’s coastline. (more…)
British contractors Costain and Sir Robert McAlpine are expected join forces with two international construction giants in a bid to secure a significant portion of the UK’s £40 billion nuclear new build market. (more…)
Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, announced the launch of trials of low-carbon vehicles earlier this week by driving a Smart car on to the forecourt of London’s historic Guildhall. The Government is putting £25 million into the project which is being organised by the Technology Strategy Board and is the world’s largest ever trial of electric vehicles.
Eight trials will take place in Britain in which members of the public and businesses will be invited to take part. Glasgow, Coventry, Birmingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Oxford are amongst the cities where these trials will take place. Cars being tested include a Ford Focus battery electric vehicle, Nissan vehicles and Peugeot electric cars. (more…)
Network Rail is to spend another £50m on the West Coast Main Line, after the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) ordered the company to take action over continuing problems. Virgin Trains complained to the ORR in April, and the result was an order that Network Rail should produce a WCML action plan by mid-June. (more…)
Work on hundreds of sites across the country, thought to include the Olympics and Crossrail, could be brought to a halt by strike action proposed for later in the summer. (more…)
London endured its most disruptive bout of industrial action for nearly two years yesterday as a tube strike hit thousands of fans attending the England World Cup qualifier at Wembley and threatened to cost the UK economy up to £100m. (more…)
Hitachi has revealed an ambitious plan to reduce the carbon emissions of its products worldwide by 100 million tonnes by 2025. All products manufactured by the group must be qualified eco-products by that same year. This will involve enhancing the environmental performance of materials, parts, components and product design, by taking advantage of technologies developed by the group. (more…)
To everyone’s surprise and with the main politcal parties being given a real vote of no confidence the Green Party was all but wiped off the political map in Ireland in this week’s elections, though it enjoyed a slight resurgence in the UK. (more…)
Plans for a £15million geothermal power plant have been unveiled by the UK’s Eden Project near St Austell, Cornwall, and geothermal experts EGS Energy. The developers expect the plant, the UK’s first power generating geothermal project, will produce up to 3 MW – enough to power nearly 5000 homes. The pilot plant will be created near the Eden Project’s vast greenhouses near St Austell. (more…)
New coal-fired power stations should be fitted with technology to capture waste heat, the Institution of Civil Engineers has recommended. The ICE said it could then be piped into homes, with demand for heat accounting for almost half the primary energy consumed in the UK.
It has also recommended new developments be built with small scale plants which produce both electricity and heat to make them more energy efficient and cut their carbon output. (more…)
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