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In this week’s edition of the New Energy Finance’s week in Review. They had an excellent article of the current situation in the United Kingdom, but ……..

STRUGGLE AHEAD TO MEET 2020 TARGETS DESPITE FINE WORDS
Europe’s politicians have been talking the talk on boosting clean energy capacity over the last year, notably in the EU’s Renewable Directive last December which committed the Union’s 27 countries to achieve a 20% target by 2020.
However actual achievement in the last decade in renewable energy has been mixed, with some countries such as Denmark, Germany and Spain deploying multi-GW capacity in wind and solar, and others – such as the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland – lagging far behind.
For the UK, the share of renewable energy in the overall energy mix has been rising but still only stood at 2.25% in 2008. The government has a commitment to raise this to 15% by 2020, and cut emissions by 34% in 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
These figures sound impressive, but action to bring it about has been piecemeal, if sometimes welcome – including the increased incentive for offshore wind projects announced in this spring’s Budget.
Last week Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband unveiled a fresh strategy document outlining his “low-carbon transition plan”.
The rhetoric was lofty. Miliband said: “Renewables, nuclear and clean fossil fuels are the trinity of low carbon and the future of energy in Britain. Under our plans we will get 40% of our electricity from low-carbon energy by 2020 and more in the years afterwards.”
However the actual substance, in terms of new measures taken or proposed, was modest. His department said it would open an Office for Renewable Energy Deployment, there was the approval for a 295MW biomass power station on Teeside, and there were dollops of cash for offshore wind, wave and tidal and geothermal.
The UK government is directing up to GBP 120m (USD 198m) from its programme to advance low-carbon manufacturing into the offshore wind sector, and another GBP 60m into wave and tidal.…….

Brilliant you might think, but over the weekend and in the press today, the were reports that one of Britain’s biggest green energy employers, Vestas, the UK main manufacturer of wind turbines, is closing its factory this week with the loss of 600 jobs!

Well done! Another great example of joint up thinking and planning by this Government!!! If this money exists it can be used in the future to import the blades, as the country will not have the manufacturing base nor the skilled labour to manufacturer them.