Environmentally friendly

As part of the ongoing trend for all things environmentally friendly, UK utility Scottish and Southern Energy has announced two major initiatives this week. The first will see the energy firm reduce by 50% the amount of CO2 per kWh of electricity produced at power stations in which it has an ownership or contractual interest by 2019 to 2020. SSE has also announced plans to launch a new business across the UK to provide customers with energy performance certificates, a requirement for house sales and commercial and rented properties that is progressively being introduced by the UK government. Ultimately, there is expected to be an annual requirement for up to 7.5 million surveys, which will report how energy efficient a home is on an A to G scale.

Staying in the UK, and with renewables, Irish company OpenHydro has announced that it has become the first company to complete the connection of a tidal turbine to the UK national grid and commence electricity generation, as well as one of the first companies in the world to reach this stage of technical maturity. OpenHydro said that the success of the 250KW open-centre turbine initiative, which is installed at the European Marine Energy Centre off Orkney, Scotland, is a significant development for the future of the tidal energy industry and the security of energy supply.