The pilot projects will each supply 500MW of a mixture of photovoltaic, concentrated solar power and wind power energy via a high-voltage direct current grid to Europe, and are trials for a total of 20GW of power to reduce CO2 emissions and protect EU energy supply.

The final scheme is projected to cost £67.5bn.

Piling contractor Screwfast is bidding to supply foundations for the renewable structures and its marketing director Rod Ward Able told NCE that a meeting in Paris on Saturday will confirm funding details and the locations of the five test sites.

Each of the test sites are thought to be located in north Africa, although south eastern Europe is another candidate area.

Ward Able said they would be "extremely large sites" and would be a huge boost for photovoltaic (pv) production. "In photovoltaic terms this is like flying to the moon," he said. New undersea cables would link the sites to the EU in a "supergrid" similar to ideas espoused by Pell Frischmann sustainability director Tim Jervis.

The scheme aims to supply clean power to the EU at a cost of around 4.6 euro cents per kW/h.

Jervis said that this target was achievable, but the scale of the project is beyond anything currently in production and would take up 20% of global pv production.

Over the next 10 years National Skills Academy for Nuclear estimates the sector will need to recruit an additional 10,000 people, while at the same time 80% of the current 50,000 strong workforce is aged over fifty and close to retirement.

Speaking at Civils 2008, Magnox South chief engineer Steve Hodson said his firm, which is responsible for the decommissioning of Berkeley, Bradwell, Dungeness, Hinkley Point A and Sizewell A, was doing everything it could to cope with the anticipated skills shortage.

"We need to attract young people and engineers from other areas," said Hodson.

"The UK civils community provides all the skills I believe we need. The transferring process [of engineers from other sectors] is simply to help them how their skills must be applied in a heavily regulated and safety-conscious sector like nuclear.

"When we bring people into the industry, we make sure that they are working with those more experienced members of our teams, some of which have been in the industry for over 40 years."

Carbon Trust chief executive Tom Delay was speaking at a Civils 2008 debate on the merits of nuclear, renewables and carbon capture and storage (CCS), but said carbon emissions could be cut more quickly and efficiently through energy efficiency.

"Nuclear, renewables and CCS all have a part to play [in cutting carbon] but we shouldn't assume they are the only solutions," said delay.

"Energy efficiency is likely to be significant going forward and I think it's a great opportunity for engineers and engineering. The short term returns are from energy efficiency. There are so many businesses focused on costs at the moment…energy efficiency is a no-brainer."

Nuclear Industries Association chief executive Keith Parker, also speaking at the debate, said he agreed with the Government's policy of using a mix of renewables and nuclear to deliver low-carbon energy, but said more needed to be done on the issue of carbon pricing.

"The Government has to remove barriers to investment," said Parker.

"All low carbon technologies need a mechanism to deliver a long term price for carbon. We also need greater clarity and insurance that political support for nuclear will remain."

CCS, however, was given short shrift by the debate panel at Civils, dismissed as prohibitively expensive and not likely to deliver any carbon savings before the EU's carbon emission targets for 2020.

Despite this, Mouchel managing director of regulated industries Piers Clark said research and development of CCS must continue, as the technology was likely to be vital to energy security in the long term, especially in a coal-rich nation like Britain.

"Cars and PCs started off as prohibitively expensive, but as technology developed, prices soon tumbled," said Clark.

"We need to start the CCS journey and things will get cheaper."

Speaking at Civils 2008, Zyen Group executive chairman Michael Mainelli said that investors recognise that now is a crucial time to be investing in the energy sector, but wish to spread their risk across a range of technologies.

“In the city we have a portfolio approach to life,” said Mainelli.

“You are betting on the market, betting on these technologies, and only an idiot backs one technology as the winner.”

But Mainelli added that of all the renewable technologies, solar power was actually proving most popular with City investors.

He also added that despite the promise of growth in the UK’s nuclear industry through the construction of new plants, investment funds were cautious given the industry’s previous failings and uncooperative approach.

“Investment is based on trust, and over the years with nuclear that trust has eroded,” said Mainelli.

“As well as nationalisation, the nuclear industry has been very secretive and failed to share information on its efficiency and performance. It has a lot of problems to tackle if it is to be attractive to investors.”

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said that the £54M raised through the Government's sale of the UK of carbon emissions allocation today should be spent on initiatives to meet the UK’s climate change obligations.

The Government today held Europe's first carbon allowance auction  in Phase II (2008 - 2012) of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS).

Four million allowances were sold at a total value of £54m excluding VAT, or £13.60 per allowance, Euro/Sterling exchange rate 0.8428.

The EU ETS puts a cap on emissions from around 12,000 installations throughout the EU, including the energy and heavy industrial sectors. These sectors are collectively responsible for close to half of the EU's emissions of carbon dioxide.

Other European states, including Austria, Hungary and the Netherlands have pledged to put the money they raise from ETS back into climate change, energy and environmental programmes and IPPR today called on the UK government to do the same.

IPPR said the money should go to improving the energy efficiency of homes (with priority given to helping poorer people faced with rising fuel bills), investing in low carbon technological innovation and help meet the cost of dealing with climate change in poorer countries.

The think tank said that the revenue could be directed into a separate fund, similar to Norway’s oil windfall fund, with decisions on investing the resources overseen by the Committee on Climate Change or a similar independent body.

IPPR co-director Lisa Harker said: "There are many urgent needs – both domestic and international  - when it comes to tackling climate change, and using the money raised from this auction is one way of ensuring that  these needs are addressed during the economic downturn.

"This is a great opportunity to help poorer households make their homes both cheaper to heat and warmer, and create jobs through investment in new green technologies.  The UK Government should follow the lead of other countries and establish a clear link between charging companies for their carbon emissions and investment in measures to help reduce emissions."

During phase II of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), states are permitted to auction up to 10% of their national allocation. The UK will be auctioning 7%, or about 85M allowances (equivalent to 85M tonnes of CO2), over the period 2008 – 2012. The first auction of 4M allowances took place today. This will be followed by an auction of 25M allowances during 2009.

The UK was the first EU nation to auction its allowances for Phase II, and energy and climate change minister Mike O'Brien said: "Today's first Phase II auction demonstrates continued UK leadership in reducing carbon emissions as part of the fight against dangerous climate change.

"The EU ETS is central to keeping the price of tackling climate change as low as possible to industry and the economy. We want more auctioning in the future - and are already planning to
auction 100% of the allowances needed by the power sector from 2013. This auction highlights the importance of using the market to drive down emissions and create incentives for the development of low carbon technology."

As far as renewables go, onshore wind is an engineer’s dream.

More crucially, it is the stuff of banker’s dreams too. Of the many renewable technologies that the UK is likely to employ – offshore wind, tidal barrages, solar panels and biomass plants – to hit the EU target of producing 15% of total energy demand from renewables by 2020, onshore wind is the most established.

It is a proven technology, something which cannot be said for many of the other technologies, and as such should be a shoo-in for strong investment and development in the run-up to 2020.

Current government estimates say onshore wind generating capacity must be at 14GW, and offshore wind at 20GW, if the overall 2020 renewables target is to be hit.

Currently, the UK has 2.6GW of onshore wind generating capacity with another 772MW under construction. Another 3.4GW has received planning consent but has not yet been built, 1.9GW of which has been granted this year. This was highest planning approval rate ever, leading many in the UK wind industry to call 2008 “the year of consents”.

This total of 6.8GW is likely to become the UK’s onshore wind generating capacity within the next few years.

But more than the same amount again – a massive 7.1GW – of onshore wind projects is being held up in the UK planning system, and although plans to build 1.9GW of capacity have been approved this year, these approvals have largely been for major schemes like the 143MW Whitelee wind farm in Scotland.

There are also signs that the pace of expansion will slow as projects get smaller. All schemes above 50MW must be approved by the Department for Energy and Climate Change in England and Wales and the Scottish Government, with all schemes below this threshold considered by local planning authorities.

It is likely that this threshold will remain when the independent Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) is established by the Planning Bill, now going through Parliament.

This is being set up to fast track major projects. But it is also likely that most future onshore windfarms will fall below the threshold, and so will fall outside the IPC’s remit.

"We are going to be relying on smaller projects," said Eversheds planning partner and British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) board member Marcus Trinick, speaking at the BWEA’s 30th anniversary conference last week.

"As you get more projects there are issues of cumulative effect. The big cherries like Whitelee have gone."

At these times Britons are reminded that the country has lower fuel reserves for electricity and heating generation than the majority of our European counterparts, and a particularly cold winter would see power generators being forced to cut off electricity supplies for short periods.

Fortunately, in this era of global warming, Christmas is characterised by drizzle and snow generally turns up around March or April. The cold winter of doom seems as likely as a dry summer.

Nevertheless, the BBC was so concerned that those good people at the Today programme yesterday published results of a survey of 31 experts, in which it attempted to ascertain just when exactly we will all be plunged into darkness.

The results were probably a little disappointing for John Humphrys et al. Just one of the 31 experts (among whom there was a healthy representation of civil engineers, including ICE vice president Scott Steedman, Mott MacDonald energy director Simon Harrison and Pell Frischmann sustainability director Tim Jervis) believed there was an "unacceptable risk of power blackouts" in the next year.

The Association of Electricity Producers (AEP), responding to a report by the BBC yesterday that by 2015 there was an unacceptable risk of power blackouts, agreed with the report and its condemnation of the Government for dithering over energy policy.

The AEP agreed that there was risk of power blackouts from 2015 onwards due to a large proportion of our gas and coal-fired plants will be forced to close due to EU legislation and nuclear plants shut due to their age.

However, it added that UK generators were fully aware of this risk and were doing everything within their power to ensure the lights stay on.

"The UK electricity industry expects to invest £100bn by 2020 in new power stations and related infrastructure," said an AEP spokesman.

"This money is needed to replace the retiring power stations and also to meet the government’s renewable energy target, which requires between 30% and 40% of the UK’s electricity to come from renewables by 2020. Power stations are long-term investments and their owners will expect them to operate for decades. Clear and stable policy from governments is vital to investors and those qualities have not always been forthcoming." 

ScottishPower Renewables, part of the world’s largest wind power operator and developer, Iberdrola Renovables, and Vattenfall, the world’s second largest operator of offshore wind, will jointly participate in the third round of tender bids to develop offshore wind power in the UK.

Their common goal is to establish 6,000 MW of installed wind power capacity, enough clean green energy to power six million homes by 2020.

The partnership will take the form of a consortium combining extensive experience of offshore wind power and the financial strength to ensure a strong renewable energy bid. Applications for the third round of tenders are to be submitted to the UK’s Crown Estate by the beginning of March.

"For us, the partnership offers a better opportunity to achieve our goal of increasing the amount of wind power we produce to a total of 50 TWh by 2030," said head of Vattenfall Wind Power AB Anders Dahl. "Great Britain is an important growth market for us and has excellent conditions for wind power."

ScottishPower Renewables operates over 550MW of wind farms across Great Britain and Ireland and is in the process of building the world’s largest onshore wind farm, Whitelee (322MW) and recently received consent for their first offshore windfarm, West of Duddon Sands (500MW).  

Vattenfall already owns Kentish Flats, a wind farm in the Thames Estuary off Whitstable and recently acquired wind power companies AMEC Wind Energy Ltd and Eclipse Energy UK plc in Great Britain. Vattenfall also owns two of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, Lillgrund off the south coast of Sweden and Horns Rev in the Danish North Sea. Vattenfall’s strategic focus is "making electricity clean" with the goal of being climate neutral by 2050.

The energy firm said the project at Llangurig in Powys, mid-Wales would cost £15.18M and could have a generating capacity of 69MW.

Chief executive officer Mike Proffitt said: "We have been working on the development of this opportunity for over 12 months and I am delighted to have reached this stage in what may be one of the best producing wind farms in the UK.

The firm added that its expectations would be to be able to generate well in excess of 200GWH annually following wind measurements taken in the region over several years.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Mike O'Brien announced the appointment of Lady Balfour of Burleigh as the Chairman of the new Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board (NLFAB).

As part of any application to build a new nuclear power station, operators will have to submit plans for decommissioning and waste management including how they will be funded. The NLFAB will provide independent scrutiny and advice on the financing arrangements of those plans which will have to be approved by the Secretary of State.

"The NLFAB will be providing independent scrutiny of the financing arrangements that will last decades into the future" said Balfour.  "The work of the NLFAB will require hard thinking and robust negotiation.  This will help ensure that energy companies pay for the full costs of decommissioning and full share of costs associated with nuclear waste management and disposal."

The government predicts it needs 14GW of onshore wind generating capacity as part of an overall renewables mix to hit the EU 2020 target. But, wind industry experts said weaknesses in the planning system are preventing onshore wind from delivering its target contribution.

At present plans to build 7.1GW of capacity are stuck in the planning system. This is more than the combined total capacity of schemes in operation, under construction or with planning consent.

"Unfortunately it’s always the vocal minority heard by the councillors, and they’re too easily influenced, and become heroes for saying 'no' to central government," said renewables firm Your Energy’s managing director Richard Mardon, speaking at the British Wind Energy Association’s (BWEA) 30th anniversary conference in London last week.

The new Planning Bill is intended to speed up infrastructure planning applications by fast tracking projects through the new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC).

But proposals for wind farms with a generating capacity below 50MW will fall outside the IPC’s remit and will to go through the local planning system. Mardon said councillors on planning authorities had to be stronger in face of opposition to the project. "Ninety per cent are in favour of windfarms or don’t care either way," he said.

The government predicts it needs 14GW of onshore wind generating capacity as part of an overall renewables mix to hit the
EU 2020 target.

But, wind industry experts said weaknesses in the planning system are preventing onshore wind from delivering its target contribution. At present plans to build 7.1GW of capacity are stuck in the planning system.

This is more than the combined total capacity of schemes in operation,
under construction or with planning consent.

"Unfortunately it’s always the vocal minority heard by the councillors,
and they’re too easily influenced, and become heroes for saying ‘no’ to central government," said renewables firm Your Energy’s managing director Richard Mardon, speaking at the British Wind Energy Association's (BWEA) 30th anniversary conference in London last week.

The new Planning Bill is intended to speed up infrastructure planning applications by fast tracking projects through the new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC).

But proposals for wind farms with a generating capacity below
50MW will fall outside the IPC's remit and will to go through the
local planning system.

Mardon said councillors on planning authorities had to be
stronger in face of opposition to the project.

"Ninety per cent are in favour of windfarms or don't care either way,” he said.

The UK must produce 15% of its total energy demand from renewable sources by 2020 under EU wide energy targets - in 2005 it managed only 1.3%.

The House of Lords European Union Committee on Friday claimed that wholesale changes were needed in the Government's approach to energy policy if the target was to be met.

A statement by the Committee said it was concerned that the Government has not included energy efficiency as a central part of the Renewable Energy Strategy.

It points out that witnesses speaking to the Committee estimated that around a fifth of the 15% reduction target could be achieved by 'aggressive demand reduction policies'.

Energy efficiency measures, therefore, should form the starting point for the Government to meet its 2020 targets. The Committee calls on the Government to set a 20% energy reduction target by 2020.

The Committee's report also points out that 41% of the UK's energy use is for heating and cooling. The Committee stresses that renewable heat technologies and micro-electricity generation should be as important a part of meeting the UK's renewables target as large-scale electricity generation.

It calls on the Government to increase existing micro-generation grants and to introduce a system of renewable heat grants to ensure individuals have an economic incentive to explore options for micro-energy generation at home.