News Elsewhere contains mainly articles we have permission to republish from Views of Scotland and Country Guardian. You can learn more about these organisations by visiting: http://www.countryguardian.net/ and http://www.viewsofscotland.org/. Occasionally we will also post news from elsewhere on the web.
UTILITY giant ScottishPower is paying an £890 million dividend to Spanish parent company Iberdrola after the Glasgow-based firm benefited from the cold weather, price hikes and rising customer numbers. The company’s gas and electricity supply division, which has more than five million customers and has gained several hundred thousand in Read more
Energy giant ScottishPower has come under renewed fire for doubling its annual profits to nearly £1230 per minute after hitting customers with inflation-busting price rises. Net profits at the Glasgow-based energy giant have soared from £301.6m in 2011 to £646.3m in 2012. In January, ScottishPower, which has 5.2 million customers, Read more
Green Energy Is Going Nowhere The economic and scientific reality, according to Obama’s Energy Department, is that abundant, low-cost fossil fuels will continue to dominate the US fuel mix for at least the next quarter century, and probably much, much longer into the future. Meanwhile, politics aside – the economic Read more
UK farmers can now benefit from a £15m fund to help develop renewable technology in rural communities. The Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF) will help rural communities bear the costs associated with feasibility studies and planning permission. http://evocoenergy.co.uk/evocoblog/farmers-can-benefit-from-15m-story-from-evoco-enrgy-wind-turbines/
A call has gone out for the countryside to be protected from over-development of wind farms. Eight of the country’s leading conservation and environment organisations are behind the plea. The Scottish Government is currently holding consultations on the Scottish Planning Policy and the National Planning Framework. The outcome of these Read more
Tidal turbines stretched across Pentland Firth off Orkney could generate the equivalent to almost half of Scotland’s electricity needs, a new study has revealed. • Oxford University researchers have claimed that tidal turbines installed across Pentland Firth could generate equivalent of almost half of Scotland’s electricity • Report says that Read more
BRITAIN is failing to make the most of the opportunity to become a world leader in offshore wind energy, a new report from an influential think tank has warned. WINNING THE RACE: The report calls on UK Government ministers to show more hunger for renewables technology and warns of the Read more
Pictures proving that raptors are attracted to windfarms http://savetheeagles.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/raptors-attracted-to-windfarms-2/ Study showing that bats are attracted by wind turbines as far as 14 km away (offshore on top of that!). And new, short paper mentioning all this and suggesting that swifts and swallows could also be attracted to windfarms. http://wcfn.org/2013/07/01/tip-of-the-iceberg/ Read more