Green Market Opportunities Carbon News week 31
GMO undergoes a rebrand
Since our inception at GMO we have come on a long way already, with new partnerships formed with key participants in the carbon credit market, we have grown our business and clients across the board. We are pleased to be able to announce that we have undergone a complete corporate rebranding and we can now announce that our new website has been launched. Visit our new website at www.gmouk.com
Very soon you’ll soon start to see our new marketing and admin documents as well as some exciting additional client services and offsetting announcements in the near future. We thank all our current clients for their ongoing support and welcome new potential clients, we look forward to growing the business with all of you.
Lloyds to plunge over £300m into UK renewables
Banking group to invest £1bn in government's infrastructure plan in attempt to boost economy and help improve business efficiency. Lloyds Banking Group is set to invest around £333m in renewable energy projects as part of a £1bn package designed to help deliver on the government's Infrastructure Plan. The banking group announced in its half-year results last week that it would invest an additional £1bn in infrastructure projects such as renewable energy, port and highway developments. Chris Heathcote, Lloyds managing director and global head of project finance, told Bloomberg yesterday that around a third of the sum would be invested in renewables over the next 18 months. He added that Lloyds was considering up to nine social and economic infrastructure projects, three conventional power plants, and up to 12 clean energy projects. Specifically, he said Lloyds was open to investing in offshore wind, solar power and biomass plants. "The areas that seem to be doing the most at the moment are offshore wind, including the off-take connections, and biomass is looking interesting, but I'm slightly cautious as it's still early days for biomass," he told the news agency. To read this article in full click here
Facebook to prioritise CO2-free energy to meet 2015 target
Facebook Inc. may locate a growing number of its data centres at sites that have easy access to renewable energy in order to generate a quarter of its electricity use from carbon-free sources by 2015, the world's largest social media company said Wednesday. Facebook's comments on its carbon footprint, which were posted on its website, come amid calls by green groups for the IT and social media sectors to slash their use of coal-fired electricity as global demand skyrockets for online data. "We've set a company goal to derive at least 25 percent of our energy mix from clean and renewable sources by 2015. We know this is going to be a stretch for us, and we're still figuring out exactly what it will take to get there," the company said. To read this article in full click here
US launches $20 million clean energy programme in India
The US today launched a USD 20 million clean energy deployment programme (PACE-D) to help in India's transition to a high performing, low emissions and energy secure economy. "I am proud of our long-standing partnership in the energy sector and I know that we have the potential to strengthen this partnership through the broader PACE-D effort," US Ambassador to India Nancy J Powell said while announcing the launch of the Indo-US Partnership to Advance Clean Energy - Deployment (PACE-D). The programme, to be implemented in five years, is an outcome of bilateral energy dialogue created by President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November 2009 and will help to improve energy efficiency, increase the supply of renewable energy and adopt and accelerate deployment of cleaner fossil fuel technology. PACE-D will work to create an environment that strengthens institutions, increases the availability of innovative financing mechanisms and enhances local capacity to propagate clean energy solutions, said Ambassador Powell. To read this article in full click here
Olympic Park erects wind turbines after all
Seven Quiet Revolution vertical axis wind turbines deployed to provide renewable energy to Olympic Park’s lighting infrastructure. It was one of the most high profile criticisms of the Olympic Park's green credentials, even finding its way into an episode of the hit satirical comedy Twenty Twelve. But now those who condemned the Olympic Delivery Authority for failing to follow through with plans to install a giant wind turbine at the Stratford site could be forced into a re-think, after it emerged seven wind turbines have been erected at the Olympic Park. They might not look like the conventional three blade turbine that had been originally intended, but organisers today confirmed smaller scale vertical axis wind turbines that are designed to be more effective at harnessing the wind power in urban environments have been deployed at the Stratford park. BusinessGreen can reveal the so-called qr5 turbines have been provided by British wind turbine manufacturer Quiet Revolution, although because of International Olympic Committee restrictions the company is not allowed to provide further details of the project beyond confirming its technology is featuring at the Olympic Park. To read this article in full click here
$25 Billion in U.S. Budget Savings from Switching Federal Freight Shipments to Carriers Using Alternative Fuels
A new report from a Washington, D.C. energy policy group urges the federal government to begin allocating its $150 billion budget for transport services to carriers that fuel their fleets on domestically produced natural gas, electricity, biofuels and other alternatives to diesel and gasoline. The report, by the non-profit American Clean Skies Foundation (ACSF), says a switch of just 20% of the U.S. government's business to freight and package carriers using alternative fuels would lead to taxpayer savings of up to $7 billion annually and approximately $25 billion by 2025 (assuming a gradual fuel shift, beginning in 2015). Much of the savings is attributable to reduced fuel costs because major alternatives, such as compressed natural gas (CNG), cost less per gallon than petroleum-based fuels. The 55-page ACSF report -- Oil Shift: The Case for Switching Federal Transportation Spending to Alternative Fuel Vehicles -- finds that shifting federal transportation contracts to vans and trucks running on alternative fuels could reduce oil imports by billions of gallons annually; cut greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by over 20 million metric tons a year; and stimulate the nationwide introduction of tens of thousands of new alternative fuel vehicles. To read this article in full click here
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