Client News- Marine Current Turbines wins Sustainable Ireland Award

Marine Current Turbines has been recognised at the Sustainable Ireland Awards 2010 for making the ‘Best Use of Renewable Energy Sources.’ The Award acknowledged the success of the company’s SeaGen tidal technology, which has been operating in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough since 2008.

The award, sponsored by NWP Recycling, was handed over to MCT’s co-founder and Technical Director, Peter Fraenkel, at a ceremony held at the Ramada Hotel in Belfast (September 15th) where the keynote speaker was Northern Ireland’s Environment Minister, Edwin Poots.

The independent judging panel was impressed with MCT’s SeaGen project in Strangford Lough where it has scored a world first, using innovative technology to harness sufficient energy from the tides to power hundreds of homes all year round. “To say that it has taken a lot of time and effort, not to mention inventiveness and ingenuity would be an understatement, but the company clearly had an abundance of belief, know-how and drive to reach its goal,” commented the judges.

This was the sixth year of the Energy, Environmental & Waste Management awards, organised by the Hillsborough based publishers of Sustainable Ireland magazine, 4SquareMedia, to celebrate the contribution industry makes to the environment and to sustainability.

Picture of MCT’s Technical Director (Peter Fraenkel) receiving the Award is available from Taylor Keogh Communications – 020 3170 8465.

About Marine Current Turbines:

1. Marine Current Turbines (www.marineturbines.com) is based in Bristol, England. The company was established in 2000 and its principal corporate shareholders include BankInvest, Carbon Trust Investments, EDF Energy, ESB International, Guernsey Electricity, High Tide and Siemens Energy.

2. In September 2009, MCT was ranked the world’s top tidal energy company in The Guardian/Clean Tech Global 100 Survey and in June 2009 won Renewable Energy Developer of the Year in the UK Renewable Energy Association Annual Awards.

3. MCT’s 1.2MW SeaGen was deployed in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough in April 2008; it has the capacity to generate power for the equivalent of about 1500 homes. It works in principle much like an “underwater windmill” with the rotors driven by the power of the tidal currents rather than the wind. The SeaGen turbine is subject to a rigorous monitoring programme imposed under its licensing conditions to ensure it does not threaten the marine life of Strangford Lough where it is located.

4. SeaGen is accredited by OFGEM as a UK power station and so is a recipient of Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs).

5. Since February 2008, MCT has partnered RWE npower renewables on plans to develop a 10MW tidal farm in waters off Anglesey, north Wales and is working with Minas Bay Pulp & Paper to deploy a single SeaGen system in Canada’s Bay of Fundy. In September 2010, the company announced that it would partner ESB International in taking forward plans to develop a tidal energy farm of up to 100MW off the Antrim (Northern Ireland) coast.

6. In March 2010, MCT secured approval for a lease from The Crown Estate to deploy its SeaGen tidal current technology off Brough Ness, on the southern most tip of the Orkney Islands (South Ronaldsay) and north east of John O’Groats. The company plans to have its first phase of SeaGen tidal turbines deployed there during 2017 with the whole scheme operational by 2020.

For further information:

Marine Current Turbines (www.marineturbines.com)

Paul Taylor (Taylor Keogh Communications)

Tel: 020 3170 8465

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Industry News-Approval for Ireland Wales electricity link

Planning chiefs today gave the go-ahead to a major new electricity link between Ireland and Wales.

Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan said the vital two-way link would bolster electricity supply and speed up the development of renewable energy.

“It will mean we can import electricity when required from the UK market,” he said.

“More importantly, it will mean we can export our electricity to the UK. When the wind is blowing in Ireland, we can sell this power to our neighbours,” he added.

The 260km underwater cable will reach land in Rush, north Co Dublin and Barkby beach in North Wales bringing power to 300,000 homes.

It could also help drive down household bills by increasing competition in the electricity sector, Mr Ryan added.

The 500 megawatt East-West Interconnector was approved by An Bord Pleanala, granting Irish energy firm EirGrid the green light for the 600 million euro project.

Around 100 jobs are set to be created when Swedish engineering firm ABB begins building the link next year, with construction expected to be completed by 2012.

An estimated 45km of underground cables will run along public roads to Rush from a converter station in Woodland, Co Meath.

The Welsh link will begin at Deeside and travel northwards up the coast to arrive at Barkby beach.

Taylor Keogh Communications Public Affairs and PR for the Energy Industry

Political News-Irish ‘No to Lisbon’ camp faces an 'uphill struggle' say experts

As Ireland’s second vote on the Lisbon Treaty nears, concesssions won by the Irish government coupled with a resurgent civil society ‘yes’ movement could see the ‘No to Lisbon’ camp face an uphill struggle in the coming weeeks.

Background:

Ireland rejected the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum in June 2008 effectively stalling the reforms contained in the treaty and causing widespread consternation among European politicians.

Following the result of the referendum, the Irish government conducted detailed research into why the public voted against the treaty and found concerns over military neutrality, the potential impact on Ireland's corporate tax rates, workers' rights and ethical issues related to the position of the family and abortion. Question marks over whether Ireland would lose its European commissioner were also said to be of concern.

Leaders meeting in Brussels in December 2008 agreed to find a legally-binding solution to clear up confusion over how the treaty would affect Ireland in the hope that this would allow a second referendum.

Following June’s European elections, where only one of Ireland’s 12 MEPs was elected on an anti-Lisbon platform, EU leaders reached a compromise in offering Ireland legally-binding guarantees on the Lisbon Treaty without requiring other countries to re-ratify the text.

The Irish government set Friday 2 October as the date for the second referendum.There is a precedent for Ireland having a second vote on a European treaty, as two referenda were required to pass the Nice Treaty.

With the second referendum six weeks away, both pro and anti-Lisbon campaigns are grinding into gear. While many of the 2008 arguments from both sides are being re-circulated this time around, experts told EurActiv that the political backdrop to this year’s referendum is profoundly different to that of last year.

According to the sources, who did not wish to be named given the politically sensitive nature of the current debates, many of the grounds for argument raised by the ‘no’ camp in 2008 are no longer in play, given that the guarantees and concessions granted to Ireland by EU leaders appear to have assuaged many of the fears expressed by Irish ‘no’ voters last June.

As a result, they indicated, the ‘no’ campaign could face an 'uphill struggle' to recreate its 2008 success.Given the changed context, the ‘no’ camp will largely have to base its arguments on issues they feel have not been addressed by the EU guarantees, using, in particular, workers’ rights as a spearhead for its campaign.

Indeed, the combined ‘no’ campaign was launched earlier this week with a warning that the treaty would leave workers worse off and more exposed to spending cuts.

A profoundly undemocratic document says ‘no’ camp

Speaking at the launch, Ireland’s sole anti-Lisbon MEP, Socialist Joe Higgins, argued that the Lisbon Treaty “is a profoundly undemocratic document, which seeks to turn right-wing economic policies into the only show in town”.

According to the MEP, if Lisbon is passed, “the EU Commission would uphold the right of big business to profit from public services, over and above the rights of workers to take action to defend these services”.

However, Andrew Byrne, Chief of Operations for pro-Lisbon advocacy group Ireland for Europe, dismissed the ‘no’ camp’s claims, arguing that its “scattergun approach” continues to falsely portray Lisbon as part of a “neoliberal economic agenda”.

According to Byrne, the ‘no side’ “will continue to misrepresent and distort the truth, playing on peoples’ fears and anxieties”.

Groundswell of groups adds legitimacy to ‘yes’ camp

But pro-Lisbon Byrne believes that despite what he sees as the fear-mongering on the ‘no’ side, the emergence of a plethora of civil society ‘yes’ bodies are giving a stronger legitimacy to the overall pro-Lisbon campaign.

“You only have to look at the number of groups out there to see that there is a groundswell of people who are not part of the normal political scene, who care about the future of the country and feel that Lisbon is a big part of that,” he said.

This “shows that there are people throughout Ireland who feel this issue is too important to leave to politicians and traditional groups”.

Byrne argued that the proliferation of civil society ‘yes’ groups “takes the wind out of the ‘no’ camp’s sails”, in that “it doesn’t allow the ‘no’ groups to paint Lisbon as merely an ambition of the political establishment”.

“We’re making the point to people that there is a new deal on the table and their concerns have been addressed. The loss of the Commissioner, for example, was a huge concern to people,” said Byrne.

The Ireland for Europe representative concluded that in his opinion, the ‘no’ camp is weaker this time around, but urged against “complacency,” among pro-Lisbon activists, arguing that all groups should remain active on the ground until the referendum.

Industry News-ESB acquires two wind farms in Britain

THE ESB has bought its first wind farms in Britain for an undisclosed sum. One is based in Devon and the other is the West Durham.

An ESB spokesman said prices are not being disclosed "for commercial reasons".

The deals mean the Irish semi-state energy group has reached almost half its 2012 target for wind generation in Britain.In its corporate strategy the group said it wanted to have 200MW of electricity under generation in the renewable sector in Britain by 2012.

Fullabrook Wind Farm in Devon has permission to generate up to 66MW of electricity generation with construction expected to start early next year.The 24MW West Durham wind farm, near Tow Law in the north-east of England, started generating power last May.

The group also set out a target of having 3GW of electricity under generation in the conventional manner in Britain also by 2012. It has acquired two conventional plants there including a base in Southampton helping it to move towards its GW target.

ESB’s head of wind development, Joe O’Mahony, said the deals marked the first step in the company’s strategy to achieve 200MW of wind generation in Britain by 2012.

"We are committed to developing a balanced portfolio of generation with less reliance on fossil fuels. Market convergence between the UK and Ireland, and delivery of our low carbon strategic framework, means that ESB sees the UK as a key market. We are delivering on our strategic objectives to become a significant investor in the UK renewables market," he said.

ESBI launched a major investment strategy in Britain last November that has significant plans to develop or acquire wind energy projects.That is in line with the ESB’s strategy to halve its carbon emissions in 12 years and to achieve carbon zero emission by 2035.

Overall, ESB has allocated €4bn specifically for direct investment in renewable generation projects.


This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, July 30, 2009

Political News- Irish Energy Policy central to economic growth

Opportunities for growth in the Irish Energy Market

The Irish National Board for Enterprise and Science Forfas reported that the country has shown strong sector growth in renewable energies, efficient energy use and management, waste management, recovery and recycling, and water and waste water treatment.

Forfas believe that the decisions that are taken today on Irelands Energy policy will influence the prosperity of the country for the next twenty years.

The government is under pressure to create employment and to stop the rise in immigration of the educated migrants who are starting to leave due to the Economic down turn. The simplest move is to refocus the work force from a failing construction industry on the energy sector and it’s supporting sectors.

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A number of priority areas have emerged for investment including;ICT control systems for energy efficiency, Eco-construction, Carbon trading and green technology investment. For these opportunities to be taken improvements are required to the framework conditions of skills, regulation, public procurement and R&D.

In line with the US and the EU the Forfas report points to a dual strategy of investing in Energy as a way to fight the two challenges ff rising unemployment and climate change. However with the public purse at an all time low and leading Irish Economists such as Colm McCarthy calling for cut backs of five billion Euros the government will be hard pressed to find the investment needed.

By accident or by design there are a few positive aspects for the Irish energy sector. The timely delivery of Ireland’s planned energy interconnections (i.e., the north-south tie line and the east-west interconnector) and new generation plants are important to ensure adequate generation capacity and to improve energy cost competitiveness. The unbundling of the transmission network is an important element in attracting new

investment in generation capacity into the Irish market and should be progressed as a matter of priority.

The Forfas report calls for the government to prioritise the work of the Energy Research Strategy group so that it can accelerate and increase the capacity for the Irish Energy market to benefit from existing technology in and outside of Ireland. The government must now respond as to how they intend to fund future research and bring this body forward.

Energy Related Goods and Services

Forfás completed an assessment of the opportunities for Ireland within the Energy Related Goods and Services sector, matching international trends in investment to technological advances and domestic capabilities. In Ireland decisions made on energy policy will provide the operating context for businesses inIreland over the next 20 years.

The report sets out a range of recommendations to enhance the development of the Irish Energy Sector. A key outcome of this work has been the establishment of a High Level Action Group on Green Enterprise with a mandate to report back to Cabinet with an action plan for taking advantage of the opportunities identified by this piece of work. Forfás will provide the secretariat for this High Level Action Group.

http://www.forfas.ie/