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

• Happy Fourth of July I don’t think enough Americans have really red the the...
• Alternative and Sustainable Energy Sources: Hydro Power The History of Hydro Power Man has used the power...
• SpeedTrader SpeedTrader is a division of Stock USA Execution Services, Inc....

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

The signs are definitely there: Germany and France have already done it, even Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. The US is still in it, yet in name only. And the UK will be following not long after. To where?

If you haven’t already guessed, the answer is out of recession.

So what happens in post-recession Britain? Have we learned our lessons? Will the man in the street work longer hours, save up to buy that new 42" plasma, that Mediterranean holiday or to upgrade the family car? Or will he fall back into credit euphoria? Will UK businesses cut costs to build up their cash reserves or will they revert to being cash loan and overdraft junkies like before?

And the most leading question of them all is, will the banks be responsible and, if they succeed in becoming autonomous, will they once again become the profit-hungry, bonus-driven monsters that played a significant part in almost bringing the UK economy to total meltdown?

If there is a precedent to prevent the disasters of the first decade of the 21st century ever happening again then it is written in America’s 1933 Glass-Steagall Act. The act was drawn up following the Wall Street Crash that sparked one of the greatest depressions the world has ever known. One of the act’s principle provisions was to disallow risky investment banking and to channel bank funds and lending into the safer realms of retail banking, which the sort the UK public needs to finance the model life style that they deserve: everyday needs.

UK financial analysts hasten to point out that if such a system had been in place from around 2001 onwards, when the profit chasing was at full steam, the checks and balances would have prevented the UK banks from going as far over the top as they did. They would have been unable to hold the UK government to ransom and force the public to become reluctant shareholders in their business. Instead, the British public could have stood back and watched some of the more rickety financial institutions go to the wall, and without too many tears being shed in the process.

• Couple Forecloses On Bank of America Foreclosure is not a fun process. Losing your house for...
• 10 Unnecessary Expenses Here's another article from Yahoo! Finance that lists 10 Expenses...
• ShopSafe: Bank of America's One Redeeming Quality There are plenty of things not to like about Bank...

Tags: Banking, British Economy, British Pound, Credit, Debt, Economy, Financial News, Glass-Steagall Act, Money Management, negative equity, Overdraft, post-recession Britain, Recession, UK Banks, UK businesses, UK Economy, UK government, Wall Street Crash