A fresh round of energy price rises looked inevitable today as Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) issued a stark warning that its first- half profits would be substantially lower than the results achieved in previous years.
Ian Marchant, chief executive of SSE, said that it was becoming increasing difficult to keep retail energy prices down, as wholesale prices soar.
"The extent of the energy shock with which the entire global economy is having to contend has been well-documented, and its full impact on prices for electricity and gas in the UK has still to be felt. We are continuing to resist the pressure to put up prices for domestic customers, but doing so is becoming more difficult by the day," Mr Marchant said.
In previous years, SSE has made most of its pre-tax profits in the first six months of the year. However, this year the second half is expected to be stronger.
Angela Jameson
full article
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Britain set to become electric car capital of Europe if Brown seals deal with General Motors
Britain is to become the 'electric car capital of Europe' under a deal being hammered out between the world's biggest car company and Gordon Brown.
Bosses at General Motors want to build a revolutionary electric family vehicle at their factory in the UK - creating up to 500 new jobs.
It is part of the car maker's plan to make 1 in 10 of every vehicle they sell in Europe an electric version.
If a proposed deal between the car giant and Mr Brown is realised, all of them will be built in the UK.
By 2015 up to 220,000 electric cars a year - with batteries included - would be built at Ellesmere Port factory in Cheshire.
The factory would supply the whole of Europe with electric cars, of which 40,000 would be sold in the UK.
The new project from GM's British subsidiary Vauxhall would create 500 new jobs on top of the 2,200 people already employed there.
The 'green' car will be called the Flextreme - an electric hybrid which Mr Brown inspected for himself when he met company bosses today at the British International Motor Show.
Whitehall officials have said that the plan 'was of interest' and 'struck a chord' with Government thinking.
Details emerged as Mr Brown told car makers on the preview day of the show that he wanted them to build more electric cars to cut pollution.
In return for the massive investment, General Motors wants Mr Brown to honour his wish to have public charging points for electric cars on thousands of British streets.
full article
Bosses at General Motors want to build a revolutionary electric family vehicle at their factory in the UK - creating up to 500 new jobs.
It is part of the car maker's plan to make 1 in 10 of every vehicle they sell in Europe an electric version.
If a proposed deal between the car giant and Mr Brown is realised, all of them will be built in the UK.
By 2015 up to 220,000 electric cars a year - with batteries included - would be built at Ellesmere Port factory in Cheshire.
The factory would supply the whole of Europe with electric cars, of which 40,000 would be sold in the UK.
The new project from GM's British subsidiary Vauxhall would create 500 new jobs on top of the 2,200 people already employed there.
The 'green' car will be called the Flextreme - an electric hybrid which Mr Brown inspected for himself when he met company bosses today at the British International Motor Show.
Whitehall officials have said that the plan 'was of interest' and 'struck a chord' with Government thinking.
Details emerged as Mr Brown told car makers on the preview day of the show that he wanted them to build more electric cars to cut pollution.
In return for the massive investment, General Motors wants Mr Brown to honour his wish to have public charging points for electric cars on thousands of British streets.
full article
Monday, 21 July 2008
Retailers urge EU to scrap anti-dumping duties on energy-saving lightbulbs
Leading European retailers today urged the EU to scrap punitive anti-dumping duties on energy-saving lightbulbs from China, claiming the tariffs cost consumers billions of euros a year.
The retailers, including Sir Terry Leahy of Tesco and Sören Hansen of Ikea, said the tariffs of up to 66% ensured that prices were "artificially inflated" when they reached the shops and this depressed demand for energy-saving bulbs.
The European retail round table claimed that if only one extra low-energy bulb was purchased per EU household this would save €2bn (£1.6bn) in electricity consumption - quite apart from reducing CO2 emissions.
The European commission has imposed duties on imports from China for the last six years and extended them for a year in late 2007. But many of the contentious imports are made by European firms in China.
Dutch group Philips, the world's biggest lighting company, is pressing for the duties to be lifted while Osram, owned by Germany's Siemens, has campaigned for them to be retained. But Osram recently gave up a legal challenge to the EC.
The duties are seen as in flagrant contradicition of EU ambitions to reduce energy consumption by 20% by 2020 - a cornerstone of its claim to be leading the global fight against climate change.
David Gow
full article
The retailers, including Sir Terry Leahy of Tesco and Sören Hansen of Ikea, said the tariffs of up to 66% ensured that prices were "artificially inflated" when they reached the shops and this depressed demand for energy-saving bulbs.
The European retail round table claimed that if only one extra low-energy bulb was purchased per EU household this would save €2bn (£1.6bn) in electricity consumption - quite apart from reducing CO2 emissions.
The European commission has imposed duties on imports from China for the last six years and extended them for a year in late 2007. But many of the contentious imports are made by European firms in China.
Dutch group Philips, the world's biggest lighting company, is pressing for the duties to be lifted while Osram, owned by Germany's Siemens, has campaigned for them to be retained. But Osram recently gave up a legal challenge to the EC.
The duties are seen as in flagrant contradicition of EU ambitions to reduce energy consumption by 20% by 2020 - a cornerstone of its claim to be leading the global fight against climate change.
David Gow
full article
Rubbish idea that could make driving cheaper
A British company may have the answer to soaring petrol prices after it claimed yesterday to have become the first to have found a way to make fuel from rubbish.
neos, the chemicals company, said that it had patented a method of producing fuel from municipal solid waste, agricultural waste and organic commercial waste.
The company claims that it can produce about 400 litres (90 gallons) of ethanol from one tonne of dry waste. The new process works by heating the waste to produce gases, then feeding the gases to bacteria, which produce ethanol that can be purified into a fuel.
Ineos plans to sell the environmental product in industrial quantities by the end of 2010. Peter Williams, the chief executive of Ineos Bio, said: “This should mean that, unlike with other biofuels, we won’t have to make the choice between food and fuel.”
The development of fuel from waste could be a relief for motorists who have watched pump prices soar in the past year to an average of 133.3p per litre of diesel.
The bioethanol that Ineos produces will have to be combined with a fossil fuel, however, because very few cars in Britain can run solely on bioethanol. Ineos has a large traditional refinery business. It owns the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland, where a strike resulted in petrol shortages this year.
Catherine Boyle
full article
neos, the chemicals company, said that it had patented a method of producing fuel from municipal solid waste, agricultural waste and organic commercial waste.
The company claims that it can produce about 400 litres (90 gallons) of ethanol from one tonne of dry waste. The new process works by heating the waste to produce gases, then feeding the gases to bacteria, which produce ethanol that can be purified into a fuel.
Ineos plans to sell the environmental product in industrial quantities by the end of 2010. Peter Williams, the chief executive of Ineos Bio, said: “This should mean that, unlike with other biofuels, we won’t have to make the choice between food and fuel.”
The development of fuel from waste could be a relief for motorists who have watched pump prices soar in the past year to an average of 133.3p per litre of diesel.
The bioethanol that Ineos produces will have to be combined with a fossil fuel, however, because very few cars in Britain can run solely on bioethanol. Ineos has a large traditional refinery business. It owns the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland, where a strike resulted in petrol shortages this year.
Catherine Boyle
full article
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