It appears that post-recession Britain has set its sights on being a leader in energy power in Europe. The feeling was strengthened in a statement released by the Department for Energy and Climate Change announcing that interested parties are now invited to bid for access to the Marine Renewables Proving Fund, the formation of which was originally announced in July of this year. The UK government has invited marine-energy firms to bid for a share of the £22 million fund, intended to stimulate the development of clean green renewable energy technology in the UK.

According to energy and climate change minister Lord Hunt, the scope for generating wave and tidal energy around the UK’s shores is massive. The government intends to work closely with local developers to further the goals of the necessary technologies.

"The Proving Fund will help marine projects get off the drawing board and into the water, taking them a vital step closer to full-scale commercial viability." Lord Hunt pointed out.

The fund is due to be overseen by the Carbon Trust, a unit formed in 2003 to act as the UK government’s climate-change advisory body. To date, the Carbon Trust has assessed around 60 different marine-energy harvesting devices and earmarked over £12 million in funding for the sector.

Earlier this month, the Carbon Trust announced that they intend to fund two marine-energy companies, Pelamis Wave Power and Marine Current Turbines, as part of its existing Marine Energy Accelerator initiative. The Pelamis Wave Energy Converter is UK-funded and developed by a UK company. It has been likened by the Carbon Trust to a vast sea-snake.

The Carbon Trust remain confident that the wave-power industry could eventually create up to 16,000 green jobs and £2 billion in annual revenue when it reaches its peak in the middle of the 21st century In the meantime, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills have announced plans to create about 1,500 graduate placements to help support the marine-energy industry.

Technology companies, among them IBM and Cisco are reported to be targeting the renewable energy market. They have already announced their plans to aid utility providers to update their electricity grids. This will be necessary to cope with the intermittent nature of power generated by wave sources.

In the same area of activity, it was announced that Aquamarine Power, a wave energy developer, has succeeded in raising £10 million from UK and Irish-based investors.

The investment interest in Aquamarine Power was generated following the announcement in August that a full scale demonstrator of Aquamarine’s Oyster wave energy converter has now been successfully deployed. It is situated in the company’s testing berth at the European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkney Islands.

Work is currently underway to connect Oyster to sub-sea pipelines which will deliver high pressure water to an onshore turbine. The company expects the system to begin generating power to allow offshore testing later this year.

financial

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Tags: Aquamarine Power, Carbon Trust, Cisco, Department for Business Innovation and Skills, Department for Energy and Climate Change, Economy, European Marine Energy Centre, IBM, Lord Hunt, Marine Current Turbines, Marine Renewables Proving Fund, marine-energy, Oyster, Pelamis Wave Power, post-recession Britain, renewable energy, sea-snake, tidal energy, UK government

How many hints do we need before the penny drops and the UK public can finally reach the conclusion that the recession is finally over? The latest one comes from the Institute of Chartered Accountants who in a report released last week announced that confidence among business professionals has surged form a negative status to a positive one. Based on their findings, the institute predicts the UK economy will grow by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2009, a reverse on the 0.8% negative growth that the UK economy recorded during the second quarter of the year.

UK building societies continue to be under scrutiny, with the news that possibly five of the largest could be amalgamating over the next couple of years. The number of building societies reporting losses for 2008 is reportedly causing concern in Whitehall, and the latest annual review of performance released shows that since the summer of 2008, seven mergers have already taken place, out of framework of 59 building societies.

Seven months after the U.K. government made a commitment to offer up to £2 billion of loan guarantees for car makers and their suppliers, agreements have yet to be signed. According to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, car makers and suppliers, the aid was offered as car sales collapsed during the recession, declining for 14 consecutive months through June.

The Thames Valley property market, once regarded as the UK’s equivalent to Silicon Valley, look to be heading for their lowest rental incomes on record, as the recession continues to hammer the technology industries.

On the FTSE yesterday rising metals prices pushed mining stocks. Kazakhmys led the sector, gaining 5.8 per cent to 980 pence, while compatriot ENRC was up 5.3 per cent to 896½ pence.

Punch Taverns added 4.1 per cent to 107½ pence on strong volume in anticipation a positive trading update due to be released this morning. Analysts announced that they expect trading in the company to have stabilised and that profit pressures are on the wane.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.9 per cent, rising 45.34 points to 4,896.23 for its highest close since early October.

Moving forward at the speed of an express train, the FTSE 250 increased by a further 1.76 % or 153.06 points to close on 8,831.89

Currency markets continued to remain stable on Monday’s trading

• Pound/US dollar 1.6409
• Pound/Euro 1.1481
• Pound/Japanese Yen 154.7475
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7419

US stocks slowed down after four sessions of gains on Monday after a warning over future bank losses saw the markets erase early gains.

The NASDAQ Composite index closed down a mere 2.92 points at 2,017.98, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average found fractional gains to 9,509.28

On Friday General Motors eventually postponed their much awaited decision on whether Canada’s Magna International would be the winning bidder for its Opel brand.

Magna, the world’s third largest auto parts manufacturer, in conjunction with the Savings Bank of the Russian Federation, who trade under the title Sberbank, had submitted a joint bid in July to acquire a 55 percent stake in Opel, the troubled financially strapped group’s European division. Brussels-based financial investor RHJ International is the rival bidder.

At their meeting Friday, GM’s board of directors failed to come to a decision whether to accept the winning bid by the Canadian auto company and the Russian bank.

This week French banks announced their intention to lead the way in offering to reinforce rules ¬governing the payment and disclosure of bonuses to their officials. In meetings with Nicolas Sarkozy, president, and Christine Lagarde, the finance minister, bank officials announced the concessions, which will strengthen a code on pay agreed by French banks in February, Designed to curb excessive risk-taking. The announcement, will be undoubtedly be used to bolster France’s position at the forthcoming G20 meeting to be held in Pittsburgh next month.

Oil prices have risen to 10-month highs on fresh signs that the global economic recovery is gathering pace.

US light crude ended Monday up 48 cents to $74.37 a barrel, while London’s Brent crude advanced seven cents to finish at $74.26

The rise came after official figures showed that new industrial orders in the 16 nations that use the Euro rose more than expected in June.

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Tags: Banking, British Economy, British Pound, Christine Lagarde, Currency, Department for Business Innovation and Skills, Economy, ENRC, Finance, Financial News, FTSE, G20, General Motors, Global Credit Crisis, GM, Institute of Chartered Accountants, Kazakhmys, Magna, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Nicolas Sarkozy, Opel, Punch Taverns, Recession, Savings Bank of the Russian Federation, Silicon Valley, Stock Markets, U.K. government, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK Recession, US stocks