News

• Google cuts renewables programme

  23 November 2011

  Google has cancelled its initiative to drive down the cost of renewable energy, citing the low price of solar modules, but says it remains committed to its more than $850 million of investments in renewables technologies.

• Renewable energy deployment "needs to pick up" – IEA

  23 November 2011

  The world risks locking itself into a high carbon energy system without a radical change in policies, including a global carbon price, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

• SRI pioneer proposes Henderson SRI buy-out

  23 November 2011

  Socially responsible investment (SRI) pioneer Tessa Tennant has said she would like to help convene a "rescue group" to buy out Henderson Global Investors' SRI fund management business, following the company's announcement that it is making its SRI team redundant.

• EU carbon price forecasts slashed

  22 November 2011

  Growing fears about the EU's economy have prompted a new wave of downgrades of carbon price forecasts – but a prediction by UBS that prices could slump to €3 ($4.06) next year has elicited a rebuttal from a leading carbon market group.

• Coal power sinks Lynemouth aluminium smelter

  22 November 2011

  Rio Tinto Alcan last week blamed the closure of its aluminium smelter in north-east England on a potential 10-fold rise in environmental costs from 2013.

• Sarasin names likely survivors in solar shake-out

  22 November 2011

  First Solar, Suntech Power, Trina Solar and Solarworld are among the solar photovoltaic firms best positioned to survive the ongoing consolidation in the sector, according to a report from Bank Sarasin.

• German investor joins RWE's clean energy VC fund

  22 November 2011

  Innogy Renewables Technology Fund I, a clean-energy venture capital fund, has boosted its resources to €115 million ($155 million) following additional investment by its founder, German energy giant RWE, and Hamburg-based investor Conetwork Erneuerbare Energien (CEE).

• Falling mandatory REC prices threaten solar developers

  21 November 2011

  Sales of renewable energy credits in US compliance markets outstripped that country's voluntary market for the first time last year as states strove to meet their green electricity targets set by Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPSs).

• Chu defends Solyndra loan guarantee in five-hour testimony

  18 November 2011

  The US Department of Energy (DOE) did not break the law when it restructured a loan guarantee for now bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu said, even though he acknowledged the US government is unlikely to recover much of its investment in the failed company.

• Green insurance agency instead of Green Investment Bank?

  18 November 2011

  The UK would be better off creating a green insurance agency rather than a Green Investment Bank (GIB), according to a specialist in climate change risks.