Excellent news for Glasgow yesterday that Scottish and Southern Energy had agreed to join with The University of Strathclyde (renowned for wind power research) in Glasgow to create a new Centre of Engineering Excellence for Renewable Energy (CEERE). The new facility will primarily become a new a new research and management centre for wind farm projects.
SSE Manging Director Ian Marchant:
“Our Centre of Excellence which will be known as CEERE will play a crucial part in helping SSE to realise its renewable energy goals in the UK, Ireland and elsewhere in Europe, helping to secure energy supplies and contributing to the development of a lower carbon economy.
“Having considered all of the options in mainland Europe, Ireland and the UK, we have settled on Glasgow as the best location for CEERE, and the city’s own sustainable energy ambitions also make it a very appropriate choice.
“Working with the University of Strathclyde, and with the support of the Scottish Government, we will create and secure several hundred skilled jobs for Scotland.
“Scotland’s ambition to become a leader in renewable energy is well known and we are delighted to be making this investment in Scotland. We’re very positive about the prospects for creating new jobs to harness Europe’s renewable energy resources and the potential make a significant contribution to the achievement of Scotland’s ambitions.”
Strathclyde University Principal (and Professor) Jim McDonald said:
“If we are to address the challenges of climate change, rapid and widespread deployment of renewable energy technologies is critical.
“The new partnership reflects Scotland’s potential to be at the forefront of the UK and European renewable energy sectors, creating new jobs and research and development opportunities.”
The Scottish Government is investing £2.8m into the scheme, First Minister Alex Salmond spoke on the new energy centre yesterday.
Good news for Glasgow and Scotland – this is a considerable commitment to the green economy and hopefully another step on the way for Scotland to become a true renewable energy hub.
Scottish European Green Energy Centre (SEGEC) Launches
In what was probably a moment of ‘calm before the storm’ for Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond (before the Megrahi Announcement), last week he opened The Scottish European Green Energy Centre at the University of Aberdeen.
With joint-funding coming from a £1.6 million investment from the European Regional Development Fund, and a further £1 Million from the Scottish Government the centre has the none-too-difficult task of establishing the Granite City as a research hub into wave, tidal and wind power. SEGEC’s primary focus will be on marine energy, offshore wind, long-distance super-grid development and smart distribution grids, carbon capture and storage, renewable heat and energy efficiency.
According to the official Press Release from the Scottish Government:
“It aims to help the Scottish green energy sector secure maximum benefits from engagement with Europe through developing partnerships with businesses and institutions, designing collaborative projects and identifying and accessing European funding.”
One of the partner companies is Scottish and Southern Energy, their Chief Exec Ian Marchant explained their involvment:
“The Scottish European Green Energy Centre is another important step in the realisation of Scotland’s renewable energy ambitions, which SSE is pleased to support. The key is developing and deploying the technologies that can harness Scotland’s remarkable green energy resources, and this new Centre will provide a key means of doing this, involving industry, government and universities here and elsewhere in Europe. It is the kind of initiative that has to be taken and has to succeed if challenging targets for renewable energy in 2020 and beyond are to be met.”
Speaking at the launch, Mr Salmond said:
“The Scottish European Green Energy Centre (SEGEC) aims to build on Aberdeen’s long-established global reputation as an energy hub by positioning Scotland at the forefront of European innovation, research and development in clean, renewable energy.
“The investment of European funding will embrace the energy-related opportunities presented through Scotland’s leading global effort to reduce climate change. Scotland’s natural capital can create tens of thousands of green jobs.”
Here is the official launch video:
Some questions on SEGEC
Obviously, any establishment which aims to promote green scottish power is to be welcomed. However, we have a few questions that you can possibly help us to answer:
Is Aberdeen a feasible location to become Scotlands Green Energy hub?
Will we (the energy buying public) see any direct benefits from any of these projects? or
Are these purely academic exercises?
Will the rest of Europe be willing to invest in Scottish Green Energy schemes?
If the Scottish Government is serious about green energy supply, then is £1 million a large enough investment?
Will all the partner energy companies be willing to adapt to any recommended changes in practice?
If anyone has any thoughts on these please leave a comment!
There are calls today from the CBI for a review into the current UK energy policy. They claim that wind power is playing far too prominent a role in the UK energy mix, and that nuclear energy should be utilised far more extensively in future UK energy delivery.
We have serious doubts as to this point of view (too much wind?), what are your thoughts on this issue?
Europe’s largest ever green electricity business “Ecotricity” has won a well deserved environmental achievement award. The company set up in 1996 in Gloucestershire founded the green electricity market. Firstly set up to provide market places with environmental friendly electricity by Dale Vince.
Later on in 2009 Ecotricity will be rolled out to domestic customers who can join in on the environmentally friendly energy with some such company’s such as Thames Water, The Millennium Dome and The co-Operative bank.
In the last four years Ecotricity has went from a turnover of around £13000 to £50,000,000, most people are led to believe that many green electricity products and services are more costly and in many cases they are, but here at Ecotricity we succeed in challenging this issue.
Scotlands first minister Alex Salmond has announced that the 140 turbine strong wind farm at Eaglesham Moor in East Renfrewshire is set to expand further. At today’s official launch of the site, Mr Salmond that the go-ahead has been given to create another 36 wind turbines on the site, giving a total power wattage of 452 MW – enough to power 250,000 homes.
The site will also soon be home to a brand new visitors centre and will be opened up to the public -walkers, cyclists and ramblers will all be able to roam the site. However, Dave Morris the director of Ramblers Scotland sounded a note of caution, as he told the Beeb:
“Existing UK energy policy will require an incredible 600 Whitelees to be built by 2050 – that would cover an area of land the size of Wales”
He goes on to point out that the UK cannot keep swallowing up vast swathes of land for wind farms – in his opinion the the future of Scottish energy lies off-shore.
Do you agree with Mr Morris? – Let us know your thoughts!
Of the ‘big six’ energy companies that were involved in the tendering process, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy won a share of the contracts that were available. Scottish Power will supply power to major public buildings within Scotland, and SSE will supply metered council housing with green electricity.
Both companies have insisted that the energy for these projects will be produced from 100% Scottish renewable sources.
Scotland is seeking to cut emissions by 80% before 2050.
Glendoe Power Station
Scottish and Southern Energy will generate its power from its big new hydro project at Glendoe to supply its side of the energy deal.
The 100MW capacity Glendoe power station, built adjacent to Loch Ness, is the first conventional hydro-electric pwer station to be built for 50 years. The SSE contract also provides access to low carbon and renewable technologies such as combined heat and power, solar and biomass.
Scottish Government Finance minister John Swinney outlined the main principles behind the deal:
On top of saving money this contract will create a greener Scotland. The public sector needs to show leadership if we are to achieve the ambitions of our Climate Change Bill.
The contracts will help public bodies address emissions from energy use through a range of energy efficiency measures, access to renewable generation sources and opportunities to sell green electricity back to the Grid. The vast majority of public bodies have recognised these benefits and have signed up to this deal.
Is this deal good for Scotlands energy future? Please let us know your opinions…………
With the alternative energy industry now reaching an annual turnover over of $9.2 billion pounds it is pretty easy to understand why the modern day investers are filling up their portfolios with energy stock investments. The long term growth of these investments is pretty good looking as we sail in to the 21 century.
It is true to say that if you where to invest in a new start-up green electricity company you could be investing in the Apple Mac or Google of our generation in terms of return in investment, people are getting fed up with rising fuel costs and by investing in these new alternative energy sources you would be acting as a market maker for the people who want to be receiving more green electricity and paying less on their energy bills.
Once again our topic of the day is wind power, with the threat of global warming getting realer every day there is more and more and pressure being put on our governments who in return are looking for new ideas and putting pressure on the bigger countries who seem to think they will be immune to the global problem.
The UK is heading in the right direction and once again are leading the industrialiazed world by creating more and more green electricity than ever before, with more find farms getting approval and are making a bigger percentage of the energy we use week by week, With the strong winds that blow across our Kingdom we will never need any other source if we can tap into it and capture the energy it brings with it, Wind farms is one of the fastest growing energy sources in the world at the moment and is getting bigger by the day, The next step is building the off shore wind farms that you would have been hearing about over the last year or two, With the new found technology being used in the turbines they are not only producing green energy but are also doing it at competitive prices against the traditional energy sources like coal and nuclear power stations.
2009 is only a few days old and if (like us) you are already thinking of ways to reduce the pain of new year bills then there are a few great recycling ideas you can try out. Re-purposing and recycling are simple methods of reducing your carbon footprint, and who knows, trying it out for this month might save you so much that it will become part of your routine.
Here’s a few basic tips that we would implement, any other suggestions would be gratefully welcomed.
Find a cheap electricity or gas tariff, preferably renewables sourced
Many UK Local authorities have recycling programmes in place and can recycle many different types of goods – if you don’t have a local collection check where your nearest recycling centre is
Dont be ashamed of buying second-hand products
Buy products made from recycled materials when possible
Get rid of any unwanted clothes, electrical goods, books and much more by selling them or donating to the local charity shops
Glasgow has been giving permission to build a £3,000,000 wind farm that will be the largest yet to be built in Europe, the farm will host 140 huge wind turbines that will pump 322 megawatts of power into the national grid, enough megawatts to power over 200,000 homes – the equivalent of supplying the hole of Glasgow with Green Electricity, the farm will be built on moorland next to East Kilbride and will cover an area of 7.2 miles by 4.3 and wile there has been some opposition due to the impact they will have on the area the consensus has been positive and when the turbines are in operation in 2009 they will remove the strain on other power sources
Glasgow builds biggest wind farm in Europe
along with 650,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide it’s no wonder there is a lot of backing for this project to happen. There will also be a visitor center, cycle route and a walkway for tourists and locals alike.
There is another 24 wind farms under construction and another 77 with planning permission in Scotland so we should be well placed to bypass our energy targets of 5.5Gigawatts that will supply our great nation with 31% of renewable energy each year.
With the 
